Qur’an Convos #2 – How to Fight Spiritual Distractions

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah and welcome to Quran Convos a Podcast where we explore the many ways in which you can connect with the Quran. In season one we're covering the theme of tender bone or what it means to reflect deeply on the Quran. And this is based on the works of Imam Al Ghazali Rahim Allah on the 10 inward acts for the Quran re citation

Alhamdulillah today we are excited to welcome our dear brother and esteemed guests. Dr. Sufouh Chowdhury, may Allah Subhana Allah reward him he's a research scholar in Islamic theology and philosophy. Welcome to Quran Convos doctor. So for those that are wanting to come to LA How are you today

aliqua la Mora

occur to share It's my honor and pleasure to be with you today. Thank you for having me. Murder coffee on Joseph McMullen. Before we start Dr. Cerf Hello, I would like to ask you a personal question we usually ask our guests and this inshallah Tada is to motivate those who are listening to connect deeply with the Quran and to understand what it means to try to connect to the Quran. Can you share perhaps one instance in your life when you were reading the Quran or listening to the Quran and it evoked a deep emotional reaction? What was happening? What did you read or hear? What did it make you feel? Of course, feel free to share in proportion to how comfortable you are

inshallah? Sure, because I love hearing them. Smilla Rahmanir Rahim Al hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah. Are they eligible for me human wallet? Share for that? They Yes, that is a personal question. Masha Allah, it is a very penetrative question, I guess.

one surah that is one of my favorites. My personal favorites is chapter 19. Surah Madigan

the chapter

on Maria Malika Salaam. And what I found when listening and reading passages from the surah

lots of ideas were provoked lots of thinking me and lots of ideas did pop into my head, but one idea was,

at the time, the idea of vulnerability

and especially the form

of the vulnerable body. So, you know, in those who perhaps are familiar with the Surah, I think in verse four,

Allah azza wa jal mentioned that Zecharia allihies Salam, because it's talking about Zakariya, he says called RB one and alpha mu Minnewaska. Allah so Shaybah Well, Mr. COVID or I cannot be Sharqiya Zakariya alayhi salam says,

Allah, my bones have become very brittle. And my hair has become as you know, as become white in the spread across my head and I've always made your ad to you and never been disappointed. So here we see

sort of Zakariya and he's mentioning his frailty in his old age.

And of course he also mentioned about his wife not being able to bear a child you know, he says when you shift to our lemon water or you will kind of similar to our pillar, so heavily Mila Dunker Walia?

Zachary Alehissalaam says I'm really concerned about

like, sort of my relatives, my faith and my relatives that have come after me and my wife is unable to bear child again, this kind of

physical impediment. So he says for heavily Mr. Dunker Walia. So please grant me an air and then Allah azza wa jal accepts the DUA and grants him Yeah, only his Salam. Now that's one instance of vulnerability but a bit further down in the Surah.

We see we read about Maria Malika Sudan, and how she is exposed to the physical stress, harm and danger due to her carrying Nebia isa Alayhis Salam and

the Quran mentions

that she you know, because of pangs, labor the pangs of labor

you know, she records her distress you know for a Jahaz mahal that you did there and neglect on it yeah late and you need to cover the head of account and SEM and see the pains of labor drove Maryam Alia salaam, to the trunk of a palm tree and she cried out, you know, I wish I had died before this day, and I was something forgotten. So again, the sort of the physical

vulnerability mentioned in the Surah. Interesting enough, so raise your hand I'm going on a bit here. But there's also this kind of social vulnerability or Medea, Malika Sadam because because, you know, she's carrying Isa, her people and Allah mentions to be here, Omaha middle. Then she carried this newborn Nebia Ali salaam to her people. Paulo Yeah, Maria Mala, Cogito che and ferrea. And her people just are shocked, or Mary hat. How can you certainly done a hack I can, you've done a horrible thing, and brought a child, you know,

your father was not an indecent man and your mother was not unchaste. And so there's a social stigma and social vulnerability because you know, there's that harm, where society is against you, you are now exposed to danger anyway, both both manage their vulnerability through seeking help from Allah azza wa jal to overcome it. And so it just reminded me of how you will have vulnerability that is embodied, you know, rooted in our very physical nature, and our physical states and Allah acknowledges this. So although we may be talking about something spiritual today, and there is spiritual vulnerability, but that physical vulnerability really stuck with me and I remember it

every time I read the solar

panel for Shana doctors.

Subhanallah, when you said that you reminded me of a number of students, attendees, random community members, we need to ask this question about how has the Quran impacted you? How does it speak to you in terms of

its divine origins? How do you know it's from Allah subhanaw taala. Aside from all the different facets of ages are the miraculous nature of the Quran, the most risk, the most oft cited response, at least anecdotally, with me, has been the personal impact of the Quran, how it's so relevant to our needs, psychological, emotional, societal, legal moral needs at from every angle, our means, our way of reasoning, our way of thinking and feeling. And so just this one example you shared of Medea Mati has set up and the societal pressure, it's a very real pressure that a lot of people go through. And oftentimes, it's one of the reasons that for some people, they hide their identity as

Muslims, or they practice as Muslims, if they're proud of it, and they have conviction in it. So the fact that there are all these specific irrelevant, I don't even want to say gems because it's understating what we really have here. It's just so real, and it's coming from Allah subhanaw taala, the one who knows us in and out, does that clock in appreciating about a Coffee Company.

In last week's episode, Dr. Cerf, we actually discussed the importance of appreciating the Speaker of the Quran. And so now inshallah Tada we want to focus on the reader, the human being who is reading the Quran. So the next inward act from emammal of azalea Rama Rama is that we are focusing on the topic of the attention of the heart and the abandonment of inner thoughts and unlike other things that we read, the Quran has guidelines, rulings etiquettes that our reader should respect. So for example, we have the importance of reading with proper pronunciation as you're learning the letters of course, learning to read with proper pronunciation of the Arabic letters, or the example

of making model or being in a state of purification, depending on the neighborhood before we pick up the must haves and so on and so forth. It's interesting that

digital Islam mentioned Imam Al Ghazali mentioned that

regarding the verse in nanana, Xin Nicaragua in Allahu Allah Hafiz Allah azza wa jal says that you know, he, of course Allah revealed this dhikr this Quran and Allah has taken on

that its preservation is taken on he's taking it to himself to preserve it and you remember his early interestingly mentioned that he says woman has to bear the hefty film crew well the Masai five is the Dharma to Tilawat to you when more than 100 EuroCity man pm the derby he was Shruti Palmer half about the Hala Murphy human and man about in I will add a viola. So how gentle Islam he says one of the ways that we can understand or the means by which Allah has protected this Quran or preserved it in the hearts of men and women and within the Messiah hive

within the pages is the believer continuously reciting it

and studying it diligently. But, but they must be done.

marilao PMBA Derby He will surely but they must be done properly, you know by observing its etiquettes and its rightful conditions. And then he says one more half of a tiara Murphy human and Marian bolt in I will add that the viola not only are the external etiquettes and codes that must be followed for the Quran to be preserved.

But there must be an interior,

there must be interior correctness, there must be certain actions that are not outwardly, but rather they are particular to the individual internal to the individual. And to the two that you mentioned, hear from Zachary is one that the two actions is attaining the presence of presence of the heart, where he mentioned as have oral

and the other is eliminating inner, inner chattering or inner speech, what's done is to Hadith from NUS. Now,

these are not having a presence of heart like ensuring that we have the utmost focus and concentration on our Quran and having our undivided attention.

On the Quran. These are not necessarily externally observable, they're obviously registered by people can tell if someone's been focused or not. But ultimately, bringing yourself before the Quran in a certain kind of state. That's interior to someone that has a color that presence of the heart is an internal action of someone. Similarly, when we talk about sort of

Gi from knifes, or oneself speech or one's own thoughts, desires, they could include, you know, unfortunate whisperings West Russa

that controlling that is also an inner inaction. So just as there are outward ways to preserve the Quran, there are inward ways to preserve to ensure that the Quran is preserved. And that is by having a presence of heart, ensuring that we have an utmost focus and concentration and eliminating any internal chattering or internal musings or thoughts or distracting thoughts.

So these two are very important as conditions, or as a means by which the Quran is preserved. Subhan Allah does that market appreciating that so further in the presence of the heart and the inner speech of the self, basically ensuring that that doesn't splinter one's focus into various directions? It's interesting when this is applied to the question of, are we allowed to, let's say, recite, or review the Quran, especially for those who have memorized a lot and they're always wanting to review review review. And they're multitasking, right? They're driving or house chores or walking, whatever it may be. And one of my teachers said, although you are allowed to in terms of

the fifth ruling, multitask, you want to ensure that you're doing something that does not distract you internally in terms of the state of your heart and your mind, because you are able to, let's say drive and review a Quran and focus on what you are reciting, but he said sort of how I remember this, he said the most important thing is that your heart is there, because it'll actually give you blood okay in your Maharajah of the Quran and holding on to it. And so doctors have wrote maybe we can ask this question as well a follow up. What makes the reading and the recitation of the Quran different for us, as believers reading it rather than let's say reading something else, what

distinguishes this from that?

Well, of course, I mean, the kalam of Allah azza wa jal, the creator

is not the same as Kalam Bashar or you know the word of human beings. So, the speech of Allah and the speech of human beings, you know, are

infinitely different. So, it becomes a serious matter because this isn't any old speech.

And so, there has to be a certain

mode of approaching it and engaging with it, and that the Quran often highlights the need for purity.

So, there must be a engagement with this Qalam that is free from impurities, there are ritual impurities of course, but there are also impurities that are internal to a person so they could be the, the states could be sort of, unfortunately, you know, states of disobedience, recalcitrance from sort of from hearing Allah's words. So, really purity isn't necessarily just having physical purity to look for and as mentioned, lay your muscle isn't Mapa Haroon only

A pure can touch it.

And there's a whole legal discussion about that, as you know, Chef, but nevertheless,

we got to be mindful of not only our external ritual state of purity, but our internal spiritual state of, of purity. So connecting with our nature requires those to interface of those two things.

You can bring up a number of really crucial, I think, follow ups and I know the, perhaps those who are listening are going to be wondering about sometimes the first thought is like, Okay, what's the ruling on this, the ruling on that touching the most highfalutin, although that's for that's beyond the scope of what we're discussing here for those who are listening. And I appreciate shift the way that you discussed it and raised it. But I want to go back to that very first point the the emphasis on purity, the emphasis of being in a state of purity. Oftentimes people are thinking about the rulings in terms of woowoo but also being pure in terms of the state of the heart and realizing that

it's a factor in how receptive your heart is to the Quran and how much you are able to connect to the Quran. And this is why a number of scholars would write about the etiquettes of connecting with the Quran or the advocates of the students of the Quran are those who memorize it oftentimes would start with intentions or Taqwa they will talk about God consciousness, mindfulness of Allah subhanaw taala in different ways. And this is why when someone asked management Anis Rahim Allah Yeah, Abdullah, is there anything that will improve my memory meaning of the Quran, and Malik responded, if anything will improve it, it is to give up sinfulness, the disobedience of Allah subhanho wa

taala, because there is an impact that it will have in terms of our receptive receptiveness towards the Quran connecting with the Quran, and so on and so forth. But here on this point, a lot of times when we hear that we should purify ourselves in order to connect with the Quran. Oddly, some people might feel insulted in some way like they are being called impure. And so I've heard this before myself, and it is a common question. So maybe we can answer this. I know it's a theological slash, philosophical in some sense. Question is the human being, according to Islamic theology, is the human being impure.

I mean, according to our Aqeedah, our belief is that we don't have this idea of a fallen nature in the way that Christianity took up that idea, there is no bad or broken nature

from which we are to be redeemed or saved. So there's no salvation in that sense. I've been saved from some kind of inherited,

sinful state, we don't have that idea of transfer of sin.

So, no, we don't have this idea of where we are intrinsically impure. Rather, you know, what is what is the case is that we have the potential to, you know, transgress, to defile and to violate, and the Malayaka mentioned is the angels did raise it with Allah as the origin, that you know, would Allah place one of his representatives on Earth,

given them free will, that are going to, you know, cause corruption and shed blood. So we have the potential to sin and violate, defile, and things like that, but we don't have, we're not, we don't want that we don't have this sort of intrinsic, broken nature. And so Hamdulillah this is not from, from our, our key that our belief now where I think some issues of this idea arise, is with regards to the idea of something called the NEF. And it's variously translated as a very

sort of complex term, it occurs many times and often and in many different variances. And it's variously translated as the self, the soul and things like that. But if we were to just to sort of narrow it down,

to give two broad meanings, the number one meaning of the knifes can be, or is the power of anger and sort of your base sexual appetites.

And in this sense, the word knifes is a comprehensive word for all the evil attributes, that a human being attaches itself to or acquires like jealousy, hatred, arrogance, things like that. So I think some people think, because we have enough's, we must therefore be intrinsically bad or evil. And so our purpose in life is to rid ourselves from our knifes, that's not quite accurate. It's just enough is a disposition or a power to have aggression and this kind of inclination sexual or base inclination

So what we're required to do is not change our nature. from bad to good. We're required to struggle against the knifes when it becomes overpowering. So this is where we get this idea of when we're headed from knifes. So animal Jade Mangia, mangia had enough Sophie Farah Tila will come up all those who are early he salatu salam and Hadith assassin. hadith is a is a is a good Hadith. And so the Prophet said that the Mujahid the combatant the fighter is the one who fights against his own appetites and desires, ages knifes. So we're required to bring the knifes under control and subjugate it.

And it's a condition to enter Jannah actually, in fact, so there is that meaning of pneus and then there's the knifes that is the human being in reality the person itself and this is described in various ways in the Quran in various states. We have the three famous states mentioned in the Quran, we have a Nussle Amara Bisou the soul that is the enjoins or inclines to evil and this is a statement of an individual who protests and you know, and relinquish his obedience to Allah azza wa jal and really follows his desires and passions. That's the initial amount of his thought, that's the individual who has succumb to his passion. Then you have a nest Allah wormer, the self accusing

soul, this is a state of a person who's struggling against their passions and the desires and their rebuking themselves for neglecting worshipping Allah as a virgin. And then you've got the third type of nuts are individual. And that is the enough to look like in this is the individual who is calm and ready to surrender to Allah Having eliminated all distractions and disturbances from the design so so it's not that we have we have an evil nature, we have potentials to be bad, and potential to take on bad qualities. And if we do we are obligated to struggle to read them. To rid ourselves of them. Allah knows best among us. Does that close it? And that's a summary. That's a great

explanation. You made me think of the soldier ships when I've seen one master, we're almost prophetess swears by the neffs.

Alhambra, Fujiwara, whatever gave you the potential to choose the path of evil majeure and toward the path of God consciousness, mindfulness, righteousness, positive lemons, and then it continues on this path. Allah says he has succeeded the one who purifies the knifes. And it's interesting to see how there are different contexts and different usages of the term. And oftentimes, as you stated, sometimes students would ask about it because it seems to be confusing. It is sometimes, as you stated, Dr. Soto, it's interchangeable with the concept of the soul or a ruler. According to many scholars, in the Quran, it's used interchangeably and Allah Subhana Allah knows best. But in the

context of, you know, purification of the heart, we're usually talking about those basic desires we want to overcome. And subhanAllah I'm thinking about a statement from Imam Al Ghazali Rahim Allah as well. And he he says, What's translated as The amazing thing is that you're willing to punish your family members or friends for their mistakes and their shortcomings with the belief that if you let them off the hook, they're going to rebel against you. But then you let your neffs off the hook. So you make a mistake, you let your chips off the hook. Even though you are your biggest enemy. The harm that your neffs inflicts upon you is greater than anything your family can do, because the most

your family can do is disturb your worldly life, which will all perish. But your enough's yourself can cause you to lose the everlasting life of the afterlife. So therefore it is more worthy of punishment and discipline. So Jihad doneness really here shouldn't be a focal point. And although it seems to be a side point, oftentimes, we we don't let people off the hook very easily, you know, one or two mistakes and we hold these grudges or assumptions or thoughts about them. But we're always letting the neffs go and that is a very dangerous thing, especially if it becomes a habit. And we ask Allah subhanaw taala to protect us alarm. I mean, that just a follow up on that. No, we know

that the heart can become distracted the neffs it has its own role its own. It's a factor in terms of its impact. What are the things that can distract our hearts from Allah subhanaw taala and make it difficult to connect spiritually.

Right. I mean, you remember like as early mentions,

I mean, first of all, of course, you know, to

There are a number of ways by which

I have diagnosed

a lack of connectivity with a person and Allah azza wa jal or the Quran

that 100 Islam Yama, Rizzoli mentions that

distractions of the heart from Allah and sort of spiritually accessing and connecting to look for and lysing to things

elsewhere in other places he gives other reasons but who I think perhaps might suffice here. So one is giving into one's

wants and passions and desires and to prioritizing worldly matters.

So you remember that was early mentioned

in the section that Aquila McKenna to share her work, I shouldn't do our command cannot manual Column A should do it together Akula Maha fan who call it dunya Alberta Gillian Manaphy.

budgeter Islam says the more the more one's desires accumulate and intensify in the heart.

The more the meanings of the Quran become veiled from that person.

And the walk the more that one makes matters of this dunya this world the less significant is in one's heart, the closer one will be to the Quranic meanings being unveiled to them. So the 100 that Islam is saying the more we can control

if we control our intense desires and wants, and that can include our self chattering as well our daddy from knifes, the more we control that and lower that. And the more we we make the worldly matters less significant in our eyes, the more the Quranic meanings will open up to us, there'll be unveiled and really, we live in a culture shift, I mean, were

well under a system as well, that regulate that regulates our lives, built on ideas, like you know, sort of my own freedom to do absolutely whatever I want to do and be whatever I want to be this culture of hedonism, you know, self pleasure, self gratification is the most important thing, materialism you know, physical goods, we should always be looking to buy things a more and more. And because things are things apparently make us happy.

And like emotivism, so morality is based on how we feel. There are other ideas as well. But it shows you how the kind of environment we live in prioritizes pleasure maximization, and acquiring goods. And satisfying these these two things, becomes our preoccupation. It becomes our, our goals, it becomes the things that distract us from what is really most important. So when we, when we become busy, with maximizing our pleasure, and busy with acquiring material things, these two become the most biggest impediments or distractions from Allah as as well, because our focus becomes on these things. But I think that you might as well is diagnosis I think, is very, very pertinent. And

so following our desires, and prioritizing worldly matters, these things can become

impediments, and they can lead us to a kind of

a disoriented heart, the heart that is agitated, there's not quite, that doesn't have Sycuan it doesn't have that stillness and repose and rest that is looking for

subpanel Does that make sense for Shana, that just

it's interesting to see how on that particular note of

the feeling of fulfillment through consumerism, so we're living in a hyper consumerist culture. It's It's just remarkable and astounding, in a very disappointing and harmful way, how much waste there is, number one, and number two, the fact that now there is a movement, even in those societies where there is hyper consumerism, and people are buying, buying, buying, buying and thinking that, you know, the purchase the click of the button, or the app or the delivery itself, when it gets to their homes, that that's going to make them happy. And feeling like they need that as well. And then it starts to, you know, they start to become desensitized that becomes your norm. But now it's gotten

to the point where there's like a backlash now people have to talk about minimalism as a, as a as a means of healing from the clutter around them, that really did not make them happy. So how long and in addition to this, of course, many other other ideas beyond the scope of our discussion, but as you mentioned, the pursuit of instant gratification, or really as many studies are finding today people are not

able to focus people are not able to wait in terms of patients. And I'm not even talking about waiting in line or waiting for like a Wi Fi signal to connect or anything like that people cannot wait for anything. And it's, it's a very sad reality.

You look at the example of reading and education, learning, people are reading, barely reading headlines barely consuming beneficial content. Now, most of it is what's referenced as you know, intellectual junk, it's not helping them to feel truly fulfilled. It's just random, you know, tidbits of this and that videos and headline of certain articles, it's not beneficial. So it's harming people as well in terms of the ability to focus in the state of the heart. May Allah subhanaw taala protect us.

I remember seeing a video. I don't remember the month she had right now I believe it was. He was from Kuwait. But one of the famous machine, they produced this video about locks upon the hearts.

And it was beautiful reference to the idea in Surah 224 FLIR to the baboon and for Anna Mala KHUDOBIN Do they not reflect upon the Quran or are their locks are shackles upon their hearts, and he had people in, in that video within a sheet in the background, you know, doing acts of kindness, but it was like unlocking like literally removing a shackle off of someone else. And the fact that every person makes a difference as well. So when you're working on your purification, you're helping others to connect to Allah subhanaw taala, spiritually. But that verse is a really powerful verse for all of us to use as a daily introspection. Now, think of the idea of the heart, the spiritual

heart, with a lock on a door. So if it's not unlocked, if you're not willing to purify your heart and unlock basically what's behind it, then you cannot reach what's behind that door. And if it's not unlocked in the heart is not going to be as affected in terms of the Quran, or the signs of Allah around us. And this is why so many people come across the Signs of God, and they reject them. So when people come across the clear proofs of the Quran being from a lawsuit Panama, Tala, or the proofs of prophethood, or any other proof of the reality of Allah subhanaw taala, but they have chosen to have shackles locks upon those doors on their hearts. And that's why even as Muslims even

as believers, oftentimes a person reaches a place where spiritually they are. They've reached a plateau, right? So they're not connecting more to the current, they're not improving, they're not moving forward, or they just blatantly refuse to accept the truth. It's the reason that many of us at times will struggle to make progress. May Allah protect us and grant us humility and purify our hearts. The very cure for that shackle is to force yourself to remedy it with the Quran itself. With the Quran, the internal and inward acts of worship that we are mentioning here by Melissa dereham Allah through dua through the thicket. But at the end of the day, it's something that needs to be

guarded it needs to be protected helps us with the purpose of life. It helps us with our worldviews it helps us to deal with everything in the world, but at the end of the day, it's the difference between life and death. May Allah subhanaw taala grant us the life of the heart of no Aloma. I mean, Dr. Sophy broke, I'm sure there's a lot more we can talk about. And I'm sure we can extend this out to several hours, because it's a really beneficial conversation does UCLA hit and for all that you're sharing? Maybe a slightly relevant question here, you've kind of touched upon already. Is there anything practical?

I apologize. I know I'm asking you for explicit examples. Is there anything that let's say at a societal level, many people are engaging in, in terms of leisure or habits or lifestyles, whatever it may be, that they can slowly or immediately start to remove from their habits or their lifestyles, that would conflict with the Quran in their hearts. Like the example of a person who is you know, prescribed a treatment or medication or a certain environment, even even with overcoming you know, alcohol addiction as an example, right? The environment is a factor in that so someone who's trying to take in treatment cannot at the same time be taking in the harmful source or

whatever, it may be the disease intentionally. So is there something people can practically cut out so that their hearts are inshallah Tyler able to connect without distraction or as much distraction? To? You mentioned a beautiful analogy with treatment. And, you know, being an antidote, every kind of treatment has dosages right now, you can't just go to how medicine is going to be taken a certain times. You know, if it's tablets, maybe twice a day or something like that. So, treatments have to come in dosages. So similarly, the way we try and minimize distraction is perhaps by you know, doing too

Picking up parts first, rather than sort of in one go try and in one fell swoop trying to take away all distractions. Yeah, often simple, simple things, the things that we have immediately in front of us, like our devices, some of that, you know, we need to bring them under control, you know,

sort of the amount of hours we spend, just with this finger doing this, whether on a phone or tablet or this on a remote, you know, that's got to stop so, so the kind of

consumption of whatever kind of data or programs or whatever it might be, we need to reduce that

and then start to select, and what's beneficial.

So that we can do other things is, you know,

there is nothing wrong in leisure. And, you know, I had done nothing, you know, making, making oneself, you know, relaxed relaxation, and things like that, know, that the Sharia is not against that, but, but we need to ask,

there is relaxation that can become indulgent, or we indulging in entertainment.

And so we need to make reflect and see, can we eliminate any acts of indulgence? Are we being a bit excessive?

Maybe we can curb curb that a bit. So these kind of sort of maybe some kind of minor adjustments, may help to kickstart that process of eliminating distractions, because I know, some people might be thinking, Well, I'm nowhere near like, Mr. Miller has early, you know, to, you know, who's reached those spiritual heights. But no, the issue is to take medicine in dosages. And so, cut out, access time,

eliminate indulgence, moderate, you know, moderation is important here.

So whether that could be, you know,

moderation in from food all the way to things that one can find pleasurable. And just one thing I want to mention is, within this society, everyone's afraid of

self imposition, like everyone's afraid of, you know, self control, you should everyone espouses idea, we should just be free. If you're hungry, and you like this history, grab it and eat it. If you want to go to this place, don't think just go? If you want to do this thing, don't think just act? No, we're gonna have some restraint.

So I think, you know, it's very important that we start to reflect on our own habits, are we over consuming? Whatever that might be from food to data? Are we over indulging? And so things like that, and it's not very sort of absolutely practical, I think a couple of these things might help

to begin the treatment, and then the actual direct intervention is gonna become necessary. Yeah. Does that muscle inductor separate that is actually very practical, it is really important. May Allah subhanaw, Taala reward you. And really, when, when when we think about, like the concept of just self discipline, or the trait of conscientiousness, even from a secular paradigm has been found to be one that is linked to people's happiness and success, because delayed gratification, in most cases is what gets you ahead, right in your studies in your work in your exercise, your fitness, whatever it may be. And of course, it's a part of Islam, it's actually falls under the concept of

solder, right patience, perseverance and willpower. And I love the example that you shared, it's very practical, cutting out things in certain ways. And I just want us I want our brothers and sisters. And it's a reminder for myself to think about the reality of someone who takes in something harmful 100 times a day, as an example. And they're only reading the Quran once. But without any focus, barely any effort barely reciting on the tongue, the heart is not attentive, maybe they're not even reciting outside of Salah and in Salah it's just a rush, right? They're just trying to get back to what they have to do. Maybe they're checking something off the list, right and obligatory

prayer, but what's the end result or the net result at the end of the day of 100, you know, sins minor or major, and then like, barely putting in any effort in terms of the state of the heart and the Quran, that's just one day, think about the habits that build up what happens after a week, or a month, or a year or 10 years of doing this, you'll start to notice that the phase of, I guess, your spiritual journey, in terms of where you are with Allah subhanaw taala is linked to how much effort you put in through these, these really small habits that accumulate. And that's why in Islam, we're not supposed to be little, something called the Salah, or the minor sins, because accumulated, every

one of these pieces of firewood can make a massive fire as a Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam gave us in the analogy, I guess one advice that I would give on this note to kind of transition us to the closer here a simple advice recite the Quran as though it is your final opportunity in this world. recite the Quran as

towards your final chance in this world to engage with the speech of Allah subhanaw taala knowing you're going to meet him, we have had many brothers and sisters who are given diagnosis of six months or three months or a year and they would share their feeling towards the Quran in that every time now they recite they feel this is my last chance in a dunya to recite so whether or not they understood the TEF see it or even the translation their hearts were attentive. They were there they were present. So recite as though to your final opportunity in this world that may Allah subhanaw taala allow us to die in a good state alone. I mean, Doctor suppose you've given us so many gems but

I want to ask you one last question in this last minute or two inshallah Tada. Connecting with the Quran also includes connecting with the one who conveyed it to us, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So is there a personal plan that speaks to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasallam that you connect with the most or one of the most?

Ah, sure, there are a number of I guess one in the interest of time is in certainly set verse, verse 65, Allah azza wa jal, he says fell out because

I came Kofi mashallah in the home to malaria due to unforeseen problem in Morocco, they recently moved to SEMA. So rough translation is that a lot, as it were just says about the Prophet Alayhi Salatu was Salam. That, you know, Allah takes an oath, that the believers will never have a true or complete or even valid Eman until valid belief until they make you and Prophet alayhi salatu salam, the arbiter or judge in all that their dispute over

from Malaya do think I'm forcing him halogen in Kuwait we send him off to sleep. But that's not enough to make the Prophet an arbiter and a judge. They, they, when they when they accept the prophet as judgment, arbiter they cannot have in their in themselves or their hearts, how much any kind of

sort of hesitancy or doubt, and then accept the Prophet and full submission. And so that verse establishes, you know, the authority of the Prophet alayhi salaatu of the land, you know, our feelings, our predilections, our musings, our wins. Our psychology is not an authority. It's not an authority or a basis for law, morality or spirituality. After Allah azza wa jal is heavy Valley he served as the ultimate authority. So, you know, in a culture where we're told to promote our own psychology, whatever we think and feel, and make that reference and the standard is a reminder that for the believer, Allah and His messenger are the source, the reference and the standard. And you

know, this is This to me is very powerful, but very powerful. Does that more say than Dr. suffered? May Allah subhanaw taala reward you? This does bring us unfortunately, it brings us to the end of the episode in this beautiful discussion. I feel that of course, we can talk for hours about this topic does that make it a doctor? So may Allah subhanaw taala reward you for your time for our brothers and our sisters take advantage of every moment that you have. Take the reminders and the advices and the insights you heard during this episode and others, take notes if you can about the practical things and start implementing and that first step you take is a sign of sincerity and you

will see the fruit in it the baraka in it. May Allah subhanaw taala accept from all of you. This Quran Convo episode has come to an end, but we invite you to start with your own conversation. We invite you to start with your own practices, we invite you to rekindle the things that you have started before by reading from the Quran today by connecting to the Quran in different forms today. And we ask Allah subhanaw taala to accept from all of us and to make us and our loved ones amongst the people of the Quran. Dr. suffereth Joseph McClendon for your time and for your effort. And for our brothers and our sisters. We will see you next time and shall well we'll set them on equal

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