Shadee Elmasry – Zukos Crucible & Free Will – NBF 390

Shadee Elmasry
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of physical body and free will in modern humanity and the need for people to act on it. They also touch on the story of Z centers and the Fire Nation, including their mission to restore balance and stop evil, and the importance of trusting God and not giving money to anyone. The speakers emphasize the need for people to make choices based on their values and interests, show up at church, and not be married. They also discuss the pestalistic nature of living real life and how people lose their " paragons of living real life" and aren't just lost, but also lost " paragons of living real life" and how people aren't going to save people, but they are lost. They encourage people to pray and use them in a positive way, and discuss various topics such as attraction, personality, and how to use them in future research.
AI: Transcript ©
00:01:04 --> 00:01:07

Welcome everybody to the Safina Sa'idi Nothing

00:01:07 --> 00:01:11

But Facts livestream on a Wednesday, brought to

00:01:11 --> 00:01:15

you by GRT and it's getting, GRT of

00:01:15 --> 00:01:17

course is the Global Relief Trust, let's stick

00:01:17 --> 00:01:20

their little logo maybe in the bottom corner

00:01:20 --> 00:01:25

would be better, Global Relief Trust, we've helped

00:01:25 --> 00:01:29

them raise over $100,000 for Gaza, British

00:01:29 --> 00:01:32

pounds which is, what is it, $130,000

00:01:32 --> 00:01:33

or something?

00:01:33 --> 00:01:39

So it's getting nippy, that means Gaza, it's

00:01:39 --> 00:01:42

going to be winter soon and Allah knows

00:01:42 --> 00:01:44

best how they're going to survive it.

00:01:45 --> 00:01:48

We actually still don't have contact from our

00:01:48 --> 00:01:50

man, do we at GRT?

00:01:50 --> 00:01:56

We're at $104,900 right now, £104,000

00:01:56 --> 00:01:59

and 900 some, so we could be at

00:01:59 --> 00:02:00

105 soon.

00:02:01 --> 00:02:04

Maybe today probably we'll be there, Omar will

00:02:04 --> 00:02:06

pin the link there.

00:02:07 --> 00:02:12

So it's GRT and Yemeni threads, look at

00:02:12 --> 00:02:16

these beautiful shawls, all from Yemeni threads, you

00:02:16 --> 00:02:18

get a pinstriped one, this is one of

00:02:18 --> 00:02:21

my favourites recently, the pinstriped one, Yankee colours

00:02:21 --> 00:02:24

of course, the Mets fans are involved this

00:02:24 --> 00:02:26

year and I never knew this as a

00:02:26 --> 00:02:31

little New York, I guess meaningless trivia, ilmun

00:02:31 --> 00:02:34

la yanfa wa jahlun la yadur, is essentially

00:02:34 --> 00:02:37

that the Mets colours were based on the

00:02:37 --> 00:02:40

Brooklyn Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants, the

00:02:40 --> 00:02:45

Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants or

00:02:45 --> 00:02:47

Brooklyn Giants, I don't know, but the Giants

00:02:47 --> 00:02:49

and the Dodgers were both New York teams,

00:02:49 --> 00:02:50

right?

00:02:50 --> 00:02:51

And they left.

00:02:52 --> 00:02:54

So the Mets inherited those fan bases when

00:02:54 --> 00:02:57

they were founded, so they coloured their logo

00:02:57 --> 00:03:00

based on the colours of the Dodgers and

00:03:00 --> 00:03:02

the Giants and that's how they ended up

00:03:02 --> 00:03:04

with the orange and blue.

00:03:07 --> 00:03:09

That's how they ended up with that.

00:03:09 --> 00:03:11

Let's go to Zucco's Crucible.

00:03:11 --> 00:03:16

What exactly does our author, Naz Hassan, and

00:03:16 --> 00:03:18

Omar you can stick this up any time

00:03:18 --> 00:03:20

you get a chance, what does he mean

00:03:20 --> 00:03:23

by, are we condemned to be free?

00:03:24 --> 00:03:26

Was it worth the cost to be free?

00:03:26 --> 00:03:30

And again, here's a question, all the questions

00:03:30 --> 00:03:33

that surround purpose of life, that surround why

00:03:33 --> 00:03:37

we exist, all of these spiritual questions, let

00:03:37 --> 00:03:40

alone the morality of how do we behave,

00:03:41 --> 00:03:46

these questions cannot be answered by reason nor

00:03:46 --> 00:03:47

by science.

00:03:48 --> 00:03:50

We only have knowledge that comes to us

00:03:50 --> 00:03:58

in three sources, reason, demonstration, observation, sensory perception,

00:03:59 --> 00:04:01

or third one is transmission.

00:04:04 --> 00:04:06

Reason cannot give us these answers.

00:04:07 --> 00:04:08

Thinking on a mountain cannot give you these

00:04:08 --> 00:04:09

answers.

00:04:11 --> 00:04:13

Experimenting in the physical creation of the world

00:04:13 --> 00:04:15

cannot give you these answers.

00:04:16 --> 00:04:18

So human beings are in dire need of

00:04:18 --> 00:04:21

transmission and once you see how amazing the

00:04:21 --> 00:04:25

creation is, literally how amazing is the dunya,

00:04:25 --> 00:04:28

the physical aspect of the world, how amazing

00:04:28 --> 00:04:28

is it?

00:04:29 --> 00:04:36

And how complex, how complex it is, and

00:04:36 --> 00:04:38

how brilliant the physical creation is.

00:04:38 --> 00:04:41

I mean, you look these days, we get

00:04:41 --> 00:04:45

to see something that the ancients never were

00:04:45 --> 00:04:45

able to see.

00:04:46 --> 00:04:48

The ancients, which is pretty much anyone who

00:04:48 --> 00:04:51

lived 200 years ago, were able to see

00:04:51 --> 00:04:53

a night sky that we cannot even fathom,

00:04:54 --> 00:04:59

like the night sky that they used to

00:04:59 --> 00:05:03

look at every single day was so amazing.

00:05:03 --> 00:05:06

We don't see any of that with our

00:05:06 --> 00:05:06

light pollution.

00:05:06 --> 00:05:08

You'd have to go out to Arizona or

00:05:08 --> 00:05:09

something to see that.

00:05:10 --> 00:05:11

You'd literally have to do tourism to see

00:05:11 --> 00:05:12

that.

00:05:12 --> 00:05:15

But what we do get is these telescope

00:05:15 --> 00:05:21

images of what outer space would look like.

00:05:22 --> 00:05:24

This stuff is amazing.

00:05:25 --> 00:05:28

And yet we all agree that the physical

00:05:28 --> 00:05:32

body is far less important and less superior

00:05:32 --> 00:05:37

and less critical in life than purpose, which

00:05:37 --> 00:05:37

is spirituality.

00:05:38 --> 00:05:45

Your spiritual life, your emotional life, your moral

00:05:45 --> 00:05:48

life, like what's right and what's wrong, your

00:05:48 --> 00:05:50

social life, how do we govern society, your

00:05:50 --> 00:05:52

family life, what do I do when I

00:05:52 --> 00:05:53

procreate?

00:05:53 --> 00:05:55

Does it just procreate however I want?

00:05:58 --> 00:05:59

Is that what we're supposed to do?

00:06:01 --> 00:06:05

So all of those issues are far more

00:06:05 --> 00:06:06

important than the physical body.

00:06:07 --> 00:06:08

Those are some beautiful pictures.

00:06:09 --> 00:06:10

I'm going to save one of those and

00:06:10 --> 00:06:11

post it.

00:06:12 --> 00:06:13

Whichever one you want.

00:06:14 --> 00:06:18

So why do we have free will is

00:06:18 --> 00:06:21

a question that cannot be answered just by

00:06:21 --> 00:06:21

thinking a lot.

00:06:22 --> 00:06:23

It just can't.

00:06:23 --> 00:06:24

Never will be.

00:06:25 --> 00:06:30

It only is answered by revelation.

00:06:30 --> 00:06:34

Revelation tells us, oh human being, you're the

00:06:34 --> 00:06:34

one who chose it.

00:06:35 --> 00:06:39

Oh human being, we actually offer free will

00:06:39 --> 00:06:41

to the heavens and to the earth, known

00:06:41 --> 00:06:42

as al-amanah.

00:06:42 --> 00:06:44

And what is the tafsir of that amanah?

00:06:45 --> 00:06:46

Your free will.

00:06:47 --> 00:06:50

That's what the amanah is.

00:06:51 --> 00:06:53

That's what the ulama say, the will to

00:06:53 --> 00:06:54

choose right from wrong.

00:07:04 --> 00:07:09

Not only did they not accept it, they

00:07:09 --> 00:07:10

recoiled from it.

00:07:10 --> 00:07:12

They recoiled from it.

00:07:13 --> 00:07:16

And the human being accepted it.

00:07:18 --> 00:07:21

The generality of, like, what does that mean?

00:07:22 --> 00:07:24

Like, is it a human being?

00:07:24 --> 00:07:26

Did all the souls come and vote?

00:07:26 --> 00:07:27

Allah knows best about that.

00:07:28 --> 00:07:31

That is a example of a quliya in

00:07:31 --> 00:07:31

the Quran.

00:07:32 --> 00:07:34

We'll see what the tafsir say about that.

00:07:41 --> 00:07:43

Now I have a lot of books, but

00:07:43 --> 00:07:46

they're more like textbooks for classes.

00:07:47 --> 00:07:50

But we will be, I will be publishing

00:07:50 --> 00:07:51

one soon.

00:07:51 --> 00:07:53

Let's take a while though.

00:07:54 --> 00:07:57

In the classic Nickelodeon show, Avatar, The Last

00:07:57 --> 00:08:01

Airbender, Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation is

00:08:01 --> 00:08:03

introduced as a disturbed teenager struggling to figure

00:08:03 --> 00:08:04

out the right path to take in this

00:08:04 --> 00:08:05

fragmented life.

00:08:06 --> 00:08:08

So there are four nations in this world,

00:08:08 --> 00:08:10

each representing the four elements, air, earth, water,

00:08:10 --> 00:08:11

and fire.

00:08:12 --> 00:08:13

People heard about this?

00:08:13 --> 00:08:13

You know about Zuko?

00:08:14 --> 00:08:15

This is your generation?

00:08:15 --> 00:08:16

Why don't you put a picture up for

00:08:16 --> 00:08:17

everybody?

00:08:19 --> 00:08:19

Okay.

00:08:19 --> 00:08:21

I never even heard of it until now.

00:08:22 --> 00:08:23

No, I've read this before.

00:08:23 --> 00:08:25

So that's the only reason I know about

00:08:25 --> 00:08:25

it.

00:08:26 --> 00:08:28

So what happens is that he ends up,

00:08:31 --> 00:08:34

all right, a cosmic cycle chooses a human

00:08:34 --> 00:08:36

being known as the Avatar to keep this

00:08:36 --> 00:08:36

balance of peace.

00:08:37 --> 00:08:40

But then the Avatar vanishes from the world,

00:08:40 --> 00:08:41

leaving a void.

00:08:41 --> 00:08:45

Seizing this misfortune, the Fire Nation starts a

00:08:45 --> 00:08:48

hundred-year war to conquer the other nations.

00:08:50 --> 00:08:53

People search far and wide for the next

00:08:53 --> 00:08:55

Avatar to save them and punish them and

00:08:55 --> 00:08:57

punish the Fire Nation's aggression.

00:08:58 --> 00:08:59

But he is nowhere to be found.

00:09:00 --> 00:09:04

Prince Zuko was born to the Fire Lord,

00:09:04 --> 00:09:06

the tyrant of the Fire Nation.

00:09:06 --> 00:09:08

Abused and neglected as a child, he grows

00:09:08 --> 00:09:09

up with rage.

00:09:10 --> 00:09:13

One event from his childhood continues to scar

00:09:13 --> 00:09:17

him when his father burned his face and

00:09:17 --> 00:09:19

then exiled him because of a minor mistake.

00:09:20 --> 00:09:22

And you can only regain your honor if

00:09:22 --> 00:09:23

you capture the Avatar.

00:09:24 --> 00:09:24

Wait a second.

00:09:24 --> 00:09:26

Why would the leader of the Fire Nation

00:09:26 --> 00:09:27

want the Avatar?

00:09:28 --> 00:09:30

Oh, capture him to kill him.

00:09:30 --> 00:09:31

Oh, okay.

00:09:31 --> 00:09:32

Not capture him to make use of him.

00:09:32 --> 00:09:33

Okay, I see.

00:09:33 --> 00:09:35

So Zuko then wanders the world as an

00:09:35 --> 00:09:38

outcast, relentlessly looking for the Avatar.

00:09:39 --> 00:09:41

When the Avatar reappears in the form of

00:09:41 --> 00:09:43

a 12-year-old boy, the last survival

00:09:43 --> 00:09:46

of an ancient nation, Zuko pursues him with

00:09:46 --> 00:09:49

the intent of capturing him and possibly killing

00:09:49 --> 00:09:51

him because that's what would win over his

00:09:51 --> 00:09:55

dad again and regain his standing amongst his

00:09:55 --> 00:09:55

people.

00:09:56 --> 00:09:59

But Zuko, fundamentally he's good.

00:09:59 --> 00:10:01

He has a good heart and that makes

00:10:01 --> 00:10:07

him pause and it confuses him because he's

00:10:07 --> 00:10:08

asked to do these two opposite things here.

00:10:08 --> 00:10:12

Throughout the entire series, his buried conscience screams

00:10:12 --> 00:10:15

to be heard and he wonders what it

00:10:15 --> 00:10:16

means to do the right thing.

00:10:17 --> 00:10:19

He believes that capturing the Avatar will allow

00:10:19 --> 00:10:21

him to regain the trust and love of

00:10:21 --> 00:10:21

his father.

00:10:22 --> 00:10:25

But he also knows that the mission of

00:10:25 --> 00:10:27

the Avatar is to restore balance to the

00:10:27 --> 00:10:30

world and stop the evil that his father

00:10:30 --> 00:10:32

and his family have unleashed.

00:10:33 --> 00:10:35

He wishes for peace, yet he is in

00:10:35 --> 00:10:37

constant anguish about what to do.

00:10:37 --> 00:10:40

So his personal status would end up, if

00:10:40 --> 00:10:42

he saves his personal status, he destroys the

00:10:42 --> 00:10:42

world.

00:10:43 --> 00:10:45

If he destroys the world, he loses his

00:10:45 --> 00:10:47

dad or if he saves the world, he

00:10:47 --> 00:10:48

loses his dad for good.

00:10:50 --> 00:10:54

Well, if he had a faqih, it's a

00:10:54 --> 00:10:54

no-brainer, right?

00:10:55 --> 00:10:58

This is some situation that is obligatory to

00:10:58 --> 00:10:58

go against your dad.

00:10:59 --> 00:11:04

You know that going against the parents is

00:11:04 --> 00:11:05

forbidden, right?

00:11:05 --> 00:11:08

But there are certain circumstances where it's recommended

00:11:08 --> 00:11:10

or permitted and circumstances where it's obligatory.

00:11:12 --> 00:11:14

Sometimes it is obligatory to go against your

00:11:14 --> 00:11:17

parents, such as in a case like this.

00:11:17 --> 00:11:19

They want you to kill someone.

00:11:19 --> 00:11:20

They want you to hurt someone.

00:11:24 --> 00:11:27

All right, now he says, he also knows

00:11:27 --> 00:11:28

that the mission of the Avatar is to

00:11:28 --> 00:11:30

restore balance to the world and stop the

00:11:30 --> 00:11:32

evil that his father and his family have

00:11:32 --> 00:11:32

unleashed.

00:11:32 --> 00:11:35

He wishes for peace, but he's in constant

00:11:35 --> 00:11:36

anguish.

00:11:36 --> 00:11:38

Should he keep hunting the Avatar and regain

00:11:38 --> 00:11:41

his honor and regain the love of his

00:11:41 --> 00:11:41

dad?

00:11:41 --> 00:11:43

By the way, I mean, his dad is

00:11:43 --> 00:11:44

some evil guy, right?

00:11:44 --> 00:11:46

So why would he believe him?

00:11:46 --> 00:11:47

He shouldn't even believe him.

00:11:47 --> 00:11:51

Again, if he took an epistemology class, if

00:11:51 --> 00:11:53

someone lied in the past and if someone

00:11:53 --> 00:11:56

is an openly corrupt person, you don't believe

00:11:56 --> 00:11:56

their promises.

00:11:57 --> 00:12:00

Their promises and their testimony are null and

00:12:00 --> 00:12:00

void.

00:12:03 --> 00:12:04

Or should he give up what he was

00:12:04 --> 00:12:07

seeking and serve the good by joining the

00:12:07 --> 00:12:09

Avatar so that he could create a better

00:12:09 --> 00:12:09

world?

00:12:10 --> 00:12:12

This dilemma torments Zuko.

00:12:13 --> 00:12:14

He almost goes insane.

00:12:15 --> 00:12:17

In one instance, he climbs to the peak

00:12:17 --> 00:12:18

of a mountain in the middle of a

00:12:18 --> 00:12:22

storm and he screams in anger at God.

00:12:23 --> 00:12:23

Astaghfirullah.

00:12:23 --> 00:12:25

I never understood people who do this.

00:12:26 --> 00:12:27

I just never understood that.

00:12:28 --> 00:12:32

Pouring out his heart into the wind and

00:12:32 --> 00:12:32

the rain.

00:12:33 --> 00:12:36

Much like Dostoyevsky's Ivan, by the way, Dostoyevsky

00:12:36 --> 00:12:39

was considered the greatest writer of all time

00:12:39 --> 00:12:40

in Western literature.

00:12:42 --> 00:12:43

In Western literature.

00:12:43 --> 00:12:45

Yalla, what's taking so long with these pictures?

00:12:45 --> 00:12:46

Here, get that picture right there.

00:12:47 --> 00:12:48

Get him there, right there.

00:12:48 --> 00:12:49

Yeah, that's it.

00:12:53 --> 00:12:55

There are the picture of him standing on

00:12:55 --> 00:12:56

the mountain talking in the rain.

00:12:57 --> 00:12:58

See, Omar knows all this stuff.

00:12:58 --> 00:13:00

That's why he's at a loss.

00:13:01 --> 00:13:02

He wants to see the whole thing.

00:13:04 --> 00:13:05

Yeah, let's put a picture up.

00:13:08 --> 00:13:09

See, Omar knows all this stuff.

00:13:10 --> 00:13:11

I wasn't in this generation, sorry.

00:13:11 --> 00:13:14

I don't have a clue about this whole

00:13:14 --> 00:13:14

thing.

00:13:19 --> 00:13:24

So, Ivan, in Dostoyevsky's book, is completely fed

00:13:24 --> 00:13:25

up with the world.

00:13:25 --> 00:13:26

Lightning flashes.

00:13:27 --> 00:13:29

Hit me, he says, says Zuko.

00:13:30 --> 00:13:31

I'm right here.

00:13:31 --> 00:13:34

He screams at heaven in a suicidal challenge.

00:13:34 --> 00:13:36

It's not like you're ever held back before.

00:13:37 --> 00:13:38

These shows are terrible.

00:13:38 --> 00:13:40

Teaching kids to do this, you know that?

00:13:41 --> 00:13:44

Even if a character later on condemns it,

00:13:44 --> 00:13:47

or even if the kid later on changes

00:13:47 --> 00:13:50

his mind, psychologically, it's still embedded in your

00:13:50 --> 00:13:50

head.

00:13:50 --> 00:13:53

That's why exposure is all that's needed.

00:13:53 --> 00:13:55

You know when a guy makes a movie

00:13:55 --> 00:13:59

and he pushes a really touchy agenda or

00:13:59 --> 00:14:01

controversial agenda, but then he pulls it back

00:14:01 --> 00:14:04

within the movie, and then the rational viewers

00:14:04 --> 00:14:06

are like, oh, well, at least they pulled

00:14:06 --> 00:14:06

it back.

00:14:07 --> 00:14:08

Hey, it's in your head.

00:14:09 --> 00:14:11

You put the seed in everyone's head.

00:14:11 --> 00:14:13

They don't know how persuasion works.

00:14:13 --> 00:14:14

Persuasion is not rational.

00:14:15 --> 00:14:16

Just the fact that it's in your head

00:14:16 --> 00:14:18

is enough, because they're going to put it

00:14:18 --> 00:14:20

in your head again, and pull it back,

00:14:20 --> 00:14:21

and put it again, and pull it back

00:14:21 --> 00:14:23

until you become totally accepting of it.

00:14:27 --> 00:14:30

Nothing happens despite him wanting God to just

00:14:30 --> 00:14:31

destroy him.

00:14:32 --> 00:14:34

The wind and rain keep howling as the

00:14:34 --> 00:14:37

lightning flickers away for the first time Zuko

00:14:37 --> 00:14:38

breaks into tears.

00:14:39 --> 00:14:43

Unlike his father, Zuko has a moral conscience,

00:14:44 --> 00:14:48

and this conscience causes his internal conflict.

00:14:49 --> 00:14:50

What is the right thing to do?

00:14:50 --> 00:14:53

You see, this is as bad as physical

00:14:53 --> 00:14:54

pain.

00:14:54 --> 00:14:57

In the same way God created disease in

00:14:57 --> 00:14:59

the world, he creates a cure.

00:14:59 --> 00:15:04

This is far worse in many cases than

00:15:04 --> 00:15:04

physical pain.

00:15:05 --> 00:15:07

Physical pain, no one's really at fault for

00:15:07 --> 00:15:11

it usually, just sickness in general.

00:15:12 --> 00:15:16

So, what people need to realize is the

00:15:16 --> 00:15:18

rational need for revelation.

00:15:18 --> 00:15:22

A world without revelation, it would almost be

00:15:22 --> 00:15:25

like a world without one of its elements.

00:15:26 --> 00:15:28

You can't have a world without water.

00:15:28 --> 00:15:30

You can't have a world without fire, a

00:15:30 --> 00:15:33

world without these essential elements.

00:15:34 --> 00:15:36

So, he wants to know what is the

00:15:36 --> 00:15:36

right thing to do?

00:15:37 --> 00:15:38

What's my destiny?

00:15:41 --> 00:15:42

Am I on the right path?

00:15:42 --> 00:15:44

How do I negotiate my loyalty to my

00:15:44 --> 00:15:44

family?

00:15:46 --> 00:15:47

And how do I do what's right at

00:15:47 --> 00:15:48

the same time?

00:15:48 --> 00:15:50

What is the true source of my honor

00:15:50 --> 00:15:51

and self-respect?

00:15:52 --> 00:15:55

Navigating such questions puts immense strain on a

00:15:55 --> 00:15:56

person.

00:15:56 --> 00:15:58

Certain parts of life cannot be gray.

00:15:58 --> 00:16:00

You need an answer black or white.

00:16:01 --> 00:16:04

Certain parts, it's too dangerous for it to

00:16:04 --> 00:16:04

be gray.

00:16:06 --> 00:16:08

All of this inner conflict takes hold of

00:16:08 --> 00:16:09

Zuko because of his free will.

00:16:09 --> 00:16:13

We're reading from Pearls in the Deep, which

00:16:13 --> 00:16:14

is a book that we recently published at

00:16:14 --> 00:16:15

Safina Society.

00:16:15 --> 00:16:17

You'll see the little Safina Society logo right

00:16:17 --> 00:16:21

here, where you can purchase it at meccabooks

00:16:21 --> 00:16:24

.com slash pearls.

00:16:25 --> 00:16:27

And Omar has already pinned it.

00:16:27 --> 00:16:28

Thank you very much, Omar, for pinning that.

00:16:30 --> 00:16:33

He desperately wants to be good, to make

00:16:33 --> 00:16:35

his life amount to something, but he is

00:16:35 --> 00:16:37

tormented with all the trauma of his past,

00:16:37 --> 00:16:39

especially his public humiliation and exile.

00:16:40 --> 00:16:41

He constantly blames himself.

00:16:42 --> 00:16:43

My father told me I was lucky to

00:16:43 --> 00:16:45

be born, he says.

00:16:45 --> 00:16:46

It's all my fault.

00:16:46 --> 00:16:50

Having consciousness means remembering our past moments.

00:16:50 --> 00:16:52

We're painfully aware of who we are and

00:16:52 --> 00:16:53

what we have gone through.

00:16:54 --> 00:16:54

Animals don't have this.

00:16:55 --> 00:16:58

Zebras don't get ulcers, which is caused by

00:16:58 --> 00:16:59

stress.

00:17:00 --> 00:17:03

If a zebra narrowly escapes the clutches of

00:17:03 --> 00:17:06

a lion, it just goes back to grazing

00:17:06 --> 00:17:06

nonchalantly.

00:17:07 --> 00:17:09

From the mercy of Allah on these animals

00:17:09 --> 00:17:10

is they have very short memories.

00:17:12 --> 00:17:13

Otherwise, you'd be traumatized your whole life.

00:17:13 --> 00:17:15

You wouldn't feel like you want to be

00:17:15 --> 00:17:16

in the savannah ever again.

00:17:17 --> 00:17:18

You wouldn't go out and graze.

00:17:19 --> 00:17:21

So Allah gave these creatures a short memory.

00:17:23 --> 00:17:25

The dark picture of human life I've painted

00:17:25 --> 00:17:28

at the beginning seems to suggest that our

00:17:28 --> 00:17:29

free will is a curse.

00:17:29 --> 00:17:32

Yeah, it is a curse without revelation.

00:17:32 --> 00:17:34

And it's not a curse, but we could

00:17:34 --> 00:17:36

say it causes pain, which is why revelation

00:17:36 --> 00:17:37

is a necessity.

00:17:39 --> 00:17:41

When people talk about revelation, they ask and

00:17:41 --> 00:17:44

they say, why wouldn't God just send a

00:17:44 --> 00:17:47

prophet to everybody to speak in their language?

00:17:48 --> 00:17:50

All right, let's say he did.

00:17:51 --> 00:17:56

What happens when 100 years pass and you

00:17:56 --> 00:17:57

can't relate to that prophet?

00:17:57 --> 00:18:01

For example, if there was somebody from the

00:18:01 --> 00:18:06

1920s, someone in 2020 doesn't relate, right?

00:18:06 --> 00:18:08

So, okay, send a prophet to every nation

00:18:08 --> 00:18:12

in their language and renew the prophethood every

00:18:12 --> 00:18:13

100 years.

00:18:14 --> 00:18:15

Oh, you know that already happens?

00:18:16 --> 00:18:18

Those people are called Bani Isra'il.

00:18:18 --> 00:18:20

That was tried.

00:18:20 --> 00:18:22

And what ends up happening?

00:18:22 --> 00:18:24

You have no value for prophets.

00:18:24 --> 00:18:26

Supply goes up, respect goes down.

00:18:26 --> 00:18:28

And what did you end up doing?

00:18:28 --> 00:18:30

Trying to kill prophet Isa.

00:18:32 --> 00:18:37

At least enough rejecting prophet Isa was sufficient,

00:18:37 --> 00:18:38

but they tried to get him killed too.

00:18:42 --> 00:18:45

So, what you're asking for is something that

00:18:45 --> 00:18:47

happened, right?

00:18:47 --> 00:18:50

Poor Jamie Adams here is saying, blimey, $12

00:18:50 --> 00:18:51

shipping to the UK.

00:18:53 --> 00:18:55

Oh, okay, I thought blimey was one of

00:18:55 --> 00:18:55

those.

00:18:55 --> 00:18:57

See, I can't remember my UK words.

00:18:57 --> 00:19:01

Last time I heard blimey was in Jungle

00:19:01 --> 00:19:01

Book.

00:19:03 --> 00:19:07

Yeah, you know those birds at the end

00:19:07 --> 00:19:08

of the movie?

00:19:11 --> 00:19:13

When you all become dads, you'll know.

00:19:14 --> 00:19:15

You know those stuff, you don't know this

00:19:15 --> 00:19:15

stuff.

00:19:17 --> 00:19:20

So, point being is that what you're suggesting

00:19:20 --> 00:19:23

you think is a brilliant idea, Allah Ta

00:19:23 --> 00:19:24

'ala has brought it in the world already.

00:19:25 --> 00:19:26

The sons of Israel used to receive a

00:19:26 --> 00:19:28

prophet constantly, non-stop.

00:19:29 --> 00:19:29

They had so many prophets.

00:19:31 --> 00:19:32

So much so you have in one town,

00:19:33 --> 00:19:33

you can have two prophets.

00:19:34 --> 00:19:36

In one lifetime, you may meet 20 prophets

00:19:36 --> 00:19:37

in your lifetime.

00:19:38 --> 00:19:39

But what did that do?

00:19:39 --> 00:19:42

It actually caused them to not value such

00:19:42 --> 00:19:42

a prophet.

00:19:43 --> 00:19:44

Prophethood has lost its value.

00:19:46 --> 00:19:49

Now, let's say that happens in the world.

00:19:50 --> 00:19:51

Someone's going to come up with an idea.

00:19:51 --> 00:19:52

How about I have an idea?

00:19:52 --> 00:19:54

One prophet for the whole world, right?

00:19:58 --> 00:20:00

So, here we go.

00:20:00 --> 00:20:02

He says here now, what happens with Zuko

00:20:02 --> 00:20:02

next?

00:20:03 --> 00:20:04

Where do we go?

00:20:05 --> 00:20:05

All right, free will.

00:20:08 --> 00:20:10

He screamed at God in the storm.

00:20:12 --> 00:20:15

Having to make sense of our lives and

00:20:15 --> 00:20:17

figure out how to act properly in the

00:20:17 --> 00:20:21

world seems like a burden that none of

00:20:21 --> 00:20:22

us ask for.

00:20:23 --> 00:20:26

In fact, God compares the journey of living

00:20:26 --> 00:20:29

a moral life to a steep, arduous climb

00:20:29 --> 00:20:30

along a highland slope.

00:20:31 --> 00:20:34

In verses from Surah Al-Balad, had we

00:20:34 --> 00:20:37

not guided him to the two towering highland

00:20:37 --> 00:20:39

slopes representing good and evil, yet he does

00:20:39 --> 00:20:42

not spring into action with determination and effort

00:20:42 --> 00:20:44

to climb the steep ascent.

00:20:45 --> 00:20:46

Who do we have here?

00:20:46 --> 00:20:48

Maurice, how are you?

00:20:49 --> 00:20:50

You're friends with Fahd?

00:20:50 --> 00:20:50

Yes.

00:20:51 --> 00:20:52

Good, good.

00:20:52 --> 00:20:53

Maurice, are you French or Canadian or what?

00:20:54 --> 00:20:54

Canadian.

00:20:55 --> 00:20:55

Okay.

00:20:57 --> 00:20:57

All right.

00:20:58 --> 00:21:01

So, why would God give us free will?

00:21:02 --> 00:21:03

What is the good in it?

00:21:04 --> 00:21:06

We seem to be missing something from this

00:21:06 --> 00:21:06

picture.

00:21:07 --> 00:21:10

The great heroes of history, including prophets, awliya,

00:21:10 --> 00:21:15

sages, scholars, transformed souls, all embrace moral responsibility

00:21:15 --> 00:21:18

despite the suffering that comes their way.

00:21:20 --> 00:21:23

Any situation, any test in life where we

00:21:23 --> 00:21:26

have choice is far harder than when we

00:21:26 --> 00:21:27

don't have choice.

00:21:27 --> 00:21:28

That's why recently I was just telling him

00:21:28 --> 00:21:31

that poverty is harder than wealth.

00:21:32 --> 00:21:36

As poverty, you've been given a situation that

00:21:36 --> 00:21:36

you have to deal with.

00:21:37 --> 00:21:37

You don't have a choice.

00:21:37 --> 00:21:39

You have a mental choice.

00:21:39 --> 00:21:39

That's it.

00:21:40 --> 00:21:43

The choice, it's easier of a tribulation.

00:21:43 --> 00:21:47

Yeah, it's easier because I'm literally just being

00:21:47 --> 00:21:47

told what to do.

00:21:48 --> 00:21:48

Be patient.

00:21:48 --> 00:21:49

You have no choice.

00:21:50 --> 00:21:52

But the moment you give a guy 100

00:21:52 --> 00:21:55

,000 a month salary, 40,000 a month

00:21:55 --> 00:21:58

even salary, now what opens up for him?

00:22:00 --> 00:22:02

Like 10 doors open up.

00:22:02 --> 00:22:04

Now my salary, I choose, right?

00:22:04 --> 00:22:06

My salary doubles to 80,000 a month.

00:22:06 --> 00:22:08

How many doors open up now?

00:22:09 --> 00:22:10

100 doors open up.

00:22:10 --> 00:22:12

There's literally 100 things I could do at

00:22:12 --> 00:22:12

this moment in time.

00:22:13 --> 00:22:15

So the more choices that you have, the

00:22:15 --> 00:22:16

bigger a test it is.

00:22:18 --> 00:22:20

Anytime that choice is involved, it's a bigger

00:22:20 --> 00:22:20

test.

00:22:21 --> 00:22:23

You know that people get stressed out going

00:22:23 --> 00:22:24

to supermarkets these days.

00:22:24 --> 00:22:26

It's actually a micro stress.

00:22:27 --> 00:22:29

Go get toothpaste, right?

00:22:29 --> 00:22:30

How many toothpastes are there?

00:22:31 --> 00:22:33

There's so many different kinds and each one,

00:22:33 --> 00:22:35

like, how would I choose?

00:22:37 --> 00:22:39

That's why the smartest people in the world,

00:22:39 --> 00:22:41

they literally have uniforms.

00:22:42 --> 00:22:44

They made themselves uniforms, right?

00:22:44 --> 00:22:45

So that I wake up in the morning,

00:22:45 --> 00:22:46

I don't have to ask.

00:22:46 --> 00:22:46

I don't have to think.

00:22:47 --> 00:22:48

I don't have to mix and match stuff.

00:22:52 --> 00:22:55

So all of the greats, they embrace this

00:22:56 --> 00:22:59

because choice is the source of all goodness

00:22:59 --> 00:22:59

for us.

00:23:00 --> 00:23:03

Because the ability to choose, when you do

00:23:03 --> 00:23:06

choose right, you have a greater reward.

00:23:07 --> 00:23:08

You have a much greater reward.

00:23:09 --> 00:23:12

Did someone say, did Sheikh mean wealth is

00:23:12 --> 00:23:13

harder than poverty?

00:23:15 --> 00:23:16

Wealth is harder than poverty.

00:23:16 --> 00:23:17

Yeah, you said the opposite.

00:23:17 --> 00:23:18

I said the opposite, sorry.

00:23:18 --> 00:23:20

Wealth is harder than poverty.

00:23:20 --> 00:23:22

Poverty is an easier test.

00:23:23 --> 00:23:25

So when we look from the aspect of

00:23:25 --> 00:23:30

the afterlife, that's what Allah wants for people.

00:23:30 --> 00:23:31

He wants for people to make it to

00:23:31 --> 00:23:32

paradise.

00:23:33 --> 00:23:34

He's not going to do the work for

00:23:34 --> 00:23:34

you.

00:23:35 --> 00:23:36

You're going to do it.

00:23:36 --> 00:23:37

We're going to do it.

00:23:38 --> 00:23:39

But when we, that is the answer for

00:23:39 --> 00:23:41

why most people in the world are poor.

00:23:42 --> 00:23:43

He's given you an easier test.

00:23:44 --> 00:23:47

Because remember that the lens that you have

00:23:47 --> 00:23:50

to view the creator from is his concern

00:23:50 --> 00:23:52

for you, is your next life.

00:23:53 --> 00:23:54

This is life is like a footnote.

00:23:54 --> 00:23:56

Yes, he loves for you to have ease

00:23:56 --> 00:23:58

in this life and comfort in this life,

00:23:58 --> 00:23:59

but not at the expense of the next

00:23:59 --> 00:23:59

life.

00:24:00 --> 00:24:01

It's not worth it.

00:24:02 --> 00:24:04

That means let's rewind in time.

00:24:05 --> 00:24:09

And you're sitting in a room with a

00:24:09 --> 00:24:11

guy named Bill Gates, it's 1979.

00:24:12 --> 00:24:15

And you got $5,000 in your pocket.

00:24:16 --> 00:24:17

I know the future, you don't.

00:24:19 --> 00:24:21

And I'm telling you, trust me, take only

00:24:21 --> 00:24:22

what you need.

00:24:22 --> 00:24:25

Give him every penny you can take that

00:24:25 --> 00:24:26

you can give.

00:24:27 --> 00:24:28

And you're like, yeah, but I wanted to

00:24:28 --> 00:24:29

buy this car.

00:24:29 --> 00:24:31

Yeah, but I wanted to get this jacket.

00:24:31 --> 00:24:33

You fool, right?

00:24:34 --> 00:24:35

You're going to be able to buy a

00:24:35 --> 00:24:37

jacket factory if you just give him the

00:24:37 --> 00:24:38

money and wait 10 years.

00:24:39 --> 00:24:40

Less than that.

00:24:41 --> 00:24:43

You'll buy it, the whole company, the whole

00:24:43 --> 00:24:46

brand will be yours in 10 years.

00:24:47 --> 00:24:48

So I'm going to be like, okay, I

00:24:48 --> 00:24:52

know this person, their mentality, they're not going

00:24:52 --> 00:24:53

to accept for me to say, just give

00:24:53 --> 00:24:56

him the whole 5,000 and just go

00:24:56 --> 00:24:59

hungry, eat sardines for the next year.

00:25:00 --> 00:25:02

Yeah, if I know that I can do

00:25:02 --> 00:25:03

it, but you don't know.

00:25:03 --> 00:25:05

You're just operating on trust.

00:25:05 --> 00:25:07

I can't tell you the future, that's the

00:25:07 --> 00:25:07

rule.

00:25:07 --> 00:25:09

I can't tell you the future, but I'm

00:25:09 --> 00:25:10

just suggesting to you.

00:25:10 --> 00:25:12

So we're going to cut out for you

00:25:12 --> 00:25:12

a limit.

00:25:15 --> 00:25:16

All right.

00:25:17 --> 00:25:18

Take 750 for yourself.

00:25:18 --> 00:25:22

Give the rest 4,250 to Bill Gates

00:25:22 --> 00:25:26

and you'll be like a 1% owner,

00:25:27 --> 00:25:27

right?

00:25:28 --> 00:25:30

But 1% in the future is going

00:25:30 --> 00:25:32

to be millions upon millions upon millions.

00:25:32 --> 00:25:35

And then once you have those millions, those

00:25:35 --> 00:25:37

millions become half of that becomes an investment

00:25:37 --> 00:25:37

for another company.

00:25:38 --> 00:25:40

So that's how it grows like that.

00:25:41 --> 00:25:43

But you see, that's what it feels like

00:25:43 --> 00:25:43

to live in life.

00:25:44 --> 00:25:45

Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is

00:25:45 --> 00:25:48

telling us here, enjoy yourself in this box

00:25:48 --> 00:25:48

right here.

00:25:49 --> 00:25:50

Don't look at anything else.

00:25:50 --> 00:25:52

Don't waste your time with those other things.

00:25:52 --> 00:25:54

Not only waste your time, you could lose

00:25:54 --> 00:25:54

your money too.

00:25:55 --> 00:25:56

There's like multiple investors.

00:25:57 --> 00:25:58

Give your money to this guy.

00:25:59 --> 00:26:00

If you give the money to the guy

00:26:00 --> 00:26:04

next to you, Sun Systems or whatever, Cisco.

00:26:05 --> 00:26:05

Okay, fine.

00:26:06 --> 00:26:08

I'm not jumping up and down, but fine.

00:26:09 --> 00:26:09

All right.

00:26:09 --> 00:26:10

That's Coca-Cola.

00:26:13 --> 00:26:14

Money's not going to go up or down.

00:26:14 --> 00:26:15

It's just going to go so slow you

00:26:15 --> 00:26:16

don't even realize it.

00:26:17 --> 00:26:18

But give your money to this guy.

00:26:18 --> 00:26:20

And definitely don't give your money to that

00:26:20 --> 00:26:22

guy, that guy, that guy's Netscape.

00:26:22 --> 00:26:24

It's going to go up and come down.

00:26:25 --> 00:26:25

That's Firefox.

00:26:26 --> 00:26:27

It's going to go up, then disappear.

00:26:27 --> 00:26:28

That's who knows what.

00:26:30 --> 00:26:37

Remember that guy who opened up the Braid,

00:26:37 --> 00:26:39

Tom Brady and has lost millions of dollars

00:26:39 --> 00:26:40

with this guy.

00:26:41 --> 00:26:42

What's his name?

00:26:43 --> 00:26:44

SFX.

00:26:44 --> 00:26:45

That's SFX over there.

00:26:45 --> 00:26:46

Don't give him your money.

00:26:46 --> 00:26:47

You're not going to see it again.

00:26:49 --> 00:26:51

That's what life feels like, right?

00:26:51 --> 00:26:53

Allah gave us a set of rules and

00:26:53 --> 00:26:56

he said, the future is going to look

00:26:56 --> 00:26:56

so good.

00:26:56 --> 00:26:57

You just have to wait.

00:26:57 --> 00:27:01

It's hard to wait a whole lifetime.

00:27:01 --> 00:27:02

It's really hard.

00:27:02 --> 00:27:05

So Allah gives us some more, more hors

00:27:05 --> 00:27:08

d'oeuvres, more appetizers, more appetizers.

00:27:08 --> 00:27:10

But the smart one, he trusts.

00:27:11 --> 00:27:12

He truly trusts.

00:27:13 --> 00:27:14

And he knows that this is the right

00:27:14 --> 00:27:15

way to act.

00:27:15 --> 00:27:18

Just trust the creator, trust the maker.

00:27:19 --> 00:27:21

That's why Allah says, who trusts the maker?

00:27:22 --> 00:27:26

The people who know, the people who always

00:27:26 --> 00:27:29

are thinking, reading about theology, about God, about

00:27:29 --> 00:27:29

the afterlife.

00:27:29 --> 00:27:31

They have absolute certainty.

00:27:31 --> 00:27:33

God knows we don't know.

00:27:33 --> 00:27:35

We're not going to worry about the particulars.

00:27:35 --> 00:27:38

Just worry about who is talking.

00:27:38 --> 00:27:40

That's the creator talking to us.

00:27:41 --> 00:27:45

So here he says here that human free

00:27:45 --> 00:27:49

will, it's something that they all embraced.

00:27:50 --> 00:27:53

Because if I were to now pierce the

00:27:53 --> 00:27:56

curtain of the unseen and you were able

00:27:56 --> 00:28:00

to see what 1995 looks like for Bill

00:28:00 --> 00:28:01

Gates, because you know that was the year.

00:28:02 --> 00:28:05

There went from like this to like this.

00:28:05 --> 00:28:07

When Windows 95 came out, blew the hole.

00:28:08 --> 00:28:10

You guys were young, but I remember that

00:28:10 --> 00:28:10

summer.

00:28:10 --> 00:28:14

When Windows 95 came out, it blew the

00:28:14 --> 00:28:15

world apart.

00:28:16 --> 00:28:20

Everyone was like, there can't be a possible

00:28:20 --> 00:28:22

company in the world who didn't purchase the

00:28:22 --> 00:28:24

hole for their whole office, Windows 95.

00:28:25 --> 00:28:26

And that was a huge year.

00:28:27 --> 00:28:29

They totally revamped everything.

00:28:30 --> 00:28:33

At that point, anyone who was there, it's

00:28:33 --> 00:28:35

not even 1000x.

00:28:35 --> 00:28:38

Your investment went more than who knows what,

00:28:38 --> 00:28:39

100,000x.

00:28:40 --> 00:28:43

Now if I showed you, that's what the

00:28:43 --> 00:28:43

future is.

00:28:44 --> 00:28:46

Then you invest, you know what?

00:28:47 --> 00:28:49

I'll just take $100 to survive on sardines

00:28:49 --> 00:28:52

and I'm going to give all the rest

00:28:52 --> 00:28:53

of my money to Bill Gates.

00:28:54 --> 00:28:57

I can't reward you for trusting me.

00:28:57 --> 00:29:00

I can't reward you as a believer because

00:29:00 --> 00:29:00

you saw the future already.

00:29:02 --> 00:29:02

Right?

00:29:03 --> 00:29:07

So that's why having moral choice and not

00:29:07 --> 00:29:11

knowing the future, just trusting Allah, that's why

00:29:11 --> 00:29:13

you get rewarded for the trust.

00:29:14 --> 00:29:16

Versus, let's take another example.

00:29:17 --> 00:29:19

I say, I know what's best for you.

00:29:19 --> 00:29:22

I put a gun to your head, give

00:29:22 --> 00:29:25

him all the money and keep $100 for

00:29:25 --> 00:29:26

yourself.

00:29:26 --> 00:29:28

That person also doesn't deserve reward, right?

00:29:29 --> 00:29:31

He doesn't deserve any reward.

00:29:31 --> 00:29:32

No choice.

00:29:32 --> 00:29:36

So that's why choice, you can maximize everything

00:29:36 --> 00:29:37

with choice.

00:29:39 --> 00:29:43

All right, so he says here, did some

00:29:43 --> 00:29:45

of the Awliya of Allah, the people of

00:29:45 --> 00:29:49

Allah, do they face the inner conflicts to

00:29:49 --> 00:29:50

the way Zuko did?

00:29:51 --> 00:29:53

Are you familiar with this avatar, the show?

00:29:53 --> 00:29:54

Okay, that's good.

00:29:54 --> 00:29:55

So you're making use of your time.

00:29:56 --> 00:29:59

If they were human beings, then they must

00:29:59 --> 00:30:02

have, but at what point, right?

00:30:02 --> 00:30:06

When we have a moral dilemma, a Muslim

00:30:06 --> 00:30:09

has a moral dilemma, he has a source

00:30:09 --> 00:30:09

to go to.

00:30:10 --> 00:30:11

We're not sitting there thinking.

00:30:12 --> 00:30:15

We go to the Quran, we go to

00:30:15 --> 00:30:16

the prophet's sayings, we go to the scholars,

00:30:17 --> 00:30:20

we go to the jurists and they debate

00:30:20 --> 00:30:20

a ruling.

00:30:21 --> 00:30:23

But here's the thing, the moment you went

00:30:23 --> 00:30:25

to the right source and your methodology of

00:30:25 --> 00:30:29

deriving the ruling of the source is sound,

00:30:29 --> 00:30:32

in both cases you're rewarded, even if you're

00:30:32 --> 00:30:33

wrong.

00:30:33 --> 00:30:34

Because you went to the right source and

00:30:34 --> 00:30:35

you followed the right method.

00:30:35 --> 00:30:37

You just got a wrong outcome.

00:30:38 --> 00:30:39

You're rewarded.

00:30:41 --> 00:30:43

But you're rewarded double if you get that

00:30:43 --> 00:30:44

right outcome.

00:30:45 --> 00:30:48

And that double reward is like in this

00:30:48 --> 00:30:49

life, you'll see the good result.

00:30:49 --> 00:30:51

You'll see that it works in this life.

00:30:51 --> 00:30:53

That's one of the interpretations of the two

00:30:53 --> 00:30:53

rewards.

00:30:54 --> 00:30:55

The other one, he'll actually fail in this

00:30:55 --> 00:30:58

life, but he'll get his reward in the

00:30:58 --> 00:30:59

next life for trying.

00:31:02 --> 00:31:04

So he says here, all of the people

00:31:04 --> 00:31:08

of Allah were transformed into truly good people

00:31:08 --> 00:31:12

that we love because they embraced the responsibility.

00:31:12 --> 00:31:14

They did not look at free will and

00:31:14 --> 00:31:16

their own conscience as a curse.

00:31:17 --> 00:31:19

What secret did they know that Zuko did

00:31:19 --> 00:31:20

not?

00:31:20 --> 00:31:23

Perhaps God was up to something good by

00:31:23 --> 00:31:26

creating free creatures after all.

00:31:27 --> 00:31:30

You see, that's the whole point of the

00:31:30 --> 00:31:30

creation.

00:31:30 --> 00:31:33

By being put here, feeling like you're far

00:31:33 --> 00:31:36

from the world, then having so many choices,

00:31:37 --> 00:31:40

and some people have more than others, then

00:31:40 --> 00:31:44

at that point, when they do choose the

00:31:44 --> 00:31:46

right path, that is a sign of actual

00:31:46 --> 00:31:47

true love of God.

00:31:48 --> 00:31:50

Even angels can never attain this.

00:31:50 --> 00:31:51

The angels are in the heavens.

00:31:52 --> 00:31:53

Firstly, they have no evil in the first

00:31:53 --> 00:31:53

place.

00:31:54 --> 00:31:55

No evil propensities.

00:31:55 --> 00:31:58

No illness can ever affect them.

00:31:58 --> 00:31:59

No spiritual illness.

00:32:00 --> 00:32:01

They have no desires.

00:32:02 --> 00:32:02

They have no needs.

00:32:04 --> 00:32:05

The angels never have a need for food,

00:32:05 --> 00:32:06

so they never steal.

00:32:06 --> 00:32:08

They never have sexual desires, so they never

00:32:08 --> 00:32:09

fornicate.

00:32:12 --> 00:32:14

Because they don't have needs, they don't have

00:32:14 --> 00:32:14

anger.

00:32:15 --> 00:32:16

They don't have sadness.

00:32:17 --> 00:32:18

They don't have any of these things.

00:32:19 --> 00:32:21

They fly around to the heavens, look at

00:32:21 --> 00:32:23

the wonder of God, and be in perfection

00:32:23 --> 00:32:24

at all times.

00:32:25 --> 00:32:28

As a result of that, they're praised, but

00:32:28 --> 00:32:29

they're never rewarded.

00:32:30 --> 00:32:31

What would they be rewarded for?

00:32:32 --> 00:32:35

A reward implies an action that you took

00:32:35 --> 00:32:38

that was hard, that could have gone wrong.

00:32:38 --> 00:32:41

You could have done the wrong path.

00:32:42 --> 00:32:42

You chose the right path.

00:32:44 --> 00:32:46

During the initial revelation of the Quran, the

00:32:46 --> 00:32:49

Prophet Muhammad ran from the cave of Hira,

00:32:50 --> 00:32:54

weighed down by the might of the divine

00:32:54 --> 00:32:55

words being revealed to him.

00:32:56 --> 00:32:59

Even after that first revelation, the immense responsibility

00:32:59 --> 00:33:02

put on his shoulders awed and humbled him.

00:33:03 --> 00:33:05

No prophet wants or seeks prophethood.

00:33:07 --> 00:33:09

As honorable as the status of prophet is,

00:33:10 --> 00:33:13

a tradition says the prophets, they suffer the

00:33:13 --> 00:33:13

most hardships.

00:33:14 --> 00:33:16

The hardships that they face are the hardest.

00:33:17 --> 00:33:19

So some people say they're afraid to be

00:33:19 --> 00:33:22

pious because hardships come with piety.

00:33:22 --> 00:33:25

But you know what else comes with piety?

00:33:27 --> 00:33:31

Roofs and umbrellas and protection from these hardships.

00:33:31 --> 00:33:34

So a massive hardship can fall on us.

00:33:34 --> 00:33:35

For example, if we lived in a tent

00:33:35 --> 00:33:40

right now, this pot right here, I could

00:33:40 --> 00:33:42

throw it and it would actually maybe damage

00:33:42 --> 00:33:42

the tent.

00:33:44 --> 00:33:46

It would damage the tent if it was

00:33:46 --> 00:33:48

a teepee like the Native Americans on one

00:33:48 --> 00:33:48

pole.

00:33:48 --> 00:33:51

If it's a camping tent, it will go

00:33:51 --> 00:33:52

right through it or bend everything.

00:33:53 --> 00:33:54

Now if it's like one of the modern

00:33:54 --> 00:33:56

tents, a bit stronger, it'll probably bounce off.

00:33:57 --> 00:33:58

Now if it's a mud hut, then this

00:33:58 --> 00:33:59

will break.

00:34:00 --> 00:34:01

If it was our roof, we wouldn't even

00:34:01 --> 00:34:02

realize it.

00:34:02 --> 00:34:04

Someone dropped it, you break a shingle, break

00:34:04 --> 00:34:04

a tile, that's it.

00:34:06 --> 00:34:09

If it was on a factory grade building,

00:34:10 --> 00:34:11

nothing.

00:34:11 --> 00:34:13

This thing won't even stand a chance.

00:34:14 --> 00:34:14

Right?

00:34:15 --> 00:34:18

So the prophets, not only do they suffer

00:34:18 --> 00:34:21

greater tribulations, but they also have greater protection.

00:34:22 --> 00:34:24

The protection is the light of Allah.

00:34:26 --> 00:34:29

Divine light that descends down with their prayers.

00:34:30 --> 00:34:33

When they say a lot of prayers, then

00:34:33 --> 00:34:36

they're shielded with a barrier of light.

00:34:36 --> 00:34:38

Trials and tribulations may come, they may bounce

00:34:38 --> 00:34:38

right off.

00:34:40 --> 00:34:41

So they still get affected by it.

00:34:41 --> 00:34:44

And prophets will have painful things will happen

00:34:44 --> 00:34:44

to them.

00:34:45 --> 00:34:47

Think about the prophet, peace be upon him.

00:34:47 --> 00:34:51

He has six children, seven children.

00:34:53 --> 00:34:55

I mean some said the boys were three,

00:34:55 --> 00:34:56

some said the boys were two.

00:34:56 --> 00:34:58

But let's say six children.

00:34:58 --> 00:34:59

Huh?

00:34:59 --> 00:35:01

Seven children, seven children.

00:35:02 --> 00:35:03

How many outlived him?

00:35:04 --> 00:35:05

One.

00:35:06 --> 00:35:10

He had to experience the death of all

00:35:10 --> 00:35:11

of his children minus one.

00:35:13 --> 00:35:15

How about the news that the prophets are

00:35:15 --> 00:35:16

giving news of the future, right?

00:35:16 --> 00:35:17

You think that's a good thing?

00:35:18 --> 00:35:20

The prophet, peace be upon him, was told

00:35:20 --> 00:35:23

that his beloved grandson, who was like three,

00:35:23 --> 00:35:27

four years old, playing with him, will be

00:35:27 --> 00:35:29

killed by your own people.

00:35:30 --> 00:35:35

Imagine now somebody tells you, your friends are

00:35:35 --> 00:35:36

going to kill your grandson.

00:35:37 --> 00:35:38

Like what?

00:35:38 --> 00:35:39

How am I going to live?

00:35:40 --> 00:35:41

Who do I trust?

00:35:41 --> 00:35:42

Who do I not trust?

00:35:44 --> 00:35:46

Shayaji, you don't want to know the future.

00:35:47 --> 00:35:49

So they suffered a lot of pain, but

00:35:49 --> 00:35:52

their pain never went to the core that

00:35:52 --> 00:35:54

caused what they call an existential crisis.

00:35:55 --> 00:35:56

That never happened for prophets.

00:35:57 --> 00:35:59

Like they're never bewildered.

00:35:59 --> 00:36:00

Why is this happening?

00:36:01 --> 00:36:02

What's the purpose of life?

00:36:02 --> 00:36:05

That is on lockdown for the prophets and

00:36:05 --> 00:36:07

for the pious, those who have knowledge.

00:36:11 --> 00:36:16

He says here, who would want to suffer

00:36:16 --> 00:36:16

the most?

00:36:18 --> 00:36:23

The prophet's wife's cousin informed him of the

00:36:23 --> 00:36:25

trials he would face, including that he would

00:36:25 --> 00:36:29

be persecuted, fought and expelled from his city.

00:36:31 --> 00:36:34

He would be stoned and beaten until even

00:36:34 --> 00:36:36

his feet would flow with blood, and he

00:36:36 --> 00:36:39

would witness his closest companions being tortured.

00:36:40 --> 00:36:42

His wife would die.

00:36:44 --> 00:36:46

He perhaps, he would lose all of his

00:36:46 --> 00:36:49

daughters and sons except for one.

00:36:49 --> 00:36:51

But what was perhaps the most difficult?

00:36:51 --> 00:36:54

That he could not guide all the people

00:36:54 --> 00:36:58

that he wished, including his uncle, died as

00:36:58 --> 00:36:58

a disbeliever.

00:37:00 --> 00:37:03

So seeing hellfire and then knowing that people

00:37:03 --> 00:37:07

are marching towards it, that knowledge.

00:37:07 --> 00:37:09

For us, hellfire, yeah, it exists.

00:37:09 --> 00:37:11

I can sort of visualize something of it,

00:37:11 --> 00:37:13

but I have not seen it.

00:37:14 --> 00:37:18

Prophets are shown what this is with their

00:37:18 --> 00:37:18

eyes.

00:37:18 --> 00:37:19

They look at it.

00:37:19 --> 00:37:21

As a prophet went on the night journey,

00:37:22 --> 00:37:24

looked with his eyes into paradise, looked with

00:37:24 --> 00:37:25

his eyes into the fire.

00:37:25 --> 00:37:28

It's very different than if I'm just telling

00:37:28 --> 00:37:30

you this is what it's like.

00:37:30 --> 00:37:32

And that's what our experience of heaven and

00:37:32 --> 00:37:32

* is.

00:37:34 --> 00:37:36

Some people said that if we normal people

00:37:36 --> 00:37:39

had seen heaven, no amount of money would

00:37:39 --> 00:37:40

make us happy in this life.

00:37:40 --> 00:37:42

We would just, you'd be miserable.

00:37:42 --> 00:37:44

If you saw heaven, you would be miserable

00:37:44 --> 00:37:46

with anything less than that.

00:37:47 --> 00:37:49

And that's one of the great wisdoms why

00:37:49 --> 00:37:51

heaven, we're just, we're sort of given a

00:37:51 --> 00:37:53

visual that you can imagine.

00:37:53 --> 00:37:57

But your specific paradise that is written for

00:37:57 --> 00:38:00

you, if you do good, it's there already

00:38:00 --> 00:38:01

created.

00:38:01 --> 00:38:02

Now, if you don't do good, it's going

00:38:02 --> 00:38:03

to be given to somebody else.

00:38:04 --> 00:38:08

But if you had seen it, then nothing

00:38:08 --> 00:38:10

in this life would satisfy you.

00:38:10 --> 00:38:11

You'd be miserable your whole life.

00:38:12 --> 00:38:14

And if you've seen *, you won't be

00:38:14 --> 00:38:15

able to sleep the rest of your life.

00:38:18 --> 00:38:20

So that's a heavy burden that prophets carry.

00:38:21 --> 00:38:23

That's why their entire existence, because of these

00:38:23 --> 00:38:25

things, is completely different from ours.

00:38:26 --> 00:38:28

Not that they're not humans, they're human beings,

00:38:28 --> 00:38:31

but because they're shown these things, how do

00:38:31 --> 00:38:32

you live normally after that?

00:38:32 --> 00:38:37

So their heart must completely transcend all of

00:38:37 --> 00:38:39

the struggles that we would go through because

00:38:39 --> 00:38:42

of what they've seen, what their knowledge is.

00:38:42 --> 00:38:43

It's not knowledge.

00:38:43 --> 00:38:44

It's direct.

00:38:44 --> 00:38:46

It's knowledge, of course, but it's a direct

00:38:46 --> 00:38:46

eyewitness.

00:38:47 --> 00:38:49

Transmitted knowledge doesn't have the same effect.

00:38:52 --> 00:38:55

Jamie Adams is asking here if there are

00:38:55 --> 00:38:55

other people.

00:38:55 --> 00:38:58

Yeah, there are three brothers, four brothers in

00:38:58 --> 00:39:00

the room, in the studio.

00:39:03 --> 00:39:05

So let's continue here.

00:39:06 --> 00:39:08

Despite all this, the prophet accepts the responsibility

00:39:08 --> 00:39:10

of saving his people and all of humanity

00:39:10 --> 00:39:11

with humility and even gratitude.

00:39:12 --> 00:39:14

His heart showed no bitterness towards the almost

00:39:14 --> 00:39:17

impossible task he had been assigned, only submission.

00:39:18 --> 00:39:19

Who could bear such a weight?

00:39:19 --> 00:39:20

But he knew it was for a greater

00:39:20 --> 00:39:23

good, for reforming his people and for guiding

00:39:23 --> 00:39:24

the world.

00:39:25 --> 00:39:27

He takes the world onto his shoulders in

00:39:27 --> 00:39:29

response to God, which is one reason why

00:39:29 --> 00:39:31

God describes him as a mercy to all

00:39:31 --> 00:39:31

that exists.

00:39:34 --> 00:39:36

Such expansive breadth of soul and such human

00:39:36 --> 00:39:38

excellence would not be possible if the prophet

00:39:38 --> 00:39:41

was not a free creature.

00:39:41 --> 00:39:43

If he were merely programmed to be how

00:39:43 --> 00:39:45

he was, then his role as a prophet

00:39:45 --> 00:39:47

and steward of all mankind would not have

00:39:47 --> 00:39:48

the same force of authenticity.

00:39:49 --> 00:39:52

Yes, his humans commit the worst instances of

00:39:52 --> 00:39:55

evil and summon up the worst perversions of

00:39:55 --> 00:39:56

suffering.

00:39:56 --> 00:39:59

With his free will, man can turn the

00:39:59 --> 00:40:00

world into *.

00:40:01 --> 00:40:03

In the case of Prince Zuko, how could

00:40:03 --> 00:40:06

a father permanently scar his 14-year-old

00:40:06 --> 00:40:08

son's face because he spoke out of turn?

00:40:09 --> 00:40:12

In the case of Hitler's officers, how could

00:40:12 --> 00:40:15

they gas innocent human beings in the morning,

00:40:15 --> 00:40:17

then go listen to Beethoven in the evening?

00:40:18 --> 00:40:20

You need to add something about the IDF.

00:40:21 --> 00:40:24

Human beings can take the downward slope and

00:40:24 --> 00:40:27

descend to a depravity that knows no bounds.

00:40:27 --> 00:40:30

But human beings can also make the ascent

00:40:30 --> 00:40:33

and rise, like the prophets, the saints, and

00:40:33 --> 00:40:34

other transformed souls.

00:40:34 --> 00:40:38

The greatest acts of good which distinguish between

00:40:38 --> 00:40:41

humans also comes from that free will.

00:40:42 --> 00:40:43

This is the reason why free will is

00:40:43 --> 00:40:43

good.

00:40:44 --> 00:40:48

It gives us significant choices with significant consequences,

00:40:48 --> 00:40:52

not just choices like choosing organic pancakes over

00:40:52 --> 00:40:53

turkey sausage for breakfast.

00:40:54 --> 00:40:55

The world is not a foam bubble.

00:40:56 --> 00:40:58

We must truly follow through with our choices

00:40:58 --> 00:41:00

and act on our moral conviction.

00:41:01 --> 00:41:04

Having this significant choice is good because by

00:41:04 --> 00:41:06

putting skin in the game, it makes our

00:41:06 --> 00:41:10

choices sincere and thereby making our lives meaningful.

00:41:11 --> 00:41:13

The bind of having to choose is what

00:41:13 --> 00:41:16

allows for the highest kind of moral good

00:41:16 --> 00:41:16

in the first place.

00:41:16 --> 00:41:20

You know, there's thinking without free will, without

00:41:20 --> 00:41:23

struggle, without loss, there'll be nothing to celebrate.

00:41:24 --> 00:41:28

If you think about people who celebrate anything,

00:41:29 --> 00:41:33

like a victory, getting a deal, getting a

00:41:33 --> 00:41:35

contract, getting into school.

00:41:36 --> 00:41:40

Every student that got into a university took

00:41:40 --> 00:41:41

another student's spot.

00:41:43 --> 00:41:47

For every 500 people who get into an

00:41:47 --> 00:41:49

Ivy League, there are 500 people crying that

00:41:49 --> 00:41:50

they did it.

00:41:51 --> 00:41:51

That's loss.

00:41:52 --> 00:41:54

Because there's a scarcity.

00:41:55 --> 00:41:57

Without scarcity, there's no value in this world.

00:41:58 --> 00:41:59

Now to see the next world, heaven is

00:41:59 --> 00:41:59

different.

00:42:00 --> 00:42:01

Heaven is different.

00:42:01 --> 00:42:02

Heaven has a whole other set of laws.

00:42:03 --> 00:42:05

There's no scarcity and everything has value.

00:42:06 --> 00:42:08

There is no limit to your stomach and

00:42:08 --> 00:42:09

your throat.

00:42:09 --> 00:42:11

Every bite that you take of food feels

00:42:11 --> 00:42:12

like the first bite.

00:42:14 --> 00:42:18

Unlike us today, you start a steak, your

00:42:18 --> 00:42:19

happiness is here.

00:42:19 --> 00:42:20

By the end of the steak, you don't

00:42:20 --> 00:42:21

even want it anymore.

00:42:21 --> 00:42:23

In fact, I can torture you with it,

00:42:23 --> 00:42:24

make you eat another one.

00:42:24 --> 00:42:27

It becomes a form of torture, right?

00:42:27 --> 00:42:29

Then you'll vomit it out.

00:42:29 --> 00:42:32

And you may actually, if we continue this,

00:42:32 --> 00:42:36

develop a mental tick when you see steak

00:42:36 --> 00:42:36

again.

00:42:36 --> 00:42:41

I had a relative one time who did

00:42:41 --> 00:42:44

something so extreme, I couldn't believe he did

00:42:44 --> 00:42:44

it.

00:42:45 --> 00:42:48

He had a son who would always eat

00:42:48 --> 00:42:48

chocolate.

00:42:49 --> 00:42:50

Any candy in the house, he would just

00:42:50 --> 00:42:51

always eat the candy.

00:42:53 --> 00:42:54

So the solution probably should be don't buy

00:42:54 --> 00:42:55

so much candy in the house.

00:42:56 --> 00:42:57

How can you blame the kid?

00:42:57 --> 00:42:59

Or put it high up where he can't

00:42:59 --> 00:42:59

reach.

00:42:59 --> 00:43:01

One day, the kid was only 7 or

00:43:01 --> 00:43:05

8 years old, maybe 9 years old, at

00:43:05 --> 00:43:07

a point where now you're not listening.

00:43:07 --> 00:43:09

You're just literally not listening.

00:43:09 --> 00:43:12

So he sat him down one day and

00:43:12 --> 00:43:13

he put a bag of candy on the

00:43:13 --> 00:43:14

table and he said, you can have some.

00:43:15 --> 00:43:17

And then as soon as the kid stopped,

00:43:17 --> 00:43:18

he said, where are you going?

00:43:18 --> 00:43:19

You get back here.

00:43:20 --> 00:43:23

And he forced him to eat one after

00:43:23 --> 00:43:27

another, after another, after another, until the kid

00:43:27 --> 00:43:28

was crying.

00:43:28 --> 00:43:31

He was trying to create a tick in

00:43:31 --> 00:43:33

the kid's mind against candy.

00:43:34 --> 00:43:35

Like to me, that's torture.

00:43:37 --> 00:43:39

Back in 1994, there was a Russian player

00:43:39 --> 00:43:41

who came to the United States to play

00:43:41 --> 00:43:41

hockey.

00:43:42 --> 00:43:43

And the Russians had just started coming over,

00:43:43 --> 00:43:45

1991, 1992, 1993.

00:43:45 --> 00:43:47

They were so good.

00:43:47 --> 00:43:49

But they didn't have the certain discipline.

00:43:50 --> 00:43:51

I don't know why.

00:43:51 --> 00:43:54

This one player didn't have the discipline that

00:43:54 --> 00:43:55

the previous Russians had.

00:43:55 --> 00:43:57

And the Russians were really disciplined because they

00:43:57 --> 00:43:58

were in the military.

00:43:59 --> 00:44:00

They weren't doing this out of their choice,

00:44:00 --> 00:44:01

right?

00:44:01 --> 00:44:03

They were playing hockey in the military.

00:44:03 --> 00:44:05

They would play from 5 in the morning

00:44:05 --> 00:44:07

until 5 at night, no choice in the

00:44:07 --> 00:44:08

matter, 7 days a week.

00:44:09 --> 00:44:12

But a new generation of Russians came up

00:44:12 --> 00:44:14

with the skill, but not the same discipline.

00:44:15 --> 00:44:16

So the New York Rangers got a guy

00:44:16 --> 00:44:17

named Alexei Kovalev.

00:44:18 --> 00:44:20

He was so good, so talented.

00:44:21 --> 00:44:22

But he wasn't disciplined.

00:44:22 --> 00:44:23

He'd never listened to the coach.

00:44:24 --> 00:44:25

He'd do it all himself.

00:44:26 --> 00:44:30

He'd try to skate through the whole opposition

00:44:30 --> 00:44:31

himself without passing.

00:44:32 --> 00:44:36

Well, one day, in one game, he overstayed

00:44:36 --> 00:44:36

his shift.

00:44:37 --> 00:44:40

And the shifts in hockey are about 80

00:44:40 --> 00:44:41

seconds.

00:44:41 --> 00:44:43

A minute to two minutes is the shift

00:44:43 --> 00:44:44

you got to come off.

00:44:45 --> 00:44:47

Another group comes up on the floor while

00:44:47 --> 00:44:48

the game is going on.

00:44:49 --> 00:44:50

Well, he didn't come off.

00:44:52 --> 00:44:54

So the coach, to teach him a lesson,

00:44:55 --> 00:44:57

he was an Iron Mike Keenan, they used

00:44:57 --> 00:44:57

to call him.

00:44:57 --> 00:45:00

This guy, he's my kind of coach, right?

00:45:00 --> 00:45:01

He was a no-nonsense coach.

00:45:01 --> 00:45:03

And he was abrasive when you did something

00:45:03 --> 00:45:03

wrong.

00:45:04 --> 00:45:05

Nobody liked him except the day you win

00:45:05 --> 00:45:06

the championship.

00:45:06 --> 00:45:07

Then you like him, right?

00:45:07 --> 00:45:08

He was one of those coaches.

00:45:09 --> 00:45:14

So finally, after overstaying his shift by like

00:45:14 --> 00:45:16

a minute, Kovalev comes off.

00:45:17 --> 00:45:19

Keenan says, no, go back, right?

00:45:20 --> 00:45:21

Go back.

00:45:21 --> 00:45:23

And he kept him on the ice for

00:45:23 --> 00:45:23

10 minutes.

00:45:24 --> 00:45:26

That's an eternity in hockey.

00:45:26 --> 00:45:28

The whole period is 20 minutes, right?

00:45:29 --> 00:45:31

The guys, legs were shaking at the end

00:45:31 --> 00:45:32

because he was so tired.

00:45:33 --> 00:45:34

And the whole, everyone was cracking up.

00:45:35 --> 00:45:36

The broadcasters were laughing.

00:45:36 --> 00:45:37

The team was laughing.

00:45:37 --> 00:45:38

Everyone was laughing.

00:45:38 --> 00:45:40

Every time he came off, stay on, right?

00:45:41 --> 00:45:43

And he kept him on for 10 minutes

00:45:43 --> 00:45:44

straight, a 10-minute shift.

00:45:45 --> 00:45:46

He made the news, right?

00:45:46 --> 00:45:48

All the hockey news was talking about it.

00:45:48 --> 00:45:49

It was the funniest thing.

00:45:50 --> 00:45:52

But that's how he taught him, right?

00:45:52 --> 00:45:53

You want to come off, don't come off.

00:45:54 --> 00:45:54

Stay on.

00:45:55 --> 00:45:56

So that's what some people do.

00:45:59 --> 00:46:01

So he says here that, how did we

00:46:01 --> 00:46:02

get to talking about that?

00:46:03 --> 00:46:05

The world is not a bubble.

00:46:05 --> 00:46:07

We have to have skin in the game.

00:46:07 --> 00:46:08

There are consequences to our choices.

00:46:11 --> 00:46:13

The more significant the choice, the greater the

00:46:13 --> 00:46:14

good if we choose wisely.

00:46:15 --> 00:46:18

This human capacity for sincerity is what gives

00:46:18 --> 00:46:21

humanity a status even greater than the angels.

00:46:22 --> 00:46:25

While the angels worship God perfectly, without error,

00:46:26 --> 00:46:28

they cannot possibly disobey the God.

00:46:28 --> 00:46:29

There is no way for them to disobey

00:46:29 --> 00:46:29

God.

00:46:29 --> 00:46:31

So the idea of Satan being a fallen

00:46:31 --> 00:46:32

angel, we have no such thing.

00:46:33 --> 00:46:35

The only reason some people lumped Satan with

00:46:35 --> 00:46:36

angels is two reasons.

00:46:37 --> 00:46:38

Number one, he lived amongst them.

00:46:39 --> 00:46:42

Number two, his creation is more similar.

00:46:42 --> 00:46:44

So fire and light are similar.

00:46:46 --> 00:46:48

Mud is something completely different.

00:46:49 --> 00:46:53

So hence, they sort of lump the species

00:46:53 --> 00:46:55

next to each other.

00:46:55 --> 00:46:57

There are some species that are not from

00:46:57 --> 00:46:59

the same, but they're very close.

00:47:00 --> 00:47:02

Keep in mind, the species is that they

00:47:02 --> 00:47:03

can procreate together.

00:47:04 --> 00:47:04

That's the difference.

00:47:06 --> 00:47:08

I wonder about all the felines.

00:47:08 --> 00:47:10

They could possibly procreate together, right?

00:47:11 --> 00:47:12

They can procreate together, right?

00:47:13 --> 00:47:16

Ligers, and they look terrible, right?

00:47:16 --> 00:47:17

Do you ever see what a liger looks

00:47:17 --> 00:47:17

like?

00:47:18 --> 00:47:19

Oh, they look bad.

00:47:20 --> 00:47:22

They shouldn't experiment with these animals like this,

00:47:22 --> 00:47:22

right?

00:47:23 --> 00:47:24

No, is that a liger?

00:47:24 --> 00:47:24

No.

00:47:24 --> 00:47:25

Is that a liger?

00:47:25 --> 00:47:27

Okay, so maybe they're not that bad.

00:47:29 --> 00:47:31

No, maybe it's the white lion I think

00:47:31 --> 00:47:32

I'm talking about that looks bad.

00:47:34 --> 00:47:36

Yeah, see the liger is not a handsome

00:47:36 --> 00:47:36

animal.

00:47:36 --> 00:47:37

It's confused.

00:47:37 --> 00:47:39

It's a confused creature, right?

00:47:42 --> 00:47:44

And the only ones that are nice here

00:47:44 --> 00:47:44

are probably AI.

00:47:45 --> 00:47:51

But horses and donkeys, when they mate, they

00:47:51 --> 00:47:53

make a mule, but the mule can't reproduce.

00:47:55 --> 00:47:56

So in any event, that's one of the

00:47:56 --> 00:47:59

reasons why people lump in Satan with the

00:47:59 --> 00:47:59

angels.

00:48:00 --> 00:48:04

Maybe something in the Bible got altered or

00:48:04 --> 00:48:06

changed or something that makes them think that

00:48:06 --> 00:48:07

Satan is a fallen angel, but there's no

00:48:07 --> 00:48:08

such thing as a fallen angel.

00:48:09 --> 00:48:10

There's no such thing as an angel who

00:48:10 --> 00:48:11

disobeys God.

00:48:11 --> 00:48:14

Physically, it's essentially impossible.

00:48:16 --> 00:48:18

A human being though, who chooses to surrender

00:48:18 --> 00:48:21

their will to God in the face of

00:48:21 --> 00:48:25

choice, the ability to use it selfishly or

00:48:25 --> 00:48:28

for evil or for his own pleasures or

00:48:28 --> 00:48:31

at the expense of others, becomes greater than

00:48:31 --> 00:48:34

an angel by virtue of that noble free

00:48:34 --> 00:48:35

will choice.

00:48:35 --> 00:48:37

So angels are absolutely perfect.

00:48:37 --> 00:48:41

They have no desires, no anger, no needs,

00:48:42 --> 00:48:45

and physically, they have no blemishes.

00:48:45 --> 00:48:48

Yet we are here on this earth with

00:48:48 --> 00:48:49

blemishes.

00:48:50 --> 00:48:51

We're here with desires.

00:48:52 --> 00:48:53

We get feisty.

00:48:54 --> 00:48:57

We can get annoyed, and yet we could

00:48:57 --> 00:48:58

be at a level higher than angels.

00:49:00 --> 00:49:02

And so I remember one of the awliyat

00:49:02 --> 00:49:05

talking, and he said people, they don't understand

00:49:06 --> 00:49:10

what the saints or the awliyat actually are.

00:49:10 --> 00:49:13

And they visualize a human that's almost looking

00:49:13 --> 00:49:15

like an angel and acting like an angel,

00:49:15 --> 00:49:16

but that's not what it is.

00:49:17 --> 00:49:19

And he said you can have a wali

00:49:19 --> 00:49:22

of Allah, he gets annoyed at minor things,

00:49:22 --> 00:49:24

he's agitated because his body is uncomfortable.

00:49:25 --> 00:49:27

Like if you're really hot and it's really

00:49:27 --> 00:49:29

humid, you're easily agitated.

00:49:29 --> 00:49:31

If it's hot and dry, you're easily agitated.

00:49:32 --> 00:49:34

And he could be easily agitated.

00:49:34 --> 00:49:37

He could be somebody who is doing things

00:49:37 --> 00:49:41

in the world, trying to increase himself in

00:49:41 --> 00:49:44

the world, competing, doing all these things, desiring,

00:49:45 --> 00:49:51

marrying and eating, enjoying food, and sleeping, doing

00:49:51 --> 00:49:54

all these normally human things, yet in the

00:49:54 --> 00:49:55

sight of Allah, he's greater than an angel.

00:49:56 --> 00:49:56

Why?

00:49:57 --> 00:49:59

Because the choices he made in life.

00:49:59 --> 00:50:02

He had so many abilities where in the

00:50:02 --> 00:50:04

big things, forget these little tiny things that

00:50:04 --> 00:50:08

are, don't really have any consequence, right?

00:50:09 --> 00:50:10

They have no consequence at all.

00:50:11 --> 00:50:14

The stuff that people may judge on outwardly,

00:50:14 --> 00:50:17

but this inwardly, when he has choices, he

00:50:17 --> 00:50:20

makes the best choices, and Allah keeps elevating

00:50:20 --> 00:50:21

him, his rank.

00:50:22 --> 00:50:24

Although all we see is a man coughing

00:50:24 --> 00:50:27

and sneezing and eating and talking and answering

00:50:27 --> 00:50:30

phones and answering some people, not answering other

00:50:30 --> 00:50:33

people, living a life that you wouldn't expect

00:50:33 --> 00:50:36

because people's perception of the Awliya is not

00:50:36 --> 00:50:37

always right.

00:50:38 --> 00:50:40

And it may almost be a Christian perception

00:50:40 --> 00:50:41

of saints.

00:50:42 --> 00:50:46

And of course, none of the Christian priests

00:50:46 --> 00:50:48

and popes, that's how they should behave.

00:50:48 --> 00:50:51

You don't have kids, you don't have bills,

00:50:52 --> 00:50:53

you know, the church takes care of everything.

00:50:53 --> 00:50:55

You don't have to work with people, you

00:50:55 --> 00:50:56

don't have to compete.

00:50:57 --> 00:51:00

You are fed day and night by just

00:51:00 --> 00:51:02

show up, give the sermon and come back.

00:51:02 --> 00:51:04

You don't have to make choices because they

00:51:04 --> 00:51:05

don't even have money.

00:51:05 --> 00:51:07

They don't actually have possessions.

00:51:07 --> 00:51:09

Everything is the possession of the church.

00:51:11 --> 00:51:12

What is this?

00:51:12 --> 00:51:13

How are you my guide?

00:51:14 --> 00:51:16

You don't know a thing about how we

00:51:16 --> 00:51:17

live, right?

00:51:18 --> 00:51:20

So all that you may be good at

00:51:20 --> 00:51:22

is showing up at opening the door of

00:51:22 --> 00:51:25

the church, giving some speeches and lectures because

00:51:25 --> 00:51:26

you could study all day.

00:51:26 --> 00:51:28

But when the rubber hits the road, you

00:51:28 --> 00:51:31

can never tell us what to do.

00:51:31 --> 00:51:34

You can't advise me with any good advice.

00:51:34 --> 00:51:40

So your reading is inside out of the

00:51:40 --> 00:51:41

books because what else are you doing?

00:51:41 --> 00:51:43

So we expect that.

00:51:43 --> 00:51:45

You can give me a great lecture.

00:51:45 --> 00:51:46

That's wonderful.

00:51:46 --> 00:51:47

But when I got issues, I'm not coming

00:51:47 --> 00:51:48

to you.

00:51:49 --> 00:51:50

And that's the difference.

00:51:51 --> 00:51:53

So like they don't marry and any of

00:51:53 --> 00:51:54

these things, like that's such a huge part

00:51:54 --> 00:51:54

of life, right?

00:51:54 --> 00:51:56

You don't marry.

00:51:56 --> 00:51:59

Like when you, the moment a person marries,

00:52:00 --> 00:52:01

his whole life changes.

00:52:01 --> 00:52:02

That's why the prophet Isaiah said, it's half

00:52:02 --> 00:52:03

your deen.

00:52:03 --> 00:52:05

Like half of your life will be altered.

00:52:05 --> 00:52:06

Imagine half of your life.

00:52:06 --> 00:52:08

Yeah, half of your life will be altered

00:52:08 --> 00:52:10

because now everything's got to change.

00:52:11 --> 00:52:13

50% of what you do when you're

00:52:13 --> 00:52:15

not married, as soon as you marry, cut

00:52:15 --> 00:52:15

it in half.

00:52:15 --> 00:52:17

Some of it you can't do.

00:52:17 --> 00:52:18

Some of it you won't have to do.

00:52:18 --> 00:52:21

Some of it you'll never think about it

00:52:21 --> 00:52:21

again.

00:52:21 --> 00:52:24

It's a luxury that only exists for single

00:52:24 --> 00:52:24

people.

00:52:26 --> 00:52:28

And also you have half the pleasures of

00:52:28 --> 00:52:30

life also come with that.

00:52:30 --> 00:52:31

How are you going to be thankful?

00:52:32 --> 00:52:34

So what do you know about gratitude when

00:52:34 --> 00:52:36

you haven't tasted the greatest pleasure of life?

00:52:38 --> 00:52:39

You don't have that.

00:52:39 --> 00:52:40

So what gratitude do you have?

00:52:42 --> 00:52:45

Really, it must be a satanic trick to

00:52:45 --> 00:52:47

make them not marry, right?

00:52:48 --> 00:52:48

That must be part of it.

00:52:48 --> 00:52:55

Because we know rahbaniyah, the monasticism, what is

00:52:55 --> 00:52:57

meant by that term, according to what I

00:52:57 --> 00:52:59

was told by my teachers on this in

00:52:59 --> 00:53:04

tafsir, is that they were worshipful, just generally

00:53:04 --> 00:53:04

worshipful.

00:53:05 --> 00:53:05

That's what it meant.

00:53:07 --> 00:53:08

It didn't mean that they couldn't marry.

00:53:09 --> 00:53:13

Then they innovated that part and they failed

00:53:13 --> 00:53:13

to uphold it.

00:53:14 --> 00:53:16

So it may have been a permitted innovation

00:53:16 --> 00:53:17

at that time.

00:53:18 --> 00:53:20

Our Prophet forbade it as a belief.

00:53:21 --> 00:53:23

You can happen not to get married, that's

00:53:23 --> 00:53:23

not a problem.

00:53:23 --> 00:53:25

I happen not to be married, but I

00:53:25 --> 00:53:26

don't believe it's superior.

00:53:26 --> 00:53:29

So maybe that in their time, because Surah

00:53:29 --> 00:53:32

Al-Hadeed says, an innovation which they added,

00:53:32 --> 00:53:35

we did not obligate upon them, but they

00:53:35 --> 00:53:37

didn't preserve it, they didn't give it its

00:53:37 --> 00:53:37

due.

00:53:38 --> 00:53:39

So the fact that God says, Allah says,

00:53:39 --> 00:53:43

given its due, indicates that it was lawful.

00:53:43 --> 00:53:45

Just like you commit to memorize the Quran,

00:53:46 --> 00:53:49

you're not obligated to, but now you do

00:53:49 --> 00:53:50

it, but you're sloppy.

00:53:50 --> 00:53:51

You make a lot of mistakes.

00:53:51 --> 00:53:54

So I can say, you weren't obligated to

00:53:54 --> 00:53:55

do this, you took it on yourself and

00:53:55 --> 00:53:56

you didn't give it its due.

00:53:56 --> 00:53:59

You stand up for taraweeh, you don't have

00:53:59 --> 00:53:59

to do it.

00:54:01 --> 00:54:03

You choose to be the imam in taraweeh

00:54:03 --> 00:54:05

and open your mosque, but now you show

00:54:05 --> 00:54:06

up late, you keep messing up.

00:54:07 --> 00:54:09

I can tell you, you're not giving it

00:54:09 --> 00:54:09

its due.

00:54:09 --> 00:54:11

Same thing with the monks.

00:54:12 --> 00:54:14

Allah says in the Quran, it was a

00:54:14 --> 00:54:17

monasticism, they innovated it onto it and they

00:54:17 --> 00:54:19

didn't give it its due.

00:54:20 --> 00:54:22

Clearly, they fornicated, they went with boys.

00:54:23 --> 00:54:25

Of course, when the Shariah of Muhammad comes,

00:54:25 --> 00:54:26

that's no longer acceptable.

00:54:26 --> 00:54:29

Our Shariah abrogates the whole thing.

00:54:29 --> 00:54:31

They stall in their monasticism.

00:54:32 --> 00:54:35

We know this from Salman al-Farisi.

00:54:36 --> 00:54:39

The great Salman al-Farisi was a Persian

00:54:39 --> 00:54:42

who left the pagans and the fire worshippers

00:54:42 --> 00:54:45

and then traveled from monastery to monastery for

00:54:45 --> 00:54:47

decades and he said some of them were

00:54:47 --> 00:54:49

really good and some of them were really

00:54:49 --> 00:54:49

bad.

00:54:50 --> 00:54:54

Every time one would die or some crisis

00:54:54 --> 00:54:56

would come, he'd go from one monastery to

00:54:56 --> 00:55:00

the next until he came searching for the

00:55:00 --> 00:55:01

Prophet, peace be upon him.

00:55:02 --> 00:55:04

Even in his search for the Prophet, amazingly,

00:55:05 --> 00:55:08

he was taken as a slave and then

00:55:08 --> 00:55:13

sold to a master in Yathrib.

00:55:13 --> 00:55:16

That's exactly where the Prophet was sent, to

00:55:16 --> 00:55:17

a Jewish man.

00:55:18 --> 00:55:20

Then Salman al-Farisi became one of the

00:55:20 --> 00:55:21

greatest companions.

00:55:22 --> 00:55:25

If you notice, he didn't spend as much

00:55:25 --> 00:55:27

time with the Prophet, peace be upon him,

00:55:27 --> 00:55:28

as those in Mecca.

00:55:30 --> 00:55:32

But he very quickly was an advisor because

00:55:32 --> 00:55:36

the concept of the monotheistic religions, he was

00:55:36 --> 00:55:37

already in it.

00:55:37 --> 00:55:39

He just needed to fix certain details, that's

00:55:39 --> 00:55:39

it.

00:55:40 --> 00:55:41

He was already in that worshipful life.

00:55:42 --> 00:55:45

So he's the advisor of many Sahaba.

00:55:45 --> 00:55:47

He's the one who said, your body has

00:55:47 --> 00:55:49

rights over you, your eyes have rights over

00:55:49 --> 00:55:50

you, your wife has rights over you.

00:55:52 --> 00:55:56

And I think it was, who was it?

00:55:56 --> 00:55:58

Which was Abu Darda, I believe it was

00:55:58 --> 00:56:06

Abu Darda's wife complained to Salman, said that

00:56:06 --> 00:56:10

he just fasts all day and then at

00:56:10 --> 00:56:13

night he prays all night.

00:56:14 --> 00:56:16

And then what about me, right?

00:56:16 --> 00:56:17

What about our house here?

00:56:18 --> 00:56:22

So Abu Darda said, would you like to

00:56:23 --> 00:56:27

Salman said to Abu Darda, would you like

00:56:27 --> 00:56:28

to spend the night?

00:56:28 --> 00:56:30

He said, yes, spend the night, see how

00:56:30 --> 00:56:32

does the great Salman al-Fadl, does he

00:56:32 --> 00:56:32

worship Allah?

00:56:33 --> 00:56:34

Like what does he do?

00:56:35 --> 00:56:38

So after a third of the night, he

00:56:38 --> 00:56:39

woke up, all right, let's go.

00:56:40 --> 00:56:41

We slept a little bit, now let's pray.

00:56:43 --> 00:56:46

And they used to find so much, so

00:56:46 --> 00:56:48

much spirituality in those night prayers, so much

00:56:48 --> 00:56:51

Iman and and sweetness of faith in those

00:56:51 --> 00:56:51

times.

00:56:52 --> 00:56:54

He said, not yet, sleep.

00:56:55 --> 00:56:57

Then half the night came, so sleep.

00:56:58 --> 00:56:59

Then a sixth of the night came, they

00:56:59 --> 00:57:01

said, okay, now we'll wake up, just a

00:57:01 --> 00:57:01

little bit left.

00:57:02 --> 00:57:03

So now we'll wake up and then they'll

00:57:03 --> 00:57:04

pray.

00:57:04 --> 00:57:06

Then the next day, then right before, all

00:57:06 --> 00:57:08

right, let's have suhoor, no, we won't fast

00:57:08 --> 00:57:08

today.

00:57:09 --> 00:57:12

So he, if he had told him, he

00:57:12 --> 00:57:13

may not have believed him.

00:57:13 --> 00:57:15

But when you see the man of Allah

00:57:15 --> 00:57:17

behaving this way, you start to realize, okay,

00:57:17 --> 00:57:18

that's how we can do things.

00:57:18 --> 00:57:21

So that's why, so when we get to

00:57:21 --> 00:57:23

see a man of Allah in his family

00:57:23 --> 00:57:26

life, and I've heard of some teachers of

00:57:26 --> 00:57:29

mine, they had crisis in their families.

00:57:30 --> 00:57:31

It doesn't, so now it doesn't shake me

00:57:31 --> 00:57:33

up to know that.

00:57:33 --> 00:57:34

Awliya of Allah can have crisis.

00:57:35 --> 00:57:36

It's not going to be like some kind

00:57:36 --> 00:57:40

of imagination, some kind of fantasy, where every,

00:57:40 --> 00:57:41

all of life is perfect.

00:57:42 --> 00:57:45

Their Awliya Allah is, is their counterparts.

00:57:46 --> 00:57:49

Subhanallah, they disagreed with them.

00:57:50 --> 00:57:52

It doesn't change anything, they could disagree.

00:57:53 --> 00:57:59

So we have a much more practical perception

00:57:59 --> 00:58:00

of what a man of God is like,

00:58:01 --> 00:58:02

right?

00:58:02 --> 00:58:04

And likewise, are there not women of Allah,

00:58:05 --> 00:58:05

subhanahu wa ta'ala?

00:58:05 --> 00:58:09

There's Aisha bint Abi Bakr, Aisha, the mother

00:58:09 --> 00:58:10

of the believers, Sayyid Aisha.

00:58:12 --> 00:58:13

We know the most about her.

00:58:14 --> 00:58:15

We know more about her than anybody else.

00:58:16 --> 00:58:17

A, she lived longer.

00:58:17 --> 00:58:19

She lived at a time everyone was recording

00:58:19 --> 00:58:19

everything.

00:58:20 --> 00:58:23

And we know from her that she would

00:58:23 --> 00:58:23

have anger.

00:58:24 --> 00:58:25

She had anger, but she had it in

00:58:25 --> 00:58:28

the right, in the right cause, right?

00:58:29 --> 00:58:30

She had jealousy.

00:58:31 --> 00:58:32

When one of the other mothers of the

00:58:32 --> 00:58:34

believers bought food for the Prophet on her

00:58:34 --> 00:58:37

day, that was her day, she flipped the

00:58:37 --> 00:58:39

plate, and wasted the food, and broke the

00:58:39 --> 00:58:39

plate.

00:58:40 --> 00:58:42

The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, said, then we

00:58:42 --> 00:58:44

owe her a plate now, right?

00:58:44 --> 00:58:45

So he did establish justice.

00:58:46 --> 00:58:47

But he smiled, and he said, your mother

00:58:47 --> 00:58:48

got jealous.

00:58:48 --> 00:58:50

What was she jealous for, though?

00:58:51 --> 00:58:53

That is my day for the Prophet.

00:58:53 --> 00:58:57

Just like when Moses came, and I'm teaching

00:58:57 --> 00:58:59

you guys to worship one God.

00:59:00 --> 00:59:02

I'm going to go get the law from

00:59:02 --> 00:59:03

God, and be back in a month.

00:59:04 --> 00:59:08

He'd been slaves for decades now.

00:59:09 --> 00:59:11

We just came over, saw the Pharaoh drowned.

00:59:11 --> 00:59:13

Are you serious?

00:59:14 --> 00:59:17

After 40 days, and you're worshiping an idol?

00:59:17 --> 00:59:18

I don't even have a thought of the

00:59:18 --> 00:59:19

way he put it.

00:59:19 --> 00:59:20

His, your clothes were still wet, right?

00:59:21 --> 00:59:22

Right?

00:59:23 --> 00:59:25

Like exaggerating that.

00:59:26 --> 00:59:28

Your clothes were still wet, right?

00:59:28 --> 00:59:30

And you worshipped another God.

00:59:30 --> 00:59:32

Like you didn't even like skip prayer.

00:59:33 --> 00:59:34

I get that.

00:59:34 --> 00:59:36

Sit back, listen to music, and skip prayer.

00:59:37 --> 00:59:40

All right, that's something bad people, people could

00:59:40 --> 00:59:40

fall into this.

00:59:41 --> 00:59:42

Yeah, like a slow progression, right?

00:59:43 --> 00:59:48

No, in one month, and 10 days, 40

00:59:48 --> 00:59:51

days total, you're worshiping a false God.

00:59:51 --> 00:59:53

So that would drive anyone insane.

00:59:54 --> 00:59:56

It drives anybody insane, right?

00:59:56 --> 00:59:58

So he took God's tablet, and threw it

00:59:58 --> 00:59:59

against the mountain.

00:59:59 --> 01:00:01

Like he can't fathom it.

01:00:01 --> 01:00:02

And Allah never blamed him for that.

01:00:02 --> 01:00:04

Because his anger was for the right reason.

01:00:04 --> 01:00:06

Likewise, Sayyidah Aisha's anger was for the love

01:00:06 --> 01:00:07

of the Prophet.

01:00:07 --> 01:00:08

Her jealousy was for the love of the

01:00:08 --> 01:00:08

Prophet.

01:00:09 --> 01:00:10

That is something to be rewarded.

01:00:11 --> 01:00:12

So the Prophet never blamed her.

01:00:13 --> 01:00:16

He never said, Astaghfirullah, you broke another woman's

01:00:16 --> 01:00:16

bowl.

01:00:16 --> 01:00:17

You spilled, wasted the food.

01:00:18 --> 01:00:20

You behave like this in front of the

01:00:20 --> 01:00:21

guests, because there were guests there.

01:00:22 --> 01:00:23

He didn't say a word of that.

01:00:23 --> 01:00:24

Why?

01:00:24 --> 01:00:26

Because the base, the root of her feelings

01:00:26 --> 01:00:26

were good.

01:00:30 --> 01:00:34

He says here, human beings often craft a

01:00:34 --> 01:00:34

narrative.

01:00:34 --> 01:00:41

Of self, around inspiring figures, and inspiring actions.

01:00:41 --> 01:00:42

So we need heroes.

01:00:43 --> 01:00:44

That's the beauty of it.

01:00:45 --> 01:00:49

In the Islamic world, in a world where

01:00:49 --> 01:00:54

you had belief, and you had Iman, and

01:00:54 --> 01:00:57

this stuff was a norm, you didn't have

01:00:57 --> 01:00:58

to have superheroes.

01:00:58 --> 01:01:02

The Catholics and the Christians did not even

01:01:02 --> 01:01:03

need to have superheroes.

01:01:04 --> 01:01:07

The Catholics and the Christians, when they were

01:01:07 --> 01:01:08

religious, they had saints.

01:01:09 --> 01:01:11

I'm not saying this is good, but I'm

01:01:11 --> 01:01:12

saying it was real to them.

01:01:12 --> 01:01:14

In their mind, this is real life telling

01:01:14 --> 01:01:15

us how to live real life.

01:01:15 --> 01:01:17

These are the paragons of how to make

01:01:17 --> 01:01:18

real choices in real life.

01:01:19 --> 01:01:21

All right, atheism comes and they lose all

01:01:21 --> 01:01:21

of that.

01:01:21 --> 01:01:22

Now what do you have?

01:01:22 --> 01:01:23

Spider-Man.

01:01:24 --> 01:01:24

Right?

01:01:24 --> 01:01:26

People still need heroes.

01:01:26 --> 01:01:31

Their heroes are athletes who overcame great odds.

01:01:31 --> 01:01:31

What odd?

01:01:32 --> 01:01:34

The odds of putting a ball in a

01:01:34 --> 01:01:38

hoop, or carrying a ball across 100 yards,

01:01:39 --> 01:01:42

that becomes the hero of the day.

01:01:43 --> 01:01:44

Those are the heroes of today.

01:01:46 --> 01:01:49

And then complete imagination.

01:01:50 --> 01:01:54

Batman and Superman and Spider-Man, they've replaced

01:01:54 --> 01:01:58

what used to be our heroes, which is

01:01:58 --> 01:02:01

the Awliya of Allah, Salihin, all these things.

01:02:06 --> 01:02:09

Now without evil people, we have no heroes.

01:02:09 --> 01:02:12

You cannot have a hero without an antagonist.

01:02:13 --> 01:02:16

You cannot have a hero without an enemy.

01:02:17 --> 01:02:19

Let's have a Batman movie, but no Joker,

01:02:20 --> 01:02:24

no Scarecrow, no Catwoman, no Penguin.

01:02:25 --> 01:02:25

You don't have a movie.

01:02:26 --> 01:02:28

Let's have Superman.

01:02:29 --> 01:02:30

He goes around saving people with no one

01:02:30 --> 01:02:31

stopping him.

01:02:32 --> 01:02:34

No Lex Luthor and no Kryptonite.

01:02:34 --> 01:02:35

It doesn't work.

01:02:35 --> 01:02:37

So how do we get those bad people?

01:02:37 --> 01:02:38

They have free will.

01:02:39 --> 01:02:43

So free will is what actually produces heroes

01:02:43 --> 01:02:45

and villains.

01:02:48 --> 01:02:50

It's interesting because they do have those movies

01:02:50 --> 01:02:52

about the heroes, but it's just about their

01:02:52 --> 01:02:54

personal development before they were a hero.

01:02:54 --> 01:02:56

And it's always about their personal journey.

01:02:56 --> 01:02:58

And the way that people see them in

01:02:58 --> 01:02:59

that movie is not like a superhero.

01:02:59 --> 01:03:01

It's more like them becoming a hero.

01:03:02 --> 01:03:03

And then the next movie is where the

01:03:03 --> 01:03:03

villain is.

01:03:04 --> 01:03:05

And then that's when they're an actual hero.

01:03:05 --> 01:03:07

But they're never actually classified as a hero

01:03:07 --> 01:03:08

in that movie.

01:03:08 --> 01:03:09

It's more like their development.

01:03:09 --> 01:03:10

Because there's no villain in the movie.

01:03:10 --> 01:03:14

So once the storytelling has increased and you

01:03:14 --> 01:03:16

get bored with the old stories, but you

01:03:16 --> 01:03:17

got the same franchise, what are you going

01:03:17 --> 01:03:18

to do?

01:03:18 --> 01:03:19

So you're going to make the right.

01:03:20 --> 01:03:22

So if you think about it, they start

01:03:22 --> 01:03:24

off with the superhero and the villain, cut

01:03:24 --> 01:03:25

to the chase right away.

01:03:25 --> 01:03:26

But now that you've been attached to it

01:03:26 --> 01:03:28

now, but I think, all right, what are

01:03:28 --> 01:03:28

we going to do us?

01:03:28 --> 01:03:29

How many villains is he going to defeat?

01:03:30 --> 01:03:33

Let's actually go back to how each person

01:03:33 --> 01:03:35

became the superhero and became the villain.

01:03:35 --> 01:03:36

It's not essential because if it was, they

01:03:36 --> 01:03:37

would call him a hero then.

01:03:37 --> 01:03:38

That's true.

01:03:38 --> 01:03:38

That's how he became a hero.

01:03:38 --> 01:03:39

That's true.

01:03:39 --> 01:03:41

If you had to go through the whole

01:03:41 --> 01:03:43

thing, you might bore the audience.

01:03:43 --> 01:03:45

So they bring him out as a hero

01:03:45 --> 01:03:45

right away.

01:03:46 --> 01:03:47

And then later on, they'll tell you about

01:03:47 --> 01:03:47

him.

01:03:48 --> 01:03:53

So that's the idea of society and life

01:03:53 --> 01:03:59

requiring and needing, having complete need of heroes.

01:04:02 --> 01:04:04

I only have time for two questions, three

01:04:04 --> 01:04:04

questions.

01:04:05 --> 01:04:05

Unfortunately, I got to run.

01:04:07 --> 01:04:09

A lot of comments here.

01:04:13 --> 01:04:14

Let's see what the questions are.

01:04:16 --> 01:04:20

Am I reading from Pearls in the Deep?

01:04:20 --> 01:04:23

Yes, this is a really, really important book

01:04:23 --> 01:04:25

because why bad things happen?

01:04:25 --> 01:04:28

It's one of the most crucial things that

01:04:30 --> 01:04:31

you need to know.

01:04:32 --> 01:04:33

It's one of the ways Shaitan gets to

01:04:33 --> 01:04:35

you by bad things happening.

01:04:35 --> 01:04:39

When, listen to this, if you can learn

01:04:39 --> 01:04:42

this quick, early in life, you will save

01:04:42 --> 01:04:43

yourself so much.

01:04:44 --> 01:04:47

When a bad thing happens, and it squeezes

01:04:47 --> 01:04:49

your heart, accept it.

01:04:49 --> 01:04:51

Accept the squeezing of your heart.

01:04:52 --> 01:04:53

This is from Allah.

01:04:54 --> 01:04:57

Now go and do, realize that Allah Ta

01:04:57 --> 01:05:00

'ala at this point, He's pulling you back

01:05:00 --> 01:05:00

to Him.

01:05:01 --> 01:05:03

He's pulling you back to Him.

01:05:03 --> 01:05:07

And we should have a recognition that He

01:05:07 --> 01:05:10

wants us to search for the reason and

01:05:10 --> 01:05:12

to increase in our knowledge and our toolbox

01:05:12 --> 01:05:15

of knowledge of why is it that my

01:05:15 --> 01:05:16

heart is constricted?

01:05:17 --> 01:05:18

Did I make a mistake?

01:05:18 --> 01:05:19

Go fix it.

01:05:20 --> 01:05:21

Did I mess up somehow?

01:05:21 --> 01:05:22

Go fix that.

01:05:22 --> 01:05:22

Learn.

01:05:24 --> 01:05:26

So when your heart gets squeezed, most people,

01:05:26 --> 01:05:28

they live their life trying to flee from

01:05:28 --> 01:05:28

that.

01:05:29 --> 01:05:30

And they want to live a life where

01:05:30 --> 01:05:31

that will never happen again.

01:05:31 --> 01:05:35

No, the best life to live is to

01:05:35 --> 01:05:38

live a life knowing that qabt, my heart

01:05:38 --> 01:05:40

being constrained, will always happen at some point

01:05:40 --> 01:05:41

or other.

01:05:41 --> 01:05:42

Don't run away from it.

01:05:43 --> 01:05:46

Rather, recognize why is it happening?

01:05:47 --> 01:05:48

Know the wisdom behind it.

01:05:48 --> 01:05:50

The wisdom behind it, Allah is calling me

01:05:50 --> 01:05:54

back to Him to think about why did

01:05:54 --> 01:05:54

this happen?

01:05:54 --> 01:05:55

What's the reason for that?

01:05:55 --> 01:05:56

That's going to increase you in knowledge.

01:05:57 --> 01:05:58

And you can help prevent other people from

01:05:58 --> 01:05:59

suffering.

01:06:04 --> 01:06:06

What does Zuko's Crucible mean?

01:06:07 --> 01:06:08

I mean, your guess is as good as

01:06:08 --> 01:06:11

mine, but it's the name of the show

01:06:11 --> 01:06:14

that Nas uses in this book.

01:06:15 --> 01:06:19

He uses as teaching mechanism, like stories in

01:06:19 --> 01:06:20

pop culture.

01:06:21 --> 01:06:23

This is not a textbook.

01:06:23 --> 01:06:26

This is an easily flowing book that tries

01:06:26 --> 01:06:27

to find people that we all relate to.

01:06:31 --> 01:06:34

Are card games without gambling haram like Uno?

01:06:35 --> 01:06:36

No, we can't say it's haram.

01:06:36 --> 01:06:37

We can't say that.

01:06:38 --> 01:06:42

In general, the scholars dislike games of chance.

01:06:43 --> 01:06:45

They dislike games of chance.

01:06:46 --> 01:06:48

It's not a good habit to love chance

01:06:48 --> 01:06:50

because chance is something people love it after

01:06:50 --> 01:06:51

a while.

01:06:52 --> 01:06:54

And it's completely busted.

01:06:54 --> 01:06:55

You're not learning anything.

01:06:55 --> 01:06:56

You're not benefiting anything.

01:06:56 --> 01:06:58

Other games you could learn and benefit from,

01:06:58 --> 01:07:01

but games of chance tend to look down

01:07:01 --> 01:07:02

upon.

01:07:18 --> 01:07:20

What's the ruling on the duff?

01:07:20 --> 01:07:24

It's permitted, but not in Masajid.

01:07:26 --> 01:07:28

Can you give advice on what someone should

01:07:28 --> 01:07:29

aim to study in college?

01:07:31 --> 01:07:32

Well, I think that you should aim to

01:07:32 --> 01:07:34

study something that's going to benefit you more

01:07:34 --> 01:07:35

than something that interests you.

01:07:36 --> 01:07:38

The stuff that interests you, you could study

01:07:38 --> 01:07:39

it somewhere else.

01:07:39 --> 01:07:43

You can study it later on.

01:07:43 --> 01:07:45

But the stuff that will really benefit you

01:07:45 --> 01:07:48

in your life is something that you can

01:07:48 --> 01:07:51

implement right away right out of college.

01:07:51 --> 01:07:52

You can earn a salary.

01:07:53 --> 01:07:54

You can marry from that.

01:07:55 --> 01:07:57

And I think that that's a function of

01:07:57 --> 01:07:57

college.

01:07:58 --> 01:08:00

If you're interested in something, you don't need

01:08:00 --> 01:08:01

to go to college for that.

01:08:01 --> 01:08:03

Or you can take it as a minor

01:08:03 --> 01:08:05

or a double major if you're ambitious.

01:08:06 --> 01:08:08

Like English Lit.

01:08:10 --> 01:08:11

That's not going to be your only major.

01:08:15 --> 01:08:17

It's haram to play in the NBA?

01:08:17 --> 01:08:19

Well, sports in general is differed upon.

01:08:19 --> 01:08:21

The Hanafis say if it's halal to do,

01:08:21 --> 01:08:22

it's halal to earn from.

01:08:23 --> 01:08:26

The Marikis say we're not allowed to earn

01:08:26 --> 01:08:26

money from games.

01:08:30 --> 01:08:33

Mrs. S, I'm having too many tests and

01:08:33 --> 01:08:34

I'm so tired.

01:08:34 --> 01:08:35

Do I stop being pious?

01:08:36 --> 01:08:37

Well, no.

01:08:38 --> 01:08:40

That's not the only reason for tests, by

01:08:40 --> 01:08:40

the way.

01:08:41 --> 01:08:43

Being pious is not the only reason for

01:08:43 --> 01:08:43

tests.

01:08:45 --> 01:08:48

Our own actions otherwise could be cause of

01:08:48 --> 01:08:49

tribulations.

01:08:50 --> 01:08:54

If anything, that's going to make things worse.

01:08:54 --> 01:08:56

You would need a lot more.

01:09:02 --> 01:09:04

Can you give advice on what someone should

01:09:04 --> 01:09:05

do, should aim to study?

01:09:05 --> 01:09:06

We answered that one.

01:09:07 --> 01:09:11

Any thoughts on astrology to determine one's temperament?

01:09:13 --> 01:09:17

All knowledge related to temperament, keep in mind,

01:09:17 --> 01:09:18

it's nice and cute.

01:09:20 --> 01:09:22

Like your temperament is fire, yours is air,

01:09:22 --> 01:09:23

yours is water.

01:09:23 --> 01:09:26

But keep in mind, it's a speculative knowledge

01:09:26 --> 01:09:30

and it should not dictate how you act.

01:09:31 --> 01:09:35

What should dictate how you act is the

01:09:35 --> 01:09:37

Sunnah, the way of the Prophet, peace be

01:09:37 --> 01:09:38

upon him.

01:09:40 --> 01:09:41

By the way, you know why these websites

01:09:41 --> 01:09:42

all succeed?

01:09:43 --> 01:09:44

These temperament websites?

01:09:45 --> 01:09:47

Whatever answer you come upon isn't flattering.

01:09:48 --> 01:09:50

That's why these websites are very successful.

01:09:50 --> 01:09:54

There's also the ECNJ, whatever, ETNJ, ITNJ, whatever.

01:09:55 --> 01:09:57

Every single whatever you put, that's going to

01:09:57 --> 01:09:58

give you one of four boxes.

01:09:58 --> 01:10:00

They've combined four different things.

01:10:00 --> 01:10:08

Introvert, outrovert, whatever, introvert, extrovert, whatever it gives

01:10:08 --> 01:10:11

you, ETNJ, whatever, it's flattering.

01:10:12 --> 01:10:13

It's nice.

01:10:13 --> 01:10:14

It's good.

01:10:15 --> 01:10:18

That's good personality and there are some drawbacks.

01:10:19 --> 01:10:21

But you have to take those as nothing

01:10:21 --> 01:10:25

other than neat, interesting, and nice.

01:10:25 --> 01:10:26

That's it.

01:10:27 --> 01:10:29

It can't now be the source of my

01:10:29 --> 01:10:30

behavior.

01:10:30 --> 01:10:33

It can't also be my filter for friendship

01:10:33 --> 01:10:35

and marriage because some people do that.

01:10:36 --> 01:10:36

Some people do that.

01:10:37 --> 01:10:39

They won't marry someone because of their astrological

01:10:39 --> 01:10:41

sign, their zodiac.

01:10:42 --> 01:10:46

This person is a Taurus, this person is

01:10:46 --> 01:10:49

a Capricorn, this person is in cancer.

01:10:50 --> 01:10:53

You don't know the future and those things

01:10:53 --> 01:10:54

aren't absolutes.

01:10:55 --> 01:10:59

I could say, fine, I'll accept the concept

01:10:59 --> 01:11:03

that it's a general observation that covers maybe

01:11:03 --> 01:11:04

seven out of 10 people.

01:11:05 --> 01:11:06

I can accept that.

01:11:07 --> 01:11:07

It's just a pattern.

01:11:08 --> 01:11:09

That's all it is.

01:11:09 --> 01:11:12

But you cannot say that that person, because

01:11:12 --> 01:11:14

he's born into it, he'll have this characteristic.

01:11:14 --> 01:11:17

I can probably, if I searched hard enough,

01:11:17 --> 01:11:19

get you a nice long list of people

01:11:19 --> 01:11:23

who don't fit these qualities that the zodiac

01:11:23 --> 01:11:24

says that they should fit.

01:11:26 --> 01:11:32

So just take them as no different than

01:11:32 --> 01:11:33

reading the back of the cereal box.

01:11:34 --> 01:11:36

See, I don't know if that exists anymore.

01:11:36 --> 01:11:37

Does it exist anymore?

01:11:37 --> 01:11:46

When I was young, the cereal boxes had

01:11:46 --> 01:11:48

like five puzzles in it.

01:11:49 --> 01:11:53

And one part would say really interesting facts

01:11:53 --> 01:11:56

about the bumblebee, if it's cereals, for example.

01:11:56 --> 01:11:58

And then I'll have a crossword puzzle with

01:11:58 --> 01:11:59

honey-related words.

01:11:59 --> 01:12:04

Then it would have like a maze for

01:12:04 --> 01:12:05

people who don't know how to read.

01:12:05 --> 01:12:06

Kids who don't know how to read yet,

01:12:07 --> 01:12:07

they can't do the puzzle.

01:12:08 --> 01:12:09

So they'll do the maze.

01:12:10 --> 01:12:11

All sorts of neat things.

01:12:11 --> 01:12:13

And then they always had like little knick

01:12:13 --> 01:12:17

-knacky things like you save five covers of

01:12:17 --> 01:12:19

the cereal box and then you could redeem

01:12:19 --> 01:12:20

it for some toy.

01:12:21 --> 01:12:23

Or there'll be a toy, hidden toy.

01:12:23 --> 01:12:26

In one out of five boxes, there may

01:12:26 --> 01:12:27

be like a hidden toy under the bag.

01:12:29 --> 01:12:31

But the kids, I don't think they do

01:12:31 --> 01:12:32

that anymore.

01:12:32 --> 01:12:34

They're too busy with TikTok and Instagram Reels

01:12:34 --> 01:12:35

and all this.

01:12:35 --> 01:12:36

Back of the cereal box is dead.

01:12:39 --> 01:12:40

It's hilarious.

01:12:40 --> 01:12:40

Yeah.

01:12:41 --> 01:12:43

Now they have to list all the ingredients

01:12:43 --> 01:12:44

and there's no room anymore.

01:12:46 --> 01:12:50

So when you read those things, I don't

01:12:50 --> 01:12:52

deny that there are patterns in the world.

01:12:52 --> 01:12:53

I don't deny that.

01:12:54 --> 01:12:56

But you can't really take it 100%.

01:12:56 --> 01:12:58

Well, you definitely cannot take it as fact.

01:12:59 --> 01:13:02

You can't take it as something that's going

01:13:02 --> 01:13:03

to dictate your behavior in the future.

01:13:03 --> 01:13:04

I think that's a bad idea.

01:13:07 --> 01:13:09

Can you pray Istikharah in English?

01:13:09 --> 01:13:10

Well, the prayer will be in Arabic, of

01:13:10 --> 01:13:13

course, but the du'a after salah, yes,

01:13:13 --> 01:13:14

you can say it in English if you

01:13:14 --> 01:13:15

don't know Arabic.

01:13:17 --> 01:13:20

Stepmom says, I memorized the cereal's nutrition already

01:13:20 --> 01:13:20

from reading there.

01:13:24 --> 01:13:26

No cereal in Egypt when I used to

01:13:26 --> 01:13:28

go to Egypt when I was young is

01:13:28 --> 01:13:28

really expensive.

01:13:29 --> 01:13:29

Right.

01:13:30 --> 01:13:32

And I'll be having bowl after bowl after

01:13:32 --> 01:13:34

bowl thinking it's just cereal.

01:13:34 --> 01:13:36

But for them, it's a delicacy.

01:13:36 --> 01:13:38

It was a really expensive to get.

01:13:38 --> 01:13:40

It was easier to get eggs than cereal

01:13:40 --> 01:13:41

because all the farms that they had.

01:13:42 --> 01:13:46

People come from the farms every morning into

01:13:46 --> 01:13:49

Cairo with all fresh produce, fresh milk, fresh

01:13:49 --> 01:13:52

groceries, everything or green stuff, everything, eggs.

01:13:54 --> 01:14:02

So and I would like to do an

01:14:02 --> 01:14:03

experiment on somebody.

01:14:03 --> 01:14:06

I'd like to take someone who's never done

01:14:06 --> 01:14:09

this stuff before and tell him something that's

01:14:09 --> 01:14:11

not true about him, like tell the opposite

01:14:11 --> 01:14:14

side completely and let's see if he starts

01:14:14 --> 01:14:14

to change.

01:14:15 --> 01:14:16

You've seen someone do this?

01:14:17 --> 01:14:17

Yeah.

01:14:17 --> 01:14:18

This happens to people, right?

01:14:18 --> 01:14:21

If you give them fake information, they're going

01:14:21 --> 01:14:21

to act upon it.

01:14:22 --> 01:14:23

And there's been some really serious cases where

01:14:23 --> 01:14:25

you'll tell them they're bound to be an

01:14:25 --> 01:14:26

sociopath.

01:14:26 --> 01:14:28

And people start behaving like, I'm telling you,

01:14:28 --> 01:14:30

there's models of these behaviors.

01:14:30 --> 01:14:31

If you turn on a TV, you'll see

01:14:31 --> 01:14:33

what you're supposed to look like based on

01:14:33 --> 01:14:34

these models.

01:14:35 --> 01:14:38

I wonder if you took somebody who, a

01:14:38 --> 01:14:40

kid who has a temper, right?

01:14:41 --> 01:14:44

And you, in a non-official way, like

01:14:44 --> 01:14:47

where he doesn't realize it's happening, say, oh,

01:14:47 --> 01:14:48

hey, when were you born?

01:14:48 --> 01:14:51

Oh, you were Capricorn.

01:14:51 --> 01:14:52

You're really calm, right?

01:14:53 --> 01:14:56

And see if the kid's behavior changes, right?

01:14:57 --> 01:15:00

Someone needs to do that experiment because that

01:15:00 --> 01:15:01

would just debunk the whole thing.

01:15:01 --> 01:15:03

We should sell this as a service, add

01:15:03 --> 01:15:04

this onto the website.

01:15:04 --> 01:15:05

I know, I know.

01:15:05 --> 01:15:08

We will fix your kid.

01:15:08 --> 01:15:11

We're going to have a spy who's going

01:15:11 --> 01:15:12

to befriend you in the masjid without you

01:15:12 --> 01:15:13

even realizing it.

01:15:14 --> 01:15:17

And then he's going to incept it into

01:15:17 --> 01:15:17

your mind, right?

01:15:18 --> 01:15:20

He's going to do an inception on you

01:15:20 --> 01:15:22

by telling you, man, Subhanallah, I was just

01:15:22 --> 01:15:26

reading about people that look like you.

01:15:26 --> 01:15:27

You know, there's nephrology too.

01:15:28 --> 01:15:28

Nephrology.

01:15:28 --> 01:15:30

No, it's not nephrology.

01:15:31 --> 01:15:32

No, it's facial.

01:15:33 --> 01:15:33

Nephrology is kidney.

01:15:35 --> 01:15:36

There's that other study, the face.

01:15:37 --> 01:15:39

Oh, look, Subhanallah, I was just studying someone.

01:15:39 --> 01:15:41

People of your face, they're very generous to

01:15:41 --> 01:15:42

their families.

01:15:43 --> 01:15:46

They're very calm with their kids, right?

01:15:46 --> 01:15:47

People with your facial features.

01:15:48 --> 01:15:49

And let's see how his behavior changes after

01:15:49 --> 01:15:50

a month.

01:15:51 --> 01:15:52

Perisexual will have the whole community in on

01:15:52 --> 01:15:52

it.

01:15:55 --> 01:15:57

You dress like someone who's nice, you know,

01:15:57 --> 01:15:59

who doesn't get angry.

01:15:59 --> 01:16:00

Just say this to everyone.

01:16:00 --> 01:16:01

Fix everyone.

01:16:01 --> 01:16:02

Just start taking allowances, okay?

01:16:02 --> 01:16:03

Maybe I...

01:16:03 --> 01:16:04

Physonomy, I think it's called.

01:16:05 --> 01:16:07

A person saying, an HD mu'min is saying

01:16:07 --> 01:16:07

that.

01:16:11 --> 01:16:13

Ladies and gentlemen, I got to run, unfortunately.

01:16:13 --> 01:16:15

I have to pray dhuhr and hit the

01:16:15 --> 01:16:15

road quick.

01:16:16 --> 01:16:17

Subhanakallahumma bihamdik.

01:16:18 --> 01:16:20

Nashadu an la ilaha illa antah.

01:16:20 --> 01:16:22

Nastaghfiruk wa natubu ilayk wa al-asr.

01:16:22 --> 01:16:24

Inna al-insana la fee khusr.

01:16:24 --> 01:16:26

Illa allatheena amroo aamilus salihat wa tawassu bil

01:16:26 --> 01:16:28

-haq wa tawassu bil-sabr.

01:16:29 --> 01:16:31

Wassalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.

Share Page