Saif Morad – What to do when your Iman is low Set minimums

Saif Morad
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: Transcript ©
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What's going on? May Allah

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bless every single one of us with the

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best in this world and the next.

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Is something

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that fluctuates,

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and we've witnessed this.

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We see that there are times when our

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is extremely high. We see tremendous growth. We

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feel like doing any and everything there is

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that we can do. But then on the

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flip side,

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we witness times when we're struggling, when our

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iman is low. It's very difficult to even

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do the basic things.

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And this is expected.

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After all, the Prophet

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said,

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Verily the faith of one of you will

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wear out within him.

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Just as a shirt becomes worn out. So

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ask Allah to renew faith in your hearts.

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Hearts. The Prophet

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is telling us that our faith will wear

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out, and he's also telling us the cure,

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what to do, to ask Allah

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to keep us firm, to renew that faith,

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to increase it. But how many of us

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actively

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ask Allah

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to renew our faith, to keep us firm?

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And just like our faith weakens from time

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to time,

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also our motivation in other areas also weakens.

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You know, we get excited in the beginning

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about working out, about eating healthy, about starting

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a new business, and the list goes on.

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But what happens with over time that that

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motivation, that excitement, it wears out. And a

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lot of people, they give up. So what

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can we do to ensure that this dip

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in motivation, this dip

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in

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ensure that this dip in motivation, this dip

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in happens less frequently? Because it is bound

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to happen. Well firstly, we need to approach

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everything we do in a balanced manner. The

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Prophet

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said that for every action

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there's zeal, there's a period of excitement. In

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the beginning we have this excitement,

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but then for every action it goes through

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a period of weakness.

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You know, we wear out, that motivation stops.

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And the Prophet

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said that whoever's action is according to my

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sunnah,

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sunnah

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then they will succeed.

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But whoever's action is not in accordance to

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my sunnah,

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then they will fail.

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And the prophet

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is referring to his sunnah. What is his

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sunnah?

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The sunnah of the prophet

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is the middle path, the balanced way. Not

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to be too extreme in it, too overzealous

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that we burn ourselves out, at the same

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time not to be neglectful. The prophet salallahu

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alaihi wa sallam is teaching us how to

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approach things,

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and everyone's middle path is different. Some people

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can take on more because they're used to

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it. Some people in the beginning,

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they can't take on a lot.

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So we approach everything

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in a balanced manner

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because consistency is key, and consistency

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over time leads to tremendous results.

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And not only that, we approach things in

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a balanced manner, but we also ask Allah

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to make these actions, especially the acts of

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and the other things that are beneficial to

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us, we seek Allah's help and ask him

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to make it beloved to us,

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so that we enjoy doing it, so that

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we don't get bored.

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As some of the salaf used to say,

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that when it comes to active Ibad, if

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we do it out of love,

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then we'll never get bored.

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And this is ideally how we wanna function,

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in a balanced manner, and asking Allah subhanahu

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wa ta'ala to make these actions beloved to

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us. Not only in our worship and spirituality,

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but also in our other affairs. To make

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our work beloved to us, so we enjoy

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doing it. We're not miserable.

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But then sometimes things happen that shake us.

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We might make a mistake. We might fall

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off course.

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What do we do then? Our iman might

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take a serious hit.

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Do we give up altogether just because I

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don't feel like right now that I'm not

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gonna pray?

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Do I start committing sins?

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It doesn't work like that.

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And Umar bin Khattab has a profound statement.

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He said that the heart, you know, there

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are times when it's extremely motivated. It wants

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to do good. And there are times when

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it just doesn't feel like it. When the

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heart is moving towards good

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and is motivated,

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we try to do a lot of nawafil.

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This is a time to really step up

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our routine, to move ourselves to new heights.

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But then,

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when our hearts don't feel like it,

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this is the time we stick to the

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the obligatory

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actions. So we stick to the obligatory actions

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and we don't commit sins.

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What did Umar ibn Khattab just do? He

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set a limit.

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There's a minimum that we cannot allow ourselves

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no matter what to drop under.

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And Islam is a practical religion. It's applicable

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to every area in our life.

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And we want to strive for excellence in

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every area.

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So how do we take this principle and

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apply it in other areas?

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This is something called setting a limit or

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we can say the minimum.

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Because if our minimum is the obligatory actions,

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praying our 5 times salawat,

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being good to our parents, our family members,

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staying away from sin, eventually we're gonna bounce

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back.

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Because we're still doing these actions consistently.

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And we can set our minimums,

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our limits in other areas as well.

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For example,

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ideally, let's say I wanna be reading Quran

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for 30 minutes a day. But then there

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are times I'm gonna be busy. I might

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not be able to commit to that. What

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do I do then? Just give up? And

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lose out on the barakah, lose out on

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the reward? No. We set a minimum that

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no matter what

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I can at least read for 1 minute,

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or one line, or two lines, or half

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a page. However you wanna set it. And

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this way we'll ensure we do it. Ideally,

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if I'm trying to work out 5 days

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a week, they're gonna times me, and I'm

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busy, I'm traveling, I need to commit to

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other things. Then what do I do? Just

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give up and lose all the progress that

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I made? No. We set a limit

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that I will at least work out, for

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example, 10 minutes twice a week.

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That's better than giving up altogether.

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Another example, if I normally read for 10,

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15 minutes per day, for example.

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Then I can set a minimum to read

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for a minute.

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That's easy to do. And usually the most

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difficult thing is just starting to act.

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Because when we look at the task in

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front of us, reading Quran for 30 minutes,

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for example,

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or working out 5 days a week, it

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can feel overwhelming. But if we set a

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minimum, and it's easy,

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then it's easy to get the act started.

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And usually what happens is, things that are

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in motion, tend to stay in motion. When

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we read one ayah, for example, it might

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spark curiosity,

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it might not, but at least we read

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that one ayah. So it becomes very important

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for us to set limits.

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And when it comes to our that we

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should never

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ever allow ourselves to fall below the obligatory

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actions

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and never allow ourselves to start committing major

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sins. So to recap,

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our iman, it fluctuates.

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Our motivation also fluctuates as well.

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And this is something that is normal.

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Secondly,

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to always approach things in a balanced manner.

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Be consistent.

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And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to

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make these actions enjoyable to us, that we

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love it. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa

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ta'ala to always keep our motivation, our iman

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at a high level. And when this phase

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actually does come where our iman is low

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and our motivation is low, and when it

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comes to our worship, we make sure that

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we stick to the obligatory action. We stay

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away from all haram as much as we

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can.

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And in other areas, we make sure that

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we maintain a limit.

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Something that is easy to do,

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and that we do it. It's just 1

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ayah, 1 page, 1 minute of reading. And

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a very important thing that we do is

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we ask Allah consistently

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on a daily basis

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to strengthen our faith, to make these things

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beloved to us, to help us when we're

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in this phase, when we're struggling a little

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bit, to help us get out of it.

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You know, we complain to Allah

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desperately,

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and Allah

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will always answer our dua. So we ask

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Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to strengthen our faith,

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to keep us firm upon his path until

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our last breath. Until next time.

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