Safi Khan – Soul Food For College Students Dear Beloved Son #16
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of finding a mentor and finding one's own path in life, finding a mentor for one's life, finding a mentor for one's life, and finding a mentor for one's life. They also discuss the importance of praying in the presence of Allah and finding a mentor for one's life. The speakers give advice on how to deal with depression and grief, including finding a mentor for one's life and finding a mentor for one's life.
AI: Summary ©
Alrighty, bismillah walhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasoolillah wa
ala alihi wa ashabihi ajma'in, assalamu alaikum
warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.
Alhamdulillah, welcome home, welcome to Roots, welcome alhamdulillah
to another Thursday evening, a part of our
Thursday evening family, alhamdulillah.
So we're inshallah going to be continuing on.
We don't have too long left in the
series actually.
The game plan is to finish the series,
My Beloved Son, Ayyuhal Walad, and then what
I want to do inshallah is right after
the winter break, we wanted to start a
whole new series leading up to the month
of Ramadan inshallah.
Because Ramadan is, subhanallah, beginning the last day
of February.
So you guys are, I know there's a
lot of gas, yeah, yeah, it's Ramadan, the
first night of Taraweeh, will be inshallah the
last, projected to be the last day of
February.
So just gear up, right, get ready inshallah,
it's closer than you think, and so alhamdulillah
may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us
to live to see the month of Ramadan,
everyone say ameen.
So today's conversation is going to be a
very very pivotal and important one, because one
of the greatest blessings in the entire religion
of Islam, it's a blessing in and of
itself.
But of the blessings of Islam, one of
the greatest blessings is that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala did not just give us the
Quran and leave it to us to figure
it out on our own.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave us examples,
not only examples but human examples for us
to be able to benefit from, for us
to be able to learn from and model
ourselves after.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He says in
the Quran about the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam
himself, لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ
حَسَنَةٌ What does this mean?
It means that verily in the life of
the messenger, we have given you a beautiful
example, a beautiful blueprint, a beautiful model as
to what a human being's life can be.
A human being's life can be, right?
Potential.
Because if somebody tells you, well, I want
you to reach this type of success in
your life.
And you're like, well, I've never even seen
it happen before, so how do I even
know that I have the ability to do
it?
What Allah is telling you is that the
example of the messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam is
something that you can aspire to achieve.
Why?
Because although he was the best of humanity,
he was still at the end of the
day a human being.
And so human beings are influenced by other
people just like them.
Although that some humans may be better than
others, and by the way, we believe in
that.
You know, this whole kind of idea that
everyone's just the same.
No, no, that's not true.
If everybody was the same, that would mean
that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam was the
same as everybody else.
He was absolutely not.
He was the greatest of all humanity, right?
But at the same time, he was humanity.
And this gives the heart a little bit
of hope.
A little bit of hope that we can
achieve things like this.
This is why we fast on Mondays and
Thursdays.
This is why we pray sunnah after our
fardh prayers.
This is why we smile at other people.
This is why we pray in a certain
way.
This is why we talk to people in
a certain way.
Think about a sunnah that you do, right?
And even if you don't really understand the
hikmah, the wisdom behind it, you still do
it out of pure reverence for the prophet
salallahu alayhi wasalam.
So, this chapter is entirely going to be
focused on the idea of role models and
mentors.
And what does it mean?
What kind of role model should you seek
in a life?
What is a mentor?
A lot of people, subhanallah, we think to
ourselves like, how can we be a role
model?
How can we be a mentor?
This kind of self-empowering session.
But today is going to be about how
to find the right one, right?
What should you seek in another person when
you're looking for someone to look up to?
So, Imam Ghazali, rahimahullah, he says, you must
have learned from these past two accounts that
you are not in need of multiplying your
knowledge.
Meaning, you're not going to need to understand.
Because knowledge, alhamdulillah, is what it is, right?
We've learned what knowledge is and what the
ceiling of knowledge is.
He says, now I'm going to attempt to
clarify for you what travelers of the right
path should do.
If you're a person who's trying to travel
on a path closer to Allah, right?
There's a hadith, مَنْ سَلَقَ طَرِيقًا يَلْتَمِسُ فِيهِ
عِلْمًا سَهَّلَ اللَّهُ لَهُ بِهِ طَرِيقًا إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ
A person who seeks a path towards knowledge,
Allah will make easy for them a path
towards paradise.
Okay?
But the knowledge is not enough.
There has to be modes that will get
you to what your destination actually is.
And that destination ultimately is Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
You can't always dive into your books.
You can't always read articles.
You can't always read things.
You have to be influenced by people around
you.
So he says, you should know that the
traveler should have a shaykh, a teacher, a
guide, a murshid, to instruct them and cleanse
them of bad manners through a process we
call Tarbiyah.
Okay?
Now, there's a really interesting reason as to
why Imam al-Ghazali is bringing up the
word Tarbiyah.
I want you guys to read the highlighted
portion right here.
He says, the concept of Tarbiyah resembles the
farmer's action of extracting thorns and weeds from
amongst his crops so that they may grow
better.
Okay?
That this idea of Tarbiyah, what we would
call it is self-development, personal growth.
Right?
I don't want to be the same person
that I was last year.
How many of you guys believe that?
Right?
Because time is not stopping.
Time is moving forward.
You are getting older each and every single
day of your life.
What Tarbiyah does for a person is that
when you look back in your camera roll
from last year or two years ago, you're
able to say, Alhamdulillah, about where I am
and where I was before.
That's what Tarbiyah does.
You're not stuck in time.
You're not stuck in the same place that
you were before.
Every year is a growth potential for you.
Every year is an opportunity for you to
get better, for you to become a better
person.
This is what Tarbiyah is.
And Tarbiyah is not possible by yourself.
You cannot do Tarbiyah of your own self.
Why?
Because a human being sometimes is blind to
our own development.
We think we're going somewhere but we don't
actually have anyone guiding us.
It's like, Subhanallah, you know the idea of
getting lost, right?
If you're lost somewhere, if you're lost in
a store or if you're lost somewhere that
you're not really familiar with, the greatest thing
that you can do that's an easy, easy
W for you is to just be like,
Hey, you work here?
Can you tell me where exactly the bread
is?
Right?
Or, Hey, where are the eggs?
Where's the pasta sauce?
But a person who has an ego, they'll
be like, No, no, no, you know what?
I'm going to find it myself.
And that person can go wandering target for
like 30 minutes trying to figure out where
that yogurt is.
And they've now wasted 29 to 30 minutes
of their time when in fact just asking
somebody for guidance would have actually saved them
a whole lot of time.
And I'm giving you a trivial example of
going into a grocery store.
Now I'm talking about the idea of your
life.
30 minutes wasted at a store could be
the example of like, you know, a whole
year wasted on a decision that if you
ask somebody for some sort of guidance, they
would have made it clear for you.
Why?
Because they went through something similar to you
before, right?
That's the idea of Tarbiyah.
And Tarbiyah is also not always comfortable.
What does Imam Ghazali say?
He says that it's like the farmer who
extracts thorns and weeds from amongst his crops
so they may grow better.
The idea is so they may grow better.
So they may become better.
The goal is to always make the subject
of the Tarbiyah better.
It's never to satiate the desire of the
Shaykh or the teacher or the guide.
The guide shouldn't get the fulfillment of just
like, you know what?
Like, I did this.
I did this.
This was all about me.
No, no, no, no.
This is about the person that's being developed.
When you look at the Prophet ﷺ, we
shared this hadith, I believe like 3 or
4 weeks ago together.
It was about Abdullah ibn Umar.
Abdullah ibn Umar, people were praising Abdullah ibn
Umar one time.
And they were talking about how amazing he
was and how close to Allah he was.
And the Prophet ﷺ, he said about him,
he says, yes, what an amazing man.
What an amazing young man.
Only if he prayed a little bit more
in the evening.
And at that moment, a person who's averse
to Tarbiyah, they're like, so now he's going
to point out like the one thing that
I don't do properly?
What about the 8 billion things that I
do properly?
That's a person who's opposed to Tarbiyah.
But Abdullah ibn Umar, ever since that hadith
by the way, he became a person who
was known for his tahajjud.
Because he took that advice to heart.
Abdullah ibn Umar's tahajjud is not benefiting the
Prophet ﷺ by the way.
Your good deeds will not benefit the people
who were around you in your life.
They're going to benefit you first and foremost.
But is it difficult to hear that you
need to improve in certain ways?
Of course.
But the end goal is always so that
the crops may grow better.
But along the process, the farmer may have
to pick out the thorns and the weeds.
And that's not comfortable.
Sometimes the thorns and the weeds are things
that are very, very comfortable for us.
No, no, no.
I like sleeping at like 2.30 a
.m. That one person comes around, they're like,
you need to start going to bed at
like 10.30. You're like, 10.30?
I'm going to miss like 8 billion text
messages.
No one cares about you that much.
I'm just kidding.
They do inshallah.
We have this like super FOMO when it
comes to our phones, right?
Like checking our notifications.
Yeah, yeah.
They'll text me back.
Don't worry.
No, no.
It's okay.
Go to bed.
Go to bed at 10.30. Guess what?
You'll wake up for Fajr much better.
You'll wake up a little bit more energized
for that 8.30 a.m. or that
9 a.m. You go to bed at
2.30, 3 a.m.? This lifestyle is
not sustainable.
Hearing that advice is not easy.
Why?
Because this is the same thing that the
Quraysh were told when the Prophet ﷺ came
with the message.
You know, what you're doing is not okay.
You're harming people who are less fortunate than
you.
You are treating those who are wealthy better
than you treat those who are impoverished.
You should be honoring your sons and your
daughters, right?
These are things.
You shouldn't harm your neighbor.
You shouldn't go to sleep at night when
you know that your neighbor is hungry.
These things are not easy for a person
to listen to.
Why?
Because it's admitting that you're not doing these
things yet.
But a person who wants the betterment for
themselves, they should be open to this type
of advice and this type of guidance.
So Imam al-Ghazali, he says, the follower
of the path requires a guide, a teacher,
to improve their character and guide them upon
the path towards Allah ﷻ.
Because guess what?
If you want to look at it in
the grander scope of things, you're not doing
this for yourself.
You're actually doing this for the sake of
Allah.
If I am guided and if I am
given advice by the right people, I'm going
to be the one that benefits at the
end of the day with Allah.
I'm going to be living in a palace
in paradise near Allah ﷻ.
That's who really benefits.
So he says, Allah sent his messenger to
people to guide them to this path.
And when he passed away, he left behind
him representatives and successors in his place so
that they may direct the people towards Allah
ﷻ.
The condition of the murshid or the guide
is to be a deputy of the messenger
of Allah ﷻ.
Subhanallah.
This is the first condition of a person
who's looking for a mentor.
How prophetic are they?
How prophetic is the person that you look
up to in your life?
When I look towards somebody, do they display
prophetic characteristics or are they far away from
the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ?
When I look and I think to myself,
man, this person's been so influential in my
life.
Think about it.
Did they follow what the Prophet ﷺ told
them to follow?
This person's a person that's worth keeping around.
And he says, this person first and foremost
must be learned.
They must know what they're talking about.
Nowadays, subhanallah, we have life coaches that took
one hour of coursework online and then they're
like, you can come to me for advice,
by the way.
Resource, trust me, bro.
I got you.
But then subhanallah, you realize that there's no
substance behind the actual person.
They just make things up.
The first condition Imam al-Ghazali, he says,
after being prophetic, is that they must be
people of ta'leem.
They must be people of substantive knowledge.
And what does that mean?
He actually further elaborates.
He says, not that every learned one is
fit for it.
I will point out to you certain signs
so that not everyone can claim that they
are a guide.
We say that a guide is the one
who turns away from the love of the
dunya and the love of prestige and power.
The way they follow the sunnah of the
Prophet ﷺ is that they themselves are actually
not in it for this dunya either.
Just how you aren't in it for the
dunya, you're not trying to find a mentor
just for the sake of the dunya.
The mentor should not be seeking to mentor
somebody for the sake of the dunya.
That mutual intention is so beautiful.
Everyone is doing it for the sake of
Allah.
When you are trying to seek a mentor
for the sake of Allah and your mentor
is seeking a mentee for the sake of
Allah, you're all working towards Allah ﷻ into
one unified goal.
So the product is something of purity.
It's something of ikhlas.
Your mentor should not be a person who's
like, you know what?
Man, I like the fact that I got
like meetings back to back to back to
back.
Makes me feel good about my day.
People are looking up to me.
People are thinking of me as like a
teacher and as a person who can offer
advice.
This is not a person who is fit
to be a guide or a mentor.
In fact, mentors first and foremost are the
people that are like shy from even taking
that position.
You know Abu Bakr as-Siddiq ﷺ in
the final week of the life of the
Prophet ﷺ.
SubhanAllah, as he was so weak to even
lead salah in his own masjid, the Prophet
ﷺ, he told his wife Aisha ﷺ, that
I need your father to be the one
that takes my place as the imam.
And Aisha ﷺ, she said, my father won't
be able to even like recite Quran in
your place.
He's going to cry through the entire salah.
He'll be incoherent.
People won't be able to understand him.
And then when Bilal ﷺ he gave the
adhan and then he gave the iqamah, Abdur
-Rahman ibn Auf ﷺ, he didn't see Abu
Bakr as-Siddiq in the first saf.
He saw Umar ibn Khattab.
So Abdur-Rahman ibn Auf, he kind of
like did that little move like pushing the
imam to the front.
So he pushed Umar ibn Khattab to the
front.
And Umar ibn Khattab ﷺ started to say,
you know, استقيموا، اعتذلوا، get ready, get your
lines straight.
The Prophet heard this and he goes, no,
not him.
He goes, I want Abu Bakr.
Abu Bakr was nowhere to be found.
Why?
You never want to like, you never want
to be prideful of your position of being
chosen to do something like this.
Y'all ever love getting advice from people
who don't like giving advice?
Why?
Because that person is not doing this for
their own ego.
Rather, those are the people that you want
to seek advice from because they're so worried
about their own development that you know this
guy's the real deal.
Not a guy who yaps.
We have professional yappers nowadays, unfortunately.
People who yap for a living, right?
They're just kind of like, yeah, you should
do this, you should do that, you should
do this, you should do that.
And then they charge you some weird amount
of money for it, right?
This is not a part of the sunnah
of the Prophet ﷺ, right?
So these people are learned, but their knowledge
is rooted in their distance from the dunya
and anything that pertains to their own ego.
They don't care if they're given a title.
They don't care if they're given any sort
of notoriety in this dunya.
They're fine, alhamdulillah, being a regular person.
That's how you know that they're good mentors,
okay?
And Imam Ghazali, he says, and this person
has followed another person of insight in a
chain that leads up to Sayyid al-Anbiya,
the master of all the Prophets ﷺ.
So this person has to have also been
mentored.
Right now, I want everyone to do like
a pulse check, spiritually in your life.
The person who you look up to, is
there a person that they look up to?
That's how you know that there's a silsila,
there's a chain, there's a sanad that connects
your mentor to another mentor to another mentor
who ultimately goes back to the Prophet ﷺ.
That's how you know that that person's legitimate.
I can't go and ask this person for
advice and I'm like, oh, by the way,
where'd you learn that from?
They're like, just here and there.
No, no, no.
Is there a person that taught you that?
You're like, nah.
Just kind of thought about it.
That's, you know red flags?
Wallahi, it's like a purple flag.
If that hasn't been invented, it needs to
be.
It's a shade worse.
It's like maroon.
It's like bleeding red.
If a person doesn't have a person they
also talk to, they also seek advice from,
they also get insight from, that person is
not a person that you should seek advice
and knowledge from.
And not only for the sake of the
knowledge, but how they display that knowledge.
How they display it.
If a person learned from a teacher, they
didn't just learn via like a text message.
They learn by watching them.
Imam Malik rahimahullah, right?
The great scholar, the great jurist, Imam Malik
bin Anas.
One time a mother went up to her
own son and she said, I want you
to go learn from Imam Malik.
And when people talk about learning from Imam
Malik, they're like, yeah, what hadith?
Like what like fiqh issue do you want
me to memorize from him?
He's a Maliki scholar, right?
He's the one that founded that entire methodology.
You know what the mom said?
The mom said, I don't care if you
learn one hadith from him, just watch what
he does.
Just act like him.
Act like him.
You guys believe that statement that people will
learn more from your actions than they will
from your words?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
My in-laws, by the way, I'll tell
you an incredible story.
My in-laws are non-Muslim.
My wife was born Christian.
And so when we got married, alhamdulillah, she
converted to Islam and alhamdulillah, she's been Muslim
now for over a decade.
But still to this day, my in-laws
are not Muslim.
My in-laws, I'll tell you what the
greatest piece of advice that I got from
my teachers is never ever give your in
-laws dawah.
And I know that sounds a little bit
sacrilegious.
You're like, wait, what?
I don't know, man.
You're an imam.
You should give the dawah to your in
-laws.
You know what my dawah is?
My dawah is calling my mother-in-law
a few times every few weeks, just checking
in on her, see how she's doing.
My dawah is checking in on my brother
-in-law, checking in on my sister-in
-law, hosting my in-laws in my house,
making them coffee, taking them out for some
talking tacos.
Bomb spot, mashallah, right?
Getting them food, introducing them to really fun
experiences.
Next time they think about Islam, they're like,
wow, Islam is not just like this rigid
religion where nobody ever is experiencing anything good
and wholesome.
No, no, Islam is my son-in-law.
Islam is my brother-in-law.
That's how I see Islam.
So the next time they ever hear anything
related to Islam, now they automatically have husn
al-dhan without even knowing what husn al
-dhan is.
That's what it means for your actions to
be even more meaningful than your words.
How many of y'all have ever seen
like street dawah being done?
Brother, Jesus Christ, oh, you poor fool, right?
Like, who does that ever work on?
You know, it's a miracle, subhanallah, right?
Rather, the best dawah is, hey, what's your
name?
Let's get to know each other a little
bit.
Why don't we go grab some coffee, some
dinner, some lunch, some tea?
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Subhanallah, within the Roots community space, there have
been non-Muslims who have been like secret,
like, you know, like the hidden characters in
video games that you can't see their face,
they're not Muslim yet.
They've been like, they've been coming to hard
work and soul food and 30 and up,
exploring the Quran throughout the past year.
One time my brother, subhanallah, came to a
Roots program for two and a half years
before he accepted Islam.
He heard the aqwal, he heard the Quran,
he heard the hadith, he heard the statements
of the sahaba and the scholars.
But what he learned more from is just
being around Muslim community, grabbing coffee, talking to
people about how work was for the day.
This, by the way, is its own version
of dawah, right?
And so he says here that the guide
should have excelled in disciplining themselves in things
like scarcity of food and speech and sleep
and in abundance of prayer, charity and fasting.
What this basically means is that the person
who you looked up to as a mentor
should be extremely spiritually sound.
They should be spiritually sound.
They should not be people who you see
spiritual vices in.
You know what they say?
It's sometimes not advised to ever meet your
heroes.
Why?
Because your heroes will eventually have things about
themselves that are not so great.
They make mistakes as well.
But when you look for a guide or
a mentor in your life, a person who
you look up to, they should be a
person who's spiritually sound.
They should be a person who they don't
display the need for things like, I want
this dunya.
I want money.
I want that car.
They're okay.
They've controlled the nafs.
Rather, they're the first person in line for
salah.
They're the people who are also serving, the
people who are also cleaning.
Imam al-Ghazali, rahimahullah himself, a part of
his life was actually lived as a custodian
in a masjid in Damascus.
Can you imagine the person that you said,
you learned hadith from as a person who
was a custodian at one point?
This is the type of teacher that people
would want.
I don't want a person who just sits
up there and thinks that they're better than
other people.
No, no, no.
That's not the type of person I want.
The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam was a person
who used to get down on the eye
level of children when he used to speak
to them.
Oh, your pet bird died?
Let me talk to you a little bit
here.
Down here, where you and me can meet
eye to eye.
That's who he was.
Imam al-Ghazali, he says, he or she
should have kept the company of a shaykh
or a teacher themselves with deep insight so
that the qualities of good character have become
their way of life.
These qualities that you should look for are
the following.
And I actually highlighted it for you guys
so you guys can kind of see it
and read it for yourself.
Sabr, patience.
Does the person that I look up to,
are they patient in every circumstance in their
life?
They themselves follow their own advice.
How many of y'all have ever been
advised by somebody who does not follow their
own advice?
They're like, brother, remain calm.
I'm like, aren't you the one that rage
quit like three days ago?
Like, what are you talking about, man?
You know?
Like, are you a person who practices the
same advice that they preach to other people?
One thing that you could never ever put
against the Prophet ﷺ is that he's not
a person who practiced what he preached.
If the Prophet said, don't be angry, guarantee
you that he controlled his anger.
If the Prophet ﷺ told people to be
good to their wives, he was a person
who was good to his wife.
If the Prophet ﷺ told people to be
good to their kids, there's a reason, subhanAllah,
guys.
I mean, it's so magnificent, right?
Sometimes, and this is why it's so hard
to find good mentors nowadays because things are
so easily exposed, right?
Like, we see one thing and we're like,
oh, man, like, you know, I saw my
teacher yelling at his kid one time and
now my entire thing is ruined, right?
The Prophet ﷺ, by the way, subhanAllah, people
would fall in love with the things that
they saw from him.
There was one time a group of companions
that was sitting around the Prophet ﷺ and
he was sitting with them just like any
other people would in a hangout, right?
He was in his own living room chilling,
sitting down, and as they were speaking, he
heard a knock at the door and he
went up to the door to open it
and behind the door was Fatima, radiyAllahu anha,
his own daughter.
And when he saw his daughter, Fatima, he
like, subhanAllah, you know, Sayyidina Aisha, radiyAllahu anha,
she said that when the Prophet ﷺ died,
right, like 24 hours before his death, his
family came to see him and spend some
time with him.
He said that he treated everybody kind of
like similarly, like, you know, everyone got their
honor and their time, but there was one
person that when the Prophet ﷺ saw her,
it's as though the seas parted for this
person.
It was his daughter, Fatima.
And so when Fatima knocked at the door,
the Prophet ﷺ, he like immediately like sprung
up and he went to the door himself
and he like took her hand and he
kissed her.
He took her hand and he kissed her
and he walked her over to the seat
that he was sitting in.
And he goes, you sit right here.
I'll go find another chair.
That's a dad for his daughter.
Usually like we know to never ever even
show any evidence of sitting in our father's
chairs.
If this guy finds out that I sat
on his chair, I'm cooked.
But like he walked her over and sat
her down in his chair.
No, I'll go sit somewhere else, right?
This is the type of stuff that the
Sahaba witnessed with their eyes.
So when they went back to their own
families, they were like, man, the Messenger of
God treated his daughter in this way.
Man, I got some shoes to fill.
I got some shoes to fill.
Sayyidina Aisha radiallahu anha, you guys all heard
the famous stories.
The Prophet would race with her up and
down the desert.
The Prophet would carry her on his back
so that she could watch like a circus
of people dancing in the distance.
And when husbands used to see this, they
were like, am I like terrible?
Is this the standard of a husband?
When Al-Hassan and Al-Hussain, the grandsons
of the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam, used to
basically play on top of him as he
was making his sujood.
There were people who after the salah was
over, they would tell the Prophet shallallahu alaihi
wasallam, Ya Rasulallah, like what?
You let kids just like rumble, tumble all
over you during your salah, during your sajda?
By the way, sajda is the most intimate
position a person can be when it comes
to their relationship with Allah.
The most honorable part of your body, your
head, your forehead, is on the floor saying,
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
It's a very, very intimate position to be
in with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And in that position, Al-Hassan and Al
-Hussain were doing like tumbles on top of
the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And so after the salah was over, these
companions were like, Ya Rasulallah, like didn't that
distract you?
Like did that throw you off in your
khushu and your ikhlas?
And the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam said, you
might have seen a person praying in their
salah, but my grandkids saw a horse playing
on the ground.
And now every grandfather in the room is
like doing like a double take.
Like wow!
How can he be the messenger of Allah
and also at the same time be a
person like that?
You see, this is the example that you
look for.
Alright?
And so patience and perseverance, prayer, shukr.
They're grateful.
They're happy with Allah at every turn in
their life.
They're never displeased with Allah.
They say Alhamdulillah in times of ease, and
they say Alhamdulillah in times of difficulty.
This is the type of person you want
being a mentor of yourself.
Right?
They have tranquility and contentment in the soul.
They rely upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
They're generous with their time.
They're moderate in everything that they do.
They're not one or the other.
They're not too far to the left or
too far to the right.
This is the type of mentor that you
want.
Humility, they're humble.
How many of us want people in our
lives that are humble?
We don't want you to have to tweet
about it.
Right?
Yeah, so just mentored this young guy, right,
at roots the other day.
Feeling pretty good about myself right now.
No, like that completely washed any sincerity that
you had.
A person who's humble.
They may give you advice, but after they're
done giving you advice, they go and pray
two raka'at of salah.
Because that's the type of person that they
are.
They may tell you to do some things,
but guess what?
They will not only do what they tell
you to do, but they will do more.
That's the type of person that you want
around you.
They're knowledgeable.
They're sincere.
They're modest and they're trustworthy.
They're dignified and serene.
And their deliberation is beautiful.
And all of these similar characteristics are found
within them.
And then Imam Ghazali says a very beautiful
phrase.
He says, He is then a light from
the lights of the Prophet ﷺ.
هو نور من الأنوار صلى الله عليه وسلم
He is a light from the lights of
the Prophet.
Can you imagine on the Day of Judgment,
if you've ever influenced somebody in a positive
way.
There's a kid out there, mashaAllah.
Alhamdulillah, you're good.
You're totally good.
Alhamdulillah, he's having fun.
Imagine on the Day of Judgment.
Imagine on the Day of Judgment you see
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and you see
the Prophet ﷺ.
And the Prophet ﷺ looks at you and
calls you one of the lights that benefited
from his light.
نور من الأنوار He is a light from
the light of the Prophet ﷺ.
You know, subhanAllah, I'm gonna give you guys
a little bit of an imagery example here.
Sometimes you have the sun which is the
source of the light itself.
But then sometimes you have mirrors that can
actually give off just as much light.
It's not the source, but it can also
refract that light from the sun and it
can light up an entire room.
Right?
If you put enough of a good window
in a house, in a kitchen, or in
a living room, the light from the sun,
it's as though the sun is like right
outside of your home.
But you have to be a window that
is open enough and wide enough to let
that sunlight in.
So ask yourself, you'll never be exactly the
Prophet ﷺ, but what you can be is
try to be enough like him so that
when a person sees you, they're like, yeah,
this person is prophetic just like he was.
So you become one of the lights of
the Prophet ﷺ.
He says, but the presence of such people
is rarer than finding some rare gems.
He who is fortunate enough to find such
a guide and the guide accepts them, they
should respect this person outwardly and inwardly.
Meaning, when you find a person in your
life that's worthy of this type of mentorship,
hold on to them and never let go.
Always keep in touch with them.
Always text them.
I'm sure everybody in here, subhanAllah, how many
people in here have had anybody in their
life growing up that they really, really kind
of just imprinted on their memory?
Anybody growing up?
A teacher, an old friend, or whatever it
may have been, a family member.
Don't ever let those relationships go.
Don't ever let those relationships go.
Those relationships are more meaningful than you can
ever imagine.
You also know why?
A person who's like this will also make
dua for you.
A person who is like this in your
life will also make dua for you when
you're not around them.
That's the type of person that this person
may be, okay?
So he says, outward respect entails that they
should not argue with them or engage in
discussing each and every question even if they
may know that there may be a better
way.
He should not spread his prayer mat before
this teacher or this guide except at the
time of prayer.
And when he completes his prayer, he should
remove it.
He should not offer excessive optional prayers in
the presence of this person.
And he should do whatever this person commands
them to do according to his capacity and
ability.
So basically, talking a little bit about the
importance of adab and akhlaq, that you never
want to be a person who basically talks
like they know more than the person who
they're seeking advice from.
Umar ibn al-Khattab radiallahu anhu was like
a master at this.
Whenever he was in front of the Prophet
salallahu alayhi wasalam, there are certain times where
the Prophet would ask Umar radiallahu anhu questions.
Ya Umar, tell me about this.
What do you think about this?
And Umar, even though he knew the answer,
he would say, Allahu wa rasuluhu a'lamu.
Allah and His Messenger know best.
Who am I to speak in front of
Allah and His Messenger?
Then the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would say,
No, no, Umar, now tell me more.
And then Umar would speak.
Sometimes, like, we get trigger happy when it
comes to like giving any sort of advice
to anybody or speaking our minds about anything.
Like, hey man, would you think about like,
you know, would you think about that whole
like election that went down like a week
ago?
Where like, Oh, buddy, how much time do
you have?
Right?
But then there's like a person who is
in front of you that may actually be
more knowledgeable than you.
The adab of a person at that moment
is like, I actually want to hear from
them first.
What do they think?
Right?
Then I'll share.
Then I'll share.
Don't be the first person to speak.
Don't be the first person to be like,
Yeah, you know what, I want to share
my opinion on this and my opinion on
that and how I feel about this, how
I feel about that.
If there's a person in the room that
you respect, that you trust, that you value,
that have met all these credentials that we
talked about, let them share their wisdom.
You can learn so much from people around
you.
SubhanAllah.
I'll tell you guys, you know, quiet people.
How many of you guys are introverted?
Anybody in here?
Introverted people somewhat, sometimes depends on the situation.
Right?
Introverted people, wallahi, you know, a very beautiful
group of people, honestly.
I know they get a lot of hate
from like today's day and age because like,
oh wow, they're like weird.
Look at the people on Instagram that don't
have a profile picture.
Like weird kind of, you know, like strange
guys.
Right?
But people who choose to listen more than
they speak is a very prophetic trait.
It's a very prophetic trait.
There are certain people who talk twice as
much as they listen.
It's a problem.
How can you speak so much when you
don't actually hear the people around you?
The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, he would say,
بُعِثْتُ بِجَوَامِ الْكَلَمِ I was sent to you
with brevity in my speech.
The Prophet was here.
By the way guys, he would not speak
very often.
I know sometimes when we think of like
religious guides and religious leads, you know, we
think of people that are very good at
speaking, right?
Like Sheikh Omar Suleiman, mashallah.
Sheikh Omar's an amazing guy, by the way.
Like, you know, we think of like Mufti
Menk, Sheikh Omar, right?
These people, because they're so eloquent in their
speech.
The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, was eloquent in
his speech, but his khutbahs were like 10
minutes long.
Can you imagine?
You have like the masjid uncle who, mashallah,
is on his like 35th minute.
You're like, ya Allah.
It's like taraweeh of Jummah Salah, right?
Like, it's going on forever.
The Prophet, spoke very little, but his speech
was so sweet.
Umm Ma'bad, radiyallahu anha, she was a
woman in a farm that converted to Islam
when she saw the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam,
for the first time for one afternoon.
You know how she described him?
She said, that every time he opened his
mouth, it's as though pearls were flowing from
his lips.
Can you imagine?
Meeting somebody for the first time, that's the
description they have of you?
Like, every time they spoke, it's as though
pearls were coming out of their mouth.
Every word they spoke was like a gem.
I mean, what type of speech must he
have had, salallahu alayhi wasalam, to garner that
type of compliment?
So, he says, as for the inward respect,
this requires that whatever he or she hears
and accepts from this teacher or guide, outwardly,
they should not deny inwardly, neither in deeds
nor in words, lest he be branded with
hypocrisy.
If this is not possible, then he should
leave the company of this person until his
inner state of affairs is in complete harmony
with his outward self.
You know what this means?
This means that when you have a person
in your life that you look up to,
you think the best of them.
You think the best of them.
You think the best of them and you
want the best for them.
True people who benefit from role models in
their life, they make dua for their role
models.
They make dua for them.
Allah, this person, you know, was there for
me in a time when nobody else was.
I want you to think about that relationship
in your life.
I want you to think about how many
sahaba were able to say that the Prophet,
salallahu alayhi wasalam, was there for them in
a time in their lives when nobody else
was.
There was a story of a young sahabi
who actually had lost his father in the
battle of Uhud.
In the battle of Uhud.
The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, he noted that.
He noted that.
This son, who was the oldest son in
the family, he went from being a son
to now almost like a father figure for
his other siblings.
And one time, subhanAllah, I want you to
see the emotional intelligence of the Prophet, salallahu
alayhi wasalam.
One time, the Prophet, was wearing this beautiful
garb.
And people were kind of flocked around him.
And you know, mashAllah, when everyone's like, someone's
dripped out of the Muslim community, you're like,
mashAllah, where'd you get that from?
That's crazy, right?
You're like, my God, the watercolor hijab is
amazing, right?
You're like, full of compliments, mashAllah.
So everyone's kind of surrounding the Prophet, salallahu
alayhi wasalam.
They're praising him and they're like, gassing him
up because his cloak was so nice.
And he saw the young man who lost
his father in the distance.
And the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, he noted
it, that he was within earshot.
And the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, he said,
you think my cloak, my thobe is nice?
You should see the thobe that his father's
wearing right now in paradise.
Could you imagine what that statement will do
for that kid?
Could you imagine that, subhanAllah?
I wanted to end, inshAllah, before we go
into our Q&A, we want to do
a Q&A session today, inshAllah.
I wanted to end with an example of
a sahabi by the name of Zayd ibn
Haritha.
How many people have heard of Zayd ibn
Haritha before?
Zayd ibn Haritha was actually a, he was
a mawla, he was a freed slave.
Okay?
He was actually the servant of Khadija, radiAllahu
anha, who after she got married to the
Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, she gifted to him.
Okay?
Zayd ibn Haritha's story was very interesting because
he became a servant because of the spoils
of war.
So basically, back in the day, whenever there
was a battle and the opposing army lost
the battle, anybody who was basically almost like
a person who lost in the battlefield, they
would be taken, not as captive, but they
would be taken to kind of like serve
the people who essentially won that battle.
And I want to be very clear on
this, not serve like in a bad way,
serving means like they were educated, they were
fed, they were kept, they were like basically
like taken care of completely like through and
through.
Zayd ibn Haritha was gifted by Khadija to
the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam.
So Zayd was a young man, he was
a young man, and he benefited a lot
from being around the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam.
And one time, the story of Zayd was
so beautiful that Zayd's father, who had not
seen his own son for years at this
point, they were wondering whatever happened to my
son Zayd?
What happened?
So Zayd ibn Haritha's father was like a
very beautiful poet.
He was a sha'ar.
So he would basically like share poetry and
customarily amongst the Arabs of that time, anytime
there was any sort of emotions that were
felt, they would actually allow that emotion to
translate into poetry.
So he began to like recite poetry in
the town square of where he lived about
how much he missed his son Zayd.
So finally, somebody came to him and said,
I heard that your son Zayd is a
part of a community in Mecca.
And specifically, he was under the caretaking of
a man by the name of Muhammad.
Alright?
So go look for him, you'll find him.
He's a part of like the Qurayshi tribe.
You'll see him over there.
Go to Mecca, go travel there, you'll find
him.
So Zayd's father, years later, Zayd is like
a teenager, he's older now.
They find Zayd ibn Haritha, within the city
of Mecca and under the guardianship of the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And so, Zayd's father naturally is so happy
to see him.
I haven't seen you in years, I'm so
happy I found you.
It's time to come home.
It's time to come home, Zayd.
And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait.
I'm fine with him going home with you.
You're his father, you have a right to
him.
Zayd's free.
He's no longer in any sort of like,
you know, custodianship or you know, whatever.
You can take him if you want to.
But if we're really being fair, what should
we do?
We should let Zayd decide what he wants
to do.
And so, Zayd was given the ultimate decision.
Do you want to go back home with
your father or do you want to stay
with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam?
Zayd ibn Haritha, he said a beautiful line.
He said, I would rather spend my days
in the servitude of this man than ever
be free going home.
I want you to think about something right
now.
What kind of a person must he have
been Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam if a kid said,
I'd rather stay with you than go back
home to my own family.
I want to stay with you, Ya Rasulullah.
And ever since that moment, Zayd ibn Haritha,
people started calling him Zayd ibn Muhammad.
Because this is my family.
I don't want to spend a moment away
from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Zayd ibn Haritha became the person who basically
traveled with the Prophet, stayed with the Prophet,
ate with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, sometimes
lived with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And it's because of him that we have
so many hadith that are so prophetic.
So I want you to ask yourself, what
kind of influence do I have of the
people around me?
If I were to die tomorrow, what type
of legacy would I leave?
Would I leave a legacy in which Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala would meet me on
the Day of Judgment and say, you have
fulfilled the haqq of the body and the
soul that I gave you.
You influenced everyone around you in a beautiful
way.
You never disregarded your responsibilities.
You took care of the people around you.
You influenced them positively.
You drew them closer to Allah.
You didn't push them further away from me.
And when you passed away, people continued to
make dua for you.
People continued to ask Allah to reward you,
even though that your time in their life
had ended.
Your influence continued to live through their life.
That's what your legacy is.
This was the legacy of the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam when it came to Zayd ibn
Haritha radiAllahu anhu and so many more people
just like him.
So we'll end inshaAllah with that particular teaching
and inshaAllah next week we're going to go
into the second half of the chapter that
talks a little bit about the idea of
a few concepts in Islam that are extremely,
extremely important inshaAllah ta'ala.
So what we're going to do now is
we're going to pause.
What I'm going to do is I'm going
to put up the Q&A on the
screen inshaAllah for you guys to see.
I'm going to really quickly bismillah ta'ala
go ahead and present it for you guys
so you guys can see it.
You guys should be able to either scan
the QR code or inshaAllah if you go
to slido.com y'all can type in
the passcode as soulfood and you'll be able
to inshaAllah access the questions that way.
But I just kind of, you know, if
you can do QR codes obviously it's a
lot easier for everybody inshaAllah.
So I'm going to give everybody about a
minute or so to scan the QR code
inshaAllah and then we're going to start answering
some questions bismillah ta'ala.
Alright, I'm going to try and answer some
of the preliminary questions inshaAllah as the rest
of y'all submit so we can kind
of make the most of inshaAllah the time
that we have.
It's not working?
Is it glitching?
There are no active polls at the moment.
Well that is weird.
Alright, let's fix that inshaAllah.
Better now?
Okay, perfect inshaAllah.
Sounds good.
Alright, so I'm just going to go ahead
and present again and inshaAllah hopefully y'all
will be good to go this time.
Alright, so y'all can go ahead inshaAllah
and just scan the QR code and y
'all will be able to access it hopefully
this time.
Okay, so a couple of people alhamdulillah already
submitted some questions here.
Somebody asked, Why am I more motivated to
pray at the masjid than when I'm alone
and how can I address this inconsistency?
Praying in the masjid, by the way, there's
a barakah of praying in the masjid that
is very apparent.
So being motivated to pray in the masjid
is actually something that's very reasonable.
There's a reason why Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala gives somebody so much more ajr for
praying in jama'ah than praying alone.
There's a lot of beauty and a lot
of khairat within praying next to people that
are also saying the same things that you're
saying.
So don't feel bad if you feel more
motivated to pray in the masjid than you
do at home.
That's actually a good thing.
Hopefully that'll make a person want to pray
more and more in the house of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Now, if the question is, I don't feel
like praying when I'm by myself, that's another
concept, right?
And the way to kind of, you know,
make sense of that is you have to
ask yourself at the end of the day,
what is the objective of my salah?
Is the objective of my salah to pray
around other people or is the objective of
my salah to pray to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, right?
There are ranks.
Praying by yourself is definitely less barakah than
praying in jama'ah.
We understand this, right?
So you should feel a little bit different
but it shouldn't take away from your entire
essence of your salah, right?
So pray in jama'ah as much as
you can.
A great fix to this is pray in
jama'ah as much as you can.
Pray with people as much as you can.
Don't overly familiarize yourself with praying by yourself
constantly, right?
But at the end of the day, ask
yourself, why am I praying?
Don't make your prayer something you do for
the sake of other people.
Because if you do that, then obviously your
intentions will always be skewed, okay?
Very, very good.
How should I view terminal illness and ask
help from a mentor?
SubhanAllah.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala first and
foremost give you shifa from any sort of
sickness.
Even if it's terminal, may Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala find a cure for it and
allow you to be a person who's cured
from any sort of issues and challenges that
you're going through.
So when it comes to an illness that
is more of a terminal level, sometimes mentorship,
guys, is less of finding solutions and more
of just seeking good company, you know?
I think a lot of times we mistranslate
the word mentor or role model as a
person who fixes problems in our lives.
That's not true.
A mentor doesn't always fix the issues in
your life.
What a mentor does is that they help
you, number one, find goodness within everything that
you go through.
And number two is that they just, they're
there for you when nobody else is.
So when it comes to things that are
kind of more long-term, like you're going
through an issue that's more long-term, there's
no real viable solution right away, find within
that person any sort of goodness that you
can and ask that person that, you know
what, I'm in more need of just your
company than any solution that you have.
Sometimes you just need people to hear you
and that's it, right?
Like you rant to your friend, they didn't
speak one word, and after the 20 minutes
you're like, well, this was really helpful, right?
That person didn't say a word back to
you, but it was their presence that mattered.
It's their presence that's important, okay?
So think about it along those lines, all
right?
Somebody asked, how can I purify my heart
from feelings of resentment or hatred towards someone
even though I truly want to let go
and not feel this way about them?
Very, very good question, mashallah.
Feeling resentment in one's heart is sometimes an
uncontrollable feeling.
Nobody asks to feel resentment in their heart.
In fact, resentment and hatred are things that
the heart doesn't even like feeling actually, right?
I don't think anyone likes going to sleep
at night feeling resentful of another person in
their life.
So understand that this type of emotion is
something that is sometimes a challenge from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
It's a natural feeling that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala gives you sometimes, but also at
the same time, if Allah allows you to
experience it, know that Allah has also allowed
you the keys to be able to resolve
it as well, right?
And the way that you find some sort
of pathway to kind of forgive somebody or
to look over somebody that you feel resentful
over or hateful over is find out a
way in which that person also has challenges
in their life, right?
Resent grows in your heart when you think
that the person that you're resentful over has
something better than you in a way that
should have been yours, right?
Like I feel like I should have been
mine.
That person didn't do anything wrong, but I'm
feeling very, very like, you know, bad about
this situation because I feel that what they
have should have been mine.
Understand that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave
them what you wanted because it was written
for them to have it and not written
for you to have it.
And also at the same time, Allah may
have given you something that they desperately desire
in their life, right?
Just because a person may have gotten into
a school that I wanted to get into
and I worked really hard to get into
that school and I applied early and everything
like that and I got rejected and the
person, my friend, didn't really even do much
and they applied very last second and they
got in, know that that was going to
happen for them even if you did everything
properly.
But at the same time, what if the
person that you resent makes dua for things
that you have as a normal in your
life?
What about a person who you are jealous
of who may think of you as like
the most blessed person in the world because
you have a happy home that you live
in, right?
So the idea of resent is very interesting
because it's very wishy-washy.
Once you think about it for a second,
that person may feel just the same about
you in a lot of different ways that
you never thought of in your life, right?
So always count your blessings when you have
a feeling of resentment towards anybody.
What advice would you give to have or
keeping a steady routine and a schedule?
Surround your days with your salah as much
as you possibly can.
Surround your days with salah as much as
you possibly can.
There's a reason why Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala made the five salawat around the clock.
They're supposed to be like poles of istiqamah
throughout your day.
Fajr, boom.
Dhuhr, break.
Asr, break.
Maghrib, break.
Isha, break.
Try to do that as much as you
can.
I'll tell you what, when you are responsible
to make your own schedule depending upon your
own like reason and rationale, sometimes it'll fail
you.
Why?
Because you're the one that made it up.
You're the one that's like, yeah, 4 p
.m. is really important for me.
They're like, why?
Like, I don't know.
I just felt it was.
But when you're like, no, Asr, that's like
that afternoon point, like touch point of my
day.
You can't ever change that because this is
hakam from Allah, right?
So it'll force you to stick to it
very, very strongly, inshallah.
Okay?
Yeah.
Very good.
Somebody said, what's the best way to describe
the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam to family and
friends who aren't Muslim?
You describe the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam as
a human being who was the best of
human beings, who was the closest to Allah
of anybody through both internal and external practices.
That's it.
He was a human being, the best of
human beings, khayru al-insan, khayru al-khalq,
but at the same time, he was the
closest to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala both
internally and externally.
And you never refer to him as like
anything other than a prophet of Allah.
You're like, oh yeah, he was like a
leader.
He was a governor.
He was like a, he was like a,
like a, like a, no, no, no, none
of that.
None of that.
You know why?
Because all those things have actually side effects
that are negative.
When you refer to somebody as a messenger
of Allah, his goal is far beyond anything
of the dunya or your own, right?
That's always how you, that's always how you
describe him.
Somebody said, I don't love the world, but
I'm so attached.
How do I help myself?
Very good.
I don't love the world, but I feel
attached to it.
Your attachment to this dunya should be based
purely off of something we call dhurura, out
of need.
You need certain things in your life.
You need food.
You need shelter.
You need companionship.
You need company.
Sometimes in your life, you need wealth to
a certain degree.
But when one of those faculties fail, don't
be a person who's broken because of it,
right?
When a person, yes, you have a need
for wealth, right?
Of course, to a certain degree, you have
to pay bills.
You have to go to school.
You have to pay for food.
You have to pay for gas.
Of course, there's need.
There's dhurura.
But if one day, I don't have enough
money to pay for like a meal from
this restaurant, I'm not going to be broken
because of it.
Why?
Because it's dunya, right?
I'll have a meal tomorrow, inshallah.
I'll go home and cook something that's not
the greatest thing I've ever made.
I mean, that's fine.
That's the reality of the dunya that I've
come to accept.
How many of y'all have ever woken
up really happy on any given day?
In the morning, just feel good.
Raise your hands.
And how many of y'all, the next
day, you feel like absolute trash?
That's dunya right there.
That's dunya right there.
That's a great example of dunya that I
can give you guys.
It's supposed to be like that.
You're not supposed to be on a constant
in the dunya.
It's always going to be up and down,
up and down, up and down.
If you seek perfection from this dunya, you're
seeking perfection from something that's extremely imperfect.
And that's logically flawed.
Right?
So always put all of your hopes in
something that is infinite and perfect, which is
going to obviously be the hereafter, by the
will of Allah.
We'll answer a few more, inshallah.
Let's see.
How can we remain humble while also being
confident in ourselves?
I feel as if I keep going back
and forth between being insecure and overconfident.
May Allah reward you for thinking about that.
That's a very beautiful question.
The person asked basically, how can they find
the balance between being confident and being humble?
A person who's truly confident never has to
talk about how confident they are.
I'll tell you guys straight up.
Some of the most confident people I've ever
met in my life, I've had to find
out about why they're confident because I had
to pry it out of them.
Like, subhanAllah, they don't feel the need.
And by the way, Imam al-Ghazali talks
about this, that a person who, and we'll
talk about this inshallah in the next session,
because next session is going to be about
showing off.
If a person feels the need to show
off and to engage in ostentation and arrogance,
we call this kibr in Arabic, it's because
they have a misplaced understanding of who they
truly serve.
If I serve Allah, I don't need your
approval, man.
If I serve you though, I'm going to
talk about how valuable I am to you
every single day of my life.
If I feel like I worship you and
I need you and I need your approval,
I need your love, I need your this,
I need your that, I need your validation,
I'm going to tell you everything about myself
and I'm going to scream it at you.
But if I don't feel like you're the
person who runs my life, who am I
going to actually tell all of my issues
and all of my good deeds and my
struggles to?
Allah, right?
So always think about what your objective is.
If your objective is people, it'll always show.
If your objective is Allah, that'll also always
show.
All right?
Let's see.
I'll answer one more inshallah and then we'll
head off to salah in five minutes.
How can you deal with depression and grief?
How can you still have tawakkul in Allah
after back-to-back calamities?
SubhanAllah.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us.
Grief is a natural emotion from Allah.
Grief is actually a mercy from Allah.
The Prophet used to refer to his own
tears as rahma, right?
If you weren't able to grieve, it would
be a punishment from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
Use your grief to worship Allah even better.
Use your grief, channel your grief towards Allah.
Do not allow your grief to be a
reason to neglect Allah.
There are two types of people in this
world.
People who when calamity strikes, they pray more
or people who when calamity strikes, they abandon
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Be one of those people when calamity strikes,
you pray more to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
Use every emotion you have towards Allah in
some sort of virtuous way.
And know that for every moment of grief
that you go through, Allah is shedding, shedding
sins away from your body.
Shedding sins away from your soul.
Not a prick of a thorn befalls a
believer except that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
wipes away their sins.
What does that mean?
That means that if you're going through some
pain in your heart, some pain in your
body, some pain in your mind or your
emotions or whatever it may be, know that
Allah is actually cleansing you.
Allah is cleansing you.
And the last but not least, if you're
being tried by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala only
tries those He loves the most.
That's why people, subhanallah spiritually, there are scholars
who said that when we used to go
through moments of ease in our lives, we
used to get really worried.
Like subhanallah, Allah hasn't tested me this past
year.
Allah hasn't tested me.
Why?
Because Allah only tests the people who He
loves because Allah wants that test to bring
them closer to Him.
So continue to grow closer to Allah through
all of your ups and downs and your
emotions.
Bismillah ta'ala.
We'll pause there inshallah.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
make us of those who are close to
Him.
And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to make us of those who rely upon
Him.
And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to make us of those who never turn
away from Him.
And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to reward us in this dunya and the
akhirah.
And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to accept from us and erase and forgive
many many of our mistakes and shortcomings and
sins.
Ameen.
Subhanak Allahumma wa bihamdik wa nashadu wa la
ilaha illa anta wa astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk.
Jazakumullahu khairan everybody.
Inshallah we'll see you all next Thursday for
the next session.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.