Safi Khan – Soul Food Advice 6 & 7
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss a session that is going well and quickly, with some participants expressing disappointment and anxiety. They emphasize the importance of understanding the reality of life and making better decisions based on that understanding. They also discuss the importance of treating loved people as temporary and not as a threat, being honest and not letting people know too much about one's finances, and prioritizing one's success and happiness. They stress the importance of praying at home and shivering to indicate sickness and fever, and emphasize the importance of finding one's own success and happiness.
AI: Summary ©
Everybody. Hope everyone's doing well.
1st week back after spring break.
Yes? No?
That's why everyone's, like, super, like they don't
look me in the eye right now. They're
so disappointed.
Semester is going well and quickly coming to
a close and also at the same time,
in about 2 weeks now, Ramadan is going
to be upon us. So a couple of
interesting ventures coming up in the next month
and a half. Ramadan mixed in with weird
exam emotions,
all at the same time. But inshallah, Allah
makes everything fruitful and beneficial for y'all, and
you guys have a blessed Ramadan.
So today, inshallah, we're gonna make our session
really, really, brief,
but really sweet and brief at the same
time. We're gonna make sure it's beneficial for
everybody.
We are also gonna be doing, the Mentimeter,
q and a session afterwards as well. So
we really encourage that because we don't ever
wanna have these sessions just be, like, lectures.
That's that's not what we do our roots.
We always like to have some sort of
interactive kind of engaging conversation with the attendees
and all the also the instructors. So,
our Mentimeter quote tonight, inshallah, is
433-5347.
I'll repeat that one more time for y'all.
So it's menti.com,
like we usually have every Thursday.
Code
is 4330
5347.
And, anyone who need to repeat that again?
If you have a okay. Cool. So
ready?
433-05347.
And this is, by the way, for the
anonymous q and a at the end of
our session. So all the questions that are
asked on the Mentimeter platform
will remain anonymous. Okay? So, Insha'Allah, we're gonna
go ahead and get started with advices
67,
intention and depth. It gets really, really interesting
in this middle part of Ayyu Halwala, where
you can see advice 6 is actually, like,
2 lines, like, it was extremely short, and
inshallah, will
begin by covering advice 6, and then Asad
Murphy will cover advice 7, and then, Asadullah,
we'll begin our q and a session to
wrap up the
evening. Alright. Sounds good, everybody.
How are you guys doing tonight?
Sounds good. I'm good.
Anybody having trouble getting used to the time
change?
Yes. I don't know. I feel like this
is the first time I actually felt it.
You know? I'm like, it's 2 weeks later,
and I'm still putting off at 2 hours.
It just didn't bother me for any sense.
But, yes, let's go ahead and get
started.
So today, we're gonna start off with advice
number 6. Anybody wanna,
volunteer to lead?
I will pick.
Yeah. I'm probably picking.
Go ahead. I think you're working.
Oh,
What's your name? Fadit. Fadit. Okay. Go ahead.
Very good job. Live as long as you
may for very little guy.
Love whoever you wish. For one day, you'll
be separated from 1.
And then he ends up this short advice
with, and do what you love, but realize
that one day, you will be compensated in
accordance to what you've done. K? I I
changed the words a little bit. Don't worry.
So he says that,
do your actions do as you wish so
one day you will be compensated or rewarded
in accordance with what you have done.
This is a lot different from all of
the other advices that we've seen before. We've
seen that our advices
have been, 1, longer,
2, have, like, some type of really interesting
analogy
that you or no person understands because it's
being read again and again. Right? So here
is just a very straightforward
thing that he says. What is the thing
that is revolved around the device?
Can you guys see?
Yeah. The theme of death. The theme that
this is something that is very temporary.
Right? All of these different things are temporary.
So he's saying that look as long as
you may,
but one thing that's for certain
is that you will die. That's very for
certain.
Then he says, and then you can love
whomever you want,
but recognize that you will be separated from
them. And separation happens in many ways, but
this is also talking about the fact that
the reality is that things do not last
forever.
You know? It does not last forever. And
then he says, and do what you will
because what will last forever is your act
the outcome of your action,
the outcome of what you've done.
Right? And we see this. You know, sometimes
we are living in our day to day,
every day, and
say, for instance, you know, for me growing
up, I was obsessed with Jews. Like, I
was obsessed with Congress and, like,
echo's lines and Jordan's and all these things.
Right? And if I didn't have it, to
me, that felt like the world was ending.
It was like I have to have it
right now. Today is the most important thing.
Now fast forward to a lot of years
later, I'm not gonna tell my age, I
can't even remember
how much you've been used to have. I
can't even remember why they were so important.
I can't even remember why we're so obsessed
with them. Right? Now I have other things
that I'm just completely,
you know, putting that energy into.
And so what the advice that Noma Guzzallo
is giving here is that he's
just really and it's right in line with
all the other advices.
Just really teaching us about how our mindset
should be.
What is the way that we should think
about life? How should we think about life?
How should we even go through life? Because
if you're going through this life, you're going
through your life, you know what you wanna
do, you know,
being however you want to be,
and you're not thinking about the outcome of
your actions or you're not thinking about the
fact that this is something that's temporary,
then you're gonna live your life a certain
way. No? You're gonna do certain things. You
will say certain things. You'll interact with certain
people. You will be in certain environments
because you there's no there's nothing else
after. Right? There's nothing else that you're concerned
about. There's nothing else that you're thinking about.
And so Allah,
he tells
us in the Quran, he says,
says that this the world, the life that
we live in, it is something that it
is this dunya, it is something that's enjoyable,
but it's fleeting.
It's like something that, like, you know, you
really enjoy it right now, you know, and
you're really having a lot of fun and
you care and all this stuff, but it
goes away quickly.
And he's talking about your day to day
and he's talking about your life overall.
That overall recognize that there's something bigger
than today that you're working for.
And if you recognize there's something bigger than
today that you're working for, then that should
teach you
how to make better decisions.
That should teach you how to interact in
a better way.
And so we're saying that in the beginning,
he's saying,
to love whoever you wish, but one day
you'll be separated from them. Think about all
the people you care about and you love.
Maybe some
people.
Mom,
anybody else?
Only you guys only like your mom?
Very private.
What'd you say?
Everybody else? My dad. Your dad?
Right.
Believe it or not, your siblings, you're not
at the place where you wanna admit it,
that you care about some, but your siblings,
your cousins, family members, friends. There are so
many people that you care about.
Do you treat them as if, you know,
it's possible that you won't see them tomorrow?
You treat them that way. No.
Your mom calls you. You don't pick up
your phone.
She calls you 3 more times. Instead of
calling back
and saying my bad for missing your call,
what do you do? You call back annoyed.
Why don't you keep calling me? You know
where I'm at.
How many times have we heard stories
of people who say, well, I wish I
can answer my mother's phone call again? How
many times have we heard stories of people
who say, I wish I tried harder with
my relationship with my siblings?
Because the relationships that you have in this
world is gonna be really different in the
next life.
And last time I talked about it. That
on the day of death, nobody's gonna be
like you. Your mom's not a come save
you. She's not.
She has her own thing to worry about.
So the investment in these relationships is now
recognizing
that what? You'll be separated.
It's temporary.
It's temporary.
And then he says about your need and
your actions.
And the story that I really enjoy is
the story of the life
of Abdul Rahman bin Al Oth.
But before I get to him,
think about the companions and what they were
going through in the time of processing
before even looking at the method.
You know, you have different companions. You have
Bilal, but you lost some uncle being tortured.
You have the fact that Ahmadine Gasset,
he lost his whole family.
If they were just concerned
about this life
in the dunya
and today,
do you really think that they would endure
the things that they endured?
Absolutely not.
If they thought
that justice and compensation
and all that stuff will happen in this
world,
Do you really think that they'll all be
dragged in the hot street of Mecca
where hot stones put on top of him
and he will still be saying,
Oh, there weren't except towards something much bigger
than today.
It was much bigger than that moment.
It was much bigger than that feeling.
It was much bigger than those people.
They're working towards their
aftermath. And so you have the Abdul Rahman
out. He was known to be our very
wealthy companion. He was very rich.
And he wasn't just rich. He was the
type of person
that can make money. You're a Mexican guy
that just knows how to flip a bottle?
That he knew how to make money. Okay?
So he was someone who's known for being
very, very, very
he he had a lot of wealth, and
he also was a great and phenomenal businessman.
And so what happens is that when the
Muslims have to migrate to Medina,
it's a very interesting thing because it wasn't
like how we're we have bank accounts. Right?
So if I decide to move
to the UK, for example, I still have
access to my vault. I still have access
to my money. I have access to whatever
it is that I need to have access
to. The Muslims
have
to put their hands on board
when the the tension and everything just got
so much that they needed to be able
to live and breathe,
They had to migrate to Medina.
Sometimes when we talk about the migration, we
talk about it in a way that we
it's like, okay. They just moved houses.
They didn't just move houses.
They had to leave everything behind
and then they weren't entitled to those things
anymore.
K? They weren't entitled to it anymore.
So after the man, the elf was one
of the people who had to migrate to
Modena
and he left his empire
of wealth behind.
Imagine being a CEO of a company
owning all rights to that company,
owning every single thing, all the money, everything
to that company, and then it's gonna take
For your religion, for your sake of your
relationship with God, you have to leave all
of this on the table. Is that an
easy decision to make?
Be honest.
Is it an easy decision to make? No.
How many toes and cons list are you
gonna make in your head?
How many things are you gonna, you know,
think about?
And you're there on top of that. So
you have a family to take care of.
Then what are you gonna think about? Well,
how am I gonna take care of my
family?
Because logically what? You need this stuff to
take care of your family.
Your friend was probably used to a certain
lifestyle because of how much money you have.
He leaves it all on the table without
without a flight.
A second thought
gets to Medina
and the prophet had instituted a situation
where basically
the people who are in Medina, the Amzar,
they will have this brotherhood, sisterhood type of
thing.
And so they would the unsolved will house
them in hydrogen, the people can knock off,
and give them a place to stay for
as long as they need to to get
back on their feet. That's how serious their
refugees are facing.
So when I I remember, Alf King,
and the person told his his buddy told
him, okay. Come on. Let's go to the
house. You know, get you settled in, so
on and so forth. He tells him, point
me to the marketplace.
He's like, I I know what I need
to do. I need to make money. I
know how to make money. I'm good at
it.
Right?
Now other than not, I'm also able to
amass his wealth again,
but the thing is he wasn't the type
of person that just got money for the
sake of getting money. You know, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala just blessed him so much that
anything he touched literally became gold.
And so up there, he's not even an
elf. He's known to have sad though, and
this is something that keeps you grounded
and let you know that you can live
in this dunya,
exist,
work for things,
but what? You keep your morals, you keep
your values, and you recognize that there's something
much bigger
out there, and that's the offline. And so
after a month of oath, he said that
I used to stay away from half of
the things that were halal I would fear
that some type of interest may touch it
because I'm not trying to take myself.
I don't wanna take it.
He didn't say that was I'm too too
rich to go for war to go for
battle.
No. He went for the battle of Lubbock,
and he was wounded in the battle of
Uhud.
And years later,
after the husband of Ophir is sitting down,
he's eating a meal,
and they bring him 2 different types of,
like,
curds.
And he begins to cry and weep. And
they ask him, like, what's wrong? Like, is
the food that bad? What happened? What's wrong?
And he says that Musa Abdi
Mir was a martyr because he's much better
than me.
And then he starts to name the different
people that were killed in battle.
And he says that I'm afraid that I'm
reaping what I sow in this world.
Like, I'm afraid I'm getting all of my
benefits here.
He wasn't just sitting on his, like, recliner
couch and was like, yeah, I'm chilling blah
blah, like, this is great. No.
He couldn't help it. That love put so
much butter back in the wealth that he
amassed.
He was one of the people that was
promised Jannah.
Imagine he knows that he's promised paradise. The
prophet told him you'll be the last to
inherit the people that would promise paradise. Says
why? Because every single penny you have made
has to be taken into account.
His narrations that talk about the fact that
there was a time
where he had a caravan of trade
that came into Medina. And it was from
one part of the entrance of Medina to
the exit of Medina. That's how much
merchandise we have.
And Aisha,
she turned to him and she said to
him, that's a lot of money to get
you a lot to make off of that.
And out of that comment, he gave it
all away.
He was known to be generous to a
halt. Why?
Because he was trying to deposit,
make deposits for his Africa. He wasn't living
for today. He wasn't living for this world.
He was living
to have a much better status
in the eyes of a black.
So I brought his story in particular so
many Sahaba, so many stories like this. About
this story particularly because you see someone who
didn't just go sit in the corner of
Virginia and, like, say, hey, Virginia. Don't look
at me. I'm gonna, like, wrap myself in
a cocoon and be here and tell him
to be ready to die. No. He did
what he had to do. He wasn't in
his life. He was good at something,
and he used it. You know, God gave
him a talent and he used it. He
didn't ignore it, but he also did not
lose sight
of what really mattered.
And that was his relationship with Allah,
and that was the aftermath.
And so you see here in this advice,
what Imam Abu Ghazali is telling us is
he say,
listen. All of the things you acquire, all
the wealth, the friends, the family,
all of this stuff,
Live as long as you will.
As long as God has want you to
live, live it. Live your life.
You know?
Be great in all of your relationships,
but recognize that this is all temporary.
And so the actions that you do, the
things that you do,
know that you will be held accountable for
them
in the bathroom.
And so this is something that, the one
that's to keep in mind. I'm gonna go
ahead and pass him on to Scott with
the man, and he's gonna tell us about
the the 7th advisor.
So like we said when we first started
this book, and the
first section of this book is really focusing
on what it means to be sincere.
Sincerity is something that is,
powerful, but also very scary.
It's powerful because it can make you the
most motivated and passionate person in the world
because you're sincere about something. It's also scary
because
in a lot of ways,
we don't know if we're sincere in a
lot of moments. Right? But we hear these
amazing stories
about Abba Ahmed al Qadhi,
like, bursting into tears when he realizes that
somebody that he admires, that he looks up
to, Mosadde
Nomer, who passed away,
in the battle of Ofar.
And afterwards, Adar al Khan bin al Qum,
he receives this,
when he receives this news
and starts crying, like, that sincerity, it's like,
wow. I wonder if I'll ever get there.
I wonder if I'll ever experience that. You
know what I mean?
And so it is a little bit intimidating.
And I know especially for
for for, like, a a college audience, it
might feel like a topic that's a bit
heavy. But I will say this,
with a lot of things in Islam,
the earlier you start, the more time you
have to build momentum
and to get there. Right? A lot of
times, the reason why we struggle with this
time is because we start too late. You
know what I mean? We start, like, when
we're 30, we realize that, man, we gotta
we gotta pick things up.
But the reality is, if we started when
we were 18,
then we would've had a lot more
reps. We would've had a lot more experience.
And so thinking about sincerity is something the
Imago Lazavi wants to leave you with. He
wants you to think about
your actions.
You know? A good example is, like, how
motivated
is a person
to pray
on time
when they're not surrounded by other people who
remind us of our own time? Now we're
here together.
746,
the Adan comes in. Everyone starts lining up,
and there's, like, a certain level of motivation
that you just walk into the room. You're
like, okay. Time
to pray. And in the back of your
mind, you're you're you know that it's there's
no choice. Right? You're I'm just gonna pray.
But if you're sitting at home
in your room alone, is there that same
level of urgency? And this is what the
scholars call
sincerity.
Is that if you're able to act
with equal, if not more,
urgency and passion,
when you know that no one is around,
then you know you're a sincere person.
And when I talk to parent this is
actually really interesting. When I talk to parents,
I actually try to tell parents, like, look,
try not to force prayer
for the sake of you. You know what
I mean? Like, a lot of times parents,
like, pray, otherwise I'm gonna be upset.
Pray, otherwise I'm gonna be angry.
I always
it's not that because a lot of us,
we are raised that way, and we are
always taught to pray for somebody else besides
Allah watching us.
We're taught to pray to make somebody else
happy for us. So since it is a
really tough battle to fight your entire life.
One of the great scholars, Susanna Thodio from
Allah, when he was on his deathbed,
he started crying. And this is like a
really amazing scholar. He's like a a phenomenal
person. So they asked him, why are you
crying? You know, they were reminding him of
all the good he had done in his
life. So there's no reason for you to
shed tears. You should be you know, obviously,
you're dying, but you you're a good man.
You're a good person. Live a good life.
And he said, my heart
I always had to battle my heart every
day.
My hypocrisy. Whether or not I was doing
it for the sake of Allah. Every every
every day. And he goes, I'm here now
and I still don't know.
Still not
sure if I actually did it for Allah
or not, everything that I did. So, Imam
Al Azadi, he's giving us now
this,
this change in in direction conversation
where he's really gonna focus on
sincerity. Who wants to read for us? I
believe it's,
it's number
7.
Who wants to read for us? Nice and
loud.
Go, Paula.
So what have you gained from the names?
Scholastic theology,
medicine,
administration,
poetry,
modesty,
astronomy,
syntax, and robotics,
except to which we have time against the
level of the lower than that.
So,
how many of you guys are studying syntax
majoring in morphology?
These are all sciences
of of of,
these are like Islamic sciences.
And you know what's crazy?
These are all
okay.
Sincerity is interesting. Right? Because
sincerity becomes more powerful when you are a
minority.
When you are alone, your sincere if you
do something while you're alone,
it's, like,
way more powerful, way more sincere. If you're
surrounded by people,
then it still can be sincere, but it
may not be as powerful.
So in order to understand this example, we
have to think about who is Imam Al
Hazali writing to? Where when is he living?
Where is he living?
He's living
in Iraq,
okay, a 1000 years ago.
What does the religious,
makeup of that place look like, guys?
What percentage of religious,
diversity do you think is in the aridov
a 1000 years ago?
How many of you think that they were
majority Muslim people?
Yeah. They were.
They were majority Muslim community.
So is it easier or harder to be
sincere when you're surrounded by majority of people
that are doing the same thing as you?
Is it easier or harder? What do you
think?
Easier. Very good. In some ways. But is
it harder too?
How can it be harder?
Because it's almost like
Okay.
Yeah. Peer pressure. Things kinda become, like, robotic.
Right? Like,
if you go to the message, you're just
kinda, like, alright. Cruise control.
You just sit there. Right?
You just go for it. And then, like,
you know, rock on number 17, you're like,
oh, did I even have holdup this whole
time?
Night is officially ruined. Right?
So he's speaking to a bunch of Muslims.
He's he's he's talking about a society
where there are all Muslims studying sorry, guys.
My phone keeps blocking.
Where there are all Muslims studying these different
sciences.
And so what he's doing is he's saying,
look, what are you what are you doing?
Check yourself for accepting. Like, what are you
majoring in? Because these what are you majoring?
Social work. Okay. Good. Baja.
Finance.
Medium. Speech.
Awesome.
I I see what? I see. Is that,
like, is that, like, tech? Okay. Yeah. Okay.
Social work.
You know, I have no idea.
I'm like, where am I? That was a
Yeah.
No. Don't worry about it. Yeah. What are
you majoring? Computer science. Computer science, Kobe.
Okay.
Yes. You guys all answered the question pretty
quickly. Right?
Do you know why?
Like, why are you doing that?
Why are you majoring in what you're majoring
in?
You know, I closed my eyes and just
pointed at the list, and that's what I
landed on.
Okay?
I mean, there's certain reasons,
and that's what he's asking. Emmanuel Hazzali is
like, look. He's like, be honest with yourself.
Why are you even doing this in the
first place?
He said,
I have no idea why a person would
do this.
And he says, but, he continues.
Says that,
and he give the example.
He said that a person can spend their
entire life studying these things.
Be successful at that.
You could be the best
speech therapist in the world.
You could be the best social worker ever.
You could be the highest in your class
of finance. And he said what? He said,
but you could still waste your entire life.
It's
possible.
You could be the best at what you
do and still waste your entire life.
How?
Continue. Daha, what does he say next?
I saw in the gospel of Lisa that
he said, when the moment of course is
placed on the
Okay. So he says
he's referencing one of the previous texts. Okay?
And this is this, you know, we we
we do have some remnants of some of
the previous scripture that were revealed, the Injil
Tawrat, but we don't take them as legal
texts. We just take them as
virtue texts, like, we can read them and
learn from them. But we don't apply any
rulings as a result of that. Right? So
he's saying, I saw some verses from the
the where
he says that
it said that
That from the moment that a person
is buried and they are placed into the
edge of their grave, basically,
as soon as
the reality hits.
As soon as the reality hits and you're
about to be left alone now.
Like, even when you die, you're still surrounded
by people that love you.
You know, your family is gonna take care
of your body, your whole soul. They're gonna
take care of your funeral arrangements.
They're gonna take you to the graveyard, and
then they're gonna bury you. And then you
know what's crazy, subhanAllah?
Your body is dead, but your soul is
still alive, very much so. It's in the
barzah,
and the soul can actually hear
all of the people praying and making dua
up until the very last footsteps
of the people leaving the grave. And that
is when when the first when the last
person leaves,
that is when Mumkair and Aqid, the 2
angels come, and they ask the questions
of every person in the grave.
So at that moment, you're still surrounded by
people,
but what happens is when that all when
everyone leaves you and you're by yourself,
sincerity,
and you have no one around you,
then he says
says,
that you get asked by Allah 40 questions.
This could be literal or figurative. Forty could
be
could be like a lot of questions.
The first one is go ahead,
Allah, dude. Listen to that, man.
Gives you goosebumps, man.
He gives you goosebumps. What did he say?
You
have
the
You've
prepared
yourself
to be presentable in front of the eyes
of creation
for years, your entire life. That's all you
worried about.
All you worried about when you picked your
major
was how what your what your, your earnability,
your income prospects for life. You thought about
what people were gonna say about you.
And, again, those aren't, like, necessarily evil things,
but those are the things that we prioritize.
Right? You even thought about, like, is this
something that is noble in the eyes of
people? Do people think that this is noble?
Right?
And that's all you caught it's all you
thought about, and he says, but you didn't
do that with me for even 1 hour.
You did it with others for years years,
decades.
But for me,
relative to that, even one minute was too
much.
Right?
How long do we take on average to
get ready to go somewhere where we're gonna
see people?
To be honest, Tabitha,
did you start before or after 1 PM
for tonight?
How long do you take to get ready
to go somewhere?
30 minutes. How about a wedding?
A wedding? Oh, god.
You're like, there's a wedding in June. I'm
getting started now.
How long do you guys need to get
ready to look nice?
15 minutes? There we go. God.
Yeah.
He's like, just quick smell.
Good. Good. Good to go. Alright?
There are some people that take quite a
long time. Right? Especially if it's a nice
event, a wedding or something very nice and
serious. Okay?
How long do we take to get ready
to pray at home?
If even.
Crazy. Right?
You know, Ali
used to make,
the the cousin of the prophet and when
he made, he would start shivering, but the
water wasn't cold.
So someone asked him, are you okay? Are
you sick? Because shivering is a sign of
sickness, right, fever.
He said, I'm fine.
They said, are you sick? He said, no.
I'm fine. I'm healthy. They said, what's wrong?
He said, do you have any idea of
who I'm about to stand in front of?
The thought of praying in front of Allah
was so powerful for him that it literally
caused him to start shaking.
Not necessarily out of fear, you know, people
shake when they meet someone that they love
too, and they're excited to meet, like, celebrity
or someone. Right? So it's not fear necessarily,
but it's the thought of how powerful that
moment was.
But you don't just get there,
like default. You don't just get there. You
don't just arrive there.
That ability
to take that salah very seriously to that
level,
it's all prioritization
and sincerity of the heart.
So he says,
in this statement of the
that what
Allah says, my servant, you spent so much
of your years and time getting ready for
the eyes of people, but you haven't even
done the same for me for an hour.
Go ahead.
Every day, he
Yeah.
Every single day,
Allah
gazes into the heart of creation, everyone's heart,
and says,
What are you doing for other people? Like,
what are you spending and preparing and giving
your all? You're investing everything you have
for other people. He says,
and you are completely and totally,
surrounded is a good word, but also you're,
like, immersed.
You're, like, you know, like, you're like a
bag of tea that's in hot water. Like,
you're cooking submerged. That's a good word. You're,
like, submerged
in behaving, in all the goodness that I've
given you.
Right?
Like, I'm so concerned about making sure that
I appear,
you know, whatever, professional
or good looking or knowledgeable in front of
people.
But when I'm with Allah, my concern about
how I appear to him is, like, it
disappears.
And he's like, that's crazy because I'm the
one that even gave you everything that you
have to begin with.
You're using the clothes Allah gave you, Allah
is telling me. He's saying,
you use the clothing I gave you to
appear impressive in front of people,
but those same clothes don't show up at
Fedr or Dhur or Asar Amal. Like, when
it's time to pray, all of those nice
things you have in your closet are more
important for strangers than they are for me.
But when you're in need of something, what
do you do?
Oh, Allah, please help.
It's like a friend calling
after a long time, only when they need
something. How offensive? How earth?
How disappointing?
And then Allah
asks the question,
the powerful question, you know, and and it's
not meant to be offensive, but it's meant
to rattle us. What does he say?
He says,
He says, is it truly the case that
you can't hear?
Or is it that and that you refuse
to listen? You're deaf and you can't hear.
Meaning what?
Are you not able to see the reality
to hear the reality as it is around
you?
And so this is Imam Al Ghazali now
sharing the key to sincerity. What is the
key to sincerity?
It's realizing
everything
that we do for others
originated with Allah, everything that we do.
The the imagery,
the platform,
the social media status,
the fame, the respect,
the the the you know, whatever you wanna
call it. How lovable a person is,
what they're viewed like, the peer sort of
like perception,
all of that is from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. This is why the prophet said, Hadith
that if a person is beloved to Allah,
then Allah will call out to the heavens
and will command to the angels,
oh angels,
I love so and so.
I love Kobe. I love Khadija.
I love Sara. I the Allah will announce
this,
and then he'll say, because I love them,
then you love them too. And the will
take that, and they will perpetuate that announcement.
Until that announcement reaches the earth,
and there will be people who walk the
face of the earth that you have no
idea why that you love them.
And the reason why, subhanAllah, could be perhaps
maybe because Allah loves them.
Worry about Allah loving you, and everyone else
who's worth loving you will fall in line.
Right? Worry about getting the love of people,
and you're gonna have to win over one
part at a time, and you'll die before
you even finish.
Right? That's sincerity.
Allah comes first,
and everything else follows.
But if I give them Allah,
then nothing will follow.
Right? So it's all about prioritization. We ask
Allah to give us that more. We ask
Allah to protect us, grant us sincerity, make
us people who are honest and have integrity
in our faith, ask Allah
to give us strength in our faith, in
our in our worship, and to grant us
the month of Ramadan and make it the
best month of our lives.
Okay. Any questions, anybody?
Doesn't look like we got any
questions here. Any questions in the audience at
all?
Do we?
Oh.
Oh, is that the right one?
Oh, no. Try. No. That's not the right
one. Mhmm.
It's
okay.
Oh, never mind. Nothing. Any questions for anybody?
No?