Suhaib Webb – The Way Of Worshipers (Fourteen) Four Obstacles That Keep You From Worship
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We send peace and blessings upon our beloved
messenger, Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
upon his family and his companions and those
who follow them until the end of time.
It's good to see everyone back.
CN1 now is a big five
o. 50 years, man. Allahu
Akbar.
Allahu Akbar. May Allah increase you and
No problem.
And as we get started,
we're all aware of of the tremendous changes
that have happened across the world and the
globe,
specifically
in western Ethiopia
where there is
almost indescribable what's happening and the world isn't
paying attention.
And then, of course, in Afghanistan,
and we
make dua
for brothers and sisters in Western Ethiopia and
Afghanistan,
as well as Algeria. There's these fires and
so many things happening in the world.
So I wanna encourage everyone to support,
you know, NY Works for Islamic Relief, so
support organizations like Islamic Relief,
and others that are on the ground
trying to do
the best they can to ensure that people
are able to sustain themselves.
So people ask what's the most important thing
we can do now?
Is, alhamdulillah, of course handle our obligations to
Allah in our personal space
and then handle the communal obligations which people
in places like Afghanistan
and other parts of the world have upon
us. That's to organize and come to their
aid
as best we can.
Alhamdulillah, every week we gather to read
from
this very important text. I believe that this
text
and I'm trying now at Swiss
to make 2 books that were written by
Imam Al Qazari
part of high school and college curriculum for
English speaking Muslims.
The first book
is is this book,
Al Mu't,
Minhajul Abideen
where Imam al Qazadi talks about 7 challenges
to living a life of faith.
And one of the ones that we're gonna
talk about in the next few weeks are,
like, why do bad things happen.
Right? The challenge of trauma, the challenge of
pain,
the challenge of loss.
He actually mentions that as one of the
4 what he calls.
Right? These major prohibitors. These things that will
stop you from having a relationship with Allah.
And and and just to center ourselves again,
the entire discussion is what are these things
that keep us from worship?
What are these things that keep us from
living a life of faith?
So
we've gone through 2 of them.
Last week, alhamdulillah, we finished the Tawba.
And before that, he talked about knowledge.
That takes us now to the 3rd.
And you'll recall that he says in the
introduction, we started, I think, in February,
that to live a life of worship is
not necessarily easy.
It it demands effort.
It comes with a set of challenges.
And one of the 4th from these
kind of major challenges
is
why do bad things happen.
So we'll start
now the 3rd
part of this journey,
the journey to become
more
focused in the purpose of our life.
So he says,
This is the longest part of our journey,
guys.
This book is kinda like a path that
we're on. Right? This is the longest part
of the text.
The third
obstacle
are the the foundational
things that are going to try to, like,
be barriers from you living a life of
faith.
They're gonna try to block you.
So he says,
He says,
then it is upon you, you who are
seeking worship because if you made it this
far in the book,
obviously,
there's, like
you've agreed to this this prince this kind
of
this idea. Right? We have to live lives
of worship.
And and I prefer actually with some of
my students, I don't call them.
I like to call them.
That centers us on on our purpose.
Arabic means Those things that
prohibit you from doing something.
Until your worship is upright. So
you have to discipline these things
and push them away in an unhealthy way
because he's not gonna suggest that you completely
get rid of some of these. He's talking
about nuance,
measuring them,
balancing them, and that's not a one time
thing.
This constant need to to control these these
things that he's going to talk about
and to
to discipline them is a lifelong process.
Most people can't do this.
That's just the reality. Most
people don't care enough about their hereafter to
control their dunya.
So he says
You have to
repel these 4 things
such that your worship is upright.
And in the introduction of the text, we
we we read them. He said that we
mentioned that those
are 4.
What were they?
A dunya,
a nafs,
a shaitan,
and why do bad things happen?
These, he says, are the 4 major obstacles
that are going to try to corrupt your
worship and corrupt your purpose.
The temporary world,
Shaitan,
our own desires,
and
the problem of suffering.
It's like the sheikh is alive today, man.
And he says the first is the dunya
and everything contained in the dunya.
From a theological standpoint,
we view the dunya as something temporary.
That's why it's called a dunya.
Dunya means something that has no value, something
that is close, something that is temporary.
And from the point of theology,
we believe that everything
except Allah is temporary
and in need of something.
The word for something being temporary is hadith,
like the word hadith.
The word for being in need of something
is.
This very important book in theology, and this
is something we should teach,
I believe, at a high school level. We
don't teach zuhid
to Muslim students.
We don't teach young Muslims
to disconnect
from the dunya.
We don't teach them that this dunya does
have has very little value.
We don't teach that. That's a problem. That's
one of the fundamental teachings of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Somebody will say, but they're too young. But
remember,
Sayna Abdullah ibn Amr is the one who
narrates the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
If you awaken in the morning, don't expect
to see the evening.
And if you see the evening, don't expect
to see the morning.
And take from your health before you're sick
and take from your youth before you get
old.
This is something that should form
like part of the pedagogy of of Muslims
because we live now in a monoculture
which is largely driven
by an unhealthy attachment to the temporary world.
So the first is we believe that everything
except Allah
has a beginning and an end.
All matter
has a beginning and an end.
That's why it can't create itself.
The creator of all that has to be
outside of that. It can have the qualities
of those things or then it becomes those
things.
That's why Allah
The second is
In theology, the word is
means to stand.
But in theology, a means to live, to
exist.
But I live
because of what?
Be oxygen,
be
be my family,
be food,
be water,
be love,
be support,
be blood pressure,
be good health.
Here means because
but as Imam al Razi, Imam Ahlus Sunnah
in theology he mentions
and
Allah
Allah
exists
on His own,
by His own will, we do not exist
by our own will.
That's why we say
So if you think about
everything I just said is there.
That Allah is, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does
not need anything from anybody.
What's the evidence for this?
What's the evidence that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
doesn't change? Have a beginning or end?
But everything else exists because of him.
And Allah
his will.
His everlasting
primordial
will
causes all things to happen.
I just showed you both of these principles
right there in front of you.
So we believe creation is hadith Muftakir
Allah is the opposite.
He has no beginning, he has no end.
Number 2, Allah
says
Al Samed is the one who gives everything
and needs nothing.
And this is the crux of Tawhid,
and this is how we should frame the
temporary world.
And if we really believe this,
then we have to ask ourselves,
what are we living for?
Are we living
for temporary pleasure
or permanent happiness?
Are we banking on something that's going to
end?
Why investing with
Allah and this understanding is the foundation of
of taqwa, of everything, of generosity.
Every every good quality can be found in
a proper
assessment and evaluation
of the temporary world.
And how I react to it.
And how I place it in priorities.
That's why one of our teachers used to
say
Sheikh used to say to us that the
dry eye is because of
the hard heart
and the hard heart is because of a
lot of sins.
In a lot of sinning is because I
forgot death,
and forgetting death is because I have false
aspirations.
And false aspirations, delusion
is because I love this dunya
in an unhealthy way.
And loving this dunya is the foundation of
all mistakes.
So that's why sometimes you find in Islamic
work even jealousy.
Why is there Islamic work in jealousy? Because
these people didn't understand
that this doesn't matter.
Power doesn't matter.
Doesn't mean that we don't work for power,
but not in a unhealthy way. Power is
important,
but not to the point where I destroy
something good because I want power.
So oftentimes, we find in Islamic work
and,
myself and and why we've seen this in
our in our short time on this earth.
How many noble efforts
fell apart
because people wanted to be calling the shots
or in charge
even with an MSA.
But if I understand
that this is for Allah
and that these things are simply salt on
the food,
then that's not my priority. My priority is
to do good.
So sheikh Abuhamid
Al Khazari, he says, he
says, here, Afan.
He
says that by disciplining these four things, your
worship will be upright.
We mentioned that therefore.
The first is the temporary world
and all that's in it.
And he says,
Now how do you repel that? How do
you repel that unhealthy attachment to the dunya?
How do you discipline it? In the
is first to peel away yourself from it.
Tajarud means to peel.
What that means is that I look at
the dunya, I look at my relation to
it, and I appeal the things that are
unhealthy away from my life.
What does what does it mean by unhealthy?
Those things that come between me and worship,
those things that come between me and what's
my responsibility.
So for example,
I'm watching
the white lotus
or some kind of TV show, whatever,
till 4 o'clock in the morning, and then
I miss fudge her.
So then I need to look at my
life,
examine my life,
and then I can say,
oh, man,
I need to peel this away. I need
to discipline this. I need to start going
to sleep at 10:30. I need to start
going to sleep at 11. So this is
I I take the time to
inspect my relationship with the world.
I'm talking to my fiance, not me, somebody,
talking to their fiance,
we love each other, the is growing, it's
blossoming,
but then we talk so late at night,
we miss fajr.
That's not a good way to start, man,
so you wanna discipline
that nicely.
I'm hanging out with my friends playing video
games or just chilling.
One of my teachers say, you chill too
long. You're gonna thaw in *.
So I'm chilling, and that causes me to
miss
something that I need to do for my
parents or my wife and my kids. Sometimes
brothers, when they first get married, they hang
out all hours at night and leave their
wife at home alone.
So they they fail to uphold that responsibility.
Or maybe the sister, she wants to be
with her friends all the time that she
was before she got married, and her husband,
he starts to feel like, man,
I'm out here on my own. Those are
the kind of things we need to be
careful of,
Things that come between our worship, things that
come between what we're responsible for.
That's called a tajarut.
Those things away.
The second he said was zuhdu,
and the word actually is from the words
And what does that mean?
That means that I live in this life,
the simple definition for
is that I live in this life in
a way that I amplify the hereafter
in its grandeur, in its promise,
in its
truth,
and I
shrink
the grandeur
and beauty of this dunya.
So that I'm driven
to be means that I'm driven my life
is driven
by the hereafter,
not driven by this world.
The opposite of that is to be driven
by the world
and not for the hereafter.
To die to live
or to live to die.
Noah.
So zuhd is to live to die.
The opposite of that is to die to
live. A lot of people will die to
live right now. They will climb up a
tower with their girlfriend
and have a phone in Dubai
and take a picture so they can post
it on TikTok
or Instagram. Like, really, man?
And he said this has to happen, this
constant
sort of,
if you will,
inventory
of my life
and seeing what is unhealthy,
making sure I don't fall into patterns.
One of the greatest mistakes of people is
they think that religion is fixed. Religion isn't
fixed. It's just like everything else. Your religion
is always gonna be up and down as
we know from our.
So because of that
instability,
I have to check-in
and make sure that I'm looking after it.
Everyone's a shepherd.
So the first thing,
so I have to make sure, like, what's
good, I amplify. What's problematic,
I peel it away.
What means to be indifferent, like, if you
wanna translate
actually means indifference.
Doesn't mean to be irresponsible as we're gonna
talk about later on. Doesn't mean to neglect
all my responsibilities and that's not what he's
talking about. He's talking about those things that
cause us to forget the grandeur of the
hereafter
and to lose our will and our purpose,
our determination for living for the hereafter,
I have to control that and pull away
from those things. This is zuhit.
So I live to die. I die to
I live to die and I die to
live.
He said this is important for two reasons.
The first is so that your worship will
be right and it will be abundant.
He said because if you have, like, an
unhealthy hope in this world,
is it gonna occupy you?
Occupied you from what? From worship.
He
said the first is that it's gonna impact
the outer components of your life because you're
gonna seek the dunya.
What what he means here is in unhealthy
ways, man, like when we neglect our kids
or neglect our family or neglect responsibility or
neglect helping Afghanistan or neglect because I'm too
busy trying to, you know, be famous or
get likes or get attention.
I'm all about that. I'm all about that
shine and attention. I I get do I
get a buzz off of knowing that people
are giving me attention?
Do I have spiritual ADHD?
Said, watch out for that, man.
Watch out for that.
And as for internally,
the dunya will occupy you bill iurada
by corrupting
your will
and by creating a lot of like internal
conversations.
Oh man, why did why did NY use
this kind of camera? He's trying to like
he's trying to be better than me. Oh,
man. Why is Asen wearing those glasses instead
of these glasses? I've seen people actually do
that. I had sometimes someone came to me
and say that someone at the Masjid had
worn something
that was better than that what they wore
to make them angry. I said, do you
even know that person? They were like, no.
I said, what are you telling that? Then
how is that possible?
And that that's like how self consumed are
you?
And the sheikh, he says,
the both of those things,
running after the
the things that I don't need.
Excess is what he means about.
Excess in Dunya, and now we see climate
change. We don't think that excess has harmed
the world. Ask the people in Greece.
Ask the people in California.
Ask the people in Bangladesh,
ask the people in Algeria and Turkey.
We don't think that living accessible lives, be
living beyond what we need is not gravely
impacting the world.
So he says,
both of these seeking the outer excess
and then being inwardly driven by dunya
prohibit worship. They are.
Because your soul is 1.
And we only have one heart.
So if the soul and the heart get
occupied by something, it's going to detach from
whatever else it was it was attached to.
He gives this example.
He says that
the example of the
like having 2 wives.
Allah says
Quran says you will never be able to
be just if you have more than 1
wife.
And we know that in the Maliki Madham,
polygamy is not even sunnah, it's muba.
It's permissible.
But the point he's making here is it's
impossible to be, like, completely balanced for both.
The same thing with Jannah or
If you are to make
one of them happy, then that make the
other one angry.
And we could say for us now in
this time, Yani,
right?
You know, like 2 children.
We all know that. My own my own
daughter is only only 2 years old,
and her her cousin is almost 9. And
she saw me
giving her something to her cousin and she's
like, baba, baba, baba.
Immediately,
she felt like, hey, I'm losing out on
something. It's impossible to
balance both.
He said like, you know,
Akhirah
and dunya are like directions, east and west,
for example.
If you lean East, you lean away from
the West. If you lean West, you lean
away from the East.
In other words, you got to choose.
You gotta choose.
And he says as for the idea
that, you know, the dunya can occupy you
externally,
we related
He's saying that it's impossible to balance them
both and you have to commit
to one of them.
He
he's saying that,
yeah, like, you have to synthesize it. So
I I and we'll talk about this later
on.
What now he's saying is in an unhealthy
way, like, if I'm unhealthy
in an unhealthy way connected to the dunya,
there's no way I can live for the
akhirah And there's also an unhealthy way to
be connected with the akhirah when people use
connections to the hereafter
as a means to absolve themselves of worldly
responsibilities.
Of course, this is a 1st round draft
pick, man. We're talking about somebody who lived
his life in a very different way than
we live our lives and he had the
structure and support in his lifetime to live
that way. From Abi Tarda
said I tried to do both. I tried
to be an abid, like full time on
my Ibadah
and a businessman, full time on my business
and I couldn't do it. So I turned
to Ibadah.
By no means is he encouraging you and
I to not be involved in business or
to find that synthesis but he's given here
again 1st round draft picks, top tier choice
guys,
and women that were, like, living at a
different time at a different level
because there's a way, as we'll talk about
later on, to synthesize the 2.
And keep in mind, Al Al Ghazali is
trying to make you uncomfortable right now. That's
the purpose of how he's writing.
Right? He's purposely trying to make you uncomfortable
because he knows that people gonna be like,
are you saying I can't do this? Are
you saying I he knows that. So he's
kinda setting it up in a way to
show that, like, you very rarely do we
find people say, are you saying I can't
live for Jannah?
Nobody ever says that but it's always like
we get sensitive when it comes to dunya,
man.
We get very sensitive.
Saydna Amar
Radiallahu An who is from the Sabiakeen al
Islam, those early generations of people who became
Muslim
and one of the 10
who
the prophet said will be in Jannah.
1 of the Khulafa that the prophet said
we should emulate
And one of the confidence of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasalam,
he was from the ulama of the Sahaba
and the zuhada of the Sahaba,
the scholar and the one who lived indifferent
to the world.
And he related on behalf of the prophet,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
around 539
hadith.
Saidna Buhari,
Saidna Muslim,
mentioned around, I think,
39 or more they agree on, if I
remember correct.
Well, Sayed
used to say if anyone were to bring
together 2 qualities,
it would be the qualities that Allah granted
me of being strong and also being kind
and malleable.
Saying, like, it's almost impossible.
So saydna, Imam Al Khazari continues and he
says,
if that's the case, then,
you know, you should pull away from that
thing, which is which is temporary,
And choose a salama means.
Now he talks about so that was the
outer. Right? Being outer occupied with the world
in a way that's unhealthy,
and we said that means 2 things. Number
1, it comes between me and worship. Number
2, it comes between me and what I'm
responsible for.
Right? Because there are aspects of the dunya
that Allah
has made followed upon me.
He says,
And how the dunya occupies us internally, he
says,
is that it what he means here is
that it corrupts
our
determination,
our purpose.
It's it's related on behalf of the prophet
that he said,
That whoever loves this world will harm the
hereafter, and whoever loves the hereafter will harm
their world.
Meaning, I'm not necessarily gonna be able to
have all the fun I wanna have. I'm
not gonna be able to do all the
things and purchase all the things I want.
I'm disciplined.
This world is a prison for the believer.
And now we have to ask ourselves, do
I want
this dunya to be my jannah?
That's a problem, man.
Then the prophet is reported to have said,
so therefore prefer what's gonna last
over what's going to,
be destroyed.
He says, and these texts make it very
clear
that if someone were to become
unhealthily
occupied
with the inner and outer components of this
world,
then worship
is not going to be easy for them.
But if you were to
be indifferent to the opulence and unhealthy
components of this world.
And to
and the word he uses is to empty
out. Right? But to empty out the unhealthy
components
of this world from your inner and outer.
Then
will become easy. You'll find a lightness to
worship.
And in fact, he said you will find
that, you know, your limbs
will assist you. Like, you've you've lifted the
weight of the world off you.
So as though your your your whole body
will now assist you in worshiping.
Has been related from Sayedna Salman al Farisi
So very beautiful statement of Sayidina Salman al
Faris. He said,
if
a slave of Allah
becomes indifferent to the unhealthy components of this
world
and even to the allowable components as we'll
talk about later
as long as it doesn't violate.
His or her light heart will be illuminated
with wisdom
and he will find that his his own
limbs will cooperate
with him in worship because he has
subjected his limbs to
the of Allah.
That was the first issue.
And the second issue
So remember he said there's 2 things. Right?
That this dunya is going to impact us
in these ways and now he moves on
to the second.
And that is that is going to increase
the value of doing good in our lives
when we discipline
and when we control
and chain
unhealthy attachments to the dunya
by being indifferent to opulence
and being introspective
of the things that are impacting my marriage,
my family, my children, my work, my purpose,
my worship.
He said the second outcome is going to
be
that you're gonna find value in good.
And that it will allow you to
appreciate the value of good
and the honor of being someone who does
good.
To
This narration is attributed to the prophet who
said 2 rakat of prayer from a person
who has knowledge
and is indifferent to this world.
Their heart is indifferent to this world. The
opulence of this world is better and more
beloved to Allah
than the worship
of just people who don't have that
for for an entire lifetime.
Now he goes back to the 2 points
he made. He says, so therefore, if your
purpose is worship
and if a person's purpose is worship, then
they should take this very seriously
that they should start to live a life
of inspect
introspection.
What are the things that are motivating me
to live with passion?
And does the hereafter motivate me to live
passionately?
And secondly, what are the unhealthy things that
are orbiting my life
that are keeping me from a life of
worship?
I need to distance myself from that
and control that, and he said, this is
the key
to a life of worship and devotion.
He said, perhaps you're gonna say,
What does it mean to be?
What does it mean to be a person
who's indifferent? Most of the time, what I
find with Muslims
is that they get upset because they don't
understand terms correctly.
They understand terms
on their own terms because they never learned.
So oftentimes,
the the the popular Muslim,
the public Muslim,
the Muslim who hasn't studied
is someone whose Islam is largely
defined and sanctioned by their imagination,
not by studying.
And that's why usually when I ask people,
they have issues with things, ask them, what
does this word mean? They say, well, I
think I don't care what you think. What
does it mean? What does the dictionary say
it means?
And then they start to get in their
feelings.
But that's this is religion.
It's not like
as Al Qadi Abu Bakr ibn Arabi said
that religion is not based on, like, personal
whims.
That doesn't mean that we can have reflections
and engage. Of course, not. We don't wanna
create some kind of authoritarian
situation
but definitive
meanings should come through.
Let the religion speak for itself. So one
of my teachers used to say, it's Islam
or Islam
or Harslam.
So say that Abiham says maybe you're gonna
ask
what does really mean?
He says indifference to this world as defined
by scholars
is 2.
One of the ironies of the contemporary Muslim
is that in the name
of post colonialism
post colonial revolution,
they reject the
ulama.
Anyone see the contradiction in it?
That I am going to act in a
revolutionary
stance
against colonialism
and to remove the yoke of white supremacy
from my life
by rejecting
scholarship.
But isn't colonialism
and white supremacy
largely resting on the idea of rejecting
Muslim scholarship in particular
and the role of ulama,
this is contradictory.
When the French came to Algeria,
the first people they killed weren't the soldiers.
The first people they murdered and slaughtered were
ulama.
When the west speaking of Afghanistan, may Allah
bless and
and bring peace and justice
to brothers and sisters in Afghanistan, In
In Afghanistan, because they couldn't conquer Afghanistan
as well as in Egypt, you know what
they did? They made movies and in those
movies, they made fun of who?
They made fun of the shuk.
They made fun of the ulema.
So if I'm claiming to reject
the role of scholars, the authority that Allah
has given ulema,
not an not an uncheckable authority like the
Catholic church.
In the name of revolting against colonialism,
I have, in fact,
adopted a colonial attitude.
I've become now an extension of white supremacy.
That's the irony of all of it.
SubhanAllah.
So you gotta be really careful that you
learn
and appreciate
the scholarship that we have. It's not we
don't say scholars are perfect. Of course not,
but
we have to refer authoritatively
to our religion.
This is not like chickens with a head
cut off, man.
So
he says, That indifference to the world as
defined by ulema
is 2.
2 types.
The first is a form of zuhid which
you and I have like Allah has given
us utility.
We can control it.
The second is a form of indifference which
is beyond
our ability.
And that which we can
control.
The first is not asking for things
that we don't have. Like, we shouldn't ask
for things that we don't have unless it's
unless we need it.
So, basically, avoiding opulence.
To live a life of minimalism.
Look at the Muslim world. You wanna know
what's wrong with the Muslim world?
Because of capitalism,
we have begin to view the prism
of wealth
through success.
But we look at
wealth
we look at wealth
as something to be careful with,
not something that should just be unabatedly
acquired.
And the acquisition of wealth does not necessarily
equate to the true value of who I
am as a person.
If we wanna know why we are where
we are today
as an ummah,
what are we living for?
How many of us pray at night?
How many of us stand
at night at least once a week
and cry to Allah
How many of us fast
once or twice a month?
How many of us are doing
secret deeds
in an age of exhibition, the circus of
Instagram and TikTok?
Who are those people
who sometimes they hide their good?
Everything doesn't have to be shared.
If we evaluate
just our attitude towards wealth,
the acquisition of wealth,
and who we admire,
who we wanna be like,
will tell us a lot about ourselves.
So the first,
The second
is to distance myself,
to separate
from certain components of the dunya.
And the last was,
and the third
is to control my will,
that I don't
live just for this world.
This stuff is hard, man. By no means
am I claiming
that
I I like reading this book because when
I read it, I'm like, oh my gosh,
I have a lot of work to do
on myself.
So by no means am I here talking
in the voice of, like, yo, I did
this. Oh, no, man.
Absolutely not.
Passionately
getting upset.
Why did Allah
give that person those Gucci tennis shoes and
I didn't get them?
Really?
Gosh dang, man. That's what you live for
then?
Why did I get into this graduate school
and someone else did?
Being able to
eventually understand how I can pull away from
it.
And then internally
internally
checking my purpose. What am I determined? What
drives me?
Is it the likes in the heavens or
the likes on the gram?
What pushes me?
What is the intrinsic
gas that operates the motor of my purpose?
That's what I gotta get into.
The book we're reading, this is the 14th
lesson. Masha'Allah. Welcome.
The methodology of the worshipers who are headed
to Allah
by Abuhamd
al Qazari
And as for the component of zuhid
that you cannot control
is that Allah
takes to love
the unhealthy
love of this world
from
the heart of his servant
or her.
Sheikh, he says,
and the which you and I have control
over by.
Right?
Those three things that we we mentioned,
not seeking something that I don't need,
pulling away from it and controlling my
determination. He said all of that is the
beginnings of the second part of Zuhud where
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala brings light to the
heart and grants someone the ability to see,
and they longer know I have those have
those unhealthy attachments. And this happens to all
of us. Have you ever, like, looked back
at your life and there were things, like,
you really wanted? You had to have it.
Oh my gosh. I have to have it.
It's the most important thing in your life.
Then you look back at it, you're like,
that was so miniscule.
Why why why was I going crazy over
that?
Wasn't even important
because now you're you're dilated. You see in
a bigger way.
Allah
So therefore,
if a person does that,
they no longer seek what they don't have
unless they have to have it. That's different.
Opulence.
And they distance themselves from the unhealthy components
that they have in their life.
And that they begin to control their determination
and their will.
For the sake of Allah.
Because the greatness of Allah's promises and rewards
by remembering
the shortcomings of the dunya.
Then Allah,
they will inherit
that guidance in their hearts, which is
He says out of all of those things
that we talked about,
the most difficult one
out of not seeking what you don't have,
separating from things that are unhealthy
and controlling
your internal
drive,
the most difficult is controlling your internal drive.
Getting to the the reality of what you
live for.
What's my purpose? What drives me?
You Allah.
He said, how many people they left it,
but they still want it.
How many people pulled away from something maybe
they had to? Maybe it was harming their
job, harming their family.
But inside, like, yo, if I could still
do that, I would do it.
Said that this
cutting off that will
from wanting what's unhealthy in this world
is
hard.
Extremely difficult.
And this is the essence of the entire
discussion.
Is it getting to the heart of it?
So think about the words of Allah.
Allah says in the Quran that this
everlasting abode of the hereafter,
We have made it for those who do
not
want
to have an Ulu in the earth.
Think about social media culture.
Social media media certainly has its benefits, but
we have to discipline it and control it,
that it really pushes us to live beyond
who we are
instead of to embrace who we're not.
So if I'm worried about living who I
who who who I'm
beyond who I am
and not embracing what I'm not, this is
delusion.
And it's gonna lead to arrogance.
And corruption.
This is interesting. Right? Because if you think
about the verse, it didn't say anything about,
like, not asking for what you don't have
or, like, separating from the dunya. The entire
verse said that the key to having success
in the next life
is not to want.
Allah says who wants
to cultivate the hereafter
will increase them
in their produce,
and who wants to cultivate
the dunya?
We'll increase them in that but they'll have
no,
nothing,
no portion in the hereafter.
Whoever wants
is this dunya.
They live for that.
We will we will we will bring it
to them.
Right? Whoever wants to live,
whoever wills to live for the
and struggles for it.
And he said, think about all these verses
about the hereafter is talking about what you
want.
What you want.
Didn't mention any of the other things. So
the sheikh is saying this is used to
support the idea that the key to all
of it is what drives us.
So therefore, this is a very important thing.
Then he continues
Next
week, we're gonna pick up on this part.
He talks about how can you strengthen your
will
And how can you and I strengthen our
focus
when we look at this world
so that we're able to be,
you know, have
determination
in living for the hereafter.
For next week
and then in that he's going to define
this balance. Maybe somebody's listening and I said
this so many times
that
anything you hear should be understood in moderation.
He's not saying
turn your back on everything
nor is he saying, you know, jump into
the world with impunity.
Balance.
Balance. Balance. Balance.
We're gonna talk about that.
Someone's asking,
I save these every time and also I
post a
good
copy of it on my YouTube page as
well. All my lectures you can find on
my YouTube page
that are long like this. Thank you for
asking.
Someone's asking about
and we know is the prophet
when he saw this boy and his hair
was, like, uneven.
This is
means though as mentioned by
scholars of
and mentioned by Saidi Imam, is
when, like, I have hair here, no hair
here, hair here, no hair here, hair here,
no hair here.
Basically, like, I tried to cut myself. You
know what I'm saying? It's all crazy.
It's not talking about fades.
It's not talking about stuff like that, man.
That that is not the application of the
hadith.
Do you still have the Snapchat account where
you ask my any questions you have? Wallahi.
I became so busy. You know, babies and
bills, man.
Sounds like a rap album, babies and bills.
But mashAllah,
I answer questions from time to time here
on on the gram,
Masha'Allah.
So I'll try to do better. You can
send me something, I'll try to respond, Insha'Allah.
Any questions here on
the where the NYU folks at?
Welcome, welcome,
What do you think about hitting cups together
and saying cheers?
It depends what's in the cup.
It depends what's in the cup.
Right?
So
it depends what's in the cup.
Where can I ask you questions other than
the live?
You know, that's difficult, man. Unfortunately,
the time that I have these days because
of school,
and other responsibilities
is difficult
to, to find that time. You know? Does
Imam Al Khazali discuss despair, hopeless? Absolutely.
He is going to talk about despair and
hopelessness later on.
You can ask questions here or you can
send it to me. I don't
get the opportunity to check my messages like
I used to.
It's tomorrow Ashura.
Man, I'm not getting involved in that.
Just go to your local masjid, Askar Imam,
or call look at the website on your
local masjid. Just follow your local masjid,
Don't make this hard, man. Just follow your
local scholars.
Someone asked, how do you know you're not
properly balancing the deen and the dunya?
First and foremost, through akham. That's why we
have filk. What is the purpose of filk?
The purpose of filk is to help us
scale scaffold the Ibadah
in a balanced way.
So what fiqh says is haram, I should
treat it as haram. What firq says is
fard. I should treat it as fard.
What firq says is impermissible.
I treat it as such. What firq says
is an obligation,
I treat it as such. What firq says
is permissible,
makru or muba,
I treat it as such. That's how I
stay balanced.
Most of the time what happens is people
treat the like it's haram, the haram like
it's mustahab, the mustahab like it's form. It's
chaos.
That's so beautiful, Yasmin.
Is it halal to own a service dog
and keep it in the house?
Absolutely. Because you have a need. Right? This
is a service dog.
So, of course, if somebody has a need
we used to have years
ago at UC Berkeley. There was a brother
who was blind.
He was a genius. He was a lawyer.
Subhanallah, UC Berkeley. He went to law school,
UC Berkeley. He was blind, and he used
to come to the masjid with his dog,
and he would pray and go.
And some people, they got angry and he
said to them,
I'm already blind, right? Like,
I already live a very lonely life.
Now you wanna kick me out of the
masjid then?
So if there is a illah or some
kind of need,
of course, a service dog, may Allah bless
you and cure you, insha'Allah, and help whoever
needs the service dog.
And the failure of humanity to serve one
another is now we have to turn to
dogs to serve us.
Right? The failure of us collectively as a
species to love and care for each other
and to share
and to be selfless, now people have to
turn to other sources
of service.
And of course, certainly,
this is not to undermine the importance of
service dogs, but just to say like, subhanAllah,
allahu akbar.
So can you talk about this is such
a great question Faltima, may Allah bless you,
mashallah.
Come on NYU people,
y'all getting taken out by the Instagram people,
man.
Fatima comes in and asks such a great
question. Question is can you talk about the
afterlife for people who died from or with
mental illness?
Allahu Akbar.
SubhanAllah.
Fatima, I'm so sorry.
I had a roommate once that had a
mental illness, a very serious mental illness.
And I've seen,
you know,
how the stigma of people that have mental
illness
in a second,
his challenge
of just like functioning man
was incredible. So people who die from mental
illness, we know that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is just
and we understand that people who die of
mental illness and people that have those challenges
if they die, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
going to judge them according to his mercy.
Right? And within that mercy is the idea
of their ability.
So what they were able to do and
what they had the ability to do,
that's where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala comes in.
So
most definitely Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Wa Rahim
on Ghafoorun.
In fact, there's this the the hadith of
the man
when he
died, you know, he said to his companions,
his family,
burn my body and spread the ashes everywhere.
And Sahih Muslim then when he's resurrected, this
is unacceptable in Islam. We don't believe in
cremation
when that it's acceptable for us. When he's
resurrected, Allah
asked him, why did you do that? He
said,
because I've feared you.
So because of his emotional state, Allah says
that he forgive him, enters him into Jannah.
Also the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam,
who?
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
said that there's a man who loses everything
in the desert. This hadith is related by
a Bukhari and Muslim and he finds what
he thought he lost and he's so happy.
He's so happy
that he says,
He says, oh, Allah, I am your lord
and you're my slave. This is Kufr.
But the prophet said, Allah will forgive him
because
because he was so happy. So if that's
the case with people
who out of you know, they're not suffering
from mental illnesses, but they're overcome by emotions
and Allah forgives them, then what about people
who are suffering with the emotional
and mental illness?
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is so forgiving, so
loving, alhamdulillah,
So Kareem, alhamdulillah,
alhamdulillah.
What is the argument over dogs in Islam
and what are the opinions on? So that's
a full that's a, like, a week in
class, but very simple he put,
the majority of ulama do not allow dogs
in the house unless there is a reason.
Like, for example, a service dog or someone
needs security,
right,
and and outside of that,
even the Malekis, this is kind of some
people talk about it, they don't allow dogs
in the home.
Only the though consider dogs not to be
nudges
So we don't, in our training, consider dogs
to be nudges.
That's a simple, like, quick
let's not turn this into a dog.
A dogathon.
How do we know we are fulfilling our
duty to family and parents?
Mashallah,
Mashallah,
what a
great question.
How do I know I'm fulfilling
my duty
to my wife,
to my parents,
to my kids?
Is I ask them,
am I doing a good job?
Right? Ideally, in any normal situation,
not in situations that are not normal, but
in normal situations,
the most important thing families can do is
communicate.
Unfortunately,
people don't value communication
and that leads to the destabilization
of relationship.
But that's the best way is to ask.
My mother was dying, I saw my mother
die in front of me, subhanAllah,
and I asked my mother, are you happy
with me? She said yes,
Ask my wife, are you happy with me?
Yes.
Okay. Ask my kids, are you happy with
me as Baba? Yes.
And if they say no, what can I
do to be better?
How do you know Allah is pleased with
you? Masha'Allah
sundus.
Such a good question.
Imam al Wa Hazibi said, if you wanna
know if Allah is pleased with you,
ask yourself if you're pleased with Allah.
If I wanna know that Allah is pleased
with me, let me ask myself,
am I pleased with Allah?
How do you balance taking care of yourself
without while taking care of others?
I think it's very very important to have
let me phrase this in a very, wise
way if I can.
I think that is extremely important and sign
of a mature human being
and an intelligent human being
that you have created healthy limits in your
life.
That's very important. Your life has to be
structured.
So I think that family is important as
long as family doesn't
run over you
and mistreat
you even in the name of religion,
right, and and cause you pain and suffering
or abuse.
Same thing with friends,
same thing with community,
right? That they have to respect my boundaries.
Boundaries aren't a bad thing.
You know, my daughter is 20 years old.
My conversation with her is
tell me what where you wanna be independent.
Some that we never talk with our kids
about, independence,
because we're scared of it. But you know
what?
It's sign of a sign of a mature
person that they understand where and how
they want to be
independent,
have their own satan life
is very important.
What should I do if I live in
an environment
that does not support being religious? I mean,
what do those what do I do with
those people? So first of all, we need
to define
what does it mean to be religious.
What does religious mean to you?
So you can type that in the chat
box and that will allow me to answer
that question better. What does it mean to
live religious?
Right?
How to not lose motivation when on the
quest of knowledge,
especially when it starts getting difficult because when
it starts getting difficult, that means you're growing,
right? When it starts getting it depends what
we mean by difficult
but if you start to feel a little
bit challenged,
we've all been there, man,
and that's where you have to push through
and after a while Alhamdulillah,
it will become easy.
We'll take a few more questions
and then we have to
get ready for Maghrib.
Maghrib, but always a pleasure. So I'm gonna
try every week to leave like 30 minutes
just for q and a.
Any you can ask anything, Insha'Allah.
Any questions,
feel free to ask that are religious
religious related.
That's that's that's my specialty is that I
can't talk about things that I'm not trained
in.
But if there's any other questions,
we
can
take
them
now.
If
not,
Why is it that when we get closer
to Allah the dunya falls apart?
I don't think that that happens every time
but certainly happens every once in a while
because when we become aware of Allah's
permanence
then
the the temporary world becomes much more amplified.
And as we become more aware of righteousness
and piety,
we also become much more
aware of sin.
But I think we have to if you
could reach out to me, we can walk
through that. What does that mean that the
dunya falls apart? That's an abstraction.
Just like when someone said be religious. What
do you mean by be religious? What do
you mean by the dunya falls apart?
Can we still reap the benefits of the
wisdom in Imam Ghazali's book
even if we practice it alone as opposed
to together with a community or a person?
Romana, that is such a great question. May
Allah bless you. Absolutely.
And sometimes it's safer to be alone. Right?
Sometimes
communities can be a challenge.
Sometimes I may live near a mosque, unfortunately,
who may
what
think about some things.
How to know the answer of.
So I actually have a lecture on YouTube
if you go to my YouTube page on
hard decisions. And if you watch that, I
go through pretty much all you need to
know about is
Masha'Allah. Allahu Akbar, listen to this question.
I've fostered twins
2.5
years old and I fell pregnant and due
in December, InshaAllah. I have been struggling and
feel heavy in my heart, but taking care
of them as a mother wants to fight
for them. Allah. First of all,
may Allah
bless you
for adopting children. This is very different than
what people think. People think adoption is Haram
and Islam, they're confusing terms, the danger of
terms.
Number 2 is may Allah bless those children
and bless you with
and increase
you in to,
be there for them. And then number 3,
congratulations
on your pregnancy.
Super exciting. So awesome.
I remember my wife came to me and
she said, I have something to tell you.
I said, what? She said, I'm pregnant. I
said something totally stupid. I said,
what gave you that idea?
Don't say that man, don't say that. Brothers
write that down in gold, do not say
that. What you wanna say is
I said, what gave you that idea?
So I think it's important that you do
a few things. Number 1 is take a
few steps back
and celebrate some wins, man. You know, sometimes
what I notice with mothers is they don't
celebrate any wins.
Everything's a failure.
Oh my gosh. You know, my my child
refused
to eat the gluten free crack cracker, non
grain cracker today, and the world's coming to
an end. No, man. The world is not
gonna come to an end. It's okay.
So sometimes
celebrate success
even though you may feel like you're not
doing good. You know, I've known people like
mothers who get get down when their kids
are constipated, but that's beyond you. You can't
you can't do anything about it. Right? I
get, you know, it's like
celebrate and pat yourself on the back. Number
2 is you gotta get your husband involved
as best you can. Tell him, look, man.
I need help, bro.
I gotta have some help here. Pregnancy
is war on the hormones,
right? It does so much damage to the
body, to the mind, to the emotional state
of people. Like, it's very difficult, and it's
unfortunate that we see they keep showing these
women in the Olympics who are pregnant and
went to the Olympics. That's, like, 0.1% of
the world.
That is and that's also how they market
motherhood, right? They're capitalizing on motherhood.
It's very difficult, right? Pregnancy is very hard,
so brothers, be better listeners.
Husbands,
be better listeners.
Be more generous and be volunteering when your
wife is pregnant.
Don't expect them to be able to do
things that they did before. It's very difficult.
They're going to war right now for your
child.
Masha'Allah.
The third thing is
try to find good support groups.
So
you wanna find a good support group of
maybe pregnant women, women who are going through
pregnancy, women who've adopted and are currently pregnant,
So you can share best practices, Insha'Allah,
and keep yourself motivated, Insha'Allah.
So someone's, you know, saying,
it's a very important post here. Someone's saying
there are so many hardships and and sadness
in the world.
I have 4 kids and I work. My
life is so much better, alhamdulillah, than millions
of others in the world, but I feel
guilty. So
we should not allow
the difficulties
of the world
to blot out our happiness with Allah
and our
zeal to heal this fractured world. So why
my heart is broken
and I'm crushed because I have so many
friends from Afghanistan. I have so much
love, alhamdulillah. I lived in
Afghan communities
in different parts of my life, alhamdulillah. I
have a
a a a love for paya,
a love for Pashtun, a love for Dari,
a love for the history, the Islamic history,
and this incredible land,
and my heart since the seventies, since 1979,
breaks,
but at the same time,
I know that Allah
commands me to do good
and commands me to work hard and to
realize that the hereafter
is better than this dunya
and to do my best to help others
and to be part of the solution. I
should not allow myself to be so consumed
by the problems of the world that I
no longer have the energy to be a
solution to them.
La'a.
And as we finish,
we ask Allah
by all of his names and attributes,
the weight of his and
the number of his creation
and his words to protect and bless and
bring peace
and love and tranquility to our brothers and
sisters in Afghanistan.
As we ask Allah
to protect our brothers and sisters in Ethiopia
and in
Algeria
and Turkey
and Bosnia
and Mali, in the Maldives,
in Malaysia.
We see again today political
challenges impacting Malaysia where COVID nineteen is
having incredible impact. We pray for our brothers
and sisters in Yemen, Palestine, and Iran,
and Iraq,
and Syria.
We ask Allah
to unite us together as we united tonight
for this short gathering in the hereafter.
We ask Allah
to help us take the that we heard
and implement it in our lives.
We ask Allah
to love us.
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to forgive
us.
We ask
to accept us even though we have so
many shortcomings and so many mistakes
and so many,
sin. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala We
ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to
allow us to be khayra ummah alatiuhrijatli
nas.