Islamic Q & A 6-01-22

Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh it's your brother Yeah. Hey Rahim coming to you live from my home here in Perth, Western Australia. We always begin with the praise of Allah sending our benedictions and salam upon our Nabina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa salam, I pray that Allah subhana wa Tada grant to high you Baraka happiness and ease wherever you are. Thank you for joining me after this short break for salaam rovers event in London, as you know what happened to be that it's an opportunity where we are able to answer some of your questions that are called in. We had a question that came in while we were on our break. The question was a very simple question, although

it's a very complex and detailed question that requires a little bit of time, and also a little bit of research. But I thought I would just give a little bit of light and clarity towards it. Simply put, what is the difference between investing and gambling? And can we consider some types of investments as a type of gambling, there are a number of differences between, you know, to Java and investment and putting our wealth into the purchase of a stake in a company or stock in a company and entering into things that are gambling, there are things that course are overlap, and there are certain type of vesting, and certain types of investments that are considered prohibited, and sinful

because they have the same elements as gambling, it's important to kind of clarify and distinguish between them. A big difference between investment and gambling is the concentration of risk, which is

like gambling, certain type of day trading, for example, if certain types of investments involves a person investing, or for lack of better words, betting on one or two small number of companies over a short period of time, over rumors that may have heard they have heard, or because of fear of missing out, other people have invested in they want to get in and out. You know, it's usually a small number of companies over a small period of time. And it's usually with specie. The upside, of course, is that if you can clock it or get the timing right, you can be very profitable. But more likely than not, there will be an underperformance and there will be losses that are game. Timing,

the market is of course, something very hard. There's no statistical analysis that's foolproof. And it's something that can be very lucrative, but can also mimic the simple forms of gambling, picking stocks, trying to time the market can be a type of gambling that a person needs to be very careful with. And you'll find a lot of governmental regulators will kind of set warnings to retail investors about that successful investing halaal investing has certain foundations that are found within our tradition and also good business practice. The first of them is that there is a long term outlook, and that there is research that is involved. And that there is diversification in the number of

things that a person is placing their money. successful investors typically do not put all of their eggs in one basket for using that famous, you know, that famous example, that use, most of them will put it in a number baskets, most of them will have a diversify growth strategy and portfolio in that sense. It's also important to know that when you buy and sell that there are costs and you want to lower your costs of the amount have racked up transaction fees every time you buy and sell. It's something that can also take away from whatever profits that you have. There are no guarantees in life, especially in investing. And that isn't really what makes it similar to game simply because an

investor knows that they're purchasing a share of a kind of going in with some type of knowledge that they buying something and that becomes a really important kind of construct and concept that I think many people fail to consider the really one of the main differences between investing and gambling and where you will see a lot of people fail

Is that when you invest, you're actually purchasing something. It's not placing money into a void or into an idea. Investing and gambling both involve risk to capital in the hopes of making profit. And that's something that that's important for us to consider. Both gambling and investing are try and get gamblers and people investing are trying to minimize risk. Those who are gambling are not doing it with an informed basis. They're trying to be the system, while those who are investing hopefully they're investing with strategies, and with research behind it into the companies that they are sharing their hard earned wealth with. Gamblers have fewer ways, of course, to mitigate losses than

investors do. Investors will have more sources of relevant information, and they will put the investment over an extended period of time

in as a summary to this and I think something that, you know, just as an advocate off the cuff remark, Allah Subhana Allah tells us in the Koran that, uh hum, well myself, you know, our intoxicants and Mesa and gambling, if they are sinful mean I'm going to cheat on and they are from the deeds that are demolition nature, there are good things that may come from them. There are moments where you can gain there are moments where you can profit is moomoomath Akobo meaning that FEMA nevertheless, Allah always says, as a fact of life, that that what you saying to gain is far less than what you have to lose? When you invest, though, what makes it different to gambling as the

most important kind of ideal is that you invest in a stock invest to own a share of an underlying company. In fact, some companies will reimburse you for your ownership in the form of stocks and dividends, which are Zakah applicable, and there's ways to calculate that, and there's a strategy behind it. I prayed that Allah subhanaw taala puts Baraka into our wealth, which Baraka in our risk, opens our hearts to investing in that just helps protect us from sinful forms of investment, that can be like gambling that are active like gambling, that can have great, great losses, especially with the pandemic that we are in. There has been a triple fold, retail investor online investor

presence, which has seen many people lose lots of lots of money. May Allah protect us Allahumma Amin, we're going to continue waiting for some more of your questions to come through in chatline, I picked up the last panel to add that allows us to have contentment and an ease of understanding each other in sha Allah, I wanted to speak about resilience and being of those who have sovereign, who have the element of being able to see themselves through the difficult times that arise, and Subhanallah with the roller coaster of the last two years of openings, and then closures and mandates and vaccination rates and different variations of the virus. All of these are different

things that have had a significant toll on mental health, on the physical health of people on excessive gaining of weight on, you know, separations and divorces because people are in front of each other in more prevalent time than they normally were accustomed to. There are moments of domestic violence that have skyrocketed increase. And sadly, there is also the great tragedy of people taking their own lives. Because of the the burden and the stress that they were unable to maintain the regularities in the regular regulation

that regulated their life systems. As convulsive Hannah went to Allah to grant disease. So we wanted to speak about results as a conceptualization of patients in sha Allah, we have our first call, we have another caller on the line in sha Allah will take the call and continue speaking about resilience in the light and so I'm Ali from color, how can I help

Allah, my brother, good to hear from you once again. May Allah grant Chaitanya in your morning as you're waiting up for your day in chama

about something I'm talking about today, I want you to think about when you are

away from

work

away from the decades or away

from knowledge about them does that mean also that you know but you don't want to go you don't want to go and look at the Koran maybe every day or or you know that you know to make your mind higher. Does that mean also that it's

like if you don't want to go to

the Knowledge section of the

body whatever you don't want to go and read about that you don't want to go and read all about the body just like the

MC us

does that come off? May Allah subhanaw taala reward you for your consistency and giving us cheerful reminders and questions each and every week. May Allah Subhana Allah Allah bless you in your home Allah Amin, ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada says to the prophets of Allah, Allah you are seldom in the hula you can be buena, they do not deny that what you have come with is truth. For some of the people who lived with the prophets are in Salem. The new history character was upright they knew the message of the Quran with ethical and moral in better calling than what they were living with their tribal laws. They knew that he was there to emancipate the enslaved and that those who were in difficulty,

they could see that there was truth to it. So why didn't they accept it? Allah says it's not because they deny that you are worthy of being a messenger. It's not because they deny that the message is correct. When I Kindle Levina Cal, the Yachty law he had old rather it is because those who lend themselves to disbelief, those who make themselves ungrateful to God that darkens their heart against the truth. They are of those who have gehad do that they are those who have an arrogant anger against the message that is called to and one of the worst conditions that a person can find themselves in. Is kibra in my home be Valerie to have this arrogance that is permeates everything

like arrogance and pride against the truth is one of the things that bars us and pushes us away from Jannah. The prophets like Selim says in a stunningly beautiful Hadith, but also a hadith we should be very scared from. He says in the authentic hadith narrated by the man Muslim unlimited me this is the narration of a mammoth enmity. He says, now your twin and Jenna men can if you can boo, Miss Carla teaming cape. It's an it's it's difficult for the one to enter paradise. With the first people it's difficult for a Muslim or a believer to be of those who enter paradise. Why would it be difficult they will be the last people to enter paradise. Why if they have in their heart, a mustard

seed, an atom's weight of arrogance. people misunderstood this. They said O Messenger of Allah, this arrogance you speak of luxury things in the man stood up and rule of law in origin mean that you're humble and Yaku and takuna. See, yeah, boohoo Hassan, what kind of who hasn't? One merkaba hasn't. One of us loves to have fine cuisine were fine, tailored clothing, ride on a nice deed and a nice ride something you know worthy of us something you know powerful.

Is this arrogance that we have things that are luxury in our life. So the prophets I said, Lane second that you misunderstood Allah Who Jamil Allah is the source of all beautification, your head for a year on Yama, Asteron Yama, who Allah evadne He loves to see the effect of his blessing upon His creation, to beautify yourself to eat well to ride well to dress well within the means provided to you that are not Islamic, not excessive.

So what is arrogant and kibra bopper will have Welcome to NAS two things, it is to reject the truth on account of who brought it to you. So you look and say, Hey, who are you to tell me? What do you know, I know more than you I'm older than you. I'm your father. I'm your brother. I'm, you know, you're qualified the truth that was spoken on account of the message and the messenger delivering it. You take the truth, that is truth, but you judged who brought it to you? And if you didn't like who it was that carried it, you ignored it. That is arrogance. That's something to be feared.

Number two is lumbo NASS, that you look to the one who doesn't have what you have, who isn't blessed in the ways you've been blessed, because they're probably blessed in ways you haven't been blessed, right? That's the reality of life. You they haven't been blessing the way that you have been blessed in those ways. So you look and say, This person, you know, he's not at my intellectual level, he's not in my educated level, he's not my financial economic level. He's not in my spiritual or, you know, ethnic level. And everybody kind of looks to the others in that downward way. That is an arrogance that pushes people further back from entering gender quickly on the day of judgment, and

therefore, brigands is something you and I as Muslims must combat, as a part of our submission to Allah is to recognize there are detrimental effects in our life, to having a proud understanding of ourselves and our place in society. May Allah protect us from loving me two ways to counteract arrogance. The first way is to soften your heart with the message of the Quran. And yet in Medina Mo and Daksha boo boo oolitic Rila arrogance takes root in the heart, you need to soften your heart you need to remove the callous the hard heartedness away by soft heart with the sound of the Quran, with the sight of you reading the Quran, with the melody of you pronouncing the Quran and with you

understanding the cognition, the understanding of what the Quran seeks to humble within you, there are certain things in the Quran that are more necessary for you than they are for your neighbor. And there are certain things your neighbor to understand more than you. But there is something for each and every one of us in the Quran, that will better our life, soften our heart, make us more malleable as we stand in front of Allah in prayer. And that becomes the second test. The first is get involved with the Quran. Second, where does the Quran show its greatest effect in my life in yours, it's your stability in your prayer. And when I say stability, I don't mean the performance of

just there. The five daily prayers, I mean, your stability, in your awareness of your duty to Allah in it, the plentiful ness of your request of Allah in it and you're dry in it, the concentration and the WHO sure and the present heartedness that you have with Allah, that you are standing before the master as if you are the slave, that you are the one who is seeking healing and he is the one who heals that you are seeking to be provided for and he is the one who blesses and chairs alone, to Patna what to add, those are two things, two ways that you can search your heart, whether there is arrogance that is covering it from the message of truth. May Allah protect us, Allah Amin,

resilience is one of the outcomes of having a soft heart. How do you become able to weather the difficulties that we face in life? How do you become a person who is proactive in the face of adversity and hardship? How do you become a person who gets up after falling down, dust themselves off, prepares their self for another day? How do you become a person who has a positivity and an outlook for tomorrow, even though today, today you find as hard and difficult. So when we speak about a psychology of building resilience, there are three important connections that we must make. And this is from a human perspective. This, you know, the three things need to gather in almost like

a pyramid that reinforces each other in strength. The first of them is your environment, the social support, you have the spiritual systems around you the environmental values that you exist in. So the better your friends are in their relationship with Allah, the better relationship with Allah will be if you are tagging along with those who do right. You will be able to be letter right even if you weren't planning it yourself. If you are friends with people who fast Mondays and Thursdays and encourage you to do so it's easier to do it than not. If you are friends with a person who tells you I'll pick you up everyday for a shot on my way to the masjid. It's easier for you to make it to

the masjid. It is easier for you to be part of the pack. Rather

than to be the lone sheep. That is downward by the wolves. And with selfless and douchey, inviter becomes really important. Now environment on its own is one factor, it's not the only factor. The second factor are your behaviors and the control you have over your behavior. Self Care is a very important behavior. Being able to nurture yourself and acknowledge the good you've done. Be proud of the accomplishments that you've had. Be thankful to Allah. Imagine Prophet Ibrahim, on that day when he completes the building of the cabin with his son. What does he say, are up in a Taco Bell V neck in neck and

he says, Oh Allah except this from us. He's proud of his achievement. We've gone I've been in this desert area I've been visiting back and forth in Mecca, my son and I, we've completed this task, Allah Bennett of a minute, oh, Allah accept this from us. It's a powerful behavior, self care becomes really important. Participation in physical activity, or habits or insulin was very physically active. So however, they would say that when they would walk, they used to have to jog to catch up. He was a man of purpose, a man of heading a man of deliverance. And then who knew where he was going because he was on a mission and knew that destination that was set for him. Physical

exercise, being involved in community activities that allow you to interact socially with others, even from a distance, even if you're, you know, calling someone and say, okay, look, we're going to do our workouts at home because the gyms are closed, whatever it is, whatever mandates you're under, we're going to, okay, let's do our burpees or whatever it is that you're going to do. It's something that is a social, but it's a behavior that you have managed for yourself, self care becomes really important. physical activity and exercise increases your endorphins, it increases your mental health state and your resilience in being able to push past, it's much better for a person to recover from

illness having been physically fit than if they were not physically fit. It's much easier for a person to battle through terminal illnesses, and to have a greater quality of life in their older age because they were physically fit in the younger age. Each of us has two types of people that they can grow old into being. You and I can be 75 years old, with back pain, with leg pain, with cramping with shortness of breath, with bad cardiovascular activity, on account of us in our 40s today, having a sedate set mentary lifestyle where we don't do vigorous physical ad, where we haven't mapped up a plan of getting ourselves up and moving, where our muscles have atrophied by the

time we're 75 we are hunchbacked unable to even make our sujood. On account of that not due to injury, the second 75 year old that exists within you my year, my young brother, my young sister, my you know you and I in our 30s 40s, we still have this opportunity to make ourselves healthy in 75. On account of that activity today, it allows you to have resilience, your body is meant to be something that is pushed to grow, no pain, no gain. If your muscles don't rip, they will not scaffold and grow. If your muscles are not used, your heart is a muscle if it's not used, it becomes sedate, and unable to meet the pressures that are yet to face it. So we've got about two things that

become really important for us in the environment that we're in, and the behaviors that we establish for ourselves, our routines, you should have a routine for the morning, you should have a routine for the evening that goes beyond your phone in the morning, checking your phone before you go to sleep. There should be routines that involve spiritual pursuits, routines that involve physical activities, or routines that involves connecting socially with friends and family routines that involve something that you enjoy doing. That is a long term project that you see through each and every day. Whether a book you read or a poll you assault or a game that you play, whatever it is,

that will enrich your life. The third aspect of building a strong psychological resilience being able to face the difficulties that have not yet arrived. The things that we pray that Allah protects us from is in terms of cognition, is that mindset. Cognition is you know, how we think about what we see and experience in the world.

How we meet the challenges that we have facing us.

Those are really powerful things for you and I to think here are some important words, optimism,

motivation,

self belief, I believe I can do it. Values. You know what, what is your moral compass, you know things like taqwa and truthfulness, and honesty, and hard work, and diligence, and self discipline, self accountability, you know, all of those are powerful. Another, you know, word, your humanity. You know, when your your, your sense of humanity, your compassion, your self compassion, compassion for yourself, your ability to forgive yourself when you've done wrong, and your compassion for others, to be able to forego when for looking forgive those who have wronged you, Kuma Subhan, Allah.

All of those are cognitive strategies. All of those are sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi, wa sallam, all of those are powerful healing techniques of our Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. When you put the three elements together, and you care for your environment, you cultivate who's inside, who's living with you, how you live and interact with each other, how you're going to be patient with each other. And who is not going to be in that inner circle, who is not going to be a part and parcel of your council, a part of part of your close knit friends, who you are just an acquaintance with becomes a really important mindset for you and I to consider the environment needs

to be curated needs to be irrigated needs to be weeded and protected from vermin and pests. Second, the behaviors. Now we've set an environment and it's not perfect, but

what are we going to do within it? What are we going to do within our space, within our homes, our communities within our people and populations? And how do we view the days of the past, the days we're in, and the days into the future, all of those are really important steps. For us achieving greater and greater elements of resilience. I wanted to kind of end this section, by speaking about having at and emotional regulation, all of us in one way or another get upset, all of us in one way or another will get angry, all of us in one way or another, become frustrated, and depend on myself, my wife, my children, all of us, we will have limitations. And all of us, the environment that we're

in may put pressures, right? You're driving in a car with your family for extended hours on a holiday, it adds pressure, it creates conflict, you want to be on holiday, happy with each other. But being in that confined space, the environment dictates some of the conflicts that will arise, while being able to regulate that emotion being able to fight through some of the points of friction and anger and sadness and, and using elements that discuss like humor, and mindfulness and compassion and forgiveness are the things that build stronger relationships, which influences our environment. We have a caller with us on the line said I'm Anakin caller, how can I help

you talking about

not doing sitting in a frozen coma? Reading around going that?

You're not? You know, we're not just just in a frozen shell. And we are does that imply?

It is I myself I'm doing it knowingly, everything we know. And yet we are just just not doing it. Which is the real reality. That is what is happening. Sometimes we do it as a big favor. Allah forgive us.

You know, can you sort of just explain that? Allah hematic it's good to hear from you again, my dear brother. It's important to note that there's a difference between premeditation or intent. And as stated a person find themselves in due to them slipping away. And therefore I'm very hesitant to be of those who are condemning. I want it to be something where we find the solution is to kind of uplift us. The two most important things is to to connect with the Quran, even if it's even if it's just listening to it and you don't know what it's about the sound can soothe you. Maybe it's now after listening to a while I want to know what let me read a translation. Let me look at what the

surah is.

And then it might, you know, go on from there too. You know, I'd like to hear what maybe somebody more learned than me has said about these verses. This is how I understood them. But I wonder what other people understood the message, and therefore it becomes something that sparks something greater. It is not mere arrogance, just to sit unintentionally. And to be absent minded from one's relationship with law. It's where a person builds a life sustains an environment becomes complete, in that, that is the danger and that's where the hard heartedness is me, I'm also gonna protect us from having that hard heartedness. And straying away from a path of return and repentance to Allah.

So Allah becomes a really powerful compass that points us in different directions in our day, it can return us back to the center, back to the qibla, back to Allah, and it can be something that is really powerful when we determine ourselves to do it, even if we don't feel it right. People sometimes, you know, I've had prayers. I remember as a younger person, I would say, you know, people say I was crying in Florida, and, you know, I didn't feel that way. Is there something wrong with me? The answer is no. And the more you pray,

the better you and I become at it and not everybody experiences.

In the same way, may Allah subhanho wa Taala brighten our days. I look forward to seeing you again next week, way, noon, London time chat a lot. Your brother Yahia Ibrahim was Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Subhana Allah ma Behanding a genuine Illa Illa and as the LUCA were to evey was salam aleikum wa rahmatullah.