Safi Khan – Soul Food for College Students The Du’a Series Finale w Guest Yasir Qadhi
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All righty. This one level hamdulillah salatu salam ala
Rasulillah wa early he was happy he edge Marina Samadhi coma
rahmatullahi wa barakato as everyone doing hamdulillah so I
delivered on my promise Hamdulillah you know, we wanted to
aim to finish our series that we're doing every single Thursday
night here at soul food, the DUA series where we are covering the
different sorry series really interested in this
really, really, you know hamdulillah and in depth look into
the concept of dua, all of its elements, the things that you
know, make dua beautiful, the things that are also discouraged
during a DUA, and also at the end of the day, you know, what are the
moving pieces and the questions that people have about da that
needed to be answered hamdulillah so I'm going to inshallah
introduce to you guys, our our guest speaker today, who doesn't
really need an introduction from the law. He is the person from the
law who authored that book that we were reading for the past around
three months now from the law. So Chuck, Yasser has graciously
agreed to join us tonight for our our session, Shuster and I go a
pretty long ways back he's seen the most embarrassing parts of my
life pretty much. The person that I am right now was not the person
that he saw about 15 years ago
on the law, so we both served Masha Allah, he was a resident
scholar of my local Masjid in Memphis, Tennessee. And then I
grew into a youth director position over there and so
Hamdulillah we have a lot of report back and forth while we
lived in in Memphis, Tennessee, which by the way, it's not as bad
as you guys think. Okay? When I say Memphis, Tennessee, you guys
are all opening up Google Maps and just kind of like typing it in so
you can write where it is in the for the first time in your life.
Um, the lights it's a nice little quaint city in Tennessee, I'm the
land so we both have some favorite, you know, some beautiful
memories back from from from that spot. So first and foremost,
wanted to introduce you hamdulillah and welcome you here
to roots. This is not your first time here. Obviously. He's been
here before definitely not his last time. How are you? How's
hedge I know, you just got back from Hyderabad. So how's
everything going? Firstly, Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salatu
was Salam ala Rasulillah, who are early he was so happy women are in
Hama, bad. Zack will look out for having me over again from the
Rila. How was hedge? Hedge was
hot, very hot this year. And it's definitely the hottest that I've
done in my living memory, as you know, hedge changes every year.
And so this this hedge was in June, July. And as you know, over
1000 people passed away. And this was the first hedge that I myself,
I'm embarrassed to say, but I'm getting that age, I wasn't able to
do some of the rituals myself like when you stone the gym a lot, I
had to delegate somebody because it was so hot. And I didn't want
to fall because I know myself. And if I were to have walked 45
minutes, and then give a lecture in the evening, it would have been
too much. So it was extremely hot. And other than that, yeah, it's my
advice to all of us to start thinking about now from now to
expedite hedge because every year hedge is getting more chaotic and
more expensive exponentially. For reasons I don't wanna go into. But
from now you should start thinking and expedite whenever you can
afford to go for it, you need to be young as well do not delay till
you're 6070 you need to have your energy, and you need to be able to
afford it. So Allah HwaDam, how much is going to be in 2030 years.
So get it done, you're watching bijela on the left from the levels
of long answer for hedgebrook.
It's good because a lot of our colleagues and a lot of our
community members, they also want to hedge so it's good to kind of
collect the different experiences that people had. And obviously, as
a person who's gotten multiple times to see how it measures up to
all the previous experiences that you had. So sure, you know,
without further ado,
obviously, you know you we've been talking about this, that we've
been going through this, you know this this book that you wrote
a long time ago, right, we're not going to call out the age here,
but it was written a few decades ago from the left from now. And
so, you know, this, this book is heavily you know, focusing on the
concept of doTERRA as a whole. But as we learn from our religion,
everything deserves some sort of context, right? Everything
deserves a little bit of a backstory behind why, when and
how. And so the first thing that I wanted to kind of ask you as our
guest speaker today is, you know, could you share a little bit of
your story about you know, the influence of why you decided to
write a book I mean, I believe this book was written by you after
you finish your time in Medina, studying over there so what what
was one of the reasons why you decided to write something
particularly on the topic of dua supplication.
The book is 24 years old. It's as old as my eldest son model. He was
about to be born at that stage of my life, my firstborn.
And the book was written in between my bachelor's and master's
degrees at Medina not when I finished Medina but smack in the
middle, the year 2000. So you know, you can easily date the book
because it was 2000. The story is a little bit personal and also
perhaps not suitable for this audience. I have mentioned it in
another podcast I've given where I explained some of the factions of
the movement I used to belong to. So I'm not going to get into that
detail because I don't think this is the audience for it, but it is
online. But I'll generically point out generically that that stage
for me was one of the most difficult stages of my own life.
In a personal level, I was facing some of the most traumatic
experiences that I've ever faced, and perhaps even the most
traumatic experience,
internal factions, factions between
political fundamentalists just put it that way. And that was
cancelled by one group and supported by another. And that
went to an almost national level at the time, to be honest, it
definitely was a regional issue. And so it was very painful. For me
were my rights had not been given to me a right to go and pursue a
master's degree and be the first Westerner to graduate with a
master's degree that was taken away unjustly. So it'd be generic
like that because of religious fanaticism. And you're all aware,
fanaticism is bad enough, but religious fanaticism is much, much
more dangerous. Because when you're religiously fanatic, you
think God is on your side. And I've experienced religious
fanaticism and I still experienced it to this day, as you're probably
aware, by simple Google search, you'll see the reality of
religious matters isn't so I faced that at that stage of my life,
worse than I've ever faced it. And I think Allah was preparing me for
later battles, these battles are absolutely trivial compared to
what I went through absolutely trivial, because that was
traumatic on multiple levels. My future was uncertain, I was going
to be expelled from the kingdom. My wife was going through the
first pregnancy, it was very difficult pregnancy, medically was
a very difficult pregnancy. So financially, my status, my
studies, my family, everything was at a low, low, low, low, low, it
was really difficult for me, and I can't think of a time that was
more difficult for me in my life than that, then that particular
summer of 2000. And so when the going gets tough, we discover
Allah. When the going gets tough, we turn to Allah. And so I was
turning to Allah. Like, I've never turned to him my whole life,
never. And obviously in the process, obviously, I'm a student
in Medina, I've graduated, my bachelor's and I want to study the
reality of dua.
And most of my books have come out of my own personal curiosities,
including my theater book, you attended the Seattle lectures in
Memphis, actually was a personal selfish reason. I wanted to do a
deep dive into CLR use you guys as an excuse. I wanted to go to the
References and sources and rethink through and critically engage.
Same with this. It's like, okay, well, I want to study Torah. I
want to study it in depth. And so I read every single classical and
modern book that I could and as I'm doing this, I'm synthesizing
the own book. And I'm and I'm bringing in my own spiritual
reality and I think Allah Who of course, I have I don't know how to
is 20 books public on how to accept publish, however, however
many books I have, up until the Sierra book actually I think still
because the Sierra book only came out last year. I think still the
DUA book is my number one in terms of sales. I think still I'm not
sure but definitely if if not that then the Sierra then that so it's
number one before the Sierra came out in terms of sales by by far
why multiple reasons but I think the main one will love why them is
that book was written from the heart like genuine and I think if
you anybody who reads it, I've been told by many people who have
read it, like they kind of feel even my own emotions because I
myself was very much in need of of that DUA and of the of the reality
too, and I mentioned of course, in the introduction, that Subhan
Allah is Allah Brother, this is in the year 2000 I was writing it in
the summer when everything was uncertain. And subhanAllah as I'm
finishing the book, you know, the month of August and I'm literally
have the first draft done. And I'm like, totally uncertain what to
do. And literally out of nowhere, just a mini miracle happens and I
have no problem saying it's a mini miracle. And if you listen to the
story, you'll know exactly why I mean literally, it's a luxury I
need a break and a rupture of how things should work. Especially in
that country. A typical unprecedented and something out of
the blue and a source never expected never even you know could
think about you know, a phone call comes as I'm sitting on my PC
computer 2000 You know, old computer you guys don't even know
those computers right? As I'm sitting on my ancient PC computer
typing away, right. And the phone rings
and I pick it up and I'm finishing the two hour book. And you know,
the guy simply says, yeah, yeah, set up, shoot, you know,
yesterday, I have good news. I didn't even recognize the voice.
He didn't even didn't introduce himself the beginning. As soon as
he said that, though, I just fell into Thursday because I knew there
was only what the whole country the whole city knew what's going
on, in terms of my case. And so for me to get that college just,
you know, fell in, you know, I don't even know how long incision
is just crying and Hamdulillah. So the, the quality of my own
spirituality at that time, I don't mind saying because things have
moved on. And I wish I had that level now, but you know how it
happens. You're closest to Allah at times of tragedy. Subhan Allah,
right, you're closest to Allah at times of pain at times of
suffering. And that's one of the wisdoms of pain and suffering. One
of the wisdoms why we go through trials is because trials bring out
our, the best of our spirituality, it's as if Allah wants to tease it
out of us, because we are not living to our full potential,
because we are surrounded by the glamour of this dunya. So by
putting us in trial, right, it's actually a cleansing for us. And,
you know, and I'll be factually honest here, I mean, one of the
closest I've ever felt to Allah in my whole life was during that
timeframe. That was like so many years ago, right? Why? Because
life was so difficult, like traumatic, almost no idea what's
gonna happen, the future is uncertain, financially, child,
everything, just like such a difficult and dark time. And
that's when you're just making dua like you've never made before.
Right. So the circumstances then forced me to make dua and in order
to make the most effective dua, I was researching dua, and while and
recently you might as well just write it up and do it so that's
it's interesting, the now that you give a little bit of a backstory,
you can kind of see it in the language of the book, actually,
that you know, you were, you were really pressing on the the idea of
connecting with Allah through difficulty. And it was, it was
actually a theme that was constantly recurring, that I
noticed as a person who was actually reading it myself. I was
like, wow, subhanAllah like, that's why I wanted to ask you
that question is because there seems to be, you can almost see it
through the letters of the book, right? That you seem passionate
about this particular thing I want to ask you shake. So now that you
gave kind of a back story, a context to why you wrote the book,
right? There is a little bit and from the lie did have the
opportunity to sit with your house or on Wednesdays in Memphis to go
through the state of the prophets. I said,
you know, there is this idea that when a scholar or a writer,
whoever they have personal knowledge, who was writing a
certain piece, or teaching a certain class, they do to a
certain degree, think about the output and how it will be received
as well. Right. And so, in terms of Dora, what what do you think,
the concept of dua, why do you think it is so popular in terms of
peeking people's curiosity? Right? Because again, we have Salah we
have what we have sown, we have, you know Zakah and Hajj and all
these other forms of worship. But dua seems to be that one thing
that everyone's curious about, right? But how to make it
properly? How do I know that my doll is effective? How do I know
my dog is of the highest quality? So from a person who's obviously
written a piece about this topic, why do you think obviously there's
like that kind of research of the consumer, right? What do you think
about the appeals to people from just your experience doesn't email
it's basic human psychology.
Dua is the one act
that transcends
religiosity and even religion,
religiosity, your Salah is linked to your religiosity. Your CPM is
linked to religiosity, your abstinence from sins is linked to
religiosity, the higher your religiosity, the better these
rituals. As for you, it doesn't matter your level of religiosity.
When your son is sick in the hospital, when your daughter falls
and is you know, you don't know what's happening. You will
discover Allah and make dua to Allah.
And it transcends even religion. Because salah is unique to Muslims
Siyam only to three religions do it. Everyone does it differently.
Every ritual is different, but do it. Every single human who is even
remotely spiritual, frankly, even atheists at times MIG tau as we
all know, as Winston Churchill famously remarked, there are no
atheists in the tunnels a world war one the foxholes were called
you know, the World War One tunnels that they built when the
bombs are falling, the gas is dropping whatnot. The chemical
weapons were used in World War Two first time, Winston Churchill
participate in World War One. And he literally remarked, you know,
there are no atheists when you're in that situation and the foxholes
right? And Allah mentions this in the Quran when you're about to die
when you're when you're when you're when you're when you're
calamity befalls you when the ship is about to sink down, I will love
him on the scene. Allahu Deen all of a sudden everybody discovers
the line makes dua to Allah. I mean it transcends religion, even
IBLEES had to make dua Iblees who refuse such the refuse Salah
review
was a man he couldn't refuse da like you have to make dua right?
So basic psychology do is a personal ritual do is something
that is selfish, not in a negative selfish way in a realistic and
positive selfish way like you need to have. You need to you need
Allah's help and something that you're doing and so do it is
something that is intrinsically linked to the fact that you are
not God. And so you need a God no matter what religion you are, you
need a higher power. So whether you're a pagan and you sacrifice
to the gods for your for your rain to come down, you know whether
you're Christian you invoke Jesus Christ, whether you're a Satanist,
whether you're a Moorhead and believe in Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, you have to if you are knowing and acknowledging your
created being, you have to acknowledge your mortality and
your mortal illness and then turn to a deity to give you what you
want. And that is what is dua is literally thought of or asking. So
you are asking your needs and therefore it is a ritual that goes
back to the simple fact that you are not God, you are created. And
that's what Allah says in the Quran. The name of allah a summit,
what is a solid mean? A summit means and it's the only time Allah
mentions in the whole Quran, the name of Summit means the one whom
everyone turns to for every need of theirs. That is the meaning of
a summit, the one whom every creature creation turns to for
every need of this, you have to get Allah's help for every need.
So only Allah is a head and summit it's only one summit that can give
you everything at anything you want. Hello, you know that's
that's incredible, you know we and that's one of the new and you
wrote through the book these examples right the DUA prophets
that curiosity said, I'm the doer of Prophet Musa I didn't set up
and these moments of desperation is when they found their two hours
that were recorded in the Quran, Robbie Neelima and delta Elaine
Hayden, faqeer Robbie, anyone analog minister, there are a lot
of sushi, but I mean, these do ours that are basically they
almost seal their legacies, right. And one thing that you notice,
Sheikh is that one of the common elements that tie all these dots
together is the desperation factor within all of them. Right, that in
a moment of vulnerability, Allah subhanaw taala seal their legacy.
And so you see that common factor through all of these different
examples that were written. This is in the Quran, Amma ug Boone,
matara EDA is a constant theme, right, the one who responds to the
plea of the one in distress, and will Tara and
the concept of dua, even though we should constantly make dua, but we
all know we don't constantly make dua when life is good dog goes
down, and that's sad. That's not good. It's a sign of weakness of
iman. But Allah never criticizes, making dua when you need him.
That's not what is criticize. What is criticized is to forget a lot
after the DUA is answered. Right? So it's not wrong at all. Don't
feel guilty. When you rediscover religion, at times of stress,
okay? When you're about to fail the exam here making lots of dua,
okay. When you're financially you know, going through an issue, you
know, tough relationships break a breakup of a, you know, marriage
or something, you it's not, don't feel guilty, that oh my god, why
am I turning to Allah Now when I need to when I need to turn to
him, it's okay, that's fine. It's a weakness. But what you should
feel guilty for is that after Allah responds to your to, you
shouldn't turn your back on religion and walk away. That's
what Allah criticizes. Allah never criticizes, rediscovering him at
times of crises. Why is that a problem? It's good, you rediscover
it. It's you should have known of Allah, you know, personally
better, but okay. It is what it is. This is an important point
because a lot of people read these verses, and they feel guilty.
Because the Quran says that, you know, when they're about to drown,
when this happens, when that happens, they make dua to Allah,
but never does Allah criticize the concept of remembering him. Allah
criticizes, then when they get back to the shore, they forget
when Allah answers the DUA, they turn to others. This is what Allah
criticizes, right? So once Allah has answered your DUA, you have to
try your best to maintain a level of piety after that, that you
didn't have before. And as long as you're doing that, then you shall
allow data, you're on a good way. So So would you say so, right. And
there's an entire chapter that we all went through, I think it was
actually for like, a couple of weeks, we went through this
together, some of the things that are you know, discouraged of your
DUA, right? That kind of lessens the quality of it, both in mind
and also in action, right. And at the end of the day, those two
things combined for a very, you know, powerful output. And so, you
know, from your experience, what do you think is one of the
greatest misconceptions about door
You know, that and again, like you wrote that whole chapter about it.
But what are certain things and again, such a such a popular
topic, you're gonna have so many flying opinions about it
everywhere, right? So what's one of the ones that you biggest
misconception is self evident and obvious. And that is, and it's so
frustrating. You want to just scream with frustration, right?
Somebody's going to come and give a very detailed scenario. You
know,
I share my my son's doing the MCAT exam, and he's weakened organic
chemistry. What do I should I make that he passes Monday and I'm
organic, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry. So this Auntie thinks
that I have this special secret book of two hours and my own the
Imams get it? Right. So So auntie, wait, wait, let me jump into my
office and I pull down volume 77 You know, page 329 when when when
the auntie wants her though, to have her son, and this narrow
mindedness of thinking Wallahi it's frustrating to the point of
you want to scream? Do you really think your Lord is so petty? That
I have to teach you a specific formula? I mean, this isn't I'm
sorry, to be blunt. This isn't Harry Potter. This isn't like some
type of you know, mumbo jumbo, abracadabra stuff will lie. It's
it's frustrating and just demeaning of Allah, that you think
Allah requires a specific formula. And if you have that formula,
Allah will answer your DUA. And if you don't have that formula, he's
not going to answer it to his shows that this person would I
mean, I'm saying this respectfully. They haven't
understood Islamic theology. They haven't understood who Allah is.
Allah doesn't care, the words that come out, you can make a
grammatical mistake, Allah doesn't care. It's the heart. It's your
loss is your for sure. So I don't want anybody ever in this audience
to ever go to any shift for the rest of their lives and say,
shift, this is my problem. What do I should I make? The best two you
should make is the one that comes from your heart, in your language
spontaneously, just with pure loss? That's the best one.
Subhanallah No, that's and that's beautiful. Again, again, through
the examples that you shared, it proves that point right prophet
Zechariah literally complained to Allah subhana wa Tada about the,
the weakness of his bones and the and the whitening of his hair as
he was getting older. And so that was so specific to him. And, and
again, like when a person recites that through the Quran, obviously,
there's, there's a danger of very bad that reciting Quran but at the
same time, you're, you're stating words of a person who was very
personal with ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. And that's extremely
powerful. Should I wanted to, you know, there's a really amazing
chapter that I think we spent probably the majority of our time
on during in this series, which is the wisdoms of a delayed response.
We went through this for and Michelle, I think there were about
like 21 to 22 points. And one thing that we noticed, and we got
a peek into shaquiesha copies brain, which is that you're a very
bullet list person, every every chapter had like 17 to 18 to 20
bullet points under each one. And it was broken down in that very
organized kind of categorical manner. So when it came to the
chapter about the wisdoms of the delayed response, you wrote kind
of, you know, a plethora of different reasons why Allah
subhana was out as infinite knowledge would give you certain
things at certain times and not at other times or delay at a certain
moment and give it to you at another moment. There's Hadith
about this, but in your, I guess, in your experience, or in your
mind, from writing this, what is the most powerful reason as to why
and Allah's wisdom, he delays certain things for certain people
after they ask for it is to test how much you truly trust Allah? Do
you really really trust Allah? Are you absolutely content that Allah
is your Rob, and that Allah is looking after you in a matter
better than you know how to look after yourself? It's all about
Tawakkol and Allah isn't a lawyer Rob? Yes. So then Allah azza wa
jal has the best plan for me. As long as you have good thoughts of
Allah, then yes, that is going to be correct. The minute you start
doubting Allah, well, then you've you've demonstrated, you know,
you're spiritually weak and that's not good. You no matter how sinful
you are, your sins are one thing. Allah's Mercy is above your sins.
And Allah's Mercy is not contingent on how sinful you are,
frankly, the more sinful you are, the more mercy will come to you.
Right. If you have a the right attitude and the right Eman, and
you allow your sins to actually motivate you to come closer to
Allah, well, then the delayed response is actually being
demonstrated in your own rediscovery of yourself in your
own maximizing your potential like I explained a few minutes ago,
sometimes, Allah subhanaw taala sees potential in us that we don't
see in ourselves. And Allah azza wa jal wants to extract that
potential from us. He wants us to go from you know, zero to 100 and
we're struggling down here, but we're struggling and we're never
going to get up there. We're never going to
Get up there, unless and until our circumstances force us. So this is
not a punishment, it is actually a blessing in disguise. And in
constantly going back and rethinking and examining our own
lives and our own, you know, our own mortality, our own
fallibility, our own shortcomings, and in perhaps even restructuring
our lives on a better religious level, because we are struggling
with DUA and is not being answered Subhanallah right. There's that
wisdom. We changed our whole lives, potentially, because we
wanted our daughters to be responded. And that's what Allah
wanted of us. Subhanallah No, that's, that's extremely powerful.
And I think, you know, one of the things that was mentioned along to
kind of complement that is this entire ordeal of being self
reflective, right? That there's always ways that I can improve the
journey of a Muslim is to never think that what they're doing is
perfect, but it's always to go back to the drawing boards and ask
themselves well, how can I make a better dua? How can I be even more
sincere in the mannerisms through which I ask Allah subhana wa Tada.
And I think, and if I if you can share or speak to that, which is,
you know, I, we always share this sentiment here at roots, that a
person who considers themselves a completed product as a Muslim or a
finished product is one of the greatest signs and symptoms that
you're very far from exactly what you claim, right. And you know,
possibly, when Allah subhanaw taala may be delaying a response
for a very particular wisdom of his a part of my myself as a
believer is to also go back and think to myself, well, some things
are powerful like, am I also doing the things along with my dua that
are pleasing to Allah subhana wa Tada, right. And we know the
Hadith from you know, the 40 Hadith we all know that this
person is in the middle of the desert and their raise their hands
to Allah subhana wa Tada and they're crying saying Yo, BRB. But
his food may be something that displeases Allah, his clothing,
maybe something that displeases Allah, the way he makes his money
will be displeasing to Allah. So how would you? How would you kind
of share advice on that particular point, right? Because at the end
of the day, yes, there is that idea of connecting to Allah
subhanho wa Taala on a personal and an extremely sincere level.
But at the same time, I also have to make sure that when I ask
Allah, I ask him in the best manner possible, like going up to
your parents, and when your kids, you ask them in a beautiful,
polite manner, and you do the things that surround that asking
that pleases them, you are much more likely to get something that
is a response to them that you would you would seek right? And
even if they say no, what's going to be your response? Are you just
going to throw a tantrum, rush to your room and slammed the door
shut? You think you're gonna get your what you want? Or will you
think about why are they saying no? How can I win their hearts
over? What can I do to soften them up? Right, the intelligent son or
daughter will realize, okay, have to have a second opportunity Plan
B, give it some time, come back again, and be a better son and
daughter. Explain why change your negotiating tactics in a similar
manner is do as well is like, Okay, why are they saying, you
know, why is this not being responded to? Is there something
I'm doing? Because I have to think about my concept again, is that
the procedure? Is it my it is, is it my spirituality, what is the
wisdom and you just keep on keep on keep on making that dua. And in
the process? Again, you will rediscover a new relationship with
Allah and maybe even form a bond that you never had, you all have,
have read the courtroom in New Jersey, which are my favorite
quotes in the book right
there in the Josie mentions that something was troubling me. And,
you know, the reason why this quote, resonated with me is
because I embodied it at that timeframe, right. Like I explained
to 10 minutes ago, 15 years ago, the type of relationship I myself
had with my Creator, that phase of my life. I mean, obviously, I
mean, I've had different, you know, phases and different
relationships, but I'm saying that had its own sweetness. You know,
I'm not saying I've never had any sweetness out of their choosing,
that was unique in my life. And I've never had that type of
specific relationship. So that quote of No, Josie actually
resonated with me, because I felt it. I felt a deep down inside
like, Oh my God, he's so Right. Like, if and when my dua is
answered, and it was answered, I'm not going to have this
relationship anymore. And I realized that even when I was in
the depths of not knowing if the dot will be answered or not
Subhanallah so that's why that quote is it remains the favorite
to this day of the whole book, because even though Josie himself
says that, I started making dua so passionately so powerfully, that I
began enjoying my newfound relationship with Allah more than
the validation of the DUA. And I realized if Allah validated my
dua, I lose that relationship. So even as I'm making do, I was
secretly hoping for a delay, because I realized I wouldn't have
that special talent and you know, again, that resonated with me
because I realized that that's actually me at the time. So
that's, it's it's incredible. We really harped on that point of
like how it no Josie was one of the examples of this
At literally how the reality of a person who reaches what we in the
Quran sometimes calls, knifes will multiply in that, that that level
of peace and Rayleigh, this happiness with ALLAH SubhanA wa
Tada, the mode of communication is actually the desired goal, right?
That what I want? Yes, hamdulillah Of course, I if I if I get it
hamdulillah Allah gave me what I asked for, if I didn't get it,
then at the same time, somebody love but I fear that after I, one
of my fears is after I get if I get what I want, I fear that this
phone call is now over. Right? And we gave the examples are sometimes
how you pick up the phone and you call some of your loved ones. And
you literally have nothing to talk about. There may there actually
may not be something that you have to ask them. But the reality is, I
just want to call because I love to hear the sound of your voice.
There's a connection that happens at the time that you know is not
going to happen after the Yes. And that's the two as well. There's a
connection with Allah subhana wa Tada that might not be there with
the twice. So yes, so you move on to another phone call in another
relationship but still appreciate what you have at that time and
understand that is a wisdom right there. That connection with Allah
is one of the main wisdoms of a delayed response of Hello. So, I
gotta I gotta ask this question though. All right, we're gonna get
a little technical here. But you did read a chapter and it's not
just a chapter obviously, it's there's Hadith about this about
how do IRA and culture are related. Obviously flooded is the
Divine Decree of Allah subhana wa Tada his in his infinite wisdom
and plan for a person in their life and what they will do and how
they will, how they will be in their life and their mannerisms.
But also, there's a hadith that mentions that dua is one of the
things that can actually possibly affect the color of Allah Subhan.
And I find this very interesting because much can be said on
Twitter. Of course, that is a topic that we all problematize
this since we soon as we start, you know our teenage years and
start thinking about other other will always be a topic that is
beyond the realm and grasp of our limited finite minds, we're never
going to fully grasp other and the more we think about it, the more
our mind is going to go in circles. And that's why the
Quranic language is simple. And the hadith is simple, because
there are certain things that are really beyond our pay grade. And
this is the number one example in our theology because other deals
with two concepts, both of which our finite minds can never
understand, number one, the infinite knowledge of Allah. And
number two, the infinite power and Quadra of Allah. Allah has
knowledge and Allah is wisdom. And Allah has power, right? That's
what clutter is. So our finite minds are never going to be in a
position to fully grasp the infinity of Allah's wisdom and
Allah is power. And Allah is hikma and Allah. So the notion of us
trying to deconstruct and understand itself is a level of
arrogance that and that's why no matter how much you study further,
and I speak as somebody who is an expert in theology, you're just
gonna have to in the end, submit. And all groups by the way, all
groups in the end they have issues there where you can fully
understand whether you're determinists whether you're you
know, fatalist, and of course, we're neither we're kind of in the
middle. As you know, as Sunnis we believe that Allah does decree but
Allah has also given us freewill. Now that's an oxymoron for an
intro to philosophy class, how can Allah decree and how could we have
free will, but that is exactly what we believe. Because we cannot
outsmart Allah. But at the same time, we are not robots. We know
we're not robots because we live our lives we know what is of our
volition, and what is involuntary? We know this, so our lives are
like this. So to summarize this point, I find it so fascinating,
that the one topic that we are told, can change further is dua.
So the only topic that we are told there might be others No, but that
we're not told them. The only topic we're told to the process,
some said that dua can change other.
What this hadith does, is it gives us a level of optimism while we're
making the other no other ritual possibly give us it's as if Allah
gifted us to her. Don't Don't despair, don't give up. Even if
it's written, your DUA has the potential to change what is
written, come on, what more do you want me? What more do you want,
right? Let's just leave it at that level and not compounded and go
circular. Just leave it at that level. Even if it's written. Our
Profit System said, your DUA has the power to change what is
written. If that's not going to motivate you to make dua properly,
then what else is going to motivate you? So it's beautiful
again, this is a profound theological and psychological gift
that Allah gave it. He didn't have to. And if it wasn't there, we
would have just been perplexed. What's the purpose of making we
would have just completely gone down this this rabbit hole work,
but our processing gave us a way out to show us the beauty and the
wisdom of dua that go ahead and make dua
Because dua has the power, the efficacy to actually change the
color itself. So Hamdulillah we thank Allah that he's gifted us a
weapon that can potentially be used within the realm of Allah. We
cannot outdo Allah's wisdom and other obviously at some level and
of course, I went into the technicalities, others changed by
Qatar, obviously because we can't outsmart Allah, right? In the end
of the day it is Allah azza wa jal, but still, Allah has other is
going to be changed by Allah as other when we make dua, and if we
had not made dua, then it would not be changed. So it gives us a
motivation, and a hope and a light at the end of any bleak tunnel. So
hello, I wanted to ask two questions to you that are a little
bit more personally reflective by nature. Number one, and we can
answer your kind of go at this one in sha Allah, which is what in
your realm of, you know, studying Islam for, you know, at this
point, decades now? What is your favorite dua from the Quran or the
Sunnah of the Prophet? So I tell them, you know, you know,
everybody, and again, this is the beauty of our religion, which is
that hamdulillah a lot of the preferences that we have within
the the different modes of our religion, whether it be sought
out, or examples from the Sahaba, etc, are really kind of
personality driven, right? Certain people, when they read the story
of our medical health, they're like, Wow, I see myself in that
personality type. When people read the story of like Arthur Mann, or,
you know, Mr. Albin, or Mara, they kind of align with that particular
personality type. And so the your favorite do almost kind of as
like, as he was my favorite, sorta, I know, like, so many. But
which one? Would you say that like, learn to Subhanak and
decontaminant Vitami of unis of the wheel,
either learn to Subhanak in the continental body, I mean, it's
just the psychology of that, too. I mean, knowing that I've fallen
short, knowing that I've disobeyed knowing that I'm sinful. And I
need a law, despite the fact that it seems hopeless. I'm trapped in
a whale in the middle of the night in the middle of the ocean. And
still, I'm not going to lose hope in Allah. And I know it's my
fault. I know, I shouldn't have done what I did. But still I have
to invoke you y'all. Just everything about the DUA in the
context of the TA. It appeals to me directly. Also, this idea of
accountability as well. Ability Yeah, because I think a lot of
people you know, it's hard to redirect the finger back at
yourself in a moment of desperation, right? You know,
there's eight different directions that you can think of as the
possible reasons to why you're where you are. Instead of saying
oh, you know, in the Clinton mental body mean right, it's
possibly it's me it's possibly it's me and that's why you know,
that door along even with the DUA Prophet Adam, it set up so
powerful by by, by literally the same sentiment, right? I mean, let
them tell fill you with our harmony, communal Hasini, Robin of
alumna and fusina, lm fildena, water Hamner, and then there's
also one of my hon Allah SubhanAllah. So
there was a particular thing that kind of hit me person a little bit
hard during your during the reading of this and kind of going
over some of the notes from it, which is the power and the beauty
that a person actually exhibits when they make dua for other
people. Right? One of the one of the elements of a person whose
eyes are accepted, are when they are actually frequent in their do
as they make for others. And obviously the Hadith of the
prophets I send them where he says that a person who makes dua
sincerely for others, there will be angels that essentially tell
ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. Yeah, they say mean to the door, and they
tell ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada, yeah, Allah give them something of a
similar value or a similar type to them. Right, so So I have a
question for you here.
Is there a dua that you feel and this is again, it might take a
little bit of time to think about, but is there a dua that you feel
that you've benefited from perhaps from another person, it's like
you're a parent or a family member who sincerely said, I used to tell
stories during the series about how I used to walk by my parents
room when I was like, in eighth grade, doing nothing with my life,
and just walking by and seeing my mother desperately engaging in her
worship. And I used to think to myself like to hunt a lot like
what she's so emotional about, right. And whenever I would, you
know, grow up and have conversations with her about these
particular moments and scenes from my memory. One of the things that
she would always say is my daughter has began and ended with
my kids. And
at that moment, and now from the law as a father, I almost like I
get it now life has come full circle, or hey, where I can't
imagine pouring out a DUA or making dua to Allah subhanho wa
Taala for a person other than me, sometimes when you're when you're
in seventh grade, eighth grade, even when you're kind of like in
your high school years. A lot of times you do make your dua for
yourself, and that's totally fine as John is it's allowed, but as
you grow older and mature as a person spiritually, you realize
the benefits of making dua for other people as well. So is there
a memory in your life that you have
where this kind of resonates with you a little bit? So before I
answer the question again, to reiterate exactly what you said,
because I see, or I'm assuming most of you in the audience are
not yet married, so just a word or spot,
assumption being made, which I think is valid, just the word of
wisdom, and I hope inshallah you take it to heart,
understandably, at this stage, as Sufi said, Brother, so he said
that you're going to be making dua for yourself, for your money for
your job, for your potential partner. Understandable, it is
what it is. Just wait until Allah blesses you with children. And all
of a sudden, you will realize there's nothing more precious than
your children. And all the dogs used to make become somewhat
trivial. Who cares if I get a new job or not a new car not. And you
will find subconsciously or the eyes are constantly going to be
going towards your children to the safety of your children, the
amount of your children that die of literally the lack of your
child, especially in the world that we live in. And that's when
your real maturity will begin
to understand what it is to be an actual adult, I say this all the
time, and we're not trying to be, you know, harsh here would not,
but you will never fully be an adult. And you will never fully
understand maturity, until Allah blesses you with a child to take
care of that's yours. The level you just switch, you become a
different person, literally, you become a different person. And
that level, and even emaan why spirit, and that's why you find so
many people live carefree lives until not when they get married,
until they have kids.
Having kids really does bring about a big change, and dua is one
of them. And I just subconsciously noticed this myself, like, you
know, before having kids, I mean, I rarely made dua about future
kids. Like, you're not thinking about that. But now, the number
one two are constantly in my mind is is my children, may Allah
protect them? May Allah guide them, may Allah bless them that
like you, just your love and your concern, your care is always for
them. And so back to your question, then, without a doubt,
in my mind, one of the reasons why I'm sitting here today doing what
I'm doing is to dua my mother and father, they have constantly made
to offer me and
ironically, and interestingly, I mean, this is a personal thing,
but I don't mind sharing it with you. Even when I was a child, my
father would make these bizarre to us about me, being you know,
somebody that's going to benefit this religion, and I'm just like,
be like, you know, what are you talking about, I just want to live
my life and play my computer games or whatever, you know, but he
would make these two hats for me, and my mother, constantly making
dies, you know, here I am. I didn't choose this path. And in
their wildest dreams, they could never have imagined this, you
know, but I still, you know, I have, you know, even my father
gifted me a book when I was
1314. And it's written in it, you know, it's a PhD done at
the Islamic University of
Islam about a very technical PhD, and I have it in my library, it's
a very personal thing I don't mind sharing with you have it in my
library, it's still there, dated 1987. I was 12 years old, you can
calculate my age, and it's written
12 years old. And it's written in that book, and I still have it.
May you one day write such books? And I remember reading this and
even as a 12 year old, like, yeah, you gotta be kidding me. Like, I
couldn't even understand that book. At that stage. I honestly
could not understand anything into it. Now, of course, I can fully
understand it, read it and critique it and benefits like a
different level, right? And I have written very, very simple books of
that nature, but that data is still there. Subhan Allah, Allah,
so yes, the dua of the parents for the children is extremely
effective. And so a day will come when you will also make dogs and
that's why our process I'm encouraged the dua of the parent
for the child is never rejected. So start making dua for your
future kids or young men and women make to offer them because you
will you will bank in on those dollars when you most need them
start making dua from now that Allah and this in the Quran Robin
I haven't done as well as you know, the reality inequality is
one of the Quranic dramas, right? Give us righteous children that
will bring comfort to us, right? It's in the Quran. So this is of
the Quran you guys are supposed to be making.
Inshallah, we're going to ask one more question, and I think it's
really important. And then what we're going to do is we're going
to break off for a little bit of audience q&a In sha Allah where
you'll be able to submit some questions and we're going to do
some live q&a rapid fire type of questions and answers insha Allah
Tada. The last question she asked her I that I wanted to kind of
personally ask you is, obviously you know, life would not be life.
If you didn't go back and think about, you know, what I could have
done differently, right?
Did I really do this the way that I should have done it or to do
this the way that I wanted to do it? And you know, we always give
this example, even as you know, young men and women, the majority
of people in this demographic are in college, you even looking back
four or five years ago, you look at a picture of yourself, you're
like, Why?
Why did I look like this? And why did I do what I did? Right? And
so, you know, now date back 20 plus years ago, when you wrote
this book, obviously, you know, you've mashallah have have moved
on in life several in several different ways. And, you know,
you've had, you know, your first child, and then obviously, a few
more after that, and you've gone through different cities in your
life, Memphis for a period of time, and now from the law in
Dallas. So when it comes to the book that you wrote, are there any
sort of possible things that you look back on and say that, you
know, I wish I'd done this differently? Or if I wish I could
have done that a little bit? No, overall, I'm overall very happy,
that book of Hamdulillah, but obviously, perfection is for Allah
subhanaw taala alone. And there are certain sections and chapters
that I feel didn't need to be there. Some of the, you know,
because at this at the time, I was obviously following a strand of
Islam that had certain theological views that are on the stricter
side, there was no need to problematize certain things that
are problematized. You know, I mean, to us suit issue, for
example, or other things of this nature, this is a technical issue.
It's not, it's not supposed to be in a spiritual book. But I felt
that we needed to put it in there. And it's a small issue is not a
big issue. But I just think that there's no need for technical,
advanced theological discussions in a simple book about the
spirituality of dA. So if I were to have changed, if I guess I
could do have, I could go back and change it now. But I mean, it's
not something wrong. It's just, or even if I even if I actually
disagree with my sentiment of 25 years ago, it's a trivial matter.
At the end of the day, there are two opinions. Can you do it the
west side or not? It's not a big deal. Those who choose to do it,
do it? Don't you know, the Western with the process? You know, I
mentioned in the book, do you enjoy that you went over that
section as well? Yeah. So I mean, you know, there's two opinions on
it. I took a very hardline stance in this regard. It is what it is.
And, obviously, the issue of the technical issue, which I didn't
mention that explicitly, but it is an important one, when does
invoking other than Allah actually become shirk. And of course, in
the book, I was very simplistic, and there's nothing wrong with
that, because it's an introductory level book. But obviously, some
more nuances required. And not every invoking automatically
becomes Schick. And that's obviously a nuance that
I would have, if I were to rewrite the book, I would just change that
language slightly. Because in the end of the day, and yes, I will be
very honest here. I am a theologian, I do have my views. I
don't want to open the door of calling others besides Allah, I
don't encourage it at all. And I know some groups do, I just don't,
but you don't also have to problematize it to the level that
I might have been 25 years ago. So minor issues, more of a technical
nature that I think didn't need to be discussed in a book that is
about the etiquettes of Dawn hamdulillah sha Allah. So we're
going to do now is we're going to cut off the live stream in sha
Allah. And we're going to open up the Apple TV behind me so we can
show let's see the the QR code or the q&a link on the screen. So in
sha Allah, if everyone can grab their phones and head on