Suhaib Webb – AlMunfarija Part One The Promise of Adversity
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AI: Transcript ©
We praise Allah
We send peace and blessings upon,
our beloved Messenger, Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
upon his family, his companions, those who follow
them until the end of time.
Assalamu alaykum, everybody.
Hallah. It's like great to see everybody. I
hope,
the break for those of you that have
been on break has been,
you know,
opportunity,
to, you know, refuel
and kind of,
refocus.
It's certainly it's kind of strange being back
after being gone for so long in this
space.
Space has a lot of memories. It's weird
not seeing Khalid here. Right. May Allah bless
him, Insha'Allah, and his family,
as well as Amira and Aziza and all
of the brothers and sisters. So,
around a month or 2 ago,
someone suggested the idea.
Well, they kinda baited me. They're like, are
you gonna be here
during the break? I was like, yes. And
they're like, why don't you do, like, a
winter retreat,
for a few days? And
we're thinking next summer to do, like, a
more intensive, longer type summer intensive retreat.
So this is kind of the first iteration.
This is the beta version
of what we hope,
you know, can be something more consistent,
here at the IC. For those of you
that have never been here, like, we love
you. Like, don't be nervous. Don't be freaking
out.
I know,
I mean, people not might not believe it,
but
religious spaces can be,
acutely intimidating,
for people, and especially when religious people let
them down and act,
like, in a very bullying, forceful way.
So, like,
we believe that you come to Islam as
you are to Islam as it is.
You know?
Today,
as I was preparing,
there's a lot going on in my life,
maybe you'll know about soon.
Some good stuff. But,
like, I was like, you know, it's before
this program, like, you're under stress.
And
this guy next text me on Instagram. He's
like, I want imam. How can I become
Muslim?
I was like, like, right now, dude? Like,
right now you're gonna become Muslim? Can you
can you wait?
He was like, no, man. I gotta do
it now.
So his story is on there, but it's
very interesting. He was actually a Christian preacher
according to him who, like, found Islam through
his, like, research
that he was preparing for his classes, man.
So, like, it's a it's a eventful day,
and I hope that
I'm gonna share something with you that's very
personal to me.
This poem and if you're on the IC
list, you received,
a junkie.
You know what I mean? Ratchet PDF.
That was on purpose. I'm not gonna give
you, like, the final product.
I've been pirated before. It's crazy.
Mothers of believers, if you remember the CDs,
those of you who are old enough,
yeah, it's some people that made a lot
of money off mothers of believers,
and they just spelled my name with, like,
1 b and stuff. It's crazy, man.
But this this manuscript isn't done.
But around 6 or 7 years ago,
when I was an imam in Boston,
I was going through a divorce,
and then the Boston bombing happened. And then
I'm not, like, trying to be fashionably cool.
I actually have a blood clot in this
leg
that's just, like, with me.
So that all happened, like, at the same
time.
And
I just returned from Egypt where I lived
for 7 years, and there was this poem
that I found in Egypt called Al Mun
Faridja.
Mun Faridja,
I don't know if anyone's ever seen the
clip of that young child, I think it's
in Hong Kong, stuck between those two walls,
and they can't get him out. I don't
know if anyone's ever seen that. And they,
like, pour grease down the wall,
and that's how he gets out. So that
moment of, like, escape between 2 or 3,
what are seen as, like, insurmountable situations is
called infraj.
So the is
what like breaks you out of that tough
spot.
That moment of like relief.
So
I had this poem and I remember
I was so stressed out, man. I used
to go to my office to rest.
Like, have you ever been in that kind
of situation? Like, usually, you go home.
I'm a go home with, like, Netflix binge
or some nonsense.
But it was a crazy time because the
press was creating rumors
about
the mosque, about me,
about our affiliation with, like, Cheshny and Mujahid.
All kind of crazy stuff, man. There were
death threats. I received death threats. Megyn Kelly
did a special on me on Fox News.
It was crazy.
And she talked to everybody except
me. SubhanAllah.
Not so not to be outfoxed,
or trumped,
I
I started going to the office to relax.
Like, that's some craziness, man. And as I
was sitting in my office, I was like,
I gotta get to some I went to
therapy at that time too, alhamdulillah, there's nothing
wrong with that. And I found this poem
and I said, Yeah man, I remember I
bought this poem in Egypt.
And
it's called Al Mulfarija which is that that
moment of
escape,
that moment of relief.
And I started to read it and I
was like, man, why didn't I read this
before?
So I started to translate it just, like,
for myself
and keep notes,
like, just for myself.
So that as I was traveling and working,
I don't think sometimes people understand, like, the
demands of life don't stop for people.
You know? No matter
you know, they say players are injured or
whatever,
you're injured. You still gotta go.
So I
I began to translate it just for myself,
and then checked in. There was a Muslim
therapist there. I don't think we should be
shy of talking about these things. Like, if
if we want
our teachers and content providers to relate to
us, then we have to allow them to
relate to us But if we're looking for,
like, superheroes and, like, perfect people, then we
can watch Infinity Wars.
But
that's one of the challenges when I talk
to religious leadership or teachers is, like, they
just can't be who they are in front
of their communities because they're scared
that, like, that moment of honesty may cause
them to lose their job or lose their
status. I'm like, no, man. People will love
you, man. Like, people who love you, they're
gonna love you. My mom has said that
to me. Like, people who love you, they
love you as long as you don't owe
them money.
Right? They will love you. Right? Or you
haven't hurt them.
So I started to take,
this text, and
it became like kind of like a personal
journey for me, this text.
And and
it was it was a lot of work
because unfortunately the text hasn't been given a
lot of attention.
So I even had to anyone like
like handwritten texts.
I had to do research and find, like,
which is the actual authentic
narration of the text,
and then that caused me to be somewhat
enamored by the writer.
So what's in front of you, what you
have actually are like those notes.
Just stuff like I was writing. So imagine,
like, I'm talking to myself.
So that's why it's phrased a little bit
differently. It's not written, like, you know, we're
gonna start here once upon a time. Bam.
Bam. Bam. So what we'll do tonight is
we'll introduce the author, talk about his life,
what he went through, because that will help
us kind of bring into context what happened
to him. And then the poem itself is
really divided into 4 things. Number 1 is
how do we as people of belief see
trauma?
Like how what is the Islamic
lens to look at pain? And
and hardship.
Number 2 is what are the proper beliefs
or how do we recognize sorry. Number 2,
things that we can recognize
that will help pull us through
pain and trauma.
Number 3 is what is our aqidah? Like
what is our belief
as a faith community
around
the problem? CS Lewis is a brilliant Christian
theologian. He wrote a book called The Problem
of Suffering. Basically, he was like, I have
no idea. I can't explain suffering.
How do we view suffering
and trauma and challenges?
And then the 4th, hopefully we'll finish, are
what are some things we can do to
like
from the perspective of acts of devotion
and acts of service
that will help remedy
some of the pain and sting of trauma.
Let me just add that this text doesn't
answer all your questions. People sometimes they will
expect, like,
we need to move beyond event based Islam,
a process to process based Islam. And we
look for events,
but it that's actually masked, like, selfishness.
Like I want it all to be fixed
now. Like, I wanna fix some of my
marriage tonight.
Like, tonight, yeah. Tonight.
Let's watch, like, you know, whatever,
some Hallmark movies or something. I don't know.
Make some green tea and just fix our
marriage. No, man. That's not how it happens.
Right? I just wanna be I just want
my kids to be, like, freaking awesome tomorrow.
That's that's not how
life works,
and and our belief as Muslims is that
change is a process,
and and there's ups and downs. That's why
the 48th chapter of the Quran,
the last verse
clearly describes
the prophet's companions, kazarah and akhrajashalta,
or they were like a seed that grew
slowly.
They they they grew over time.
And when I I look at my relationship
with faith as a process,
that at times events are like that that
boost of, like, you know, ginseng to come
in and give me, like, a lift.
That will allow me to appreciate success, failure.
Right? My successes won't blind me. My failures
won't cripple me spiritually.
It's like trust the process.
There's ups and downs. As the prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him, said to one of
his
students who said to him, like, why can't
my faith always be like here?
He said like
as a human being like there's a time
for this, there's a time for that, there's
a process.
So at the end he talks about acts
of devotion but as I said, this is
not like I don't I don't wanna like
raise your expectations or lower your expectations, but
just see this book is like something that's
gonna help you.
It it won't accomplish everything.
And there are times where we need clinical
help. There's times when we need people to
sit with and like grow. There's times when
we may need therapy. Like, there's nothing wrong
with that.
So this book is, like, part of that
larger process of wellness.
Imam
Ahmed Zorooq, he said,
In his book that we studied here a
few months ago, he said, like, wellness is
to have a tranquil heart and
an equilibrium of your emotions.
And he mentions, like, that
is very rarely is it completely stable.
Because if the dunya was stable,
we wouldn't long for jannah.
So there's there's wisdom in it. So let's
let's quickly jump jump into
some information about our author, Yusuf ibn Muhammad.
Imam ibn Nawi, that was like his famous
name. He was born in 433
after Hijra, after the migration of the prophet.
It's important to know where he was born,
because that will give you
he he faced a lot of challenges, man.
He's an eccentric guy. So and he was
a genius. And often geniuses are hated. Like,
that's just how it works.
And he was born in 433 in Tunis,
in the city which is is is is
now,
somewhat abandoned but, you know, you can still
find it on the map. It's in Southwestern
Tunis.
And at that time, it was a popular
city,
for learning,
for fishing, and other things.
So he
he was born there and he entered into,
like, the traditional religious
36 Chambers of Wuteng Wuteng, like,
education.
And he came out, and he had utilized
all of the resources in his area, and
then he he started to move in the
area of northeastern northwestern Africa.
And in those days, there were 3 or
4 major center cities that were like major
centers of learning. Perawan and Tunis until the
late 5th century is like balling, and
then the Arabs, yes, the Arab Muslims invaded
it and destroyed it.
So one reason it's important to study history
is the these kind of superficial moments were
like, let's go back to Islam and Islam
is gonna solve all our problems.
Well, we've had problems for a long time.
Like, Islam has a role in solving our
problems, but ultimately, we tend to be
the best way to solve our problems. Like,
Muslim history is not perfect
and and people tend to wanna hear that
kind of, like, utopic thing.
But it was invaded by
Arabs who were Muslims. They called them Arabs.
Even though they're Arabs, they meant the Bedouins.
So the Bedouins
ransacked Qara'an, and that's gonna impact Iva Nawi
because one of his major teachers
at that time, Imam Al Hakami, has to
migrate. We'll get to him in a minute.
But he goes to Qairawan. He goes to
Al Qaira Habibiti Al Qaira.
He goes to Egypt, Cairo where I live,
and he goes also to Feds. These are
like the 3 major centers. That's like Harvard,
Yale,
and at the top, of course, is NYU.
So he he
at least it cost. So
yeah. And he was attending. So
I'm just messing with you. But he goes
to all 3 and he studies and he
learns. And, subhanAllah, he
actually was gone for so long
that in historical records, people said, like, we
forgot about this guy.
Like, his
his time of study last around 30 to
40 years.
It wasn't a quick moment.
And
he also makes Hajj and he goes to
Medina
and he comes back home and this is
almost 30 years later.
He comes home and he's discovered that all
of his property
and all of his belongings
he I mean, imagine like you leave like
a poo butt. You know what I'm saying?
Like you leave you got no crossover,
you leave you got no 3 pointer, you
come back and you're like dunking on people.
Right? You would expect people to be like
wow but he comes back
and his property has been usurped
by the government.
And and this begins to create a series
of continued
problems in his life until he dies in
513.
Like his life is hard.
So imagine he's well accomplished,
he comes back a scholar,
he's recognized even the Malekis we say that
he reached a level of istihad.
He was that kind of that kind of
genius and intellect
and he finds like everything you own has
been usurped. Again, the idea of perfect Muslim
government,
purse perfect Muslim state,
some really really highly irresponsible
like dreamish type nonsense.
You served by a Muslim
taken by an oppressive emir.
So even a Nawi, he does something which
is very important.
He speaks truth to power.
We need to be careful of Sunni quietism
in our community. This this notion of Sunism
that says, you know, don't speak out against
injustice.
Be quiet.
Right? This is some petro dollar funded,
dictatorial, dictatorial funded political nonsense
that continues to run our community's ability to
speak truth to power. Even Nawi, he does
it. And it brings the wrath of the
government upon him, So he's forced to leave
and as he's leaving he composes this
poem.
Then he moves to another city, a smaller
city where
he decides to settle and teach.
He arrives to the city and he sees
something very strange that his people are reserving,
like, you see this Ramadan here in America,
right, where people are, like, reserved their spot.
You know, like, they'll leave, like, their rubber
socks or whatever, the leather socks,
whatever, their Tesbi, you know, like, yo, that's
my spot, dude. Like, it's the masjid, man.
I could reserve a spot.
So in that city, people reserve spots just
as a habit and so there would be
fights. Like, you could imagine, like, you came
to pray a door and you're, like, trying
to pray and someone, like, hit you, like,
yo, you're praying to the door in my
spot. Like, that's that's what happened. So
he even said, like, I talked
he said, I believe, like, there's no masajid
in this city, man. So, obviously, he made
people angry, like, because he started to tell
them, like, this is not proper. The masjid
belongs to God.
And, like, people can pray and worship wherever
their hearts
lead them. The second thing was that he
started to teach,
and it's important to understand that as a
scholar, he was known for mastering really three
sciences.
First was the science of fiqh and the
philosophy of fiqh. Fiqh and usulu fiqh.
And fiqh, of course, is like the law
and then philosophy of Islamic law, which we're
gonna teach here inshallah next semester on Thursdays,
talks about, like, how did you get these
conclusions? Like, how did you come to this
conclusion?
And is this conclusion really the sound soundest
conclusion?
2nd
subject that he taught was theology.
And the 3rd subject that he taught was
language. He was a master
of the language arts.
And because he taught these three sciences tend
to be known in Islamic studies as those
that will, like, make tahreel of the aqal.
Like, these sciences really free the mind. And
the 4th he saw was taught was Tis'ulwuf,
by the way. So these are sciences that
tend to, like, free people's intellect and
empower them to be critical thinkers.
So he was teaching, and one of the
leaders of of the community
was strolling by. And he said, like, what
is this person teaching?
When he was told, that's ibn Nahawi, a
great scholar, he said, oh, really? What's he
teaching? When he was told he's teaching this,
he said,
He said, this person is teaching us stuff
we don't know.
So he ordered that he be removed from
all of the mosques,
and banned from teaching.
So again,
he has to leave. So he goes to
Fez in Morocco.
Faz is a beautiful place. I actually read
hadith to a woman scholar in Fez,
and rebat,
Shekel Shekel Ketaniya.
So he he arrives at Fez, and he
thinks now I'm at the center of Islamic
learning.
I'm able to, you know, finally settle with
people who are somewhat on my level,
and
he immediately runs into 2 problems.
The first one's gonna sound strange if any
anyone familiar now with what's in Morocco,
But the first is that ibn Nawi considered
himself as a disciple of Al Qazari.
He you know, Qazari dies 505. So ibn
Nawi dies like almost 12 years later. Like
they're close,
in in in in in in in time.
But he was really impacted by the book
the
Ihia al Mudin.
So he considers himself, like,
through Ijazah, not through direct course, not by
meeting him
as his disciple. And he adopts Imam Ghazali
Ghazali's approach towards political reform
and spiritual reform.
Unfortunately, in in in Morocco at that time,
there was a movement called the Marabitun,
and the Marabitun,
they only lasted a 100 years.
They were founded by a neophyte convert.
Strange.
A very
passionate convert named Abdullah bin Yacine.
And Abdullah bin Yassin,
opposed
what was going on in Morocco until that
point and actually led a political rebellion against
the Muslim state
that brought about a much more stricter
approach towards Islam.
And and one of those approaches was that
the only thing that can be taught in
the the Maghrib is the Maliki Med Heb.
And the only thing that can be taught
in the Maliki Med Heb is one of
our opinions, a Maliki, by the way. So
has to be the Muhammed. There's no ishdihad.
There's no critical thinking. There's no discussion.
Just be quiet, learn, and don't open your
mouth.
Second thing that the Marawi Be Thun held
to is kind of gonna sound
strange as well is that they were
vehemently
asha'ira.
They were in theology, which is one of
the Sunni schools of theology,
and they did not allow
any other notions of Sunni theology,
Shia theology.
That ain't about to happen.
And the third thing is they did not
like
Ghazali.
So imagine,
right,
Evan Nawi is coming right to the center
of the
power,
and he's thinking like, I'm going to run
into equally powerful intellects.
And unfortunately,
as he arrived there, Mohammed ibn Yusuf was
the king of Morocco at that time, ordered
the Ihraq Kuttab Al Ghazari.
He ordered that the books of Imam Al
Ghazari be burned.
Again, ibn Nawi is someone who is not
only scholarly but he is committed
to integrity,
So he begins to denounce this.
So that brings some heat.
Right?
The second,
and I alluded to it earlier, is that
the Mora Bitun
did not permit
alternative
or different
approaches or opinions about Fiqh in theology.
Even Nahui is a scholar of both to
the point where he reaches his own critical
analysis
and his own
opinions on issues
that at times
contradict his own school.
So he has integrity. It's a life of
integrity.
So when he begins to teach these things,
scholars react, the establishment scholars. And once again,
Meskeen,
he's banned from teaching.
So he decides to do
what most of us would do in that
situation.
He goes back to his city.
And he settles in his city and he
continues to teach and work and write, and
he dies,
in 513.
Some
of
us hearing him being banned, being banned, being
put out,
the masses of of of people turning against
him may assume that ibn Nahwy is like
a contrarian,
some kind of, like, postmodern
unleashed heathen,
that he's like an enemy of orthodoxy,
that he is, you know, some kind of
eccentric lunatic,
but that's not the case. The reason that
ibn Nawi has this attitude towards curriculum and
teaching are really 3 of his teachers. And
I put them in here. You can read
about them inshallah.
And all 3 of his teachers were known
for really three things. Number 1, their mastery
of the liberal arts.
Number 2, their
level, their caliber of legal scholarship was such
that they didn't strictly adhere to the Maliki
MedHab.
They they believe that the truth
is more important than, like, blind adherence to
any school and their scholarly
level was such that they were able to
reach, like, synthesis.
Imam Alakami,
in our med hub is known for being
Sahib al Akhdar, Meaning, like, he has his
own opinions, but he was such a beast
you can't argue with him. That's why Imam
Khalil, if you're Maliki, one of the the
most important book in our school, he says,
and I used to rely on the ihtiyar
of Allahami.
Right? Like, one of the things that helped
me compose this book
was the intellectual genius of Imam Allahami.
The second person that impacted him was his
first teacher
who taught him language, taught him logic,
and taught him to think independently. And the
3rd person you may find this interesting, and
this is something that Muslims should research because
it's very different than our experiences in Spain,
was Imam al Masri. And al Masri is
a city in Sicily.
And al Masri
was
Muhammad ibn Ali. He's like a brilliant scholar
of Abdullah
who
taught was a student of Lakhami and the
sheikh of Ibn Nawi.
And the imam al Masri, his family migrates
from Sicily when the Normans reinvade Southern Italy.
There were a large number of Arabs there
for many years. In fact, what makes them
different than the Andalusian model is that maybe
for us in America, this is something to
think about
that the Muslims in Sicily,
didn't die off because of an inquisition.
The Muslims of Sicily died off because of
assimilation and opulence.
Very different experience in
Southern Italy
than in in the Andalus.
But Al Masri, his family comes from there.
He becomes one of the people who has,
like, a tremendous, tremendous impact
on the intellect and thinking and approach
of Ibn Nahmik. The reason I say that
is I wouldn't want anyone to think that
we're teaching you some book of, like, some
kind of off the beaten path lunatic.
No. Unfortunately,
our history,
as a community is often filled by
charismatic,
uneducated
people
who tend to move the masses
in the name of, like, religious populism maybe.
Whereas
tremendous
scholars
may lack the skill set,
for communication
which is, you know, their responsibility,
but are often neglect or even opposed by
the masses. So imagine even now he's not
only opposed by leaders, he opposed by people
because he taught them something I never heard
that before. One time, I was teaching a
class for Maghrib. It's years ago. And this
lady came up to me. She's like, I'm
just so disappointed in this class. I was
like, oh, why? What did I do? She's
like, I don't know any of this.
So I said, did you pay to learn
what you know?
Or did you pay, like, because you're paying
for this class. Right? Did you come to
learn what you already know or do you
wanna learn something new? Right? Like cognitive dissidents
can be healthy.
And throughout our history, whether it was Abu
Hanifa, Imam Al Tabari, Ibarrush to all of
you know, you know, he died in house
arrest. Al Tabari died in house arrest.
You know, brilliant,
great scholars
tended to be misunderstood
until after what is like the Freddie Mercury
thing
till after they died.
And then people are like, oh, snap.
This person was like, gee.
She, like, benefited from that. Like, so many
of our scholars were like the proverbial big
l, if you know who that is. Like,
they were appreciated
later on
after they passed on. And that's why he
says
is a great poet. He said, what I
saw that ignorance had become the norm.
I learned until people said I was stupid.
I mean, like stupidity,
it's like no politics in America tend to
be, like, stupidity is the norm. So if
stupidity is knowledge, then knowledge becomes what?
Becomes stupidity.
So
says Like I learned until I was sanctioned
by the public as ignorant.
So even now we faced those kind of
trials and I put some of his poetry
here which
is like sad man, it's hard to read
sometimes even now we you can tell someone
who's going through pain.
Dealing with rejection,
and and and and no doubt some of
those mistakes were his own.
Also I put and this is not in
the text that you have, Inshallah, when we
release this text, maybe in the next who
knows when.
But there's like scholarly
kind of, you know, people commending him, people
noting his scholarship,
people noting, like, for example, someone's like, Assalamu
Alaikum, and he didn't respond.
And then,
you know, later on they ask him, like,
why didn't you respond? He was like, what?
I was busy with Allah.
I didn't even notice
he was that kind of person.
He was known to be someone who was,
like, lost with God.
They say, you know,
Al Qarihiad, great scholar said that, you know,
Allah was something that permeated his life
and that he was constantly thinking about his
relationship with with,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, but at the same
time
he was committed to justice. This poem, Al
Mun Faridah, as I said earlier, his first
eviction.
Imagine the let down. Like, imagine many of
you now in your life you've achieved like
you're like at that cusp of like, yo,
I'm ready to rock it.
I'm at that point of professional success. He
was at that point,
comes back
and is evicted
and rejected.
And he composed this poem of And
and the
actually in Swiss,
my institute, we actually teach this
separately
as
a course on providence,
on theodicy,
on why bad things happen.
Because most people that's the question that we
have as believers is why.
Narration of prophet Gabriel said, when Gabriel asked
him what's faith? He said to believe in
God, his angels,
his books, his messengers, the day of judgment.
And then he repeats the verb,
And to believe, and to believe
that god is in control of all things.
Ibn Taymiyyah said, he said to believe the
second time in relationship to the mysteries of
our providence
because that's where most people will have challenges.
That's where people will find difficulty.
So this poem is meant to help us
understand
as best we can. It's it's not possible
to completely understand the wisdom of trauma.
I'll be the first to say
that. But maybe to medicate and find some
hope,
in a time that's very difficult.
As I said earlier, the poem covers kinda
like a number of things. Number 1,
our attitude towards test,
trauma and pain, it provides support for the
mind and the heart in the beginning.
Like how should you envision yourself
in the face of of hardships
whether internally or externally?
Later he addresses the correct understanding of Kadda
and Qadr,
and I believe the Sufis are the best
to teach
this. Although everyone should read a book of
Akita, like a Sunosi or something, yes. But,
like, the way that
the the Sunni Sufis talk about
orthodox Sufis talk about, Shia Sufis talk
about,
like, hits home.
It's it's in a different place because it's
very emotional and beautiful.
The third part of the text he talks
about gaining trust
in Allah's wisdom, which is hard, man.
And then the last he talks about, as
I said earlier, acts of devotion
that will help buttress against the tides of
pain and sorrow.
And, you know, the beauty of pain and
sorrow is that all of us experience.
Like everyone in this room whether internally,
externally, personally, socially,
we all experience
pain and sorrow.
So we'll start, Insha'Allah,
this poem, and then tomorrow we'll try to
also get through as much of it as
we can. Ideally,
it's like taught in a way that there's
discussions or interactions. But
because the building closes at 8 o'clock,
we gotta make some moves. That's part of
our providence.
That's part of the plan of God. So
The sheikh, he begins
the word and if you don't have it,
if you send if you sign up on
the email list, Icy NYU will send you
the PDF Insha'Allah.
Yes, sir.
I
mean No. No. It's good. So why did
he write it in a poetic format is
a great question.
That's a good question. And, also, those who've
never been before, I don't mind, like, if
you just interrupt me and ask a question,
blurt out something. As long as it's easy,
like, I don't care. Okay?
Understand I'm limited in what I know, so
I may not be able to give necessarily
the answer you wanna hear.
But again, the more that you ask, and
I'm not trying not to encourage you to
ask, just think about the time,
that we have together.
The reason that he wrote this as a
poem is because of illiteracy.
Scholars in his time, especially this starts in
the Abbasi period when he's
alive.
During the Abbasi period, illiteracy is normal. Like
I've lived in countries before where
people in my area
were illiterate.
Like people couldn't read and write.
In Oklahoma, there's people there that are illiterate.
Not as acute as illiteracy I've seen in
other places, but there's a literacy there.
So it was hard for people to read,
prose. So the scholars,
out of a concern for people and also
because of patronage by the government,
they would con they started to learn poetry.
Poetry,
and not only poetry, but they would and
also so they could understand ancient poetry that
explain meanings of the Quran. Right?
But primarily as an agency of community literacy.
So how can I teach a large number
of people who don't can't read,
but they can memorize?
So I didn't talk about it but the
munferedija
was the actual Prozac of the Maghrib for
like 300 years,
meaning that people would recite this poetry
regularly.
It became something that people memorized very easily.
So poetry was a way to pop into
the popular culture of the day
and
be invested in
a deliberate
strategic
education of the masses.
We need that now from scholars.
When we go I've been there. We've all
been there. And I I don't think it's
fair to blame scholars for everything that bothers
me a little bit.
But we've all been to places where we're
frustrated because the lack of relevancy.
Whereas in his age, there was
great concern and empathy for the masses. So
poetry
poetry is like the cell phone of his
era. Right? That's how you get information out
and that's how you educate people.
So he says,
beginning,
and also you asked a good question. Sorry.
This is the easiest form of poetry. It's
called a rajas.
For those of you who are in the
Arabic, there's 13 ways to conduct poetry, what
I call because it's like waves,
you know, like floating.
But this is the easiest one. It's called
which
means the donkey of poets. Like, I can
do it.
New York, Oklahoma.
I just did it right now. Like,
you don't have to be Nas. You could
be Soulja Boy. You know what I mean?
And you could pull this off with with
all respect to,
whoever your favorites. Little Xanax, one of them
weird Little thingy.
Strange folks.
So he says
means
bring it.
From shadid.
Shadid means something that hurts, something that's strong.
So
is a order which means
like, bring it, man.
Bring me what you have from your power.
Means test.
So the form of the verse is him
actually
speaking to the trial
and saying
bring it.
Defeat me. Conquer me.
And I talked to and I'm sure we
have clinicians here so correct me anything I
say wrong, I I defer to you.
But the idea of owning the test and
not being owned by it.
So istadhi is a order.
It's like he's saying to the test, like,
sit down.
Right? So he places he posits himself
not necessarily as a victim
of this challenge and this test
but as someone who has the ability insha'Allah
to what?
To conquer it.
So he begins to say,
which means
is a order, which means make it even
harder. Make it as hard as you can
as matu o test.
And and the reason he does this is
he wants to put himself in a position
of being the owner not being owned by
the trial.
Like, I control this.
Tanfariji
means it's like a conditional statement. It means
bring it
because you're my relief.
So
we move from number 1 realizing, insha Allah,
and and at times it's not easy. Sometimes
the test is real. Sometimes the test overcomes
us.
But number 1, we should try to put
ourself in a place where we feel
we can be responsible in managing the trial.
So that may mean individually
digging deep into myself,
reading self help books, you know, whatever I
need to do, reflecting on the Quran. We'll
talk about these things later.
To create that capacity to own the test,
Maybe it's through
the support mechanism. You think about those 3
men that were lost in that cave and
the the the rock covers the cave and
they need each other to remove the hardship.
And also as a person, like, how can
I be a lover and not just a
receiver?
How can I be there for people who
may need
that opportunity,
that spotter? If life is the bar with
4 plates on it, how can I be
the person that helps that person squat that?
That's also important.
And then 3rd, maybe I need to seek
professional help
to be able to understand challenges because sometimes
people contact me with things that I can't
explain.
Like, why am I going through this? I
don't know, man.
I could try to help you go through
it but I don't know the deeper wisdom
of it.
But
the poem starts by saying, don't be owned
by it.
Refuse.
Because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
will give you insha'Allah
the resources and the raw materials.
If you put them in play and are
responsible
to control the situation.
They say that happiness is like 65%
itself
generated, right, people's attitude. So,
sheikh here I'm a say something nobody tell
my wife. We expected a baby girl. Okay?
Alhamdulillah.
I just lost my wife. My wife's gonna
kill
when I get home. But because all my
stories are about babies, man. So I'm like
in my mind, I can't tell that story.
I can't tell that story. I can't tell
that story. I can't tell that story.
I'll make dua inshallah.
Don't make don't make no hasid. Say
So I have Hushnal done. But anyways, today
at the doctor's office, there was this lady
you could tell, like, Masha'Allah, her and her
husband, they're ready to, like,
deliver. You know? Like, I'm done. But she
had this shirt. It was like, good vibes.
You know? I was like, I really like
your shirt. She's like, thank you. I was
like, no. No. I mean,
I need I'm gonna need that shirt. Like,
you know?
But the point is, like, you could see
she's making an effort
to frame how she saw the situation. Like,
I really appreciated that because it's not easy.
Right?
So the sheikh starts and says
like, bring it because I own you. You
don't owe me.
So as a strategy,
how can I
remind myself and sometimes insecurities and lack of
self confidence is a beast, man?
It's a monster.
How can I
create the capacity for self confidence?
And that's by number 1, looking into ourselves.
Trying to see
and appreciate, like, do you love yourself?
I In Boston, I said to myself, I
don't think I really care about myself. The
way I'm working, 25 hours a day,
obviously, I don't love myself.
You know, I remember my The guy that
worked with me is like, you take a
day off? I was like, what's that?
And you won't be able to serve. Right?
The idea of self care. There's a great
book you can read called The Resilient Clinician.
That's a great book, man.
Because sometimes shaitan tricks us and makes us
the savior for everybody, but we're not doing
what?
We're not saving ourselves.
So we get caught up and we get
tired and then we feel jaded, nobody cares
about us anymore. Well, you won't let people
care about you too because you care about
people.
So sometimes to be a lover, you gotta
be loved.
It's called the Resilient Clinician. It's on Amazon.
Everything is there now.
The second mhmm.
Yeah. Even yeah.
Second thing is
finding perhaps a support group that can help
me
shoulder and go through challenges.
And third is,
it's okay, get help, man.
It's very important.
Our community shouldn't stigmatize that. We should encourage
that. We want people to be happy and
healthy.
So he says istaddi
as metu,
that's the first step on it.
Tanfediji.
And now he gets into our outlook on
trauma,
our outlook on tests,
our outlook on hardships,
that
the harder the test, the greater the reward.
The greater the difficulty,
the greater the rewards with Allah.
We'll talk about, like, that within a balanced
way in the future, but
that's a very important principle we have around
trauma and pain.
Why would the prophet go to Umma'ala?
And he says to her, I haven't seen
you for a long time.
She's like I had a miscarriage.
Prophet says to her, sound hadith. Just as
you struggle
to keep that baby from being dragged from
your womb,
that baby will drag you into Jannah.
He reminds her like, yeah. It's hard
but there's blessings for you. When he says
to that man who lost his son,
he said to him, don't worry. Your son
is refusing to enter Jannah
and saying, I'm not going in until I
see my parents
and my parents enter with me.
So we believe that Al Jazam and Jins
Al Amal, it's a very important axiom
that rewards
in the hereafter
are based on what we experience here.
Yes.
What do you mean by belittling?
So in my personal space, I've made this
mistake before, you know, a lot of what
I know I learned because I screwed up.
But how do you get beyond belittling is
that I think number 1 is we have
to be honest and believe like the after
is real,
And we should speak from a sincere place.
But at the same time,
what can I do to help you find
the resources that can make this better?
So it's not only like I'm just pushing
it off. Like,
lady contacted me a few days ago and
someone in your community said, like, god did
this to you because god needs you to
be close to him. God doesn't need us
to be close to him. And she was
like, is god selfish?
You know what? And that's like a great
question. I was like, no. The person misinformed
you and then here are some resources.
And I love I see sometimes, like, Imam
Khaled say, like, I'll go with you.
Like I've seen Imam Khaled go with people
to AA meetings.
Like that's how you
because let's be honest
To be a good person
involves investment.
Right? I could just say alhamdulillah. Hasbihullah.
Have a nice day. Maasalama.
It doesn't that really hard.
So while that's important and that's there,
then how can I be like a real
ally
in that situation?
Someone that finds
help if help is needed
and ties those 2 together. We don't believe
that God is here and the means is
here. The means are from god.
So, yeah, I think it's very important. And,
also, we have Muslim thrive here. People need
to be trained on how to care.
You know? I haven't been a father for
16 years. All my stories about kids, man.
So I told my wife, I said, baby,
I don't know if I know how to
do this anymore, man. It's been a while.
I'm old school. It's like MJ coming out
of retirement or something. Like, I don't I
don't know what's going to happen. Right?
I got to learn how to be a
parent again. It's not just I walk in
there and I'm super parent.
So, again, I think it's about learning how
to care
because sometimes we give the worst advice to
people.
And then secondly,
being in a position where I can find
resources to help and even be willing to
go with that person if needed
and to support them and help them. I
think that's important.
Then he
says,
that you bring me relief.
You bring relief to me
because the greater the test,
the greater the edger.
And also, he he does something beautiful and
this shows you how how incredibly amazing Ibn
Nahu he is. Is. He always ties this
into, like, an illustration.
He says
which means
the night cause it to calls the dawn.
The night
has to be overcome by the sun.
It's a very powerful metaphor. What do you
think he means by that?
Actually, he says you're a knight because he
wants to hint at something in rhetoric.
But when I translate it to make it
like more profound,
the night beckons the day.
Means like,
don't get down if you're going through it.
The
sun has to rise.
It's a powerful metaphor.
So he's saying no matter how dark it
is, the dawn is coming. That's why in
the Quran, you lose something in English.
You know, I seek refuge in Lord. It's
translated as the dawn.
But falaq is something that breaks.
In in Surat An'am, Allah said he splits
the seeds. Fadaq.
So the idea is that,
yeah, no doubt if we look at this
guy, it looks like there's been this break
between
the night and the day.
But Surat Al Falap is talking about emotional
and psychological challenges.
So that's why some scholars said just as
Allah
caused the day to break away from the
night,
He can also break you from the things
that challenge you and present pain to you.
So the sheikh is saying like,
don't allow it to take you out.
Because the greater the challenge,
greater reward,
the more difficult the challenge you find yourself
in,
the sun has to rise, man. The reward
has to come
whether in this life or the next.
There's a few lessons we can take,
from this line.
Number 1,
is that he begins by addressing the affliction
as though he owns it.
So putting on our self in a position
to feel empowered,
empowering ourselves.
And in fact, that's why he's saying bring
it because the greater intensity you bring to
this
to me, this test he's addressing,
greater my reward.
We had a teacher in Morocco, subhanahu wa'ala,
he was quadriplegic.
He used to say
People that got mad at him, they said,
man, why you always say you can't even
walk? He said, I can say.
Imam Sheykh used to say
for the one who let me say
thus I have to say.
So the sheikh here is taking us into
a much more intense understanding
of transcendent power and control.
And oftentimes,
the seat of our insecurities
is that we see ourselves as in power,
in power
and in control.
And there's a balance that has to be
achieved that we'll talk about,
as we go through the poem.
But it's hard to leave it to God.
My mother used to say something to me
and she's a Christian woman from Oklahoma.
She's old school. She'd say, baby, I'll leave
it to God
On the way to work, I want it
back by lunch.
I was like, yeah. I mean, that's
All of us are going through that challenge.
And when we see Islam as a process,
we won't kill ourselves for not being, like,
perfect that we think the perfect person that
we think we should be.
I'm a work in progress.
So it's
You know, your darkness,
your night
calls the dawn.
And the dawn is a metaphor for a
relief,
for the removal of fear and anxiety,
for taking a
light allows me to see
and clarity and understanding. There's a lot happening
in this one line.
It's very beautiful.
So number 1 is with god's help you're
in the driver's seat.
Imam said if you don't trust yourself
or you fear your insecurities,
at least trust god.
And believe in god's transcendent power that is
greater than your insecurities.
Number 2, don't despair of rahma.
You know, we tell people, like, it's haram
to smoke, drink, date,
eat pork. I don't know whatever is out
there now. There's a litany of stuff. Right?
It's haram to do this. But have you
ever heard someone say it's haram to forget
give up on Allah's mercy for you? It's
haram to not believe that Allah loves you?
It's haram to give up.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the 15th
chapter of verse 56,
The only people who give up on Allah's
mercy
are people who are astray.
Sometimes we give up on His mercy due
to selfishness,
like I want something material.
Or out of sincere
need for something,
but Allah knows it's not good for us.
Prophet said that Allah loves a person, so
he doesn't give them what they ask for
because he loves to hear their dua
and to make ask the angels to forgive
that person.
Sometimes our want is the want of, like,
beasts.
We just want something just because it's, like,
whatever. It's ratchet.
Maybe that will lead us astray
so it's not given to us
in this famous hadith.
Number 3,
sometimes we are overcome
by our own mistakes and sins, so we
allow ourselves to be defeated.
Imam Ibn Ata'ala said in his famous book
on mercy and forgiveness. He said, you know,
if you feel overcome by your sins,
remember transcendent mercy.
If you become
intoxicated by your good,
remember transcendent justice.
Imam Ibnu Qayyim said,
fear and hope are 2 wings that you
have to have to fly.
That's why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
Abdul Abimus Uzz said the most the most
beloved verse of Quran to the prophet Muhammad
Alaihi Salam is Oh, people who have sinned
against yourselves,
don't give up on Allah's rahma.
Prophet
said, no verse has been revealed to me
more beloved to me on this day than
this verse.
Some of the Sahaba said we never saw
him as happy
as he won what was when this verse
was sent to him.
So sometimes we're overcome
and we become despondent
because we lose hope.
That doesn't help if you have people around
us telling us that we're, like, spiritually bankrupt
and losers all the time. There's a difference
between encouraging people to be disciplined
and responsible
in destroying people.
Like that man who comes to the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and Sahih al Bukhari.
He's drunk.
He comes to the mosque. It's powerful. He
doesn't ask for Abu Bakr. He doesn't ask
for Omar. He doesn't ask for Hassan Hussain
Ali.
He asked for Muhammad alaihis salatu wa sallam
because he trusts the prophet.
That's a very powerful narrative.
I know that if I have done something
wrong,
the last person I wanna see is the
imam.
Yeah. I'm a take you to the masjid
to visit the imam. No. I'm good, dude.
I'm so good right now. I'm not no.
I'm I'm I just made Tawba.
I'm fine.
You know, because
that relationship isn't there.
But he goes and says, where's the prophet?
And he's drunk.
And then he tells the prophet, like, I
slipped again, man.
And then some of the Sahaba, they begin
to,
you know, bully him.
And they use the typical kind of something
you miss or, like, selfish notions
of helping people is like to quickly react
instead of like slowly
supporting.
And then the prophet led to Inu like
don't help shaitan destroy your brother. Stop this.
In the narration of Timothy he comes back
later and he sits next to the prophet
salayhi san. And he's like, yo I slipped.
I'm so sorry man. I slipped up. I,
you know,
I hit that 40 man. And the Prophet's
like, it's okay, like, hamdulillah, like, you know,
you're growing. You're you're headed somewhere.
We we make a big mistake
that we look at Islam as perfect and
somehow we think we're perfect. No. Islam was
made perfect. We weren't made perfect.
We came after that.
So we're trying to get to something that's
relatively
near perfection but we can never be perfect.
So sometimes we give up, we create these
unattainable
spiritual goals
that become counterproductive
into our life. And the prophet said,
no
No one will make the religion hard except
it would defeat them.
They'll be defeated by it.
So he said,
so try your best. Work
hard. Make effort.
Incremental changes.
The next
is have conviction in Allah's prescription.
See see beyond
the simplicity of the trial.
Try to see yourself in a grand narrative.
The test has been made to help us
get better.
Oh, that's hard sometimes to understand why.
I saw my mother die in front of
me. It's hard to understand that.
It's hard to deal sometimes with pain.
But at that moment, just be like, you
know what? It has to be a low
in that moment.
And oftentimes we don't allow people to, like,
deal with pain and trauma in a normal
way.
I received a phone call from my sister,
said like my husband died,
I went to kiss him
and the brothers and the mosque told me,
haram, when he died,
he divorced you.
This happens a lot, man.
So I was like,
who? Like, who gave
this person the microphone? The religion is learning,
man.
Like, we need to make stipulations
about religious teachers in our community. Like, there
needs to be some kind of standardized process.
Because what happens is we have an educated
neophytes
who tend to make young people and women
the object of their personal anger and problems
and stuff.
So I said to her, Abbeccer,
when his wife died, he washed her and
the narrator said, we saw him kiss his
wife.
Then he buried her.
Who is better than Abu Bakr? She's like,
yeah, okay.
Like she's intimidated. So then I have to
call the brothers, well, ahi, you know, blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Then
you get through all the anger and you
find out these are just angry people.
Like, there's no reason for what they're saying
to her. Although the Hanafis, they have this
opinion, but it doesn't say anything about divorce
and stuff. That's craziness.
I mean, imagine she's suffering and then you're
like, oh, by the way, your husband divorced
you when he died. Like, what? Like,
where is the logic in this?
So
we have to be very very careful
that we help people through trauma and not
become, like,
reinforcers of trauma.
So having belief in god's test,
I may not understand it,
but I trust the process.
And it's okay
to mourn like that woman. Sayda Fatima alaihi
wasalam. When her father died
in all traditions of Islam,
she put a chair by his grave and
would weep. And when Saydna Anas radhiyallahu anhu
was bearing her father, she said, like, how
are you putting dirt on his body? This
is the prophet. She lost it. Nobody said
to her, like, you know, you should fear
Allah. You're not a good Muslim. You shouldn't
show any emotions.
That was understood when the prophet died, alayhi
salam, said, Ali fainted. And we know say,
no, Omar, he became he's I don't believe
he died.
Like, he's not dead. So all those narrations
many scholars put under the chapters of patience
in the book of hadith as if to
tell us these don't violate violate the ethics
around patience and trauma.
This is normal.
That's what the prophet said, alayhis salatu salam.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't punish
this or this when his son died saying
to Ibrahim. He wept.
He said Allah doesn't punish this or this.
The only thing that can be punished is
this if it speaks like against god's plan
or expresses, like, some kind
of ill thought towards god that we'll talk
about later. But internally,
it's okay to struggle
and try to shoulder those challenges
and we'll we'll get into that inshallah.
The next
is hardship is followed by ease. We believe
this whether in this life or the next.
Allah says to say to Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam
in
the Quran in the Mala Usri Yisrael. Like
with hardship, there's 2 interpretations of this verse.
With hardship at the moment of hardship, there's
ease. Meaning, each
ounce of pain and suffering you experience,
there's a reward for you.
There's ease in that whether in this life
or the next, or it can mean after.
Either one, is an interpretation of our scholars.
Then the sheikh, he moves on after introducing
the idea of putting ourselves in a position
to try to feel empowered
or empowering
in front of trial and pain,
to understand that sometimes,
you know, it's tough and it's hard, but
the dawn is coming. So
inferring, he's saying, like, be patient.
Have patience even though it's tough.
Then he says,
As though he's speaking, he said, you know,
if you understand Arabic, if you think about
it, it's very strange.
What does mean?
Like darkness.
What does layl mean?
Darkness.
So as though he's saying like,
darkness on darkness,
man. As a metaphor meaning,
you're going through it.
It's hard.
And you're like rock spiritually.
You can't see your way.
Translate make it easy means
the darkest night
has the brightest what?
Has the brightest stars.
Meaning and he doesn't mean this to belittle.
He's saying, like, the feel of I've been
Nawi is like a personal trainer.
The way he wrote it, it's like
dig into yourself.
As if to say, like, pause for a
moment and squint spiritually.
Because just as the darkest night,
stars that we would never notice
normally
are able to be appreciated.
Sometimes
tests
are there. And and by the way, when
he's talking about test here,
he's not talking about necessarily, like, people abusing
us.
Right? Sexual assault.
A broader scheme, those are tests and trials,
but those have a different set of optics.
That's justice.
Right? Trying to frame this discussion around,
you know, things that don't involve being violated,
forced. Although he wrote it, he kicked out
of a city.
Meaning, the darker the night, the brighter the
stars.
Saying that one of the ways you can
get out of this darkness,
this test, this hardship,
is to squint.
Take a moment and look.
And you'll be able to perhaps appreciate small
blessings
that may guide you through the storm, guide
you through the night. Because what did the
Arabs used to use stars for?
As a GPS. So now you see it's
like very nice.
He's someone that's done this. He's saying,
I went through it. What are the things
that I was able to do?
And one of the things that Islam encourages
us to think about
is to appreciate little things.
Anyone who lost a parent?
Or a sibling?
You know, man, just to hear their voice
again, dude.
I would love to hear my mom cuss
me out right now. Like, seriously.
Right? Even though it's not a good thing.
It's just like, that's mom.
You know? Small blessings.
Small things become much more appreciated
in their absence or in the face of
test and pressure.
So he's
saying, don't be defeated by
it, but take a moment and try to
find small blessings. Incremental
change.
So there's 3 things that come from this
line that are powerful.
Number 1 is
don't lose hope.
Number 2 is appreciate the small things.
Number 3 is those small things can represent
incremental
change
to bring you through the hardship.
So celebrate what?
Small victories.
And then he says, until the sun means
the sun.
Until the sun overcomes everything.
Redemption,
salvation,
relief.
That sun could mean a million different things
for all of us.
But here it's synonymous with and this is
something that's gonna happen throughout this poem
with life.
So the poem starts by framing how we
look at test and trials, trying to own
them not be owned. Number 2, that the
reward is based on
the difficulty.
And we'll talk about what are the etiquettes,
with sometimes dealing with trauma and pain.
Number 3 is that
eventually some relief has to come. May not
be complete relief
and that takes it to the second line
that even if you're really really going through
it, it's really difficult.
Try to squint
and appreciate the small things.
Celebrate small victories, incremental victories.
And use them as a means and something
cool because there's a lot happening in his
language that's lost in english.
But it's still he's saying if you string
together these stars
and you allow them to guide you,
they're gonna take you to what?
Not necessarily like the test being removed,
not necessarily,
complete salvation,
but they're gonna take you to hope.
And they may take you to a point
where you can become stronger
and better
Like the one that travels at night.
And that implies patience.
Until relief comes.
And relief here is is used as a
metaphor,
with the night.
There's also
a
a point here that's
related in our understanding of theology
and spirituality.
And that is that hardships are removed slowly,
usually. Doesn't mean that it can't be ruined
immediately,
but the norm is like a process.
And our scholars they had was called like
the step by step process of the removal
of a challenge.
You know, it's very interesting.
Why why are prophets called Nabi?
What does the word Nabi mean?
Don't say prophet.
But what do you call
like,
What's mean?
To alert. Yeah that's
that's your alarm.
Yes.
News. Right?
So isn't it interesting that
the prophets are people who are able to
share news? In order to share news, I
have to what? I have to be informed.
I have to have experience.
That's why the prophet said,
nobody's been tested more than prophets.
And they asked him,
oh, messenger of Allah, who are people that
are tested the most? He said,
The prophets and the righteous. I'm I'm in
a place
to teach you about this process
of overcoming pain. If you think about the
prophet's life, alayhi salatu salam,
statistically, even now, born without a father, born
without his mother's gone. His grandfather's gone, his
source of income is gone, his family is
messed up. People would say, like, this kid's
not gonna succeed.
I mean, the early part of the Sirah
of the life of prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi
wa sallam
is really about managing trauma,
managing hardship,
managing tragedy.
So the prophet's empathy
and his care for people
are born out by him being informed enough
to be nabi.
To tell you,
and Nabi meaning
the prophet is closer to you than you
are to yourself because he knows.
Sometimes sometimes
community organizers, people out in the streets working.
Do we know our people? Can you be
nabi? Can you
give news that's valued? So
meaning that it takes time.
Just like the night comes
and it casts
its darkness on the earth, and slowly the
sun comes and removes that darkness.
And that's a theme that he's gonna hit
on.
So it's a lot we
took. Number 1 is owning it. Number 2
is the reward is based on the degree
of difficulty. Number 3, don't lose hope. Number
4, appreciate small successes and incremental in in
incremental change,
successes and victories.
And then number 5, give it time.
Maybe someone say, does that mean we don't
work? Of course not. We'll get to that.
And that's why in
sort of 4th
chapter of the Quran verse 62.
Allah says now maybe you can appreciate it
differently.
Allah has made the night and the day
constantly succeeding each other.
For the one who wants to remember
and the one who wants to express things.
Verse is not talking about the day and
night that you see now, the verse is
talking about
the crap that comes into your life, man.
The relief, that spin cycle.
Tests,
relief,
tests,
relief.
So those moments, I remember.
And those moments,
I find things. And just as the day
and night are constant in our lives,
success and test will
what? Constantly revolve around us. So a lot
of things happen in this beautiful line that
the sheikh is is giving
us. So he says
means like
You reached
it. At that moment,
the sun comes. The sun could also be
a metaphor for Ma'rifah.
A lot of times, classical scholars use sunlight
as a metaphor for understanding.
So it may not necessarily mean just the
physical sun
that has dispelled
the darkness around me and the confusion,
but that spiritual sun that gave me clarity
and allows me to be reborn
and to be strong.
Is everybody okay?
And that also allows us to understand that
the universe and the universe is something that
really is Allah's convention.
One one poet he says, you know,
You know, everything around us is a sign.
We can appreciate things that happen in our
lives.
We should be people of discernment.
And this is where we'll finish tonight. He
says,
It's a hard poem to translate.
That's why what we do it, inshallah, for
Swiss,
we plan to do it as like visuals,
man.
Because you can't it's like it's powerful.
But one of the biggest challenges that we
face is fear.
Fear is a monster.
How many of you experience fear today?
And when I put that camera on my
my baby
to see my other baby,
I was like, oh, god, please.
Yeah.
And that baby is the opposite of me.
It it doesn't have foam on it as
Jomo.
Put in the big one.
So is it okay?
So yeah, calm down. I read on the
Internet. No. Don't read on the Internet.
But
but
fear is
tough. Fear is important
if if if if fear
allows us to be better.
Right? You know, that fear of, like, you
get on the scale, you're like, oh, yeah.
CrossFit. I'm back in CrossFit. Okay. Yeah. CrossFit
tomorrow. That's a good thing. Right? But if
it's,
like, the fear of I don't look like
this or I don't have this or,
you know, something that's not gonna really be
intrinsic to who I am and it starts
to generate
insecurities,
tell me who I am.
I had a lot of young people tell
me they hate themselves.
I was like, why? Like, how I look?
Tell me how you look, man.
I know it's hard but, like,
you alright? You're not as as bad as
you think you are. Have you seen Shrek?
Like, you okay, bro.
Point is we tend to allow fear to
be a negative
in our lives.
So sheikh, he says something.
Are cumulonimbus
clouds.
Those
big intimidating
clouds.
I'm from Oklahoma. When I was little, I
remember one of my first memories is my
father carrying me in the tornado
to a cellar.
Right. I remember that as a child
and it's like,
we feared
the sky.
I don't know how to explain it.
So the sheikh is saying,
these massive
clouds that come at you
that that fear to consume you
to the point
where you no longer have hope
because even these
incredibly intimidating clouds,
Allah has put in
them or bless them to deliver rain to
us.
It's a metaphor.
Achmel Choky
is, like, an amazing poet from Egypt. He's
one of my favorite Arabic poems poets.
He has this poem about fear.
It's about an ant. I don't know how
many of you have heard the ant poem
before.
He says, you know,
he says
which means
the are these, like, kinda baby mountains outside
of Cairo. Now it's like boujee to live
in Moqaddam. When I was in Egypt, it
was, like, spooky.
Don't go to Moqaddam, and you end up
getting, you know, you might disappear.
He said there was this ant, small ant.
She was
climbing up the Muqaddam.
And then suddenly, her legs went like. I
hear the ant
legs.
You know?
And
Sheikh, he says,
she became terrified.
Why did she become terrified?
She said, I'm an ant.
Ants have no business trying to climb mountains.
It's like so beautiful. Arabic is very beautiful.
It's like I'm just an ant, like why
would I try to take on something like
this?
Hadithaliomi with the hatam like, this day I'm
done.
And the fear
begins to
take over.
So
the ant does what
we tend to do
when we're overcome by fear.
She became
successfully irrational.
So he said she started to run. And
as she was running, she was looking back
at this massive mountain
to an ant hill.
Is Everest.
And
she said, you know,
Like, she looked and she saw the tips
of the hill, and she's
like, man,
why did I try to do this?
And as she's running and turning, he said,
At that moment,
she fell into
a paddle.
He said, a paddle to an ant
is an endless ocean.
And this ant
began to drown.
And as she was drowning
or as he was drowning, he uses the
female form for the word nonetheless female.
As the ant began to drown,
he said,
like, why?
Why did I let fear be my guide?
Why did I allow myself to be consumed
with this fear?
Because now I'm drowning.
And they said,
which means exactly
never run
from challenges,
realistic challenges.
Because what you may inadvertently run into is
more dangerous.
So the sheikh is saying,
normal situations, of course, if you go home
and somebody jumps out of your closet, you
should be scared. Right? I'll be scared.
I'm a run.
If I fall in the puddle,
I feel sorry for the puddle.
But
normal sphere of life
and the area of ratchetness. Anyone seen that
show on Netflix with the lady who organizes
people houses?
That show is amazing, man.
You know what I'm talking about? I forgot
her name.
Maria Con Maria Kondo. Maria Kondo. Maria Kondo.
Maria Kondo. Her name is Kondo? Yeah. That's
that's crazy, man. Maria Kondo. Man, this show
is amazing. And did you see that one
white dude that had like Man, he had
like
he had, like, DMX t shirts and stuff.
Like, he had all kind of stuff. And
then he, like, Nintendo 64.
And then she was like I want you
to get rid of everything except
what
has purpose and gives you joy. And then
he's like, this is so hard to do.
Like I cut everything. He doesn't know what
gives him purpose. He doesn't know what gives
him joy. He's not able to set separate
the ratchet from the real.
The fat from the protein.
So sheikh is saying here,
you know, make sure that like your fear
is
placed in a way
that is productive.
But don't be intimidated to the point where
you give up because in the in the
most difficult
clouds, although there's wind, there's rain, and there's
fear,
there's there although there's wind and fear and
power, there's rain.
And rain does have tends to have a
blessing.
Of course, he's not saying all the time,
but he's trying to paint an image.
And he uses something very profound here as
we finish. He says,
so when the moment of the rainfall comes,
at that moment that clarity comes, right, is
the moment it was meant to come. It's
hard to translate. Meaning, it's not in your
hands.
So roll with it.
And again, be patient.
Appreciate the process.
Don't get impatient.
Don't get scared.
Own it
and and stay strong in knowing that appreciate
small blessings, incremental successes,
and remember and tell yourself the reward is
there.
So the beginning of the poem
touches on, like, our general kind of approach
or philosophical
outlook. And it's interesting again to remember that
this person is going through it.
He's a sufferer.
Like when you read his life, you feel
like, man, like, if people would only known
who he was.
You know, it's like they, like, they threw
a diamond in the trash can.
Imagine him knowing that.
And imagine when the prophet says the most
hated people were prophets by their own people.
A prophet is most hated by his own.
You know, anyone's gone to Omar or Hajj,
you know when you go to Mecca you
feel it's still there. It's like, this place
is tense, man. You go to Medina, it's
like, Marhaba, shawarma,
what's up?
Like, very loving. When you go to Carabella,
you just went there, you feel the sorrow,
pain.
Right? That that's
something to these places.
So, alhamdulillah, we began the first few lines.
Sheikh, he starts,
own the test.
Stay strong by if if at the least,
remember that the reward will be there one
day.
Number 2,
that be able to appreciate
incremental
victories and do what you can to put
yourself in that position.
Doesn't mean just sit back and wait.
Be active and deliberate.
Eventually, it will come.
Then he talks about fear and insecurity,
which are normal and natural
as a way to say
struggle to put yourself in a place where
you don't have these. So we talked about
that. Maybe individually, that may be with a
support group, that may be through professional help,
That may be through calling for justice.
What's needed?
And
when it comes, insha'Allah, it will come. Meaning,
be patient with God's plan.
Ask Allah for
guidance. Ask Allah for clarity.
I saw a hand up in the back.
Yes, ma'am.
Excuse me?
Verse, Shole to Zomer, I can't remember the
verse number.
53.
3953.
And also 2552.
Where Allah says he will change their sin
if they repent to
Allah to good.
Allah bless you. Tomorrow, inshallah, we're gonna talk
about the idea of Qadah and Qadr.
How we look
at providence and then finish hopefully by talking
about things we can do at a as
a devotional device. Remember, this book is about
devotion.
It's not gonna give you necessarily we had
some time of problem. We we expect things
to answer things that it wasn't written to
do.
Right? But what are some of the acts
of devotion that will help us, inshallah? Any
questions? We can take them now. If not,
we're gonna try to get out of here
by 8. Make sure to say hi to
people, build some relationships, you know, show some
love and support inshallah. Yes, sir.
So, yeah, he's asking about how I mean,
if you think about even now, his whole
entire life is basically on the road.
The process who said, be in life is
like a traveler or stranger.
Even now who experiences both.
So he's saying, is there anywhere in his
writings where he talks about being alone or
so there is some poetry like he says,
You know, I donned the garments of hope,
but people were comatose.
And he mentions, like,
he said, you know, I always complain to
God.
And I said, oh, my master, oh, the
one who I I I leave all my
hopes to.
So it doesn't specifically talk about being isolated,
but you get the sense in reading his
writing that he's, like, self medicating. Mhmm. So
he doesn't specifically talk about being isolated, but
you get the sense in reading his writing
that he's, like, self medicating. Mhmm. And his
writing
that he's like self medicating.
And he's addressing those challenges and asking for
for greater guidance. One of the things we'll
talk about tomorrow is to accept that we
don't know. Like, it's really hard
to accept that we don't know.
But sometimes by accepting that we don't know,
we can flood ourselves with a sense of
greater hope
that God does know. That comes through his
writings also
quite a bit.
Any other question? Yes, ma'am.
What do you mean by that though?
Testimony. Yeah.
Aware of our challenges and difficulties. Yeah. We'll
talk about that tomorrow. Thank you for asking.
Yes, sir? I think one of the kind
of core principles that we're discussing is the
idea that, you know, there's principles that
ultimately you'll be granted relief, right, with hardship
comes peace. But then how do you reconcile
with the fact that, you know, in societies
historically and currently, people live under systems of
oppression
and ultimately some people
are just they just die. Right? Like, there
is no Yeah. So he he means either
here or the next life. So I guess
Yeah. So someone may work, you know, their
life.
Again,
we're not promised dunya, we're promised.
And and that doesn't mean we neglect dunya,
it doesn't mean we don't speak to truth
power, it doesn't mean that we we don't
work to remove injustices.
Yes, we do. But as an activist,
whoever of of I'm not activist, but let
me just act like I am for a
second. So now I'm an activist. I'm acting
or an actor. So let me say I'm
an activist. If it in a spiritual framework
as an Islamic activist,
it's not about
of course, I wanna accomplish and I I
hope to make change,
but if I don't, that doesn't mean I'm
a failure.
Because ultimately, that may be out of my
hands.
And also, I don't
necessarily
limit myself to that potential,
but I see that as intrinsic to the
next life. So whether I'm successful here or
not, after I put forth all the effort
and I've tried,
I believe that ultimately hereafter will be success.
When Sayedna Hussain went to Karbala,
what did he say? You know, I came
here for Islah. Like, I came here to
reform,
and I'm gonna do my best. Right? No
one's gonna say he's a failure.
We believe in the hereafter. He say the
Shuhada as the prophet said. He's one of
the the the leaders of the martyrs.
So why I'm I'm trying to say this
in a way that makes sense. So forgive
me why I'm
invested in seeing change.
Ultimately, if that change doesn't happen, it's not
gonna impact my passion because I'm
aware that ultimately there's something greater than that
even in the hereafter. See what I'm trying
to say? So I won't get down.
So in uhid, uhid is not a moment
for loss. Uhid is a moment to grow.
But there is not a moment to get
intoxicated with success.
Butter is a moment to be thankful.
So each kind of leads to a greater
purpose.
The other questions, Inshallah. Yes, sir.
Yeah. And and go ahead. Sorry.
That's a good question. So, yes, he does.
And Allah bless you for sharing, man. It's
beautiful.
Remember, I said the first part of the
text is gonna talk about lenses by which
we look at life.
Look at challenge. Look at difficulties. Tomorrow, some
of the theological positions held
on how we look at life. And then
the third is
that prep those practices, those inner and outer
devotions that help us try to achieve that
submission
coupled with that balance. So that that that
that will come up inshallah.
Forgive me for for rushing off. We'll see
people tomorrow. We'll try to start maybe even
610, 6:15.
But if you can't make it till then,
if we
don't
see
people
here,
we'll
wait
till
6:30.