Safi Khan – Soul Food For College Students Dear Beloved Son #9
AI: Summary ©
The Hifz culture is a culture of pride and action where individuals are responsible for learning and acting upon knowledge without action. The speakers stress the importance of living according to the principles of Islam, avoiding crying over milk, going to church, and avoiding using emotions and feelings in one's minds and hearts. They also encourage avoiding going to church and avoiding drinking milk.
AI: Summary ©
Inshallah everyone
is
doing well, Alhamdulillah, we are back on another
Thursday night soul food session.
Inshallah, as you guys can obviously tell that
the session now has officially migrated to post
-Maghrib which gives us a lot more time,
a little bit more space to discuss and
share some time to engage in conversation and
inshallah at the end of the session today
what we've been missing for the past two
to three weeks now at this point because
of the constraint of time, we're going to
reintroduce our Q&A session inshallah.
So at the end of the program tonight,
we're going to pause around like I'm going
to aim to pause around like 8.30,
8.40 and then we're going to open
up a little bit of time for Q
&A with myself and Ustadh Mahmood.
So inshallah, I know you guys have already
familiarized yourself with Ustadh Mahmood mashallah who is
joining me today for the session, he'll be
joining sometimes frequently inshallah just to kind of
share some important chapters with us, chapters that
require a little bit more depth, a little
bit more conversation inshallah ta'ala, we're going
to share with him throughout the next couple
of months bismillah ta'ala.
So without further ado, I'm going to go
ahead inshallah and begin the reading of this
chapter.
So this chapter, the English translation begins by
stating the word action, okay?
The word action, the previous chapters focused on
the topics of knowledge and hypocrisy and today's
chapter focuses on the word amal, okay?
The word action, what does it mean to
be a person of action, a person who
not only learns and holds knowledge in an
extremely high esteem and in a high respect
but also at the same time they understand
that that knowledge comes with a great responsibility,
okay?
So Imam Al Ghazali, he begins with one
of the greatest bars that you'll see in
this entire book, okay?
And this is the one that a lot
of people memorize and a lot of people
they remember and a lot of people they
kind of carry with them throughout their lives.
So he says for the first thing, he
mentions ayyuhal walad, oh my beloved son, as
he starts every single chapter, he says al
ilmu bila amalin junoon.
He says that ilm, knowledge, without action, bila
amalin, it's something we call junoon which is
crazy or insanity, okay?
A person who studies and a person who
memorizes and a person who reflects and thinks
and reads but they don't allow that knowledge
to turn into something that is actionable is,
as he describes, extremely, extremely baffling.
A very ajeeb situation, a very strange situation,
why?
The scholars, they mention that at the end
of the day, knowledge is a means and
not the end, right?
Knowledge is something that we hold in high
esteem, in high regards in this religion, right?
There's so many hadith and we talked about
this previously in our soul food sessions.
The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, he would say,
man salaka tariqan yaltameesu feehi ilma sahalallahu lahu
bihi tariqan ilal jannah.
He says that a person who traverses a
path in seeking knowledge, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala will make easy for that person, tariqan
ilal jannah, towards a pathway towards paradise.
So we know that there is automatically this
high regards for the idea of knowledge, right?
Knowledge in and of itself is something that
we respect.
We have high regards for even, there are
scholars who by the way, they write books
about how to treat knowledge.
You know Imam Al Ghazali, the author of
this text that we're studying, there was a
story, a really interesting story with him where
one time he was traveling.
He was traveling and he had all of
his books with him, the books that he
had authored, the books that he had memorized
himself, he was traveling with these books.
And one evening when he stopped and he
was resting and he put his animal to
the side and the animal was also resting,
he fell asleep overnight and then he woke
up the next morning, he found that all
his books were gone.
All his books were gone.
And so when he found that all his
books had been stolen, he continues his journey
and he finishes his journey and he reaches
the destination and he says, I've been robbed,
right?
I've been robbed.
And a person who, mashallah, at that time
was more knowledgeable than Imam Al Ghazali, he
said, what kind of a student of knowledge
are you?
Where you just rely on your books and
only rely on it through just reading it.
And so from that moment forward, Imam Al
Ghazali, he made it a point to not
just read but also memorize.
So he used to memorize each one of
his books.
And this is why, by the way, you
know, subhanAllah, you think about this, the idea
of retention, you look back at the tradition
of the Prophet ﷺ, Allah ﷻ almost showed
us through this beautiful example about what true
knowledge is through the Qur'an and the
Prophet ﷺ.
That the Prophet ﷺ was made because he
was a person who did not have the
ability to read and write.
What was his only form of retention?
It was memorization, memorization.
And he would review every year with Jibreel
ﷺ, every Ramadan Jibreel ﷺ would come to
the Prophet ﷺ and he would review Qur
'an with him, just like any other Qur
'an teacher would.
Hopefully less trauma, right?
InshaAllah with Jibreel ﷺ.
So you see the beauty in memorization and
knowledge.
But at the same time, he says, بِلَا
عَمَلٍ Without action is insanity.
It's strange.
Why?
Because knowledge at the end of the day
is a means to an end.
It's a means to an end.
It is not the end.
This is why, by the way, the Sahaba,
رضي الله عنهم أجمعين There is a hadith
and a statement that was made about them
where the Sahaba themselves would actually memorize 10
ayat of the Qur'an at a time.
It would never exceed 10.
Why?
What was the reason?
The reason was because as they were memorizing
the 10 verses of Qur'an, they would
never continue to an 11th without actually understanding
and implementing the 10 previously, right?
And then they would say at the end
of it, they would say, فَعَلِمْنَا الْعِلْمَ وَالْعَمَلَ
We were taught knowledge and action together.
We were taught the idea of knowledge and
acting upon that knowledge together.
They were never separate for us.
They were never two different things.
They were never exclusive of one another.
They were inclusive of one another.
And so the Sahaba, رضي الله عنهم, you
would see in their tradition, they would never
just be obsessed with learning for the sake
of learning.
They would learn so that the next chapter
that they turn, they would turn towards something
that was actionable with that knowledge that they
had.
If I go through the Qur'an and
I'm reading, أَلِفْ لَا مِنْ ذَٰلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لَا
رَيْبَ فِيهُ دَنْ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ I have to take
some benefit from that line that I just
read.
It cannot just be for the sake of
pure memorization and only memorization.
This is why, by the way, the Hifz
culture, you know, we have this frequent in
a lot of larger cities, Dallas being one
of them.
And being a Hafidh of the Qur'an
is a great thing.
It's a beautiful thing, but it's also an
immense responsibility.
It's an immense responsibility.
And one that sometimes we see, unfortunately, within
our communities, people abusing.
Why?
Because I'm Hafidh of the Qur'an.
And subhanAllah, how many Hufadh do we see
where they carry the Qur'an within their
hearts, but the actions do not follow in
place.
And so he says, this knowledge without action
is madness.
It's insanity.
It's like, it's like any other means, you
know, in your life, think about another means
in your life.
What's another means to an end in your
life?
Money, right?
Money is, by the way, I know this
is a college halaqa, right?
Money at the end of the day is
not your goal.
If you think about money, money will always
be a way, a pathway to something, right?
One time I was having a conversation, right,
with this young brother one time.
And I said, well, you know, what do
you want to do with your life?
You know, he was like, yeah, you know,
I want to go to college and get
this degree.
I was like, cool, what do you want
to get that degree for?
Oh, you know, so I can make some
money for myself and my family.
Okay, so for what?
Money for what?
Oh, you know, just, you know, having a
house and then, you know, doing this and
doing that.
I said, okay, then what?
He said, well, I'm going to live in
there for a while, enjoy myself for a
little bit, go on some vacations, you know,
all that good stuff, buy a car, right?
I said, okay, then what?
What's the car for?
Yeah, take me from point A to point
B.
And then basically, essentially, long story short, I
got him to like the reality of like
death.
And then he was like, yeah, man, it's
kind of all kind of sucks for me
now, right?
He like had this really intrusive, like existential
crisis at that moment.
That was not my intention, but my intention
was to get him to understand that the
money is not the goal.
Because the beginning of that conversation, all he
was talking about is, I want that amount
of money in my life.
I want to reach like $100,000 a
year when I start my first job.
The reality is, what would you say about
a person who just saves and saves and
saves and saves and saves and never spends?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, what did he
say?
وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ So that they can spend
from which we have given them.
The idea of money is to spend.
Think about your college degrees, right?
The college degree is a means to an
end.
Are you just getting your degree just so
you can say that I have a degree?
So at the end of that graduation, you
can just walk across the stage and get
that empty diploma.
Your diploma is actually not in there.
Newsflash, right?
You're going to get a mail to you
like in two weeks after.
So yeah, they have no clue that I
don't know.
So so you know, is that the end?
Or is the end using that degree to
do something that you love, right?
So just like this, knowledge is something that
is immensely a means to an end in
your life.
And what is that end?
The end is always عَمَل.
The end is always action, okay?
And then Imam Al-Ghazali, he says the
next part.
He says, and action, وَالْعَمَلُ And action, بِلَا
عِلْمٍ He says, is vanity.
Action without knowledge is vain.
It's a way of a person being obsessed
with themselves.
Now, how is it a means of us
being obsessed with ourselves?
Because it's as though I'm saying, I'm just
moving.
And I have no idea where I'm going.
I'm just going.
I have no clue which direction I'm going
in.
I just know that I'm going in a
direction.
I'm just obsessed with the act.
I just have to be a performative person.
And a person who's performative will always, always
run out of juice at the end of
the day.
Why?
Because they don't actually know why they do
what they do.
They don't know what they're doing.
They don't know why they're doing it.
And they probably don't know how they're doing
it properly or if they're not doing it
properly.
Right?
And so, subhanAllah, the point of Imam Al
-Ghazali making a person who does things without
the proper knowledge and this is yakunu, he
says, it's vanity.
This means that this person who is performing,
who's acting without the adequate knowledge behind it,
is like a person who they are just
obsessed with their own selves.
They just want to move in the direction
they want to move in.
They don't want to be told what to
do.
Right?
They don't care if what they're doing is
right or wrong.
They just care about the action itself.
They don't care about the reasoning behind that
action.
And subhanAllah, one of my teachers, when we
were going through this book together with my
mashayikh, they were saying it's like a person
who's cooking food.
Right?
They're cooking food, but they're just winging it.
They don't have a recipe.
Everyone in here is like, well, that's just
me.
What's wrong with that?
No, but the reality is, yeah, you might
be able to make some bomb food here
and there, but that one time you're baking
a cake, all of a sudden you made
like a souffle.
Right?
It's flat and liquid.
It's not like a rich, luscious cake.
Because why?
You didn't have the knowledge behind the actual
action.
So a person who has action without the
knowledge, they may be able to fool themselves
here and there.
Because to the naked eye, they're like, yeah,
people are like, yeah, mashallah, this person's moving.
This person's going places.
This person's growing.
This person looks like they're doing things.
But at the end of the day, there's
no meaningfulness behind that person's actions.
Why do you think the sahaba, the statement
that I made earlier about the sahaba memorizing
10 ayahs at a time, when we would
think about it, we're like, wow, 10 ayahs
at a time?
A kid in Hifz school can memorize more
than that.
That's what we would say.
Yeah, I've known kids that memorize pages and
pages every single day.
How come sahaba are only memorizing 10?
But look at what those 10 ayahs are
rooted in.
Would any of us ever say that the
10 ayahs that the sahaba memorize are less
quality than the ones that we memorize?
Absolutely not.
We can memorize three pages, and it would
still be less in quality than the 10
ayahs that the sahaba memorize, right?
So this is something Imam al-Nughzari, he
mentions.
Then he mentions here in the following statement,
he says, no, اعلم, know, that knowledge today
will not distance you from sins.
The knowledge today will not distance you from
sins.
Just because you know something is haram is
not enough to avoid that haram.
Just to know something is permissible and beloved
to Allah does not mean that that person
will do what is beloved to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
There's a difference between knowledge and acting on
that knowledge.
And so Imam al-Nughzari, he says, don't
just think because you've memorized, you know, what's
haram and you've gone on Reddit and you've
gone on islamqa.com and you've searched these
questions in your head and you wanted to
know what's halal and haram or painting my
fingernails okay and I pray with it.
But how much of those actual questions are
turning into actions and following in ways that
you would be pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So he says here, don't think that it
helps you avoid sins automatically.
Just by the memorization of that knowledge does
not save you.
And then he says, also know that it
will not bring you to obedience, عَلَى طَاعَةِ
Know that your knowledge will also not automatically
bring you to obeying Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
Obeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala requires another
level on top of that knowledge.
I'll tell you guys something really scary here,
by the way.
Knowledge that is not something that is benefited
from and it just sits there and we
in fact do the opposite of what we
have learned may result in a serious witness
against us on the Day of Judgment.
Because on the Day of Judgment, two people
will come up to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
One will tell Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
Ya Allah, I never knew.
I never knew that zakat was 2.5
% of my savings.
I never knew that, Ya Allah.
I was never fortunate enough to know that.
And there's another person who goes up to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and says, Ya
Allah, I knew everything about Islam.
I knew all of the requisites and all
of the requirements of my deen but I
didn't follow them.
Those two people may be judged differently by
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Why?
Because one knew it and decided not to
follow it.
So Imam al-Ghazali is giving a grave
warning for the people who think just compiling,
compiling information is something that will save them.
And then the final thing that he says
is, Nor will this knowledge alone bring you
into the safety away from the hellfire tomorrow.
Don't think that the knowledge will keep you
away from the hellfire tomorrow.
I have a couple of examples inshaAllah to
share with you guys.
I'm going to hand it off to Asad
Mahmood.
Number one, and I mentioned this a couple
of weeks ago in a class that I
was sharing with one of my community members.
I said, subhanAllah, when you look at the
idea of ala ta'ati, right?
That knowledge itself does not incline you towards
obeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I'll give you a prime example of this.
And the example of this is actually shaytan
himself.
Shaytan himself has been in the company of
the angels.
He has witnessed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
in his own presence.
He has been around Adam alayhi salam.
He has seen the samawat, the heavens.
If there is one being in creation that
should have yaqeen of Allah, it would be
him.
But look at how shaytan, even with the
concrete knowledge, still has the inability to turn
that into obeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And his life goal is to convince other
people that Allah does not exist.
Even though he knows that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala exists.
He has had conversations with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
That's a prime example.
Another example of this, that just merely the
knowledge will not save you from the hellfire.
Think about how many people open up Quran.
And you guys have seen this.
Y'all are the internet generation.
Y'all have seen the YouTube superstars, right?
They go and they read the Quran and
they say...
Y'all have seen David Wood, by the
way?
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala do something
with that guy.
David Wood is this extreme refuter of Islam.
He's a very hardcore Christian that makes a
living off of basically trying to debunk other
religions.
And specifically he goes after Islam a lot.
David Wood, by the way, quotes Quran like
no tomorrow.
It's crazy.
Albeit the English translation, he gets schooled in
Arabic every single day of his life.
But the English translation, he goes to town
on it.
He knows Surah Al-Baqarah, Surah Al-Imran,
Surah Al-Nisa, Surah Al-Rahman, Surah Al
-Maryam.
He knows all of these surahs.
But look at a person who is exposed
to at least even the English translation of
the Quran, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
has sealed his heart.
Think about how many ayat of Jahannam that
that guy has read.
The realities of Jahannam.
The realities of the Day of Judgment.
The reality of those who deny Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and worship him for the
way that he truly deserves to be worshipped.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has not
opened up his heart to guidance.
And this is why guidance is different than
just mere knowledge.
The harmonization of knowledge and action is what
actually opens a heart towards guidance from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The person has to want to make into
action the knowledge that they have.
They can't just sit on their knowledge and
be like, you know what, I'm fine with
this.
And this is why the Prophet ﷺ, he
would make a very famous dua.
اللهم إني أسألك علما نافعا Oh Allah, grant
me, grant me knowledge that benefits.
Not just knowledge that I can sit on,
knowledge that I can act upon.
Knowledge that on the Day of Judgment will
tell Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Ya Allah,
this person actually used me for the right
reasons.
This person memorized a hadith about being good
to their parents and they acted upon this
hadith of the Prophet ﷺ.
Could you imagine on the Day of Judgment
subhanallah, when you go up to Allah, you
may have only memorized two or three hadith
of the Prophet.
You may have only memorized maybe a couple
of surahs in the Quran.
But those surahs and those ahadith, the Prophet
ﷺ himself will defend you in front of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and say, Ya
Allah, this person may not have been the
most knowledgeable person in the world.
They were no alim or an alimah, they
were no sheikh or sheikhah, they were no
ustad or ustadah.
But every single thing that they learned about
this religion, Ya Allah, they put into action
immediately after they learned it.
What a beautiful, beautiful outcome on that day.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
allow us to have a beautiful ending like
that on the Day of Judgment.
So inshallah, I'll let Ustad Mahmood carry on
with the second half of the lesson.
I want to thank Ustad Safi for having
me today.
This is such an important lesson.
And were any of you at the khatir
last night?
Anyone here?
Show of hands.
One person.
We need to bump those numbers up tonight,
yeah?
After Isha, inshallah.
This is actually really in line with what
we've been covering, inshallah, and what Ustad Safi
will cover tonight on the importance of knowledge
and action.
So inshallah ta'ala will pick up from,
If you do not act today, So if
you do not act today, and you do
not derive lessons from your past days, you
will say on the last day, return us
to our previous life and we'll do good
deeds.
So Ustad Safi kicked off the earlier portion
of this lesson today with a very important
reflection, and alhamdulillah lifted from Ibn Ghazali, that
very simply, knowledge without action is insanity.
That's not said in a pejorative manner at
all.
It's just the truth of the matter.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will call everyone
to account by virtue, not just of their
actions, but also by virtue of what they
knew and what they learned.
There are many hadiths of the Prophet ﷺ
where he says that people will be elevated
in paradise by virtue of their, say it
with me, by virtue of their bank accounts?
No.
By virtue of their physical beauty?
No.
Brothers, you guys, you're good.
By virtue of their lineage?
No.
People are raised by virtue of their?
Close?
Their knowledge.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Are the
ones who know and the ones who do
not know, are they equal?
قُلْ هَلْ يَسْتَبِعُ الَّذِينَ يَعْلَمُونَ وَالَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
Knowledge is that thing which elevates certain servants
above others.
We mentioned yesterday a story that occurred between
Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, who was one of
the great scholars of the Tabi'een, and
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, who was one
of the khalifas of the Umayyads.
And he kind of asked him, he was
inquiring to him, about who the leader of
the believers were in different parts of the
Ummah.
And he said, who is the leader of
the believer in Mecca?
And he named someone.
And he named another person somewhere else, and
so on and so forth.
And the khalif kept getting more and more
upset, because Ibn Shihab was mentioning people that
were incredibly knowledgeable, but they weren't of the
highest social standing.
And he said, what happened to the, how
did these people come to be leaders?
He said, they came to be leaders by
virtue of their knowledge.
And it was their knowledge of the Book
of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet
that elevated them in status.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَرْفَعُ بِهَٰذَا الْقُرْآنِ أَقْوَامًا وَيَذَعُوا بِهِ
آخَرِينَ Verily, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala elevates
certain people by knowledge of the Book, and
others He lowers them in status.
So knowledge is really the lifeblood of moving
up and on, in the dunya and in
the akhira.
In the dunya it brings great benefit.
Just look around at how we treat our
scholars.
We treat them with a great deal of
respect and ihtiram, because they've given so much
of their lives, right, to study the Book
of Allah and to teach it to others.
And then subhanAllah, what a great reward, to
do all of that in this dunya, and
then to meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and be elevated by virtue of that which
you learned.
The danger though, is that knowledge for the
sake of knowledge, is ultimately what?
Is it meaningful or not meaningful?
No.
Knowledge for its own sake is useless.
So all of you are in school now,
right?
By show of hands, who's in school currently?
You go to your parents and you tell
them, Mom, Dad, I did it.
Med school, knocked it up.
Did the discipline, did the sub-field you
wanted me to do.
Ophthalmology, dermatology.
See I'm mentioning the really easy disciplines.
None of you want to be like cardiac
surgeons.
Mom did it, alhamdulillah.
Your mom and dad look at you and
they say, Okay beta, mashallah.
Did I use that word right?
Let's go.
He's actually an amateur, I'm not going to
lie.
Get in there.
Good job, mashallah.
But mom and dad, not really feeling this
work thing.
I don't think it's for me.
Beta, what do you mean?
That many years of schooling, no job?
You know, alhamdulillah, man.
Did it.
I know the inside of the eyeball, like
nobody's business.
I can tell you every organ in the
body.
I can tell you which blood vessel goes
where.
But this job thing, not really feeling it.
How do you think your parents will respond?
They will literally strangle you in the living
room.
So knowledge for the sake of knowledge.
It doesn't even cut it in the dunya.
Brothers, if you approach the girl's family and
tell them, Yeah, mashallah, engineer from UTD.
Alhamdulillah, biomechanical, bioengineering, whatever it may be.
Okay, what's the first question the parents ask
you?
What's your job?
I don't care that you have the degree.
The degree is just the means to an
end.
Can you provide?
Can you take care of the bills?
Are you able to actually take care of
someone in the way that they're meant to
be taken care of?
Sisters are like, yeah, alhamdulillah, it's not a
problem for us.
But the virtue of knowledge is that it
actually is the fuel in the engine.
It's not the engine in and of itself.
It's what keeps you going.
Subhanallah, like that, if it's not acted upon,
subhanallah, there will come a day and who
is the biggest loser on the day of
judgment?
Those people, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
in many parts of the Quran, He provides
the example of a person who is pleading
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Once that trumpet is blown by the way,
and everyone is called to account, can you
go back?
Is there any going back?
That's it.
And these people will come out and they
will say, O our Lord, Rabbana, Ya Allah,
our Creator, Ya Khadiq, return us to our
previous life.
They will say what?
رَجِعْنَا نَعْمَلْ صَالِحًا Return us, please, perhaps return
us, mayhaps return us.
We will try and strive to do what?
Good deeds.
And if you said to them, and rather
subhanallah, one of the angels that guards Jahannam
was said to them, Maybe some of you
guys might have heard that word at home
from your parents.
Anyone know what that word means?
Fool.
If you're an Arabic speaker, you know.
O fool, this is the height of foolishness.
Foolish person.
أَنتَ مِنْ هِنَاكَ جِئْتْ You just came from
there.
The opportunity to do good, to stack up
those good deeds, to add to that book
of khairat, to live the life that you're
meant to live, that window is closed, that
door is shut.
There's no going back.
You've just entered the one way on the
freeway.
This is a one-way zone.
There's no going back.
There's no pleading.
There's no asking.
There's no collateral.
The sinners in this moment, they experience all
the stages of grief.
Denial.
Surely, this is not the Jahannam we were
promised.
Special pleading.
Please, I'll do things differently.
Bargaining.
I'll give my kidney for this.
I'll give my firstborn child for this.
I'll give all of my belongings for this.
I'll give up my right arm for this.
Please, just let me go back.
There's nothing that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala...
Allah is Al-Malik.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is totally free
of the need from anything from you and
I.
So, this is ultimately useless.
And the guardians of Jannah and Jahannam, they're
stationed, they're workers.
There's no pleading with them either.
In fact, some of the angels have this
specific job of doing what?
Of seeking out those who plead and doing
what?
Throwing them face first into Jahannam.
And there is no amount of begging, bargaining,
pleading that will take you back to the
moment that what?
All the khairat were possible.
Right now, Subhanallah, Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim, one
of the great scholars of the latter parts
of Islamic history, he often would say, Wasting
time is worse than death.
Look at this, Subhanallah.
Wasting time is worse than death.
Because wasting time cuts you off from who?
From Allah and His Messenger.
You could be sitting and doing what?
Dhikr, ibadah, reminding one another of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, going to the masjid, attending
halaqat, going to duroos.
But because your time isn't effectively managed, you
don't have the internal discipline to order your
day in your life, to prioritize the worship
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and the
continuous study of this religion, you do what?
You lose those hours and they never come
back.
But death, death cuts you off from what?
Death cuts you off from ma'asiyah.
It cuts you off from worldly desires, from
worldly concerns.
Once you breathe your last, and think about
this, Subhanallah, the wealth that you're seeking to
acquire and to accumulate and stack up, the
people that you gave birth to, they will
fight each other like animals to take it.
That's all he knows.
We talk about this all the time.
The number of people that come into the
masjid and talk with imams and mashayikh about
inheritance disputes, they absolutely destroy families.
That house, that car, someone else is going
to live in that room.
They might store your clothes for six months,
a year, then it's on Depop, right, on
eBay.
Somebody else is wearing those clothes.
All the girls are like, not my vela
hijabs.
Your sister, your cousin, your niece, they're going
to be stumping with that long after you're
gone.
That plot of land that you fought so
hard over, and you paid considerably over asking
price, your sons and daughters will quite literally
tear each other apart to live on that
plot of land.
If you think I'm lying, ask your parents
about disputes between them and their relatives over
inheritance.
All of that, you cannot take it with
you.
The time to work for that which actually
carries over, Sayyid Safi inshallah ta'ala will,
perhaps you might even hear this hadith tonight,
that all of the actions of the son
of Adam, they do what when they die?
They cut off, except for the knowledge which
they attained.
Subhanallah.
And really one of the, I think the
really important things to take with you is
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is just.
No one is treated in a way that
they did not themselves earn.
On that day, there is no one who
can claim that the creator of the universe
wronged them.
You're simply being called to account for what?
For your record of good and bad.
It's probably the fairest thing that will ever
happen to you.
This life, full of injustice.
Bad things happen to good people all the
time.
Sometimes blatant sinners get away with the worst
of crimes.
But subhanallah, there is a day of recompense,
a day of reckoning, a day of being
called to account.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's justice is perfect.
Human justice or our attempt at it is
at best an estimation of it.
We try to hold wrongdoers accountable, we drop
the ball so many times.
This is true of our personal relationships.
We wrong our friends, we wrong our families.
We are wronged and we wrong people.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will never wrong
you.
You approach the creator with that which your
own two hands have done.
And then you are judged, weighed, measured, and
then treated in the way that you deserve.
The person who lived the life of khairat,
doing what they needed to do, what hand
does their book go in?
Right hand.
Sorry, wrong hand.
It's given to them in that hand and
then subhanallah, Jannah is their abode.
That person who consistently lived the life outside
of the bounds of Allah's shariah, didn't respect
those boundaries, did not put the worship of
Allah first, did not prioritize the sunnah of
his messenger, did not live according to those
principles, what happens to them?
They get that book in that left hand.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not
wrong anyone.
So Imam al-Ghazali rahmatullahi alayhi talks about
this.
If you do not act today and do
not derive lessons from your past days, These
past days, the sanaf used to say, Time
is like a sword, if you don't cut
it, what does it do?
It cuts you.
Right?
The past is meant to be thought through
and not really focused on too much.
It's past.
Imam Shafi al-Ghazali used to say that,
The days have passed, let them do as
they please.
There's no use in crying over spilled milk.
Make tawbah for that which you did, sincere
tawbah.
And then try not to fall into the
same sins.
But really, the past is a book of
lessons.
Crack it open and think through it.
Right?
But you're still writing your story.
Every day above ground, breathing, is a chance
for what?
To live the life Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala wants you to live.
Which is ultimately just an obedience to Him.
It's very simple.
Of course, theoretically it's very simple.
But the reality of the matter is that
it's what?
It's hard to be a believer sometimes.
People are jarring.
People don't...
You're going to come into contact and conflict
with...
Forget strangers, the ones that you love.
Relatives, parents, siblings, loved ones, spouses.
Yours are all single so it doesn't apply
to you guys at all.
Right?
But inshallah soon.
Inshallah.
Nobody said inshallah.
Come on guys.
Inshallah.
Unless you guys enjoy the single life.
It has perks.
Not many but some.
I mean the point is that living according
to the principles of Islam in theory should
be simple enough.
Showing up as a believer every day, a
little more difficult.
Requires some moral backbone.
It requires a lot of foresight.
Deep thought, deep engagement with the book of
Allah and the sunnah of the prophet.
It requires willing to be different.
Willing to stand out.
To observe hijab is not easy.
I wouldn't know.
I don't wear it but I have five
sisters.
They talk me through it.
It's not a joke.
Brothers, to show up as a Muslim man
when it's so easy to hide your Islam.
Super easy.
It's a lot more difficult to show up.
To be very visibly Muslim.
Our sisters, they have it way more difficult
than us in many regards.
Right?
Shortening your name from Muhammad to Mo.
Not a good form.
Right?
Eating around the pepperoni pizza.
It's not a good form.
Your friends invite you out to a place
that you shouldn't be.
Oh, I don't partake but I'm just here
to have a Sprite.
It's not a good form.
Those are...
Come on, you guys are college students.
All of these temptations, they're going to come.
Right?
That conversation with a sister that went on
for a little too long and wasn't really
about school.
It's not a good form.
Right?
These are all of the everyday challenges of
what it means to do what?
To think through the past.
Feeling shame about it?
Normal.
Human emotion?
It doesn't actually do too much good.
Asad, I wanted to say one thing real
quick, if you don't mind.
I don't know if there was a previous
chapter in here or I don't know if
we've actually covered it yet.
But Al-Ghazali, he actually points out another
beautiful example.
He gives the example of a fierce warrior
who basically has all the knowledge of these
swords that he owns and he's walking through
the forest and he's walking through these woods
and this weird terrain that's actually dangerous.
And then all of a sudden in front
of him appears this very dangerous animal that's
threatening his life in a fatal way.
And he goes, how ridiculous would it be
for that person at that moment to say,
in order to save themselves, that I have
all the knowledge about how these swords were
made and where they came from and exactly
what metal is involved with each blade and
how the hilt was made and all these
different things.
Unless that person knows how to wield that
sword, their life is in danger.
And so when you think about the knowledge
and action component that Ustad was mentioning here,
it goes in a very similar way.
And subhanAllah, in fact, when we tell that
story that Imam Al-Ghazali mentioned, we actually
think of that person as very foolish.
He used the word Ahmaq.
Imam Al-Ghazali used the word Ahmaq multiple
times.
He was going through something when he wrote
this book.
But when he writes, oh, how foolish is
it of a person to behave like this?
I mean, when you look at a person
who knows everything but they don't use the
knowledge they know to save themselves, then you
would call that person extremely foolish.
You're actually not even at the base level
anymore.
The base level would actually just not to
know anything.
You didn't know anything, and so that's why
you ended up in the circumstance that you
ended up in.
But how foolish is it of a person
who knows everything?
They've memorized everything.
They have all the knowledge in the world,
but even then they weren't able to save
themselves.
And the danger, subhanAllah, with sacred knowledge, with
knowledge about Islam and deen, is that there's
an added layer of sanctity to it.
It's different than knowing where the closest lane's
chicken fingers are.
It's different than knowing where the closest Shawarma
shop is.
That's different.
That's dunya-y knowledge.
But if I know that the Prophet ﷺ
said something, and I did nothing in my
life to show for it, then I look
extremely foolish in front of Allah ﷻ.
Allah will ask you, you knew that there
was a hadith that mentioned, لا تغضب, لا
تغضب, لا تغضب.
He said it three times, don't get angry,
don't get angry, don't get angry.
And you claim to love the Prophet ﷺ.
You claim to love the sunnah.
But every time that life gave you an
opportunity to restrain your anger, you were the
last person who did it.
But you were the first person who used
to go around saying لا تغضب.
How does that make any sense?
And this is why right before this chapter
that Meena and Sadr are covering tonight, what
was the chapter on?
Hypocrisy.
The chapter on hypocrisy.
This is all tied in together by the
way, subhanAllah.
It's very, very thought-provoking, inshaAllah.
We're going to inshaAllah go ahead and open
up the Q&A portal inshaAllah for everybody
real quick.
So we wanted to end today's session around
8.40, 8.45. So we'll do about
10 to 15 minutes of Q&A.
So I'm going to go ahead and open
up the portal for you all.
So you guys inshaAllah go to slido.com
and the passcode or the code to submit
questions anonymously is soulfoodroots.
So if you all inshaAllah want to go
ahead and kind of plug that in and
you can ask questions and then once we
get them from our end, we'll go ahead
and field some of those questions together inshaAllah
ta'ala.
It could be about the topic that we
spoke about today.
It could be in generality, whatever it may
be inshaAllah.
This is the best place to do so.
By the way, subhanAllah, I feel very strongly
as a person, alhamdulillah, who benefits from sitting
with my own teachers.
It's so important to be able to discuss
this person to person, right?
Instead of going on the internet and searching
up a forum where I have this question
I want to ask it.
I mean the person who's answering the question
may have good intention but they're not able
to key in on your specific situation, right?
So inshaAllah take advantage of this Q&A
session inshaAllah.
Go ahead and submit your questions and then
we'll answer them one by one bismillah ta
'ala.
All right, we already have a couple of
questions inshaAllah.
Okay, Asad, I want you to take the
first one please.
Ready?
So the question is, the first question is,
what is the Islamic way to deal with
the idea of regret?
How do you handle regret as a Muslim?
What is the Islamic perspective of looking at
regretting things in your life and how do
you possibly make it a beneficial thing instead
of something that's so detrimental?
Bismillah.
So this is obviously, this is a huge
question because regret's a very complex emotion and
so there's not probably, I preface this by
saying that sometimes I think a lot of
young Muslims believe that if you throw the
word Islamic in front of X phrase that
there's a perfect answer for it.
And sometimes this can get kind of ridiculous
but not in this sense, this is a
good one.
But what is the Islamic approach on, and
inshaAllah I've heard this before, on blank haram
action.
What is the Islamic approach on blank impermissible
thing?
On those things it's pretty clear, there isn't
really an approach or a distinctive method.
Haram is haram, halal is halal.
Regrets, to the point, the same kind of
thought is present here.
Regret is obviously a very complex human feeling
and it can be the product of, there
is kind of rightful regret and remorse.
There can be regret about things that kind
of border on navel gazing and overthinking.
I think that rightful regret, falling into sin.
You regret that you fell into a sin.
This is good.
This is a sign that your heart is
still what?
It's still alive, it's still active, it's still
beating.
It's not too far gone.
Feeling a combination of regret, shame, embarrassment about
sinning is totally normal and is a healthy
and good thing.
Leaving it at there is not enough.
Moving on to tawbah, and I'm sure Inshallah
Ta'ala will talk a little bit about
tawbah in the coming weeks.
The door of repentance.
Understanding that what you did was not in
line with the Qur'an and Sunnah.
It was an impermissible action.
Understanding that you're transgressing not only against yourself
but against Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Ensuring and promising that you will not fall
into the same deed again.
And if you do fall into the same
deed again, that you attempt to do what?
Start all over.
And not be belligerent in your sinful nature,
your sinful practice, and that you don't make
excuses, and that you don't seek an off
-ramp, this behavior.
Don't justify it to yourself.
Oh, I'm just created in a weak mold.
I'm a person who happens to fall into
sin.
I can't stop myself.
This is not enough.
Regret that borders on kind of overthinking, navel
-gazing, self-pathologizing.
This is ultimately not healthy and doesn't really
do anything.
It's a bridge to nowhere.
Feeling down for yourself, bad about yourself.
Again, it seems harsh what I'm saying, but
I say it with nothing but love in
mind.
This does not move the believer forward.
The believer engages in tawbah as opposed to
what?
Wallowing in self-pity and in shame.
These are not helpful things.
They're natural.
It's okay to feel these things.
But to dwell on them to the point
of spiraling is not really good.
So I think regret, alhamdulillah.
It's an emotion that Allah created.
It's a healthy emotion within certain limits.
And it can be very unhealthy when it's
not expressed in meaningful or beneficial ways.
Yeah, I think the rule of thumb, and
Asad kind of hit the nail on the
head here, which is any emotion that Allah
gives you is a natural emotion.
Grief, regret, happiness, pain, anger, excitement.
All these things are just – they're jaiz
things.
But the reality is if those emotions lead
you away from Allah, that's when it becomes
harmful.
A person can make the greatest du'as
when they're in grief.
A person can make the greatest du'as
in their life when they're happy.
A person can make the dumbest decisions when
they're happy as well.
It really depends on what you do with
it.
If a regret causes you to spiral and
go out of control and then go away
from Allah to the point where you miss
your salah, you think badly about Allah, you
think badly about the people around you, that
regret is something extremely detrimental to your heart.
But if the regret allows you to make
tawbah that you've never made before, what a
beautiful, beautiful opportunity from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
Very good.
Okay, question is, how do we know the
knowledge we're pursuing is beneficial?
With so much knowledge out there, how do
we choose what to learn?
I'm going to quote a hadith.
The Prophet ﷺ says, طَلَبَ الْعِلْمِ فَرِضَةٌ عَلَىٰ
كُلِّ مُسْلِمٍ He said that pursuing knowledge is
farad upon every Muslim.
What does that mean?
Does that mean you guys have to sit
here and learn about usul al-fiqh and
ilum al-Qur'an and tafsir and all
these other sciences of aqidah?
No.
What it means is that what is obligatory
for a person to learn about is whatever
is relevant to them that they're engaging in.
If I'm a person, by the way, who
engages in like— Anybody in here ever worked
in like just regular transactional jobs in your
life?
You work at retail, whatever it may be?
Something that you should definitely learn about is
Islamic perspective about what's halal and haram in
terms of money.
Like that's a part of your life, right?
But if I'm a person who's like in
retail, in a retail job, it's not my
job to study and learn about like Islamic,
like anatomical and biological realities, right?
Because why?
It's not relevant to me.
Again, اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ الْعِلْمِ النَّافِعَ Knowledge that
is going to benefit me.
So knowledge that can directly benefit you.
Learn about salah.
Learn about your five pillars.
What are the ins and outs of the
five pillars?
If I don't know how to pray properly,
then I'm really robbing myself of a huge,
huge Islamic obligation, right?
So learn about things that are extremely, extremely
relevant to you in your life.
All right?
Okay.
Somebody asked, Any advice on managing your time
between dunya and akhira when in college and
having a busy schedule?
Yeah.
A way to manage your time when it
comes to your dunya and akhira, right?
Look, can I tell you guys something?
And we covered this a week or two
ago.
Anything in this world can go towards your
akhira.
I'm telling you guys.
I'm telling you guys.
A person who lives a very, quote, unquote,
mundane life as a student, as an employee
in a company, they can attain jannah by
just doing regular things with the best of
intentions and with the highest levels of ihsan.
If your intention going to school every single
day is to make an intention to please
Allah and to please your family and to
provide for your future life, that can be
your attaining jannah right there.
Don't think that your religious obligation or your
religious duties are different than your dunya duties.
رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً
You ask for the best of both.
Why?
Because there is similarities in how you function
when it comes to approaching both of those
matters in your life.
Right?
It's not one or the other.
A lot of people, I give this answer,
a lot of people look at Islam as
a compartmentalized part of their life.
No, no, no.
Islam is like wearing a pair of glasses.
It's the lens through which you see your
life.
Everything can be Islam.
Everything can be Islam if you put your
mind to it.
Right?
Very good.
Next question inshaAllah.
I'll have Ustad answer this one.
Okay.
There is a saying that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala puts a feeling for someone in
your heart for a reason.
Is this a true statement or could this
be a test from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala?
I'll let you handle this one.
I don't know where the qawl came from
by the way.
So you can elaborate as you wish.
Are you guys old enough to remember Tumblr?
Show of hands.
Some of you guys are really young.
Who here remembers Zanga?
I'm just kidding.
There will always be these random posts.
And I'm not deriding the question.
I'm just saying that it's always super important
to look for where a particular statement attributed
to Allah of all people comes from.
So we know that things that are attributed
to Allah, they're either Quran or on rare
occasions Hadith Qudsi.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks to the
Prophet ﷺ and it's not Quran but it
is still elevated speech.
If auntie Sheheryar is forwarding you a WhatsApp
forward that says you're going to share this
with a hundred people, you're not going to
go to Jannah, most likely it's probably not.
Allah probably didn't say that.
He definitely didn't.
SubhanAllah.
So can you repeat the previous?
So the sentiment is that Allah put a
feeling in your heart for a particular reason.
Is this a true statement?
Or could this be a test from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala?
The truth of it probably is that feelings
are a combination of things that external, ephemera,
feelings, emotions.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala placing things
in your heart, this is true.
Because we do know that Hidayah min Allah.
We say it all the time.
وَمَن يَهْدِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَن يُزْلِلْ
فَلَا هَدِيَ لَهُ The one whom Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala guides, no one can misguide.
And the one whom Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala misguides, no one can guide.
So that Allah puts feelings in most people's
hearts, this is normal.
Feelings or emotions about particular people, instances or
things, this may also be true.
Likely it is, right?
But the question is too vague and too
broad.
Usually, and I could be just extrapolating from
nothing here, I see this kind of reasoning
most usually about romantic entanglements.
That's just my immediate thought about this.
People say, oh Allah put a feeling for
someone in my heart.
Should I pray istikhara?
Should I think about this person 24-7?
The easiest answer that I tell people all
the time is just fast.
And another extrapolation is that you might feel
that in your heart, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala has placed the love of a particular
sin.
Allah doesn't want you to sin.
Some people might think that these things are
hard-coded into their hearts or their minds.
Allah, if anything, hard-codes hidayah into your
mind, guidance into your mind.
Allah wants to guide you.
He does not seek to misguide you.
Bad feelings, feelings that border on kind of
obsessive thoughts, overthinking, these are things from shaitan.
So pray away and make dua and istikhara
about things which, and the Prophet ﷺ tells
us, الإثم ما حاك في نفسك Evil is
that which disturbs the peace of the soul.
If something is bothering you, giving you a
hard time, it's kind of rattling around in
your heart and your mind, this is usually
from shaitan and usually from your base desires
or from your nafs.
Those can be beaten.
When shaitan is whispering in our ears, what
do we say?
Come on, we need a little more excitement
about this.
أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم That's how you
beat shaitan.
When the nafs is pushing you to do
things, you tell the nafs, you say, Be
quiet.
This is enough.
I'm stronger than my base desires.
Right, those shahawat, those shubuhat.
But kind of random emotive feelings and moments,
Allah knows, these can come from anywhere.
The brain is a complex thing.
If it bothers the peace of your soul,
make dua that Allah ﷻ removes it from
your soul.
If you feel a particular inclination, ask that
Allah ﷻ removes the desire to do that
thing from your heart.
This is an easy way to beat repetitive
sins, by the way.
Some people are drawn towards a certain action,
for some, it might be backbiting.
For some, it might be kind of wasteful
or meaningless talk.
They just love shooting the breeze and yapping.
For others, it might be lying.
For others, it might be, I don't know.
There are so many things that we can
get so caught up on, and you feel
kind of just an impulse to do these
things, especially continuous sins.
The easiest way to beat that is to
ask Allah ﷻ to do what?
To darken that emotion out of your heart
entirely, or rather to lighten this feeling away.
Take it away, Allah.
I don't want to fall into this sin.
When good things come, Alhamdulillah, it's a good
sign.
Your heart is drawn to the masjid, good
thing.
Your heart is drawn to your friend group
who love coming to the halaq on Thursday,
good thing.
Ask Allah that He increases it for you.
Your heart is drawn to attending Ramadan programming
here at Qalam, or VRIC, excellent thing.
Ask Allah to keep you steadfast in that
regard.
Good things, we pray that Allah ﷻ does
what?
Keeps us firm.
Those negative emotions, those bad feelings, those kind
of trickling thoughts, we ask Allah ﷻ to
do what?
He takes those things away from us.
Last couple of rapid fire inshaAllah.
Somebody asks, how do you rectify knowing that
something is haram despite it being a part
of your life?
For example, paying taxes to a government that's
corrupt, driving cars that hurt the planet, etc.,
etc.
Well, the reason why these things are not
given blanket rulings is because everyone has different
circumstances in their life, right?
The reality is that unless certain things are
done and fulfilled in certain places that you
live, you will actually be penalized and fined
and whatever.
I mean, in America, think about it this
way, guys.
In America, how do you get away with
not paying taxes?
You can ask Donald Trump if you want
to, but I mean, you will have to
do certain things in order to be a
citizen in this country.
Now, nobody in this room has any sort
of liking for knowing where certain tax dollars
go to.
Every single person in here is very, very
shaken by it.
I know I am 100%, but the reality
is what do you do?
Number one, one thing that I share with
people is Allah ﷻ will not test a
soul with more than it can bear, okay?
Allah ﷻ allows you to go through certain
things because this is what is meant to
happen to you right now.
Another beautiful reflection of this is that Allah
ﷻ has also given you so many different
ways of doing good even after you may
be in a bad situation, right?
It's not like you are now stamped as
a person who is only a person who
gives money to a government that's corrupt, a
person who only drives a car that is
messing up the environment.
No, no, no, no.
You have other ways to give back and
do good.
In the hadith of Prophet ﷺ, he says
that follow up a bad deed with a
good deed, that wipes it away, right?
And then also another reality is that, again,
the reason why Allah ﷻ and the Prophet
ﷺ didn't give a blanket ruling on any
of these very specific matters is everyone is
supposed to do the best that they can.
If you don't feel comfortable driving a car
that emits gas, then please, by all means,
figure out a way to drive an electric
car.
Wallahi, seriously, I'm not joking at all.
دع ما يريبك إلى ما لا يريبك The
hadith of the Prophet ﷺ.
He says leave things that make you feel
doubtful or uncomfortable for things that do not
make you feel doubtful in your heart, right?
So think about these things when it comes
to these types of questions.
Last two questions, inshaAllah, we don't have time
to go through all of them.
I apologize, but inshaAllah, we'll catch up again
next week.
A person asks, Can I make dua by
asking Allah ﷻ to make blank thing best
for me instead of allow this thing to
happen if it is best for me?
Well, one of the realities is that dua
has been left open-ended by Allah and
His Messenger.
So if there is something in your heart
that you like, that you want, that you
think is good for you, ask Allah ﷻ
for the best from it.
رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً Not everything in
the dunya will be good for you.
But what do you say?
فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً Whatever is good in the
dunya, ya Allah, give it to me.
So the best mannerism, the best adab to
follow when making dua is whatever you want
from a certain situation, right?
So say for example, you want to go
to a certain school.
You're making dua to Allah ﷻ to allow
you admission to a certain school.
You say, Oh Allah, give me the best
from this certain school.
And maybe the best from that certain school
is a rejection letter.
And therefore no matter what you receive back
in response, it's something that the heart will
be at peace with, right?
Don't convince yourself that something is good for
you.
That's the last thing you want to do.
Don't convince yourself without a shadow of a
doubt.
قَطْعً Definitively that something is good for you
without a shadow of a doubt.
Because you don't know.
The reality is you do not know.
So ask Allah to put good in whatever
you're asking for and then whatever you get
in response, Allah ﷻ, you'll be pleased with
it, right?
Very, very good.
Last question, inshaAllah me and Asad can both
share the finishing responses to this, which is,
and this is a very serious one.
How to overcome addictions or bad habits?
Asad, you want to share maybe a small
little rapid fire feedback for that?
What's a good way to get over addictions,
things that are unhealthy for you that you
may be addicted to?
SubhanAllah, very simple Qur'anic verse.
وَالَّذِينَ إِذَا فَاعَلُوا فَاحِشَةً أَوْ ظَلَمُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ ذَكَرُوا
اللَّهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذِنُوبِهِمْ And those who when they
fall into fahisha, we're talking major sinful behavior
and the things that we're addicted to typically
fall under this radar, right?
But they have wronged themselves, right?
They affirm, oh Allah, we've fallen into bad
things, we've wronged ourselves.
فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا لِذِنُوبِهِمْ They seek out repentance for these
sins.
وَمَنْ يَغْفِرُوا الذِّنُوبَ إِلَّا اللَّهِ Who is the
one who forgives sins except for Allah Subhanahu
wa Ta'ala?
Allah is the one.
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, the door of
repentance is always open.
But look at how the ayah ends.
وَلَمْ يُسِرُوا عَلَى مَا فَعَلُوا وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ They
do not what?
They do not persist on engaging in these
behaviors while they know.
Knowing that you've fallen into sin, knowing that
you have transgressed, knowing that you've wronged yourself
and your Creator, that's a good sign.
You're not in denial about your action.
You're open, you're seeking, you're open to getting
help, you're open to talking this through with
your loved ones and your family, within reason.
Don't go broadcasting all the things that you
shouldn't be doing to people, people that you
trust.
I'm having this difficulty.
What do I do?
Return to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala and
really be insistent and hate it in your
heart that you would hate to fall into
that sin again.
The first couple of times is not going
to be easy.
It's going to take a long time.
SubhanAllah, habits are so easy to form and
so difficult to break.
Return to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.
The door of repentance is always open.
Alhamdulillah.
InshaAllah.
That's great advice.
I want to end with that inshaAllah ta
'ala because also Salatul Isha is in 10
minutes.
So inshaAllah we're going to pause there for
this Thursday.
Next Thursday inshaAllah we'll carry on with the
next advice of Imam al-Ghazali rahimahullah.
We'll see you guys then inshaAllah.
We ask Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala to
accept from us.
We ask Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala to
allow every second, every minute of this gathering
to be that of benefit for us in
this dunya and in the akhira.
We ask Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala to
bless us and to reward us for whatever
good that was said and for anything that
was said that was out of line or
that was misspoken about or misunderstood.
We ask Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala to
forgive us as we are mistaken people.
Ameen.