Shadee Elmasry – Anxiety Over Finances
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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