Yaser Birjas – Good Character
AI: Summary ©
The video introduces a session on the 30th anniversary of the missing day of the century, emphasizing the importance of character development and human perfection. The speakers emphasize the need to prioritize personal growth, be nice and respecting others, and find good manners. They also mention a future workshop on justice and how to live your life normally. The importance of good manners is emphasized, and the speakers provide advice on practicing and improving behavior.
AI: Summary ©
Alrighty everyone.
Welcome back to day number 16
of Ramadan 360 with Almagrib Institute.
Once again, this is your host, Hafsa,
and I'm so excited to be back with
you all for this session with Sheikh Yasir
Bajas, who you guys saw earlier in the
Ramadan 360
experience, but I wasn't hosting then. So it's
my first time hosting him back after some
time.
Welcome, welcome, welcome, Hajar from Toronto.
Farida,
Marissa from Singapore. O o. Let me just
set this up so that I can see
your lovely faces inshallah on screen as well.
There you go. So you guys should be
able to turn your cameras on now as
well and join me and give me some
great company as well. Raghad,
brother Hassan, Hadra, shout out to y'all. Carrie,
Aisha Gonda,
and Ahmed. Welcome, welcome, welcome to my screen.
That's just who I see so far.
It's great to have you back for day
number 16. At this point, guys, it's gonna
start it's just a race to the end,
subhanAllah.
It's we've already crossed the bulk of it.
More time has passed than is remaining.
Excuse me.
So it's just a point of making it
to the finish line, may Allah, allow us
to get to the end of it, Ramadan,
and leave us accepted and forgiven.
Lovely to have you back.
Aisha, and everyone who's been masha'Allah. I feel
like now we have a very consistent crew,
on our Ramadan 360
kind of episodes. And we've got our our
the odd new person masha'Allah joining us,
to for the experience. And again, the registration
is open until the end of the month
so that you can continue to share with
your friends and family and invite them to,
come join us insha'Allah. But we're very excited,
to keep the keep the the momentum going,
keep the benefit going insha'Allah
and try to maintain that energy of of
coming in live, coming in a couple minutes
early, being part of the early crew, and
getting that extra bit of coming in a
couple minutes early, being part of the early
crew, and getting that extra bit of ajer
for your enthusiasm, for learning the the deen
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We're, of course,
on day 15 of our 30 Qur'anic principles
in 30 days and, sorry, day 16. And,
today's principle is going to be good character
with Sheikh Yasser Bajas. Now, I don't know
if, my guest host who is hosting, Sheikh
Yasser's previous session gave you a bit of
a taste of,
who true Sheikh Yasir is in the in
the Almagrib community. He's one of our most
taught instructors,
Wait. Did I host Sheikh Yasir before? Honestly,
it's all blending together at this point. Maybe
I did host him. Does anyone remember if
I hosted him in Ramadan 360? I feel
like I've been seeing him on my screen
a lot more than I have previously. And
you guys may have as maybe as well,
if you're following Valley Ranch Islamic Center or
the shenanigans that are happening every year between
Sheikh Omar Suleiman and Sheikh Yasser, Masha'Allah.
That, if you don't know what I'm talking
about, you guys need to follow them on
on social media and see what they're up
to this time of year. It's always
very interesting, this rivalry that pops up, you
know, out of nowhere, seemingly out of nowhere,
right before,
you know, donation,
drives are coming through, subhanAllah. But, alhamdulillah, yes,
get it. There's parking spot shenanigans,
locking out of office shenanigans, and and a
lot more of that, alhamdulillah. And it's great
to see that kind of that, like, that's
an example of good character of seeing our
chief being able to banter with each other
and hype each other up and engage with
each other, while still maintaining, like, that Islamic,
balance as well.
And Almagrib, he's the head of our Islamic
law and theory department.
He's a pastoral marriage and family counselor. As
I mentioned, he's the imam of Valley Ranch
Islamic Center, and he's one of our OG
instructors. He's one of our most taught instructors
as well. Back in the day, if you
were you were there in the beginning years
of Almagrib in the in the past 20
years, Masha'Allah, you got a chance to benefit
him him immensely, and now it is always
a treat. You may have some of you
attended it or taken blessed voyage trips with
him to Bosnia in the past year or
so. We look forward to more of those
inshallah. He's an amazing tour guide, of that
beautiful part of the world, Alhamdulillah.
And he's honestly he's one of our OGs.
So we look forward to having you benefit
from him again. If you've seen him in
the webinars, if you've seen him in previous
sessions, Inshallah, you know what you're in for.
But we're looking for, a lot we're looking
forward to a lot more of that Sheikh
Yasir wisdom and I think he's almost with
us. Yes, he is with us. Alhamdulillah. So
we're gonna jump right into the session in
just a second. I just wanna obviously shout
out as we do the amazing folks that
make Ramadan 360 possible year after year in
the US, we have HHRD.
In Canada, we have Islamic Relief. And in
the UK we have Forgotten Woman and I
want to remind you guys, subhanAllah while we're
kind of still able to maintain or push
forward with as much of the Ramadan spirit
as we can as much of a struggle
as this month has been. It's been a
very, very difficult Ramadan,
for our brothers and sisters in Gaza, and
it's been a nonstop fast, honestly, for most
of them. So please do support generously to
the charity sponsors, and and thank you to
Zekla Lekker Fiseline for linking them here in
the chat. And in YouTube, they're in your
the description of the video,
bio as well. So please do or video
description as well. So please do support them
continuously as many times as you hear it,
please do support. With that said, I'm very
excited to jump into today's session. I do
encourage you guys as always. I'm gonna we'll
we'll plug the daily giving a little bit
later and we'll see where we're sitting at
in shot less. If you wanna sneak it
in and push us up above the goal,
please do at amaghrib.orgforward/givedaily.
But now I wanna bring Sheikh Yasser onto
the screen and I want you guys to
have an opportunity to benefit from him inshallah.
So Assalamu
alaykum
How are you doing today?
How
are you doing? How's your Ramadan so far?
And oh, so you're you're swipping swishing it
up on me. Alhamdulillah. Mine's this great shift.
Alhamdulillah with this community. It's amazing. How is
yours doing? Alhamdulillah.
So far, so good. And starting, of course,
today, we're counting down right now the days
of Ramadan towards Eid. So we're we're not
gonna fast more than what we already fasted
for those who fork the the broken fast
on the other side of the world. Of
course, they're not even ahead of us. Yeah.
We're coming closer to to aid,
except from all of us.
And may Allah make it easy for all
of us.
And, yes, I still have my park inspired
the medicine and,
take it no matter how much he tries.
Alrighty, Sheikh. We're we look forward to more
of of of the halal drama that we
see out of VRIC every year. But
today, we're here to benefit from you. Inshallah,
we'll have have some questions for you at
the end, but let's jump right in into
your topics.
So if I ask you a simple question
right now, how many of us can claim
that they have perfected their character?
Raise your hand if you can claim that
you will handle up, perfected your character,
so far.
Anyone can claim that they must have perfected
their character?
Because if you do, then you're you're in
general already. You're not on earth anymore.
But in reality is that we're all of
us, of course, in that kind of struggle
that we're trying to work on it and
improving
And there is very important thing.
By the way, I see has been raised
These are the people of
but
seriously, as human beings, it's an ongoing struggle.
And as a matter of fact, this is
something we have to understand why is it
an ongoing struggle, and what can we do
to improve our character? Why is it very
important even to have what we call it
in Arabic?
So let's first of all try to see
what it what's what's the importance of that
thing?
Was mentioned in the Quran and the son
of the prophet
something of of high quality and, of course,
praiseworthy. As Allah said about the prophet
that you are a Muhammad
means the high standard of character, the best
character. Why would Allah highlight this about the
prophet
unless it's something worthy of mention? If not
even their most important information as well too.
When Allah
spoke about the prophets and his selection to
this to the message,
Unlike some other
maybe, you know, books of of faith and
other faith and and so on. When it
comes to speak about the prophet, Allah
always praise the prophet of being among the
best of the best and the high character,
obviously, for everybody. So he speaks about them.
He would say or
Like, Allah chooses the people from for the
prophets among the people, among their own people.
But there's another that says,
which means from among the best of the
best. So the best of the so the
the subject of and and good character and
and high standard of character is different. It's
a press worthy. It is something religious. It's
a duty. And as a matter of fact,
it's one of your missions in this life
is try to complete and perfect your deal
and your character.
To people in order for them to help
them perfect their character.
What does it mean with when we say
to perfect their character? You see the whole
idea of having that perfect
and perfect human being is not just a
Muslim thing. It has been from the very
beginning of mankind.
Everybody was working on trying to define what
makes a human being a perfect human being.
What is what is perfection in human being?
Obviously, a lot of people
depends on their culture, depends on their philosophical,
you know, perspective and background, and so I'm
trying to define what a perfect man can
be. So some they focus on the physical
image, then they focus on, of course on
the the carnal delights on this, on that,
whatever that is. But for the Muslim
has been defined uh-uh for us in the
Quran and the of the
prophet and it's extremely important that we understand
that because once again,
the whole purpose of you being religious,
the whole purpose of you practicing what you
practice of your
is really is to complete your
to have that relative
human perfection. And
And when I say human perfection again, I'm
talking about human perfection from a human perspective.
We're not equating our perfection
to angelic perfection because that's something beyond this
world. But But human perfection is possible if
you follow those rules of
as well to like. Even if you make
mistakes,
even if you sin, there's a way to
perfect that. And that's by repenting and amending
your affairs with Allah
That's what makes you a perfect human being
in that context. That you're returning back to
Allah. You're never arrogant or continuing with your
with your with your sin, with your error.
Rather, you you admit it and you return
back to Allah. So let's first of all
talk about what
is anyway. So the word or
in general,
from the Arabic dictionary, you would look at
it. It has couple of meanings.
One meaning is about the the the the
physical,
touch,
like, basically, which is why we say as
well, which means creation is also
something physical. And another one is from from
about from it's a it's a source of
measurement.
What does that mean? You say they they
used to they used to measure people. That's
the word. Measuring people by their. You know,
now it is even when you side, you
you size people.
How do you what does it mean to
size people? Size people, upper size people done
when you try to compare them, compare them,
to to yourself or compare them to other
people. In regards to what? Their qualities, their
traits, and their characteristics, and, obviously, overall with
their. That's what it means. So we sizing
people. So is the same thing, and that's
why whenever they talk about somebody, they would
say that, you know what? Uh-uh, that
he is.
He has this amount
of patience, this amount of,
forbearance, this amount of generosity.
So, basically, they measure them by that. That's
why this and
overall, it's more of like
a a natural innate natural disposition, but it's
also enhanced through practice as well too. Now
in regards to saying,
we're looking into the word comes from or
Hassan which means what? Excellence.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made this whole creation.
This whole creation based on Hassan. When he
says
he said
who he created you, who could actually death
and life in order to try you, who's
gonna be most excellent in their deeds, in
their
And he is he gave us the incentive
for the and the incentive he says
What is the reward for Hassan
other than Hassan? Like, if you bring me
Hassan with your qualities, with your character, with
your practice, with your deeds, I will give
you a sign and perfection also with in
regard to the reward for it. So Hassan
is this creation is already about Hassan. So
when we say a personal what does it
mean? You need to perfect your
to try to perfect your your character,
have that excellent practice of character and and
manners and so on. That's why when we
talk about, we say
like the most perfect
and the best example of
now
Allah
even sent the whole, like I said, created
the prophethood, all of it. It was about
perfecting the human being in a sense that
is considered with
and character.
So when he said, when Allah said the
prophet Muhammad
That he was the one who sent among
the illiterate people, a messenger, a prophet. For
what? With his with his ad, with his
verses,
so
he would purify them.
So the whole purpose, before even saying about
teaching them the
before
So the first thing that he mentioned here
in this
is to perfect their character.
And then he mentioned how is that gonna
be? But I teach it in the book,
the wisdom, the of the prophet
and the minds of the prophet
When Allah said Musa Alaihi Salam to Faraun,
when Allah said Musa to Faraun, I mean,
we all know the debates that Musa had
with all these, of course, you know,
discussions and debates and so forth. But Allah
he,
simply summarize the story of Musa
and Firaun, the story of Musa Firaun in
simple words. As he said,
and so that so the Nazad about the
the the the discussion between Musa and Firaun.
Go to because he's a he's a tyrant.
He transgressed.
And now he summarizes his by saying
shall I guide you so that you purify
yourself?
So and what Allah send the prophet to
the people for
also to the test here. It's all about
really perfecting that human character
and create that perfect human being again in
the in the context of talking about humanity.
So create that perfect human being with the
best and
manners will come to dealing with people.
So now that we know that even the
whole
message was all about
perfecting our
manners, then it's that's it's extremely important for
us to keep that in mind.
Many of us when it comes to the,
they focus to
to being religious. As a matter of fact,
They focus so much on on their salah,
their fasting, their their their
their charity, and it's all it's all important.
No doubt about it.
But above all of this, you need to,
with that, bring
because sometimes all your
will be wasted.
If it's not, if it's not accompanied with
the evidence for this in the when
the prophet
he asked
do you know who is the one who
is bankrupt?
The one who is bankrupt is the one
who has no to hold no silver, no
money.
And the prophet said that's easy.
That's not the real bankruptcy.
He said, but,
the true bankruptcy
is when you come on the day of
judgment.
Brings on the day of judgment good deeds,
The size of the mount of Tehama, the
the mountain range that you guys see when
you go to Mecca. And as you drive
south from Madinah to Mecca, you start coming
closer to Mecca. You start you start seeing
mountains on the on the on the towards
the the shore.
And those mountain range go all the way
down to Yemen.
The huge mountain range. And the prophet says
people in the day of judgement will come
with deeds. And he mentioned specifically
that these are bringing their salah, they bring
their fasting, they bring in their charities.
All of these good deeds are now the
size of the mountains of Tehama.
But then he says, well, I can
curse at this person, insulted this person, person,
stole from this person, hurt this person.
So they all start taking from their.
And when they're done, they take from there,
say, add, put on the on that person's
deeds, and the person will be ruined.
So what does that even mean here? Their
religiosity
wasn't sufficient enough to make them spiritual
and make them with good under manic.
As Allah mentioned in the Quran,
supposed to prevent people from committing
and means bad deeds and ugly deeds and
so on. That's supposed to be the purpose
of your rebala. And if that's not bringing
you to where you where you're supposed to
be, then there's a problem here. So we
need to understand what is personal, what's the
reward for
and how we can do that inshallah.
So now we'll come to the subject of
what's what's the the
the yeah what I'm going to getting out
of this. And
give us one of the most beautiful incentives.
Look, not all of us, not all of
us are capable of fasting Mondays and Thursdays,
every 3 day, every 3 days of the
month of Ramadan.
You know, sometimes especially the sisters, you know,
they're she's pregnant. She's now nursing. She's getting
the babies. Blah blah blah. The guys keep
traveling for work. I don't have that energy
to to fast Mondays Thursdays.
I don't have that energy to wake up
at night and and and pray for half
an hour or more or less. I don't
have that energy all the time.
Comes and helps me out but after that
I go back to some old things. So
the prophet
says in
that a person can reach the level of
someone who's constantly fasting,
constantly praying at night
with
his good deal or her good deed, her
good manners.
So good manners
can equate to so much,
so much of a just by being
well mannered.
The second day the prophet mentioned here when
he he spoke about people
like I mean the best of all of
you. Among the best of all of you,
human beings, people. Because those who are are
best in their manners
and and their.
So he didn't say about those who dedicate
themselves to the night for or
dedicate their day for fast. He says, those
who truly treat people kindly, those with
and good manners. And even not just in
the duniya, the prophet
says that
That those who will be nearest to me
on the day of judgment in terms of
the seating. You know, the VIP seating with
the prophet
is that the closest to me in terms
of their position, he
said those are best in their and their
manners. That's why said also
your good character
and your good manners.
See,
many, many people, they wondered about the profits
of a settlement manners and privately.
Publicly
is perfect. His
pristine, beautiful,
sparkling character.
Everybody sees that the prophets are publicly.
But some people, they were wondering, they were
wondering.
What about his private life? Is it like
ours?
Like, as you see, some of us most
of us here, we have sometimes, you know,
unfortunately, kinda like double faces.
In public, we're smiling. We're happy. We're jolly.
We're easygoing. We deal with people in the
best and manners.
But when we go privately at home with
our siblings, our spouses, our children,
we don't necessarily display the exact same level
of patience and and managing with them.
So some people were actually feeling that way.
Maybe how about the prophet
So they went asking
of the prophet so I
she cut that conversation with them very short.
Like, she's was telling them, look, don't waste
your time. Don't waste your energy looking to
the character of the prophet
Quran.
His
was the Quran itself.
What does that mean? She says, what do
you see in the Quran? What the Quran
says?
He's the first person to do it.
What the Quran prohibits
He's the first person to stay away from
it. So basically he was an actual interpretation
of the Quran. He was the Quran
So if someone wants to reperfect their then
they're going to have to work on following
the commandments of the Quran and the soon
of the prophet
You know brothers and sisters Allah
even told the prophet
when it come to dealing with the people
Always take the path of forgiveness, like overlook.
Still, you need to invite people to that
which is good. Always invited that which is
good. You know, just avoiding the people's wrong
and evil does not necessarily mean you need
you cannot ask them to do that which
is right. You should. You should. And
stay away from turn away from the ignorance.
What does that mean? As Allah described, in
sort of for Khan,
Ibadur Rahman. When the ignorant, when the foolish,
they talk to them and they curse at
them and speak ill towards them. What do
they say? Peace.
Like, I'm not gonna get myself involved with
that kind of character.
That kind of behavior is not mine. I'm
not involved in that kind of stuff. And
the last told the prophet
if you were
if
you are harsh,
hard hearted person,
they will disperse away from you.
So Allah's
the prophet you can't be,
you can't have that harshness with it, which
is explained to us what's the real meaning
of
is not to be harsh with the people,
not to have that hard heart against these
people,
always overlooking and forgiving
without compromising your values that you still stand
your ground. It comes to inviting people to
that, which is good. Stay your ground. Even
actually, if people wrong
you,
and don't behave like them.
Don't be Emma. Emma could be translated today
as you could say like a copycat.
Don't be someone like a copycat, which means
whatever people do you do, they behaved well
with you, behave well with them. They behave
badly, behave worse. Because
that if people treat you well, you treat
them well, if they treat you badly, treat
it in bad. Because, no, when I can
walk to the community to adapt.
Adapt which means treat treat people
with, with goodness and kindness. And
that if people treat you well, you can
treat them better.
And if they if they treat you bad,
you still treat them that which is better.
Why? Because this is the and the manners
of a true believer.
Now,
how can I improve my and my mannerism?
Okay. I understand. This is very valuable. This
is very beautiful. What do I need to
do then? Here are few things I can
share with you on how we can work
on our on
our manners.
Number 1, the first and most important things
is to truly believe.
Believe in the value of the
and good character. Because if you can't believe
in that, I can really help
you. If you don't believe that, you know
what? I need to behave better with people
to be better than in terms of quality
with the people, then I can't help you.
Because a lot of time people, they ask
me, what if people keep wronging me? People
keep saying this about me, blah, blah. I
said, look, you have the
option to retaliate
with
justice. No harm
and no shame and pursue your hack for
justice. There's nothing wrong with that.
But that doesn't make you any better than
the people.
You wanna be better than those people? Allah
says
always respond in that which is the best.
Now look. If you're in a situation where
you cannot respond at all, like you have
no other option, that's there there is no
virtue in that.
Where's the virtue? The virtue is if you
can retaliate,
but you choose not to.
That's where the virtue is. That's where the
comes in.
Now does it mean I cannot really retaliate
against people who keep, you know, wronging me?
You can. Again, that's path of justice. Sometimes
you should do that. But healthy boundaries in
that regard should be should be,
observed
and remind yourself that all was even though
I can retaliate, but it doesn't mean I
should.
I better for me to to choose that,
which is best. So, the first thing is
to truly believe. Believe in and
that's how important it is because Allah says
in the Quran call
successful is the one who purifies himself.
And doomed is the one who who does
not.
This came after 13
oaths
in the Koran, swearing by the sun by
the moon by the day by the night.
All of this, and he said after that,
I swear to you by all these
magnificent creation
that successful is the person who purifies himself
and doomed is the one who does not.
So I need to believe in the importance
of always improving my character. I will say
again,
always improving.
What does that mean? There is no limit
to where to stop.
So you always remind yourself, it's a matter
of growth.
It's a matter of growth, and is that,
like, will I mention a continuous activity effort?
You always continue to grow. So
your is not about I reach that that
level. No. It's about there's always a room
to prove.
Number 2,
the second thing that I wanna share with
you is
thinking about the reward
for, for being a hamda with with a
clock and good manners.
So good and, you know, I would would
like what? Like we said, if you wanna
be close to the prophet remind yourself with
that incentive.
I
know my salah, my fasting, my charities wouldn't
bring me closer
to the prophet
But I would love to at least give
myself a shot
with my husband with the people, with my
good manners, with the people to bring me
as close as possible to
I know myself. I don't have that energy
to do these good deeds that other people
do, but I would like at least to
do what I can. Meaning, treat people kindly
and be kind to them, be nice to
them, and do my best
inshallah The third thing I would recommend for
you
is to always always find that good companionship.
What does that mean exactly?
I mean, in Arabic, we say,
tell me who is your companion? I'll tell
you who you are.
And they say,
companions gravitate.
Your friends will gravitate you to whatever their
and their manners. And even if you're not
that bad as they are, but you're gonna
they're gonna basically leave some dust on you.
So, therefore, it's a very important, very, very
important that you
be be around the people who can bring
you closer to Allah's with all that kind
of perfection.
The example of good companion, some put somebody
that you associate with,
and the bad one is the example of
a Hammil Musk, the one who is a
perfume seller
and a blacksmith.
Because as for the perfume seller,
He might give you a gift or a
sample.
You might buy something from them.
Or the least,
you live with a nice, beautiful smell. And
aroma that catches on your body, on your
clothes.
So that's the kind of people you associate
yourself with. When they're good, something something stays
with you from dealing with them.
The blacksmith.
A spark might fly and catches,
your clothes and and leaves, of course, you
know,
a hole in your in your in your
clothes, or the least when you leave, you
smell like you've been smoking.
So therefore,
make sure that you choose the people who
bring you inshallah to the perfection of character.
Number 4, I wanna share with you inshallah
is to, read the stories of the righteous
ones.
You know, we always love we always love
role models. We all love, you know, people
that we can emulate and can can can,
follow, especially when they're real, not just fantasies.
So, we read
the exactly like we like heroes in our
lives and our heroes as Muslims are those
who are in the Quran and the and
the and the prophets and the messengers.
Those are the one whom Allah
says,
for those are the ones whom we have
guided, so follow their guidance.
So their guidance is the way we follow.
That's a of the Allah perfected their character
for
us.
Number 5,
they wanna share to to perfect our character
here is to try to do what we
call
It's an ongoing
struggle, which means you're gonna have to always
bring yourself to perfect that. You see, in
multiple in the Quran, choose one of them
from.
And when Allah
says
always respond in that which is best. Always
respond in that which is best.
He said always respond in that which is
best.
To towards the end of the and that
he
says
If the Shaitan tempts you, if it's sometimes
seduces you, meaning, what does that mean? As
I'm trying to perfect my character in that
by responding in that, which is best, the
will be always on the way.
And sometimes I might snap.
I lose it in the moment. I can't.
I I just lost it in the moment.
He said it's alright. It's alright. Not the
end of the world. Recalibrate
and redo it again.
Recalibrate,
and try it again. So as we learn
from this is that
you always try to do your best. What
the prophet said,
Those who wanna seek knowledge, they have to
learn. Go and seek knowledge. And those who
like to become patient, they have to also
do that. He says,
if someone exercise patience, Allah
will make it easy for them to become
patient. So you need to exercise. And finally,
the last thing I would like to advise
you with is
after all of that, of course,
we're gonna need the help from Allah
We're gonna need the help from Allah so
therefore
Adwa Adwa Adwa. Well, the prophet used to
say in his
You Allah guide me to the best of
and best of manners
because no one can guide to the best
of manners better than you.
So we ask Allah to perfect our manners.
And we're fasting and I cannot drink water
right now. And I'm choking with my words.
But I'm gonna have to be patient with
that
for the next few minutes. The last thing
of the Dua as well when the prophet
used to look into the mirror, he used
to
say every time he looks in the mirror,
he would say, you Allah,
the way you have perfected my creation,
you Allah perfect mine,
and my manners.
So that is a dua that I need
to keep doing every single day for myself,
for the people around me. And with that
I ask Allah
to make us among those who listen to
the speech and for the best of it.
Those who are who are perfect their character
we ask Allah
to help us perfect our manners,
our characters, we ask Allah
to make it easy for us to have
the best character Allah and we ask Allah
to bring us closer to the prophet
I I only speak for a few seconds
here in the beginning and here at the
end, and I don't know how Subhan Allah
the, the, she could do it, especially because
this is probably not your only session of
the day or, you know, of the day
SubhanAllah. So, may Allah make it heavy on
your scale of deeds, Jazakkumalatir, for always making
time for our community,
during Ramadan.
I'm sure we're gonna have questions coming through
in the chat. For those who do have
questions, feel free to drop them and privately
message them to me so I do not
lose, out on them. And if you've got
the gems or if you were fast enough
to record as sheikh was going through, the
list of of, attributes, please do share them
inshallah in the Telegram group so that everyone
else can benefit.
The first question that I see mentioned by
Ziba is how is, Hassan related to Ru?
To what? Sorry. Is Hassan related to
Ru, like the soul? Ru?
Not sure I understand. So the question is
regard to Hassan and.
Has actually we have to keep in mind
that is perfect.
A
itself
is perfect.
Because the creation of a has a spiritual
being outside of this world.
Allah
created the
in a perfect
way. But what we're talking about is a
is different than a ruler.
So,
what we are trying to perfect is not
our role because our role has already pure
creation,
But we're trying to create we've got to
perfect our because
Allah said in the Quran card
usually inclines to whisper
bad to me, inspire me to do wrong.
So enough's in kinda like inclined to that
bad. That's why we try to perfect that.
Also, when we say personal,
if you say, to perfect our character, what
does that mean? There will always be deficiency
in character.
So that means some people might not have.
They might have bad.
So it's the that we try to perfect,
but in terms of our, it's always,
yeah, any perfect in that sense. So in
the creation of the of of the actually,
not the. Beautiful. Jazak Malekar.
I have another question. If someone who's taking
advantage of your background as a, you know,
marriage and family counselor, they're asking, how do
we assess good
character when considering a potential spouse, especially during
the initial stages when everyone presents their best
behavior?
Well, no matter how much you try, at
the end of the day, people change.
So even if you marry someone who's martial
or super,
religious,
super, kind, super general, super the super that.
I don't know how they're gonna behave afterwards.
Because even the prophet mentioned that
you might see a person doing the diesel
agenda.
They become so close to general, like the
span of a hand.
And then somehow agile, and then they flip
and then eventually they change completely.
I might marry somebody who's completely far away
from the team and there will be a
change of heart in their life and solid
day change. However,
in the initial phase, in the initial phase,
there is no doubt you're gonna have to
assess by looking around and
asking their friends, their coworkers.
If they have social media, look at their
interaction, for example, what kind of post they
put in there. That's gonna indicate
what's their inclination in terms of their and
their
and so on and so.
So you see how they treat their parents,
their siblings, all these kind of things. And
then once you have all of that being,
you know, probed and investigated, then you make
your and
you make your decision and you move on.
At the end of the day,
marriage is a hazardous,
experience.
You have to come into the relationship with
risk.
The risk of marrying somebody who is way
better than what you expected
or otherwise. But at the end of the
day, the commitment to make it successful
can make things
better.
You're really selling, everybody on marriage.
The next,
couple more questions we'll take. 1 is a
little off topic, but we'll take it because
it is relevant to all of us. Do
you have any advice for one who gets
nothing out of fasting except for hunger and
thirst?
Yeah. That's tough.
That's a lot that that stuff.
Now they're doing the obligation. There's no doubt
about it. They're getting their word for that.
Mhmm.
But, unfortunately,
if they have not, maintained the
while they're fasting and they keep speaking ill
or lying or this and that, make it
easy for them.
That's bad. No doubt about it. But
unless they're getting the reward for the obligation
to fulfill the obligation.
If anyone wants to, yeah,
benefit from the fast of the month of
Ramadan and any fast as well, right, really.
The prophet
guide us where we should focus.
We should really focus not on getting thirsty
or hungry. We just focus on the heart.
What is my heart getting out of that
experience?
And to me, it's a very interesting thing
that when I see now all these new
converts coming to Islam, and even non Muslims.
Non Muslims. When you hear them speak about
Islam, just like, wait a minute. I mean,
they highlight things to you about Islam that
you probably sometimes don't pay attention to.
Like, when they say the math the most
invaluable thing for them about Islam, the most
valuable thing to them to them about Islam
is actually discipline.
Why? Because they live the life of freedom.
Right? You're free to do anything. So they're
free to hate, free to love, free to
do this,
no boundaries whatsoever.
And we know that the next Allah subhanahu
create the with
the with a lot of different dispositions that
needs to be
cultivated in order for you to have and
have the the optimum practice, optimum benefit of
your life. But when these people have no
boundaries,
so there's no discipline whatsoever. They get exhausted
and tired.
But for us as Muslim, we don't pay
attention to it because
that's normal to us.
When you wake up, there's a specific ticket,
a specific when you start your day, you
always focus on when the is gonna come.
So your time is limited to 1 PM,
for example. Not like everybody else. They just,
like, don't even know what the limit for
the day and the evening.
So that kind of discipline
is what really makes us very unique. So,
therefore,
anyone who wants to fast and benefit from
fasting is not only about stop eating or
drinking. It's about what discipline has bring to
me in my life, and that should be
should come from the heart. I need to
believe in that first,
that this discipline
is for my own good,
not just for my overall well-being. It's even
actually the physical
and the practice of my life, like being
in control of myself. It is extremely important
to be successful in this dunya even before
the.
A difficult question, but you did justice to
it. The final one, man, this is very
difficult. The questions get better and better as
they're coming lower, but I said I would
take the first ones first, so I'm gonna
do my best. The question is, how do
you respond to criticism or feedback about your
character? How can constructive criticism help you grow?
Be confident. That's all.
That's actually a a problem with self esteem.
If you don't if you don't have confidence
with yourself, you're gonna always be hurt by
everybody what they say. No matter what good
or bad they say to you. But if
you're self confident,
whatever come whatever comes to you,
you really always always be be sure is
that doesn't hurt you and doesn't affect you.
And that's why the they say, Yani, that
that,
in terms of a area or, how can
I maintain my my my without being affected
by what people tell me? Because
if both,
reproach
and praise their equal to you. Like, praise
doesn't make me feel any better and and
and reproach doesn't make me feel any, you
know, any different meaning. I don't I don't
really get deflated from doing good deeds because
people, for example, are criticizing
me. So people who have a problem with
people criticizing, they need to work on their
self esteem and their self confidence.
Because as a confident person, I'm looking for
feedback.
I need to improve
Because I believe I'm not perfect. I can
be actually imperfect. And here's the thing. You
get feedback from everybody. Those who are better
than you or worse than you.
And sometimes those are better than you. They're
not gonna highlight actually your your your worst
characters, but those are worse than you. They
will, as
may Allah have mercy when someone gives me
my own, weaknesses and my own, shortcomings.
Like, I need to know them. Right? Because
that's how I can improve. So if you
take it, if you take that kind of
criticism with full confidence, again, I am very
confident with myself.
So criticism, it doesn't bother me much.
So, therefore,
it really makes me a better person.
Beautiful.
I will say just quickly. I think the
person is trying to say is how do
you instead of getting your ego involved, which
I think you've addressed, is how do you
use that constructive constructive
criticism when it is beneficial to help you
grow without that element of ego? I think
you addressed the first part of it. But
just to If I may if I may
give a sequence of events of it. Yes.
What is the number one reason for people,
not listening to somebody when they're criticizing
The number one reason why we're not listening
to people when they look when they when
they criticize us. I hear people saying low
self esteem, ego,
wisdom.
What else?
Arrogance,
pride,
pride,
loss of temper. No. Let me give you
the answer.
The number one reason why people don't listen
to someone who's criticizing them because at the
time when they're arguing with us or when
they're criticizing us, we start focusing on our
own pain.
We don't focus on there.
When someone criticizes you, they feel kinda like
bothered by something about what you say, what
you did, and they try to bring it
to your attention. So they're expressing some element
of pain.
And for you, when they start criticizing you,
you're just like, are you kidding me? Now
your mind is just like
you call this painful?
So immediately, we start we start, like, focusing
on our own on our own pain.
And now who's benefiting from that? Our ego.
That's when our ego comes in.
Our ego is biased.
Our ego is,
is selfish.
It's designed to keep you always feel safe,
and I recommend a book for anyone who
wants to read on the subject, actually. Again,
any book recommendation,
as a Muslim, I felt that everything I
read. Ego is the enemy by Ryan Holiday.
So
and it will help you it will help
you understand what the what the the function
of the ego, obviously. So the ego kicks
in telling you, are you gonna let him
say this to you? Are you gonna really
be quiet about this issue?
So the ego start basically because the ego
doesn't want you to feel bad.
Okay. Now ego
ego becomes what? The Trojan horse for who?
For the shaitan.
And that's when the shaitan starts whispering to
you. Because Allah
said about the I only
have no I had no control over you
except that I whispered to you. I just
whispered to you, and you listened to me.
So the shaitan
blows into the ego, and the ego starts
getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger
and blinds you completely so you don't listen
anymore completely anymore. There's another book actually I
usually teach people from. Although I can give
I I give you a heads up right
now. This is one of the most boring
book you will ever read.
Because it's very academic, very,
technical, so like a textbook,
but it's very important in a subject.
This is actually they teach this for chaplains
because when you go to, to the hospitals
or go to the cemetery, grieving people and
so and so, you're gonna have to really
learn the art of listening.
It's extremely, extremely important. Extremely important. Once again,
the book is actually called
The Lost Art of Listening.
Once again, as a Muslim, I any book
recommendation I give you, I expect you to
have your only any Muslim goggles as you
read, and, of course, you will filter what
you need
read. Beautiful.
You didn't even see the question. There's people
asking for book recommendations on YouTube, so you
you answered another one.
Yes, sir. I know a lot of people
are ask a couple of people saying, you
know, I wanna attend classes with you. So
if you get to catch Sheikh Yasser on-site,
you better take a flight if you have
to to benefit from him because it's a
rare sight and it's a beneficial one. However,
however, Sheikh, I know they've been knocking on
our doors in the UK and begging and
begging and begging,
us to bring you over there. So, Alhamdulillah,
some of you might know this already, this
great news that we that I'm about to
share, but Alhamdulillah,
we finally, finally are bringing Sheikh Yasser close
to London. Insha'Allah, yes, Bilal is correct. We're
having an Ilm Summit taking place Insha'Allah this
August with Sheikh Yasser Bijaz as one of
our, premier teachers who's gonna be presenting.
So congratulations to those who've been begging for
years years to make this happen. Alhamdulillah, it's
happened August 18 to 14 is happening. This
is a week long 7 day intensive
with 4 of our, you know, senior scholars,
Sheikh Hamar is maybe not senior, but popular,
alhamdulillah,
at Almagrib Institute, Sheikh Waleed, Sheikh Yasir, Sheikh
Abu'i, and Sheikh Hamar Shukri are gonna be
there with us. It's gonna be in Hull
in the UK. I don't know where that
is, but apparently I've been told it's 2
hours away from Manchester and London and from
all the hubs. I know a lot of
people are looking at flights right now, so,
you know, make a staghata, book your plans,
register now, inshallah,
and secure your spot. There's limited spots for
this because it's meant to be kind of
a more intimate and a private gathering.
So we look forward to seeing you guys
all there. The URL is amaghrib.orgforward/ilmsummit.
We'll share that in the chat with you
all as well. But if you're looking to
benefit from Sheikh Yasser in person in an
intensive environment with a lot of like minded
lovers, you know, seekers of knowledge, Insha'Allah, please
do join us there, Inshallah. And I'm glad
that I see the excitement here in the
chat. Sheikh Yasser, it's been like a decade,
I think, almost since the last film summit.
Were you there?
I not at none the UK. I've never
actually visited the UK. Yeah. This is gonna
be my first time ever coming to the
UK.
But I've been to Europe, of course. I
lived in Europe for a few for a
few years. And, inshallah, another IT announcement for
those who like to come and join us.
We are planning another trip to Bosnia. Blessed
voice to Bosnia.
The the date the date's still not not
decided. It's gonna be probably the last week
of July or the 1st week of August.
Just kinda like around that time
Hopefully, for those who like to come and
join us,
get ready.
We'll see you.
A pleasure as always to have you back.
From Malaysia. Actually, she was with us as
well. She said she misses the trip from
Bosnia, so she's back
here.
No, honestly, this is that's that's one to
travel the world. Take a month off. Hit
up hit up Bosnia, stick around in Europe,
and then hit up Il Sabet InshaAllah with
us as well.
Jazak Malka, Sheikh Yasser. Always a pleasure to
have you on. We look forward to seeing,
your shenanigans continue with Sheikh Umar and may
Allah make them successful,
Amin. And we'll catch you very soon in
our in our upcoming programs. Assalamu alaykum. I
wish you the best. Assalamu alaykum.
And again, blessed voyage.org
is where you can find out more information
when that trip launches. It'll be soon inshallah.
We've been in discussions for quite some time.
I highly recommend, especially honestly, if we've been
following what's been happening in Palestine, there's been
a lot of the footprint of some of
the injustices that happened to our our our
brothers and sisters in Palestine happened already in
Bosnia. And, there's a lot of history, there's
a lot to be learned from the resilience
of the Muslims there. So, I highly encourage
if you guys get an opportunity to go
with Sheikh Yasser on one of those trips,
it's a life changing experience. And I saw
all the buzzing happening last year in the
group that went, and I hope that you
guys get a chance to benefit and go
as well inshallah when it launches. And, of
course, Ilm Summit Ilm Summit has been something
a long time in the making that has
been, like, I think the entire Amaljar world
has been probably praying tahajjud
and and making dua that we finally bring
it back. Sheikh Malka Fazleen for dropping it
here in the chat on YouTube. Once again,
it's almajid.orgforward/msummit.
Limited seats. There's not enough seats for the
people that are on these calls right now.
So just heads up. When they sell out,
they sell out, and we hope to see
you guys all there.
With that said, let me just have a
quick look at this daily giving counter. I
don't know if it's moved at all. I
know we're trying to, like, finally hit that
last little bit,
to get to a 1,000,
a 1,000 amazing individuals who are supporting who
are supporting us on the campaign,
every single day this Ramadan. Now you have
less than half of Ramadan left. So if
you give now, it's it's almost like it's
50%
off if you think of it like that
inshallah.
And, of course, for those who've given jazakalukherme
Allah, make it heavy on your skill at
ease. Keep sharing, to those who may benefit
from this extra little bit of ajur in
their in their daily routine. Especially, like, I've
been mentioning is sometimes sometimes you have good
days, sometimes you have not so good days
in your abadah and your efforts and everything
else. But at least with this, you've automated
some of your efforts. You're continuously getting the
ajur InshaAllah.
Once again, that link is amalogrib.orgforward/
give daily. That was Sheikh Yasir Bajas that
we just finished with on the topic of
a good character for day number 16 of
Ramadan 360.
Alhamdulillah, and we keep it pushing, with our
chance now to reflect on the topic of
good character. There were some amazing questions coming
in, so I'm expecting some amazing reflections to
result as well from this topic,
with Usadatemia
Zubair. And, oops, I took a little bit
extra time. Sorry, Usadatemia.
As we start jumping into our Quran reflect
session for the day. And for those who
have kind of logistical questions, we'll get back
to you guys in the chat in just
a second, but
Lusada, how are you doing today?
I'm well.
We enjoyed the session
on Husl al Khuluq
and looking forward to,
hearing everyone's reflections inshallah.
Beautiful. Say it, likewise,
I'm gonna pass it off to you inshallah.
Let's jump right into our reflections.
Alright. Let's begin. Everyone.
So Husul Khuluq,
Alhamdulillah, we got a very good,
explanation of what Husul Khuluq is.
It's a person's
character.
And,
it reminded me
of how,
you know, your hulk is your outer form.
Right? And your hulk is your inner form,
your outer form, your hulk, your physical form
is something that Allah Subhanu Tada has created,
right? It's something that, you know, you don't
get to decide. You don't get to choose.
It is measured and proportioned,
according to Allah's decree, according to his Qadr.
And when it comes to your inner form,
actually,
your khuluq,
part of that is also
by design.
There's a hadith in which we learn that
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that Allah
created Adam alaihi wasallam from a handful of
earth,
which he took from different parts of
off the earth. Alright. Handful of soil, which
he took from different parts of the earth.
And he said, this is why the children
of Adam are in accordance
with the earth.
Right? They vary in terms of their color.
So he said some people are red, some
people are white, some people
are darker, some a mixture.
And he said also
some smooth
and some are rough.
Right? Meaning in terms of their
disposition,
in terms of their character,
people vary.
Some people are super gentle, super cooperative,
super nice. That's just how they are by
nature.
Right? And then there are others who are
difficult to deal with. They're they're, you know,
they're they're a bit more harsh.
So the thing is that, yes, part of
our character is by nature. It is determined
by nature,
but
it's not something that is completely out of
our control. It is something that we can
actually work on.
It is something that can be improved,
Right? And each person is rewarded according to
their,
their effort and their work.
So this is why holok
is,
is explained as,
as what as the manner,
the the the character
that a person takes on.
Alright?
Any through their effort, through practice,
through patience.
Alright?
And then it becomes a part of their
nature.
So it becomes their natural response. You know,
it it it becomes,
the
their their natural,
way in which they,
you know, respond to different situations.
Alright?
However, it is something that can be worked
on. Now this makes me think about how
a little child, right, like a toddler,
has no self regulation.
Right? They don't care. They're in the middle
of,
you know, a
a store or in the car, at home
in the middle of the night, in the
middle of the day, it doesn't matter who
it is.
Right? Or what's going on. They want something.
They want it.
Right. And they make it clear that they
want it. They'll scream, they'll cry, they'll hit.
But then what happens through the way that,
you know, people interact
with the child,
the child learns
what a better way of,
talking is, right, of of of communicating
is.
But some somehow we think that if I
am 30 years old
and I get
angry quickly, and this is just how I
react, and this is just who I am.
No. This is not just who you are.
You actually have the ability
to self regulate,
right, to manage
your
behavior, your reactions,
the way that you deal with people, the
way that you respond in
situations when you're angry, when you're upset, when
you're disappointed.
And all of this can be worked on
and it can be
improved with the help of Allah.
And Alhamdulillah, we got excellent
guidance on how to,
improve our akhlaq.
Now I wanna focus on, a few verses
from
Surat,
Surat Kalam.
Alright? So I'm gonna quickly
share
Bismillah.
Alright. You all see it?
Yes. We do. Okay. Awesome. So this is
Suratul Qalam.
And in Suratul Qalam, right at the beginning,
Allah
says, noon
noon, by the pen and what they inscribe.
Allah
is taking an oath by the pen over
here and Allah's pan wa ta'ala only takes
an oath by something that is
important. Right? And the Qalam, the pen of
course is very honorable because not only is
it the first thing that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala created, but it's actually something that Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala created by his hand.
Right?
And with the Quran sorry. With the qalam,
with the pen, the Quran is written.
So by the pen,
and what they inscribe.
So Allah
takes an oath. And what is the
the conclusion or what is being established?
That
You, oh prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, are
not
by the favor of your Lord a madman.
His enemies
called him a madman.
Right? They called him crazy. They called him
majoon. Majoon is someone who's whose intellect is,
is covered up, right? Meaning they're not in
their senses.
And when a person is not in their
senses,
their behavior,
their speech,
right, their manner, all of that shows.
Right?
So why did they say that you are
Majnu and you are crazy? Because he said
And for them, this was very odd that
how could a person say
This is madness.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells his messenger
that you are not by the favor of
your Lord.
Allah has protected you. You you are not
crazy.
And indeed for you is a reward that
is uninterrupted.
You are calling people to the oneness of
Allah and every single person that believes.
Right? And then after that, they do anything
good.
The reward of that goes to who? To
that person and also to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. Imagine
you recite the Quran today. Alright?
You pray salah. You make.
You are rewarded for that, but an equal
amount of reward for your good deeds is
also going to the prophet
because he is the one who taught all
of these good things to us.
Right?
So imagine the reward of the prophet unobstructed.
Alright?
And then Allah says,
And indeed you are of a great moral
character.
SubhanAllah.
Why is his
being mentioned over here? His, his good character
being mentioned over here.
There's 2 things. Alright? The first thing is
that this shows us that it is only
people
who have good akhlaq,
good character, who can actually do dawah, who
can call people to Allah.
Because calling people to Allah is not easy.
Right? This is hard work.
There's opposition.
There's ridicule and mockery from people.
Right? There there's there lies.
Right? So
if you don't
have good character, what's going to happen. You're
going to respond with anger. You're going to
respond with
impatience.
Right. And that's going to make you ineffective.
So if you want to be effective in
what you're doing,
even if it is, you know, raising your
children,
right,
What is essential?
Good character. Without good good character, you cannot
be successful.
As a
leader in any capacity, right, at work, in
a project, when you're dealing with people, even
as a teacher,
you cannot be successful in your work unless
and until you have good character.
So the prophet
had the greatest mission,
the greatest task, the most important,
which was to save people from *, from
jahannam.
Right? Call people to la ilaha illallah.
And this is why Allah
tells him
You you are of a great moral character,
and this is why you must respond according
to that
to your enemies.
And the second thing that we can learn
from this
is that
the excellent character of the prophet
was proof of his prophethood.
Alright? You see, earlier, Allah says that you
are not a madman.
Right? And then he says that you are
of a great moral character.
If you think about it,
excellent character
and insanity
cannot be combined in one person.
Right? Someone who has gone insane
does not have any control over themselves.
They don't have any control over their body.
They don't have any control over their behavior,
over their speech.
Right? I mean, people experience different kinds of,
madness, and you see how sometimes people are
just shouting.
People are staring. People are hitting others.
He that's not that's the complete opposite of
good character.
Right? The prophet
was of great moral character. He had mastered
himself,
right, with his patience, with his self regulation,
with his kindness, with his smiling, with his
generosity,
with his steadfastness. So
all of that was actually proof of his
truthfulness.
And it is
one of the things,
that actually,
helped him in his dawah.
Right? It is something that Allah
equipped him with
in order to give him success in his
dawah
because
people were
deeply affected
by his good character.
Right? There were people who said to him
that there is no one on earth whom
I hate more than you. Right? Like, Sumay
ibn Uthal, when he was captured,
he said he said this. Right? And then
after a couple days,
what happened? When he when he saw the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
right, when he witnessed his interactions with people,
and when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam also,
you know, dealt with him, and then he
you know, the prophet
pardoned him, let him go.
Came to the prophet
and said, by Allah, there was no one
whom I hated on the face of the
earth more than you, and now there is
no one whom I love on the face
of the earth more than you.
This was, of course,
a change of heart because now,
Thumama had iman in his heart.
Right?
But he was deeply
affected by the character, the akhlaq of the
prophet
how he engaged with the young and the
old, the men and the women, right, with
different people.
So Sumama witnessed all of that himself.
And we see that whether it was someone
who was close to
prophet or far from him. They all,
you know, they benefited
from his excellent
character.
In fact, if you think about it,
which people,
are are able to
really tell
what kind of character you have.
Is it your friends? Is it the strangers?
No. It's the people that live with you.
Right? Especially people whom you whom you actually
have
an upper hand over.
Right? And Anas
said that I lived with the prophet
for 10 years. I served him for so
long.
And not even once did he say to
me,
why did you do this, or why did
you not do this?
SubhanAllah.
And Aisha when
she was asked about character of the prophet
he said she said,
he was the best
he was the best of all people
in character.
And she explained that he was neither vulgar
nor was he harsh,
because that's what happens. Right? When people are
angry,
they become vulgar.
They become harsh.
He was not loud.
He would not compensate evil with its like.
Right? He he that's not how he would
respond to evil,
with evil. No. He would pardon and he
would forgive.
SubhanAllah.
So looking at these and and then sorry.
Just just one more thing. If you continue
to read Surat Qalam,
right, you see,
later on in the Surah versus 10 onwards,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes
the character of the enemies of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Right? People who would,
who were habitual swearers.
Right? Those who would scorn at others,
any,
attack them, ridicule them,
spreading malicious gossip,
preventing good,
transgressing
sinful,
cruel, bullies.
This was the character of the enemies of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And in
contrast, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, his
character was Alim.
Alright. So let's hear from you,
reflections.
And remember, keep your reflections
within 30 seconds, under 30 seconds
so that we can hear from as many
of you as possible.
Alright. Let's begin, Bismillah.
Beautiful. I see quite a few hands up
already, So let's take Amina from Irving first,
Insha'Allah, and the next we'll have Ahmed Bati.
Amina, go right ahead.
So I just wanted to kind of, stress
on how important is it is, especially us
as Muslims to have good good o'clock,
especially when we're living in,
a lot of non Muslim countries where a
lot of people, Christians or people of other
religion,
they don't really see Islam. They see Muslims
who follow Islam.
So this like, having good o'clock,
being being nice to them, and just having
you know, just be kind. And like we
mentioned,
prophet was
nice to, basically everyone, and it was
that is that that is why it was
easy for him to spread the message of
Islam.
So
so I I just think that it's so
important to have that to to show people
that. Absolutely. But,
it's
first and foremost, the people who live with
you, they're the most deserving of your good
kind treatment, your good character.
Because sometimes we don't care about how we
are dealing with people at home, but when
it comes to strangers, especially non Muslims, we
try to fake our best self.
Right? But because it's all fake,
doesn't last very long.
So
start with people at home.
Next person.
Beautiful. Next person is Ahmed. Ahmed, go right
ahead,
Thank you so much. Yes. So my favorite
one of my favorite I was quoted today.
It was,
And I think, what I like the word
Arabic word,
which I if I'm correct, it comes from
the Arabic of toiling. It's a tool that
is used to get your character fixed. I
think you need to work like a farmer.
Work hard and toil,
and then I think you you'll have a
chance of getting your soul and and,
and your character fixed. Thank you. It requires
constant work and attention.
The next person. So switch it up a
little bit because I wanna hear from some
new voices as well, and then we'll go
back to to to the next person in
line. So Kenneth from Toronto. Go right ahead.
So my sister used to actually,
work at the CN Tower,
and,
she realized or she was always one who
was generally very quiet.
But out of all the people, every time
when they had a certain responsibility or a
task to do or anyone that they would
trust, They wouldn't trust anyone in that in
that work environment except my sister.
And they realized that she was always the
one who never backlighted or, you know,
really good character. And and she was the
only Muslim there as well.
And yeah. So I just wanted to it's
so important to have good character.
She wasn't preaching or anything like that. It
was just simply her presence that made everyone
else seeing her difference.
May Allah make it all of us that
person in in any gathering. I mean, I
see s.
Go right ahead, s.
Yes.
I had a experience this past 2 months
ago that really taught me about my o'clock.
I've been trying to better myself recently, but
unfortunately, I had a really bad experience at
work where the management,
the way that they singled me out and,
treated me was like really bad. And usually
I'm able to stay calm and not react,
but it got to such a horrendous level
that I ended up reacting.
And afterward, I felt so much regret because
I've never reacted that badly.
And I was like, you should have just
kept quiet. Despite whatever they've done, you should
have kept quiet. So I think that was
a really valuable experience because it taught me,
1st, don't stay in an environment that's just
really toxic and negative. Like, don't try to
tough it out if there's not legitimate reasons.
And second, don't ever let someone get to
you so much that you do actions
that you regret personally for a long time.
But, yeah, that's it.
The next person, let's have, Amina from Indiana.
Go right ahead, Amina.
Assalamu
alaikum.
I just wanted to stress the importance of
having a good character living in a non
Muslim society as a Hijabi because we not
only represent ourselves, but Islam as a whole.
Alright.
The next person we have is oops. Lost
it.
Aisha Ibrahim. Go ahead,
Aisha.
Can you hear me?
Yep. Is that him, though? We can hear
you.
My reflection
is that
you should always have good
no matter
where you are even if it's just, like,
close family and siblings
because,
like, you wanna teach them especially if you
have younger siblings, you wanna teach them,
like, how to have good, especially,
like, when they grow up.
Well said, Jisakumar Harish.
The next person we have is Bill Gis.
Michelle, we have a lot of hands today.
Amazing to see everybody ready to reflect and
keeping everything concise. Just a reminder guys is
try to make sure that you test out
your audio before you come on. You can
do that next to your mic in the
upwards arrow. That way you can make sure
it sounds clear and and you don't have
to stress about it when you're online when
you're on, like, unmuted. So, go right ahead,
miss Mela. Let's hear from you.
Thanks.
What I've been thinking of is, despite the
fact that, fasting
is we have to do it. There's no
excuse. We have to do that.
But our character is very important as well
if we want to be productive in whatever
we choose to do. If we want to
improve, we have to improve our character.
Living in the west, I find sometimes
non Muslim do have beautiful amazing character.
Though sadly, they don't have the iman to
go with it.
And next, we'll have Raghad from Florida. Inshallah,
Raghad, come right on.
I just, I've been listening to a lot
of lectures, and I heard this, mentioned several
times about the Sahabi that
had,
a lot of patience and forbearance. And his
he was a leader of his community, and
then the people saw that as a weakness.
And the prophet he asked the prophet, and
the prophet
told him, no. This isn't a weakness. And
he said, is this something that I have,
or is it something Allah gave me? And
he told him, Allah gave it to you,
and it's something that you have.
So he told him, you know, Allah gave
you some of it, but you're you've nurtured
it. And so, you know, I figured that
that's also something, you know, that all of
us sometimes we show these signs as babies,
as toddlers,
that it's a character that we have. You
know, our mothers might tell us, well, since
you were a baby, you were a very
good baby, you know, or some kids are
just angry even when they're babies.
But it's like it's something that you nurture.
Either you nurture that or in a good
way or you nurture it in a bad
way.
Well,
The next person, let's take, Lydia.
Go ahead, Lydia Bismillah. Let's hear from you.
Hi. I just wanted to say that, I'm
a revert for the last
18 years,
and I've been blessed with 4 beautiful children.
And then just the way our family dynamics
work is I have to stay home with
them. I don't get to work in the
public. I'm basically just raising my children, but
they're getting older now. And I just like
when you said that it starts at home
too, you know, the have to have good
character because
I can't go out and make goa at
in in public.
I feel like I do have a good
character. I could do that, but I'm doing
it with my children, Inshallah, and I'm hoping
that they I'm raising good Muslims for the
Ummah. Inshallah. Inshallah.
Thank you. Great reflection, lady Ajazakamalakher.
And someone else was saying about siblings as
well. You don't realize a lot of times
like Sheikh Yasser was mentioning I'm gonna jump
in with my reflection.
He was mentioning earlier
about, oh, I I'm about to lose it,
about our our outside self and our inside
self. Right? And a lot of times, we
care a lot about giving dua outside of
the the house and and, you know, impacting
the people people's opinion about Muslims and Islam
outside of the house and that we we
represent ourselves. We don't realize how much of
an impact we're having on those around us.
And you can put family members push them
closer away from the deen because of the
way that you interact, because they see you
being a hypocrite in your in your daily
life. SubhanAllah. So that is a good reminder.
Jazak Milkar for inspiring that reflection in me
as well, guys. Let's hear next from,
actually we had our a previous host, Masha'Allah.
I see her back by Aisha. I don't
know how to say your last name by
Aisha, but let's hear from you, Bismillah. Go
right ahead.
Bismillah,
So just a quick reflection. It brought me
back to that incident in the life of
the prophet where
one of the Sahaba went up to him
and told him that he wanted to commit
zina. So it's sort of like I went
back to that hadith because it shows you
the beautiful character of the prophet
that the people around him were actually comfortable
asking him these taboo questions.
So, yeah,
And the way that he
asked that man, right? That young man,
you know, different questions so that the man
would understand that Zina is something evil.
The Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, didn't shame him,
didn't say, well, you know, it's haram. How
can I help you then? Right?
Any the way that the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam spoke to him so kindly,
it it actually
affected the man so much that he himself,
was willing to leave it.
Alright. We got a few minutes left, and
we got 8 hands up. So we'll do
as as many as we can in that
time. Let's hear from Aisha Gomez. Aisha, go
right ahead. And after you will be Ramesh.
Be Ramesh.
Teske.
So today's topic,
made me remember
a lecture I had from, sheikh Noman.
And he said that in all our dealings,
we need to understand that our character
may be sometimes different from the way we
portray our Islamic actions. So for example, he
made an an illusion that, someone can go
to Hajj every year, but have an anger
problem.
So we need to work on a ahlak
or on a on our character.
There. There. I should come back.
This may not. And next, let's bring on
Ramsher. I'm sure go right ahead if you're
ready to unmute.
Sister.
I just wanted to say that, like, I've
personally seen,
like, in my family,
certain people, they are, like,
misjudged and discriminated,
like, for certain things.
But still, like, one traveler, we live actually
is about my mother.
She's sometimes you know, from her in laws,
she's kind of discriminated.
But still, Alumna, she has a very good
character,
Alumna.
And that's why I've seen that not at
least if not from,
the people from my family,
but Alaa has given her
a lot of other people. Like, she's a
teacher in a school.
So people around
there, she teaches to the people, like, underprivileged
children and the families.
So a lot of people from there, they
really adore her. So
I'm really, really proud of her good character.
Yeah. That's what I wanna say.
Beautiful.
For sharing, Wamsa.
And then final person,
I'm sorry. We won't be able to get
through everyone, but amazing reflection so far. Let's
hear from
who was that? Sorry.
I think I did Show Me already. Did
I just Show Me already, Yostada?
I don't remember. I'm sorry. Let's try for
for Shomi, inshallah. If it's a mistake, then
we'll do one more person. Shomi, have you
spoken?
No.
Let's hear from you. So I just want
to share,
one of my experiences that,
whenever I have,
like,
reacted
or raised my voice during any argument or
any heated conversation,
Every time, I just lost it. I I
was in a losing, position.
It never helped me.
Only it damaged my relationship.
But whenever I try to be calm, I
try to be, like,
quiet and,
silent,
it helped me. And I was in the
favor,
I I was in the favor,
in the
Mhmm.
In the situation.
So,
this is what I have experienced in my
life
that,
actually
good characters and being nice, gentle is very,
very important in our personal life all the
time. Mhmm.
For sharing. You're very right.
When there is more anger,
a person is being more reactive.
They you know, shaitan is very active over
there. Yeah. When a person is calm,
then they have the help of Allah as
well in that situation.
There's something I wanna quickly address. There's a
comment there's a question in the in the
comments. As Muslims, are we supposed to hate
the disbelievers?
The thing is that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
tells us in the Quran that he does
not forbid us
from being good to those disbelievers
who do not fight against us and who
do not try to evict us from our
homes and so on and so forth.
Those who are not hostile towards you,
then you don't have to be hostile towards
them. Right? You
you are allowed to. You should be.
You should be good to them. You should
be kind to them.
But those who do show hostility towards you,
right, who openly,
any
oppose you, then you
you you cannot be naive over there and
just pretend like they're your friends.
Alright?
So, I I see a lot of verses
being quoted in response to this question. So
remember that there's nuance over here.
So be be careful.
Alhamdulillah for your guidance when it comes to
tackling some of these, like, complicated
issues. And, Alhamdulillah for everybody, Jazakamalikar, who reflected.
And, I see more and more hands every
day. It's beautiful to see, insha'Allah. Let's keep
up that energy. Usala, looking forward to reflecting
once again tomorrow,
after our topic on justice with Sheikh Mohammed
Alayman. We'll see you then, insha'Allah. Assalamu Alaikum
Warahmatullah.
And for everybody else here, of course, there's
been a lot of little plugs, a lot
of little announcements today. I hope that you
guys have kept up. Of course, we mentioned,
our ill
as of yesterday, which is our immersive tarbia
experience,
for one full week with some of our
amazing instructors,
Isani Motta Allah, Sheikh Yasser Bijas, Sheikh Warib
Bisyouni, and Sheikh
Amar Ashokri, who you've benefited immensely from during
Ramadan 360. Look out for that at umagrip.orgforward/ilmsummit.
Please continue, of course, to support the amazing
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on YouTube.
And then finally, I tend to do that
that,
reminder, I know, of course, there's the the
the give daily program. I know we've got
one more person. It was 991
when we started this session, and we're now
at 992.
Oh, no. Wait. We're at 993. Alhamdulillah. May
Allah reward and accept from you all and
grant you Janata for those and make this
heavy on your skill of deeds.
Ameen, and to everybody who's donated so far
as well. Ameen, jazakkullahukar. Please help us with
that final view to get to a 1,000
inshaAllah and then you're gonna stop hearing from
give daily giving, but may Allah keep keep,
you know, continue,
your your ajran, your award for those who
are giving consistently. Alhamdulillah.
And, yes, usually I say this, stay happy,
stay healthy, stay safe. To be honest, I
started that in Ramadan or sorry, that I
started that in COVID a couple years ago
when we were all worried about safety, we
were all worried about, you know, the pandemic
and all that craziness, but I was just
reflecting earlier today since we're on the topic
of reflecting that
we're alhamdulillah, most of us are healthy, most
of us are safe, most of us are
relatively happy, but it's really difficult to say
that now is is the only things that
that I can think about is is the
the happiness, the health, and the safety of
the people in Palestine, and they don't have
any of that. SubhanAllah.
So keep them in your thoughts. I wanna
switch up that outro sometime because I feel
like it's not as relevant to us. So,
you know, free full esteem, make sure that
every single day that, you know, whenever you're
interacting, you're benefiting for yourselves and you're trying
to maintain your Ibadah, that you're keeping them
in your daaas. Every single sajdah that you
do, every single little bit of donation that
you are trying to make, make sure that
you are consistently working with every effort that
you can make for the people of fullness.
And get creative as well, there is so
much more to do that we, that we
haven't exhausted. And I know we're, it's kind
of easy. We're we're tiring in the second
half of Ramadan. They've been tired since they
began. They've been tired for the past 5,
6, 7 months. So there's nothing that we
can do that's gonna be too much for
us. If we had to get a second
job, if you have to do whatever you
need to do to to donate as much
as you can, nothing can be, you know,
enough for for what they're experiencing and what
we're not able to do for them. So
do whatever you can, and that's just the
only thing I wanted to kind of remind
us of of, especially as we're going towards
the end of Ramadan as well. And our
opportunities to to do good are being multiplied
still and we're losing that that window of
time. Please continue to support, and for being
part of this beautiful community that reminds each
other constantly to improve ourselves and to help
to improve the conditions of our brothers and
sisters. So, see you guys tomorrow, insha Allah,
with Sheikh Omar Suleiman.
I know that's that's usually the hype event
that everyone goes crazy for. I see Leela
going crazy on screen. WashaAllah. Now, people are
excited in chat, so do mark your calendars,
join us live, share the event, share Ramadan
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We'll see you then. For now, take care.
Assalamu Alaikum.