Saif Morad – What to do when your Iman is low Set minimums
AI: Summary ©
The importance of approaching things in a balanced manner, setting a limit, and praying at a minimum to avoid boredom is emphasized. consistency in worship and spirituality is also emphasized, along with the use of nawafil and the importance of praying at a minimum to avoid boredom. The speaker emphasizes the need to renew faith and strengthen their faith and motivation at a high level, while also reassuring their listeners to stay in motion and strengthen their faith and motivation.
AI: Summary ©
What's going on? May Allah
bless every single one of us with the
best in this world and the next.
Is something
that fluctuates,
and we've witnessed this.
We see that there are times when our
is extremely high. We see tremendous growth. We
feel like doing any and everything there is
that we can do. But then on the
flip side,
we witness times when we're struggling, when our
iman is low. It's very difficult to even
do the basic things.
And this is expected.
After all, the Prophet
said,
Verily the faith of one of you will
wear out within him.
Just as a shirt becomes worn out. So
ask Allah to renew faith in your hearts.
Hearts. The Prophet
is telling us that our faith will wear
out, and he's also telling us the cure,
what to do, to ask Allah
to keep us firm, to renew that faith,
to increase it. But how many of us
actively
ask Allah
to renew our faith, to keep us firm?
And just like our faith weakens from time
to time,
also our motivation in other areas also weakens.
You know, we get excited in the beginning
about working out, about eating healthy, about starting
a new business, and the list goes on.
But what happens with over time that that
motivation, that excitement, it wears out. And a
lot of people, they give up. So what
can we do to ensure that this dip
in motivation, this dip
in
ensure that this dip in motivation, this dip
in happens less frequently? Because it is bound
to happen. Well firstly, we need to approach
everything we do in a balanced manner. The
Prophet
said that for every action
there's zeal, there's a period of excitement. In
the beginning we have this excitement,
but then for every action it goes through
a period of weakness.
You know, we wear out, that motivation stops.
And the Prophet
said that whoever's action is according to my
sunnah,
sunnah
then they will succeed.
But whoever's action is not in accordance to
my sunnah,
then they will fail.
And the prophet
is referring to his sunnah. What is his
sunnah?
The sunnah of the prophet
is the middle path, the balanced way. Not
to be too extreme in it, too overzealous
that we burn ourselves out, at the same
time not to be neglectful. The prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam is teaching us how to
approach things,
and everyone's middle path is different. Some people
can take on more because they're used to
it. Some people in the beginning,
they can't take on a lot.
So we approach everything
in a balanced manner
because consistency is key, and consistency
over time leads to tremendous results.
And not only that, we approach things in
a balanced manner, but we also ask Allah
to make these actions, especially the acts of
and the other things that are beneficial to
us, we seek Allah's help and ask him
to make it beloved to us,
so that we enjoy doing it, so that
we don't get bored.
As some of the salaf used to say,
that when it comes to active Ibad, if
we do it out of love,
then we'll never get bored.
And this is ideally how we wanna function,
in a balanced manner, and asking Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to make these actions beloved to
us. Not only in our worship and spirituality,
but also in our other affairs. To make
our work beloved to us, so we enjoy
doing it. We're not miserable.
But then sometimes things happen that shake us.
We might make a mistake. We might fall
off course.
What do we do then? Our iman might
take a serious hit.
Do we give up altogether just because I
don't feel like right now that I'm not
gonna pray?
Do I start committing sins?
It doesn't work like that.
And Umar bin Khattab has a profound statement.
He said that the heart, you know, there
are times when it's extremely motivated. It wants
to do good. And there are times when
it just doesn't feel like it. When the
heart is moving towards good
and is motivated,
we try to do a lot of nawafil.
This is a time to really step up
our routine, to move ourselves to new heights.
But then,
when our hearts don't feel like it,
this is the time we stick to the
the obligatory
actions. So we stick to the obligatory actions
and we don't commit sins.
What did Umar ibn Khattab just do? He
set a limit.
There's a minimum that we cannot allow ourselves
no matter what to drop under.
And Islam is a practical religion. It's applicable
to every area in our life.
And we want to strive for excellence in
every area.
So how do we take this principle and
apply it in other areas?
This is something called setting a limit or
we can say the minimum.
Because if our minimum is the obligatory actions,
praying our 5 times salawat,
being good to our parents, our family members,
staying away from sin, eventually we're gonna bounce
back.
Because we're still doing these actions consistently.
And we can set our minimums,
our limits in other areas as well.
For example,
ideally, let's say I wanna be reading Quran
for 30 minutes a day. But then there
are times I'm gonna be busy. I might
not be able to commit to that. What
do I do then? Just give up? And
lose out on the barakah, lose out on
the reward? No. We set a minimum that
no matter what
I can at least read for 1 minute,
or one line, or two lines, or half
a page. However you wanna set it. And
this way we'll ensure we do it. Ideally,
if I'm trying to work out 5 days
a week, they're gonna times me, and I'm
busy, I'm traveling, I need to commit to
other things. Then what do I do? Just
give up and lose all the progress that
I made? No. We set a limit
that I will at least work out, for
example, 10 minutes twice a week.
That's better than giving up altogether.
Another example, if I normally read for 10,
15 minutes per day, for example.
Then I can set a minimum to read
for a minute.
That's easy to do. And usually the most
difficult thing is just starting to act.
Because when we look at the task in
front of us, reading Quran for 30 minutes,
for example,
or working out 5 days a week, it
can feel overwhelming. But if we set a
minimum, and it's easy,
then it's easy to get the act started.
And usually what happens is, things that are
in motion, tend to stay in motion. When
we read one ayah, for example, it might
spark curiosity,
it might not, but at least we read
that one ayah. So it becomes very important
for us to set limits.
And when it comes to our that we
should never
ever allow ourselves to fall below the obligatory
actions
and never allow ourselves to start committing major
sins. So to recap,
our iman, it fluctuates.
Our motivation also fluctuates as well.
And this is something that is normal.
Secondly,
to always approach things in a balanced manner.
Be consistent.
And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
make these actions enjoyable to us, that we
love it. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala to always keep our motivation, our iman
at a high level. And when this phase
actually does come where our iman is low
and our motivation is low, and when it
comes to our worship, we make sure that
we stick to the obligatory action. We stay
away from all haram as much as we
can.
And in other areas, we make sure that
we maintain a limit.
Something that is easy to do,
and that we do it. It's just 1
ayah, 1 page, 1 minute of reading. And
a very important thing that we do is
we ask Allah consistently
on a daily basis
to strengthen our faith, to make these things
beloved to us, to help us when we're
in this phase, when we're struggling a little
bit, to help us get out of it.
You know, we complain to Allah
desperately,
and Allah
will always answer our dua. So we ask
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to strengthen our faith,
to keep us firm upon his path until
our last breath. Until next time.