Suhaib Webb – Finding the Path Part One Seven Disciplines of The Seeker
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Praise Allah.
We send peace and blessings upon our beloved
messenger, Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam
upon his family, his companions, and those who
follow them till the end of time. InshaAllah.
We're gonna start a program,
over the next few weeks on
the attributes of the Awdiya.
What are the qualities of people who are
allies to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala?
For a number of reasons and most importantly
is there seems to be a lot of
despair amongst people, which is something which is
kind of counter to our iman,
our beloved Messenger Muhammad
alaihi wasallam.
We know on the day of Uhud he
smiled
Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. We know Allah says in
the Quran
like don't be sad, don't have anxiety and
also don't be depressed. It's like both. And
we know that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
like every morning
evening regularly he would make this really important
supplication
which means oh Allah I seek refuge in
you from things that cause me anxiety about
the future and things that depress me about
the past.
Sometimes
having some anxiety
is healthy.
Imam Al Hazari,
he mentioned that anxiety that inspires is commendable.
Right? So it's not counterproductive. Like, maybe tomorrow,
like, I have a really important job assignment
or I need to write a paper for
admissions or
whatever. Something like that's worthy.
Or perhaps I'm worried sometimes about my hereafter,
and that creates a sense of anxiety
that catapults me into being a better person
and, like, performing better.
That's good.
That's that's good anxiety.
You know, they say that when the treadmill
increases, people work out better.
So sometimes, like,
a little,
test
or
some challenges is healthy that it creates a
a healthy sense of anxiety. It's not counterproductive.
It's not something that takes me over.
So, for example, like, I could go home
tonight and, like, binge watch something on Netflix,
you know?
I could be watching what's that bird show?
You know, the blinders? Bird Box. Bird Box.
Right? I'm watching Bird Box, and then, like,
when it comes to Fudge, I'm Bird
Boxed. Like I'm not seeing anything.
Right?
That that comfort
is a problematic comfort.
The comfort to disobey Allah
or to be negligent of my responsibilities
or to
abuse others in my comfortability
is a problem. So Allah will be my
comfort. That's why Allah says, when
he talks about Abu Jahal, he says, Abu
he
sees himself as like completely autonomous.
I have no needs.
So in the name of not having needs,
it's hubris.
I justify disobeying Allah.
I justify
mistreating people and being negligent.
So there's a healthy type of anxiety. That
anxiety would be like okay say around 11:30
or whatever I'm watching Bird
Box then I realized you know like I
need to wake up and pray man so
let me like
turn this off
so that I can inshallah
have achieved
the obedience of Allah
that will help me in the hereafter.
That's a good form of anxiety.
Bad form of anxiety is someone who perhaps
has committed sins and made mistakes
and then they allow that to destroy them.
It's like Allah will never forgive you. Like,
why would you come back to Allah?
Who are you? That's why Imam Ibn Qayyim
said before the sin,
everyone becomes to Adam of Allah's mercy.
And after they sin, everyone becomes jahil of
Allah's mercy.
So shaitan will come to you before the
sin like, don't you believe Allah is forgiving?
Like, no problem, man. Swipe right, dudes. All
good. Right? Then after the sin,
shaitan will come and be like, Allah will
never forgive
you. How could you have done that?
So there's a balance, right? A sense of
anxiety
or a sense of stress
which inspires me to be better is not
counterproductive and not consuming
is something
that helps us do better every day, that
normal kind of fear.
The type of anxiety which shuts the door
on Allah's mercy
and also becomes like my alibi for not
trying.
As Allah says,
lawuhadhan,
if Allah had guided me, right, I would
have done this.
That type of attitude is a problem.
So within that there are very clear signs
of people who are close to Allah and
we live in an age where
there's a number of challenges to having a
relationship with faith. We live in an age
where the material has been amplified,
the external
has been amplified. The shallowness of the world
has become deeper. I don't know if that
makes sense.
Where it's very easy to feel accomplished or
to see things being accomplished.
We just don't really have a lot of
effort behind them.
The second thing is that we may have
run into content providers or religious teachers that
destroyed us, wrecked our lives, let us down,
maybe didn't understand the antibiotics that we needed
in being treated that may have actually harmed
us or the messaging may have been problematic.
And quite frankly, we live in an age
now where,
know, I would say a large number of
content providers
aren't trained.
Not trained in the sense of being educated
but I also believe like when people come
from overseas or they've studied and madrasas
they need to do residency, man.
Like they need to train with
like another imam.
They need to apprentice with somebody
so that they understand that, you know, there's
a human side to people. I remember when
I was,
my first day,
like residency as a Mufti in Egypt. So
I went to,
Masjid Eshar. It was my first day. And,
I I was younger then so I thought
I knew everything.
And
I sat down and this girl came
into
the office
and she started to talk to me and
she said you know, like
I have a friend, like the whole like
I heard this before right? You know I
got a
friend and,
well, at fishy, you know, like,
she fell into some, like,
serious issue.
So
I said, like,
what? And then she said, like, well,
she fell into a sexual relationship.
So, like, I lost my temper, man. I
was like,
You know, like, how are you talking like
this? Like, blah blah blah blah. And then
there was this older,
sheikh
who said, like, stop. Stop. Stop.
Like, he was talking to me. He wasn't
talking to her. And then he came to
me and he pulled me to the side
and he said, like, is this your first
day here?
And I was like, yeah. He's like, yeah.
I could tell. He's like, because that was
a really, like, this is really bad the
way you handled it.
And then he said to me, you came
from the school, like, next door. At least
back then, the university was next to the
masjid
because the university was an extension originally of
what was in the masjid itself.
So he said to me, you know, you
guys,
when you come from like university without having
any human interaction,
you tusidunakhtavim
like you do more damage than good, man.
Because the books that you read, the blood
is cold and blue,
but the books that I read is red
and warm,
meaning, like, there's a difference between people
and, like, books.
So sometimes maybe we've ran into people,
even people who are trained, but they're not
possessing
an EQ
or they don't know the person that they're
talking to.
Imam Ahmed said that one of the conditions
for answering questions is marifatunas,
is to know people
is to know people. And that's why I
warn people about taking,
socially,
exclusively
social and cultural fatwa from online
because, like, those people aren't gonna know
your life,
know the particulars of your life to be
able to give you an answer.
That's why prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam
in the sunun of Imam Abu Dawood
when this old man
asked the prophet can I
kiss my wife?
Can I have foreplay with my wife like
while I'm fasting
as far as kissing? And the Prophet said
yes and then a younger man asked he
said no
and they asked the prophet alaihis salatu salam
like why are there 2 answers? These are
2 different people,
2 different physical realities, 2 different situations.
That's why Shail Tobi al Mariki in his
book Al Muafakat
he said that when people would come to
Prophet Muhammad and ask him like, Ayu Umar
Al Aftal? Like what's the best action? Always
the answer is different
because the person is different.
So if I'm online and I'm asking about
like some kind of cultural
or some kind of thing specific to my
family or to my life and that person
doesn't know me,
that person may inadvertently
cause a greater problem.
And I can give you a good example.
In a state not too far away from
here,
that's not New Jersey,
There were some brothers in prison
who
this is years ago. There was a sheikh
from Mysco, from Azhar, who moved to their
city.
So the warden, he told them that, like,
you can't pray Jum'ah here
in prison because like Friday, it's hard. It's
not Sunday.
So,
SubhanAllah, they
warden they asked him like write a local
imam and ask him. So they the warden
contacted this imam and that imam
he
went to a classical book of firk.
Same thing for us in the Maliki school,
Al Mahbus,
you know, the person who's like
incarcerated,
there's no salah for them. There's no Jumah
for them.
So he said, no, no, they don't pray
Jumah.
So subhanallah, this is a scholar,
but he doesn't know like interfaith movement,
multiculturalism.
He doesn't he's not aware that prison in
America
is is not the same as prison, say,
in his home country. So he gave the
answer
knowledge.
Not not what's the in the text,
not based on the imam's knowledge but based
on his lack of what?
Experience
and knowing the people and knowing their circumstances
and their situations.
So don't give up is what I'm saying.
You may run into somebody
who like has given perhaps bad advice, may
have been me
or done something like what? Like that's normal
And that's
the the third thing is in this process
of kind
of becoming closer to faith in God is,
like,
be explicit in your questions
and be forthright in what you want to
learn. Oftentimes people come and they ask questions
and you give an answer and like
but
and but what and then it turns into
like semicolons, man.
Like so many it's like man why did
you tell me that the first time?
Allowed us to experience any type of agency
spiritually
and been subjected to perhaps
a set of circumstances whether it's based on
race, gender,
economic class,
age, generational authority
that have just like left us really jaded.
So with that in mind, I thought it
would be awesome to spend some time talking
about
over the next few weeks, Insha'Allah,
what are
the qualities of the Awriyah of Allah?
What are the qualities of
those people who are allies to Allah and
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is their ally?
And the reason is that these qualities are
all attainable by everybody in this room, hamdulillah.
They're not something that's like impossible to achieve.
So Allah
says in second chapter of the Quran,
verse
157, Allahuwaliuwala
zinaa
manu yukrijummanazulumati
Allah
is the wali of those who believe. I
remember I don't know if anyone was here
a few months ago. I asked, like, how
many of you feel like Allah loves you?
Only like one person raise their hand.
But SubhanAllah, if we look at the explanation
of this verse where Allah says Allah is
the wali
of anyone who says La ilaha illallah Muhammad
Rasoolallah
Imam,
Al Bayadawi says, muhidbuhum,
the one who loves them.
Imam al Razi,
great, great
explainer of the Quran, said
that hilayah is love.
And sometimes it's hard to accept being loved.
Sometimes our own insecurities,
like, haunt us.
They
become a source of like really powerful powerful
energy, negative energy
that won't allow us to be loved.
So that's why SubhanAllah, Ar Razi says something
very beautiful
that if you are a Muslim,
Allah loved you before creation SubhanAllah
because Allah's love doesn't happen. Allah's love was,
is and will be.
So before you were even mentioned, before you
were even known,
before I was even here,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decreed his love
for you. And sometimes it's hard to like
accept that.
Prophet Sallallahu Wa Ta'ala in numerous narrations talks
about the love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
He says, narrations talks about the love of
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala He said, idha ahabballahu
ta'alaabdanarajibreel.
When Allah loves somebody he calls Jibril.
In Allah had told you hibbu fullana fahhibbu
Allah loves such and such person so love
that person.
Sayyidina Adi he said that there is no
place in the heavens the distance between 2
fingers
and he will mention your name, mention the
person's name.
Fahibbu,
Fahibbuha.
Love them.
So all those in Malaika will love.
Another narration of Sayin Hari,
he said that
the first heaven the 7th heaven compared to
the 6th is like a ring in the
desert. 6th heaven to this the 5th is
like a ring in the desert. The 5th
heaven to the 4th is like a ring
in the desert. The 4th to the 3rd
is like a ring in the desert. The
3rd into the second is like a ring
in the desert, and the second and the
first is like
a ring on the arsha of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. So how many malaika
are loving a person who says la ilaha
The other challenge is sometimes we think that
that is something only reserved for, like,
Gandalfian type Muslims, man.
You know what I mean? Like this imaginary
saintly figure that will never be.
It's like when you go to the gym,
you're like, man, why don't I have veins
coming on my arms?
I wanna look like that. Well, pump yourself
full of chemicals. Eat kale and grilled chicken.
It'll happen.
But sometimes, like, we we tend to think
of, and this is another trick of Shaytan,
that religion is something
unattainable.
I remember, like, before I became Muslim, you
know, I didn't become Muslim for 2 years
cause I was like I just can't give
up things, man.
And I was like there's no way like
I can stop this, I can't stop that,
I can't stop this, I can't stop that.
I can't stop this. So I thought there
was, like, this process where I had to
be, like, perfect. No doubt. Like, there's responsibility.
There's a need
for, like, you know,
discipline.
But I, like, really was over the top
in my expectations
of what I had to do. That became
counterproductive. So, like, I didn't become Muslim, like,
for 2 years. I thought I was Muslim,
by the way. I didn't know about shahada.
But, like, I didn't formally
insert myself into the community
because
of my own
insecurities and concerns about myself.
Thinking like
to be here, you know, to be in
this place I have to be like perfect
and I have like serious challenges.
But the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam on numerous narrations
and actions as well as verses of the
Quran,
we learn something very important about Al Wilaia.
And this is important important for
you to know as we move forward. Wilayah
is based on 2 things. That's why one
of our poets, one of our
teachers, he's a poet, he's to say,
Wa'indana walayatulillahi
Wa'indana walayatulillahi
used to say like, you know, the walayah
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Iman. That, you know, you reach
wilayah happens
with taqwa and iman.
I need you to think about the idea
of taqwa as being like adherence and obedience.
Iman is the issue of faith.
So we believe that, yes, we
lie like being a friend ally of God,
being close to Allah. Good question, alhamdulillah.
We'll talk about like the meaning in a
second. If I say, Huwayali, it's like someone
right next to me. That's the word for
it.
So we're like so close,
like we're touching.
So metaphorically it means
being in a relationship that's close to God.
So we
we we say that the foundation of that
relationship is faith.
That's the Asl.
So when someone says La ilaha illallah Muhammad
Rasoolallah,
they become from the Awliya of Allah.
That's the foundation.
Tanaru bi taqwa ma'al imani.
Oh, it says, you know, it's
attained
with faith
and taqwa.
Faith we talked about like a year ago,
we went through a whole book on Alhamdulillah
faith in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And I prefer the translation instead of in
as with because al iman
doesn't mean in.
Al iman bi, the word ba in Arabic
means to pass by something.
Marar to be baytik, like I passed by
your house.
So the idea is that
faith is a relationship.
I'm with God.
God is with me.
So
through happiness, through sadness, through success, through poverty,
through fear,
through loss, through gain.
Wahuwa ma'aikum
einimaikum.
I'm with God.
And that also implies, like, responsibility and choice.
If I say faith
That's why sometimes we see the outcome of
a student is that the outcome is a
That's why sometimes we see the outcome of
a student is that the outcome is a
faith in God so I learned but I
ain't with nobody.
So I can know all kind of stuff
and still be super ratchet
and super evil.
But when I start to
scaffold my relationship with God as with what
even though I am called Maria,
then I understand that I'm living
a purpose driven life
that's centered
on the idea that I'm not alone
and that I will be held accountable
or rewarded
based on that relationship
after I die.
So al iman
billah, faith
with God
implies the good days, the bad days,
moments
of euphoria,
struggling and also that's empowering like you're never
alone.
Imam Shay Firi
used to say
he he there was a time in his
life where he lived around,
some unruly people.
So he said, you know, I just talked
to God during those days. I didn't have
friends.
I wasn't alone.
Spoke to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
The second
thing that we should talk about is that
if we say the foundation of wilayah is
faith, alhamdulillah,
then
there is a way to improve this wilayah.
And that's where,
you know, they say like darajatulawliyah,
the stations of the righteous,
certain people have a higher maqam than others.
But there's 2 points that need to be
made before we jump into that.
Number 1, no one is allowed
to affirm
someone's place with God like a person's like
at a high level.
We can say their actions are, but Allah
knows their heart.
This happened to the Sahaba, Surat Baqarah. This
person came into
the gathering of the companions of Prophet Muhammad
and this person had the look man, they
had the religious feel you know
and then they started to like speak in
very nice
beautiful words and Sahaba like, wow, this person
is amazing, man, who's this person? And then
all their fields got burned
and they found out it was that person
who was a hypocrite. So Allah said, there
are some people that exterior amazes you.
Problem.
Also Allah says in Quran, Huwa a'alemu bi
ma'ali taqah Allah knows who truly has taqah.
That protects us number 1 from things like
that and number 2 from spiritual abuse. Like
a sign that you're an occult is if
your religious leader is
intimidating you by making you feel that somehow
they have a higher spiritual state than
you. That's some nonsense, man.
Where the Sahaba, it was the opposite. We
see that people that we consider, like, the
most righteous
were those who considered themselves
the most in need of God.
That's why one of my teachers used to
say, oh, Allah,
make me rich
by feeling impoverished to you
and don't make me poverty stricken
by feeling autonomous of you.
So we need to be very careful
that
right? The the the higher levels of wilayah
that we'll talk about are known to God.
But how can we, that's the next point,
improve on that?
How can I know like I'm trying to
do better, I'm trying to grow, trying to
have this relationship?
Number 1 is we don't look for a
feeling.
And sometimes this is a mistake.
You know. People be like, I prayed Fajr.
I didn't feel anything. But you prayed Fajr,
hamdulillah.
Happens to all. It happens to me. It
happens to everybody.
I I remember there was a brother, subhanallah,
we converted
years ago and he prayed every night in
the last 10 nights of Ramadan. And then
he came to you and he's like, man,
I don't know if I experienced it. I
was like, dude, you prayed every night. He's
like, but I didn't feel anything.
I was like, yeah, but you prayed every
night.
So that's why some of the masheikh used
to say,
be careful that you don't worship for a
feeling because then you're worshiping the feeling.
But it it a higher level would be
that I know that I have obeyed God
as best I can,
and I should find I should root confidence
in that.
Can you imagine, like, I'm married.
If we based our marriage just on feeling,
Like, the honeymoon feeling, like, that doesn't last
forever.
Like, every day you come home, like,
you're not, like, in a great mood, person's
not in a great mood, someone's tired, you
got kids, you got food, trying to clean
the house, take out the trash. Oh, baby.
I'm so happy to take out the trash.
I feel so good. I'm lit right now.
Taking out this trash. Oh, hand me the
recyclable bag. I'm so lit right now. Taking
out these recyclables. Oh, let me get that
plastic bottle out.
I don't think that's how it works, man.
Every night's not going, like, out and having
fun.
But true love is not about feelings, true
love is about commitment.
Our parents who changed our diapers, you think
that felt good?
Anyone have little siblings that you had to
take care of? That stuff don't feel good,
man,
but
a deeper more nuanced commitment and level of
love
doesn't simply look for
quick bursts of emotional highs.
So that's the other thing, like we're not
necessarily going to always feel a certain way
and sometimes when we're worshiping,
the feelings that we have biologically
may be completely separate from our worship.
You may have eaten something that got your
pancreas going crazy.
You may have had a different experience during
the day that has adjusted the chemicals in
your brain to make you feel a sense
of happiness. That may be separate from worship
but worship
is to be performed
and the higher level of that is to
find rida in that. It's tough. I'm not
saying it's easy. We're gonna work on it
InshaAllah together.
The next two points are very important
and that is that
we said that the foundation of wilayah is
to believe
and then how we improve on that is
taqwa. So that's why the poet says, tanalu
hu bi taqwa mal imani,
Like
that. Wilaia
being close to God and having
an intimate relationship with Allah. His foundation is
everyone here is saying, I believe in Allah,
hamdulillah, a Muslim, Hamdulillah.
Can you imagine, man, before you're even in
your
mother's womb,
Allah loved you
and that's why he's your wedding.
So you should get like a sense of
confidence from that.
I feel sometimes we don't encourage Muslims.
You know when Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala created
Jannah and he asked Jannah to speak,
do you know what the first thing Jannah
said?
Like, can you imagine?
First thing that Jannah said was, Who believes
is successful?
So
we're in a hard time now as a
community, so we need to build spiritual capacity
and hope.
So saying La ilaha illallah
as Imam Abu Hawi is a great writer.
He wrote a book of theology. It's one
of the most important books of theology.
He
says, which means
all the believers are God's friends.
It's, like, really powerful. And actually the word
he said, all the believers are the most
merciful
allies. He says, waftarahum
and the best and this is taqwa. So
the first part was faith.
Taqwa now he says,
and adherence to Quran,
meaning
towards
the Sharia,
towards what's
recognized as good and evil. Taqwa.
So Alhamdulillah
the foundations iman
how to improve it is to increase our
obedience
and that's what we're going to talk about
tonight Insha'Allah, the idea of discipline.
What are the 7 things we can do
right now
as we continue this course together
to improve ourselves.
We'll talk about that tonight.
But before there's another point,
Two points, actually.
Stop looking for perfection, man.
You know, sometimes looking for perfection
you know, sometimes when people come and they're
looking for a spouse like I get it,
you know, you want to marry someone that
is intellectually and emotionally attractive to you and
physically attractive you know, what's
the
word
I'm
looking
for?
I'm
old now.
You
know, store that I'm looking for, I'm old
now.
You know, their expectation,
Standards. Or their standards are just like they're
they themselves know they're unrealistic. So that's how
they cope with not being responsible.
You know, like when I was little my
mom would be like clean your room. I
wouldn't clean my room. She's like, well, I
was like, well, you know, it's not gonna
be like * and span. She's like, nah.
You just don't clean your room.
Doesn't have to be * and span, son.
Just clean your room. Pick up those shoes.
Right? So sometimes we
a hidden desire
is masked
in notions of perfection.
Like, why don't you work out? Oh, man.
I'm never gonna look good.
So? It's like you're gonna feel better. Why
don't you eat clean? Oh, man. I'm never
gonna have 6 pack abs.
Like,
okay. So what if you don't? What if
you have, like, 3 pack
or 1 liter? It's
all good. So sometimes
extremist notions even religiously and spiritually
are used to mask irresponsibility.
Like, yo, man. Why don't you pray fighter?
Man, I'm not good enough, man. I I
I I'll never be there. So it becomes
now this notion of
perfection, which sounds good,
is really masking insecurities
or masking like salient laziness.
So I want us to be very careful
of perfection. Sometimes our parents,
and our
caretakers and providers
tend to live vicariously through us.
You know, like my father is a PhD.
I'm 46 years old,
man. Whenever I talk to my father, he's
like, so when are you going to get
that PhD?
Right. He's still living, like,
by curiously through me. I'm like, first of
all, I'm not trying to go to debt
at the age of 46.
You know what I I mean? I'm not
trying to go back to, like,
debt. He's like, well, now you work there,
they pay for your school. I was like,
dang.
You know,
like he like, I'm not you man. Like,
I don't wanna get a PhD in American
history.
But, like, he he, like, lives vicariously to
me. It's good and bad.
Sometimes I see with Muslims, I didn't have
Muslim parents but I feel like there's a
lot of pressure upon y'all, man.
Remember one sister told me if, you know,
Abu Bakr came to marry me, my father
would say,
You know, I'm waiting for Mohammed to show
up. Abu Bakr, we like you but, you
know, you can wait.
Right? And vice versa. And oftentimes women are
expected to do more than men when it
comes to religious
teachings. As Sheikh Zohaymullah said, we love our
boys, we raise our daughters.
So it creates a very unhealthy climate.
The Prophet didn't ask us to be perfect.
He wasn't a modernist.
Alaihi salatu salam
We know that there's a very beautiful narration
he said, If you didn't sin Allah will
destroy you and make those who sin
and repent to Allah.
And the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, In
the deen ay Yusur, the religion is eased.
And
nobody tries to make this deen hard except
the deen defeats them, the religion defeats them.
Fasaddidu
waqalibu
so try your best and make effort.
And the word word he used in Arabic
is if you were to shoot an arrow
at a target.
How many of us here we would hit
the target?
Like none of us but we try to
shoot the arrow. So the point is try.
So we don't look for perfection,
we look for effort
and every effort is commendable.
The prophet
said
never never underestimate
a small act.
Don't don't debase it.
You never know.
We know there's numerous narrations, Yahamakila,
where people will go to Jannah who are
like living very bad lives but they did
something sincere
even if it was small.
And the last
is that if we say the foundation of
wilayah is faith
and the way to improve it is taqwa,
then that means that
people are going to be in different stations
in their wilayah with God.
So that means for example
someone who prays 5 times a day,
prays at night, fast Masha'Allah twice a week,
they're holding it down, they do their dhikr
every day.
Maybe that person's ulaya is to improve
their pleasure and focus in worship.
So that's like good for them.
But what about someone who doesn't pray at
all?
So they start just to pray like Esha
or Thor.
So they're on the step towards wilayah. That's
for them that process.
What about someone who mashAllah, they're drunk with
God.
They have that relationship with Allah
Allah so they need to improve their consistency,
their ihsan. But what about someone who's drunk
on a substance?
Maybe their wilayah is to step back and
try to stop
and go to those
substance abuse meetings
and get help. What I'm trying to say
is wilayah in the form of taqwa is
not monolithic
and the acts of saints
aren't restricted just to saintly people.
So never underestimate like that first step. You
know what I mean?
Don't defeat yourself by
seeing others
but understand that your ability,
what Allah has blessed you with and Allah
has gifted you with, that's your responsibility and
it may not be the same it
may not be the same as someone else.
And that's why in Surat Al Fathir, Allah
talks about the community and He talks about
our levels of taqwa. He says, thumma'orathnaalkitaballadhiinastoffayina
min
Allah says that
we left the book, the Quran
that's as you all men
to 3 types of people,
sinners,
those who are in the middle, sin and
good, and those who their good is more
their sin. All 3, alhamdulillah,
are mentioned
in
the context of this responsibility.
I want you to have hope in Allah.
If you have given up on yourself then
don't give up on Allah to change you.
I remember there's this guy I went to
school with and the reason I remember him
is I saw him get knocked out in
7th grade.
And that was right before I got knocked
out in 7th grade. That's what I won't
forget.
And it was an interesting day. But his
name was Dennis.
And I came I was overseas memorizing the
Quran, came back to college. And in those
days, there used to be I don't know
if you still have, like, Dawah boost at
MSAs. We used to have Dawah boost. We
give out pamphlets, talk about Islam. We used
to write people's name in Arabic. They were
going crazy over that, man. It was like
lines. We got a complaint. I had to
go in the dean's office. They were like,
you know, we heard like you're forcibly converting
people. I was like, yo, we're just writing
people's names. Oh, can you remind me? I
got you, Dean.
You know what I mean? But, like, it
was crazy. In Oklahoma.
Right? Oklahoma.
So he he saw me and he hadn't
seen me since high school
at the Dawa booth. So it's kind of
embarrassing like, yo, I ain't seen this dude
in a minute. I got his beard, you
know what I'm saying? I look a little
different now. That was before hipsters.
And,
yeah, and he came to me and he
was like, hey, Will. What's going on, man?
I was like, hey. What's up, Dennis? What's
cracking? Oh, man. I just came back from
Turkey, man. I love Turkey better than Saudi
Arabia because you can drink in Turkey, man,
but you can't drink in Saudi Arabia right
there. This is a long time ago. No
offense to any of my Turkish friends. It's
just history.
So I said to myself,
man, this guy is so lost Allah will
never guide this dude,
like in my heart.
Then I used to work at night as
a telemarketer.
So
I got a call from the Masjid at
my job.
In those days, you know, cell phones weren't
that popular so it was embarrassing. You gotta
call. You gotta go in your supervisor's office.
People are like, your mom's calling. And like,
mom man, it's
the mosque.
Right? So
they're like,
so hey,
there's some white guy here
asking about you. And I was like, oh,
snap. I broke my laws and nothing.
White guy at your door. You know what
I mean?
So then they were like, no. No. His
name is Dennis.
So then he gets on the phone. He's
like, hey, Suave. You have this real deep
voice,
He's like, I think I wanna become Muslim
right now.
He took Shah at me.
So I was like,
you never know
who Allah can change
but you should never give up on yourself.
And And if you feel like you've given
up on yourself,
then appreciate incremental successes like your incremental
spiritual successes
are Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala opening doors for
you.
As the prophet
said,
the believer is like a horse that escapes.
She or he always comes back.
It just takes time.
So now let's talk about
what we're going to go over the next
few weeks Insha'Allah. Next week we're going to
talk about the first step in wilayah.
What is the quality
of those people? How can we enhance that
quality?
And then each week we'll go through like
1 or 2 of those qualities, alhamdulillah.
Before we get into that though, today we
need to talk about 7 things we should
think about.
And we're gonna revisit these 7 things because
these things are going to help us.
You know, one of, our scholars used to
say,
in a time where the
dalil
mafkud,
like the evidence is you're seeking, you're seeking
and seem to be absent.
And
the and
there's like a lot of differences in the
community.
Like, those are very hard times.
He's like, it's where we are now.
So on those situations,
some of our scholars when I say scholars,
I mean, like, people who, like, work on
the heart.
They said there are 7 things, like,
we should think about,
7 disciplines that we should acquire,
7 qualities
that we should look to
as we begin the path of improving our
taqwa. Alhamdulillah, we say la ilaha illallah.
We want to improve our taqwa meaning our
adherence to good and avoiding evil.
That's taqwa.
So the first is sitqulirada,
is to be sincere.
Sincerity. We know the first hadith
that we're taught
is the actions are by intentions.
Allah says, why do you say what you
don't do?
But here it means the qawl of the
heart.
So, like,
sometimes our heart is ban to us.
The prophet called Lema Tumeric, he said there
is an angel
in charge of inspiring you internally.
And sometimes you get like, oh, I need
to do this. I I need to do
that. I need to do this. I need
to do that. Ibn Qayyim
said every person sits between 2 Adans. Their
heart rests between the Adan of the Ashura
and the Adan of Dhuliya.
The Adan of shaitan,
the Adan of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. The
Adhan of obedience,
the Adhan of disobedience,
the Adhan of the call of laziness,
Adhan, like, you know, the billah,
the call of laziness
and the call of being woke.
Hearts always, like, here.
That's why it's called qalb because the qalbiangqalib
is always changing.
So this class is gonna push you a
little bit. It's more like a Jedi
Knight type training class for ourselves. Not so
much
entertainment
but it's a class I think that will
help us, man. Help me help you.
So the first
is that I'm truthful in my heart.
So when I say I love Allah,
I act on that love.
Say I wanna be nearer to Allah,
I act on that because the word hab
and hope
is the same thing. The word seed from
hub
because the seed has to grow.
So when I say in Arabic,
hope is love.
It's from the same word as hab, a
seed.
Hab
because I gotta plant the seed in the
right place,
and then I have to cultivate that seed,
and I have to make sure it gets
enough water, enough sunlight,
look after the seasonal changes
so that it grows and stays strong.
So if my intention is sincere,
my heart is sincere,
that love
will blossom.
That love will blossom.
So basically, it means integrity
and being disciplined and focused.
Sheikh Ahmed Zorook,
he says in his book Qawah Al Tassawaf,
you know, a sincere intention
isn't changed or eroded
by sudden changes.
It stays there. It's there. It's constant.
So we see something with the believers in
the Quran. Right? Allah talks about them in
this life. They say alhamdulillah.
But even in the hereafter when they go
into Jannah, they will say Alhamdulillah.
They're consistent.
After the
is to look after
those things
that will help me worship to Sadbu
Bata'a. So that's why Ahmad Zorook in his
book, Qawaida Tasawwuf, he says that worship
is
So meaning I establish
worship but also I I look after what
protects it, like what's the mote I put
around Fajr.
If I'm watching Bird Box to 3 o'clock
in the morning and then I wake up,
like, I can't see anything,
well, that's because
I stayed up till 3:30.
I was trying to pray like this.
I fudge you at 11:30,
ain't happening.
So I bird boxed myself.
Worship. That's a good word for it. How
can I facilitate it?
So I take steps
to discipline myself.
I take steps for worship,
for ta'a.
The third thing he said
that will help us,
this is a book called
that I'm quoting from out of these
ways to means like, you know, the provisions
for the heart. It's a really beautiful book.
So the first just it's not impossible. And
how do we achieve?
It's not something that just it's not impossible.
And how do we achieve sincerity?
I talked about this a lot before. Sincerity,
I remember one time I traveled to meet
the scholar of Hadith in one city and
he said, why have you come? I said,
I wanna ask you how to be sincere.
He's like, I can't answer that question.
Like, how to be sincere? Like, you think
it's just like an answer? I was like,
I was hoping it was because, you know,
he's like, no, man. You gotta live, dude.
You gotta experience
life.
That's why someone who rushes
will never ripen a religious because
religion
is is coinciding with time.
So Allah swears by asr.
People's time is either gonna be wasted
or utilized. People ask me all the time,
how long did it take to memorize the
Quran? Like, why do you care? I don't
know. I just want to go really fast.
Why do you want to go fast? What
if you use your whole life and you
die on the middle of Jannati oneness?
So when you're resurrected, how did you spend
your life? Memorize on Quran.
Mashallah.
So
sincerity comes
as Allah mentions in the Quran
that
you know, in cattle, there is a sign
for you.
We give you drink what comes from the
belly
of
the cow.
Between feces and blood,
san is akhlas,
pure milk.
So I had a Sheik from Ebb. Ebb
is a place in Yemen. I used to
ask him how do you become sincere? He
said leban and tamshi bayin and farth
Meaning that your life has to go through
blood and and feces and you have to
go through at work man. I don't know
if I'm a good Muslim. Oh man this
is freaking me out. Jesus Christ. I didn't.
I mean, Mohammed got the wrong prophet and
everything. I don't even know what's going on
here. Those those battles, man, those struggles
as a convert when you come home. Remember
the first time I came home, my mom
cooked this big ham, man. Oklahoma
ham is big, yo. She's like, come on,
baby, have some ham. I haven't told him
I'm Muslim yet.
So it's like, Pac, you know, you Muslim
now. No more dope game, you know. And
my mom is like, have some ham.
I made it just for you. I was
like, yeah,
I'm a have a salmon,
you know.
So it's like
that battle,
that daily struggle
is an attempt of the heart to project
itself.
Sincerity has to met with wisdom of course,
nuance,
not going crazy religiously,
you know,
but that's that's that battle between feces and
blood.
Sometimes it's worse
for others.
The second thing we said is is what?
After that is
facilitating
acts of worship.
So I
I I I look at worship as the
meal. Know, I don't know, what you do
on Netflix, you end up watching The Office.
Like, that that's that's
know, I don't know, what you do on
Netflix, you end up watching The Office. Like,
that that's that's life or parks and recreation.
There's no way around it. You know what
I mean? But if I'm, like, smashing it
out to, like, 4:15 AM,
then I'm like, yo, I'm a pray to
Hajid. I'm a fast tomorrow. Make fajr. No.
I'm not.
So I was like, just
the third,
is being aware
of my triggers.
What caused me to fall into evil?
I remember
after I became
Muslim, 2 weeks in,
I had a phone call. I had a
friend named Jaydawg.
Jaydawg got shot back in the head in
the back of the head at the age
of 19 by some Grey Street Crips.
So I got a phone call. Yo, man.
We're doing a funeral.
You gotta come through. We We ain't seen
you in a while. Where you've been? Blah
blah blah. And I remember it's like this
raging inferno on my chest,
man. Because I know that that environment
post
funeral
is gonna be wild
at the same time. It's like my friend.
So I went to the funeral
service,
didn't do any of the acts of shirt,
paid my respects,
gave love to his family. And then afterwards,
I started, like, yeah, let me go hang
out. You know what I mean? It's like
I was young. I started eroding.
So I went to my friend's house.
All of J Dog's friends
were sitting there and then someone pulls out
a Glock 9. They're like, yo, we need
to roll on these crips.
And that's when I was like,
I gotta go, man.
I gotta go not because I was the
most logical person,
right? But just spiritually, I was like, I
can't be here, man.
Folks lighten blunts,
you know. And I knew that all that's
a trigger.
So for me to be safe,
I need to distance myself
from what may trigger disobedience.
As we get older, right, triggering we need
to be careful from things that trigger
those weaknesses in ourselves.
That's why some people used to say, oh,
Allah,
the greatest mercy that you can bestow upon
me is making me aware of myself
so that I can I can worship you,
I can serve you, I can be close
to you?
So the third is what's called
How does that come about? You gotta talk
to yourself.
You get home
at
night and all the stuff is gone. It
makes us look better. The gel is, you
know, melted away. Concealer is gone.
Whatever we've done
and we sit in there and it's just
us.
That's what we need to ask ourselves like,
who am I, what triggers me,
and what tends to fail me?
You know? Like, that's a very, very important
thing.
I give a funny example. Tortilla chips cannot
last
1 minute
in my house
without someone
basically inhaling
the entire bag.
I don't know who that person is,
but the missus was like, you know what?
We're no longer bringing tortilla chips into the
house.
Right? God bless
her. Now we got.
It's a big change.
Just joking.
But triggers.
I'm like, but I worked out. I worked
out today. It's like, you know, you always
got excuses, man. Hand me the cheese. I
worked out today. No. That's not how it
works. You need to be aware. I need
to be aware of what
fails
me fails me.
The 4th
is sitting with people
who are honest with us.
Interlocust.
Sayyidina Omar used to say,
unless those people
like people who don't like interlochers around them
aren't locusts around them aren't successful.
Because there's one extreme where, you know, people
that we don't know come creening to our
lives and like checking us and freaking us
out. Yeah. That's unacceptable.
But when people who know me and understand
me
and love me, say to me, yo, like,
you need to get this together.
That's something I should appreciate.
Positive criticism. Yeah. I should look for that.
No doubt we've all had, you know, negative
criticism or people that we don't know creating
into our lives.
But when people that we have relationships and
bonds with, we can say to them, hey,
You know, how can I edit things in
my life?
That's 4. Right?
The 5th is toba,
is repentance.
And we need to understand these qualities as
processes not events. So,
you know, I may repent, I need to
repent again. Look, the beginning of Prophetess starts
with turning to Allah. The ending of Prophetess
ends with turning to Allah. Like it's all
sandwiched with Tawbah.
Is at the end
at the beginning.
So a Nabuwa is
constantly
surrounded with repentance.
And I I worry sometimes we look at
these things as like, yeah,
I made Tawba.
Okay.
One time we had this brother came to
our Sheikh. Sheikh was talking about repentance to
us and then the brother said, I don't
think I need to make
repentance.
I don't need to make tawba. Sheikh
Shayk said, you need to make tawba now.
He said, what? He said, from ignorance.
Like, you should know yourself, man. Like, you
really see yourself. You didn't do anything wrong?
Nothing? Nothing there? No mistakes? Come on, son.
Yeah. It's too been al gahir.
So repentance.
And Ibn Qayyim says something beautiful and Imam
al Ghazari
that repentance doesn't have to be like a
zero sum game. Like
I may be able to repent from certain
things that will ultimately lead to leaving the
whole issue.
So maybe somebody has a substance abuse issue.
So they they make toba for some of
that and then more and more and more
and then they get to it and they
they're able to move on.
The next,
after
a toba
is
a strong support group.
That's different than someone that advises us. Like,
not everybody can advise us. Not everybody has
that access
to our lives.
But being around people who motivate me,
being around people who encourage me, people being
around people who
inspire me
to be
better. And that's why the prophet said,
the person is on the religion of their
friends.
That's why in numerous places in the Quran,
even the Surat al Kahf,
Imam al Khortibi said having a dog as
a friend was better than human
beings. Right? The importance of sohba,
friendship.
You know, loneliness, they say now is, like,
the 3rd or 4th cause of death in
America. The word lonely didn't exist until 19th
century because pre industrial societies, they didn't have
the concept of loneliness
because everybody lived in a village. Like, in
Masar, when I lived in Egypt, I found
the happiest people are always the,
the people who lived in the farms,
because they got 1800
grandkids, man.
Now I'm saying it's, like, amazing. Like, they're
they're surrounded with love. They're surrounded with warmth.
Although there may be challenges, no doubt. Right?
It's not all fun and games, but, like,
from a human
a battery of human emotions,
their cup is full, man, usually.
Because
they're dealing with people.
I never like Tonkawa, Oklahoma. My grandfather's from
Tonkawa. I never found my grandfather. He's, like,
lonely.
Like, lonely? How? I got grandkids.
Now,
you know, I got a Xbox, PS 4,
freaking,
you know, Infinite Sephora card membership,
going to the gym,
eating like mud with protein in it, smashing
down some kale sandwiches.
I'm lonely.
That's concerning, man. Loneliness is tough because the
way the world is now,
it creates loneliness.
Even more concern is couples that are lonely
in relationships.
That stuff has to be addressed
through therapy, through family therapy, and so on
and so forth.
But having a strong support group, man, friendship.
So there's gonna be things we do together
that make you learn about each other.
You have to be a good person. You
have to be someone people can trust.
We can't be shady.
We can't be like taking people's business and
throwing it out there and, you know, looking
down on people.
We we live for something greater than this,
and that's the last quality is a skewing
opulence,
meaning waste.
So those 7
are like the foundations
of working on taqwa.
The next 3
are what's called
classical ulemasa. These 3
that I'm gonna talk about now will help
uphold those
7.
The 7 should be seen as like steps,
but they're also the outcome of something.
And this is where we're gonna stop Insha'Allah.
Some of the men called these seshnad nafs,
the prison of the soul. Meaning in a
good way, like, how do you how do
you discipline yourself? Because everything I talked about
now, like, it's not easy, man. So what
are some things we can do to help
weaken
our desires
and challenge
ourselves to be better
because
I worry a community
that has slowly
lost its spiritual trajectory
may no longer find pleasure in spiritual discipline.
Whereas we're a community,
the prophet
said that Iman has a sweetness. There's
a delight in the soul. Ibrahim
Ibno'edham used to say,
if the kings knew how our hearts felt
with Allah, they will declare jihad on us
to take this feeling from us.
And also when we become
muted in our spiritual excitement that allows us
to be exploited by the material.
Excitement that allows us to be exploited by
the material.
So what moves us,
what shapes us as a community, what formulates
our values
becomes rooted in the material
instead of the hereafter.
So the next three things I'm gonna talk
about are meant to help us discipline ourselves
immediately
so that we can work on the 7th,
honesty and our intention.
The second was
then
facilitating worship.
The third was
understanding the mistakes of my soul, being aware
of them without feeling guilty to the point
it destroys me, by the way.
You know, classical scholars and classical righteous people
saw becoming aware of weakness as a gift
and an opportunity, man.
Not as something that was so
devastating that it ruined them spiritually. No, let
me tackle this. Let me work on this.
Alhamdulillah.
Thank God for showing me this.
Sayna Amri used to say, God bless the
one who gave me the gift of a
mistake. Like I can work on it.
I can improve it.
So understanding
my mistakes,
then being around people who are able to
act as sincere interlocuers,
then repentance to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
then a strong supporting cast,
and then avoiding openness. Doesn't mean don't go
crazy, man. It ain't about what you have.
It's about where I'm at with what I
have.
So I could have something nice,
but it doesn't consume
me. Sometimes people, they take this, like, go
home and they just, like, clean out their
closets. No, man.
It doesn't matter. I could have something which
is of very little value but if my
heart is in the wrong place, it doesn't
matter about that. It matters where the heart
is.
So zuhid is about the heart.
So appreciating
beauty, Allah Inna Lata'ala Jameelu Habu Jamaa Allah
is beautiful. He loves beauty. Allah says, Waranparaza
yan nasanaa
dunya. We made the dunya beautiful for you,
of course,
but not being consumed.
My my values and who I am are
not being calibrated by what's popping.
I stay focused.
And there are 3 things that we can
do
to help us,
control our nafs to work on these seven
things which are
really important in achieving and working on the
taqwaq.
The first is hunger.
People don't like hunger.
And it's very important that when you talk
about these things we balance it with the
sunnah.
So you hear hunger it's like what? I
can't eat anymore? You know when I became
Muslim, it's funny. I have a lot of
became Muslim stories.
This is funny though. When I accepted Islam,
Masha'Allah, I knew absolutely very little about anything.
I just knew like God, Muhammad,
afterlife.
Cool.
That's how I became
Muslim. And I remember Ramadan came, and I
thought you had to fast, like, 247,
man.
So I was like, yo. All these fat
people in this mosque,
and they fast in 24 hours a day
for 30 days.
I'm quoting myself back then. I'm not trying
to offend anyone. Okay.
So I went to this uncle.
It was the 1st day of Ramadan and
I was and then this one brother told
me, he's like, yo, you can't sleep, dude.
If you sleep, it breaks your fast. The
stuff we go through, man. So I'm in
college, and I had a physics class. You
know what a physics class is good for.
You know, later in the day, physics, 3
o'clock in the afternoon, man. It's like, afternoon,
man. It's like,
siesta,
you know.
So I go to the mosque and I'm,
like, trying to stay awake. I haven't eaten.
It's the 1st day. I'm freaking out. I
run into this beautiful Chachasab,
this uncle. And he's like, what's wrong? I
was like, I don't understand how you do
this.
He's like, do what? I was like, you
don't eat for 30 days.
He's like, brother, are we alive?
He's like, yeah. He's like, I've been doing
this for, like, 65 years. He's like, You
can eat at
night. Right? And I was like,
oh, okay.
Yeah.
It just didn't make I thought it was
like a gift from God. You fast for
30 days, you you get in some kind
of state of gnosis and you just don't
eat and then you come out 30 days
later and everything's fine.
He's like, no, man. We're gonna throw it
down
after money.
When is we tend to run to the
most difficult expectations.
So when I say hunger,
what that means
is sunnah, sunnah of the prophet
is to fast 3 times in a month.
Right? Sometimes he fast 3 days in a
month. During
the time of the full moon,
sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
sometimes he would fast Mondays Thursdays.
Sometimes he would fast every other day. Sometimes
he wouldn't fast.
Abdullah bin Mas'ud used to say, like, if
I have work that's going to be impacted
by fasting, then I don't fast. Like, there's
a balance.
So, like, if you're doing brain surgery tomorrow,
don't be fasting, man. You know what I
mean? If you gotta cut some kind of
garment that's gonna, like, save your career as
a fashion designer, probably, you know, wanna take
those things into consideration. If you gotta teach
or something tomorrow, you got an exam, don't
ask me that question.
Then, you know, those are things you wanna
consider with the nafa.
But it's good to try to fast once
in a while. So inshallah sometimes we're gonna
fast, we'll have Iftar together, alhamdulillah,
as a means of disciplining the
nafs. The second thing is silence.
And here we need to expand
the concept of silence
because now people don't talk a lot,
but they communicate.
One time I was in a restaurant, I
saw this family. They were all on their
phones,
man.
And I'm putting myself on blast on this
one. They're all on their phones.
And then I said, man, they're connected, but
they're disconnected. Right? Like, everybody's on a phone,
but they didn't even talk to each other.
So when we talk about
silence,
what we mean here is
pulling back from everything.
You know what's crazy when you do that?
What's the first question that comes into your
mind?
What am I gonna do then?
Make thicker.
Remember Allah.
Think about yourself.
Think about what's intrinsically important to you.
The third is what's called khalwa.
Means to be alone with God.
And the best time for that is before
fajr.
So, like, you know, once a month,
once a week, if possible,
try to pray
1 or 2 rakat, tahajid,
and be alone with Allah.
There was one scholar who was very handsome.
Even when he was older,
people ask him, how how do you look
so young? He said, I used to stand
in front of the nur of Allah
that night, alhamdulillah.
And Allah
kept me this way.
We know that the prophet said,
like, pray when people are sleeping.
There is a lot of treasures
about your life, about who you are
that you can find in tahajjud men.
That's why, subhanAllah, one of the scholars of
the poem that we read last week, actually,
we didn't get to this part of the
poem where it says Musa Faha.
He said, you know, like, you should travel
through the night.
Like, Tahajjud is like a form of a
journey
that you find yourself in, and you uncover
things about
yourself. Of course, like, if you gotta go
to work, those are different issues. You got
kids. You got family. You got room roommates
that snore.
Whatever is happening.
Right. It's not going to happen all the
time
but every once in a while
we should be committed to being alone with
Allah. If we can't pray at night then
towards the end of the day, we'll talk
about this in the future, we should sit
and make some thicker.
Make what's called the weird, you know, say
if you don't make weird, you become weird.
Weird means to say like SubhanAllah, Alhamdulillah, Allahu
Akbarla ilaha illa Allah to remember Allah.
So as we move forward now
next week to unpacking some of the
ingredients
of wilayah,
Let's think about the 7 disciplines,
and then let's think about the 3 things
which scholars said were are like that thing
that trains those disciplines, that puts the heart
in a place where it can achieve those
disciplines.
Number 1 is hunger fasting. Right? Number
2, silence.
Doesn't mean like when you go home and
your wife starts to talk to you like,
no man, I'm observing silence, man. No. That's
not the time for silence. That's the time
to talk.
But there are times for silence.
And then the third you said is to
take an opportunity to be alone with Allah
There's a beautiful narration of the prophet
This is so beautiful.
He will enter Jannah and he will find
some of his community in paradise.
And then he will say to them, how
did you get here secretly?
They will say we used to worship Allah
secretly,
so he put us in Jannah secretly.
So how can we now as we go
through the next few weeks, Insha'Allah,
through the different stations of taqwa
that will help us, Insha'Allah,
and touch us. And it's very important to
note that these stations touch on every aspect
of life. They touch on individual
acts of devotion.
They touch on community and family responsibility.
They talk about they touch on justice and
activism.
They touch on even things like environmental resilience.
We tend to frame spirituality
as a personal story
whereas wilayah is something that touches every aspect,
of our life. So we'll stop now if
you have any questions. If not,
We'll see you next Tuesday.
Our Thursday classes aren't gonna start for a
while just because we're waiting for
the kids to come back for school.
But I think you will enjoy,
what's in front of us.
And it will help us achieve discipline in
a way that's,
you know, we can pace it.
Pace yourself,
you know.
Take it step by step and work on
your soul, work on your heart,
and work on,
feeling that confidence that's so important,
in
anything?
Not one question?
I'm gonna ask questions. Yes, sir. Can you
repeat the 7 disciplines in Arabic? Man.
Don't mind. Yeah. So the 7 disciplines in
Arabic, number 1, is,
you know,
having a truthful a truthful intention.
Number 2 is
so looking after what will be a cause
of worshiping God. So I'm thinking strategically now,
you know, about what I can do.
The third, is
like knowing
my shortcomings of my soul.
And the day the danger of capitalism, man,
is that it hates
it creates in us to hate for
knowing weakness and shortcomings, man. Like,
it's tough, man.
The the world today is
rooted in filters.
It's not rooted in realness.
The 4th is majeas.
You know, to be around interlocers.
The 5th, a tovah.
We're gonna go through these also, like, we'll
unpack them over time.
Tovah.
The 6th,
sohba,
like, support group.
Like, we really need each other. Like, everybody
in this room,
each of us has something that can help
each other. It's like, really, it's true.
And and it's very important that we look
at each other that way.
Like, I ain't jumping out of a plane,
bro. You did.
He jumped out of a plane.
That was crazy. But God bless you. Maybe
you can motivate me to try.
And then the last azud
is not being overcome by the cult of
opulence, not letting
these things create unhealthy values.
Beauty has a natural value. Right? You mean
opulence?
Opulence and affluent, like opulence, like being overcome.
Opulence means to be over but the cult
of man, wasting.
You know? If I don't get these Yeezys,
my life's horrible.
Yeezys ain't about to change you.
Right? Especially
now with this guy.
But,
you know, not allowing the material to create
unhealthy value in my life.
And also not to look down on people
through through that lens.
And then the last 3 that we said
are the discipline
or the things that will help discipline the
heart.
It's
like hunger, LCM.
The second, assumpt,
silence.
Contemplation
doesn't just mean to be silent, but the
opportunity because we'll talk about this later on,
but Imam Iba Natal said that silence is
the door to
contemplation. Right? And then the last one was?
Be alone with God. Akhalwa.
And all that should be balanced by sunnah.
So sometimes we may find people telling us,
you know, like, I had a friend. It's
not funny. It's gonna sound funny. Please don't
laugh. His his uncle, he suddenly became like
because when we become religious, like, suddenly, that's
you're very vulnerable. I'm very vulnerable. Like, as
a converse, I'm, like, really vulnerable. Like, I
thought you couldn't eat.
You know what I mean? Like, you're really
vulnerable and, like, we trust people.
But we should always and we talked about
this last week. Like, what are the signs
of being in a cult? Like, there's Muslim
cults out there.
Right? When someone's telling me to do something
that's gonna, like, harm me, harm my family,
create serious problems,
you know, causes me to question myself,
intimidates me,
you know, those kind of things, like, you
stay away from that, man.
But, like, religion we'll talk about this. The
first quality
of the of Allah is they love people,
man.
It's like really beautiful.
People who love for god.
We tend to think of as like, I'm
praying tonight. I'm making dikr. I'm hard.
Prophet said to love.
So I love somebody. Like, you love somebody,
you're not gonna tell them do something to
harm themselves, man.
You know, in the
practical sense of the word.
So hunger meaning fasting every once in a
while. Silence doesn't mean silence all the time.
We know that there was a man one
time the prophet saw him. He was standing
and fasting under the sun and he said,
who's that guy? Oh, he's righteous.
He said, why is he righteous? Oh, Masha'Allah.
He's standing,
outside of the shade. He's fasting and he's
not talking. And the prophet said, tell him
to sit sit down, tell him to talk,
to sit in the shade and keep fasting.
Because fasting is is is a sunnah. But
not talking
and sitting under the sun and standing,
that's an a hardship that you're imposing which
is unacceptable.
So when you say, like, hunger,
silence,
and,
what was the last one? Sorry.
That means in a balanced
way. Some of our teachers say, man,
Like, who loves fame, worships fame?
And who loves to be alone so that
people think, wow, this person is so amazing.
You never see them. That's also a form
of like shirk.
So it's like be balanced.
Take time off for ourselves.
So I I I think if we're to
frame it in a contemporary language,
you know, fasting,
contemplation,
and then self care. Is like self care,
being alone with God.
Any other questions
before we go?
It's good to see everybody. May Allah
bless you, Inshallah, and increase you, Inshallah, and
make everything easy for all of us.