An exciting series sharing short inspirations with the purpose of transformation
Sajid Ahmed Umar – Transformers Ep. 1 – Cave Days
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Salam, alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh brothers and sisters in Islam, welcome to transformers. You know what one of the best things we can introduce in our lives
is a cave day. All right, we live in the modern world. Let's not call it the cave day. Let's call it a thinking. Why do I say this? Why do we need thinking days are brothers and sisters in Islam we literally live through the hustle and bustle of life. And yes, I liken our lives to a busy city because it just feels like that there's just so much going on. Especially if you're a parent, especially if you're married.
Depending on the different roles, that Allah subhanho, Allah has blessed you to hold. There's just so much going on. And literally, we feel the blessings of time being lifted, and our just doesn't feel like an hour anymore.
So when you live through life like this, you tend to stop thinking, and you end up just becoming routined, like a robot, right? existing through life. And no one should exist through life, we should live through life, there's a difference between living and existing, and thinking they helps ensure that we have that living component present in our lives, that we feel alive with the life that we have.
You know, brothers and sisters in Islam, we have so many roles, but how many of us actually think of ourselves and our applications through those roles. We have mandatory roles in life roles that we can never ever give up. Like being a parent, like being a child, like being a sibling, like being a servant of Allah. And then we have elective roles, roles that we have flexibility in. Right? You can perceive yourself giving it up, right, like your job, like you're
volunteering service, at a particular organization on the weekend, or a particular club, that you attach yourself to every now and again. Right? We hold different roles. A cave day, is a savior day. And caves have a very special place in our history. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam received revelation in a cave, and he went there to protect himself from the chaos of misguidance that the Croatia engaged in. And during the hijra, which was that migration, that
is considered a savior as well. Because of that migration. We are believers today. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam sought refuge with Abu Bakar in a cave. And even in sort of recap that we read every Friday we talk about the the sleepers of the cave, US horrible, gaff, the companions of the cave, they protected themselves, their sanctity, their sanity, and the sanctity, meaning their religion in a cave, Allah gave them a cave to live in, and avoid the persecution that
the king of the time
endeavored to lay upon them, right. So these caves will handle law when it comes to guidance, his cave moments, this this cave time, the stinking time, really,
you know, these are from the best times and most productive times that we can have. I mean, in terms of a modern application, and what I'm trying to
relate to you for your transformation is to have days in your week or in your month, depending on your need, that you switch off from everything social from social media switch or from those around you take care of all your responsibilities so that those areas are taken care of in your absence, and go and have moments with yourself a meeting with yourself you know if you have to go into the mountains because you can't get rid of the you know, the internet, so go to a to a zone but the internet cannot be accessed. What I'm saying is get away from everything except yourself and go think about yourself, ask yourself, right you know, I'm I'm a mother, I'm a father how good a parent
Am I am a child how good a child am I? You know, I know I do this for my parents, but let me just analyze this. How good am I? Is there room for improvement? Right? What about my character? You know, what about my speech? What about my behavior? How you know, what about my reactions, right? This happened during the week this happened this month, could I have reacted better? This is how I reacted? What would be a better way of reacting. Okay, right? How can I enable myself transform my life towards being
better? The next time a situation arises that mandates a reaction for example, right.
This is my job. How can I be better at
it, right? I'm a Muslim, I'm a servant of Allah subhanho wa Taala. How is my Salah, when was the last time you actually thought about your son and how good it was, and how you could improve it, or you're sick, or you're fasting, right? Or you pilgrimage, and so on and so forth. Right? So the thinking de helps us
really
understand where we at. Because if we are thinking, then we might be deceived into believing that we actually doing a good thing. But, you know, it might be the opposite. And the last thing you want is to be surprised on the DL fam. You know, and, and that's why the Sahaba used to say, take account of yourself, before account is taken off you, right? Take account go have that thinking day before you surprise on the day of pm. And it is said that it was said by one of the companions that the people are sleeping, but when they die, they will wake up, we don't want to be you know, from that group, we want to be awake when we are alive. So when we pass away, we can rest, right brothers and sisters
in Islam. So what you you know, as an action point, put these thinking days into your calendar. And when you head into these thinking days, identify your roles, you see Subhanallah, you have so many roles in life, your grandson, your nephew, urine aren't your niece, you, your son, your daughter, your spouse, you, you have so many roles, try and be as comprehensive as you can with these rows. And slowly but surely work through these roles. You're a servant of Allah, you're a member of the community, you're a citizen of a country, right all these roles down and work through all these roles, and write down your ideal place with these roles that as a son, or as a daughter, as a
parent, this is my ideal. This is the parent I want to be when I die. And I think of myself as a parent or a child, and so on and so forth. I want to see myself having reached this level. All right, excellent. So now for every role that you have, right next to it an ideal level that you would be proud of reaching. Okay, the next step is go through each row and do a gap analysis, a gap analysis is you now understanding where you are right now, and how far you are from the ideal that you would want to achieve with regards to that role. That's cool. That's like that, you know, you want to understand the gap. This is where I want to be and this is where I am. Okay? After you do
that gap analysis, do what we call a root cause analysis, try and analyze the causes Why you are not at your ideal, right? What are the things that exist right now that prevent you from being at the ideal that you have set, okay, because the only way to improve is to understand where things are going wrong. So the root cause analysis, right, will help you identify that, write that down. So now you have the ideal, right? And now you know, you have where you are. So you know, you know that you know the gap between you and your ideal. Now you've written the reason why there's a gap, right? And then the third step is to list solutions, solutions analysis, write down possible solutions to help
you reach your ideal those solutions might be you need to change your friends circle, right? The solutions might be you need to throw your phone away, it's distracting you too much. Right? Maybe need to change your advisors,
different solutions, think about them and think about them.
You know, sincerely seeking Allah subhanho wa Taala has helped, you know, maybe you need to introduce the 100 in your life, right? Maybe you're not making enough, right? Maybe you need a buddy, right? Maybe you're trying to memorize the Quran, and it's not happening so you find someone who's also trying, maybe you're having trouble waking up so you find someone who is also trying, are you trying to fast more so you find someone who's also trying to become a buddy to you in this act of worship. So you wake each other up and you help each other through this, find the solutions, and then inshallah with more thinking days and more revisions,
and more meetings with yourself and these cave moments. inshallah you will see yourself transform into a better human being. I love you for the sake of Allah. Remember when your dua until next time Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh