Saad Tasleem – Renewing Your Faith
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Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah. Asahi, human whatever. A Marina Illa Allah
came along my alumna my family now when
I was
looking at diva
belting out was the place he never said American law, he got a cancer. All right. So the topic for today is, Today is a new day renewing your faith. Now, the reason why this is an important topic, and I believe one of the reasons why this topic was chosen, is because a lot of people don't even understand that this is a thing like in Islam, we're supposed to renew our faith. I know in a lot of other religions, people may have heard of like, born again, Christians or whatever. And it's kind of like, you know, you mess up. And then you make a decision at some point in your life, that you kind of want to come back to God or you want to, you want to start over and wipe the slate clean or
whatever. And it's like this big event. And because we don't have like an event like that, because we don't have anything specific, like being a born again, Muslim or anything like that. That we may not realize that part of our Deen part of Islam is that we are constantly renewing our faith. That as a matter of fact,
every time we take our Shahada every time we say that, you know, Allah Mohammed, little pseudo law, that's actually a renewal of our faith. And that's why it is part of our prayer. In our prayer.
We say the Shahada right, when we're sitting, we say to Allah, Allah and the Last
part of our prayer, that is a moment when we are renewing our faith. And this comes about because and one of the reasons why we do that is because of the statement of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, in which he said, certainly,
your faith, I said in an email and on a local petofi Ihedigbo, he said, certainly, your Eman your faith gets worn out in your heart, just like your garment may get worn out.
Just like we may wear something. And if we wear it for a long time, after a while it gets worn out like you buy something just brand new, depending on what type of garment it is. But you wash it and you wash it again, and you watch it again. Eventually, it's going to become old and worn out and unfortunate. Unfortunately, we live in this
highly materialistic world where many of us don't even know what it feels like to have a worn out garments, right? Where it's kind of like, if I don't like it anymore, it goes out of fashion. I'm not feeling it anymore, we just go buy something new back in the day. That's not how it was. And there's a lot of people in the world who don't have that luxury where they can't just wear something until they don't like it anymore or wear something till it's out of style or out of fashion. And then they just go buy something which is new. People have to wear their clothes till they're absolutely done till they don't serve the purpose of being a garment anymore. But that is the
feeling that the profits that I send them is trying to evoke here in this headin, that just does you know a person may wear a garment and becomes worn out it becomes old that likewise our man, our faith can become worn out as well. And the first thing here is that the prophets I send him is telling us that it's not something strange. It's not odd. It is normal for our for our faith to get worn out. It's normal for a man to go up and down. It's normal to have days or moments or times in our life
where we feel like our email isn't doing so well. Where our faith isn't doing so well. And so the profits on the long run a send them. He said first a law he said when that happens, right? So certainly faith your faith can get worn out in your heart, just like a garment can get worn out. So when that happens first out of law, ask Allah and you just did an email an email and he couldn't because he said, so ask Allah to renew your faith in your heart. Right. So this means what every time we're having that feeling where our amount is going down, our email is feeling low, that there's a problem in our relationship with a law, that there is some spiritual issue going on in our
life. That it's not that we're a bad person or we're a bad Muslim or there's something wrong with us. This is simply a moment in which we need to renew our faith. We need to ask a law to refresh our faith. And the the analogy by the way of clothing is very interesting. Because if you think about clothing,
what happens to clothing after a while like if you have a particular garment, or maybe you can think of like a particular shirt or something like that. If If you wear it for a long time and obviously you've worn it for a long time because it's something
that you like, as I said, if you don't like something, you're gonna throw it away or give it away, and then we're gonna buy something new. But let's say you have this one shirt that you really, really like. And I don't know how many people here have had that experience. I certainly have a few shirts that have been with me for a very long time.
And I like them, right. And I've kept it for so long, because I like that shirt. Well, one of the one of the things here, one of the the important aspect of this analogy here is that when, when we like this garment, or when we keep this garment, it's because we like it, right? We've become used to it, we're comfortable in that garment, likewise, is our Eamon, likewise is our faith that as time goes on, our faith isn't going to be perfect. We're not always going to be at 100%. But after a while, we're going to become comfortable with our faith. We're going to get to know our faith, we're going to know how it works and what the lows feel like and what the highs feel like it becomes
familiar. And it becomes special as well. And just like, by the way, and this is a little bit of a side point. But just like love, it's the same way. There's love that is the initial love that two people may feel and I actually really don't even call that love. I call that more infatuation. When two people get married or two people, you know, fall in love, fall in love with one another this first, whatever, month that month or two months or five months or however long, where everything is perfect. Everything seems to be amazing. And you got butterflies in your stomach and all of that. In those moments. Yeah, it seems awesome. It seems great. But I don't really consider that true love. I
consider that infatuation. Something which is like a heightened sense of love, a heightened sense of attraction, a heightened sense of positive feelings for a temporary period. True love takes time. True love grows. And true love, unlike infatuation is imperfect. So it's the years that a person spends working on their relationship, the ups and downs, the positives and the negatives. And when a person perseveres through those years, and then they learn to continue loving one another throughout the imperfections. That is true love. And likewise, when it comes to our Eman, we may have initial email, right, so somebody accepts Islam, they come to Islam, or they start practicing.
And they may have like, a heightened sense of emotion and not not to invalidate their email, their email is totally valid. But that is very different. Then five years from that, or 10 years from that when a person is has gone past the high of new EMA. That's why I don't know if you know anyone who has come to Islam or someone who's accepted Islam. But they'll tell you that first initial feeling is amazing. When someone takes their Shahada, they accept Islam, that that level of Eman is just absolutely amazing. And likewise, you may have experienced, or you may know, somebody who's experienced, you know, not someone coming to Islam, but maybe they
started practicing Islam, like they didn't really care about Islam before. But at some point, they start practicing Islam, that initial phase, that initial period is very powerful. And that and there's this heightened sense of emotion there. But what happens a year after that, what happens five years after that, what happens 10 years after that, well, there's people who constantly longed for that initial feeling. And when they don't find it, while they think that there's something wrong with their faith. They think there's something wrong with their email. And the reality is that there's nothing wrong with their email. There's nothing wrong with their faith. This is just the
nature of faith that it doesn't stay constant. And that it goes up and down and that faith are Eamonn. It requires work. It requires attention, just like I mentioned love before, if you leave love on its own, and you'll say if you say look, you know, if we really love each other, then the love will always be there. That's not true love, because all love all relationships, it doesn't matter who it is, whether it be whether it be like a spousal relationship, or whether it be even our parents and how to love. There's a certain amount of love that is there. But if we don't give attention to it, if we neglect that love, if we don't put effort into it, if we don't strive and
work at that love, it's going to diminish, it's going to get less it's going to get fractured and broken. And eventually May Allah protect us that love can die as well. Right. So whether it be a child and their parent, parent and child, whether it be you know, a husband and wife, whatever the relationship is, it requires that work it requires that attention. It requires that we are cognizant it requires that we are paying it
tension to what is happening in that relationship? Likewise, is our relationship with a law, likewise is our love for Los Angeles, there are law that we can just say, Look, I'm Muslim. Now I have the law, you know, I've accepted Islam, or you know, identify as a Muslim. And that should be enough for me to sustain my Eman.
That's absolutely incorrect. Because if we don't work at our amount, if we don't give our human attention, then it will it cannot it we cannot sustain it. It's it's not it's not going to. It's not, it's not going to work for us. And eventually, may Allah protect us. As I said, it may die as well, just like love can die. Likewise, our Eman can die as well, if we don't put work into it. And as I said, if we're not aware and conscious of what is happening to our Eman, our human can die. And a lot of times people complain about that a lot of times people will come to a place in their life, where they're they're kind of feeling that right there. Maybe maybe the man hasn't died yet. But at
the very least they are feeling like that man is very low. They feel like the man is very weak, and the way that they interpreted, or sometimes the way the chiffon has them interpret their emotion is that look, it, the problem is you You're just a bad Muslim, you're just a bad person, the reason why you feel like that connection is missing, or the reason why you feel like your emotion is low, is because you're a bad wolf, you're a bad person. And the reality is that that's not how it works. We are not divided into just good people and bad people by birth. As a matter of fact, part of our IP that part of our faith, part of our Islamic creed is that we are by default, good. The Prophet
satellite send them said couldn't do more than you do. And
he said, Every newborn child is born upon their fifth clock, their, their their nature, their natural inclination towards good. So we actually believe that mankind or human beings, by default, are good, right? That they have goodness in them. And then it is the external factors, what happens in their life, what they're exposed to the decisions they make, the choices they make, all of that, that affects who they are. And once again, likewise is our email, that our email by default is is pure is good, and it's going to be intact, it's going to be fine. But if we neglect it, and if we are we have bad influences on our airmen, that obviously, it's going to affect our airmen in a bad
way. And we're going to feel, we're going to feel that we're gonna feel that loss of emotion, we're gonna feel that our emotion is affected. So a couple of the things that I wanted to talk about today was
what can affect our email? Right, so as we said, one of one of the main issues here, and before I get into what effects are email, one of the main issues is actually neglect. One of the things that really affects our email is is not external factors, but our decision itself, our decision to not do anything, our decision to be stagnated. And that is to not give attention to our email, to not care, and to just hope that everything works out on its own. A man can suffer. And as I said, eventually men can die as well, if we don't give it attention. But also along with that, there are external factors. So number one, a big one, for a lot of people,
is actually hardships, and difficulties and tests and trials, that when we go through something difficult, we go through something hard, that it can have an effect on our emotion. Now, the good news here is that our emotion usually goes one of two ways in a difficulty in a hardship.
For some people, this is what I what I'm what I mentioned earlier, that's what happens. The man goes down, right, three men is affected, and their man becomes their faith becomes weaker,
for other people that you met actually goes up. And all of that is that is that what what affects that outcome is how they approach that hardship, how they approach that difficulty. And I'll give you an example give you a practical real example.
as Muslims in America,
we went through 911 right. So every community in America experienced 911 in their own way. It was it they were affected in their in their own way the Muslim community in America and Muslim in America. For a lot of Muslims, it was it was it was it was a challenge, not just for their image and so on and so forth. But it was a challenge for them.
It was difficult for people, for some people to continue to identify with Islam, when Islam was being seen in a bad light when Islam was being misrepresented.
So what happened? Well, there's a lot of people who when 911 hit, when Islamophobia started when people began to hate Islam or Muslims, they began to distance themselves from Islam. Right, so Mohammed's became Mo's, for example. And not not to say there's nothing wrong with a nickname, right? But if it's done, if it's done to distance oneself from Islam, or someone is ashamed of the name, Mohammed, that's problematic. I'm not talking about nicknames here. Don't take it the wrong way. But the problem here is, as I said, when someone becomes ashamed, or they don't want to identify as Muslim, or someone gets rid of their external identifying factors, right. So there's
brothers who, for example, shave their beards, after 911, because like, Hey, I don't want to be recognized as a Muslim, or maybe a sister who starts dressing differently, so she wouldn't be identified as a Muslim. So what happens here? Well, this trial comes upon the Muslims. And some people, it affects their emotion in a way where they distance themselves from Islam, they distance themselves from their email.
But that wasn't the only outcome. 911 what was the other outcome? Well, the other outcome was that there was a whole lot of people
who their emotion was strengthened when 911 happened?
Do y'all know anyone like that? Have people here know someone who became a good Muslim or a better Muslim, or accepted Islam after 911?
Okay, now, all of you can raise your hand, because you know me. And that's something that happened to me. It was around 911 that I really started to look into Islam and those of you who like me know my story, my history, whatever. You may know that I wasn't practicing Islam for a good portion of my life. I didn't really have a connection with Islam. And I know like ratha missions here at ICM, which is like a local missions for me. I live about like, you know, 10 miles or so from here. But growing up, I didn't know I see it like I my, my, my familiarity with ICM was actually after I started practicing Islam, at college time, is when I realized that there's even a mission here. Why?
Because growing up, I didn't really care for a stem. Right. And I never attended Sunday school. I know a lot of you attended Sunday school. I never went to the experts. I didn't even have Muslim friends. Growing up not on purpose. There's no one who like kept Muslims from me. It's just like, the way I grew up. I grew up I didn't I didn't have that connection with Islam. So a lot of the experiences that people talk about, like the Michigan experience, I haven't like, as a child, I haven't experienced any of that. Right. So ICM, I know supposed to be a familiar place to me, and it is now.
But for a while, it wasn't right. But it was around that time around 911, where Islam was really being challenged. And people were saying horrible and horrific things about Islam, that I really decided to educate myself about what Islam really is. And in turn, one of the outcomes of that was that I actually ended up coming closest them and I consider myself as someone who not just came close Islam, I consider myself as someone who accepted Islam, even though our parents are Muslim. I was brought up in a Muslim household, but like I said, there was no connection. But it's not. Right. And there are tons of other people like that there are there are people who there's people who
accepted Islam after 911. There are people who, like I said, their their their Eman was weak, they were suffering. And then when 911 happened, and when they once again, when they were challenged, that's when their emotion was strengthened. And that often baffles the mind. And oftentimes, when people think of that, it doesn't like logically, it doesn't make sense. Like, why would you become Muslim when things get harder? Right, so just surface level surface level, logically, you'd say, if it's harder to become a Muslim, then there's going to be less Muslims. Throughout the history of Islam. That has never been the case.
The history of Islam tells us that as things get more difficult, as things get harder, more people come to Islam. That is how Islam started. Islam started with difficulty. Islam started with hardship. Islam started with people alienated, alienating people from their own community. Right. We know what the prophets I send them went through, we know what the companions went through their living in their home and that and the parallel between By the way, the Muslims in Mecca and the Muslims of today Muslims in America is amazing. Because for Muslims in Mecca, the only home that they knew the only home that they had was Mecca. They loved Mecca. And Mecca was a disbelieving
society. Mecca was a society that tortured them and and oppress them and rejected them and push them out of their homeland. I mean, even the Prophet Mohammed said the longer I didn't send them, we know that it affected him on an emotion a deep emotional level.
When he had to leave Mecca, and he didn't want to leave, he was forced out of Mecca. And we know the story that finally when he saw I send them when he's leaving Mecca, he takes a last look at Mecca and His love, His heart is filled with love. And then he looks to Medina, a foreign place for him a place that he is not familiar with. That's not his home. And he says Allahumma Habib, Elena Medina, carageenan ibaka, he says, oh, Allah make Medina, beloved to us, just as we have love, for my meeting these strong feelings that I have, or that we have for Mecca, oh, Allah allow us to have those feelings for Medina as well. Why? Because he loved Macau, because his heart yearned for Mecca.
And that is why not only partially sent him but all the companions who made hinged on all of them who left Mecca, that was a very difficult thing, because they're being kicked out of their home. They're being they're being told that you don't belong here.
And the exact same thing is happening today. Unfortunately, a lot protectors. But a lot of Muslims are being told you don't belong here, especially like this generation that I'm looking at here. Like those of you who were born here and raised here, you know how it feels? Right? Like I think of myself, like I don't I don't know what society a community of people other than the American people. I mean, yeah, I've lived in other places for periods of time, but the way I know and understand America, the way I the way I can relate to American culture, I can't relate to any other culture in that way. Right? So when someone comes and tells me like, you don't belong here, or you're not
American, that just blows my mind. Right, as it does for a lot, a lot of you. But in that difficulty, what happens? Well, people, as I said, in those hard times, and those difficult times, people come back to Islam, or they reach for reach for Islam. And that is why a difficulty hardship
can mean one of two things in general,
a hardship a difficulty, is either a punishment from Allah,
or it's a blessing from Allah. Or does this sign of a loss love for us? It is a sign that Allah wants to raise our status. The prophets have a license them said that if Allah loves someone, he tests them. And in that statement, is our answer of or answer to? How do we know? Because a lot of times people ask the question, if something happens to me, something bad happens. How do I know? Is it a is it? Is it a punishment? is a law punishing me? Or is this a sign or an indication of lost love? And the answer lies in the headache that I just mentioned. And that is the word Tila test. Meaning what? Meaning This is how you tell. If a person recognizes a difficulty, a hardship, as a
test from a law,
that means that it is a indication it's an indication of a lost love for them. And that a lot wants to purify them and raise their status and make them better. However, if a person goes through a hardship, or they're affected by a hardship, and they don't recognize it as a test, it may be a punishment from a law. We've seen people go through that right when something bad happens to them. And instead of turning to a law, they turn away from a law. We hear people say things like, why would God do this to me? Or what kind of God would do this? Why me? Why am I suffering? Like, why do I have to go through this pain. And by the way, this is not to take anything away from a person's
pain or their suffering, right not to invalidate their suffering at all. But it's about putting it in perspective. And just even when a person understands that a hardship is from a law, that doesn't diminish that hardship, and that's a misconception that a lot of people have people say, Don't tell me that it's from a law because you're invalidating my feelings, you're invalidating my pain, it's like, No, you have the right to feel pain. And we shouldn't take that away from people. And sometimes we do that right. When we remind people about a loss, decree their loss other and how this is a purification, it's a way of kind of like diminishing their pain or or saying that their pain is
not valid. That should never be the case. Right? As human beings, we feel pain, and we go through hardships, but it is also important, that are happy that our creed is intact, that we understand that it is a loving adult who has put us in this situation and there must be some good in it. And one of the goodness and there's many, many, many reasons why a person goes through hardships, but one of those reasons is that it is a lot raising our rank a lot raising our standard and that is why the profits it was thought was set on the best of creation. All of them went through difficult times. And by the way, difficult times is an understatement because
Because the amount of pain and suffering that they went through, we can't even really imagine. And the best of them is the best example in terms of hardships, the profits of lice in them. Right, as I mentioned earlier, you know, just him being, you know, kicked out of his home, him being told that he doesn't belong to the people that he grew up amongst him being told that, you know, he being called a liar and a soothsayer. And it's amazing, the person that was called a liar, because until that moment, until his Islam, we know that he was known as, as I mean, the trustworthy person. And now, his whole life, he's been known as trustworthy, and everybody trusts them and loves them and
all of that. And then he comes with the message of Islam, and they immediately they turn against him. They call him a liar, they call him, you know, a soothsayer, they're there, they say, you're trying to cause problems amongst people in their families and are, you're trying to, you know, take away the religion of our forefathers. That trial, there's, you know, that the trial that of his family, right, we saw, he saw his family members suffer, we saw his family members, some of his family members turned against them, we saw some of his family members become his worst enemies. And that is a type of pain and the law protects us from that is that is extremely difficult to deal
with. It's one thing if someone's mean to you, or someone's bad to you, or someone hates you. And it's another thing if someone who you love, or someone who you're close to, is bad to you, that's just another level of pain. Right? That out when a family member or a friend or something like that hurts us, that's just another level, right? And that is what the person has had to deal with, to see his, his loved one and to see his companions be being tortured. And then, you know, the loss we talked about, you know, loss of the personal experience, he experienced the loss of his wife the love of his life, how do you juggle the left and
right his his support the one who was there for him in his most difficult moments? Khadija, the one who he you know, he relied upon so much, he witnessed her death, he witnessed the death of his uncle. Right there, his his his support is in terms of his tribal support. And then, you know, that's just part of the test that the person have went through his whole life so to license them was the testable law. Right. And that's why when the prophets I send them was asked, Who is tested the most severely he said what he said Who?
Who knows? Yeah, the profits, um, be up. He said the MBR the profits are tested more severely. And then he was asked, okay, then who? Okay, after the profits?
No, he said, is that good luck? He said so much. He said then those the most like them? Like who?
Know, yeah, so that's those are individuals, but he said, those like the prophets, those who are most similar to the prophets, they're tested more severe, you know, severe.
Meaning, highest level of test the profits, then the closer one is to the prophets, I send them in the profits closer what lineage wise.
Yes or no? No, location wise. Yes or no? No. Culturally?
No. Then what closer and what? Closer and
closer in faith closer in, in Islam, the closer one is to the prophets and the prophecies send them in their Islam and their dedication, then the more there will be tests attested by loss of data.
Right, this is this is this is the nature of hardship. This is the nature of tests. So it is important that you know, when we talk about renewing our faith or when our faith is suffering, that's important we have we put things into perspective and that's why the early generations of Islam companions and the generation after them that it was known from them that when they would go through something really really difficult.
They would make shook up they would thank a lot
for three things. Does anyone want to guess what what at least one of those three things are that they would be thankful for?
Allah puts you in a difficulty a lot puts you in a hardship
and we say you should be thankful to a lot. Well, what is there to be thankful about? I know you know the answer.
Someone else.
What do you have to be thankful for? If you're going through a difficulty? He didn't know I'm going to call on you. Right?
You're chillin with your hug. Would your
hot chocolate relaxing? Just listen to him talk and yeah, back there.
You say a little louder.
So okay, so number one. Yeah. So we are grateful.
That he loves those.
Or he tests those whom he loves. Right? Is that what you said? So that's that's correct. That's very good. But we can put that in in a broader in a broader sense, we can say that we recognized that difficulty, as lovable.
We recognized this hardship as a test. That's number one. Very good. So we're going through a hardship. Number one, we are grateful. We're thankful that we recognize this as a test from Allah. We recognize this, that it is from Allah, his love for us, that he's testing us. There's two more.
Two more, yeah.
Yeah, so there's, there's people who are going through worse, or we can say in terms of like a personal in a personal sense, we could say, we can be grateful that the test wasn't worse, that the test wasn't more severe. And that's, that's amazing power law. Because no matter how bad of a situation someone is, someone is, is in.
It could always be worse. Right? And we usually don't say this to people, by the way, if you're talking to someone who's going through a difficult time, don't go to them and say you should be okay. Because it could have been worse, right? This is a personal thing, right? This is what we are personally grateful for. That's and by the way, like I said, it's very important that we don't invalidate people's feelings about invalidate, or or kind of, like diminished the hardship that they're going through before ourselves. Right. When we're in that situation, when we're thinking to ourselves, I can't take it is too much. Right. This is like I've reached my breaking point. At that
point, one of the ways we go through that we like pass through that hurdle, is that we remind ourselves that the test could have been more severe. No matter how bad this test is. It could have been more severe. Number three, there's there's the third one.
There's a third one. Yeah.
Okay, yeah, very good. It reminds us of a law, but we said that could be included in the first category. Right? That
it's an indication of a loss, love. And we're grateful that you know, we're grateful that we're being put into this test. And as Allah loves us, and you know, electron and bring us closer. Any other ideas? Okay, that's pretty good. Two out of three was was pretty good. I'll give you the last one. The last one is that the companions, they would be thankful to Allah, that they weren't tested in their Deen
that they weren't tested in their email. As we said, some people when they go through a difficulty, it becomes a test or becomes a a hardship of their own, right where the man suffers. So
no matter what a person is going through, this person says that henden Allah, my Islam is still intact. No matter what I'm going through, no matter how difficult has become a handwritten note, like my snom is still good. Right? So those are, those are three things that we can be thankful for. When we go through a hardship. One quick point I want to mention here is that being grateful, a lot of times people think being grateful
means how do you how do we become great, what do we do? What does that mean? Let me ask you, what does it mean to be grateful? When we say, you know, you should be grateful, you should be thankful? What does that mean? What does that mean? What do we do?
What do we do?
You should sit on your bed and be like, I'm so grateful. Right? Is that what that means?
Are we like put up, send out a tweet, you know, my test was a more severe, hashtag blessed. Right? Hashtag I'm good with God. You know, so what is it? What does it mean? What does it mean to be grateful? Does anyone know? Yeah.
Huh? How do we think?
Okay, so very good. We thank Allah, we make sure cup.
One of them is by our tongue. Right? So we we we use our tongues to thank Allah. So yeah, part of that is sitting on your bed and saying 100 enough that, you know, a lot gave me this or I didn't test me in this way. And we're thanking a lot. And yeah, some of that can be, look, I log on to Twitter. And I say, I hadn't done enough for this, this and this and this. Hashtag bless. everybody laughed when I said that.
That's why you shouldn't judge people, right? But yeah, part of that is with your tongue and making vicco as as the brother said, that in your private moments, you remember last fantana That's number one. How else do we do we show thanks?
My praying five times a day. What do y'all think?
Huh?
We're extra if you want, I'm good enough. But that's that's correct. And that's leads to number two. And that is with our
limbs with our actions, right? So there's people out there. And I have met many people like that,
who are like, just lip service. That's it. They're like, I'm so grateful, right? I'm so thankful, I'm, I'm blessed.
And you think to yourself and say, Well, I'm not going to take that away from you, it's not for us to judge whether someone is grateful or not.
But there seems to be something missing here. Because sugar can't just be lip service. It has to be reflected on our on our actions. If we are grateful to Allah, then we want to be obedient to Allah. Right? We want to at least fulfill our obligations to ally. Right, that's, that's when your that's when we're truly grateful. Right? So number one, the first when it comes to being grateful, the first, the first place we turn to, is, our wise, you bet? Are those things that Allah has obligated upon us, right? That's, that's the bare minimum, right? In terms of, if you want to look at yourself and say, Look, am I grateful or not? Am I thankful to Allah? Really, really, really, really, if you
really want to ask yourself, Am I grateful for what Allah has given to me? Right, and by the way, part, one of this exercise is realizing what you're grateful for. What everything, you know, as law says, what they're doing with the light. So how about if you try to count the blessings of a law, you wouldn't be able to do so? meaning there's so many. That's, that's number one. But number two, is being grateful.
How do you know if you're grateful? Well, if our What if our photo is are not being fulfilled, then we know we're not being grateful enough, that there's something missing in our gratitude.
Right? And the irony of that, the irony of not being grateful with our limbs, or not being completely grateful is that a Lost Planet? Allah says, What in law says what in check up to him? What,
as he then knuckle that, if you made shook up, if you were truly grateful, that Allah would give you more, whatever you're grateful for, right? or whatever, Allah blessed you with luck, whatever was given to us a lot tells us that if we, if we just made chicken, right, as I said, not just lip service, but with our tongues, in our on our limbs, and by the way, is one category we left out, which I'll mention, but if we were truly grateful, we made sure that a lot would give us more that allow us to increase in the goodness. And that third category is I don't know what the third category is. How do we make sure
our tongue our limbs? What else? What's the third one?
someone other than you?
How else Where else? Where else? Can they take place?
Anyone have any ideas? Yeah.
Yeah, very good. Well, so that's correct. Giving sadaqa would be considered part of our lives, right? It's an action. So we're grateful that our actions, part of that is our obligations. Part of that is helping others. Right Meaning, if we're grateful we give to others and we help others and we give to those who have less or don't have, or whatever it may be, but there's another place worship should occur.
Yeah.
Your mind, that's very close your hearts. Rabbit, we'd say your mind and your heart, inshallah. Tada, they're connected, right?
But yeah, your heart. And that's where, by the way, that's where has to start. The tongue doesn't work. And the limbs, especially the limbs won't follow up, like follow through, if the heart doesn't feel grateful. Right. So what that means is that you really sit there and you ask yourself, Am I really grateful? And what am i grateful for? Take a moment with your heart and say, Look, is there something in my life that I'm truly grateful for?
Second place where our amount is affected. Our second way in which our mountains are affected, is through our environment. So number one, we said through hardships through difficulties. Number two is what?
What is it? environment? What does that mean?
It means number one, the people around us.
And number two, the places around us or the places that we put ourselves into, that affects our email. Right? So when a person is going through low email when
the chiffon usually comes in and attacks, right, and by the way, a person who's going through low email
this person, he or she is extremely vulnerable to the attacks of the chiffon and that's why it's important to understand how the chiffon works and how he may try to deceive someone.
So when a person is feeling like their Emad is low, the chiffon will offer
for up to two options, he'll say, either one of these things is the solution for you.
You'll say, number one,
spend time with these people, by these people is the people was affecting their amount in a bad way. It's the shape on obviously, you know, he wants that for us. Right? Is that understood? Yes. Yes. chiffon bad. Yeah, we get that? Yes. Okay.
So option number one, he says, You know what, hang out with these people, they'll make you feel better. Someone's feeling bad. So it was feeling down. So it's been low. They're, they're spiritually they're they're suffering. The chiffon says, hang out with these, they look like a lot of fun, right? They're going out, or they're doing this, or they're whatever they may be doing. I don't I don't want to like, mention specifics. partying, I don't know, whenever whenever kids do these days,
it says, look, you want to have a good time, you want to feel better about yourself, go spend time with those people. And so what happens? Well, that only weakens the person's email, when we're around people whose email is weak. And that's one of the reasons why people sin is because they have weak email. Right? That's one of the reasons people send because their their faith is weak. And so when we spend time with people whose email is weak, obviously, that's gonna wear off on us, and that could destroy our email. And so if that's not the case, if we're like, no, Stefan, I'm smarter than you. I'm not gonna let you convince me to go hang out with these people who are going to lower my
eat, man. What's the next option? Does anyone know? We want to guess?
isolation, second law here, right? Very good. So don't go the masjid don't go to the Holocaust. Don't go. Not even like, not even like overtly religious, though. Don't be around people. Don't be just don't even sit with them, don't hang out with them, just keep your distance. Right, isolation. Isolation is a big tactic of the ship on. And then because isolation makes a lot of sense. Like in those moments when a person's emotion is weak, isolation makes a lot of sense. And that's why you'll hear people say like, Oh, I just need time to myself, you know, I need time to figure things out, I need to understand what's happening. And, you know, I need time to myself, so I can't, you know, I
can't be around other people. And the goal for the chiffon is to get this person to isolate themselves from those who would help their email, right, because what the chatbot is not telling us is that simply
being with someone who has high emotion, can raise our email. just just just being there, like just sitting there and saying, nothing, not interacting, just sitting and listening and taking in what's happening around you can raise your email. And I have personally been in this situation, I'll give an example. Which
I don't really want to share publicly. So if this ever goes up, we're gonna edit that out.
Because it's just there's just a completely different vibe,
their standards and what is acceptable and not acceptable, what is okay to say? And what is not okay to say? What is, you know, acceptable language, even language? And we don't we don't think about that. Sometimes we don't think about how language affects us. Right? We don't we don't think about how what Neville were saying, what other people are saying, how that affects us, but it does. And no one's safe from that. There's no scholar in the world, there's no shift in the world. There's no imaam in the world who could say I'm safe. I'm good to go. The chiffon can get me I'll be okay. Right.
That's nonsense. Every single person is vulnerable.
Every single person.
And that's why like in those moments, like I realized, like I had a lot, I didn't realize that it was such a blessing from a law that I was around certain type of people just being there just simply being there. So there's no one who's safe from them. Right? There's no one who can say, look, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't affect me or I don't need to be around people who will help my email. The reality is every single person needs to be around people who will uplift them.
Every single person needs to be around those who will raise their email, someone who can guide them in the right direction. Look in those low points in our lives. A lot of times people think that if I'm a good Muslim, I'll be secure. I'll be okay. Like when I'm when I'm when I'm tested, or, you know, I'm faced with a sin, right? Or I'm tempted with a sin, that look if I if I'm, if I'm a good Muslim, or if I whatever, if I go to the machine five times a day or whatever it may be that I'll be okay.
And that's not the case. The cases that we all need, people that we go to for help. We all need to seek advice. We all need to go go to others and there's gonna be moments in our lives where we're like, Look, I don't know, I don't know what the right thing to do is and that is why I
Last pedelec Tiana even told the prophets of Allah who and he was sending them, what shall we do?
He said and send them seek their counsel in the matter.
Get their opinion, if there's one man who does not need to get an opinion from other people, it is the Prophet subtle Lysander.
Why?
Because he gets revelation from Allah. He doesn't need anyone's advice. Right? But a lot told us to send them seek their counsel, seek their advice, why? To teach us? Right? No matter what situation we're in, no matter how great we think we are, no matter how much knowledge we have, or how religious we think we are, whatever it may be, we should seek the counsel and advice of other people, the right people. And that's why bad advice or bad, you know, bad company can be so devastating towards our emotions. And for some people who are like, suffering from low emotion or having problems that you man,
sometimes it's just a matter, I usually say it's like a math equation. Right. And I and I know people don't like to think of emotion in such like, strict mathematical terms. But a lot, sometimes it's just a math equation. This is the equation, or this is how it works.
How much time do you spend doing something
that is good for your email,
compared to the amount of time you spend doing something,
which is detrimental to your event? That is bad for you. It's as simple as that.
And we calculate like, calculate the hours, calculate the moments. Today, I spent this much time doing stuff that is actually going to help my email. And today I spent this much time doing stuff that is bad for my email.
And the reality is that for most of us, the vast majority of us, there's no comparison.
The time that is spent in around people or in places or environments, that is bad for a man vastly outweighs the time that we spend working on our email. And still, there are those amongst us who manage and maintain our email. And that is truly a blessing for the last five, that is truly from the mercy of a law that law says allows us to stay in our email. And we should be grateful for that. Right. But when we see when we feel when we feel that difficult time. And look, y'all are y'all are pretty young. I mean, from what I can see here, as your life moves on. There's gonna be times in your life, where where you hit those low points, there's gonna be times in life, you know,
especially as you know, if you move out of your house, or you go to college, or even if you commute or whatever, where, you know, your parents don't have control over your environment anymore. And you're out on your own. Right. For some people, it's like, it's kind of like, you know, the chains have been taken off, and they just go crazy, right?
But for some people, you know, they're concerned about their email. But what happens is that their environment, they're in environments now where, you know, it's not something that they was faced with situations that they didn't plan for.
And yes, it can affect their emotion. And have no doubt that the chiffons that have come knocking and say, Listen, you were never good to begin with.
Right? What kind of what kind of you are never a must a good Muslim to begin with.
And that is the chiffons way of getting us to his ultimate goal.
The ultimate goal of the ship.
Does anyone know what the ultimate goal of the chiffon is?
The very number like top of his list, that if I get this person to do this thing? I have one.
Yeah.
No, even though that's pretty bad, right? When we lose faith,
we, our faith is suffering. That's, that's that's a big victory for the champion. But there's something worse than that. Yeah.
Yeah, so that's okay. In terms of a time period. Yeah. If we end up in *, yeah, he's won, right. But in terms of in this life, we're alive, you know, or, you know,
we're living and the shift button gets us to a particular place in our life, or gets us to do something. I don't want to give it away. Then he considers himself that's his ultimate goal.
What is that?
This was one more chance or no? No. Okay. Back there. Yep.
disbelief. Yeah. So look, without a doubt, disbelief. And as you said, losing our faith is
we would say that, technically, that's his top goal. He wants us to disbelieve, but there's something that is even worse than disbelief.
shook his disbelief.
What's worse than that?
A lot of hands went down will happen as you know for sure.
How confident are you?
not confident. percentage wise?
60 is pretty good. Anyone was above 60% in their answer
you no longer What?
Why? Why are you? Why is one no longer making the?
Uh huh. Is that what you're gonna say? Yeah, could have been 100% sure here is
the ultimate goal of the chiffon is to get us to lose hope
to get us to lose hope, in the mercy of Allah, in the forgiveness of Allah, to get us to lose hope in our own ability to return to Allah, to get us to lose hope in our repentance in our Toba. That is his ultimate goal, because he knows at that point, he's one even disbelief. A person may disbelieve, but if they have hope they'll come back. Right? A person who, whatever else was mentioned, right?
Not being ashamed of a person may be ashamed of their sins, and then they have but they have hope. Right? If they have hope, they can come back.
That's why when he gets a person, a human being to lose hope, he says now have won the battle. Right? By the way, the name of what's the what is the name of the ship on the main ship on the bronze? Anyone know?
It please, it please comes from the verb blesser. Which means a lot tells us your medical Massara you've listened was removed. And on the day that the hour will be established, the criminals will be in despair.
lose hope.
This shift thought chiffons name itself means a loss of hope.
It says it's his ultimate goal for us. And that's why when we talk about a man, it is essential that no matter what we're going through, are you mount as high or you mount as low arguments in the middle, whatever it may be, that our hope is always always alive. Because that means no matter how low our email has gotten, we have a path back to Allah.
Always. And that is why we have
so many irons in the fire on we have so many ideas and presented them that are there to just remind us that we have hope.
For example, when my favorite ideas, the first sentence
where he says that he loves pedal without it says yeah, but the other, oh seven of them if your sins were to reach the clouds of the sky,
but you were to come to me and seek my forgiveness, or what I do,
I would forgive you.
Right? Can you imagine how to love persons sins have piled up up to the sky.
And unless panel data says even if that was the case, right? I know, sometimes we think we're bad. And we created this sin and that sin or whatever it may be, but how our sins be piled up to the sky.
And almost kind of to us as if you were to come to me with sins like that. And if you seek my forgiveness, I will forgive you. And the key words here are seek my forgiveness.
If you seek my forgiveness, I will forgive you. And that's why the chiffon wants to cut cut off that statement right there. That when your sins reached the clouds of the sky, and then the she had been interviews of intervenes in that moment says that's it, you're done. It's over. Right, you're just a bad person, give up hope, get out of here. join the party, right? Join the champagne party. Right. And actually law tells us the chiffon has a party like a people, right, like his crew. At that point. That's what it is. Because he doesn't want us to make that step and seek a loss, forgiveness. And another idea footsy told us that I was proud to have said that if
my servant were to go out, and to commit a sin,
and then come back to me and seek my forgiveness, I would forgive them without anybody. And meaning it means nothing to me, meaning it's nothing for a lot to forgive that sin. And then this person will go out and commit another sin.
And then they come back to me and seek my forgiveness and I will forgive them. And then they will go out and seek and commit another sin
and they will come back and seek my forgiveness. And the law says I'll forgive them It means nothing to me. And then a last penalty Allah says that if this person were to keep doing that, keep doing what
sending, sending and coming back sending and coming back sending and coming back.
What it says is first and work to keep doing that.
I would keep forgiving them as long as they seek my forgiveness, what else
and it and I don't care base
Law says it means nothing to
write. Well, what does this chiffon do? He says, How many times are you going to seek forgiveness for this exact same sin? How many times are you going to come back to a wall I give up already.
And that's why every moment that we have bought from a loss of data is a moment to return to a law, no matter how bad a person's emotion is, no matter how bad their situation is, every single moment is a moment for a fresh start. And that's why initially, you know, as I call this talk, tomorrow's a new day like tomorrow's too late, tomorrow's tomorrow. And that's the problem. And a lot of people they like tomorrow, I'll be, right. Like, when this happens, and I'll be a good Muslim or when that happens, I'll be sometimes we set like these.
These, like, these points in our life, where we're like, we've decided, at that point, we're going to be a good Muslim. Alright, so it says, When I graduate from college, I'll be a good Muslim, like when I get a job, like, when I get married, when I do this, when I do that, whatever. And the reality is that with those types of, you know, points in our life, it'll always shift. Right? It'll always be another time where like, you know, at this time, I'll become another Muslim, become better Muslim. Right? That's why repentance, one of the conditions of repentance By the way,
the conditions for accepting our repentance is that repentance is made in the moment. Right immediately.
Right? So if we say, I'm going to make Toba tomorrow, is my Toba valid,
yes or no? No, in this moment is that maybe tomorrow if you actually, you know,
made Toba tomorrow, like, went through with it. At that point. Yeah, inshallah Ito was accepted. But in this moment to say, Look, I'm gonna make Toba tomorrow, and then the law protect is a lot of takes her life tonight.
was our toboe valid
Yes or no? No, no. And the thing is, towba repentance is such an easy thing. Sometimes, you know, people don't have faith in their tober sometimes people don't have faith in their repentance. And I had people come up to me and say, Look, I committed a sin. And I made Toba. I don't think Luffy gave me like, Why would you say that? Like, I don't know. It's just really bad sin like how can Allah forgive me? And I'm like you're feeling right now
is because of your lack of understanding,
is because you don't have enough faith in Allah. If you had enough faith in Allah, you would know that Allah will forgive you for anything, as long as you sought repentance from the law. Right? having faith in our repentance. That's why you know, cause like, Today is a new day, even today's from how long is too long, right? Maybe a better title for this talk would have been right now is a new moment. Because in every moment, every breath that we are allowed to take is it is an opportunity for us to seek repentance, is an opportunity to start over is an opportunity to start fresh. I mean, can you imagine somehow there's no other person in the world, there's no person,
there's no creation of loss of data that is as Generous and Merciful as a law.
Can you harm anyone
and expect them to forgive you immediately.
And never bring it up and forget it and it's just completely erased? There's no human being like that. Right? Even the most, most most like forgiving person. They'll have to struggle with their forgiveness and to forgive them they won't forget. Right? As if people say like, I'll forgive but I won't react. Right? human beings Oh, forget it, the lingering effect their behavior not all of them would just kind of Allah like a laws forgiveness is absolute forgiveness. Right. And that is the beauty of our relationship with the last finding out of them. When we look for happiness and other relationships. Look, we can find happiness and other relationships, but the type of happiness that
can come from our relationship with the last Preciado there's no there's nothing like that. Right? Because no matter how many times we disobey a lot of money, how many times we make mistakes and commit sins. It's just a moment. So it's and it's nothing for a lot to forgive nothing. All we have to do is like we have to make the effort. And that's why every moment is important. Every every every moment of our life. We're making decisions, sometimes good, sometimes bad. But what's the most important is that we come back to Allah
and Allah has penalty Allah knows best