Shadee Elmasry – Anxiety Over Finances

being fearful that God will provide for you is one of the big

diseases, right, being fearful that God will not provide or

fulfill our provision. And this is a big one. And this is one of the

big anxieties that people have in as far as I've seen in our society

today, is this anxiety of, do I have enough? Am I going to have

enough will I be able to make my bills, what's going to happen 10

years from now what's going to happen when I retire will not have

enough savings for retirement, and being cautious, being diligent,

working hard, trying to be careful with your money is all good, but

not because you fear that Allah will will not provide for you the

same way that he would have if you didn't do those things, because

your risk has already been written. This is a fact, it's a

hard one to internalize. It's a really difficult one. Because the

way that Allah has made the ASVAB, the means of attaining onto your

provision is that you go out and you seek it. And that you obtain

it through the means that you're obtaining of work, through family,

whatever the means are, so we have to go through the means. And so

sometimes, that's a veil for us to know that it's really all from

Allah, your boss is not paying you. Allah has written that money

for you, it was already provided. And it would have been provided

through another means if there was another means. But this is what's

been written for you. And you can't decrease it. Sometimes what

we see in our period right now in our times, is that this is a big

area where people fall into into sin out of this fear, right? So

they lie.

They'll lie on their resume, they'll lie to their co workers or

lie to their bosses, all because they're afraid that they're going

to lose the risk when it's already been written through and

committing a sin is not going to increase it in any way whatsoever.

People will be dishonest in business, this is the worst,

right? When you have your own business, and you're cheating your

customers, because you think that's going to increase you? They

won't, they won't. Absolutely.

You know, there's a saying that no one can, you know, you can't

benefit your dunya this life by harming you after the next life

does that not only is that a bad trade off, but it doesn't even

work, it won't work. He's breaking down here, the two sources of

these diseases. And the first one is really it's anxiety. It's this

anxiousness that overtakes us. And we're like that this is the way

we've been designed. And sometimes that's to our benefit. And it

helps us in our preservation in the preservation of our life and

our safety. But we shouldn't let it overtake us.

And I was I was talking to someone recently about this.

Something like

60 million, maybe Americans are on or maybe more are on some kind of

anxiety medication, right. And these are the ones that have been

diagnosed, have actually gone to a medical professional and received

a medication for unfulfilled and fill the prescription. So maybe

like another 50% that are just dealing with it. And it's not

surprising, right? And these numbers are huge. I mean, there's

only like 300 plus million people in the country. It's a huge

number. But it's not surprising, because every time you turn on the

television, right, and you look at the news, first of all, the local

news is all fires, accidents, and somebody got shot in some town.

Yeah, on the national level, there's always we're going to be

attacked, we're going to be killed this and that. And then there's

always you're not saving enough you don't

aside from all of those, like fears, like oh my god, my safety,

right. There's also look at all this stuff that you should have,

and you don't have it.

Like, you open up your mailbox, and you have one piece of genuine

mail. And then there's a bunch of stuff trying to sell you things.

It's the same thing in your email. You know, even if you're real

careful with your email address, you go into your email, and

there's ad after ad, you bought one thing from a store once and

now you're getting you're getting emails every single day telling

you that there's a great sale, everything is pushing us towards

feeling anxious, like we need something that we don't have,

whether it's safety, whether it's security, whether it's more money,

or whether it's just more things, or shinier things than the ones we

have even though we have one already the state of anxiety that

we're being put into by design is it's not it's it's a big deal. And

so and one of the biggest one of the biggest ones that happens is

you fear for your money. I don't know how I'm gonna get by, will I

be able to pay my mortgage will I be able to pay my rent?

I mean, and even the fact that this concept that everyone has to

own everything right? Like you have to own it. What are you

talking about? You don't own that you have to own it. You have to

own it, you have to buy this you have to buy that. What do you mean

you have two kids and you have a passenger car you crazy? You need

like a really big car with a lot of space in it for all their

stuff. We get the kids and stuff you want it to be car.

He also mentions the importance of that

the remembrance of Allah and this is vicar with the tongue and also

in the heart and also in our actions that are not specifically

what you might consider the remembrance. So it's not just

saying Lila who will last panelist pounce upon Allah after so all

right. It's also remembrance throughout the day, right when I

shall Radi Allahu anha mentioned that the Prophet salallahu alayhi

wa sallam was always in a state of vicar. She didn't mean that he was

always reciting, but rather that he was his state was that he

always remembered Allah, because there's really only two states,

right? There's remembrance. And then there's heedlessness.

waffleh. waffleh is your heedless of Allah. So your actions are what

the actions of a heedless person, when you're committing sins,

you're not remembering Allah. When you're ignoring the time for

prayer, and it's getting close and you and then you missed it. That's

heedlessness, so there's only two states. And the better state is

remembrance. Because if you're remembering Allah, you're not

going to be rude to your family member, you're not going to be

angry when you shouldn't be, you're not going to be fearful of

things that you shouldn't necessarily be fearful of. You're

not going to be miserly when a poor person needs your assistance,

etc. Right? So being mindful of a lot and being having remembrance

of Allah constantly is really a big, big deal.

Because the knifes brothers and sisters, the nest was never meant

to define for us what is wholesome and good on this earth. The neffs

is connected to the dirt is connected to this earth, but the

rule is what's connected to Allah subhanaw taala. So when the source

of the rule has telling you what's good for you, that's what you

submit you and that's what you connect