Safi Khan – Soul Food for College Students The Du’a Series Class 12
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The speakers discuss the importance of waiting for opportunities to achieve anything in life, avoiding sinning for one's whole life, and working with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. They emphasize the benefits of Islam, including a private channel between the servant and their lord, and the importance of experiencing a continuous and continuous passionate state of mind. They also discuss the importance of understanding one's own actions and beliefs to strengthen their faith and resolve their problems, and the importance of fulfilling God's rights and not wanting to fulfill their desire. The session concludes with a promise to stop the livestream and a request for everyone to highlight the code and highlight it.
AI: Summary ©
Alrighty.
We'll go ahead and get started.
We are just about,
2 Thursdays away from finishing our session.
We have today,
and then we have next Thursday. And then
the following Thursday, we'll be,
hosting Sheikh Yasser,
the the the scholar, the author that actually
wrote this book that we've been covering for
the past,
two and a half months or so.
So with him, it'll be a really cool,
kind of more reflective q and a type
of session where we talk to him a
little bit about, like, his thoughts behind writing
the book itself, why he picked Dua as,
like, a focal point of his writing,
and some questions for him that I think
will be really enlightening for all of us
to kinda learn how, a person writes about
these particular topics. So we're finishing up
today
with the,
chapter of the reasons behind the delay in
response to a dua. Right?
We started last week and we continued sorry.
We started couple weeks ago, then we continued
last week to couple of the reasons as
to why Allah
would delay the response of a person's dua.
You know, why why is there wisdom behind
every single delay that every single person goes
through in their life? We don't believe that
these things happen coincidentally
or by random nature. We're we just don't
believe in that as Muslims. And so today,
Insha'Allah, what we're gonna do is talk a
little bit about how these delays in response
are actually correlated with our perfection
in worship, the
that we conduct ourselves with as believers when
it comes to worshiping Allah through prayer, through
du'a, through
fasting, through anything. And then at the end,
Inshallah, today, I have a really beautiful kind
of treat for you guys. I wanted to
show you guys a particular portion of the
Quran
where we see an example of a person's
dua
being responded to in another way from which
they actually asked.
And this was actually a prophet, one of
the greatest prophets that ever lived. And Allah
talks about how he made a dua, but
Allah answered his dua with something totally different
that he never saw coming. And, subhanAllah, when
you look back at it in retrospect, if
Allah didn't give him the actual answer that
he gave him, perhaps life would be a
lot different for all of us. SubhanAllah. So
we're we're gonna tackle that a little bit.
So in the final part of this chapter,
the author, he says,
one of the greatest benefits and wisdoms of
a delayed response is that it perfects a
person's worship and iman of Allah. And this
is the very purpose of creation. So when
a and when a person's dua is not
responded to, let them ponder over the ways
that this increases their faith and sharpens their
their their their servitude to Allah and perfects
his or her humbleness to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. Okay?
And he goes on to kinda list some
of these responses and and some of these
reasons as to why it perfects a person's,
you know, iman and a person's belief. Number
1 is that there's a lot of beauty
in just waiting for a response. Right? And
I can guarantee that a lot of people
in here have had experiences in their lives
where they had to wait for something before
they actually got it. Right?
And versus if they got it right away,
they would almost go through this weird moment
of ingratitude
because they didn't really have to wait at
all for it. And you see this in
reality to so many people's lives that when
certain people get things right away, there's almost
this concept of, like, immediate gratification that they
go through. Right? They start expecting almost everything
in their life to happen just as soon
as they want it. Right? If I want
this, then I should get it tomorrow. If
I want that, I should get it tonight.
If I want this particular thing, then I
I'll I and it says that has a
delivery date. It doesn't come by, you know,
Thursday evening because it's on Amazon Prime, I
lose my mind. Y'all ever seen those Amazon
Prime people lose their minds? Like, I was
guaranteed by Jeff Bezos himself.
He came to me and told me in
a dream
that this this thing that I ordered would
be delivered within 48 hours because I'm a
prime member. No. I mean, the reality is
these are all subject to the will of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And when a person
waits for something,
it actually increases
their character in ways that nothing else will.
Right? How many of y'all have ever made
dua for to to Allah
to allow you to accomplish something in your
life?
And whether it be, like, Umrah or whether
it be graduating from a a certain school
or whether it be getting accepted at a
certain job, whether it be something as serious
as possibly marriage or family, whatever it may
be. And continuously, it doesn't happen right away,
and you start losing hope, and you start
getting disheartened.
Perhaps, the entire test was actually the journey
that it took you to wait for that
thing that you wanted.
That's what actually made you who you are.
Because the fact that you had to wait,
Allah
made sure that when you got that blessing
in your life, you would never mistreat that
blessing in your life. Right? You knew how
hard it was to work for that thing.
You knew how hard it was to make
dua for that thing continuously day in and
day night. And if you had gotten it
right away, then you would have those same
emotions towards what you had gotten. Right? And
so waiting for a response is extremely, extremely
beautiful. Number 2, he says of the perfection
of worship,
it teaches someone that they're truly needy to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And there's a really
beautiful quote here by Ibn Taymiyyah
He says, so the servant is always in
need of his lord from every perspective.
This because he is the object of his
worship
and the source of all of his help.
When a person makes du'a sometimes, we actually
allow ourselves to believe that the focal point
is what I want,
and that's actually not the truth.
When a Muslim looks at dua, the focal
point will always be Allah.
For example, if a person says that the
focal point of my dua is the subject
of what I want, then that would be
the same as the focal point of my
prayer is just to go up and down
5 times or 4 times or 3 times,
however many rakat you're praying. Right? And and
and and and and that's not true because,
again, the end of the day, the focal
point of salah is Allah. It's the same
as a person who says, the reason why
I fast is so I can feel what
people who are less fortunate than me feel
like. And as much of a beautiful, you
know,
that might be, it might be a beautiful
side effect, a beautiful symptom of your fast.
The focal point of your will always be
Allah.
If that was the case, the focal point
of Hajj would just be to go and
visit the Kaaba, but we know the Kaaba
is symbolic.
There's no benefit of the Kaaba, the cloth
around it, the the structure of being a
cube,
going no. That that is all symbolic of
your worship, your to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So never get your focal point mixed up
when it comes to your dua. Okay? And
so he says here,
so no one can bring in him any
good except Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, and nothing
can better the situation of the servant except
his worship. And on top of all this,
the servant is sinning,
and there is no way that he or
she can avoid this.
That there's no one who makes dua that
can say, well, I'm not making any mistakes
right now in my life. It's not true.
It's not true. In fact, there are literally
narrations from the life of the prophet that
literally says that every son and daughter of
Adam sins,
every one of you, that sinning is almost
like a part of who you are.
It's it's it's made for you as creation
of Allah
to be faulted. You'll be mistaken. So no
one can guarantee that they are avoiding sins
their entire life.
So he is always in need sinning,
and he is in need of the one
who always forgives the one who is ever
merciful. So the idea of Allah being
right here as he says,
will forgive his sins, and the ever merciful,
al Rahim, will show him mercy and bless
him and be kind to him. These are
some of the virtues of a dua that
is delayed. Okay? Then he moves on. He
says the pleasure of Allah Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala's decree. We spoke about this a little
bit last week. And then again, he mentions
the idea of humility in front of Allah,
knowing your place in front of Allah. Okay?
This one I wanted to point out just
a little bit before we move on. Enjoying
a private conversation with Allah.
Amongst the many benefits of dua
is that dua opens up a private channel
between the servant and his lord
as has been discussed previously.
So the longer the response of the dua
is delayed,
the stronger and more powerful this relationship and
channel becomes.
You never want to leave it.
You never want to abandon it.
And he says, finally,
a stage is reached
by a very select and blessed few in
which the pleasures of this communication
become more pleasing to the soul than the
actual response of the dua itself.
So when you make dua, you almost separate
yourself into 2 categories.
And again, I don't want anyone to feel
bad
about the category that they fall into,
and and perhaps we may fall into a
little bit of both. You might have one
foot in both waters. It's possible that when
I make dua, I sincerely want what I'm
asking for.
But
the person who has unlocked it's like a
video game. Right? They unlock the next level
of their dua
is that they just look forward to the
conversation in and of itself.
That conversation, they don't really care
if they get what they want
as long as the mode of conversation is
continuous,
as long as I never cut off the
phone call,
As long as I never cut off the
dialogue between you and I, I'm happy with
whatever I receive from this conversation.
I'm sure and, again, I I mentioned this
maybe last week or 2 weeks ago. There
are relationships in our lives. My wife was
just telling me, like, this past week, her
relationship with her grandmother
is that her grandmother wants her to call
her, but when they get on the phone,
she literally is quieter than, like, a mouse.
She's just on the phone quietly. And so
my wife made a joke a couple of
days ago. She was like, next time I
call my grandmother, I have to have, like,
a list of, like, things that I have
to tackle with her. Because if it's just
silent, then I'm like, she she'll she'll she
will never bring anything up.
But I told her I said, well, maybe
that's actually all she wants.
That's all she wants. I was in Atlanta,
Georgia,
this past weekend. I went on Friday,
spent Friday Saturday doing some programs in their
community.
And, you know, the brother who,
was responsible for kind of, like, you know,
taking care of me and hosting me, etcetera,
He picked me up for Jomar from my
hotel,
and,
you know, when I got down to the
hotel lobby, he's like, yeah. You know, I
thought I'm right outside. I said, cool. Awesome.
I'll meet you there. So I get into
the car, and he was on the phone,
and it looked like a really serious phone
call.
And so,
he, you know, gestured to me. He's like,
just one one second. Right? He just kinda
give me that one second, you know, gesture.
And I looked on, like, the the the
car play screen, and it said.
And so literally for, like, 5 minutes, and
the ride to the masjid was about, like,
13, 14 minutes. 5 minutes in, he was
like, mhmm. G.
Uh-huh.
Wow.
Okay. Right? Like, it was a it was
like a a repetitive cycle. Right? But, subhanallah,
his mother just kept going and going and
going and going. And then towards the tail
end of the car ride, it was, like,
minute 12 in out of, like, the 14,
15 minutes of the car ride. He was
like, Ami, I'm so sorry. Like,
Ostazafi is actually next to me right now.
And then she obviously yelled at him because
she got she got embarrassed. Like, How could
you do it? Why did you tell me
this earlier? I would have hung up on
the phone. I was like and so and
so he got yelled up for the last,
like, 2 minutes of it, and then I
and then he he hung up. He goes,
okay, mom, I love you. Bye. You know,
assalamu alaikum. And then he hangs up the
phone, and he looks at me, and he
goes, I am so sorry. And I said,
dude,
you have literally
nothing to apologize for. This is the one
person, if she calls you, you have to
pick up. Like, there is no questions asked
about this thing. And if she wants to
talk to you for 20 minutes about stories
that she repeated,
like, 10 years ago,
or if it's, like, things that she told
you, like, a week ago and you literally
have it locked, like, script wise, you still
talk to her.
I I'm I'm a nobody here. This is
your mother.
The prophet said that Jannah is found literally
at her feet.
So this is a person that you do
not ever, you know, skip out on conversations
with. And although and and and he was
like he was like, yeah. He's sometimes it's
just you know, she talks a lot she
she she talks she continues to talk to
me about the same things. I said, yeah.
But but but to her, she doesn't even
need a response from you.
She just wants to know that you're there
on the other side of the phone. That's
all. That's it.
And when a person understands this, and I
and I mentioned this last week in class,
that the only relationship that you will find
that's similar, not even the same, but you
can draw some parallels to it between Allah
and creation is that of a mother and
her child.
And if that's what we were supposed to
do with our mother, can you imagine the
line of communication dialogue we're supposed to keep
with Allah?
Would we would we ever only speak to
Allah when we need him, or would would
we ever only speak to our mothers when
we need things from them? And especially now,
like, y'all are, like, adulting.
Like, can you imagine if you ever only
reached out to your mother as, like, a
22 year old saying like, hey. What's good?
Bank house is a little bit dry.
Let's think about that transfer the other day.
No. No. No. Never.
Never would we ever do something like that.
So how can we ever say that our
only reasoning to be speaking to Allah
is whenever we need something from him? Right?
Rather,
we seek pleasure from just that line of
dialogue. So a person actually wishes sometimes for
a delay in response to their dua
since he knows that this relationship that he
has with Allah will not continue
when his dua is responded to. And, again,
this is a little bit kind of contingent
here. I don't even I don't I actually
don't even wanna encourage this right here that
this particular point that he may he goes
because they know that
this relationship will not continue when his dua
is responded to. I don't even wanna accept
that as a default.
I don't even wanna accept that as a
default because a person something that we wanted
in our lives, now we will know for
the rest of our lives, I wanna continue
speaking to Allah. I'm not gonna
now we will know for the rest of
our lives, I wanna continue speaking to Allah.
It wasn't actually that what I wanted. I
actually wanted Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, so I
will continue to reach out to him. Okay?
So
the final thing he mentions and how it
beautifies your worship is that it combats the
plots of Shaitan.
So he says, without a doubt,
shaitan stoops to all levels and tries all
plots so that a person will turn away
from worship of Allah. And is there any
opportunity greater for him to seize than when
a servant's dua is not answered? How real
is that line for every single one of
us?
He says that the moment that shaitan senses
any sort of weakness in a believer
and you don't have to be a weak
believer, by the way. This is weakness in
a believer.
Even people who are great at what they
do will have moments of falling short in
certain categories.
So don't think that, oh, this categorizes me
as a bad Muslim. No. No. No. No.
Even as a good Muslim, even as a
beautiful Muslim, you will have certain moments where
you will go through weakness.
And so he says here that Shaytan
maximizes
on these moments of weakness within the believer.
And one of these moments are when a
dua is seemingly unanswered.
For here is the servant weak and humble
in front of Allah calling and crying out
to him, You Rabbi You Rabbi, Yet there
is no response. So shaitan
seizes this opportunity
and plants his whispers and seeds of doubt
in the son of Adam until he thinks
every evil thought about Allah
Allah has abandoned me.
Allah has left me.
Allah is mad at me.
Allah
it it might not be I might not
be worthy of making dua.
Maybe Allah will not answer my dua.
Maybe it's not even worth it to make
dua.
Maybe maybe dua is not as great as
people will say. All of these thoughts, you
know, we call these intrusive thoughts.
They start creeping in. Why? Because Shaytan loves
this type of thinking.
Shaitan, by the way, guys, is a pessimist.
Remember we talked about how optimism is one
of the keys of dua making? That when
you make dua, you make dua optimistically.
Shaitan is quite literally
the master of pessimism.
The moment you do anything, Shaitan will plant
some doubts in your mind.
Something you were sure of for, like, 10
years, you finally did it, Shaitan's
like, 10 years.
Hope it was worth it. Right?
Shaitan will come to you and say, oh,
cool.
Now you're engaged. Are you sure?
Locked in?
Forever?
I remember I went I I did a
funny story. This is a true story. I
did a Nikaha earlier today, in in in
the community.
And
when I walked in,
the you know you know sometimes, like, Desi
cultural jokes just, like, don't hit?
Like, this is a complete miss, like a
swing and a miss. Okay?
I walked in, and I congratulated,
you know, the the the the groom that
was getting married.
I walked up to him. I said, you
know, man.
It's a big day for you. Excited. Right?
I mean, I know. Right? When I when
I got married, it was like a nerve
wracking day. You wanna make sure everything goes
well, etcetera, etcetera. Family's not acting crazy. All
these different things. Right? Y'all get it. I
was at you on the your family's naked
eye just, like, a month ago. Like so
literally,
the guy was like and I could tell
he was nervous. Right? He was like, okay.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think he's, like, warming
up for, like, a huge basketball game. Right?
And he was nervous. And then I heard
his own dad, he was like, are you
sure he's locked in forever? Lifetime deal now.
Or I'm like,
why would you say that?
Like, like,
why?
Why on earth, even in, like, a joking
comedic way first of all, it wasn't funny.
You missed big time, but, like,
why would you mention that to this person?
Right? Like, no. Plan optimism in this person.
Like, Shaitan is, like, in the corner, like,
yeah. This guy doing my job. No. No.
No. We don't we don't want that type
of behavior,
you know.
Just like double thinking. You know, subhanAllah, there's
a very beautiful story from the sire of
the prophet about this. It was during the
battle of Uhud, actually. The battle of Uhud,
if anybody can kind of recall, was the
very,
serious moment in the time of the prophet
where they actually lost the battle. Right? Because
Badr was the one that they miraculously won
because of the help of the malaika, the
angels that Allah
sent. Uhud was the one that they came
in with some confidence, and they were winning
the vast majority of the time, but they
ended up losing because there were some sahaba
that misread or misheard the the the the
the the command of the prophet.
So Khaled ibn Waleed came from behind and
basically attacked them from the back, and basically,
it was a loss for the Muslims that
day.
In that before that battle took place, there
was a huge decision to be made. And
that decision was, do we go out of
Medina to face this, like,
multi thousand person army that's coming towards us
from Mecca,
or do we stay in do do we
stay in Medina, fortify the city, and kinda
play on home court? Right? And so some
of the older Sahaba,
they were like,
we should, like, stay. Home court advantage. Right?
Y'all know home court advantage? Like, I'd rather
meet a person at my house because, like,
that couch is mine. Right? Like, I know
where to escape if I need to escape.
There's an escape route here. But the younger
Sahaba were so, like, charismatic
and zealous and very energetic,
and some of them missed the battle of
Badr. So they were like,
we wanna go out. Like, we wanna go
out and meet them in the middle of,
like, the the the the the battlefield.
We wanna go and meet them head on.
That's what we wanna do. And there were
some people that kind of joined that that
charisma. They got excited. Right? It was this
is a huge deal. And so the prophet,
he
said, kir, I like this. Right? This is
something really cool about the prophet, by the
way. The prophet used to really appreciate energy.
He used to appreciate energy. You know what,
those, like, low type of people?
Eeyore, everything sucks. Right? Like, the prophet was
actually, like, a big time optimist. He enjoyed
the charisma of people around him. So he
fed off the the energy of these younger
sahaba, and he was like, yes. Let's go.
Let's go. Let's go to the middle of
the of of of the battlefield, and we'll
meet them head on to show a little
bit of strength. Okay?
And so after that whole kind of dialogue
was over, the prophet
went and started getting prepared for a battle
of Uhud.
And then long story short, I'm sure, like,
you guys have maybe experienced this in your
life. If you ever disagreed with elders in
your life, you know that there's that's not
the end of the story.
Every time you walk into the kitchen, they'll
be like, so
you think you know better.
Right? You're like, I'm just making a drink.
Like, what? And so some of the elder
Sahaba, they came to the younger ones, and
they're like, how dare you? You haven't been
around as long as we have, and we
were advising him from, like, a place of,
like, logic and reason, and you guys are
just basically kind of, like, going off of
charisma and energy and all this stuff to
the point
where the younger Sahaba, they're like, wow.
Like, we feel really bad. We shouldn't have,
like, coaxed him to go out there and,
like, you know, this might have been a
bad decision.
So some of the younger Sahaba, they go
to the prophet SAW Salam,
and they go and while he's getting ready,
and they're like, You Rasoolallah,
we feel bad about the way that we
kind of, you know, portrayed our point of
view and our idea. I actually think we
should maybe go back and listen to, like,
the older sahaba and what they know. And
so the prophet was like putting on his
armor, but he says something legendary.
He goes,
when the messenger of Allah puts on his
armor, he doesn't take them off,
and,
like, mic drop moment.
And what does that mean?
It means
once I make a decision or once we
collectively make a decision,
we are not an that, like, has buyer's
remorse.
We don't do that. Y'all know y'all y'all
know buyer's remorse. You go to Target. You
buy, like, a shirt or, like, a piece
of clothing, and you're like, oh, it's okay.
I don't know. Was that a good one?
Like
and then that becomes a personality.
Everything.
Double thinking it every time. Oh, I left
that. Oh, should I go tonight, or should
I stay home, or, like, I don't know.
Like,
I I donated should I have donated that
much? Do they really need that much from
me? Right? Like, all of these thoughts,
they come into reality because this pessimistic nature
just bleeds through.
But, you know,
some some scholars, they write about this when
particularly when it comes to, like, sadaqa and
giving.
They say that the moment you know that
you should give sadaqa is when your hand
tightens up at that last moment.
Like, when you feel your hand tightening up
over, like, your money at that last second
before you drop the money, that's when you
know you should give. Why? Because that's Shaitan's
last attempt.
That's Shaitan's last attempt at you to get
you to to to to consider, hey. Did
you really wanna do you really wanna do
this?
And at that moment, a Muslim,
they fight through that last
waswasa attempt of shaitan,
and they say, no. Leave me alone. You
know the entire like, we we would we
just exited the month of Dhul Hijjah. Right?
The month of of Eid, and we're we're
we're we're just finishing up the the the
the the the the the the of this
year.
Is sometimes commemorated by the traditions of Ibrahim
alaihis salam. You know, there's a funny story
of Ibrahim alaihis salam when Allah told him
to sacrifice his son Ismail.
Y'all know the Jamarat tradition, like when the
when the when the Hajjash, they go to
this place called Jamarat, and they stone these
pillars
because they're stoning their their it symbolizes shaitan.
Anybody ever wonder why?
Those pillars are the the place, the alama
they say, when Shaytan tried to convince Ibrahim
that you're crazy for sacrificing your son, Ismael.
So when he was walking to Ishmael to
tell him, yeah, Ishmael, I I had this
dream from Allah
that he commanded me to sacrifice you. And
Ishmael,
he
said,
Right?
At that moment when Ibrahim was walking towards
Ishmael, Shaitan came to Ibrahim and said, no.
No. No. You're crazy. Why would you ever
do something like this?
And to ward him off, now Allah
has made it a tradition for us to
to to literally stone away, pelt away the
whispers of shaitan.
Because shaitan will try his hardest every moment
of weakness.
And everyone who, in here has ever recited
sultan nas.
What is that aya mean?
From the evil
from the whispering of the one who
is very interesting.
Means the one who retreats. You know what
that means? That means that shaitan is constantly
in, like, a moving,
like, status.
He's never still.
Meaning, that when you're weak, he starts coming
close to you. And when you remember Allah,
he starts going away from you.
And those moments of weakness, he comes up
to you and he tries to bother you
as much as you as much as he
can. And the moment that the servant of
Allah remembers him, Shaitan says, no. I can't.
I retreat. You know, like, when you retreat
from battle, he's like, no. No. No. Call
it off. It's not gonna work this time
on this person.
But this is a battle you were supposed
to fight your whole life, by the way.
This is a battle that you're supposed to
fight your whole life. Don't ever think that
Shaitan is ever gonna completely leave you alone.
Allah has actually weirdly enough, Allah has given
Shaitan permission
to try and sway you his entire existence.
Your job though is knowing that Allah has
confidence in you over shaitan.
The the the the vibe was that Allah
gave shaitan permission, but Allah also told shaitan,
good luck.
Try.
You're not gonna be able to break these
people. You can try your hardest.
And so Allah has put within you the
ability to literally
shoo away shaitan from your life.
But in order to do that, you have
to be aware of those moments where he
strikes.
It's like studying, like, you know, a place
where you wanna live. Like, when you're in
college, right, if you wanna, like, live in
an apartment complex nearby the school. I remember
when I was in university, like, I literally
remember to never park in this parking lot
at night.
Like, if I if I enjoy my wallet,
I will never park in this place ever
at nighttime. I would always park on the
other side of the the the campus. Why?
Because I know that this camp this this
parking lot was kinda shady at nighttime.
It would be very it would be very
foolish of me to walk through that parking
lot every single evening knowing that that's what
that place is known for.
So if you know that Sha'it'an comes to
you at certain moments and you have knowledge
of it, it should help you strengthen yourself
and strengthen your resolve against him.
In a weird way, you actually almost have
to, like, know Shaitan.
You have to know your enemy.
You have to study your enemy. You have
to study when he when he tries to
come at you, and this is the way
you you keep him away.
And so then finally,
this particular part of the the the the
book that is covering,
the end of the possibilities of a delayed,
response to the dua
is
a story of Ibn al Jazee.
Okay? I wanted to conclude with this particular
story, and then, inshallah, we'll go into the
Quran that I wanted to mention, then, inshaAllah,
we'll do q and a at the very
end. So he says, in conclusion, it's appropriate
to quote a lengthy passage from 1 of
ibn al Jazay's works, a passage full of
wisdom and beneficial advice. Okay?
So let's start this. He says, ibn al
Jazhi
he wrote,
I was once in a situation of distress.
So I regularly made dua to Allah to
relieve me from my distress
and to bless me with relief and freedom.
It's a lot it's it's it's a lot
like a lot of us.
We're going through trials,
distress,
stress, anxiety,
troubles.
Ibn al Josi says, I was in the
same exact boat as y'all.
And I made dua to Allah to relieve
me from this difficulty,
yet the response seemed to be postponed.
So my soul started to getting agitated
and restless.
I became worried.
And, again, this is a scholar of Islam,
by the way. We have this almost, like,
untouchable picture
of what it means to be religious.
Right? Oh, religious people don't get bothered.
Religious people don't get restless. Religious people don't
get, you know, anxiety about certain things. Think
about this. Can I can I can I
can I can I completely end this conversation
right now?
When the prophet
in his early prophethood,
there was a pause in revelation.
The prophet
had thoughts about maybe he wasn't worth being
a prophet.
He had these thoughts. It's narrated in authentic
hadith.
That when Allah paused revelation, the prophet asked
himself questions.
Does Allah not like me anymore?
Maybe
maybe Allah took it away from me because
I wasn't worth it. And then Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala gave him
your lord is neither
displeased with you nor is he abandoned you.
He has not left you nor is he
angry with you.
The prophet himself had to be reminded about
this.
So, ibn al Josi, he says, I began
to get restless,
and then I told my soul
5 pieces of advices.
He talked to himself. Y'all ever felt crazy
talking to yourself? Don't.
Scholars used to do this all the time.
Okay? You're, like, sitting in your room. You're
like, come on, Khadija.
Get your act together, man. Like, no. No.
It's okay.
Do it. If it works for you, do
it. Like, sitting in, like, your car, like,
Ahmed, come on. Like, just go. Go to
the masjid. Just go. Don't don't don't think
about it too much. It's okay to give
yourself those spiritual pep talks.
So he says, I told my own soul,
woe to you.
Woe to you.
Consider your situation. Know who you are.
Are you one who is a servant
or like a king or a queen?
Are you one who is controlled by Allah,
or are you the one who controls Allah
Do you not know that this world is
a place of trials and tests? And if
you ask for something
and it is not responded to and you're
impatient at this,
then where's the test?
He's, like, giving himself this pep talk in
his car. He's like,
am I the one who rules my life,
or is it Allah? Let me remind myself
real quick. Let me go back and check
my data. No. No. No. Last I checked
it was Allah.
Last time I checked,
if something is not answered right away, isn't
this a trial? Isn't this a test? Okay.
I'm glad I'm on the same page here.
After all, are not trials and tests merely
the opposite of our own goals and desires?
If only you were to understand this responsibility,
then that which is difficult will appear easy
for you, and the unbearable will come light.
What you thought was impossible
would be possible.
What you thought was a burden would now
become something that's actually doable.
And he goes, after it pondered over this,
my soul quieted down a bit. I calmed
down a little bit, and then I gave
my soul the second piece of advice.
The second piece of advice was, he says,
I also have a second answer, and that
is that you are asking Allah your wishes
and desires,
but neglecting to ask yourself
what it is obligated to do.
This is the essence of
jahala,
of ignorance.
For it is appropriate for you to do
the opposite
since you are a servant and the intelligent
servant strives to fulfill the rights of his
master
knowing that it is not obligatory for the
master to grant any desire.
Again, think back about what we talked about
a week a week and a half ago
or 2 weeks ago.
We talked about how sometimes when we make
dua, we mistake that, oh, it's my right
to be answered.
Why isn't Allah answering me?
It's me.
I pray
all three times a day. I'm just kidding.
Like, you know, like like, why why like,
I'm the one that has a right to
be answered. No. No. No. No. No. He
says, think about
Allah's rights
and think about your rights.
Do you fulfill Allah's rights before demanding that
Allah gives you extra?
Right?
Do you do you even do you even
try your hardest to fulfill the farud,
the obligations that you have
before you expect Allah to give you back
things that are optional,
or am I like, no. No. No. I
deserve the optional, and I don't need to
get to the to to to my to
my responsibilities.
And then he says, after I told my
soul this, it achieved another level of peace.
And then he says, finally,
I told it a third response,
and that is that you have delayed the
response
as you have blocked its path with your
sins.
So if only you were to open the
path, the response would be hastened.
Do you not know that the cause of
peace is?
Have you not heard the statement of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala?
And whoever fears Allah, Allah will provide for
him an escape and exit, and he will
provide for him from sources that he never
could imagine before.
And he says here, have you not understood
that the opposite also applies?
That if you are immersed in your sins,
your matter will be made difficult.
Woe to the intoxication
of thoughtlessness
that is stronger
than all other intoxicants
and prevents the water that is desired from
reaching the garden of one's own goals.
That a person who's making dua to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala,
their dua
is this plea, this this this this fruit
that they want to kind of flourish.
Okay?
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's answer is the
rain that
nurse nourishes and satiates the need for the
plant
to have water in order for it to
grow.
But my sins are like me standing over
my own plant and shading it from the
water coming down and touching it.
And if I were to only move away,
I would see that I would allow the
answers from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to come
down and water every single one of the
things that I asked Allah
for.
But sometimes we are our own worst enemies.
If I could cut off that one bad
habit, perhaps my duas
would be more beautiful in their nature.
If I could strive to pray
more consistently,
perhaps my duas would be of higher quality.
If I stop backbiting about the people around
me,
perhaps Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would be more
pleased with me and would give me the
answers to the duas that I seek.
But it is because I cannot stop myself
from these things
that have become so ingrained
in my life and in my habits
that I am like a person who literally
holds an umbrella
over my own plants,
and then I complain about how my plants
are dying.
I say, why is everything that I plant,
not none of it sprouts?
But the rain keeps falling,
but my umbrella keeps
standing up, and I and it completely
pushes away any sort of water to come
and nourish that plant.
Before we point the finger at other people,
y'all,
we have to get used to the habit
of saying, what can I fix?
What can I fix? What can I do
better?
And then he says, my soul realized the
truth and became content.
And then he said, I and I gave
it a 4th response,
and that is that you are asking for
something for which you do not know the
con the consequences of.
In fact, it might be harmful for you.
Your example is that of a child stricken
with sickness and fever and asking for sweets.
The one in charge of you is more
aware
of your betterment than you are for yourself.
Has Allah
not said?
And it is possible that you hate something
that is actually good for you.
Think about how certain things that you want
may not be good for you. And he
says, then my soul became more settled. And
then my final
response to my soul, the final advice I
had for my own soul
is that this wish of yours will decrease
your reward with Allah
and lower your status.
Therefore, the prevention of the response is actually
the increasement of your good.
If you were only to ask what benefits
your hereafter,
it would be better for you.
Understand, therefore, all that I have told you.
And then he said, it's almost as though
my soul spoke to me.
I felt my speak to me, and my
said,
I have been grazing in the gardens of
your response,
and the understanding that you have given me
has caused me to be ecstatic with
joy. That of these 5 things that you
reminded me about,
they have given me a level of happiness
that I never
achieved
before.
That, subhanallah,
even after all of this,
I understand
that the prevention of my response of this
dua
could actually be that Allah
will give me something unbelievably,
incomparable
in Jannah.
Allah will give me something unbelievable
in Jannah.
What did the wife of the pharaoh ask
Allah
for before she died?
Literally, before she was like, and I'm sorry
to kind of share this very gruesome narration,
but it it's mentioned about her that she
was hung
by her own scalp, by her own hair,
by her own husband, the pharaoh.
And as she was passing away, she made
this dua, oh Allah.
Oh Allah,
build for me
close to you
a home
in paradise.
She asked for that as she was dying.
As she was dying, her final ask of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. But look at the
way that she phrased it though. A person
who loves Allah, she didn't say, oh, Allah,
build for me a home near you in
paradise. She said, oh, Allah, build for me
near you a home in paradise.
Before she wanted a home, she wanted to
be close to Allah.
The home was always secondary.
The primary was always being close to God,
and that's always the goal. Right?
And so he says here,
this is the end of Ibn al Josi's,
advice to himself. Now I wanted to end
inshallah with this particular,
you know, beautiful beautiful ayaat in the Quran
that really helps us kind of conceptualize this.
By the way, anyone can read this. This
is in Surat Al Meriam. Okay? Surah number
19.
And in Surat Al Mariam, Allah
literally talks about the stories of multiple types
of people. He talks about Mariam alaihi salam.
He talks about Musa alayhi salam, and then
he also talks about Ibrahim alayhi salam. Okay?
And particularly in Ibrahim's story, what he talks
about is the difficulty that he had facing
his dad,
facing his father.
So for verses and verses and verses, he
talks about he says,
He tells his father about Islam, tells him
to follow him, tells him to come and,
like, learn about Allah, be a Muslim, be
a person who submits to Allah. And then
his father responds to him. He says,
Ibrahim. He says, do you reject my gods,
Ibrahim?
If you don't stop talking to me about
this stuff, I'm gonna stone you.
Can you imagine that? Like, literally, the first
response that your father gives you is that
if you don't stop talking to me right
now, I'm gonna literally kill you.
That's that's I mean,
call it what it is. I mean, this
is
I know we joke around about it, but
this actually happened.
You know?
And Ibrahim goes,
He says,
oh father
peace be upon you.
I'm going to ask Allah forgiveness
for forgiveness for you.
I'm gonna make dua for you that Allah
forgives you, and Allah guides you to Islam.
And this was his die his his dua.
Can you imagine? Has anybody ever here ever
met a
a new Muslim who spoken to you about
their parents before?
Like, how desperately they would love
the thought
of their mother or their father being Muslim
with them.
You look at this and you look back
at the prophet's life and he never had
his uncle Abu Talib
pass away being a Muslim. He passed away
as a as a nonbeliever.
It broke the prophet to to to to
to a lot of different pieces.
And when Abu Bakr's father converted to Islam,
he began to cry and the prophet said,
why are you crying? You shouldn't aren't you
happy? And he said, you Rasoolah, what I
would do to give you this feeling with
your uncle
because you never had that.
And the same thing, Ibrahim's going through the
struggle,
and he says, fine.
For now, I'll leave you. I'm gonna leave
you now. I'll leave you alone. You said
you wanted me to you wanted me to
go away from you, so I'll leave you,
but I'll continue to make dua for you.
But check this verse out right here, verse
number 49. I want you guys to really
focus on this one right here. He
says,
He says when he left his people and
those they served besides Allah, we granted him
who?
Ishaq
and Yaqub,
and we made him a father of prophets.
SubhanAllah.
Ibrahim
was dying for his own death to be
a Muslim,
but what Allah gave him was
Ismail,
Ishaq,
Yaqub,
Yusuf,
and so on and so forth and so
forth. And ultimately,
the one who can claim that he is
by lineage attached to Ibrahim alayhi salam was
Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Can you imagine?
And at that moment if you were to
ask Ibrahim, yeah Ibrahim, what do you want
most desperately?
He would say, please my dad,
I would love my dad to be a
Muslim. I would love my dad to follow
Allah.
And Allah says,
as much as
my beloved Ibrahim wants this,
I have something a little bit better for
you.
So I want you to think about in
your own life. Right? I mean, we have
these scenarios easily.
We're dying for certain things. We're we're we're
we're crying for certain things.
But Allah perhaps some has something in store
for you
that you didn't even think that you wanted.
You didn't even know that you wanted.
You didn't even know that it was a
possibility for you to have it, and Allah
has it in store for you. I mean,
this is one of the greatest lessons
that I can, you know, think of sharing
with anybody is that if Allah will do
this with Ibrahim,
think about what Allah
will do with us.
Okay?
So we'll stop there,
for the the session.
I did promise a q and a at
the end of today's session. So
I want everyone to,
hit up, this website, slido.com.
And
I want everyone now we haven't done a
q and a now in about 3 weeks
or so, so there should be kind of
like a like a, you know, obviously, some
solid questions that people have formulated over time.
So I wanna take, inshallah, it's 8:0:5 now.
We're gonna stop the livestream.
This is not gonna be recorded. This is
not gonna be posted. Nothing like that, Insha
Allah.
We're gonna do a little bit of q
and a, Insha Allah, from now until about
8:15, Bismillah. So I'll give everyone about, like,
2 to 3 minutes to kind of go
on to this website
and type in the the the code, that's
right here, and I'll highlight it for you
guys. You can punch it in and then
I'll be able to see it on my
end. This is completely anonymous, so there's no
sort of,
you know, there's no sort of pressure,
or