Safi Khan – Soul Food Imam al Ghazali’s Advice to Youth How to know that Allah is pleased you.
AI: Summary ©
The importance of revelation and finding the right advice is emphasized in the conversation. The speakers emphasize the need for a relationship and fixing mistakes, while also emphasizing the importance of finding the right advice and finding the right advice. The importance of focusing on one's life and not just trying to discount advice is emphasized, as it is valuable and subhanous. The speakers also discuss the benefits of spending time on Instagram and prioritizing one's interests, and stress the importance of learning to be a Muslim and finding authentic sources for the church's teachings.
AI: Summary ©
Send revelation to be a necessity in terms
of, like, our existence
is that it gives us guidance to what
we know to be like the straight path
or the right path. Okay?
Now we talked about this last week. Is
it possible for somebody to be able
to do good deeds and to do good
things without knowing
the Quran or any revealed text. Is it
possible? Yeah. We all agreed that it's possible.
You know somebody who has never heard of
the Quran before,
can give charity.
Right? Somebody who has never heard of who
Muhammad SAW Salam is, can do the right
thing. Right? Can be kind, can forgive, all
of that.
But
we understand
revelation as being necessary
because the outcome is so critical.
Your entire existence, your afterlife,
the the meaning of your purpose on this
earth
is so dependent upon knowing with certainty.
That you don't wanna leave up the chance.
Right? Just like the example we gave last
week, was that if you're turning in a
final exam,
or if you're booking a ticket somewhere
or if you're submitting a payment to something
and it's like a very critical
transaction, a very critical moment, you're not gonna
leave it up to chance.
Because you need to make sure with certainty
that that's going to happen. And so when
we think of our afterlife,
we understand revelation,
the Quran, the life of the prophet
as being something that gives us that level
of certainty. It gives us conviction, confidence. Right?
So,
Imam Al Azadi very lovingly, he
the first response he gave to his student
was he said that, you know, you if
you have all these questions,
that's fine.
But he said,
you need to
first
become
familiar
with the guidance that Allah is trying to
send you.
And if you have questions in life
and you have not consulted
the Quran
and you haven't learned about the life of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
then his answer was what can I do
to help you? What can I do? But
if you have consulted it,
Imam al Ghazali being very humble said if
you have then you won't need
me. Right? Then you won't need me. So
his answer was kind of twofold. Number 1
was that we have to realize
just how important it is to have a
relationship
with
the Quran in our life. We have to
understand that. And it's not only for a
certain class of people. It's not only for
a certain group of people. Right? It is
for everybody to be able to reach, even
people
who are not Muslim. Have you guys ever
heard of a quote that was inspiring to
you, but it wasn't a religious quote? Anybody?
Yeah.
There's tons of them. Right?
Like all the fake Rumi quotes on the
Internet.
Okay. Or there's like quotes from like Socrates
or Plato or like Confucius. All these like
individuals and they're like inspiring. They cause you
to reflect. They're very reflective.
So it's possible
and it's actually
hopeful
that everybody on the earth can find benefit
from Quran and from Hadith,
even if they themselves are not yet Muslim.
It's a message for all of humankind,
not just for Muslims.
So that's what Imam Ghazali said. Develop a
relationship. Right? Start to read it. How would
you know where the answers are if you
don't have a relationship with it? That was
his point.
Now the second
the second chapter, you guys have the cards?
Everyone have them? Okay.
So we're
gonna read inshallah,
the second advice that he gives. And the
the advice the same advice that he gives
is a different subject altogether.
Okay?
So what is what does he say? Who
wants to read for us from the guys?
Any of the guys wanna read?
Nice and loud.
You wanna read? Just gonna lie, go ahead,
nice and loud.
Okay. So this is another short section. And
the letters get longer, by the way. This
is like the the introduction.
So we have a lot of very heavy
stuff here that Imam Ghazali gives us. Number
1,
is he says
that
That from all of the different kinds of
advices that the prophet gave.
And the word nasiha by the way is
very interesting in the Arabic language.
The word nasaha, one of the words for
that you find derived from this word which
means to give advice,
nasiha
nasiha
is the word minsaha.
Minsaha actually is one of the colloquial words
for a needle, a needle and thread.
Because one of the jobs of advice just
like you use with needle and thread is
to patch up holes in clothing.
So you use a needle and thread. If
you see something wrong, if there's a tear
or a rip in your clothes, then you
take a thread and a needle, you thread
it through and you patch it up. Right?
I know everyone here probably has like a
a a grandmother or an aunt that can
do this. Right?
So
in this way, Naseemha is meant to patch
you up.
Like when somebody advises you,
they're doing it because
there's a gap. There's something that needs to
be patched up and they're doing it lovingly.
Now remember this,
just like the needle and the thread are
necessary to fix the hole in your clothes,
the needle has to puncture through.
Okay?
If the clothing
had nerves, do you think that'd be comfortable
or not?
No, it's not.
Right? The needle puncturing through the thread
is not the most comfortable
idea. I mean, if you imagine for those
of you who've gotten like piercings before,
it's not very
comfortable. Okay?
But is it necessary in order for the
the repair to happen?
It is necessary.
So in that way,
advice
is not always
the most
sweet feeling.
It's not. Sometimes it's not so bad.
Sometimes the thread and the needle only needs
to go through once or twice and that's
it. Quick fix.
But sometimes
the repair or the fix need is so
complex
that it's going to be quite long.
So when you get advice,
don't ever discount the advice
on behalf of the fact that it's not
comfortable.
If somebody advises you or gives you advice,
don't ever throw it away just because it
doesn't make you feel comfortable right away
because that's not the job of advice.
The job of advice is to fix you,
and everybody needs fixing.
So if somebody comes up to me and
says, you know, Abdulrahman,
you know, you I see on your Instagram
that you're eating
a lot of steak, a lot of burgers,
a lot of red meat,
and you're not exactly Michael Phelps,
right? You're not like the the the image
of a of a
of a fit person,
maybe you should cut back a little bit
and substitute those steaks for some vegetables.
Now when I think of what this person
is saying,
it's a little bit offensive.
Okay, I'm working on it.
Okay, this sweater hasn't fit in a while,
so alhamdulillah, I was able to put it
on tonight.
Can't wait to go home and peel it
off.
Right?
But at the same time,
does the pain or does the discomfort, does
that invalidate what they're saying?
Does it make it less correct?
Maybe some people don't say it as nice
as they could.
Maybe there's a way to say it that's
a little bit more
smooth.
But Imam Al Ghazali one time said something
very powerful. He said, never discount
the advice of somebody
just because of who they are.
Never discount it. And the the example he
gave was he said,
even a person who struggles with alcohol
can tell you not to drink.
And that's a very interesting statement because
in our time, when somebody criticizes or gives
us advice,
the first thing we do to discredit their
advice is say what?
Look at you.
Who are you to tell me this?
You know, this person tells you, hey, maybe
you should call your parents more. And you
say,
okay, yeah, nice of you to give me
advice.
But the person says, hey, maybe you should
do this and you say, what do you
know about that?
Right? But in reality, subhanAllah, Imam Al Ghazali
would say that coming back at that person
like that and challenging them
instead of listening to what they're saying, he
would say that that's a problem with your
heart. You can't take the advice. You're too
busy focusing on who they are. So he
said, even an alcoholic can tell you don't
drink.
And in some ways, an alcoholic would know
more why you shouldn't than someone who didn't.
So he begins here by saying that the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is gonna give
you some advice.
Some nasiha.
Now this we've already covered,
when we hear it,
it may not make us feel so
warm and fuzzy,
but that's not its ultimate goal. So what
does he say? He says,
that from the signs that Allah has turned
away
from His servants,
that this person,
that they they continuously
and always occupy themselves,
and they constantly
busy themselves
with things that don't actually matter to them.
How many of
you guys can admit
that this is something that you struggle with?
How many of you guys struggle
with focusing on things that actually don't matter
to your life? Anybody?
Anybody courageous enough to admit it? Okay. Can
you give me an example? What's something that
you struggle with
in terms of you focus on something, you
give something time from your life, your day,
and a reality at the end of the
day, it didn't really affect you at all.
What's an example of this?
Yeah, Mora?
Video games. Video games. Okay. Could be could
be an example. This Hadid is talking more
specifically about maybe something a little bit more
problematic.
Because video games, you could argue a couple
different things.
Right? Like, it's halal in Islam for a
person to have recreation.
As long as the game is okay, then
it's fine.
Right?
This is talking more so about people who
occupy themselves
with
other the the the lives of other people
or the things of other people
that have no benefit whatsoever.
Anyone else have an example? That's a good
start. Anyone else? Yeah.
Okay.
Who recently got divorced, guys? Which celebrities?
Kanye. Why does that matter to anybody?
And I'm not I knew too, by the
way. Right? I'm not trying to call you
out. She's like, I'm never going to volunteer
and answer again.
Why does that does it matter to anybody?
Did that affect you? Like, Like, did you
go to sleep at night and you're like,
subhanAllah, what are we gonna do?
Like, how are we gonna solve this? Who's
gonna take care of it? Who's gonna live
in that weird clay house that they have?
You know?
I wonder if they're gonna sell it. You
know, like, did did you did it occupy
your life?
Are there more important things for us to,
like, dedicate our time and mind to? You
know, your time is so valuable, subhanAllah. Your
time is so valuable that it's the most
valuable thing that you have. It's more valuable
than money because of that time you can't
even enjoy money
or you can't even spend it. If you
don't have time, it's pointless. You know?
I remember, actually,
I was sitting with, a middle school kid
in a different city, and we're doing, like,
a small halaqa like this.
And, I asked him about, like, you know,
how's his relationship with his dad? It was
like a we went around the circle around
the table, and he started crying like a
middle school boy,
8th grader. And I remember being like, what's
wrong? And he said that, you know, my
dad they come from, like, I guess, a
well-to-do family. His dad's a physician. But I
guess his dad works, like, 8 days a
week or something, like, nonstop.
And so he said, like, my dad basically
buys me all this stuff,
you know, like video game consoles, sports equipment,
whatever I want. But he's like, I just
want him to be home for dinner.
So I I never forget that story, man,
partially because how many of you guys remember
middle school?
Like, it'd be hard to admit that in
middle school in 8th grade. I mean, it'd
be hard to admit it now. A lot
of you guys feel uncomfortable. I'm not even
talking about you. Like, yeah, it's just some
random person. A lot of you guys are
like, oh, god. This is uncomfortable. You know,
like, fidgeting.
Imagine an 8th grade boy opening up like
that. So that must have really been weighing
on him very heavily. Right? Number 2 is
that I never forget it because he basically
said, like, I have everything that I want,
but I never see my dad.
So time is so much more valuable than
money in the sense that you really can't
buy anything back with money. You can't buy
your time back. Right?
So that's number 1. Celebrities, social media.
Okay. Like, we know things about people that
really
them occupying real estate in our minds and
hearts is irrelevant to us.
What else?
What are some other examples of
becoming occupied with things that really don't apply
or matter for you?
Yeah. Gossip.
Okay. What example? Good example. Nice.
Like what's an example of gossiping?
You can make something up.
This girl Uh-huh.
If she's cheating, like, what are they gonna
do with
Did you hear?
So and so,
we saw them
getting pakoras with so and so.
We caught them. Right?
And, I actually had a friend in Chicago.
He used to go around and he used
to when he caught people,
when he caught Muslims, like, on dates,
he would go up to them and he'd
be like he would, like, hide behind the
bush in the restaurant
and then he'd be like, got you. Right?
He would, like, yell at them.
Yeah. We were kinda wild. I didn't do
it. He did it. I was I just
drove the car.
So
although that's illegal too out here.
So, anyways
so, yeah, like, people literally sit
in gatherings and discuss
the romantic lives
of people in their life or in their
social circle, in their community.
And what does that accomplish?
Did you become better
through that conversation?
Did you become more knowledgeable? Did you become
more productive? Did you even become, like I
don't know. What measure of success? Did you
become wealthier? No. What did you do? You
just spent half an hour and I just
spent half an hour
talking about maybe a mistake that somebody's making.
What was the benefit of it?
Good example. Anyone else?
So these are yeah. I don't know if
you're scratching your face or you're kinda, like,
on the way. You're really efficient.
Interesting.
The ones who kinda like to start drama.
By the way, it always ends up being
the people who say that they hate drama.
Right?
They're like, I hate drama. It's like, then
why does it follow you around so much?
Anyways,
yeah, people who like to start conflict. So
maybe it's not like dating or this and
that, but it could be, you know, life's
getting a little bit boring and so they
start to make up some things or do
you see how that person looked at you?
Or they'll send you a screenshot.
Oh, I don't know. Do you see what
this person said? Right? Now, again,
what actual tangible benefit is that providing? So
this is what the hadith is talking
about. Now here's the crazy part. We're focusing
a lot on the second half, which is
what
occupying yourself with things that don't actually matter
to you. But what does the first part
say?
One of the signs that
they are all the law to turn away
because Allah is not like human beings, He
doesn't have a corporeal material reality, so we
don't imagine Allah turning away.
But what does it mean when you walk
in the house and you say, salaamu alaykum
to your parents, you say hi to your
parents, and they don't respond, they just look
the other way. What does it mean?
They're mad, very good. If you walked in
and you saw your friends, say hey, Salaik,
what's up? And they didn't even answer, they
just looked the other way. Means what? I
don't wanna see you right now.
So that's what this is saying. The prophet
is saying that if a person wants to
know
if Allah is happy with them or not,
just ask yourself one question. How much of
my time do I spend occupied on other
things that don't matter?
Do I sit and scroll
and learn information? Do I know more about
the marriages of celebrities than I know about
the life of my messenger?
Do I know more about the personal lives
of my friends
than I know about
what my siblings or my parents like or
don't like? Like, do I know more about
these things that really don't matter? Now you
could spend time
occupied with learning about your parents, and that
actually matters. That actually helps you. You know
what I mean? It actually causes you to
grow closer to one another, allows you to
have meaningful conversations. It's not awkward anymore. Right?
Or spending time with your siblings.
For me, having children, like, taking my kids
out for ice cream. There have been times
where my wife and I are sitting and
talking about something
and 5 minutes into it we look at
each other and we say,
you know, this would be better off just
making dessert
dessert with our kids. Like, What are we
talking about even? Not that we're backbiting, but
we're just kinda like, what's the point of
talking about this? Right?
And
I grew up around a lot of people
and a few of them have this amazing
characteristic.
You wanna know what it is? It took
a lot of courage for them to have
this characteristic.
When they were in a gathering when people
would start to backbite,
they would just call it out.
Like, I had friends. My brother actually was
one of these guys too.
If we were in a gathering and people
start talking about so and so you know,
how do you handle when someone starts backbiting
in your in your gathering? How do you
handle it if backbiting starts happening?
What's the normal response?
Anybody? It's kinda what this is right now.
Yeah. We kinda just let it go. You
know? Like, somebody says, like, oh, so and
so.
Did you see that or did you hear
that was, you know, this? And we kinda
just sit there and we're like, okay. And
maybe you jump in because you don't like
that person or maybe you stand back because
you're like, it doesn't really bother me. But
I had friends that would literally be like,
why are you talking about that?
Or they would be like, stop backbiting. They
would just say it point blank, Bala'i was
like the most awkward thing in the world.
But it was so amazing that they had
that kind of courage.
And then what they would do is they
would actually try to repair the person's honor
by actually saying something nice about
them. And that's actually one of the remedies
for backbiting is that whenever you wanna say
something bad about somebody, you should, in fact,
try to find something good about them. And
instead of focusing on the bad, say the
good. So these are all examples of signs
that Allah
has turned away from us, meaning that he's
no longer interested
in us in that way. He's not happy
with us. He's not pleased.
So what's one way that you know that
Allah is happy with you is that you
use your time for things that benefit you.
And it doesn't have to be only reading
Quran and hadith. It doesn't have to be
very explicitly strict religious activities.
It can be any kind of thing that's
good for you and your relationships and your
home and your faith.
Like Murad mentioned video games. It could video
games could be good.
Right? If you're not violating anything in Islam,
if you're playing with your friends or siblings,
if you're not missing your prayers, there's no
problem with that.
Right?
So these things have to be taken into
consideration. So that's the first thing he says.
He's advising his student. Don't waste your time.
Don't waste your time.
How many of you have scrolled on TikTok
and at the end of that session, you're
like, that was way too long?
Anybody?
How many of you are brave enough to
look at your screen time information
right now? Anybody?
I challenge you.
You guys got it?
I'm gonna open it up. You ready?
I'm gonna be honest with you. I
don't even know where to find it. I
avoid it.
Where do you find it? Scroll.
Scroll. You know. Oh, I see. I'll just
start screen time.
Okay, guys.
See all activity.
Okay. Now I I have to begin by
admitting something.
My kids use my phone for watching YouTube,
So there's, you know, there's a lot of
that on there.
Alright. So let's see.
So this week what's today? Thursday.
This week so far,
I have spent
okay. This is a lot. Oh, you know,
why can we stream on Instagram? That's why.
It's not like this. This is streaming. 9
hours this week on Instagram.
9 hours. So even if you take away
a couple hours for streaming our classes, that's
still, like, 6 hours, dude.
That's way too much. 6 hours.
That's, like, 3 amazing naps.
Like, what am I doing?
On messages,
5 hours.
Who has more than that on messages?
What do you got, CJ? I said that.
That's more than an hour a day.
It's only
Thursday.
Anyone got more?
Everyone's so shy.
Who's got more for Instagram? Who's got Instagram?
Anyone? Ask who's got TikTok. TikTok. Yeah. Sorry.
I'm not I I don't really watch TikToks.
My TikTok is 1 hour this week. It's
just a video that Safi sends me.
Like how to clean rust off of your
forks. It's like weird stuff. Okay. Who has
more for TikTok?
What do you
12 hours on TikTok this week? Allahu Akbir.
That's amazing.
That's anybody else? This is all anonymous by
the way, nobody knows.
You got 1? Yeah.
7, okay. It's like an hour a day.
12, man.
It's like your job.
It's amazing.
Okay? And there's people here on the comments
saying, like, y'all don't wanna start where I
like,
so why did I do this exercise? Not
to embarrass people. Why did I tell you
guys?
Because I wanna show you guys that it's
a problem that we all struggle with.
All of us misuse the time that Allah
has given us
in some way, okay? And that doesn't mean
that like, oh my God, all of us
are guilty. We need to turn our lives
around. But what it means is look,
we make time for whatever we love.
We make time for whatever matters to us.
Okay?
And so it's not a matter of not
having time. It's a matter of not prioritizing
the right things.
If you don't value the right things,
you're not gonna find it anywhere on your
schedule.
So if you value something, all of a
sudden, you're gonna find it a lot more
common in your life.
And that's what the hadith is saying.
Things that don't matter to you.
Your homework this week is to cut out
the things that don't matter to you.
If you have to delete an app, delete
the app.
If it's literally just a black hole of
things that don't contribute to your existence,
then get rid of it.
Right?
Don't let it continuously and passively
drain away all of your life.
Okay?
The next section he says,
and this is not a hadith by the
way, sorry. This is from,
this is a statement of somebody else
that he says,
that if there's a person
This is scary dude. This man, I've never
read this statement in the context of what
we just did. Looking at screen time and
then reading this.
Then he says,
He said that this is from it's interesting
who said this had that been Yousef. It's
kinda interesting if you knew if you know
his history.
He said that if there was a person
that let a single hour go by in
their life
Someone lose their phone?
Okay. No problem.
If there was a person who let a
single hour pass by in their life
for for something beyond the reason or other
than the reason why they were created,
then he says that it is
befitting. It makes sense
that that person is going
to have
their,
like, their anxiety and their grief
prolonged.
Basically, procrastination.
How many of you guys procrastinate?
So almost everybody and then the few that
are still gonna raise their hand tomorrow go,
yeah, I do. Okay?
Everyone procrastinate. And what what is really the
problem for procrastination? What is it? You're avoiding
the
inevitable.
You're avoiding the inevitable.
It has to happen.
It's something that has to happen.
Right?
Why are you avoiding it?
Last night, my kitchen was dirty.
And I was in my kitchen, and I
had the sponge in my hand. And my
sink was full of dishes, and I was
getting ready to wash. And you know what
came across my mind? So, Ajiv, very interesting.
So, you know, why don't you just go
lay down for 5 minutes?
And then I, like, I had this internal
dialogue. I was like, why?
You're already here.
What are you doing? And I realized that
procrastination
is just the it's the ultimate it's like
the plant of poison in our lives,
man. It only grows and causes you pain.
It's like thorns.
If I did that, I would have inevitably
apparently got on Instagram for another 9 hours,
and I would have been stuck there and
then I'll look up at my watch or
my clock on my whatever and it says
1 AM and I look at my kitchen,
it's still dirty. I didn't get the things
I needed to get done done.
And all for what?
For what?
So this statement subhanAllah is reminding you that
you have a purpose on this earth.
Your purpose is not just to eat and
sleep and repeat. That's not your purpose.
Allah created animals for that. That's what they
do. That's why in the Quran, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala compares
human beings to animals.
And he says that animals,
they do what they're supposed to do.
They live,
they eat, they sleep,
they go to the bathroom, they procreate, whatever.
They do what they're designed to do. And
then God says, how interesting is it that
there are human beings who try their best
to emulate that lifestyle?
He's like, Ajib, so strange.
Right?
So that's what this statement is saying. And
then the final statement,
he says,
If
you reached 40
dang, I'm almost there, dude. I'll turn 33
next week.
I'm old.
I used to read this. When I first
read this book, I remember hearing Adarai, and
I was like, I got time.
And now I'm like, oh my god.
Okay.
That basically whoever reaches 40 years old in
their life,
and when they look at all of the
good and all of the bad, they find
that their good is greater than their bad,
he says, man,
you better get yourself ready for the fireman.
He said, you know, it's powerful because have
you guys ever really tried to break a
habit that you've had for a long time?
What's a habit you tried to break that
you've had for a long time?
I'll share first. Mine is biting my nails.
My mom, as a kid growing up, was
like, man, there's, like, so many people nodding
their heads. This is like a intervention, it
feels like.
Like, y'all planned this.
You're like, we're here
to tell you to stop. So my mom
when I was a kid, I remember specifically
when I was, like, 8, 9, I used
to bite my nails.
And she used to tell me
exactly the statement.
She used to say, if you don't stop
now, you're never gonna stop.
And I was like, relax.
It was like a scared straight
talk show.
You know what I mean? Like, they put
the kid in prison for 1 night and
they take him out. They're like, if you
don't stop now, you're never gonna stop.
I was like, mom, relax. It's not that
serious.
I'm
33 years old. And when I get really
nervous and really anxious and I have a
lot of thoughts in my head about things
that are uncertain,
I find myself starting to bite on my
nails a little bit. Right? Even though I
know that it's not good, even though I
know that it's not the best in terms
of, you know, whatever, hygiene and all that.
But SubhanAllah,
man, habits die hard.
Anyone else got a habit?
Oh, I got another one.
This is just therapy for me, I'm just
talking to you guys. The late night bowl
of cereal, anyone else got that one? Oh
my god. Wallahi, it tastes 10 times better
than cereal when the sun's out.
Cereal at night, there's just something about it,
dude.
Amazing. I don't even need dessert anymore. Like,
I don't need any dessert things in my
I just have a late night bowl of
cereal. Anyone else, bad habit that you got?
Yeah.
Late night. Oh, I used to have that,
then I got married.
And now it's just late night like cooking.
But late night Taco Bell runs. What's your
order of choice?
Okay.
Baja blast?
Of course. But they're they're discontinuing it. Right?
I heard they're discontinuing it. Baha blast is
like American zum zum.
Baha Blast, you guys ever have Baha
Blast?
No one's responding with enough emotion. It's literally
the best
it's the best soft drink ever created. I
think that they put them in it. Like,
it's so phenomenal.
Go tonight to Taco Bell on the way
home and get Baja Blast.
Disappointing.
Disappointed.
Baja Blast is the best. Okay? We have
some people here on the comments saying night
owl. Anyone here stay up later than they
know they should?
God, man. It's the worst. It's the worst.
What else?
Other bad habits that die hard. We have
someone commenting, Baja Blast is so good. You
win a prize. Send me your email, Trevor.
Yeah. I've been trying to stay off my
phone before I get to sleep. I've been
trying to stay off of my phone before
I go to sleep. Stay off your phone
before you go to sleep. Why? Because I
know this I've been trying to fix my
sleep schedule and if I'm on my phone,
I'm not going to sleep till, like, today.
Yep.
Trying to fix the sleep schedule on the
phone. And you know the brain, it's Ajib.
Like, we think that the brain works like
light switches. Like, okay, I'm just done. Go
to sleep. But your brain is so it's
just a processing heavy
organ
that all of that data and information that
you just witnessed on your phone,
you know, like, you can't control it. Like,
for the next 20 minutes or so, you're
gonna be thinking about things, whether it's conscious
or whether it's subconscious, whether it's
active or latent. Like, your mind is still
processing things.
Right? That's why you put your phone, and
you start to think about the things that
you have to do the next day or
whatever because your mind is still catching up.
So all of these things, the reason why
we're sharing this is because
what Adi raha illaha is saying
is he's saying that if you can't get
your right by the time you're 40,
by the time you're 40,
then he he says, man, it would take
a miracle to fix you.
It would take a miracle. How many of
you guys are 20 years old?
20 or above.
I'm telling you guys, I'm telling you,
life flies by. And it's not about reaching
40.
How many of y'all heard this statement and
you're like, okay, 39 is why I'm gonna
work on myself.
You know, that procrastination.
The reality is man subhanAllah, if you push
a boulder in one direction for 10 years,
how long will it take you to push
it back?
10 years at least, because you're not accounting
for fatigue.
Might take longer.
If you have a habit for 20 years,
how long is it gonna take you to
break that habit?
Allah knows man.
Sometimes he's merciful and he gives
us barakah and blood and we can break
it quickly, right?
But sometimes it's not that easy.
And so this section
is amazing. And that's why he said
In this advice,
it is sufficient for those people who have
knowledge.
Like, I don't have to basically saying, let
me just drop 3 quotes on you. I
don't have to say anything else. You know
what the deal is.
What is this section about tonight?
Valuing your time, dude.
The only way that you're gonna improve your
life is by understanding the value of your
time
and taking advantage of it. So number 1,
don't work against the straight path.
Many of us are on it, but we're
going the other way.
We're on it because we know what way
to go. We just choose to go the
other way.
Right? The second thing that he mentioned is
what?
That
don't
don't make insignificant
even the smallest decision that you make.
Even 1 hour,
don't make that insignificant. That hour can change
everything.
And the third
is
work on yourself before it's too late.
If you start to work on yourself,
then you will have the strength and the
discipline
as you get older to become the best
version of yourself that you never thought you
could achieve. But if you don't, it becomes
infinitely harder to change
those characteristics that you didn't want to have
in the first place. And
give us the ability to listen to this
advice and to follow and practice it.
And, we'll go ahead and open it up
to some questions for the next 10 minutes.
Alright.
Is this a hadith or not? The card
says the prophet said the statement.
So the first one is a hadith.
The second one is a statement of a,
like, a historical figure, and the third one's
a statement of Ali Ghulhan. So, technically, the
second and third are not hadith. Just the
first
one.
Okay. What's the next question?
How do I end my addiction to *?
I've tried so many times, but it still
creeps up on me. This is something, by
the way, that's
very there was a a survey that was
taken
back in,
oh, man, like, 2008 or something
at a Islamic conference that I attended. They
had an anonymous survey, and they found that
there was somewhere upwards of, like, 80%
of men and, like, 40% of women admitted
to struggling with *.
And so this is and that's the only
the people that would admit it.
This is something that is, like I think
they've done so many studies on it, and
they found that the effects that it has
on the brain are similar to, like, hard
drugs.
The way that it rewires our our our
circuitry and the way that it it it
it becomes the only thing that achieves a
certain level of of dopamine release, etcetera.
So my advice to anybody is that, look,
treat it like you would any other chemical
addiction.
Treat it like you would treat any other
substance addiction,
which is what? You need to have
a support system
around you. You first need to admit that
it's a problem.
Secondly, you need to have a support system
around you, good family and good friends that
you would rather
spend your time with. And third,
is that if you wanna take it seriously
and you wanna actually beat any addiction,
you have to take behavioral shifts and changes
into your life into account.
Right? I have friends who have never struggled
with *, but they have rules
for themselves so that they don't fall into
it.
They themselves have said, Alhamdulillah, like, I've never
had an issue with it, but I'm not
gonna put myself in a situation where I
can fall into it. So they have things
like,
they only use
their computers in, like, public areas in their
house.
Like, they don't use their laptop in bed
or something. They it's all in the living
room. Right?
And they also have
restrictions
on their apps for content
that's not safe for work,
Right? Which for us is not safe for
us at all.
Right?
But when it says not safe for work
or when something is impermissible,
then it's important to realize that that stuff
goes into your heart through your eyes.
And this is one of the problems with
TikTok is that it's basically just *.
Right? It's basically just software *. Right? And
it gets a person's psyche
tuned for this stuff. So this is
social media is really really dangerous. And we
gotta be really really careful with that. So
number 1, commit to it. Number 2, spend
your time in other ways
that take you away from that.
Number 3, set up systems in your life
where you don't engage with that stuff. Like
block certain apps or certain accounts or certain
whatever
that you know is going to be something
that will lead you to struggle with that.
And of course, make dua to Allah Ta'ala
to grant you the strength to be able
to conquer in trauma.
Any advice on breaking bad habits that don't
that just don't stay broken?
Any duas or stories from the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam?
I mean there's there's definitely
duas that you can make.
That, oh, Allah, don't allow our hearts to
go astray after you've guided us. Right? So
this is one.
Make
my heart firm on your religion.
So there's some that review that that talk
about like keeping the heart steadfast
and firm. Those are good duas to make.
And what's the next one?
Can an individual of the l b LGBTQ
plus community convert to Islam? Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Does Islam
have,
any preconditions for a person becoming Muslim except
that they believe in Allah on this messenger?
No.
Right?
But does Islam allow
for different lifestyles that are not compatible with
the Islamic worldview?
Do they allow that to become part of
Islam? No.
So anybody can become a Muslim of course,
without a doubt.
But does that mean that we integrate
different
lifestyles and different maybe whether it's a choice
or not, that's up for debate. Do we
integrate that into theology or into our practice
as something that's permissible? We don't.
So it'll still be considered,
right, engaging in
homosexual activity is still considered a sin,
but that person is just committing a sin
just like other people commit sin.
And they're still of course absolutely,
they should be Muslim.
Right? They should. Because that's the path of
pleasure of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, God Almighty.
So yes, the answer is yes.
Okay?
Alrighty.
Any other questions from the audience while we're
here?
Yeah.
Really good question, that's awesome.
So there is an entire
subject called Urlum al Quran, the sciences of
the Quran.
And in that subject, in that category, you're
gonna find the history
of revelation and compilation.
So it's an it's an entire subcategory
in Islamic study, in Islamic studies.
So the question is,
how did the Quran come down
and how did it achieve the order that
it's in?
Okay, like the the surah order, right? 1
through 114.
The answer is that,
the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam started receiving
revelation
at the age of 40 years old.
So from, from birth until 40, he did
not receive Qur'anic revelation.
He did not receive any Quranic revelation. Then,
at the age of 40 is when the
momentous historic
first revelation happened in the cave of Hera,
with the famous
That was the first time the prophet received
Quran.
Okay? Now what we know about Surat Al
Adha is that it is not chapter 1.
It's actually chapter
87.
I forgot what chapter is exactly, I think
it's 87.
So Surat Al Aq, which was the first
chronological
revelation,
is not the first in the book.
So it's interesting.
In fact,
the first in the book is Surat Al
Fatiha and then after that is Surat Al
Baqarah,
and those come from later
in the chronology.
So Surat Al Baqarah is Medini.
Okay?
So how did this organization happen?
Is the organization
human decision or is it divinely decided? Like
how?
The answer is actually pretty straightforward. The Quran
was revealed over 23 years from 40 to
63 when the prophet
passed away.
In that time,
Jibril,
the angel who brought it from Allah Ta'ala
from the heavens to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, would teach Quran to the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So he would teach
him and they had a,
they had a Whenever they revealed they would
have a
teaching session, like a class session. Okay?
And at the end of that session, the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, Jibril would tell
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that this
passage that you learned today
goes before this or after this.
So he would be telling him along the
way.
Every year in the month of Ramadan,
Jibreel used to come to the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam
and every year they would recite everything from
the Quran that had been revealed up until
that point.
Yes.
Yes. So every year Ramadan,
they would review
all the Quran that had been revealed up
until that point.
So every year.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam effectively
reviewed the Quran, not only when he learned
it, but he reviewed it every year for
23
years.
In the final year of his life, before
he passed away,
Jibril reviewed it with him twice.
And he was told
during their revision, their reviewing
that this Surah is this and this because
they had to read the whole Quran together.
So it was in fact divinely
the tarteeb as they call it, the order
was in fact a product of Allah's design.
It was not
random and compiled later by,
the minds of human beings.
So it's interesting because
It's interesting because
you would assume that the Quran
chronologically, like why don't we just compile it
how it was revealed?
But in order to understand that answer, you
have to know that the Quran came down
in many different forms. Number 1 was it
came down in general advice. Number 2, it
came down in response to certain situations.
So something happened and the Quran would come
and respond to that.
And
so having it in chronology
wouldn't effectively
complete
what the same message that the Quran is
having today.
So it was sent down
in a certain order, but it was compiled
in a different order and both of them
are considered
revealed by Allah in that way.
Yeah. Good question. Wow, that was awesome.
Yes.
Okay.
So the question is,
you know, and there's a specific example that's
given talking about the existence of a of
a person in the grave, not just the
there's not just punishment, but there's also reward
in the grave as well. There's also all
kinds of,
different, like,
experiences that human soul have. But the question
is, where did we learn about this
and how do we affirm this? Okay.
So when it comes to Islamic knowledge, we
only believe in things that we've been told.
We don't
imagine or come up with things and say,
you know what, this sounds about right. When
we come up with our theology, our creed,
we have to have
authentic reliable sources,
either from the scripture itself, the Quran
or the life of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam. Now why are those 2, when
it comes to establishing proof, why are they
considered equal? The Quran and the life of
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam? Well, because
the Quran provided
the framework
and the Quran actually commanded
the reader of the Quran to look at
the life of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam for details.
So for example, the Quran tells us to
pray, but it never tells us how to
pray exactly.
The Quran tells us the general steps of
making wudu, but it doesn't tell us how,
it doesn't tell us how, what number.
The Quran talks about Hajj, doesn't cover the
details of Hajj.
Ramadan doesn't tell us everything that breaks your
fast. So there's all these different aspects where
the Quran
talks about like the high level conversation.
And then Allah Ta'ala says over and over
again,
you know,
obey Allah and his messenger.
17 times that phrase is mentioned in the
Quran.
Or
If you love Allah then follow me. Allah
is telling the messenger, Tell people if you
love God then follow me. Right?
And so,
the Quran is actually instructing everybody that look,
you have to take this man's life
as an example. It's not just He's not
just a mailman.
He's not just bringing a book and he's
like, here you go. Have a nice day.
That's that's not what it's like.
The reason I'm giving you this preface is
because
there are some things that we know about
our existence on this earth and in the
afterlife
that are not presented to us in the
Quran.
But they are presented to us
via the prophetic narrations, the hadith.
Okay? Now why is it dangerous for
people to say well, hadith are not as
reliable
as Quran? Well the first thing is that
there are some hadith
that in some circumstances are not reliable
because
the
the preservation of them was not as strong
as others. And they've all been graded. How
many of you have ever heard authentic and
weak before? Okay. So that exists. So all
of that work has been done
and very rigorous, very difficult work. But the
reason why it's important to not say that
Hadith
don't classify as something that can teach us
about our religion
is because there is an overwhelming
necessity
to have hadith in your religion or to
have a complete faith. Otherwise,
the faith is quite literally,
missing. Many, many parts of it. So the
existence of the life in the grave is
taught to us
through the prop the prophetic narrations, not mentioned
the Quran.
There are some people that
feel in their mind they've decided they rationalize
that
the Hadith literature, they don't accept it as
a sacred source.
They take it
as good vibes,
right?
But not as a sacred source.
And unfortunately,
you know, the consensus of Muslim scholarship for
the last over a 1000 years,
the overwhelming consensus, we're talking like thousands upon
thousands upon thousands of scholars.
This is a very new phenomenon.
Very new like if you're 1400 years back
all the way till now, you're talking like
maybe the last 4 or 5 decades that
this is popular.
So it's never been the case that any
scholar in the history of time has ever
said this.
That had you are not legitimate? And so
it's kind of one of those things where
we have to look at it from a
perspective
of, okay,
this is a new thing. Let's let's try
to figure out why this is becoming popularized
at this time. Especially when we had over
a 1000 years to come up with this
argument.
So that's a long answer to your short
question. I'm sorry.
But the answer is, yes. We believe that
there is a portion of the grave
in which there is experience,
both pleasurable and and punishment based. Right? So
for the person who's going to Jannah,
their grave is vast like like a like
a garden, like a meadow,
and they actually get to see their future
abode in paradise.
And they actually ask Allah, oh Allah hurry
up the day of judgment.
Like bring it because
I wanna go,
you know. And then for the person who
did not have that relationship with Allah, their
life in the grave is much different.
And they actually continuously ask Allah to delay
delay delay. So, yes, those are some of
the narrations that we have. Good question though.
Okay.
Alright y'all.
Good session tonight. Thank you inshallah. We'll see
you guys next week for number 3.
And, yeah, we have some refreshments inshallah on
the way out. What do we got? Yeah.
Food actually is spaghetti. Food.
I hope you guys are hungry.
Insha Allah. Okay. Take
care Insha Allah. And if you guys can,
please go ahead and, fold up your chairs
and just stack them against the wall. We'd
really appreciate it. Drive safe. Okay?