Tom Facchine – You Can Win In This Life…BUT START NOW
AI: Summary ©
The concept of self reform is discussed, with three paraphrasal concepts involving interrelated and sequential steps and examples of how people are preparing for what is happening. The speakers also discuss the tools of the ante second paraphab announcing that one can write oneself and fix oneself by using the light of revelation and the light of the intellect. The importance of being ready for a final destination, rather than sitting around and waiting for the end of the journey, is emphasized, along with the use of the "will" and "will be" paraphrasal concepts. The speakers explain the importance of these paraphrasal concepts in improving one's behavior and finding one's true potential.
AI: Summary ©
If our highest purpose in life as a
human being is khilafa, is stewardship of the
creation,
then we should know that we don't deserve
that
role until we've purified ourselves
and we've improved ourselves.
And so Abagal al Suhani,
then he moves into
here's the project of self reform. Here's the
project of
developing the self. How are we gonna do
it? Right. We've just established the motivation
as to
why. What are the steps? How are we
gonna get there? And he he gives 3
parables and they're all interrelated and they're all
sequential.
So the first parable he gives is that
of a boat.
So imagine that
you are on a boat. Okay. Is it
possible for a boat to stay absolutely still
on the water?
It's not really possible, especially if you don't
have an anchor. It's gonna drift this way,
it's gonna drift that way, the boats in
motion. Okay. Everybody
who exists in the world, they're on the
boat.
Whether they know it or not. The boats
moving.
Only a few people are aware
of the fact that the boat is moving
and so they're making preparations for what's gonna
happen when we hit land.
What do I need to do? What's the
first thing I'm gonna do when I hit
land? Like, what needs to be taken care
of?
Most people,
they're just asleep. They're on the boat. They're
looking at the water. They look in the
sky. All this is nice, but they have
no idea.
If we want to give a modern day
example, maybe we can compare it to a
subway or a train or something like that.
Right? The the train is not
staying still. It's moving.
And so if it's moving. Okay. If it's
moving,
how much does it make sense
to imagine, imagine this, imagine this. Okay. You
go to the subway or you go to
the train
and you've got your bag and it's full
with clothes and it's got, you know, some
things that you need for your trip.
Would it make sense to open up your
bag and just like spread out everything?
Start hanging your clothes off the railings,
you know, put your books, set up your
computer, everything as if as if you're
in your final destination, as if you're in
your hotel room or you've reached home. That
doesn't make any sense at all. Why? Because
it's just a transitional state.
You're in the train just to get from
one place to another.
It's never meant to be your final resting
place.
Right? There's something after that's going to come
and you need to be ready. Right? When
your stops coming, it's announced over the over
the intercom. You have to have your bag
in hand, all your stuff collected, and then
you need to you need to get off.
Right? Imagine this person who, under their delusion,
they thought that the train was their their
final destination and they got all their stuff
spread out and then the the captain or
the the conductor, you know, says over the
intercom, oh, here's your stop.
What are they gonna do?
They're gonna have to scramble around and gather
their things and they're probably not gonna make
it. Right? So that's the first step is
to wake up. This life that we're on,
it's like a boat or it's like a
train. It's moving.
We're gonna die. There's an afterlife.
Instead of spreading out all of our things
here
and imagining that this is our final destination,
it's not. It's actually just a train car
that's taking us to our final destination. And
so we need to have our bags in
hand
ready for the second win.
Our time is up and the angel comes
to take our soul so that we're ready
to step off that train to get to
where we're finally going. The second,
parable that Aragua El Farhadni gives when it
comes to how do we embark on this
journey of improving the self is,
is about light. And he talks about the
famous Eiyansuerta Nur,
which the chapter is is named after.
Nur run al Nur. Right? Like, there's this,
like, light upon light. And
the scholars, they have so many different interpretations
of of what this particular verse means. What
does it represent? It's very very symbolic. It's
very metaphorical
and so it's open to interpretation.
And Rong al Suhani himself,
he understands it as,
the light
of
revelation.
What happens when it is matched with the
light of intellect?
Okay. He that's what he imagines the light
upon light. There's a light that every single
person has inside of them,
which is their capacity
for intellect,
and then there's a light that comes from
outside, which is the light of revelation, a
Quran, a sunnah, the things that Allah has
given us. And when you combine those two
things,
when you use your intellect in the way
that Allah intended to submit to the revelation
and you use your intellect to apply the
revelation
and you use your intellect to,
you know, to
preach the revelation to other people to spread
it and to make sense of it in
an appropriate way,
then this is the
it's like a multiplying effect. It's amplified and
so this is how a human being is
supposed to be. This is their tools. Right?
So the first parable kind of answers the
the sense of urgency, the motivation.
Okay. I've got my Netflix show coming on
tonight. I'm gonna go watch it at 6
and I've got this other thing here and
it's all kind of
tied to my dunya and my livelihood and
things like that. What's going to give me
the motivation
to improve myself? It's the urgency that's provided
when realizing that I'm just in this train
car getting to my last destination.
What do I use? What are my tools
to improve myself? Here's these 2 tools. Light
upon light. The light of revelation and the
light of the intellect.
The 2 tools that Allah gave me. As
he said in Suratul Mulk, the two regrets
of the people of hellfire.
If only we had either listened to the
revelation or
used our brains,
right. So these are the 2 tools that
Allah gave you in order to write yourself,
in order to fix yourself.
This is what is your,
your capital
that was given to you in advance.
And the final parable that that the author
gives is that of a farmer.
Okay.
He compares the world to a field
and
the plants are like your your actions or
your good deeds.
Right? So you're going to plant this seed
and then you're going to tend to it
and then you're not going to truly harvest
it until your death. Okay. The moment of
your death, that's the harvest.
And so, if you look across from farm
to farm to farm, you're gonna see a
lot of different things. Right? You're gonna see
some people who
only planted a little bit or only planted
like a mono crop. Right? They're just like
one type of of good deed. And some
people, maybe they planted a lot of seeds,
but they didn't cultivate them. They didn't tend
to them. They didn't protect them from showing
off or from arrogance or from pride or
these sorts of things. And so they have
seeds all over the place, but then there's
weeds and there's all these other sorts of
things that have taken over.
And there's other people whose gardens are just
absolutely immaculate, you know. Everything is just so
clean and and the the fruits are enormous
and ripe and shining and
then you have some people
who they're just they're just sitting watching the
weeds grow. They didn't even plant anything.
That's the person in the train car who
spread out all their things. They think that
we're just here just to watch the weeds
grow.
Right? And so when the end of life
comes and it's harvest time, then we're going
to get to the
to the to the barn. Right? Where everything
is weighed. Okay. Everything you're gonna see everybody's
fruits on display. This person has nothing. This
person has, okay, funny looking fruit. This person
has, like, wow. Like like very, very professional
looking fruit. Like, that's going to be the
day when and then you're going to have
to pay. Right? This is also part of
the, the metaphor.
How do you get the seeds? You have
debts to pay.
Right? You gotta pay back your creditors. You
gotta pay back the person who lent you
the tools. You got to pay back for
the seeds. You got to pay for the
labor. You got to pay for all this
stuff and then you're going to find out
what's left
what's left in your scale.
Did you plant enough good deeds
in order for you to pay back all
your creditors and have something left over Or
did you waste your time? You wasted your
tools. You waste your energy
and you don't have anything.
In fact, you're still in debt. So these
these three parables
Aragav al Suhani gives us in order to
show us the sequence, the first sequence for
itself improvement is to wake up. That gives
us the urgency.
That gives us the motivation.
The second is about guidance,
right, and the tools, the innate tools and
the external tools that Allah gave us to
improve ourselves.
Revelation,
guidance
and intellect.
And the third thing, the third parable, is
meant to draw our attention to action,
Right? All this stuff is just theory,
unless we actually start doing good deeds, unless
we actually start getting into the field, getting
our hands dirty,
hoeing the garden. Right? Removing the weeds, watering
the the plants,
those sorts of things.