Safi Khan – Soul Food The Journey to Allah 7 Shaykh Omar Suleiman
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AI: Transcript ©
Alrighty.
Everybody.
Welcome home
as Stud Murphy has coined
here at Roots.
Welcome to our Thursday night series that we
have here every Thursday.
We're extremely, extremely honored. Obviously, I'm not alone
here.
We are super, super blessed to have Sheikh
Omar
join us tonight. I know this is like
we actually kind of didn't publicize this on
purpose just to kinda keep the,
Sharon's nodding, just to keep the experience authentic
and organic.
We kind of just very in the fine
you have to really read the fine print
tonight to know that Sheikh Omar was gonna
be joining us. But, again, just for the
sake of keeping it organic and keeping it
honest, we wanted the program to kinda keep
it same flow and same same feel.
So
we are continuing on with our series called
the journey to Allah, which is based off
of this incredible text that was, authored by
a famous scholar, Ibn Raja, and,
and, I know that, you know, Sheikh Omar,
he's definitely, you know, had programs and classes
in which he has taught certain texts and
and and and statements
teachings of Ibn Raja
So,
tonight, we're going to be able to learn
from him,
you know, for a special session that we
have here. And it's going to be a
very kind of back and forth talk show
style format where I kind of share some
questions with him from the the book, the
chapter that we're going through. And,
we're excited to hear from him as well.
So first and foremost, Sheikh, just wanted to
ask you before we start, obviously.
How are you, And, how's everything going? How's
life? How's the family? Everything's doing okay, hopefully.
Everything is going really well. I'm glad you,
didn't publicize it too much. It's nice to
actually get the authentic experience and to be
here.
SubhanAllah, I didn't know that you're actually covering
this text.
So this is actually one of my favorite
texts. Al Majatufi Sayidul Jha. I actually have
studied it with my teachers and I taught
it,
as
a, as a Makra at VRIC in the
Old Valley Ranch Islamic Center. I had students
read it to me in Arabi, and then,
we we did a shara habate. We did
an explanation of it as well. So it's
one of my favorite texts.
Ibn Raja
is a scholar
who I feel like was gifted in his
writing and that his writing is very personal.
It's very deep, but it's also very simple.
You know, when you didn't ask me a
question about the text, but I just got
excited when you said what
you're studying. Family is great. We'll talk about
the text in a bit. Everything is going
well.
School started,
so
everything's back in full swing for us.
I am enjoying the the sub 100 degree
weather now,
that we have here.
And,
I don't know. How many of you come
to Valley Ranch on Tuesday nights? Not many
of you. So I just wanna invite you
all Tuesday nights as well. Valley Ranch Islamic
Center. We're in full swing with the first,
so
we're going through the companions every Tuesday night
between Maghrib and Isha,
there. It's just been nice to see the
masjid full and,
to see people excited about learning
from the Yeah. It's,
I I I I could've sworn I was
excited to see Shay Oren pull up in
his park at a night, you know, 78
degrees out tonight or alhamdulillah. You're not you're
you're a Louisianan actually. You're a you're you're
you're local to Louisiana. So he's naturally like
a a Pelicans and a Saints fan. Right?
And I just Saw Shari walking around worship.
I know. I know. He he's like the
resident Pelicans fan that's kinda peeps his head
over the top of the crowd once in
a while whenever he can.
Whenever Zion plays the 2 games, 3 year.
I'm just gonna give this a really bad
shot.
I'm glad that, I'm glad that you shake
actually that you're you're familiar with this text
and more than familiar it seems. So, you
know, the the conversation I wanted to kind
of actually share with you tonight was essentially
about the premise of the book itself actually,
which is based on a very particular hadith
of the prophet where he teaches us that
your deeds alone will not
attain you paradise
just by its own merit. Right? Which is
kind of like antithetical to what we grew
up as kids learning. Right? Which is it's
almost like a quantifiable
game of life where if you end up
with better more good deeds versus bad deeds,
you end up with a better chance of
going to paradise. But Right. The whole premise
of the book by Ibn Rajab is about
how that's not alone enough to get you
there, rather the prophet he teaches us that
unless I'm enveloped with the mercy of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, it's not even possible even
for me. Right? So from your experience kind
of benefiting from this text
and just from your own experience as a
person,
what does that teaching kind of do for
you? Right? I mean, when a person hears
that your deeds alone are not enough to
get you to paradise, it almost, like, gives
you a little bit of an ominous feel.
Right? Right. But for a person, it could
become hopeful in a certain way. Right? So
I wanted to actually get your thoughts on
that a little bit. So the text is
based on several
iterations of 1 hadith. Right? So the hadith
is
and and then it goes into multiple things.
That hadith has been narrated in multiple,
places.
It's a profound hadith because
it gives you a methodology of succeed
succeeding, and then it gives you hope
that,
you will fall short, and Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala will still have mercy on you so
long as you're in the process.
So the hadith,
of just
to be moderate proportionate.
And then worship Allah
a little bit during the day and a
little bit during the night.
Some of the scholars commented on that. They
said that it is Aflul Manahaj and Aflul
Awkaat. The prophet started off with a methodology,
which is worship Allah,
you know, proportionately,
at a pace that's healthy, something that you
can keep up. Right?
So you're trying to stay straight, you're trying
to straight stay moderate,
and not fall off that path with Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Then
So the prophet gave the best manhaj, the
best methodology of worshiping Allah which is in
moderation.
And then he said, salallahu alayhi wa sallam,
Worship Allah a little bit in the morning,
a little bit in the night,
and and,
you know, specifically between Asr and Maghrib. So
the first time is between Fajr and Duha,
Fajr and Sunrise, small window.
The second time is between Asr and Maghrib,
small window but a little bigger.
And then The whole 3rd of the last
3rd of the night, if you can catch
a few minutes,
Catch a little bit of it. The prophet
shalallahu alaihi wa sallam mentions, tabluru.
You will succeed. And then he goes on
to say And by the way, no one's
gonna get into jannah except by the mercy
of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So it's interesting
because when you cut these ahadith up,
then you might almost intentionally decontextualize
the hadith.
Right? Because if someone just takes the the
the second part of that because in some
narrations, this is all one long narration. Someone
just takes the second part of that, they'd
say, look. We're all getting in by the
mercy of Allah anyway. So there's no point
in really trying because I need the mercy
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala at the end
of the day. But if you're reading it
as
the second paragraph
of a paragraph about how to work
and then how to put your trust in
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
then that completely changes the context. What that
means is, look,
if you worship with moderation,
you're gonna feel like it's not fast enough.
You're gonna get frustrated sometimes that, you know,
this isn't the this doesn't feel like the
transformative change that I thought it was gonna
feel like. I'm supposed to be taking leaps
and bounds. It feels like I'm taking baby
steps. And the prophet is saying that the
journey to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is actually
one of baby steps.
The reason why it's one of baby steps
is that Allah never takes baby steps towards
you.
There's no concept of that.
Right? You come to me walking, I go
to you running.
So the journey to Allah is one of
baby steps.
And then
look,
the timing after fajr
is the easiest time to worship Allah
Why? Because
what else are you gonna do? Go back
to sleep?
Right? There's barakah, there's blessing. Use that time
wisely after Fajr. Fajr to sunrise. If you
start your day off right, everything falls into
place for the rest of the day.
And then
the second timing that Allah gives or that
the prophet gives here is actually, according to
the scholars, better than the first timing.
So there's actually a, you know, a way
for you to actually,
pursue a higher level.
The hardest time to remember Allah during the
day is between 'asr and Maghrib. Subbas'ud radiAllahu
anhu said it's actually greater than the first
time. So it's easiest to do it in
the morning.
It's harder to do it between asr and
Maghrib.
So you've gotta graduate a bit. Why? Because
at that time, you're tired, you're exhausted, you
probably had several fights with people,
you've you're probably burnt out, you know, work,
school, whatever it may be. You're exhausted at
that time. Most people between Asa and Maghrib
wanna rest.
Right? But you say, no. I actually wanna
I've got some zikrs to do. I have
some worship to do. I've gotta get through
this 15, 20 minutes of remembrance of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And then what's harder than
that time is the last 3rd of the
night. Waqtudulja.
Shayun min al dulja. Something in the last
3rd of the night. To wake up actually
before Fajr at some point and to remember
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So the prophet salAllahu
alaihi wa sallam is giving
you something to build up to, something to
work up to.
Now the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, you
know, if you've if you've met someone,
like it's very hard for someone that's high
performing
to give reasonable
lesson plans. Let me let me put this
in terms of physical fitness.
Right? Someone that's been working out in the
gym too much and and that's that's really,
really, really swole, like all of you, Masha'Allah.
Alright? Someone that's really, really, really built,
and they're trying to they almost forget what
it's like to be a beginner and usually
see that they crush someone who's a beginner
unless they are, you know, fitness instructors. Right?
But, usually, when they take someone to the
gym for the first time,
and they're not fitness instructors, they're gonna hurt
that person
because they don't know they don't understand what
it's like to be a beginner anymore. Alright?
Unless they're fitness instructors.
The prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, doesn't just
worship Allah a little bit in the morning,
a little bit in the in the evening,
and then a little bit in the night,
shay'im and adurjah.
Prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam worships Allah a
lot.
Right? So if you're a companion because a
lot of times I tell people you need
to hear a hadith the way that a
companion would have heard at that time.
You're like, yeah. You're saying that, sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. You're saying that, but we see
you worshiping Allah all day, basically.
Right? We see you in a state of
worship all day. So you're saying a little
bit here, a little bit there, a little
bit there and you'll succeed.
So the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam says,
By the way,
no one And you can see how the
sahaba even heard it.
I told you this text is amazing, subhanAllah.
Because even What was the first question the
sahaba had when the prophet shalallahu alaihi wa
sallam said, No one enters Jannah except by
the mercy of Allah. What did they say?
But what about you?
Not even you, oh messenger of Allah. You
don't enter by your deeds? Because we've seen
your deeds.
Like you're giving us the baby steps.
But we know what you worship like, salallahu
alayhi wasalam. So it's like,
He's saying not even me.
Until Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala embraces me,
in his mercy, envelopes me in his in
his mercy. So it's a really comprehensive hadith
because it gives you the start of a
conversation,
which is here is how you start to
build.
And then it gives you the end,
which is look,
no matter what
you accomplish,
you will need Allah's mercy.
Meaning what?
Do not depend upon your deeds. Meaning what?
If you falter in your deeds, do not
despair from the mercy of Allah. If you
falter in your deeds, do not despair in
the mercy of Allah. Because I'll tell you
what, I don't know a single person
that has ever not faltered in their deeds
or let themselves down.
In some point, at some point in your
journey,
you're gonna let yourself down. You're gonna feel
like I set a goal for myself and
I didn't meet it. I don't care who
you are. I don't care if you're the
greatest scholar in the world. You set a
goal for yourself at some point that you
didn't meet. So if you falter in your
deeds, don't despair from the mercy of Allah.
But don't use the mercy of Allah as
an excuse to not do the deeds in
the 1st place.
So there's an unhealthy and and the book
does a good job. I don't wanna like
jump chapters, but subhanAllah, chapter 7, because I
love this book so much. It's it's really
a risad. It's a small book. Right?
But, the book actually ends off a little
scary. It starts off hopeful and it's actually
like the last chapter is actually like a
beat down.
Yeah. It's like, alright. Now we've been talking
about mercy, hope, consistency. By the way, don't
forget
hellfire, hypocrisy, all this is real too. Why?
There's a healthy hope and there is a
healthy
fear.
There's an unhealthy hope, there's an unhealthy fear.
Healthy hope is when you are doing but
you are depending on Allah.
You are doing but you're still depending on
Allah.
Unhealthy hope is called ghur, deception, self delusion,
right?
Where you're not doing and you're depending on
Allah. There's a healthy fear
which is
you are
motivated by your fear of Allah
to work. And there's an unhealthy fear, which
is you are so scared you see no
point in even starting
despairs from the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala except for the losers.
So this is where
you have to have hope
in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala while you're doing
your utmost best and realizing
that even the best of all performers,
the best of all creations, the best of
all performers,
if there was any human being that could
ever depend upon his portfolio, that could show
up to Allah and say, I feel pretty
good about what I've put forth.
It's Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
But even he says, I need the mercy
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So you will
never excel him in deeds, Therefore, you will
never become independent
of needing the mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. May Allah grant it to us. Amin.
So you you touched upon something really incredible
actually. Right? That there is this kind of
really,
you know, beautiful understanding of balance in our
deen.
Even the Quran, Allah mentions this several times,
right, that we've created you,
a balanced nation. And so there's this really
big emphasis on balance in our in our
entire religion. And, you know, in one of
the more early chapters of the
And, you know, in one of the more
early chapters of this book, and we're kinda
going through a chronological order, so we don't
wanna spoil it for everybody. No. No. You're
totally good. But, like, you know,
you know no. It's good. You're prepping them.
So, you know, there's an earlier chapter in
this book in which Ibn Rajab, he essentially
focuses completely on this particular,
supporting hadith of the prophet where he said
that the the most beloved deeds to Allah
Right? That they are the ones that are
done consistently
even if they're small, even if they're, you
know, little.
So from your experience,
right, and, you know, you can kinda read
the room and see the majority of the
the demographic in here are younger Muslims.
In a world where
we do struggle to be a balanced kind
of example, right,
there are so many extremes to follow. There
are so many extreme things to kinda fall
into ourselves. And a lot of people can
kinda be confused on, like, which where do
I go? Right? And, we have, like you
said, the example of the prophet to kind
of guide us, but in terms of our
deeds being consistent. Right? Because sometimes when people
discover Islam, they kind of, like, dive in.
Right? And then sometimes there's reality of burnout.
And then there's, like, the almost the variable
of, am I doing enough or am I
doing too much?
So how does a person understand that statement
of the prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, that
the most beloved, these ta'ala, are consistent?
And from your experience,
how have you kind of traversed the path
of
consistency?
Is this something that, you know, really never
stops as a journey?
I just wanna get a little bit of
thought from that inshallah.
Alright.
Excellent question.
Definitely multifaceted.
So the prophet mentioned,
which means get as close to perfection as
possible, understanding that you will never get there.
So is like balance.
Is you gotta have a vision of where
you wanna get.
If you don't have a vision of where
you wanna get, then you won't get anywhere.
Right? So, you know, you think about a
and a lot of spiritual fitness can be
understood from physical fitness because Allah created the
body
as an example for the soul in many
ways.
Let's say you set yourself a weight loss
goal. You know you're not gonna lose £30
overnight, but you know you wanna lose £30.
Right? Like you set yourself a goal or
you wanna build x amount of muscle. You
know how much you wanna build
and you set a 1, 2, 3 year
plan to get there. But the point is
that you know where you wanna get. So,
consistency,
does not mean loss of sight. Consistency
means
understanding
of current circumstances.
Because if you try to go too fast,
too hard,
then you're gonna quit.
And that's really the warning. In fact in
every chapter
of Al Mahajatufi Sayyiduja, there's a warning at
some point of A burnout, burnout, burnout, burnout.
Like a hadith about burnout shows up at
some point in every single one of these
chapters.
Right? When
no
one tries to take all of the religion
altogether except that it's going to defeat them.
But you gotta have a vision of where
you wanna go. Alright? You gotta set a
game plan for yourself. Now,
working up to that game plan,
or working up to that vision,
means setting
myself
up for success
through these reasonable small steps.
So there are multiple hadith where the prophet
will say the most beloved of this and
the most beloved of that. So for example,
Messenger mentions
that the most beloved of religion to Allah
is Al Hanafiya to Samha.
The monotheistic religions,
Samha,
leniency.
The Prophet
mentions to us,
the most beloved of deeds to Allah
or the best of deeds to Allah
are,
their endings or found in their endings. Right?
Really interesting because
actions are but by their intention and actions
are but by their ending.
And if you think about that, the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is telling you if
you start right, you're gonna end right.
Between aniyah
walkitam,
you're gonna
right?
But if you start right, you're gonna end
right, insha'Allah ta'ala. Right?
So
So consistency is, how do I get there?
Right?
So I'm gonna give a little bit of
of the prophetic methodology in that regard, but
then also just some personal experience like you
said.
Start with the easiest
of deeds
for you to perform.
Let Let me give you an exa you
know, so you can choose either to go
with the easiest or the most virtuous.
Let's say, for example, look, I really want
to start praying sunnah.
Choose the easiest sunnah for you to pray.
The easiest one, and see how long you
can pray that for, without giving it up.
No, Sarah. You know, I saw this video,
12 sunnahs a day.
Try to go from praying no sunn a
day to 12 sunn a day. See, that
probably lasts you 3, 4 days.
Right? It's just not gonna work that way.
But like, hey. You know? And by the
way, I wanna start praying the 5 daily
prayers. I get it. Maybe some of you
are struggling with even the 5 daily prayers.
That's
start with the ones that you know you
can do. You know what? If you've you're
combining prayers.
Right? Because you're not at a point yet
in your faith where, you know, you feel
like you can pray this on time, pray
that on time. But
I'm not saying that it makes it okay.
I'm saying that build build towards something. Don't
just give up on it altogether.
What the shaitan will try to get you
to do is he'll try to get you
at a point where you're low performing and
make it no performing. He'll try to get
you to a point of low faith and
make it no faith. He'll try to get
you at a point of sin and then
identify you by that sin so that you
don't see any point in even activating your
worship.
Prophet is saying take it slow,
consistent.
Slow, consistent.
Right?
Small deeds.
So some people, you know, I'll give you,
like, a personal example.
One of the most eye opening hadith, and
and it is in the book, I'm pretty
sure, is the hadith of Al Witter, where
the prophet asks Abu Bakr and Umar what
time they pray Witter.
Okay?
Abu Bakr
prays
before he sleeps.
Umar prays
when he wakes up in the last 30
of the night.
Why?
The Prophet told Abu Bakr, You have taken
the path
of caution,
and he told Umar, you have taken the
path of 'azimah, of determination.
He praised both of them in that regard.
Umar was like, I gotta wake up in
the last 30 of the night. I'm gonna
pray witzirah. Abu Bakr said, just in case
I don't wake up tonight, I'm gonna pray
witsdah now.
One of the things that I recommend people
is to
start your night devotion before you sleep.
Meaning what?
Instead of, you know, La la Land,
I'm gonna start waking up for qiyam every
night from now on, Can you allocate 20
minutes, 15, 20 minutes before you go to
bed?
Read Surat Al Mulk. Read the evening remembrances.
Pray Witir.
Can you do that? Just 15, 20 minutes
in solitude.
What that will do
for your faith
will be incredible.
The life that will give to your heart.
During the day, there's a lot to distract
you.
At night, that is the best time to
generate
a meaningful spiritual connection. It's quiet.
You know, and and you can have multiple
things to incentivize that. Don't they say blue
light is horrible for your sleep? Messes your
brain up, messes your entire biological clock up.
So if you go to sleep on your
phone, you're not getting good quality sleep, you're
not getting good quality spirituality. So use that
as an incentive. Like, you know what? 15,
20 minutes before I sleep, I'm putting the
phone away, and I'm gonna go and pray
with it and read a little bit of
dua and Quran every single night.
What that's gonna do is it's going to
generate something inside of you, to where you'll
start to wanna do something else. So on
a personal level, I'll tell you like, you
know, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam mentioned,
travel is punishment.
Travel is torture.
Travel is a part of torture.
Now some of you are like, travel's awesome.
Right? Tourism,
get to go here, hang out.
But
the rinamat started with and you can ask
any of your teachers here at Kalama about
why travel is torture.
Alright?
It messes up any routine you have.
Physical, spiritual, it just messes up your routine.
You can never you feel like you can
never get into a routine
because travel
messes it up.
Right?
So I realized for myself, I was like,
alright.
I was making excuses for myself when I
travel
not to do some of these basic things
of my of my wit.
So I literally chose the time of the
day that's easiest for me to do my
wird.
I already,
I already take into consideration
my weekly goals with my weekend travel, that
I'm not going to be able to do
as much when I travel on the weekend,
but I don't forsake it altogether. So I'm
still gonna do some reading on the weekend.
I'm still gonna do, inshaAllah, some sort of
dikr,
have some sort of regimen. But I already
know, look, I I've I've been traveling for
enough years now to know I can do
about a fourth of what I do on
a normal day, and I'm okay with that
now.
Because before what would happen is I was
setting myself up for disappointment
every single time. It's like when they tell
you, look, you can't go to the gym,
do a 100 push ups in the room.
Can't do 50. Do just don't not do
anything.
Okay?
So
consistency
is key
and consistency
is a sign to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
of your sincerity. I think this is also
under underrated.
A lot of people make grand claims with
Allah that one day I wanna get here.
Now if Allah finds you,
you know, you set your goal and you're
still here and you went from step 1
to step 3 of a 50 step journey
and you die at step 3,
the fact that you even move from 1
to 3 is a sign to Allah that
you wanted to one day get to 50,
that this wasn't just empty talk.
So what's the hadith that I'll give you?
The man who killed
99 people then killed a 100,
there's a methodology
here.
The man told the sheikh told him what?
You need to go somewhere else and you
need to start your life over. You've got
bad influences around you. If you stay here,
you're gonna stay corrupted.
You need to you need to seek forgiveness
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and you need
to take a journey and go somewhere else
and start over.
Alright? So, by the way, just FYI,
you're never
I don't wanna say never. Never is, can
sound like, despair.
You're likely not going to make progress in
your faith if all of your friends are
at a place of your of faith that
you don't wanna be at.
Alright? It's just not smart to think that
you can get to different places with the
same friends that you have, unless your friends
are also waking up to a new reality
and trying to get there with you. It's
just not wise. It's not smart. It's not
practical.
The methodology of that hadith is he had
to take a journey.
He died on the way.
He died on the way. And Allah forgave
him because he was closer to the place
that he was going than the place that
he left. And in one iteration of the
hadith, Allah shook the earth to make him
closer
to the place that he was going, rather
than the place that he left. So
if you die anywhere along the way, your
testimony to Allah is, you Allah, I was
I was getting there. Now who's to say,
like, if you, these hadiths sound really, really,
really great until you meet a murderer.
Right?
Let me ask you a serious question. If
someone got out of prison,
got out on parole after killing a 100
people for whatever reason,
Alright?
Would you wanna hang out with that person?
Would you feel safe being with that person
late night hanging out behind Kalam?
You got any serial killers around here? Alright.
You probably would be a little nervous. Right?
Who's to say that man wouldn't have lost
himself again and killed a few other people?
We don't know.
But the fact that he even started that
journey back to Allah.
The fact that he started that journey to
Allah. So your proof of the journey is
that you are
that you're driving.
Even if you're driving at 5 miles per
hour, you're moving. You, Allah. This is where
I wanted to get. If Allah knows that
you're telling the truth, Allah
will treat you on the day of judgment
as if you already got there.
How beautiful
is
that? Those who strive in our path, we
will guide them to our ways.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala accepts
from those people of consciousness. So you were
trying to get there. Allah will treat you
on the day of judgement, insha'Allah, as if
you already got there. Because he knows you
were trying to get there. And you have
the proof of what? You have a track
record. You Allah, I was taking baby steps.
They were really slow, but I was trying
to get there. The prophet
said,
in one narration, some of the riddema,
considered it authentic. Others said the meaning is
is correct, but the actual mattan is not.
Where the prophet
in one narration was to have said
that, There is no such thing as a
major sin if you seek forgiveness for it.
And there is no such thing as a
minor sin if you insist upon it.
So just like the most beloved of good
deeds to Allah are the ones that are
consistent,
the most
hated of sins to Allah are the most
consistent.
Because it means that you have no problem
consistently disregarding
Allah, and you don't even have a guilty
conscience over it anymore. Like, yeah. Whatever. Yeah.
This is who I am. I do this
all the time. Right? And I'm gonna keep
on doing it with no intention of ever
forsaking it. So the most beloved of deeds
to Allah are the consistent ones, even if
they're small.
The most hated of deeds to Allah, of
sins to Allah, are the consistent ones, even
if they're small, because it demonstrates a track
record. Have a good track record with Allah
when you meet him on the day of
judgment with your scrolls.
Sheikh, you know, the, it's really interesting. There
is a part of the book where he
quotes,
the specific ayah where Allah says,
Right? That, like, Allah wants for you ease,
and he does not want for you,
a
a difficulty. But, you know, I was remember
I was going through some reflections of this
this incredible
aya
where it's almost that Allah is giving you
the choice of ease
because he also expects you to take that
ease with.
And that, like, you know, if you do
choose the easier route and, right, you you
mentioned the advice of even if you feel
like you're at 0, just start doing the
things that are almost considered low hanging fruit.
Right? I mean, you're already awake and Isha
time has come in. Don't test yourself at,
like, 12 p 12, you know, at midnight.
Right? Try to pray Isha, you know, because
you know you might knock out, Right? You
know? And you might not you might miss
your prayer. So take those little hanging fruit.
But then there's this concept of as well
with that. Right? So if you're going to
do the things that are easy, make sure
that you do them really well. And, obviously,
that famous hadith of Jibril Allah, it that
where the prophet says
That Ihsan is worshiping Allah as though you
can see him, and although you can't see
him know that he sees you. And so
I wanted to ask you kind of in
the final kind of moments of the program,
you know, are there and, masha'Allah, you teach,
you know, that you mentioned on Tuesdays, the
first, the stories of the companions, and every
story of the companions is almost interlinked with
the story of the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. Right? It's just probably one of the
coolest things about the stories of the companions.
Is there a particular kind of moment that
you think of that
that idea of Ihsan kind of, like, comes
out at you where it almost, like, just,
like it almost exudes in this story
of this particular companion or the prophet, sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, where they just did something
simple,
but they did it so well. Right?
And it could be something that, well, like,
possibly people in here could very much easily
do,
but the reason why it was, you know,
it was elevated is because
is the the the quality that they did
it with.
So
firstly, just
to that to that first part of what
you mentioned,
Allah desires for ease. Allah does not desire
for your hardship. That verse comes in the
capacity of fasting.
So it's like, fast, but if you're sick
and traveling, you don't have to fast. You
can make up your days later. So it's
interesting because
when Allah says he desires for you ease,
it's in the capacity of him giving you
a command to do, to perform.
So you could take that verse once again,
cut it out of context, say, you know,
I don't need to fast Ramadan, man. Allah
desires for you ease. It's hard for me
to fast in Ramadan.
Right?
By the way, ironically, I've had that used.
And I was like, did you read
up a little bit, like, in the eye,
you know, before or after?
Because I've actually had it used by a
person who does not fast because he said
he gets headaches. And I was like, what
what kind of headaches are we talking about?
Like migraines. Like, no, you know, headaches and
stuff like that. So you know Allah's desire
is for you to ease. Right? I said,
alright. Let's let's open the Quran, Surat Al
Baqarah. Go to this this section of Ayat.
So Allah gave you a command, but Allah
told you my command is not unreasonable.
So if you are unable
to perform
this fast because you are sick or travelling,
then Allah desires for your ease. Right? So
it's okay. You can make it up later.
The point though about Ihsaan and excellence that
you mentioned with the companions.
So here's why
people are like people ask me, when are
you gonna stop teaching the firsts? Because you're
on we're on episode 122.
I'm like, you know, maybe like 500, 600.
We'll see him sometime. As long as Shrek
with the Nostra Seattle Podcast. Yeah. Almost there.
What's where where is he at so I
can find out? I think it's like 205
or something like that. I'm gonna go 210.
I'd go 206. You
know?
But honestly,
personally,
what I love about telling the stories of
the companions
is that it's like you get to get
reintroduced to the prophet
every single
week. Because every companion story, the the the
the pinnacle of it is when they meet
the prophet
Right? So it's like you get to get
reintroduced to him through a new set of
eyes
every single week. And that's what I always
loved about the Sahaba, studying the lives of
the Sahaba and studying, you know, another
another entrance, another entrance, another entrance, another entrance.
It's like you get to get into someone
else's body and walk into the and and
all over again and have a conversation with
the prophet
through a fresh set of circumstances, a fresh
set of eyes. I love being able to
do that. I feel like it's one of
the most effective ways
to have to aluk, to to have a
closeness,
to the an attachment to the messenger alayhi
salatu wa salam.
But that point of ihsan,
you know,
like, we're doing Khadiz al Warizz radiAllahu ta'ala
Anhu right now.
You know, people ran away from the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi sallam.
There are people that ran away from the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And that sounds crazy.
Why? Because they killed Muslims.
They inflicted all sorts of pain on him.
They thought there is no way we're gonna
be forgiven.
There was a lot of apprehension.
Like, think about a later Muslim. There was
a lot of apprehension
to approach the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam after
having done what you've done to him. And
this isn't like 2 or 3 people.
This is thousands of people.
Apprehension.
What's he gonna do to us after all
that we did to him? And their fleeing
from the prophet salAllahu alaihi wasalam was actually
their fleeing from Allah.
And what I love about the the story
of the Sahaba who are the greatest aggressors,
like Khali munid
this guy's no joke. He carried out the
worst massacre of Muslims.
And he was He's wondering like, So, when
I approach the Prophet
how does this go down?
And what does he say? He said, I
came to the Prophet
and the Prophet greeted me with a huge
smile.
Right? Like, welcome to Islam.
And immediately,
You Rasulullah, can you forgive me for everything?
Can you make du'a'a to Allah forgive Oh
Allah, forgive him for everything he did before
he became Muslim? And then Khaled radiAllahu anhu
was saying, I never preferred anyone to me
after that day. It was like we were
best friends this whole time. It's as if
nothing ever happened in the past. Like as
if I never hurt him, salallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
Like, the ihsan then
is what that did to them. When they
came to the Messenger, alaihis salatu wassalam, and
they saw that he was willing to accept
them back
Like some people fled Mecca,
and Fathir Makkah
because they were like, no. No. If we
get caught, we're done.
Some people fled Mecca, and the prophet
had to send messengers.
You know, some of them were literally getting
on a boat in Jeddah to go to
Yemen,
and the prophet
sent someone to go tell them, just come
back.
I'm not gonna kill you.
I'm not gonna take revenge on you.
Now when they saw the capacity
of the prophet, salallahu alaihi, salam's rahma,
that inspired
great enemies to become
great
Muslims.
Great companions like, Woah.
If this is how he treats us, man,
let's go. I wanna be with him.
So so, Halalah, you know, one of the
interesting things in Sira is that right after
Fathuh Makkah comes the battle of Hunayn. Some
of the fiercest enemies of the Prophet shalallahu
alaihi wa sallam,
when the battle of Hunayn happens,
right after Fathuh Makkah,
some of those same people, fiercest enemies of
the Prophet
were right at his side
a few weeks later and did not flee
from him. They had his back, like we're
not leaving the battlefield. We're with him because
he showed us that rahma. We're gonna meet
that rahma with ihsan to him, sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. What's the point that I'm getting to?
Allah meets you with rahma even greater. The
rahma of the Prophet
is a portion of the rahma of Allah
He is His whole sending is rahma
means mercy to the worlds.
The Prophet
was able to have that capacity because Allah
gave him that capacity.
And so when you go back to Allah,
the shaitan is gonna kinda get in your
ear a bit and be like,
You really think all that stuff is forgotten?
You know who you are
You really really really think you can somehow
one day become this type of Muslim?
You know who you
are He'll put you down. He'll inflict you
with self doubt.
Ehsan is to say
you Allah
You let me live
to turn a page with you
The fact that Allah did not take you
at your worst moments is a sign of
his mercy to you.
One of the names of Allah because you
know, Ar Rahman, Rahim, these are not the
only names that denote mercy. One of the
names of Allah is Al Halim,
Allah's forbearing. I love this name
because it's the hardest human quality to have.
The proof of that, as the Prophet SallAllahu
Alaihi Wasallam said,
He
said, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, knowledge is through seeking
knowledge, forbearance.
Probably not it's not a really familiar word,
but I'll explain it in a bit, inshallah.
But forbearance
is through practicing forbearance.
Their enema said he chose the hardest quality
for a human being to attain. Let me
explain this to you.
I'm not gonna tell you to raise your
hand if you have a hot temper.
Alright?
Because don't expose yourself. Alright?
But there are very few people that you'll
meet in life who had a hot temper
once upon a time, and then they subdued
it for the sake of Allah.
There are a lot of people that made
other changes in their lives, religious changes in
their lives.
Very few people who were known for being
hot headed,
hot tempered, quick to anger,
that learned how to control that. And that's
why the prophet mentioned it because he said
just like you
go to a university, you go to a
seminary to learn,
and you go from ignorance to knowledge,
you practice
forbearance, you practice patience until you attain it.
Helm
is an added level of patience. Helm is
when you are patient with people.
Alright? You're patient with people. Meaning, you don't
act out on them right away
when they upset you. You're not quick to
to anger.
Imagine if every time we sinned, a lightning
bolt struck us.
You know, you see someone, subhanAllah, that Allah
has hope in,
who's been sinning against Allah for 30, 40,
50 years, and Allah still has hope in
that person.
And Allah's still willing to accept that person.
With one sincere moment of tawba,
it all goes away.
Shaitan hates that, by the way. Hates that
because he works so hard on you.
And then in one moment of closeness to
Allah, it just all goes away. You ruin
his life's work with you.
That's why the worst day of the year
for shaitan is what day?
What's the worst day of the year for
shaitan? Does anybody know?
Arafah. He hates Arafah.
Like I've been working on you your whole
life,
then on arafah, Allah forgives everything.
All that work went to nothing.
The point is is some people run away
from Allah or some people don't find Allah
approachable because they feel like they've already
done so much to themselves.
Ihsan comes when there's a moment of You
Allah, you gave me another chance, I'm gonna
make this chance count.
So the sahaba that missed Badr,
one of them says, If Allah gives me
a chance, You Rasulullah, to get to Uhud,
or to If Allah gives me another chance
in another battle,
Allah is gonna see what I'm gonna do.
That was the uncle of Anas ibn Malik
radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. His name was actually Anas.
Anas ibn Nadar radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. And Allah
said,
There are people, believers, that are truthful to
the promise that they take with their lord.
Some of them have a moment, or some
of them are able to fulfill their promise
to Allah right away. Some of them are
delayed. But you know
what?
They never lost their resolve. So what I'm
saying to y'all is, I don't care where
you are in your journey with Allah
right now.
You know when excellence
comes? When you realize how excellent Allah has
been with you.
The fact that Allah brought you here, the
fact that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, is even
opening your heart to this, the fact that
Allah is opening your ears to this, the
fact that you're even considering making
significant life changes and sacrifices for him
is a sign that Allah
wants khair for you, wants good for you.
Ihsan is when you have a realization.
Like, wow. Allah took me and and brought
me to that
place. So I'm gonna get really personal. Alright?
And I'm not gonna say this from a
place of, I'll tell you why that that
hadith is very significant to me
I actually said this as asked in an
interview recently about this
and,
when I was young
Before I had my religious turn in life.
I actually had a reputation for my temper.
And I thought it was going to be
impossible to change my temper. I'm not known
for being a hot tempered guy, by the
way. Alright? Look Sharayev smiling. He's like, I
never saw you lose your temper, except when
this ain't safe. On the court.
Just chill.
But,
you know,
I had a hot temper, and I thought
that's one thing that I'll never be able
to change.
And it took a lot
of work, a lot of work.
And And if I was on social media,
it would come back out. And I'm like,
no. No. No. Forget this.
Right? But the point is is that,
the moment that came to me is,
you know, you know when Allah says
forgive and pardon, don't you want Allah to
forgive you?
The moment that came to me is like
there are so many moments.
If Allah would have took me in that
moment, I would have been done.
I would have been done. The fact that
Allah spared me in that moment, when I
was in that state, when my heart was
that hard, and Allah didn't take me right
then,
alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
That would have been
bad. Because we know some people that didn't
get the chances that we have. The fact
you're here means you have a chance.
So I'm just gonna say
Ihsaan, the process of Ihsaan, excellence,
starts
when you realize how good Allah has been
to you, how excellent Allah has been to
you.
And then this becomes a journey of love
not obligation.
The journey to Allah is a journey of
love not obligation.
Right? But you can't love without obligation.
Okay? But the journey to Allah is a
journey of loving Allah, not just a journey
of obligations. May Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la open
in our hearts
the ability to to love Him and to
recognize the love that He's shown to us
and to meet
Al Muhsin with Ehsan,
the one who has excelled towards us with
excellence in our deeds, and allow us to
reach him, inshaAllah,
in a state that he's pleased with us.
We're going to, put a sweet bow on
the the program with that. I believe that
was a great
conclusion point.
We wanna thank Yousha Hamer for coming through.
Really appreciate your time, man. And,
you know, like he said, you know, there's
you know, the problem with Dallas is a
good problem. I'm I'm a transplant to Dallas
actually. When I moved here in 2019 to
start my studies at Durham and then, you
know, start working at roots, you know, I
I came from a smaller community where, like,
we had, like, that one halakkah a week.
So everyone was kinda just, like, doing their
thing and, like, that was the one that
they went to every single week. But in
Dallas, the reality is, I mean, Michelle, you
have, like, Sheikh Omar teaching on Tuesdays, and
you have Sheikh Mikhail teaching on Wednesdays, and
then you have so many different opportunities. So
definitely visit Sheikh at his Masjid in in
Valley Ranch and, a lot of people here
are probably local too. The good thing is
that the highways in Dallas are not too
far from one another. So y'all be fine,
inshallah. Let's take that George Bush turnpike all
the way.
So,
you know, make dua for Shaykh and all
the work that he does. May Allah accept
from him. And,
we're super super glad that you guys spent
your Thursday night with us. We appreciate y'all's
time. And,
I know Shaykh has to run, so we're
going to let him, run really quickly, but
we're we're super happy that you guys were
here tonight, and we'll continue the series every
single Thursday. For those of you here for
your first time, you're you guys are welcome
any single Thursday inshallah here at Roots. Jazakam
Khairan. We appreciate you guys.
And everyone could just do me one favor
really quickly as we wrap up the program.
The folks who are sitting on the backjacks
on the floor,
if y'all could just kind of bring them
up to the front of the space and
looking to kinda line them up so that
tomorrow when we have Jummah, obviously,
folks can come and we can kinda clean
the space before, obviously, we open up the
shop for for post pre JAMA, post JAMA,
rush inshallah. That'd be much appreciated. Alright.
Thanks for having me. I appreciate you all
for being here. So Hope to see you
here again. Hope to see you as well
at VRIC. We also say welcome home at
Valley Ranch. Do you? We do. Oh, may
the better welcome home win. I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding. We're all we're all one
team. We're all