Tom Facchine – Reforming the Self #21

Tom Facchine
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AI: Summary ©

The importance of rewarding people for their actions and creating a sense of success is emphasized in relation to success. The speakers discuss the motivation behind people doing good, including physical rewards and punishments, and the importance of financial incentives for people to achieve success. The speakers emphasize the importance of finding one's own mind to be the highest level of good and breaking through transactional elements in order to transform oneself into a "has been there" moment. The segment ends with a recap of the week's class schedule and work.

AI: Summary ©

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			Bismillah
		
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			Alhamdulillah
		
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			wa salatu salam ala
		
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			Nabina Muhammad Ali Salah while status mean, Aloha, I mean that'd be million feral. No in fact I
mean that
		
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			was eaten and then yeah, I mean
		
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			everybody welcome. I hope you're all doing well.
		
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			It's a cold evening
		
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			in central New York
		
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			and I think we're supposed to get more snow tomorrow, inshallah
		
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			which is fine. For some
		
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			it's Sunday night. So we're talking about tusky. It's enough's performing the self with a raga. But
also Hani, his book, that er, Isla McHattie machete on
		
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			the path to virtue put most idiomatically literally the path to the lofty and noble qualities
		
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			that the city
		
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			wishes you to have.
		
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			Previously, we had talked about zeroing in on virtues, and the interrelationship between them are
all with us for HANA, he was arguing that development of one virtue usually has latent benefits
usually also develops other virtues.
		
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			He gave several examples about how developing one's intellect leads to increased restraint and
generosity, and bravery and justice.
		
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			And how developing one's courage
		
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			also develops a person's restraints and their generosity.
		
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			Today, along with Asami, he's going to talk about intention,
		
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			motivation,
		
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			why we do the things that we do or specifically
		
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			why we would want to do anything good or virtuous in the first place?
		
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			It's going to get into some interesting issues that we don't I don't think talk a lot about.
		
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			Typically,
		
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			we know that things should be intended for Allah subhanaw taala alone.
		
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			But what does that mean?
		
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			What does that look like on the ground? What about if you have mixed intentions?
		
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			is intending something for a loss penalty? Is there just one level to that? Or are there multiple
different levels are some of them loftier and more advanced and more refined than others?
		
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			Are all of us for honey, us for honey is going to get into all of this. But first, he takes a step
back.
		
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			First,
		
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			he takes a step back and he asks a question, a philosophical question, what motivates someone to do
good at all?
		
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			It's related to the last chapter, which is about virtue and how the virtues can actually develop one
another. But it still begs the question, What makes someone motivated to develop virtue?
		
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			He's being a little bit more broad here. He says.
		
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			Why do people do good things?
		
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			What makes them tick? What drives them?
		
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			I would like to see what you guys come up with. For responses. Is there just one thing? Is there a
predominant thing? Is there a shortlist
		
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			of things that usually drive people to do good, right, we're not talking about anything bad here.
		
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			People who want to do good things, whether it's holding the door open for somebody, or if it is,
		
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			you know, picking something out of the road, smiling, making small talk
		
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			anything from little things to big things a personal loan money,
		
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			helping someone out flat tire and couldn't
		
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			be anything. What motivates are the various things that can motivate somebody to do?
		
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			Good?
		
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			Yeah, so
		
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			is there a psychologist in your house because I, I think I sent some. I think maybe I asked us
before one of the Maslow's hierarchy of needs and stuff like that.
		
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			I took some psychology classes and so I have some of the language isn't me reward whether it's the
shadow family says reward whether it's an internal feeling that makes you feel good, or external.
Where the thanks you get from the one who helps you. Also makes you feel good.
		
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			Yeah, that's there. So we could say
		
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			internal external is a good is a good filter to look through these sorts of motivations will hang on
to that.
		
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			Reward? Yes.
		
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			What are the types of rewards that are out there? There's a lot, right. What are the other sorts of
motivations? Let's hear from hopefully more of you.
		
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			What can push up? Why do people do good?
		
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			In general, very, very general. Because we're talking about things that even the kuffaar do.
Mashallah, I knew
		
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			I knew it. I did. I had like one, credit short of an education minor. And so we did a lot of
psychology and things like that.
		
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			Okay, yeah, that's a really timely and current metaphor to strike.
		
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			Collecting points in a video game, collect the points in the afterlife. Okay, so you're talking
about somebody who's trying to do a specific type of good, not a general type of good that just
anybody does. But for a person of faith, who believes in a higher power believes in Allah?
		
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			Why they would be motivated to kind of collect points in the afterlife. Good. Good. That begs
another question. Is there a difference? Is there a difference between having an intention
		
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			to please Allah? Versus to get something in the afterlife?
		
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			That's a question that that are that actually have even talked about? But we'll come back to that.
		
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			Another answer says reward pleasing the law. Right. So look at the slight difference in language, we
have priests pleasing Allah,
		
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			and getting the reward.
		
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			In paradise, right, all the fruits and all of the shade and the all of those things that Allah
describes so much in the Koran. Right? Is there a difference between those two? And is there is one
of them better than the other? I don't know. So he's going to talk about it.
		
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			People's perception? Uh, huh. Yep. So for reputation, good. material benefit. Excellent. Yes,
happens all the time. Networking.
		
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			I'm gonna hold the door open for you. Even even the platitude we hear so commonly we hear people
say, treat others the way you would like to be treated. Right? That's kind of the secular
		
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			morality. Right? People who don't even believe in any religion, any afterlife, any god. They'll say,
Well, the code I live by is treat others the way you want to be treated. Isn't that a form of doing
business? Isn't that a form of paying it forward, but hoping you're going to get back in this world?
A certain treatment from other people? Right? Could we say that this is a sort of sincere intention
or sincerely for a lot or not? No, doesn't really strike me as a very
		
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			holy intention. It's kind of like well, if I want to get treated well, I need to treat other people
well. Alright.
		
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			So how to family says I think also Subhanallah once you train yourself to get a certain level, it's
second nature to do good. It is just viewed that way by the ones around you that might still be
trying to reach that level yet.
		
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			Now the comment says Hadith two though, right? One for your brother. What you want for yourself? Ah,
Mashallah. I'm glad you brought that up. Are they the same? Or is it different? So we have one idea
here, treat others the way you want to be treated.
		
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			And over here we have the Hadith of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe. Salam
		
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			once for your brother, what you want for yourself? Let me know adequan had to have the the Athena to
help them enough see?
		
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			Right, none of you believes and remember they said commando Eman, right complete belief. Until you
love for your brother, what you love for yourself? Is there a difference between these two things?
Thank you for bringing that up. I turn it back to you all. Are they the same?
		
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			Are they different?
		
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			Treat other people the way you want to be treated.
		
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			None of you believe
		
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			until you love for your brother, what you love for yourself. I
		
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			talk more about the difference. What's the difference? So we have one is the first one is more of a
business transaction.
		
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			Because it has focused on what
		
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			the hadith is on a higher level, the latter is more goodwill. So hanging on to that
		
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			lens that the shahada family brought up in the beginning, we have external, internal, right?
		
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			Treat others the way you want to be treated, is talking about the outer world.
		
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			Right? Actions, benefits rewards.
		
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			If I stopped my car to help someone fill or change a flat tire, I hope that one day when I have a
flat tire, somebody's going to stop the car and help me out in the same way. No one's saying that's
bad.
		
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			But is that the same thing? Those are all having to do with the external reality? What about
		
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			you don't believe completely, until you love for your brother. What you love for yourself? Isn't
that operating at the level of the hearts at the level of what we said was goodwill intentions.
Right? Because somebody who achieves this the outward thing, they might just be doing business,
right?
		
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			I'm a nice guy, because I want other people to treat me nice. Or they might be just a victim to peer
pressure. Hmm. I'm a nice guy because I want other people to know me as a nice guy as sooner right?
Reputation.
		
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			But the Hadith SubhanAllah. And look at the wording of the prophesy some minorities, right,
miraculous wording, the wording gets away from all of those sorts of loopholes.
		
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			And says that you're not a complete believer until you love for your brother, what you love for
yourself SubhanAllah.
		
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			So whether you're able to do it or not is an entirely separate issue.
		
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			It's about what you love for somebody
		
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			which is a much higher level
		
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			of action of faith of virtue.
		
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			Yeah, Salah, thank you for bringing that hadith up. That's very, very important.
		
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			We have a society that that works off of the first platitude. And we hope for an owner that works
off of the second that hadith.
		
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			Excellent work.
		
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			So a lot of it is for Hani he breaks it down much like all of you did. However, he had the benefit
of sitting down at a book with a pen and writing all of this and so he puts it in a very nice
border. He says first of all, let's look let's separate good into two categories. Okay?
		
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			Good in this life, right the holding the doors open the helping change the spare tire, the visiting
you when you're sick food, all of this sort of thing.
		
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			Money and the second category of good, the good of the afterlife. Alright, so we have some, some
answers that we're addressing that paradise and this, that and the other. Okay, so he's going to
separate them into good within this world and good in the afterlife, then he's going to focus on one
and then the other. So when it comes to why people do good
		
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			in this world, he says there's three reasons or three main motivations. And yes, they are
		
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			ranked.
		
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			Some of them are baser than others. Some of them are better loftier than others. The lowest
motivation one can have, according to our author is reward and punish,
		
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			reward and punish. Right this is
		
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			Physical Material reward, or a physical material punishment. Right? Many of the, this was mentioned,
the carrot and the stick. So we say
		
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			doing good because you hope for some sort of gain for yourself,
		
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			or else you fear some sort of harm for yourself.
		
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			We start out children
		
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			with this sort of
		
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			motivation.
		
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			Eat your vegetables,
		
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			or else what? You won't get dessert. Isn't that true?
		
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			If you do your chores, you'll get allowance, you'll get a little bit of money. Or you'll get in
school, maybe you'll get a gold star.
		
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			Right? There's some sort of material candy or something like that.
		
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			Even you know, I laughed when I was thinking about these examples because the motivate the
motivators don't change a whole lot from preschool to college even. What does everybody say? If you
want to get people to come to your event? A college, what do you need?
		
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			You need free pizza.
		
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			This is how it goes. So the college student,
		
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			I study, I'm a college student, and the
		
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			and the preschooler
		
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			are often motivated by the material reward
		
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			and scared away from things by the material threat of harm or the actual material harm.
		
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			We see this all the time in advertising, and marketing as well.
		
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			Just
		
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			think of every single commercial for perfume, fragrance and shaving equipment that you've ever seen.
Isn't there a lot of innuendo going on and those sorts of commercials? Right? Isn't the subtext of
the commercial, that if you use this product, it will elevate your appeal?
		
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			And get you this sort of thing that you're looking for? Yes, of course, they have to hide it behind
layers and layers of suggestion, and innuendo, but that's crudely, crudely that's the message that
they're sending.
		
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			Even even following many of the laws that we have, whether it's the speed limit,
		
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			or parking regulations, right, these come to our base motivators, right? In this case, avoiding a
punishment.
		
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			Time taxes, if no one was going if the IRS didn't exist,
		
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			and
		
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			they weren't going to look over and you didn't have the possibility of being audited, how many
people would pay their taxes? Right? This is base level hitting people, where everybody can
understand the language and their material rewards, material harms, financial incentives to, for
example, loyalty programs. Yes, of course. Yeah, financial incentives, definitely 100%. You get
cards, you know, if you purchase a certain amount, then you get something free this and that and the
other.
		
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			You know how credit cards work with rewards and all this stuff. It's all it's all financial
incentives. And there's nothing Listen, there's nothing morally wrong with this sort of thing.
Inherently. There are ways in which it can be less than ideal. There are ways in which it can be
wrong but this is the basest meaning the least optimal, the lowliest form of motivating somebody, we
would hope that for important moral things.
		
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			We would not have to expect people to be motivated by these sorts of concerns. You don't want people
trying to be better, trying to be nicer, trying to be
		
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			more faithful, more honest, in order to get other material things, right.
		
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			You want them to be motivated by something loftier.
		
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			Before we get to those other lofty levels, there's a couple other examples to think about. That's
food for thought. What about our friendships and our acquaintances? How many times
		
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			do we pick up the phone and message someone or call someone or email
		
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			tell them when we need something from them.
		
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			And when we don't need anything,
		
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			where's our relationship back?
		
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			Whether it's family or friends or acquaintances, people in the Muslim community, everybody's guilty
of this, I'm guilty of this
		
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			right? Basis level of motivation, I now I need something from this person, I'm going to reach out
and to end the message that
		
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			I want to be treated better in my marriage. And so I'm going to better myself, Oh, that's a common
one. When it comes to marriage counseling, I hear a lot of people frustrated, because they're trying
to work on themselves and they don't feel like their spouses are changing at the same rate.
		
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			Isn't there an element of anticipated material benefit going on?
		
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			Aren't they hoping to change themselves to be more patient to do be more responsive in order to get
also treated the same way by the other person?
		
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			It's a motivator, but it's not necessarily the best one. What's the common thread between all these
are all of us for Hani says that a person who is only motivated by this level of motivation they are
controlled by their urge, by their urges and their impulses,
		
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			by their howa by their Shaohua.
		
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			And so this is the only language that they understand.
		
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			This is obviously an external motivation. Above that the next level up are all the loss for honey,
he says is hoping for praise, a medal and fearing blame alone.
		
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			Right? This we see most dramatically with teenagers.
		
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			We have peer pressure, we have youth culture, we have popularity,
		
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			and social media, which is all just a big popularity contest.
		
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			You're calibrating whether you know it or not, what you're going to say what you're going to do
		
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			in order to get praise from others, or to avoid blame.
		
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			This happens with Imams religious figures, students of knowledge, there's certain issues. If you
talk about them, everybody's gonna praise you.
		
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			There's certain issues if you bring them up, everybody's going to blame you.
		
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			Right, it can happen to anybody. And so even though it's a unavoidable part of life,
		
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			and sometimes it can be a good thing we talked about in the Hapa the other week about how
		
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			when it comes to mesh sheet attendance outside of a pandemic, of course, but going to the masjid,
how having that accountability
		
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			with other people. Right, if you stay home, if you're feeling lazy, you don't want to go to the
masjid. You see the time on your clock, you know, you have enough time to get there.
		
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			You say you know what's gonna maybe next time Inshallah,
		
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			right?
		
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			Doesn't it pass through your mind? Well, there's going to be other people that are going to be
there. And they're not going to know they're going to see me they will notice that I wasn't there
		
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			where they likely will.
		
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			And so the next time I show up if somebody says to me
		
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			Oh, mashallah, I haven't seen you in a while. There's this little twinge of guilt inside. And we
feel like we have to explain ourselves. Oh, yeah, I've been really busy work has been really tough.
And you know, the kids got sick and this and that. Right? This is a good thing. It doesn't mean that
you're fake. It doesn't mean you're a hypocrite or anything like that. This is part of the hikma and
wisdom of having community life having accountability towards each other.
		
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			But there are certain ways in which it can be all wrong. We see that with a teenager examples. What
you wear, who you associate with, we have so many of our Muslim youth that hide their deen and hide
their Islam because of fear of blame, or hoping for praise. Right? And most of them who has a
girlfriend or a boyfriend will not be blamed in high school. They will be praised.
		
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			Somebody whose name is Mohammed and they shorten it to mo
		
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			right? This is something that they're afraid of other people's blame. Or, God forbid somebody have
the name of Santa, which is a beautiful name that we love as Muslims but
		
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			because of recent history and politics and things like that, now, anybody who has this thing they
feel like they need to hide
		
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			your son or your daughter or in the cafeteria is Ramadan, they're not eating their food, somebody
asks them why they're not eating, they say, Oh, I'm not hungry.
		
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			This is fear of blame.
		
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			Praying Juma for the men, once you reach puberty,
		
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			they have high school, they go to school on Friday, most times they don't, you know, we don't, we
haven't
		
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			figured that out yet, in a lot of communities, how to work with the school system to find some sort
of accommodation. Sometimes I feel like the schools would be accommodating Allah knows best. If we
asked part of us we're shy. We don't want to stick out we're, maybe we're afraid of
		
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			asking too much. Maybe we still feel like guests.
		
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			Allah knows best.
		
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			We do this too, with our relationships. And I always like to bring it back to relationships,
especially the spousal relationship, because it's so crucial to our lives. How many times do we do
or not do something? Not out of the goodness of our hearts? Not necessarily because we're looking
for a material reward, but because we're afraid of getting blamed.
		
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			If I don't hang up the laundry,
		
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			if I don't put away the laundry, if I don't wash the dishes, oh boy, am I going to hear it.
		
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			Again, this isn't bad, but we're showing the levels of motivation. This is a higher, a more refined
level of motivation than just material benefit. But it's not as far as we can go. Right? There's one
level higher, this level, the second level, it's still external to ourselves. It's, it's for the
people who are controlled by shame. And some shame is good. Don't get me wrong. We rely on shame for
a lot of different things.
		
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			But it's not sufficient. It's not adequate. There's another level to break through for the person
who is looking to improve themselves.
		
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			And if you're trying to develop virtue, if you're trying to get religious, if you're trying to learn
about this Deen, then this is not going to cut it.
		
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			Trying to become a virtuous person because you're afraid of other people's blame. Or you're trying
to get other people's praise. That's a recipe for disaster.
		
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			They used to tell us this in the Kalia when we studied in Medina, they said that if you're not doing
this for Allah, go be a banker. Go be an engineer, go do something else, please.
		
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			Because this specific thing there's no other correct Nia there's no other acceptable intention
except for hardly suddenly law. Except for just to please Allah.
		
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			Other things? Yeah, sure. You want to become a doctor because you want to make a ton of money? No
problem. Hello?
		
00:28:18 --> 00:28:21
			Yeah, let's get your juice, it's no problem.
		
00:28:23 --> 00:28:25
			But if we're talking about purifying your soul,
		
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			becoming more like the MBS or more saline
		
00:28:31 --> 00:28:42
			becoming the Khalifa, the type of person that Allah wants you to be on Earth, this cannot be done
just for people's praise or people's blame.
		
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			What must have before it has to be for
		
00:28:48 --> 00:28:54
			an internal motivation that is behind me. He says, the highest level of good in this world.
		
00:28:55 --> 00:28:57
			We're talking about doing good in this world
		
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			is to embody good and you're seeking virtue.
		
00:29:03 --> 00:29:06
			You're doing it to transform yourself.
		
00:29:07 --> 00:29:15
			You're not worried about the noise on the outside. You're not concerned about whether you get
material benefits or whether you get material harm.
		
00:29:16 --> 00:29:24
			You're not concerned about praise from other people, nor are you concerned about blame. Whatever
comes your way, it's going to come your way.
		
00:29:26 --> 00:29:28
			But you're looking to transform yourself.
		
00:29:30 --> 00:29:34
			You're looking to become better to mold yourself into a better individual.
		
00:29:36 --> 00:29:44
			And all of us for Hani he says this is the highest level of proper motivation. When it comes to
doing dunya. We good.
		
00:29:46 --> 00:29:58
			You show up to the class because you want to learn. You take on mentors, sometimes mentors that are
hard on you. Remember he said a couple of lessons ago he said
		
00:29:59 --> 00:29:59
			the limits
		
00:30:01 --> 00:30:08
			Have a chef are the limits of our Abadie a person to to mentor?
		
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			You will actively remove harmful situations from others how we're starting to see that the
confluence between this level of intention and the Hadith you're loving for.
		
00:30:24 --> 00:30:37
			Yes, very good. Having a friend that is agreeable and a mentor that is, I don't know if he said is
tough, but something like that. Yeah, a tough mentor. And I owe sincere I think he's, I think he
said, sincere, I'll have to check my notes.
		
00:30:40 --> 00:30:40
			But yes,
		
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			you remove harm actively from other people.
		
00:30:46 --> 00:30:57
			Because you're in it for the virtue, you're in it for the goodness, you don't care whether anybody
notices you, you're not snapping a picture of yourself a selfie, you know, in putting up on
Instagram,
		
00:30:58 --> 00:31:09
			you are proactive with your relationships. And this is something that I fail at every single day.
And something that the count the couples that I counsel also struggle with,
		
00:31:10 --> 00:31:42
			not just letting your relationships cruise along until something goes wrong. Now we have to fix it.
But being proactive with your relationship, going out of your way to do things good, not because
you're seeking their praise, or afraid of your their blame. But because you want it to transform
yourself, you want it to mold yourself into a different person, a person that that just becomes as
someone said in the comments earlier, it becomes second nature.
		
00:31:44 --> 00:31:52
			Right, this is a higher plane. It's as if it's like your service, you become a servant, to everyone
around you.
		
00:31:53 --> 00:31:56
			And the good that you do is like your philanthropy.
		
00:32:00 --> 00:32:07
			This is somebody on auger with us for honey says that is controlled not by their shadow,
		
00:32:08 --> 00:32:19
			not by their material interest or their urge, not by their Soma, their reputation, but they're
controlled by their aura.
		
00:32:21 --> 00:32:32
			They're controlled by their intellect, they have a handle on themselves, they realize what's real in
this life and what's not what's worth paying attention to and what's not.
		
00:32:36 --> 00:32:43
			A brief point before we move on to the second category of good, otherworldly good or good in the
afterlife, eternal good.
		
00:32:47 --> 00:32:51
			These things are very, very important to keep in mind for raising children.
		
00:32:53 --> 00:33:01
			Because when we're trying to develop our children's Muslim identity,
		
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			we're trying to encourage our children to have a relationship with the Koran, a relationship with
the with the Salah,
		
00:33:14 --> 00:33:21
			a personal relationship with the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam, a lot of times we're
stuck at level one and two,
		
00:33:22 --> 00:33:26
			meaning that we're motivating our children from the outside.
		
00:33:27 --> 00:33:42
			You have to in the beginning, right, you have to say, you know, no, you haven't done your core and
today go to your core. Right, you have to express disappointment, when things don't go exactly the
way that you
		
00:33:43 --> 00:33:44
			expect them to go.
		
00:33:45 --> 00:34:01
			But the ultimate goal is to break through those two levels and get to the third level where the
child is internally motivated. If you don't get to that level, before your child goes away to
college, if they do go away, or before they move out,
		
00:34:02 --> 00:34:08
			then what's going to happen all of those external motivators are gone.
		
00:34:09 --> 00:34:12
			This happens too often, to Muslim youth who go to college,
		
00:34:14 --> 00:34:32
			that they were motivated by material things. To be a good Muslim, they were motivated by fear of
blame from their community and their family, wanting praise from their community and family, then
they go to college. And now all of those material incentives are different.
		
00:34:33 --> 00:34:51
			People are going to praise them for totally different things. People are going to blame them for
totally different things. People are going to open up access, networking, jobs, relationships, for
different behaviors than being a good Muslim.
		
00:34:52 --> 00:34:59
			Right. So if by the time they haven't gotten there, they haven't found that internal motivation by
the time
		
00:35:00 --> 00:35:01
			They get to that age.
		
00:35:02 --> 00:35:07
			It's very, very dangerous. It's very, very dangerous. And that's a loss Allama.
		
00:35:10 --> 00:35:16
			Then also honey, he turns his attention to the second category of good. Okay, good in the afterlife.
		
00:35:17 --> 00:35:29
			And so he's going to now make a similar comparison. He's going to draw an analogy between the two.
He said, look at the three levels of motivation for good in this world that dunya we're good. Right?
Material,
		
00:35:30 --> 00:35:31
			reward and punishment.
		
00:35:33 --> 00:35:44
			Praise, praise and blame. And then seeking virtue. He said, even when it comes to doing things for
your ethical, even when it comes to doing things for your afterlife.
		
00:35:45 --> 00:35:50
			There are levels for your near for your intention or your motivation.
		
00:35:52 --> 00:35:57
			The lowest one, he says is seeking the reward
		
00:35:58 --> 00:36:00
			or fearing the punishment of Allah.
		
00:36:02 --> 00:36:10
			Strange on the IRS, right? You want Jana? You want the fruits you want the the ease the Solana
		
00:36:11 --> 00:36:18
			right, all of these sorts of different things, good things, pure things. Beautiful Things jazz.
		
00:36:20 --> 00:36:23
			Permissible, acceptable. So hey,
		
00:36:24 --> 00:36:32
			but there's a higher level of motivation to be had. For those who want to strive for those who want
to raise their level in paradise.
		
00:36:33 --> 00:36:39
			The next level up but all of us are honey, he says is seeking a laws, praise
		
00:36:40 --> 00:36:42
			and fearing Allah's blame.
		
00:36:44 --> 00:36:56
			You don't care so much about the fruits and the the lamb, the meats, and the Sweet Treats, and all
these sorts of things that are motivators for many people, including myself, sure.
		
00:36:57 --> 00:36:59
			But you care what Allah thinks about you.
		
00:37:01 --> 00:37:05
			Is Allah going to praise me? Is Allah going to blame me?
		
00:37:12 --> 00:37:17
			And the very, very highest level, according to our author on all us for honey,
		
00:37:18 --> 00:37:22
			is to do things for the pleasure of Allah solely.
		
00:37:23 --> 00:37:27
			Not because of the benefit that you're going to get out of it.
		
00:37:29 --> 00:37:31
			From a lobbying happy with you,
		
00:37:32 --> 00:37:39
			right? It's like the student to the teacher. We feel good when the teacher praises us, because
that's what we're going for.
		
00:37:40 --> 00:37:41
			But the difference is when
		
00:37:43 --> 00:37:48
			the teacher is pleased with us, and we're just happy to see the teacher pleased.
		
00:37:49 --> 00:37:50
			That's the example
		
00:37:52 --> 00:37:55
			that we could bring happiness to the teacher is our
		
00:37:56 --> 00:37:57
			is our pleasure.
		
00:38:00 --> 00:38:03
			And so desiring Allah's pleasure,
		
00:38:05 --> 00:38:13
			a you that it's no longer transactional, yes, very well put, then it's no longer a transaction.
		
00:38:15 --> 00:38:48
			Everything else is transactional. And those transactions are jazz. I mean, there's a laugh in their
LMS, the organ that talked about whether it's permissible to simply do good with the NEA of the
fruits of gender, most of them said yes, some of them said, No, it's not. You have to seek to please
Allah. Number two, or number three, but the majority of scholars they say, yes, one, two and three,
whether it's for the rewards of paradise or the punishment of how or whether it's the praise and
blame of Allah, or the pure pleasure of Allah, it's all permissible.
		
00:38:50 --> 00:38:53
			But the last level, the highest level is not a transaction.
		
00:38:58 --> 00:39:05
			And a lot worse for honey, he brings up a story. You bring up a story to beautifully illustrate
this.
		
00:39:06 --> 00:39:07
			He says that
		
00:39:09 --> 00:39:13
			once there was a wise man and someone came to ask him a question
		
00:39:18 --> 00:39:20
			he asked him, he asked the wise men.
		
00:39:21 --> 00:39:26
			I said he heard the wise man making dua and he didn't ever once hear him asked for
		
00:39:28 --> 00:39:29
			anything in paradise.
		
00:39:31 --> 00:39:35
			And he asked the wise men he said, Wait a second. Don't you ask Allah for Paradise?
		
00:39:37 --> 00:39:43
			And the wise man, he replied, with a famous Arabic proverb as Jeff public.
		
00:39:44 --> 00:39:52
			He said the neighbor before the residents, right are the neighbor before the house. What he's saying
is that
		
00:39:53 --> 00:39:59
			Jana, everything else? Yes. Okay, nice. But what's the purpose of being there? I want to be in the
		
00:40:00 --> 00:40:01
			proximity of Allah subhanaw taala.
		
00:40:03 --> 00:40:17
			Right? That's what I'm excited for the most that's my goal is to be in the presence to be in the
proximity of Allah subhanaw taala. And everything else is just side dressing, icing on the cake
		
00:40:22 --> 00:40:25
			we have a question that somebody sent me
		
00:40:30 --> 00:40:43
			how can we ensure we are so deliberate and measured in our intention? Considering usually we rush
through our day? A lot of these things are in the moment.
		
00:40:44 --> 00:40:45
			They happen quickly.
		
00:40:47 --> 00:40:48
			That's a much
		
00:40:50 --> 00:40:59
			longer response that we have adequate time to adequately answered and a lot of loss for honey. We'll
get through
		
00:41:01 --> 00:41:07
			some responses to that later in the book. However, in brief, the answer is part of your question
brush.
		
00:41:08 --> 00:41:19
			There's some a hadith and there's the Lhasa whether these Hadith are Sahai or not. The prophesy son
of might have said, an idea that Muna che thought that haste is from the devil.
		
00:41:21 --> 00:41:26
			Because haste is the enemy of pure intention.
		
00:41:27 --> 00:41:29
			So if our rushing
		
00:41:30 --> 00:41:41
			our haste is preventing us from having a sincere intention, then the short answer is we need to slow
down
		
00:41:42 --> 00:41:44
			and move more intentionally.
		
00:41:45 --> 00:41:58
			Question two, is there something in the Sunnah either in dua or an incident that demonstrates how
the Prophet alayhi salatu salam implemented this highest level of intention?
		
00:42:02 --> 00:42:07
			And also, how many he mentioned is an A, which you're probably familiar with some sort of health
Cath.
		
00:42:09 --> 00:42:16
			Allah says what's good enough suck? I love any of their own Akbar Akbar Han bit of Audacity, well,
actually, you read all Elijah.
		
00:42:19 --> 00:42:20
			So be patient.
		
00:42:22 --> 00:42:24
			Literally make yourself patient
		
00:42:25 --> 00:42:34
			with those who call upon their Lord their Sustainer in the mornings and in the evenings seeking a
loss face.
		
00:42:36 --> 00:42:41
			So there's an implicit message in here who deserves patience.
		
00:42:43 --> 00:42:52
			Allah didn't say seeking Allah's Jana, I don't think you'll you'll ever find even in the Quran and
correct me if I'm wrong, if someone knows better.
		
00:42:54 --> 00:43:08
			And Allah that praises the people who you really do an agenda. There might be I don't know, I mean,
there's no there's nothing wrong with with wanting Genda. But how many times more do we find this
phraseology, you read the wedge?
		
00:43:10 --> 00:43:10
			Right?
		
00:43:11 --> 00:43:14
			They want Allah's pleasure. So from the Quran,
		
00:43:16 --> 00:43:20
			Allah has shown us even in an implicit way,
		
00:43:22 --> 00:43:30
			that the right way to motivate or I should say not the right way, but the highest level of
motivation is wanting it wanting seeking a law space seeking a law
		
00:43:32 --> 00:43:35
			in stead of some sort of transactional faction fashion.
		
00:43:37 --> 00:43:41
			As for in the Sunnah, or the duel, or the prophesy centum
		
00:43:46 --> 00:43:47
			there's Hadith debris.
		
00:43:49 --> 00:43:57
			That's the thing that comes to my mind the quickest. When Jabril asked him, Allah when he was salam,
what is SN?
		
00:44:00 --> 00:44:02
			And the answer was,
		
00:44:03 --> 00:44:05
			you worship Allah as if you see him
		
00:44:07 --> 00:44:11
			and if you can't achieve that, according to the Tafseer of
		
00:44:12 --> 00:44:17
			many other than that, then worship Him knowing that he sees you.
		
00:44:20 --> 00:44:21
			So we have something about
		
00:44:23 --> 00:44:30
			it's not steady. Honestly, it's not completely explicit. So what you're asking for, but
		
00:44:32 --> 00:44:39
			what the prophesy centum said is the highest level of Sn was something that was very intimate
between you and Allah
		
00:44:42 --> 00:44:59
			nothing else is mentioned the prophesy said and didn't say, you know, sad is to worship as if you
can taste the river of awesome of honey and Paradise, right. Or so you can get the non intoxicating
coma of paradise right
		
00:45:01 --> 00:45:05
			He said that the highest level Sn is to worship Allah as if you see him
		
00:45:08 --> 00:45:09
			Can the concert off
		
00:45:11 --> 00:45:20
			and if you can't do that then then again this is not explicit as implicit the promise is that I'm
sad as knowing that he sees you.
		
00:45:22 --> 00:45:25
			So him knowing that he sees you is more
		
00:45:27 --> 00:45:28
			external motivator
		
00:45:29 --> 00:45:37
			right? A little bit more transactional. You're afraid of something? Or you want something you're
afraid of his maybe
		
00:45:38 --> 00:45:48
			his watching over you. As for the first and Allah knows best, it seems to me a little bit more pure
and intimate and direct will La Hotel Ana.
		
00:45:50 --> 00:45:53
			Anybody have any questions before we depart for tonight?
		
00:46:10 --> 00:46:12
			Okay, everybody enjoy the rest of your weekend.
		
00:46:14 --> 00:46:16
			And I hope to see you soon inshallah.
		
00:46:22 --> 00:46:23
			That's good.
		
00:46:25 --> 00:46:40
			Oh, thank you so much. Yes, yes. Yes. Next week. 8pm. Yes, all classes are now. All evening classes
are now 8pm. Starting next week. Someone sent me this in the celerity Windows lookie. What Mac wha
hayati.
		
00:46:41 --> 00:46:42
			Anyway,
		
00:46:43 --> 00:46:47
			while I'm at LA, you know, Bill, I mean, actually, you can that's the end of
		
00:46:48 --> 00:46:59
			sort of sold out off. Correct. So, there you go. Very nice. That's a good example of what you're
talking about. Says my prayer. My soul my life my death. It's all
		
00:47:00 --> 00:47:09
			for a lot. It's not all for agenda. It's not all for the awesome the LACMA fire in the back. Yeah,
it's for Allah.
		
00:47:11 --> 00:47:11
			Very nice.
		
00:47:13 --> 00:47:19
			Excellent work. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much, everybody. Zack, Michael. Hi, Ron. I said I'm Monica
afterlife because