Safi Khan – Soul Food Chapter 4 Importance of Action
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the concept of humility, including the importance of knowing one's intentions and actions to be a good person. They emphasize the need for action and finding one's passion in action, as well as the importance of staying at home and not feeling tired until the night. The speakers also provide advice on managing one's effort, including praying and doing small small actions to achieve success. They stress the importance of balancing considerations and not losing one's self- basics, and mention a college girls program. The group plans to have a discussion based on a discussion based and share snacks and ideas.
AI: Summary ©
Of the advice that we're gonna do today.
And it's not you don't have to necessarily
cover it in order, but it's better obviously
to to make sure that we cover everything
and don't skip anything.
But in this portion, in the first part,
if you look at the top of your
sheet, I don't know if you guys have,
the printouts from last time that we gave
you, but either way,
Imam Ghazali is transitioning now the conversation. So
this book has different
themes and different parts in it. And in
the beginning, he kinda talks a lot about
humility, what it means to be truly humble,
and then he now is going to go
on this long, like, portion of the book
where he's gonna talk about
this really dangerous idea, perhaps one of the
most dangerous ideas that any Muslim can have.
And that idea is that my intentions
and my thoughts and my knowledge,
those matter,
but my actions,
they matter, but not really.
Like, I can do whatever I want sort
of, like, kinda get away with it. As
long as I know that I'm a good
person and I know that Allah is
one and I know that Muhammad is his
messenger.
My knowledge is what's going to protect me.
It's gonna it's gonna verify me. You know?
Like, Allah will check my diploma. He's not
gonna check my grades, if that makes sense.
So this idea is something that Imam Ghazali
is gonna, like, really go against and really
harp on because
if you remember, during the era that he's
living in,
there is kind of like a borderline societal
obsession,
basically, being incredibly intelligent and being a person
that
knows so much like an encyclopedia,
and there wasn't the same amount of emphasis
on doing things.
So people would literally get together. I remember
in one of my classes, my undergrad degree,
it was a philosophy class.
And I remember we had a whole debate,
an entire class, 50 minutes
on a random day and the debate was,
what makes a table a table?
That was the debate.
Exactly. Shailesh Patel shaking her head. Exactly. What
makes a table a table?
So one guy, you know, like the professor
was like, let's debate this.
And this one guy is like, well, the
table is defined as a you know, you
got, like, the super literal guy. Table is
defined as a surface with 4 legs.
And somebody's like, well, dogs have 4 legs.
Is a dog a table? And everyone's like,
oh my god.
And, like, you know, they just kinda started
going back and forth. Well, you could use
a dog at the table if it stood
still enough and kind of back and forth,
back and forth. And I remember being in
that class
and I first think to myself, why
do I need to do it matter?
Like, what's going on?
And that's a very
microscopic miniature miniature example
of the frustration that Imam Al Azadi had.
Their
entire groups
and categories
and societies
of people within the world at that time
that all they did was engage in what
we call, like, mental gymnastics.
Right? Like, a gymnast is showing all of
their strength
and they're showing all of their talent and
ability
whether it's, like, on the high bar, whether
it's on,
you know, the pommel horse, whether you know,
the gymnast is showing all their but they're
not really applying
that strength to, like
right?
Same as, like, a swimmer in the Olympics.
Michael Phelps can swim really fast,
but he's not swimming
in an ocean trying to go save some.
He's not being quite
practically athletics.
Right? So
Imam al Zali was getting tired of people
using Islamic knowledge as like an athletic
display.
Almost like like how we watch NBA games.
You have these incredibly
in shape talented,
like, people with all this, you know, flexibility
and strength and muscular structure.
But what are they doing with it? They're
playing a game.
I'm not I'm not trying to disparage, but
if we're just honest, it's a game. Right?
So Imam Ghazali is like, look, when it
comes to religion, we don't play games. That's
not what we we're not coming here to
talk about whether or not a table has
4 legs or a dog has 4 legs.
Is like, this deen is meant to transform
people.
It's supposed to change
who you are like it did to Malcolm
x.
Supposed to fundamentally transform people. Right? Like, oh,
like a whole lot.
So now the theme that he's gonna start
to go over is he's gonna start to
talk about
this idea
of
making sure that you do what you say
and you do what you know. You don't
just live Islam in theory,
but you actually try to apply yourself.
So he says
He said
that
don't be the person.
Be very, very careful, he says, to be
the person. Never be the person
who is when it comes to their good
deeds,
they
are means the person who's totally broke,
like, bankrupt.
He says don't be that person
who when it comes to your good deeds
on the day of judgment,
you're standing there before Allah and Allah asks
you what have you done and you look
at your good deeds account and there's nothing
there. Don't be like that person.
And think to yourself, what would make that
person
is it is it even possible? Isn't it
easy to do a good deed? Yes or
no?
It's not a trick question. Is it easy
to do a good deed? Yeah. It's actually
incredibly easy to do a good deed.
It's super easy. I mean, it's easy to
do bad deeds too. But it's easy to
do some good some good deeds like
smiling at somebody,
saying thank you, saying before
you take a sip of your lemonade,
holding the door open for somebody at the
store.
Right? 6 feet apart though.
Right? Do whatever you can to do good.
Like, all this is pretty simple.
So could you imagine somebody who shows up
in the day of judgement and they have
nothing?
How could that happen?
It's almost mind boggling. I mean, look. Not
everyone's gonna have millions and millions and millions,
but at least surely you'll have some.
So he says there are some people that
on the day of judgment
will be broke. They'll be bankrupt. They'll have
nothing. Why?
Because they were convinced
that what they knew was more important than
what they did.
And so he
says,
and don't be somebody
that when it comes to
your or your, which is a word that
means, like,
your the the the condition of your heart,
the condition of your faith,
your state they say.
That you're totally void.
That you're just dead.
You know? Like, I want you guys have
you guys ever seen, like, a fish that
died in the tank?
You know what I'm talking about? Sorry. It's,
like, turning back or something.
Like, I love Tim Goldie. Right?
You see it. It's like it looks completely
lifeless.
You know, you look at something on a
like some an animal that died on the
road,
its body is completely lifeless.
You know, you compare a green leaf
full of life connected to the tree, you
look at it on its branch
or a flower. This
the flower during the snowstorm,
it all died. We have a roof bush
from our house. All of them are dead
now.
And you look at the difference between what's
living and what's dead.
Something that's living,
it's mere presence when you look at it,
it gives you a sense of energy. It
gives you a sense of life. When you
see a beautiful bouquet of flowers
or a beautiful bush
that has these colors, you feel almost like
alive
yourself. But when that same thing is dying
or dead,
it almost sucks the air out of the
room.
And so he says that don't let your
heart
be that dead thing that's just floating there
along in your chest.
You're just going throughout the day after day
and your heart is not living nor is
it inspiring to you or to anybody else.
It's just going along with you.
Okay?
And then he says,
and
he says, be absolutely
certain. No doubt.
That knowledge
on its own
will not give you any sort of increase.
It will not benefit
you in your strength
of your situation.
You can know everything. What are some things
that we know but we don't act on?
What are some things that you know?
What
are the things that you know that you
should do but you don't do?
So that was very good one. I was
just telling them yesterday night. I made a
horrible decision. Or should I say this morning?
Earlier this morning. By staying up too late.
And now I feel like a dead man
walking. I feel like I'm just, like, on,
like, stream. Just kinda go and come so
exhausted.
And I knew it. I knew. I was
looking at my watch, my phone. Every single
hour, half an hour that passed by, I'm
like, I'm gonna hate myself tomorrow morning.
Right? So sleeping early is 1. And those
nights where you do go to sleep early,
you wake up and you're like, wow. It's
that simple.
It's literally that simple.
Just go to bed by 11:30. Go to
bed by 11 or 10:30.
Right?
And it's like, that's crazy. So I don't
know. What else? What are some things that
we know to do but we don't do?
Anybody?
Not procrastinate
the night before something is due. It was
assigned 4 weeks ago. How much do you
hit yourself on a scale of 1 to
10?
You're like, why did I do this?
If I just did, you know, that I
I when I used to teach in high
school, I used to tell my students when
I assigned a paper, it's due in 10
days or 2 weeks or whatever. I used
to say, listen up. If you work on
it for 30 minutes a day, you'll be
done in 3, 4 days.
But if you wait till the night before,
you're gonna work on it and you're gonna
probably get a seat.
I used to say that every paper. I
used to assign 2 major papers every semester.
I used to say every paper. And my
students used to be like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And then every night, the night before, you
know, I would know. I could tell when
I read the papers the next day or
the days to come who did it the
night before
and who actually did what I told them.
Procrastination.
Very good. What else?
You know something you guys how many of
you guys spend some money on food? Boba,
food, things like that in your app?
How many of you it's your money? It's
not you're not seeing your parents' money.
Okay. Let me tell you something. You guys
remember this?
You know how your parents tell you they're
at home?
Just eat at home food at home.
You know, like, this sound fun.
Like, I wanna go out and meet my
friends. Right? This is true. Okay?
And, like, your parents are like, why don't
you just take some food in a bag
with you and go meet with your friends?
Like, they're all ordering, and you're like, I
got this.
And you pull out some, like, some salad
or some, like, some, like, curry or some
or something.
I don't wanna do that. It doesn't sound
fun. But, you know, can I tell you
something? You know what's fun?
Having money when you need it.
And so there comes a time when you
look at your bank account
and you have,
like, not much left
and you're like, oh my goodness. I wish
I didn't get boba twice this week.
I wish I didn't have I why did
I go out to eat, man?
I ate and the food was good at
home, and the food there is so much
better.
I could just save my money at home.
And then at the end of the 4
years of college, you're gonna start doing the
mental math and be like, I spent 1,000
of dollars on Taco Bell.
Like, what's my problem? You could've bought a
car. I actually tell students when they start
freshman year, I say, pick one thing that
you want. Don't do it. Food, mobile, whatever.
And take that
money and either invest it or buy yourself
a car or do something useful with that
money and just eat at home.
Well, Lonnie, I'm not joking, guys. We got
my wife and I got our credit card
statement today,
and it was significantly
lower than the past 2 weeks or past
2 months. Sorry.
So what do we do different?
What do we I was I was telling.
I was like, what do we do different?
And then I was like, oh, so, Harlow,
we didn't order takeout.
We just started cooking out.
So there are those moments where you know.
Again, the equation is not that complicated.
It's very simple actually,
but we don't always do it.
Because it's not a matter of knowledge, it's
a matter of willpower, which is an action
thing. It's not a idle thing. So he's
saying
realize
that knowing something doesn't change you.
Knowing something does not change you.
Then he says,
Here's the example.
He says,
If you were to see
this,
this individual, this man,
and he had I don't know what the
obsession is with this kind of sword, but
10 Indian swords.
Anyone here Indian?
You guys have, like, a special sword?
So I think he's referring to, like, the
the scimitar or whatever it is. Like, the
really sharp sword.
Either way,
That should be someone's name. My son.
Okay?
He says that
that he is super brave and courageous.
And
he is like a warrior. He's somebody that's
fought in battles
before. And he says,
and,
a a lion
jumped up at him.
He said, Mazan, Nuka, what do you think
this person should do? If a person has
10 swords and they get attacked by a
lion, what should they use, guys?
What should they do?
Listen. I know we have a lot of
lion favorite a lot a lot of lion
lovers here. Okay? But put yourself in a
shoes. What do you gotta do?
Use a sword. It's very good. Right? Like,
you gotta defend yourself.
So he has the he has the tools.
He's in a situation
and he has to defend himself. What?
And then
he said,
He said that do you think
that this person could accomplish
this
without action?
Meaning, do you think that this person with
his 10 swords sitting next to him or
surrounding him in a circle, the line comes
at him? He says, do you think that
he's gonna be able to repel and and
and defeat this lion that's coming at him
ferociously trying to eat him? Do you know
what to do without doing anything, or does
he have to do something?
He has to do something.
Possessed the spirits as irrelevant unless he what?
Unless he uses it. Well, that'll be happy.
He has to use it, and he has
to strike with it. Okay?
He says, 1 minute 1 minute
said that,
and it is common knowledge. It's understood.
It's common sense
that there is no benefit
unless he gets up and he moves
and he fights and he strikes with those
thoughts.
Either even a child could tell you that.
So then he says,
He said and it's just like that.
If there were a person that has read
100,000
different Islamic topics,
They know everything. Is music this? Is what
kind of meat can we eat? What kind
of this? Can I wear this? Can I
go here? They know all the right answers.
They've read all of them. Okay?
And this person themselves.
Right,
they,
you know, they taught it and they learned
it. Okay?
And they don't act on it. Then he
said,
That this person would never be benefited unless
they did something with it. Okay?
So what is Imam Al Ghazali trying to
say here?
What he's trying to say
is
that
intentions
matter,
but they're not all that matters.
Right?
There are so many moments in life where
we have the motivation, the inside
of us, the
that, like, energy to do something good, that
passion,
but that passion doesn't translate into action.
Okay?
So you wake up for FEDJAR, the alarm
is going off, you want to get up
and pray.
You want to, but your exhaustion,
your tiredness because you went to sleep at
what time?
That's early, bro. What time are you?
3 there we go. See? You're trying to
be like the Sunday school student that you
got real. Okay. 2, 3 AM. Right?
Midnight is early. Midnight's like sunset. Why? Why?
I'm gonna show you. Yeah.
Okay.
You go to sleep at midnight like you
actually sleep at the booth. Yeah. Right? So
no. But you're right. That should be a
good goal.
You wanna get you'd like you want to.
You hear the alarm in you in your
head,
you go like, okay. That's FedRAMP. I should
get up.
Right?
And then just something hits you. Like, this
exhaustion just hits you, and it's like a
wave. It's like a wave of water just
comes over you. And you're like, I can't
do it.
I wanna sleep.
You know that now you know that FedR
is followed. You know it's an obligation. You
know that what the time for fajr is.
You know how to pray fajr. You know
how to make ludu. You know which way
the tibla is. You know what you have
to wear. You know what you have to
recite. You know all of that.
If somebody were to ask you later on
that day, hey. Can you explain to me
how to pray fadri? You say, I got
to.
My favorite prayer, it's only 2 o'clock.
Right?
But if you didn't get up and do
that prayer at that time, your knowledge of
how to do all that is irrelevant.
In fact,
you know,
ignorance is bliss.
There
there is somewhat of a truth to that,
not willful ignorance,
but the more you know
and the less you act on,
the more responsible
and the more culpable you are in the
eyes of the left of our cloud.
So the obsession with knowing everything and not
acting on something
is perhaps one of the most silent and
poisonous toxins in the spiritual heart
that I know, I know, I know, I
know, but I don't do.
That's why Allah, when he talks to the
hypocrites in the Quran, he asked them a
very deep question.
Why do you say that which you don't
do?
He says Allah hates
when people say that which they don't do.
They talk about how brave they have to
be. They talk about how this they have
to be.
They talk about how Muslims do this, this,
this, but they themselves don't do that. So,
you know, Gulati says, look.
Do you wanna actually experience this faith?
Then ask yourself what can I do to
start living it myself?
And there's no better time for a person
to start making these plans in the month
of Ramadan.
Because Ramadan is like the annual reset button.
It allows us to change who we are
fundamentally.
Allah gives us a chance to change who
you are.
And so you're allowed to look at your
flaws and look at them with optimism instead
of pessimism.
Because you say, you know what? I think
I can do better this month. I can
prove that I know how to
pray, wake up on time, be very
whole time.
Right? Be better with people, etcetera.
So this is Nava and Zali's advice. I'm
gonna go ahead and let Stella Fatima
share some tips on how to
be somebody who make sure that they don't,
you know, talk the talk and don't walk
the walk. Okay?
Can we see the same This was hot
work.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Alright. So you can, everybody.
So it's not after him. He covered,
a lot of
of of the topic. And something that I
wanted to add and something that I think
is so practical for us to be able
to act upon
is recognizing
that the whole message behind this
is you are required to just put in
some effort.
You know, you're required to put in some
work. And last session, last week, we talked
about, you know, how
part of our iman and part of our
faith requires us to put in action. So
will say,
All you who believe and does good deeds.
Right?
So you see here that Imam Al Ghazali,
he's letting us know that your intentions, they're
great.
That is awesome. You should have those intentions,
but those intentions should lead to action
because that's basically putting your money where your
mouth is.
K?
So
something that was very interesting that that I
read in this particular section
is where Imam Ghazari says that if you
have read
a a study
for a 100 years, read a 1,000 books,
collected all of this knowledge,
but if you do not act upon it,
then you're not
you won't get the benefit from it. You
won't be able to, you know, receive that.
You won't be able to receive that,
you won't be able to cash out.
You can't cash out on potential.
You know? Have the potential to do so
much good. You can't cash out on that.
Now when we do put an effort and
we do put our best foot forward and
we do act upon
things, you you realize and you see that
the reward that you get
is actually so much more than the effort
that you put in.
And there's 2 stories that I want to
talk about.
The first story
is a situation of the prophet
where he passed by,
Abu Hureyra.
And Abu Hureyra, he's a young companion. You
know, he's somebody who was very knowledgeable,
but he didn't acknowledge him and just come
to him. He didn't wake up before he
was, like, pretty smart. He he was very
persistent.
He would sit at the doorstep with the
process to get some knowledge from him. He
was so young, but he narrated the most
hadith.
Like these things. He put in a lot
of work. He put in a lot of
effort.
So
he was once planting a tree.
K. He was planting a tree. So the
prophet
he walked past them,
and when he walked past them, the prophet
asked them, what are you doing?
He said, I'm planting a tree.
So the prophet then told him,
should I tell you or should I point
you to a better tree to plant?
Something something else that'll be beneficial.
Plant tree that is beneficial, but listen to
the story.
So the prophet tells me, should I tell
you to do something else that'll be more
beneficial for you?
And I'm afraid of the of
course, he says yes.
And the prophet
says,
say, all praise glory be to
Allah.
And all praise and thanks belongs to Allah.
And the law is greater.
And then the prophet says, you
Know that every single time you make one
of these,
you say one of these remembrance of the
law, then you're planting a you're planting a
tree for yourself in Jannah.
How much effort does it take?
Very little.
Like, this is seconds,
Suparna law. Seconds.
And how much reward are you getting?
So much more.
And so the process of teaching
us about the
importance, yes, of action,
but he's also letting us know that, listen,
your action and you putting in work and
you putting in effort, it does not go
unnoticed to Allah.
In fact,
Allah notices it so much that he
overrewards
you,
that he gives you so much more.
He gives you so much more. It may
seem weird
to like, if you're not used to doing
vicar outside, doing vicar, then it may seem
a little bit strange.
What's important is to learn the definitions and
the, the translations and the reasoning behind these
different.
And you actually found yourself having a personal
connection
with calling upon Allah
or doing these praises to Allah.
So for example,
if you're sitting down saying,
what are you praising and thanking God for?
Well, there are many things to praise and
thank God for,
So you could start thinking about it. You
start actually
being more grateful to Allah.
And so here, you have to process on
giving Abu Pereira
a a gift that we're able to receive.
Another story
and this is quite literally one of my
favorite stories.
That when the process around, he went on
the miraculous journey of Israel Mirage, he came
back and he was telling
their companions a lot of different things. K?
He was telling the companions a lot of
different things.
So,
yeah, so he was telling the companions a
lot of different things.
So there's a narration from Abu
and
Abu he says that Bilal,
there's a time that was fajrutized.
And the prophet
came asked Bilal
a question.
And he says to
he
says,
And then he he asked me and he
says, Bilal,
tell me.
After you accepted Islam,
k, what is the best deed you've done?
What's the best deed that you did?
And so the prophet continues, and he says,
because the reason why I'm asking,
He says that I heard your footsteps
in Jannah.
I heard your footsteps in Jannah. First of
all,
k,
imagine this conversation.
You're you're working hard in this life. You
know? You're doing the best you can. You're
making the best effort.
Profit comes, bless. You know, I hear I
heard your footsteps good. I'm ready to cash
out. I'm there. Okay. Let's go.
He tells him, tell me what's the best
deed you'd you do you've done since you
embraced Islam
because I heard your footsteps in Jannah.
What do you guys think
the the louder you left and Anbu's response
was?
What do you think you did?
Anybody?
What would your response be? Yeah. What would
your response be?
What's the best bid you can think of?
Mhmm.
The fact that he's converted. Okay. The fact
that he embraced his mom? Good.
Yeah. That's a big deal. What else?
Saving a life? Yes.
Yeah. Saving a life. These are all big
things.
The law of Muhammad,
he responds
and he says, not I'm into Amaland.
He says, not I'm into Amaland. I'm dry
envy.
He says,
I I mean, I don't I don't wanna
do much.
You know, his response, I don't wanna do
anything worthy of being mentioned.
And then he says, but
he says,
He says, I make sure that I make
wudu. I'm always in the state of wudu
in the morning, in the daytime, and at
night.
And when I make wudu, I make sure
to make to the. I make sure to
pray when I need to pray in that
time.
K. I make sure to pray some prayers.
So that's all that I do.
That's all that I do.
And then he says
and then,
well, he says that and then he needs
to be realized and we learn from this
that
when you put in your effort, when you
put in this this foot, you put your
foot in the door, you put that best
foot forward, you do some type of, you
know, action, you act upon the things that
you intend to to do,
then Allah puts so much.
And maybe you won't see that reward now,
and maybe you won't see that benefit today.
But it doesn't mean that the benefit and
the reward is not there.
And so you see that Abdullah
he's doing something that he thinks is so
simple.
I just make him do and pray.
I try to say in the statement, he'll
do. Every time I make him do, I
just pray. That's it. He literally says that
I'm not worthy of being mentioned.
Like, I don't know why my footsteps are
up there. I feel like I have so
much more to do.
I just make what doing process. I was
telling them what? You don't even know the
impact of that action.
You don't even know the reward that you're
gonna get for that.
One of the most beautiful things
or usually it comes up in the context
of, like, talking about hijab
that one of my teachers taught
me, which she told me that, you know,
the struggles that you get with, you know,
doing things that God wants you to do,
whether it be wearing your job or whatever
that you're gonna do.
You know the right thing to do, and
you're trying to do it,
and you keep trying and you keep trying,
god rewards your struggle.
He doesn't only reward your action,
but he also rewards your struggle.
So sometimes
it may be very difficult
to act upon the things that you want.
For example,
probably been making a New Year's resolution to
work out for the past, like, 15 years.
So you guys are like,
I mean, if it happens,
it's very difficult.
But once you start doing it and
you keep going,
that work is there.
You just have to do it. You just
have to put your best foot forward.
Don't be don't be potential.
Ask the conduct potential because potential is unused
energy.
Use it.
Allah gave it to you. It's your responsibility.
It's within your cap it's within your capacity.
Do it, and you will see the impact.
You will see the reward. So that is
some practical tips that I wanted to share.
And, Shaul, we're gonna go ahead and go
to the q and a.
Any questions?
You have to answer them too.
Once one. Anybody have any questions at all?
Let me just go.
You guys got it. You're good.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's a really good question. You wanna
answer it? Mhmm.
So the question is, like, is it possible
that a person can become so
confident and so, like, strong in their faith
that they become arrogant? It's kind of a
double edged sword answer.
The answer is yes, but
so it is possible. You know, anybody can
do anything
that is good for them and
that goodness could turn them to
look down at, you know, the prophet
he said that,
you know, the the companions asked of Yara,
we wanna wear nice clothes
and dress nicely. We don't wanna be arrogant.
Right?
So the prophet
said, that's not arrogance. That's not given.
So they asked him. They said, what what
is it then? What is arrogance if it's
not wearing nice clothes? Because they thought, oh,
if I dress nicely, that's arrogant. I don't
care.
Then he said, no. No. No. Arrogance
Arrogance
He said it is
to reject the truth.
To, like like, reject it, like, flick your
hand at it.
And so here the prophet
said that if
you have
any moment in your life
where something causes you to look down at
somebody, then you have to be very, very
careful.
And that thing could even be something good.
Like, I give charity and I look at
other people who don't give, you know, I
donated
a $100
and somebody donated
$10 and I say
a good deed, however, just made me
commit a horrible deed.
The charity was good, but it made me
commit something really bad. And that's basically the
story of Ebenezer Changpong. That's essentially his story.
His
story is that he was
very, very devoted to Allah, and when Allah,
subhanahu wa ta'ala, commanded the angels to bow
to Adam
and at
least rejected
and said no,
it was because he said that I'm better
than him.
And so
that
potential is definitely there.
Right? Now how do you make sure that
you balance that out and make sure that
you don't get arrogant? You You just have
to remind yourself about your reality. I I
like, I think, you know, arrogance is interesting.
More than it being a problem of a
person thinking how good they are, arrogance is
a problem of a person forgetting how,
like, we feel.
Like, everybody has
enough reason to be humble. Yes or no?
We all to be humble. Like, nobody has
to look at ourselves and be like, man,
I have nothing
to hold me.
It could be, like, a person's,
you know, their ability to for a certain
skill. Maybe other people are really good at
something, like, the whole world is good at
something and you're like, I'm not that good
at that. Right? Or maybe it's something about,
you know, another vulnerability you have. But everybody
has something to be humble about. And so
arrogance is really when a person just forgets
their own humanity. And so, Allah, it's crazy
because
we oftentimes
look down on people for the same things
that were weakened.
So we look at somebody who's stingy and
we're like, that's messed up. They're stingy. But
then when it's our turn to be generous,
like, we're not generous.
Isn't that interesting?
So it's really, really important for us never
ever to develop a sense of what they
call self righteousness,
where we think that other people are bad.
And you know one way to do this?
It's really easy.
The best way to do this to combat
the self righteousness
is always come up with an excuse
for why the person is doing something that
you want to do that for.
Oh, excuse.
Be creative. Figure something out.
If you look at somebody and they're not
doing something that they should be doing, just
come up with an excuse in your head.
Right? It can even be a little bit
creative. That's fine.
But that will start to give you a
sense of empathy. You'll start to see, you
know, it's not referring to this.
Yes. This person does this thing. Yeah. I
don't know what problems that they're dealing with,
what struggles they have.
As a society, we have this problem, man.
What do they tell people who are struggling
to find, you know, the income and the
ability to get a home and place to
live? What do they tell people? Just get
a job.
Right? Like, someone's homeless, and they're like, why
can't they just work?
It's it's so odd, that level of just,
like, that that indignation,
that that horrific
that trait internally
where it's like there's no empathy for people
who are struggling.
How are you supposed to get a job
if you don't have an address to put
on the application?
Alright. There's so many different elements. You think
a person who's been out of homes for
week to week
is gonna walk in place and get a
job?
You think managers wanna hire effort
based on how they look, judging them? So
this kind of judgment, it just exists all
over our society. It's not just for Muslims.
Everybody kinda struggles with it. So we have
to be like the torchbearer in in this
regard. And you'll find that in your environments,
like school and work,
if you actually display this kind of moral
courage,
it's actually something that people are not used
to seeing and they become really enamored by
it.
So So let's say, for example, you're in
a classroom.
You're working on a project,
and, you know, it's really funny. I hope
this person's not launching. This happened to me
the other day.
I was playing golf
with one of my friends,
and he hit a golf ball, and he
almost hit this dude in the head.
It was a very, very close call, but
it was an accident. He didn't mean to.
It was a really bad shot. Let me
split that one. Right?
So the dude that he almost hit in
the head,
some random guy, didn't know him, just met
him,
he starts yelling at my friend.
Like, just yelling at him
using really bad language.
So, Supawah, you know what I do? In
that moment, I had, like, a little I
had, like, a a
a fork in the road. I was, like,
you know, do I defend my friend?
And do I try to tell this guy
to calm down? Or do I just kinda
opt and stick and let's this,
this beat down happen? This verbal beat down
happen. And I actually went to the guy
and I stood up to him and I
was like, what's your problem, man? Relax. Calm
down.
You don't have to use account language. It
was an accident. He didn't mean it. And
if you're so worried, you shouldn't be standing
in front of him. You should move off
the side.
So relax. Alright, Homi? Like, I know that
you think that you're all being bad, but,
like, just calm me down for a second.
It wasn't intentional.
And
you know what happened to that guy?
With 6 foot 5, like, 250 pound dude,
he turned in like a puppy dog for
the rest of the day.
He was like, can I get you water?
He was so because, again, moral courage.
He made the right decision.
It's something that people aren't used to seeing.
This guy probably was used to cursing people
out all the time whenever he wanted to.
No one ever stood up to him. And
I didn't do anything macho. All I did
was say, be quiet, man. Relax. The guy's
a beginner.
You know?
I did this. He's like, what are you
doing? I'm like, it's just you have to
know. Right?
I was like, relax, man.
And the rest of the round that we
played, the the following 6 or 7 holes
that we played,
that dude was like
he was like getting those napkins and, like,
you know, he's, like, offering us like this
and that because he had never been shown
moral courage before.
So you demonstrate that
moral virtue in a in a setting where
people have never seen it before.
You demonstrate generosity in a society that's stingy.
You demonstrate
forgiveness in a society that never forgives.
You demonstrate humility in a society that's arrogant.
People are gonna be really stunned by that.
Right? And that's the best way to demonstrate
your faith.
So I would say
that when you have the opportunity to be
arrogant, just humble yourself.
Right? Just humble yourself.
There's a statement that Imam Ghazali says that
Jesus said,
So that if you have this desire to
point out someone's flaw,
he says remind yourself of your own flaws.
So
that's
Alright? So that's that's the equation for humility
right there. You have a desire to point
somebody out, just turn it back
and look at yourself alone.
Good question. Very good question. Anybody else?
Nobody?
Alright. We're out of control. Okay. We'll go
ahead and stop here. Everybody.
And do you have any announcements?
Yes.
Sorry. I'm getting better.
So, Anshoomla, I think,
the sisters are here actually are planning a
college girls,
specific program at the end of the month.
So, sister Amy and also
as well who are part of our kind
of sister's lead team here at Roots and
Lula are in the works, and, Shalom, the
rest of the team to plan, like, a
specific college girls event. We just had a
bonfire last Friday. Did anyone anyone hear you
out there? There were a pretty good number
of people there and it was, I think,
it was a good kind of social slash
reflective session. So, inshallah, the end of the
month, just kinda put like a pencil markdown
that there will be a specific college girls
program,
towards the tail end, probably, the last weekend
of hardship.
I'm really excited about it, so I'm gonna
tell you all about it even though it's
very unsolicited.
Basically, what we're gonna be doing is that
it's very much so geared towards
our everyday life and different things that we
may be going through, different conversations that we
may have with our friends,
And it's gonna be very much discussion based.
It's a discussion based. Just get together. We'll
share some snacks, share some thoughts, and then
it's actually gonna be done through Habits. So
we're we'll be able to have the topic,
and you'll have to talk ahead of time
of who we're gonna discuss. We'll have a
whole conversation about it. Everybody will share, you
know, their thought process and all this stuff,
and then we'll see what our scripture says
about it. So that's the exciting part, Insha'Allah.
And then as far as soul food moving
forward, we're looking at trying to,
be in a place that'll be more central
and a little bit easier to, like, park
at and stuff inshallah. So we have some