Shadee Elmasry – On the Importance of Absolute Beliefs
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Candelaria.
meat patty.
Oh, oh yeah, you can't be forgot about that.
That's what you teach. I used to for eight years now teaching
elementary. Okay. Oh, that's rough. That's rough.
Yeah, that's tough.
know they're making.
They're doing that to switch them around. What are they doing?
Street demands. Why do they want teachers that are making a lot of
money to retire? That's the NJ EA
GA the government government.
Nj is for you. And then the government is trying to basically
get rid of y'all.
Chris Christie is like isn't care about teachers. He does not care
about teachers.
firefighters or police? Yeah.
Yeah. Oh, did you see that one clip? didn't watch Chris Christie
clips. So funny one time.
This lady goes, we love teaching and you're cutting our benefits.
And now we can't make a living from teaching.
And then so he goes so then just don't do it can run the job?
Is it don't do it. Get another job. Can you believe
in front of a massive auditorium?
Alright, Bismillah R Rahman Rahim. hamdulillah
salatu salam ala Rasulillah. No one knew somebody Manola. So
today,
we're pretty much getting pretty deep into the book. Now. We're
going over our belief about the Day of Judgment, there's nothing
more important than beliefs. Because beliefs determine your
mentality. mentality determines action. Actions determines the
world. Right? Your action determines your world. But your
action also determines a part of my world. And everyone else's
action put together formulates what the world is like
111 the scales?
We actually no, no, no, we passed that actually. I'm going to revise
all that stuff. I'm going to do a review of all that stuff. We're
actually on point 26 The intercession?
Yeah, no, I'll go over all that stuff.
So.
So beliefs are the most important that leads them mentality,
mentality leads to action and action leads to what the world is.
Right eat for yourself and for others, because if, for all of us
Collective, we have a certain mentality, it's going to lead to
certain action, and all of us will influence other people behavior,
behavior. Now, the thing is, that it's very important to emphasize
and that we're part of, and really, we should feel blessed
that we're part of, is that beliefs must be absolutely
certain. There cannot be shakiness in beliefs, alright, there cannot
be there no human being has ever function with no beliefs,
even to have no belief, if you think about it is a belief. Right?
Because if you declare that there's nothing out there worth
believing in. That's actually a belief, if you think about it. So
the human being is a creature that Allah has made. His pillar is
going to be belief, no matter what he believes he will believe in
something, even those who basically believe that
whatever you believe in is fine. That relativity is a belief. It's
a belief, right? So to have an absolute belief, is the source of
a person's serenity and security and also our ability to measure
ourselves. We have to measure ourselves because we human beings,
we're human because of our knowledge,
willpower,
and character. These are the three things so our character and
spirituality which is really one thing,
our our knowledge and our willpower. This is what makes us
different from animals. We have intellect, we have freewill, and
then we have spirits. Okay. And animals are living in a different
realm than we do.
Alright, so if you don't, if you have an absolute belief, you can
measure yourself, you can measure your knowledge relative to that
absolute belief. If you don't have a religion or a belief, then how
do you measure your knowledge of the world? How do you measure your
understanding of the world? So that's one thing. How do you know
what's important? If there's no God, okay? If there's no deity
that you put up as holy and sacred, and he's the one who gives
all the orders, and tells us what to do, and tells us what the world
is about, if you don't have that pivot guide, then how do you know
what to even study what to learn?
And if you don't learn anything, then you're just a beast, you're a
bum. So knowledge is critical. But which knowledge? Who's going to
determine that? So how am I supposed to know what to study? So
they study biology? Should I study the arts? Should I study
literature? What am I supposed to study, and Allah tells us what
we're supposed to study. Number one study is Dean, everything
else, it could be for you or against you. Right? It could be
useful, it will be outdated someday. And everything else on
the day of judge on the Day of Judgment, it will be useless,
except for the one who used it.
To help God's creatures, that's the only thing. someone he knows,
for example, plumbing. It's such a mundane subject, right? It's so so
random. However, you can still get to heaven just from that, because
every day, you're gonna go into someone's house, and you're gonna
see them down about their toilet or whatever, you can fix their
problem, and then they're going to be happy again, you just did a
good deed. So you can go to heaven just from that, but the knowledge
in and of itself, the knowledge is useless on the Day of Judgment. No
one's going to care about toilets. But the knowledge of God and
afterlife that will continue to be useful, even in the after the
knowledge by itself. Forget even how you used it. So that's the
knowledge then you got will, animals, they don't have choice in
life. The animal doesn't have a choice. When he's hungry. He eats
when he wants to go to the bathroom, he just goes to the
bathroom. No, cuz he doesn't choose. Yeah, you can't, you can
train an animal, but you only train him by hope and fear, right,
hope and fear. So you train a dog, you ring a bell, and you give him
food, ring a bell and give him food, then you're gonna ring a
bell, and he's gonna come running. Pavlovian method, right? Same
thing, just fear and hope. Or you ring a bell and you hit him. You
ring a bell and you hit him. So then next time, if he attacks a
guest, you ring a bell and he's gonna run away because he knows
he's gonna get hit. So that's the Pavlovian psychology of animals
and even the dog. He's very high up because he can do that. You
can't do that with a squirrel, right? If you notice, Allah has
animals that we could subjugate like dogs, cows, horses, and then
animals no matter what you do, you cannot subjugate it, can you get
you can, you can see a boy in India or Africa pulling an
elephant, he's subjugated or an elephant, right you can teach an
elephant how to walk with you and ride him, but you can have the
biggest geniuses they cannot subjugate a fly. This is Allah's
Will is not amazing, you cannot subjugate a gnat
but you can subjugate an elephant.
Right. So, this is all so the willpower now, if if if we are the
people who make our own rules, right? And if we follow no rules,
then how do I know if I have willpower or not? Right? What how
do I measure my willpower.
And the human being is marked by being able to tap into his
willpower the most.
The only way you can tap into your willpower is if someone else
besides you, okay,
puts gives you a bar puts a bar up and says you you should be doing
this. You have no excuse not to be doing this. And you should be
avoiding this. You have no excuse not to avoid this. At that point.
You have to struggle. You have to struggle. Okay. And now the
question is, well, what happens if that person doesn't know who I am?
That's another problem. That's why another human being who comes
along and says, Okay, I'll let me set the rules for all you I'll be
the chief. And I'll set the rules all you have to do this, this and
this and this. What's the struggle struggle with the struggle within
yourself? Yeah, to tap into that willpower. It's not knowing
whether or not that person is guiding properly, like you just
say, yeah, so now let's say a person comes along and does that
right? Why should I listen to him? He doesn't even know me. Right?
And if I followed him, I might follow him into destruction.
Write someone who sends me a manmade code of behavior, right?
He may lead me into destruction. Why this person he doesn't know
the past, he doesn't know the future, and he doesn't even know
me. So human beings can only have a limit on what laws they can
apply upon other human beings because they don't know. They're
not the makers of human beings. Okay? Now, if you made lesson
plans, right, you can tell your students you know, your students
level, you know that you could tell them, you have to do this,
you you can do this exercise. But that's it. You can't tell him
anything else, you can tell him something in his moral life, you
don't know that person. But indeed, okay, the belief and why
it works for religion to have an absolute belief is because you we
believe that Allah is the one who made us. And we have different
indicators, we have various indicators, which is another
subject, we have indicated why we should believe in God, and that he
made us and he made this world. So he knows the past, the present and
the future. So when he says you should do this, you got to do
this,
then we know for sure it's doable. It's practical.
And it's possible and it's beneficial. It's beneficial.
That's another thing. So we know that for sure. And we can measure
our own moral aptitude based on whether or not we can fulfill
these deeds, whether or not we have the willpower? Or do we
follow our own laziness and whims and passion? So how do we separate
someone who follows his passion from someone who has that ability
to say to himself, you've got to do that that's what piety is. So
this is another yet another critical reason why to have an
absolute belief, and an app's belief and an absolute guide, who
knows us who made us and sets the rules for us, right? makes us
human, so that we can apply our willpower other than otherwise,
how do I know I'm not just for fulfilling my passions? And if you
fulfill your passions, what do you do you spoil yourself? Why is this
a problem? Why is it a problem when anytime you want something,
you get it, because you're not going to act, you're not going to
fight, there's going to be no fight within you. Now, if there's
no fight within you, then what happens when you start getting
into bad habits, you become controlled, you become conquered.
Okay. And once you're conquered by your bad habits, you're finished.
So so all these for example, out in LA, all these people who are
some of the all these people who are faced fulfilling all of their
desires all the time, Allah gave them the money, he gave them
youth, he gave them all that's needed to fulfill their desires at
all times. When these individuals succumb to
alcohol abuse, when they succumb to some addiction or other, what
fight does he have in Him, they have very little fight, they
become controlled, okay? By addictions, okay? And so the, the
Muslim is constantly being told, get up for federal, now get up for
the hook. Now make will do for us if you're constantly being pushed,
constantly being pushed. So now when some kind of addiction comes
your way, you're strong, he could push it out of the way. You just
push it out the way why this religion doesn't leave you alone.
Allah is always pushing you, you got to parent you got to call
them. You got you have a fight with someone, you got to go make
up with them. Allah is pushing us all the time. And that's what when
he pushes us, we become strong. When we come strong, we're able to
repel evil from ourselves. So we benefit. It's like somehow someone
who is always telling his son, let's say someone's got a son or
someone's in the military, get up and do 10 Push Ups. Now do 10 Sit
ups now do 10 star jumps now go run a mile, constantly pushing him
never let him sit on the couch for an extended period of time. Now
someone at the school bus stop pushes him what's going to happen?
You're going to worry about him not gonna have any worries,
because I'm pushing him all the time. Right? And now he's strong,
I don't have to worry about him. So Allah makes us strong. So if we
didn't have an absolute belief, an absolute guide, we wouldn't do any
of this stuff. Right. And so we ended up being weak. The last
thing is, we said knowledge, the we said the willpower, what was
the other one? We said a character and spirituality, character and
spirituality. Right. Spirituality is also requires something
absolutely. Spirituality is also based on knowledge and willpower.
If you combine these two things, and you do them in the right way,
you will attain a healthy spirituality. Okay.
You will attain a moral self a moral conscience, okay, that can
grow or that can sustain spiritual growth. Now, spiritual growth.
What is the chief? What is the chief feature of spirituality?
It's love
Taqwa chocolate is the soil taqwa, that piety, that's the willpower
to push away. The bugs, the rodents, the foxes from the
garden. Right? The foxes from the garden and to toil the garden, the
work, tuck, what is the work? Now that's the work is that garden.
Now what is the main food of spirituality food of that garden
is love.
Love has to have direction.
This these days, there's this thing that started really in the
70s. But it's coming back now that it's just one love. And if
basically, if you don't want to think or have any discussion, just
say love. Right? Just say love. And everyone becomes a subject of
love. Right after they die. Malcolm X, love Nelson Mandela,
love. No.
What's his name? Martin Luther King love? No, there were
struggle. There were people of struggle. But that once we lay
down, that we have fought hard and struggled hard in religion now,
who do we love? Spirituality has to have love. Right? The spirit is
nourished by love. You have to have someone to love. And if you
don't have an absolute, then and the subject of your love is you
yourself. And you just You're the decision maker of who you love.
Okay? At that point, you're absolutely random. You may love
someone that doesn't benefit you love something that doesn't
benefit you. Okay? Love someone who will harm you love yourself
and thereby end up killing yourself. Selfishness kills a
person, okay, and destroys a person. So how do we even know who
to direct our love to? And so having an absolute is critical,
okay, having that absolute, we know who our love is for and our
spirituality can be measured by how much we are devoting our time
and our efforts to that one. Okay, and ALLAH SubhanA said it very
clearly. The the one that you work to love most, okay, he says it's
one but it's Allah, His messenger and strive in their struggling in
their sake. Okay. And Allah described himself and the Prophet
using one pronoun, will la hora, su aqua and you will do Allah and
His Messenger, there your most more, most work or most worthy
that you please him. So he didn't say him as Allah or the Prophet,
because who loves the prophet who pleases the prophet has pleased
Allah who obeys the prophet has obeyed Allah. So this is why
absolute belief, right apps, the concept of having an absolute now
why do people struggle with an absolute? People struggle with
this because they then they turn around, and they only struggle
with it in a diverse society, heterogeneous society because
you're going to turn around and say, well, if I'm on the truth,
then that whole room over there, they're not on the truth. They're
not on the truth, right?
Because you're not Muslim, right? You're we're in a country that
we're like, not even like 3% 4% Muslims, right? You look around
and you're gonna think 96% of the people aren't on the truth. Right?
The thing is that that's a question of salvation. Right? And
the best answer to that is that the truth is a precious thing.
Right? The truth is a precious thing. But in fact, we're 4% here,
or 4% here. I mean, one out of four in the whole world is Muslim
today. So the truth is not some kind of rare thing. It's just
hasn't gotten westward yet. Right? And one out of four is Muslim
doesn't mean necessarily mean it's a quality believer, because the
Prophet said at the end of time, there will be many but you're not
have any quality your qualities is weak. Right? You're like the froth
of the sea. Right but the the salvation question gets people are
all they these people go into hellfire? Our answer to that is
salvation, the salvation question. We say that paths lead to the
hellfire. We say for sure this belief leads to the hellfire. But
we don't say that those on it are certainly going to the Hellfire
for a couple of reasons. One, you don't know how he's going to die.
To the Prophet peace be upon him said that only people who know the
message and reject it. Those are the people of the Hellfire. So you
don't know if he received the message properly, so you can't
judge him. Thirdly, even if you think that you that he got the
message properly, it's not up to us to be making
after other worldly judgments upon the people or assumptions about
the people. So do we say Oh, well, it's all good. Allah is merciful
and everything's fine. No, we don't say that either. Because if
he's merciful, then why put the effort? Why not just be like,
follow one of these easy religions then if Gods
All Merciful, right? And you might not make that but your kids will
write for example, somewhat many people, they go out and they don't
want to tell their kids that there's anything path of *,
they don't talk about * at all. So they end up saying, Well, we're
Muslim, but Allah, Allah is gonna have mercy on everyone. Now,
logically speaking, if Allah is going to have mercy on everyone,
why would I have to wake up for Fudger? Why wake up professor? Why
make we do? Why wet my feet and my hands in the winter? It's
December, right? Why should I wet my feet? Kind of effort? So I put
in that if if everyone's fine, long, I'll be like them. Right?
They're relaxed. So no, we say this. There are paths that are for
sure. There's a path to the hellfire. Now you're on that path.
Someone else is on that path. That's a problem. We're going to
try to give them Dawa. Right? We're not going to leave him.
We're gonna try to give them Dawa. If we don't can't give them Dawa.
Because a it's a workplace and giving Dawa in the workplace.
I don't believe it's the appropriate thing to do. Right?
Because you're not hired to give doubt. You're disrupting your
boss's desire, he hired you to do a job not to turn it into a
religious debate. So the job is not the place to do Dow neighbors,
you have to do it in a right way. Because neighborliness, you know,
people might be sort of, they don't want to every time they have
to open the door, get the mail, they want to make sure that you're
not there first, right? If you ever lived in the small
developments, if you ever lived in these small developments, and you
got that one person, like maybe he's a retiree, or for whatever
reason, if they catch you, they will have no concept that you have
a life and they will talk to you for about 40 minutes every single
time. So you have to check if he's there. Check if his car is gone,
then you can you're free. This is this. We won't want to do that.
Right. You don't want to do that. Alright, we'll pick up afterwards.