Overcoming Obstacles
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Channel: Yasir Qadhi
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AI Generated Transcript ©
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so inshallah we are here to have a discussion and a talk show
to talk about
difficulties and pressure that people can feel and have
and we are here honored to have in this discussion, two very notable speakers. We have Dr. Yasir qadhi And we have Chef McHale Smith, who are going to be in this discussion. So I want to begin by asking the question to our respected Orlova.
And I want to pose the following question.
Why do bad things happen to good people? Why? Why would Allah subhanaw taala? Who is our Rob
and he has been taking care of us for our whole lives? Why would that same Allah allow us to suffer? What could be the wisdom or value of this? What are we supposed to understand from it?
So don't worry for too long.
Can you guys hear me?
So our will start and share a set of Zemon
asks a question that goes back to the most ancient of all philosophies, and deals with one of the most contentious issues in human existence. It is a question that every philosopher and every theologian and every person who believes in God, and even those who don't believe in God, have attempted to answer. It is a question that many, many hundreds of volumes have been written about. In fact, an entire discipline of philosophy exists called theodicy. And this discipline tries to deal with the very question that our chef has asked us on the panel, expecting us to answer it in five minutes, despite the fact that 5000 years of human history is still struggling with the answer.
In fact, this question is so profound, that even before they were humans, the question was asked,
this question is so deep, that even the angels could not understand. Although attach alluvium and you've Sofia, well, yes, we could Dima,
even the angels asked Allah, Allah why would you do this? These people are going to be killing each other, causing fitna and facade there shall be evil, there shall be pain there shall be suffering. Why not? No, no sub biphobia hum the Kanaka do surah in our world, there's nothing but purity. In our world, there's nothing but this and this via Why would you create a world in which there's so much negativity? Even the angels asked this question?
And Allah subhana wa Tada in his infinite wisdom, did not answer them the answer of a philosopher.
He did not answer them to try to explain.
He did not answer them with an answer that attempted to rationalize that which is beyond our rational understanding. He simply said to them, you must have faith
in the either more man on the moon.
So if even a species more pious than us, and more closer to Allah than us at that stage, and in some aspects more knowledgeable than us, is told, You won't understand you just have to trust me. Then where am I? And where are my esteemed colleagues and panelists, compared to the angels who asked this question? So in reality,
this question does not have an answer, except an answer based in faith
in the Alamo, malata at the moon, any other attempt to answer the question will fail. You cannot answer this question except for me.
within a paradigm of Eman and belief in Allah and her son oven with ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. If you don't have a man in Allah,
then this question becomes the single most difficult question of your human existence, and it will cause you most likely to reject God or reject religiosity. And if you look at the rise of new Atheism, then this is the number one factor that has caused them to reject religion and to reject God. How could God allow this? Why would God allow this? So the question does not have a simple answer, but it does have an answer. And the answer really begins with the premise that ALLAH knows and you do not know. If you have that premise, then I can give you a few Quranic wisdoms, but if you do not have that premise, that no matter what I or anybody says, for every y there is a y naught and
for every if there is a what if and for every and there is a because it is an infinite cycle, and a never ending loop that will never ever, ever finish if you don't have EMA. So very briefly,
the ultimate, the ultimate
belief that we have is that Allah subhanho wa Taala does something that might cause us some pain and suffering. But the goal is for us to have a better end result, then the beginning, there is no such thing as pure evil, that's what we firmly believe, there is no such thing as pure pain, as pure suffering, there is always the potential underlying that potential, there is always the potential to come out of any tragedy, having gained more from that tragedy than having been harmed, it is a potential that you have, Allah has given it to you, whether you utilize that potential or not, is a different matter altogether. So, if you have trust in Allah, and if you approach the question with
the basic premise, that Allah is putting me in a test, in order to raise my ranks, in order to give me what I do not have in order that I come out a better person, if you have that paradigm, then there is no such thing as pure evil and every single partial pain, partial suffering is actually intended for you to gain much more positive and much more reward than the pain and suffering that you have undergone. And this is a non negotiable rule across the board. And again much can be said I want to pass it back to our esteemed to start and and share as well. But to finish on the simple idea as our profits Elisa them said, I genuinely embrace minifier in Amara who Kula who hire
amazing are the affairs of the believer, for everything that happens to the believer happens for good. There is no such thing as pure evil, amazing are the affairs of the believer for everything that happens happens for his good. If he is blessed with something he thanks Allah is for his good. And if it's a tragedy, he is patient, and it is for his good bottom line. If you approach this problem with a heart of humility, and a heart of a man and a heart of taqwa, then you shall overcome this problem. And if you approach this problem with a heart of arrogance and Kibera with a satanic heart, then this problem shall lead you to Far, far bigger problems that you will not be able to
solve on lockdown. So, as you were speaking, I was thinking of the area. We'll look at the collateral incentive he covered. We did create the human in toil difficulty, so she tell us a little bit about this area. And so first Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatu. Everyone. Hamdulillah. Aloma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala it was Sufi was Sunday.
Whenever we began speaking as Muslims, we always begin with prayers and blessings on the prophesy send them and I think one of the reasons we do that one of the wisdoms we do that is it reminds us of the struggles that he saw the love it was something that went through as well. Losing almost all of his children in his life.
Losing all almost all of his children in his own life, but also sighs sell them. And so I just wanted to preface this by saying Sunday olive Habib since Allah Allah Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, because they say, you know, if you think of any masiva that you're going through hardship calamity, and it's very interesting because the word you will see but as many of you probably know, the word mo Seba comes from the Arabic verb a Saba and the word a, Saba actually means when something is
hits where it was actually supposed to hit right? Like, in many times, the reasons why hardships are difficult for us is we feel like it's it just coincidentally happened. And I wasn't supposed to get that flat tire on my way to work. I prayed Fudger into my dad day.
Come on, man, I paid my sadaqa I paid my ticket. That wasn't supposed to happen to me. But the word in Arabic ma sabak, woman musi but sin, the word in Arabic is a calamity. But when you translate it, you lose the aspect of the directness and the intent and how it's meant just for you.
So I think it's very important for us to look at whatever struggles we're going through. And, and I was just talking to shake behind stage. Because last week, I was going through a personal struggle with me and my family, my wife and three kids. And it was very difficult. And one of the things that I realize is that
the good and the bad will both pass. The way of this nature of this dunya is that it all passes, the difficulties you're in, I want you to raise your hand right now, if you're experiencing a difficulty in your life, raise your hand, not a rhetorical thing. I guarantee if your hand is raised, that difficulty is going to pass. But here's the thing. And this is what the shake was just alluding to. How did you perform during that test? How did you how did you respond? It's going to pass no matter what you're going to get through it. I guarantee that Matanuska Allah, Allah international law he studied. So what is the verse say? Even the prophets would reach the point where they would say
y'all Allah wins the help coming? In the verses reviewed Allah in the Knesset, Allah He thought he just wait, wait, the help of God is close. The help of God is close. So here's the deal.
You're in a difficulty right now. You're in the hot seat right now. But we already know it's going to pass or agreed it's going to pass. The question is how do you perform? How do you show your faith during the difficulty? And I guess one of the greatest examples, we have to keep turning back to those suicides. And the greatest example is coming out of call if the narration which there's a bit of Qalam on the authentication of it, but there were the prophets, I saw them collapses in the garden. And he reads that most profound supplication that that accordingly.
shakes the heavens almost. He says, Yeah, Allah, I'm paraphrasing.
Whatever, I'm going through God,
I'm okay.
If you're okay with me,
here's the deal. In order to get through an adversity, there must be something you love more than the adversity.
You'll get through it. In this case, we see the prophesy centum covered in blood, rejected by people. But the response is this. My focus is not on this thing. My focus is on Allah subhanho wa taala. So I think these are a good few places to begin with. The the Shia Imam just narrated, recited a beautiful verse, which tells us that the nature of our world is that it's struggle, there will be difficulty. And I think one of the things we we miss service that we do to our children, sometimes is we want to protect them from every difficulty, and a little bit of struggle. You know, I mean, a little bit of effort makes us realize that you know, this dunya there's going to be
difficulties, there's going to be things you're going to have to struggle for. And when Allah subhanaw taala puts a difficulty in front of us. Our job
is to see what opportunity is there for me to link gain from this situation that I'm in. What lesson did I get? There's a book I was just talking to shake behind stage, there's a book that was written by an A spin up the center. He wrote an entire book, on the benefits. It sounds crazy, the benefits of calamities. He wrote over 1718 benefits of calamities, things that you gain when you go through a difficulty. And one of them which I think
is a powerful one.
It humbles us. It reminds us that we're the servants of Allah subhanaw taala, that Allah subhanaw taala is in control. Do you know what I mean? Yes, absolutely. And in fact, in a secular setting, they say that a person learns more and grows more from failure than from success upon Allah. Exactly. Which is consistent with what we are saying here. Exactly, exactly. And so as a somewhat of an athletic person, right back in my high school days. One of the things you learn through sports is no pain, no gain. Like any success that you want to achieve from an academic perspective, their struggle, from a financial perspective, their struggle
from a spiritual perspective, there must be intrinsically struggle in order to gain that higher level. So let's talk a little bit about the struggle of the NBA. And if there are lessons we can take from it. So Dr. Yasser, you raise the topic of the rosulip SLM, and in his year of sorrow, it was not just one struggle now was it he had like six or seven things, quote, unquote, went wrong. Subhanallah if you look at the life of the Prophet salallahu it he was setting them it is but one struggle after another. In fact, his struggles began even before he saw his son was born, he was born an orphan, and he was born into poverty. And three times he was orphaned, when he was born,
when he was six years old, when he was eight years old tunnel. Can you imagine the trauma and the struggle? The struggles of the prophets of Allah, Allah he was setting them should really cause us to pause because Allah azza wa jal had a wisdom. He couldn't be who he became, unless he went through what he went through exactly. Those struggles caused him it gave him the fortitude, it gave him the coverage, the stamina, it gave him the Eman that he needed throughout his life. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to do what he did. Now, there's none of us that can compare that to the proper system. But we should understand that if Allah wants to raise our ranks, he's going to have
to put us through some trials and struggles. We should understand. And you know, one of the most amazing verses in the Quran about this is the children of Israel. In Egypt, when ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada mentions that Faroe Island is killing their children, that phenomenon has subjugated them for Island has enslaved them. And in the context of all of this, Allah says, One duty to a Nimona Island readiness to carry fulfill all the winter gyla homed in on a gyro homerun Wadi thing.
We want to bless those who were persecuted, and make them the leaders of the land. I want you to think about that verse.
We wanted to bless those who were persecuted, and make them the leaders of the land. You will not become a leader. Unless you go through persecution. You will not rise in ranks, unless you're in the trenches and you have to suffer and have sweat and pain and blood. That's the reality of the dunya regardless of Deen Dounia. Any leader, any successful businessman, any successful community leader has to go through struggle and turmoil to get to that stage. And of course, in the life of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, we see this time and time again. And one of the most traumatic eras was the year that was so sad, it was called the year of sorrow. It was such a sad era, that it
was called Iman prison. In fact, the Sahaba said, after the death of Hadith, or the Allahu anhu, that we didn't see the Prophet system smile for over a year.
The trauma was so there was so much pain, that he didn't even smile for an entire year. That's how much he had to grapple with. Along with that, the tragedy of Abu Dhabi, so his inner rock, and his outer political support in the span of six weeks Subhanallah in the span of a month and a half, both his wife and his uncle, the one who gave inner support, the one who gave out a political support are taken away. And on top of that the incident of five takes place in that year. So his whole community has rejected Him, and no other community is going to accept him at that stage. That was indeed on the horizon. And that is why ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada blessed him in that year, with the greatest
personal blessing, the greatest personal miracle that he was gifted with, and that is an Israel mirage. The world has rejected without us with Allah, but Allah has accepted
the doors of this dunya are shut, but all doors of the heavens have opened all the way to the top for you. Only by going through those struggles was Allah azza wa jal, then blessing him to rise, literally, to the very tops. And once again, we're not going to go to that stage. But still, if we want to rise a little bit, we're going to have to face those little pains and sufferings as our profit system. Yeah, I want to comment on that. This is very important. The fact that Dr. Yasser cloud that he brought up some aspects of the year of sadness
You know what I find interesting about this is the prophesy Salam has this amazing relationship with Allah.
Amazing is an understatement, the best relationship with Allah. But despite the fact of this understanding this modifier of Allah, the difficulties caused him sadness. So there's this kind of notion that once I reach a certain level of spiritual development, in my mind reaches a certain level. You know, my boss can walk in the door and be like me, guy. Oh, you're fired. And I'm like, okay, cool. What's up, bro? I'm good.
I'm good. I'm good. It's all it's all gravy. You know, the car breaks down in the morning. I'm like, yes. It's all good. Let's go. Now we have narrations where we hear about Sahaba. Right? Who, who used to be show gratitude. Allah Cooley has. So the hardship comes. The difficulty comes they show gratitude. But what I want to recognize in the prophesy Selim is when the hardship hits, he let it hit him, he felt the pain he cried. And so it's okay to feel sad and overwhelmed, right. And so that's what I want to highlight. So overwhelmed. I think the Hadith which everyone in this room knows that I in the eye prize in the and the heart hurts, but we don't say anything that displeases
Allah. This is a Hadith of little suicides, and I'm which I'm sure many of you know, just in case someone has never heard it, that a suicide send them had lost, one of his grandchildren had passed away. And at that moment, some of the Sahaba saw him crying. And you have to understand the Sahaba they lived at a time where where the definition of manliness was lack of emotion, completely. If you showed emotion it was you weren't a man. And in fact, the Rasul Seisen was known from outsiders as where's the where's the guy who kisses his children? I want to meet that guy, because it was so weird to see someone that showed emotion. So So suicide sediminis Hadith he cries, and one of the
Sahaba he says, he you know, yeah, Rasulillah Is this okay? Is this mine? And the suicide said him said this, and please remember this idea. He said that the I will cry,
the heart is going to hurt so he's recognizing the pain of a difficulty. Being a pious Muslim doesn't mean I don't feel nothing no more. Being a pious Muslim means I feel it but then I reconcile that feeling with my faith into what Golan Allah that's the battle that takes place inside the heart of the
I feel it hurts the prophesy centum is crying, and then he says, My heart hurts, but look what he says let next but I'll never say something that this pleases my lord. Meaning I'm going to Control I'm going to control so my main point here is that the year of sadness was shows us that as men in this OMA, it's okay to have periods of sadness, man, it's okay to be to be knocked off your feet by the difficulties of life. But guess what is your faith in Allah that's going to pick you back up. And it's these these lectures we listen to the company that we we have our friends that we call
every one of us needs someone who we can call him like, man, your work is difficult.
Work is difficult. And your boys gonna be like, yeah, man, yo, it's okay trust in Allah. I kid you not and I'll pass the mic. I have a good friend of mine. Not a scholar at all. He barely studied anything right martial law, but a scholar of the heart mashallah, whenever I'm going through a difficulty, I give him a call. And he's talking to me you'll shake man, you know what I'm gonna say to you? I'm like saying bro, I need to hear it man. And then when he's going through difficulty he mommy calls me
so what there was soul been happy what there was always some server. So So my main point here is don't get to this mentality. Like, oh, I'm not gonna let the calamities hurt me and pull me down. They're going to hurt, let them hurt. That's part of being a human being.
Yes, there's a verse of the Quran where Allah subhanaw taala says, a husband nurse did people think and you Turku they will be left alone and they say Amen. We believe we're home late afternoon they will not be tested. So person says I believe
and Allah subhanho wa Taala has decided he is going to put that statement to a test. Let alone that before if I may, doctor.
You know, when you tell your wifey that you love her.
Sometimes she wants to see it get it gets tested, usually there you go.
Your love gets tested.
Even NASA used to require
when you say Amen, you say I love Allah.
I love Allah over this world.
And so when you when you claim love a man once came up to the suicide said him and said I love you. He
You better watch what you're saying. Are you sure?
Are you sure? Okay, because it has consequences in when we say consequences. I don't know if I like that shake. Love. The test, you go through the prove Love is a privilege?
No, it's very good. Yeah. I don't know if y'all feel me the consequences like, I want to show you, I love you.
I want to prove to you that this is real, this is coming from a real place.
And so I think when we are given the opportunity to prove love,
man, you better stand up to that.
Stand up to that opportunity. Because as I said, the calamities gonna go away.
But you might not get that opportunity too often. We're Allahu Allah.
So, continuing off of that point,
it is not at all a problem, to feel the pain and to recognize that it's difficult for you. It's not a sign of weakness of the man. It's not a sign of weakness of the mind, to struggle in that pain, and to find the masiva problematic in and of itself. That's not a problem. Allah azza wa jal tells us, the heart of the Prophet solicited them felt pain. What occurred the night Nemo and NACA yo D ILD who saw dura kabhi Maya, who don't
we know your Rasool Allah that your heart is in pain, because of what they say. Now, if somebody were to say, Hold on a sec, how can you care what other people think? Their response is, how can you not care? Are you not human? And when somebody accuses you of a falsehood, when somebody tarnishes Your Honor, when somebody slanders you, and you are an honorable human being, you're a dignified human being, you have good reputation on yourself, and somebody comes and says, The Most Evil nasty lie, how can it not hurt? And if there are pseudo losses and and felted and his pain was so bad, it was so much Allah revealed from above the seven heavens, we know he was little, that's okay. We
know, to acknowledge that pain is therapeutic
to acknowledge that grief is itself an outlet of grief. And therefore when you have a friend, a brother, a spouse, a son, a colleague, suffering, be empathetic, because Allah azza wa jal empathize with our prophets of Allah who either he was said, We know ye rasool Allah, it hurts What but now, we know your rasool Allah, in certain care if Allah says, The unlikeable here enough second, Allah Kuno meaning, that is a powerful, powerful verse. Allah azza wa jal is saying yeah rasool Allah, your grief is so so painful, it might even harm you cause your own destruction, you might go down a path you shouldn't go down. This is an early maca, by the way, where the processing was still, you
know, new to being a prophet. Right? And these these calamities, these these slanders were so difficult for him.
So Allah azza wa jal literally calms him down, says it's okay.
We are here for you in Cafe Naka Musa we will take care, we're going to deal with this yellow suit Allah in nama Bella who identified herself Yato Sula, one day when they make fun of you, it's not you it's us. They're making fun of phenomena. You can say buena cola can be added later. I don't. This is Allah subhanho, wa taala, contextualizing for our Prophet sallallahu it he was setting them. So we learn from this when you are in pain. When your friend your neighbor, when your loved one is in pain, you begin by empathizing with that pain. And you begin by contextualizing shall it'll be good and shallow, everything will be better Allah xojo putting you through this test. And one Hadith
should always come to mind. Famous Hadith memorize it.
In Allah to Allah either a hubba Coleman EBITA Allah
when Allah loves somebody, he tests them. And the most beloved to Allah are the most tested.
The most beloved to Allah are the most tested. So when you find yourself in a calamity, we don't want to calamity. Nobody should ask for tests. Nobody should ask for pain and suffering. Our Prophet solicit them said not to turn no departed. I do. What's that Allah Allah via ask Allah to not meet the enemy. We don't want to be in the battlefield and ask Allah to protect you from that. But if you meet them, then a B to C
stay firm and Northcote Allah azza wa jal. We do not want calamities. May Allah protect me and my family and you and your families, we don't want calamities, but when a calamity falls upon us, then know that Allah has chosen you.
Allah has chosen you to raise your ranks, but only if you understand that it is a test that you need to pass. And if you have that mentality, then you need to put your trust in Allah, that the one who puts you in that calamity, knows that you can pass it with flying colors, or else he would not put you in that calamity. Now you can live long enough son in law was No calamity befalls you, except that you have the potential to earn a grade because of that calamity, to earn the highest works of distinction. Allah has given you the test, knowing you can pass the test in flying colors, or else you would not be given that test. No test from Allah is set up for failure, no test, that's the test
of your teacher, your professor, maybe you will fail those, the tests of Allah, there are meant to be passed, but only if you put in the effort to pass them. Anyway, you know, the shakes narrated a hadith. And the Hadith that the sheikh narrated is when God loves a group of people, they are they go through tribulations. And I think sometimes when we hear that hadith, it's like, Huh.
I mean, I don't know if I'm ready for that.
And Shaykh explained it beautifully. But I have an analogy that I think may help you. Help us all understand that hadith.
When you when you lift weights,
you got someone called a spotter that stands up behind you.
And that spotter has a job.
Imam, you look like you work up
through actually my philosophy and working out is no pain, no pain, no no pain, no pain.
I'm remind me to come back. But I was gonna say this, I read a really good book called The Subtle Art of something, I can't remember the rest of the name. And one of the things he says is Don't look for no struggles, pick, pick meaningful struggles, they'll always be stuck if you want to. If you if you either choose to eat healthier, you choose to struggle with diabetes or something. You choose the struggle. You choose you you want to eat what you want to eat. Okay, cool. But now you guys struggle with another struggle. So it's about choosing meaningful struggles. So no pain, no pain. Real quick,
a good spotter, a good spotter and I guess I'm speaking to the Shabaab the young people. A good spotter has has a very interesting role.
The spotter is the one who stands behind, if you ever see someone lifting weights, the spotters, the guy who stands behind just in case the weight falls. That person has a very interesting job. Right when you get to the point where you think you're going to break.
Their job is to keep you pushing so you can gain new strength.
You want to quit and you've probably seen this on Instagram Tik Tok somewhere, but they're yelling at you know, push, push, push, and their job is to put just enough weight so that it challenges you but it's not to life
so that you grow and reach a new height and Subhanallah when you're working out or when you're struggling It hurts. It hurts but guess what, you get addicted to the pain. You get addicted you know people who run every day do you think they don't get tired? They get tired but guess what they get addicted to struggle.
They enjoy the struggle because of what comes from it
and as a community as an individual when you can start to love struggle
can nobody stopped you man when you love to study you know I'm gonna shake probably studies man. When you when you love to any field you want to go into when you love the struggle of that.
Allah see and you're just reminding me is also the doctor. Yes at the beginning of the Rasul Allah asylums career as a Nabeel.
It was bewildering for him that the way he came, the revelation came and then it stopped.
And he was shocked if I have done something wrong. Is Allah angry with me? What's going on? And Allah subhanaw taala is preparing him for 23 years of superhuman struggles. And Allah subhanaw taala reveals to him Maota accurate Buka Woolmark Allah your Lord has not abandoned
Did you and he's not angry with you?
Right? So Allah is preparing him for this steep trajectory of what he is going to go through at the beginning of his career. And then you compare it to how he had to go through for the next 23 years. Yeah, yeah. And I think, I think just to comment on that Imam, I think the time, the Monaka, or the times of quiet and solitude in the cave, are very important for us to process difficulties that we're going to be going through. So she asked him, so what can we so none of us are Ambia?
What what can we learn from how can we apply any of this to our practical life?
As we have mentioned a number of times the purpose of this world, the reason why Allah azza wa jal
is testing us is to raise our ranks. We cannot overcome struggle, we cannot find comfort and solace, except through a man and faith. And that is why if you don't have a man and faith and frankly, life becomes very difficult to live, well, lucky, I'll be honest with you, I don't understand how people who don't believe in God even live in this world will not be honest with you.
It is a man in Allah and the man in Qatar and the man in the day of judgment and a man in heaven and hell, that makes everything worth it. It makes everything understandable. It makes every pain, every single tragedy, every calamity.
Put in point of optimism, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, something is meant for me, that is better for me, even though I don't see it. And in fact, we see this so beautifully in certain characters and the story of credit and Musa, the three incidents right over and over again. Okay, there does something. And Moses, like, what are you doing? How can you do that? And by the end of the story, we realize that there was a wisdom in this world before the next, there was a benefit in this dunya before the next and you know, every one of you,
especially those that are in their 30s 40s 50s, right. And even honestly, well, even in their 20s if you look back to a tragic time of your life, if you look back to a difficult era, or an issue of financial issue or a marital issue, and you now have passed it and at a different stage will law he you will see yourself the wisdom of why that happened. And the fact that you would not be where you are right now, right here. Had it not been for that struggle back then. And when that struggle is happening, you might even question why is it happening? Like the fisherman illiterate and Musa story, right? The fishermen were good people. They gave a free ride to to poor people, right? They
don't have any money. Call us taker, right? Little do they realize those poor people are going to go down, carve a hole and then disappear. And the fishermen come back to the shore scratching their heads, their boat is gone. And at the time, perhaps one of them might have been cursing these two people. What are they done? Why did they do this, we gave them a free ride. And the same day that evil King comes and confiscates every single ship in the harbor, except that one ship that has a small hole in it. And that small hole, which they were irritated at becomes their lifesaver. And overnight, they become multimillionaires because they have the only ship in the harbor.
And for sure, by the end of the day there would be thanking Allah for sending those to strangers to put a hold in their ship Subhanallah how impatient is man? He's not willing to see even a few hours ahead. How impatient that they just think right here and now why did they get a flat tire? Why did I lose my job? Why did that argument happened? Why why why? And they don't realize there is a plan will law who yeah and Mo one two letter and the moon there has to be that demand in Allah subhana wa Tada. And in this world, you will see the benefits before the Ark era. And then in the ark era, you will see far better benefits you know, again, so much can be said here. But one of the blessings of
a calamity is that nothing tests you're sober like a calamity, right? We all understand this right? The essence of sober patients is demonstrated at a time of distress at a time of anxiety at a time of calamity, okay, sober is one of the only good deeds that Allah rewards belated hisab
in your work for sobre una Agera home the lady herself. I need you to understand this point. When I give $1 in charity.
That dollar me
minimum Allah will reward me $10 and maximum up to $700 every single dollar you give the guaranteed return on investment ROI, right guaranteed. Allah xojo is going to give you 10,000 Return up till 700,000 Return that's the minimum. And the same goes for any good did you pray one raka Allah is gonna give you 10 You give one one Isaiah Allah give you a 10 yard one letter Allah gives you 10 letters 10 words even though it says right but there's just a few things that Allah will give you and there is not going to be a limit not 700 No, Allah is going to give the lady is up. Can you imagine Allah giving the lady is up? And what's the number one thing on the list Sobor in yoga for
saw buena general home, the lady is up. And that's why in Jannah when May Allah azza wa jal grant all of us the opportunity to be in Jannah We ask Allah azza wa jal to be in Jannah all of us together in Jenna, what do we enter our gardens? The Quran tells us when we enter our gardens, and we're sitting either suited in with a hobby Dean and we have the goblets and the caskets and we're drinking and Allah will send the welcome delegation.
One mother, it could be the Faloona either him in coolibah lab, what will the mother acre say? Salah Muna you can be mouse or Tom for near America. The welcoming committee that will bring the fruits and the vegetables that will bring the the wine, the halal wine, all of this is going to come the welcoming committee of angels, what will be their greeting when they enter from every door Salam when they come because you were patient now when his patients demonstrated
during calamities, so you want to be greeted by the welcoming committee. You want to get to that place realize the way to get there is in the Quran. sunnah when it comes to Morocco, but
I just want this to sit for a moment man shakes dropping gems on as Masha Allah.
Closer, okay, okay. Zaful okay, that verse puts everything into perspective. Subhanallah
I would like to give a pragmatic, practical approach to dealing with calamities better.
I'm as a rookie, he writes in one of his books.
He says that, if you want to be able to deal with the the really big calamities that hits you,
then you have to allow yourself to get used to smaller calamities. What were you saying shaking you telling me to like, put myself through our dive and stuff? No, no, no, no. For us, smaller calamities is like when the AC is like at, like 79. And it should be at like, you know, 76 And you're like, Yo is hot in here. You know, I mean, little calamity is like, oh, I need two scoops of sugar. But you know why if you just put one scoop right now, right? Listen to this. Allow yourself to be uncomfortable every now and then.
You know why? Okay, sorry to keep using sports. But there's something called practice in game day. Practice and game day, practice, you can make mistakes, practice, you get better this and that. But then something comes called Game Day. Game Day in this analogy is the big test. So if you allow yourself and I'm not telling us to punish ourselves, brothers and sisters, Please do not misunderstand me here. What I'm saying is minor inconveniences. minor inconveniences, what it does, psychologically is amazing. It gets me used to a little bit of difficulty here. Guess what? There's muscle memory. The moment when that other bigger calamity comes that I wasn't expecting. I've
already created that muscle memory. So you're saying if somebody were to spend part of his day or his life,
inconveniencing himself for the sake of Allah
we have to contextualize that because there's 1000 people in here and it's gonna be like shake just said to inconvenience yourself. No, no, no, no small things. Yesterday if a person were to volunteer for the sake of Allah Yeah, that's it good right there that takes up uses up some of his time. That thing is another one. That's a big one divorce, right? But imagine I'm using the best example I can give I live in Texas. It's still 9995 degrees down there, right shake. So hot, right? You get in the car. She moved to Minnesota.
So you can continue
to this, you know, okay, so listen, I'm from Buffalo, New York. Michelle, I ran away from this stuff.
brah
I ran away. It's a burden excepting the inconvenience. You got you got blade, man, you got blade. You got me, you got me got me. Listen, I chose my struggle, I chose the heat, the blazing heat of Texas over the blazing cold or the frigid cold of Buffalo, New York. No, so I'm not telling us guys to put ourselves through hardship. The Prophet never taught that that would be wrong. I'm saying, if you allow yourself to be uncomfortable for small things, small things. AC is not as high as it's supposed to be. Foods not as salty as it's As You Like It small little things that don't really harm you. It allows you to get used to because what's the other thing? What's the other side? I get
everything the exact way I like it. The other is everything exactly how I like it. That's how I get it. So guess what, when the hardship comes in, it will come.
I wasn't used to this at all.
I was used to everything perfect. And now it didn't come perfect. So it's about mentally training yourself, to prep yourself and be more like, okay, all right, cool. There's a difficulty coming. Alright, that's good. Shake Malik buddy, in his translation of Abu Zaid belty sustenance of the soul, a cognitive behavioral masterpiece from early Islam.
He writes in that this exact point that I just made,
he writes in that book, this exact point that I just made, allow yourself to get used to calamities, but he also says something else that I think is very, very interesting.
He says,
and this is a bit difficult to explain, and I hope I do a good job. He says, When you have all of the blessings of God, and you're sitting in a position where everything is just perfect. You're sitting at home, you see your children, they got good grades, they're doing good in sports, your husband is happy, your wife is happy, everything is good. I will say Belfie. In this book, he says, allow yourself during that precious good moment, to remind yourself that everything in the dunya changes.
Everything in the dunya changes. Why? To take away my joy, to take away the happiness of this moment to remind ourselves about the nature of the dunya. So that when stuff does happen, I say you know what Nico already knew. This is how the dunya was. I hope everyone understands that point. If someone has difficulty understanding a See me after and I'll explain it more. But it's about not fooling yourself, when you're in those great moments that this is going to last forever. And then something happens. You're like what happened? No, I was a Belfie. He says, No, remind yourself that this is dunya things come things go hamdulillah right now Allah gave me peace. Allah gave me Afia
Alhamdulillah. Allah, I'm going to enjoy it. And thank Allah from them. So we have only 10 minutes left. I want to explore a topic that you raised. Sure. Here, sir.
You said, when Allah gives us a test, it is designed for us to pass the test. Can you elaborate on that? Because sometimes people feel that there was no way I could have passed this test. But you were saying if Allah gave me this test,
Allah, Allah tested somebody with a baby with Down syndrome. Allah tested somebody with not having children. Allah tested somebody with having seven children. So are you saying if Allah test somebody with a million dollars or with poverty, it is because Allah designed that he can pass the test. Is that what you're saying? There's a good. There's a problem with the question, though.
No,
he's setting me up for the test. Okay. There's a problem with the question, though.
What is good for us, man? I was gonna go exactly. I'm sorry.
So the question that the response is passing the test varies from individual to individual. Z. This is the beauty of Allah's tests. It's not, you know, I mean, I'm a college professor, right. So I give tests all the time. There's only one right answer. And all of you have to do the exact same answer to get it.
That's the amazing thing. The tests of Allah are completely individualized for us. Your test is different than your test is different than my test. No human being can do that to his students. In fact, we wouldn't even think it's fair.
I as a college professor, have to give every student the exact same questions.
But some people already know the answer.
without even having studied the book for whatever reason, and others studied hours and hours but it just so happened that that question they don't understand it.
It's not fair quote unquote in their eyes, but nothing I can do about it. But the tests of Allah are tailor made for me in you
and Allah azza wa jal designs tests with our talents in mind and our weaknesses and with our potential and with knowledge of how we are no one can design such a test or the Creator of mankind. Therefore, yeah, how would you militia enough and we are good English as the cool oh, US ojamajo Kannada way German Yasha Kima in the who, Ali Mancha, Allah, Allah knows who to give children to. And Allah knows who to give note no children to the famous hadith is the hypo Hadith that the Prophet system was giving money had come from aneema And one of the Sahaba wanted another person to get some money. He said, Yeah, rasool Allah, why don't you give that person money for Allah He, I
think he's a Mortman you should give him more. And the process of ignored ignored third time when the man kept on saying, he goes, sometimes I do not give a person money. Knowing that if he gets the money, it will drag him to the fire of hell. This is the prophet system. Allah has told him don't give that guy even though he's a good guy. He's a more men. Yeah. But his weakness might have been money. Yeah. So to save him from his own self. Allah shut the door of the test that he would have failed. And in this life, he's seeing the door shut. He's like, Yeah, Allah, I want that. I want that. I want that. He has it. He has it. He has it. I don't have it. And he doesn't realize Allah
has shut the door because he loves him.
He has to accept. That's amazing. He has to accept that. You look, here's the point brothers and sisters, listen to me carefully. You have the right to ask Allah for anything other than
if you want a million dollars, say oh Allah make me rich with Helen money and make me generous and make me pass the test. If you want 10 Children, Allah blessed me with 10 children. But here's the point. If you don't get that, then what? You must display a level of contentment. You don't have to be happy that I don't have children. You can be sad. So okay, we are said that the first point was what so okay to feel the pain. It's not wrong. And you can continue to ask, like Ibrahim asked till he was 100 years old. I want a child like Zachary. He asked until his hair was white and his bones were feeble, he never stopped asking, he never stopped believing Allah is gonna give him you can ask
as much as you want. But we have to have humility, that Allah is smarter than exact Allah is infinitely wiser than us. So if we don't get it, there must be a level of acceptance. Allah knows best. And he has averted this for me for a wisdom known to him and not understandable to me. It was the last question in the three minutes we have for you. How do we know this sister who texted me? And if I don't ask her question, I will be under a test. So how do we know that we pass the test?
I'm going to answer this in what I think I've heard from my teachers on this.
And I would love to hear from shaking that too.
When you go through a calamity.
And the calamity brings you closer to God.
You have passed that test.
But when you go through the calamity, you get angry with God.
You get mad at the world.
You curse at everything that can be cursed.
You, you've may have failed that test. That may have been a punishment, not a test. So we don't have control over what happens. All we control is how we respond to what happens.
How are you going to respond? Are you going to respond with patience? Gratitude? Looking beyond the temporal moment, there must be some good that God wants from me.
Are you going to respond with anger spite arrogance that I know this is wrong for me.
I think this is how we judge whether we passed or not just took a look. I want to add one more thing and I want to actually get your input on this. Not a hard one but I think you could help me on this.
There was a woman
At the time of the Prophet slicin, whose son passed away,
and she was bent over crying in the Prophet walk to pass, remember, in the Sebata in the southern Mathilde Oola.
The Prophet sighs and I'm leaned into her, she didn't know who was speaking to him. Her sorry.
And she says to her Be patient, you know, he gives her advice, but she doesn't know who's talking. She doesn't know it's Mohammed sighs. So she says in the column to Cebu, BMO see Betty, you're not going through my calamity. So the prophets, I send them beautifully. This is his emotional intelligence. He beautifully backs away and he goes home. He doesn't just keep saying listen to what I'm saying, listen, he backs away and he goes home. She comes later, because they said, Hey, that was the profit center. She's like, Oh, okay, let me go make amends. And
he says to her, indeed, patients is that the first strike?
Right when it hits the first time, that's when you need to have patience. So as we ask the question of if you passed or not, I'm going to ask you a question.
What if that calamity hit me first? And maybe I didn't respond the right way? And then I realize,
can you help me out on that one?
So there's no question that
passing the test is of different levels. And the highest level is as the Profit System set in the most similar in this matter. As soon as the news reaches you. How did you react?
As soon as you lost your job, or whatever the issue was, you feel as if literally, your legs are chopped off? As Bob said, when he heard the death of the Prophet says, it's as if I didn't have legs anymore. It collapsed on the floor. So to call a man in love, right? Like, what did he say? He realized?
It's the truth. So the highest level of passing the test and I'm not gonna mince My word is as the professor some said, How did you react to those first few milliseconds? Okay? But you know, what the beauty of Allah azza wa jal, you're given many chances. So suppose you don't get an A plus Colosse get a be blessed and fellow. Good enough, inshallah. As long as you don't fail. As long as you don't fail, how would you fail by flipping the tests such that, as the sheriff said, you start believing or saying things that go against submission to Allah. That's a complete failure, that is satanic. That is literally following the footsteps of shaitan. When he blames Allah for the calamity, or the
rub baby might have wait and it's your fault, Oh ALLAH that this happened.
That is satanic. If you go there are the villa with the villa. But as long as you don't reject Allah's pada, as long as you at some level, force yourself to submit, then in sha Allah, you've at least passed the test. Now the question is, do you pass with an A or a B, or a C, that's where all these finer details maybe as we grow, and we get more spiritually mature. When I'm 20 years old, I got a D. When I'm 40 years old, I gotta see as I get older and older
that's the most important thing. Just a low Hayden from doula. Thank you so much to our respected Alma for giving us this wonderful session.
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