Where Did I Go Wrong

Yasmin Mogahed

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Channel: Yasmin Mogahed

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This is, yes, meathead, and you're listening to serenity, streaming live on one legacy radio. Today we have a special show on the question of what Where did I go wrong? This is a question. I think we ask ourselves a lot. And it's it's a question that I receive very often messages regarding. And it's this question of, you know, what am I doing wrong? Why can't I feel closer to God? Why, you know, Where, where, where am I messing up? What what what, what is really the problem? And this is such an important question, because, you know, of course, as we know, if we go to a doctor, and we, we have symptoms, you know, we were in pain, and we go to the doctor, the first,

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you know, step in the treatment is the diagnosis is realizing, you know, pinpointing, what is the problem? What is the ailment, what is the cause of this pain? You know, and once you find out what the what the causes, and you, you diagnose the issue, then you can begin to treat it, inshallah. So, it's so important that we do ask this question, we feel the symptoms, if, if our heart is still alive, we feel these symptoms, if we're, if we're far away from a lot, we should feel it, it should hurt, it should feel that there's something missing that that, that it, that there's something wrong, and it should be very painful. And yet, sometimes we feel these these symptoms, sometimes we,

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we might feel other symptoms, for example, confusion, symptoms of doubt, symptoms of consistent and constant disappointment. Yeah, symptoms of a very intense and consistent emotional pain. There are a lot of symptoms that that go along with, with this particular ailment of being distant from Allah Spano. Dada not feeling close to him. And so we feel those symptoms, but we don't always know where, what's the root of it? And what's the diagnosis? Why do we feel the way we do? So, I want I want to devote today's discussion on that question, pinpointing in a very practical way, what am I doing wrong? What is it that what actions am I doing? Or what actions Am I not doing, which are causing

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this, you know, these symptoms to manifest themselves in me, you know, both spiritually and psychologically and mentally and emotionally. But before I get there, I actually, I want us to kind of get an idea of of the, you know, the vastness of our listenership right now. So what I want to do is actually ask you listening live today, to write down in the chat box, where you are listening from, what what city what state, What country are you in right now. And I want to, I want us to get a sense of,

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you know, the, the International sort of family that we have, and hamdulillah and, and also extend the request to you to support this, this this venture, you know, one legacy radio is a nonprofit. And, and it is supported by view by listeners. And, and the way to support and to keep this effort going is to, you know, become a member be even if one is able to just support the station with, you know, $10 a month, it goes a long way for the station, and it helps this station continue to, to be able to provide this, this service and, you know, Subhanallah I think that this is, this is a regular part of people's, you know, Tuesdays and Thursdays inshallah they come here, and this is a

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place where, where it isn't just that that, you know, there's that interaction with me, but there's a lot of interaction between each other on the chat box. Sometimes someone will ask a question, a problem that they're going through, and you know, whereas I may not be able to get to all the questions, the chatbox someone else so we'll give an answer. And you know, there's that support. There's a social support and I really pray that this effort can continue into and can grow

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But inshallah we need your support in order for that to happen. So some of the the locations are coming in. I'm listening from Leeds UK, London, England, Newcastle, UK, UK Manchester listening from Glasgow

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boresight, Egypt, Manchester, another one from UK. Someone from Islamabad, Pakistan.

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Someone's listening from Bangladesh,

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Orange County, Southern California.

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That's where I'm at

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Belgium, Lahore, Pakistan, New York City. So Pamela just you know, just in the last minute we we have an entire international community represented here in New York Bahrain, Hartford, Connecticut, Manchester, Sweden Subhanallah we we are an international family as Muslims and we are an international family at Serenity and hamdulillah. So you know just just so you guys have a sense of you know, we have Ottawa Canada we have Jeddah Saudi Arabia

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we talked about oh we have you know, Victoria Australia Mashallah.

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I can't even keep up India, Orange County. So, so Mashallah, we we have pretty much most of the, of the continents represented at home that Allah so, you know, you guys can, you know, get an idea in New Jersey and get an idea, Cairo, Egypt,

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you know, Belgium again,

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yes, someone said, it's the UN.

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Really, as Mashallah, it is very encouraging to see, you know, Subhanallah, we are from, we're all, you know, in different time zones, it's night, in some places, it's day and others, but we have one thing that that really holds us together. And honestly, it is that, that, that belief in that ilaha illAllah, that there is really nothing else worthy of our worship, except for God. And this is a universal, timeless principle. And inshallah we will get to, you know, how that principle then should manifest in our lives. Now, to begin with, I want to talk a little bit go more in detail in the into, what are some of the symptoms, that that's that a lot of us feel, we also, we have

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Australia and Russia also chiming in? Mashallah, so some of the symptoms we have, you know, that that we suffer from, one of the big ones is this concept of doubt or confusion. There's a lot of different opinions out there, when it comes to faith, when it comes to religion, we have a lot of questions, we're not sure which way to go, you know, do we believe in this or this person or that opinion, or that opinion, doubt and confusion is one of the main symptoms that we suffer from. Another symptom is the you know, the, the emptiness or the emotional void, that we feel, sometimes, if we, if our heart is, is alive enough to feel it, being distant from Allah subhanaw taala, we will

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notice, there will be a feeling that there's something very, very big missing, will feel that, that that emptiness or that void very, very clearly. There's also another symptom that we experience is the feeling of being constantly disappointed. We, we put our hopes in things and then they don't work out and we kind of crash. And it's this this cycle of crushing, right, we, we crash again, and again, and sometimes we're up real high, and then sometimes we crash down low. And this sort of rollercoaster ride that we that we experienced is also a symptom. And you know, sometimes it's it's another symptom is that it becomes very difficult for us to continue to do acts of worship, for

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example, it becomes a heavy burden to pray a heavy burden, you know, you know, it's time to pray again. You know, I really don't feel like it right now. Or, if we do pray, it's very, very hard to even be present in our prayers is kind of just becomes an exercise. At times, it becomes something we just want to get out of the way. Or maybe something we we procrastinate. And so we're barely praying it at the last five minutes of the of the interval of time, you know,

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for which it was prescribed. So the prayers become also one of those first symptoms that will notice that, that acts of worship such as the prayer become a burden becomes something we hate to do. One of the the

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The signs of a hypocrite that the prophets I send them spoke about is that they get up to pray with laziness, right? It's like you don't really, you know, it's just, you know, very late, it's very, you know, we're very slow to get up to pray, it's not that rushing to Allah subhanho data, but we're dragging to prayer we're dragging to worship, it's a burden to read code, and it's a burden to fast, these things become very difficult on us, and heavy on us, that also is a symptom that we that we suffer. And, you know, the, the feeling of, you know, being being broken inside, in the sense of, you know, a lot of times we go through, you know, different things that happen in our relationships.

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So, one other symptom is that, you know, even our relationships, the relationships we have with people, but also the relationship we have with our job and our school, that it's kind of very unsettled. And, and sometimes it's just one drama after another, we're very involved, you know, the more that we get involved with our hearts into dunya, the more chaos we experience. And this is very, very, you know, this is a profound concept, that, that the more that we engross our hearts into the dunya. And we're, we're sort of just going with, wherever the dunya takes us, we go, you know, like the froth on the ocean. As the prophets I send them explains in the Hadith, on love of

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dunya, you become like the froth on the ocean. And when you think about the froth on the ocean, it doesn't have any weight of its own, but it just kind of goes where the tide takes it. So you know, a fashion takes us one direction, fashion tells us one moment that it's cool. It's, it's in fashion, it's in style, to wear a certain type of jeans. So we wear it, we hear and we obey. And then a few years later, now, it's actually we're commanded by fashion, that now you know, the jeans have to be a little tighter. And now that's in style. So we hear and we obey. And then you know, few years later, now, there really is no difference between pants and tights, they, they're essentially the

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same. And we hear and we obey, and we say, okay, that's, that's fashion, that's what fashion commanded, that's what's in style. That's what I'm going to wear. This is how we become we become, we go in whatever direction, the tide takes us, whichever direction dunya takes us, we go there, and we just get beat up that way. Because we don't have any solid foundation ourselves. But we take, you know, we go wherever, you know that that tide of dunya takes us, you know, relationships also, you know, move in the same way. If if some, if the people are happy with us, then you know, we're glad and we're happy and we're high. And as soon as the people are no longer happy with us, then we're,

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we're down and we break and we're devastated. You know, if people compliment us, then we feel good about ourselves. If people insult us or criticize us, then we feel horrible about ourselves, we give this power of where we are internally, and where we, how we act to other people, we give it to other things, we give it to dunya we give it to style, we give it to fashion. And so as a result, we just become, you know, just like that, that froth on the ocean, just weightless, goes whichever direction, the ocean, the tide of the ocean takes it. And, you know, wherever the waves go, we go. And, and this is this is a symptom in and of itself, that there's something wrong internally. And

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and, you know, we, we start to feel this way where, where there's no sort of internal stability, whether emotionally or psychologically, even stability in our relationship stability in our, in our school, or in our jobs, or in anything that we're doing. And the reason for this is because we have given that power over how we act, and what we love and what we do, and how we feel about ourselves to other people and other things, our our self worth our sense of, of, you know, of how we view ourselves how we, our self perception also is no longer in our own hands, but we give it to other people to define for us. You know, again, as long as the people are happy with us, in praising us,

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we're good, you know, but someone doesn't want to be our friend anymore, or someone doesn't want to be with us anymore. You know, maybe someone breaks up with us or leaves us and all of a sudden, there's no more reason to live right there. It's it's just, you know, what's the point

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And we just we break these things devastate us. But that only happens because we've given too much power to the creation, we've given too much power to to this life to dunya. And this life was never intended to be that way. We are supposed to live in this life, obviously, and we're involved in these things, we go to school and we, and we get married and we have friends. But these things were never supposed to own us. We are supposed to give our hearts to Allah subhana wa tada and tala alone. And anytime you give your heart to other than Allah subhanaw taala in its entirety, or you give that power to the creation, you will be broken, you will be all over the place, right, up and

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down and, you know, sometimes broken, sometimes high, sometimes low. And and this is something we we as believers, we have to change. And we'll talk about what is it practically that we need to change in order to change the this manifestation or these symptoms of the disease.

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You know, again, we see it all all around us, you know, the way in which we view the world is has become defined by those definitions given to us or handed to us by society, what is considered beautiful, what is considered fashionable, what is considered good, what is considered bad, what is considered ugly, all of these definitions should never be handed to us by anything other than our Creator. And yet we take these definitions from society and we internalize them. So society will tell us that it's that it's beautiful, to be a certain size, it's beautiful, to wear certain clothes, it's it's fashionable to, you know, have certain types of style that we wear, that we take

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these things and then we internalize them, and we accept them. And then as soon as that changes, again, we internalize the new definition. We, as you know, and men, they they internalize certain definitions of masculinity that are given by society. You know, society will say that it's, it's it you know, being tough and being unemotional makes you more of a man, you know, maybe being more harsh or more hard, that makes you more of a man, that the idea of being gentle or being kind is considered unmanly. It's okay to lose our temper because you know, you're just you're that's what a mat You know, that's, that's okay. That's a masculine thing. And yet, you know, the definitions that

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were given by the prophet sallallahu Sallam are very different. The Prophet for example, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us that there's, you know, that Jen, that nothing is rewarded for as gentleness is rewarded for that Allah subhanaw taala rewards for gentleness as He rewards for nothing else. And so, you know, this is this is a completely different definition than then what we see in, in society at large. Similarly, when you talk about anger and the way in which it's okay to, to express our anger, you know, the prophets I send them told us something very different. He said that the when he asked his companions, to send them, who is the strong person, and they said, the

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one who wrestles well, and he responded and said, No, the strong person is the one who can control him or herself, who couldn't control himself in the fit of anger, that is strength. And yet, you know, we we see it very differently, it's kind of, again, considered All right, it's a, it's a masculine, you know, your, your heart your, you know, your aggressive that this, this concept has, has been, you know, we've internalized that and it's very, very different than the definitions of our profits, although I do send them so across the board, we need to stop letting you know donia letting society letting the creation dictate where we move and how we move and what we consider to

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be good and bad and beautiful and ugly. These are things that can only be handed to us by Allah subhanaw taala I will take a short pause now, for a break and when we return, we will get into you know, talking about what are some of the causes of this of this problem, and inshallah continue on the topic of spiritual CPR.

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Assalamu alaikum This is yes, meanwhile, jahad and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy.

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Radio, I just wanted to, you know, I took a look at the chat box in here to see some of the other countries that we have listening in right now. We have hungry, we have Madrid, we have Mexico, we have Bangladesh, we have Oslo, Australia. We also have, you know, some some others from the United States, Oklahoma, Texas. SubhanAllah. So, we are really, right now,

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really talking to an international community. This is an international faith. This is a this is a, a principle. The the the common thread that we have between all of us, is this idea and this very powerful idea of La ilaha illAllah. The concept that there is nothing worthy of our worship except for God alone. And that is what we're trying to live in our lives. But sometimes we we falter and we stumble along that path. And what we're talking about today, is how we can pinpoint why we stumble, what are the things that we do wrong, and then end up having these different manifestations in our life, as we talked about, in the first half of the show, some of the symptoms that we experienced?

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And and and these are things I think a lot of us can, can relate to? The question is, then why? And then how do we cure that? Well, to begin with, going back to the concept of tawheed, the concept of there is nothing worthy of our worship, but God, you know, a lot of us have this problem where we feel that we're getting off track, or we do know we do feel these, these symptoms. But when we look and we see the very nature, in which God has, has created the human being, we will know, as Allah subhanho data tells us many times in the code and in the prophets, I send them tells us, for example, that every human being is born in a state of submission of an inner state of Islam. And

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Islam literally means submission. So every single human being every child is born already naturally in the state of submission to its creator. The question then is, if that's the case, and if it's the case that Allah subhanaw taala tells us this is our fifth row, fifth row, meaning it's our human nature, it's our nature, to worship God and God alone. It's our nature to realize tawheed in our hearts, and in our, in our in our every part of our of our body, in our actions, to to really implement and realize though hate both externally and internally. If that's our fitrah then why do we go wrong so often, it is our natural disposition, our natural propensity, and yet we oftentimes

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end up you know, falling off of that, so what ends up happening, for example, Allah subhanaw taala tells us and sort of that room, bad out of Allah human a shaitan regime. For Hakim wedge, Hakka the lead, lead, Dini hanifa for ochem, wedge Hakka lead Dini, Hanif citrato law he lead the fourth or NASA la de lattre de la lucha Alcala vaniqa. Dino mala kynoch sora nursey Laila moon, the meaning of this area is a loss tells us to he says what is translated as so direct your face towards the dean the way inclining to truth for Okay, magitek eyelid Dini hanifa, he is telling us to turn our face and this is this is not just our, you know, our face as in what's above our neck, but our entire the

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entire face of our heart, the entire direction in which we move and in which we focus. He's telling us to face him to face his his Deen his way, Hannifin inclining towards truth, completely, sincerely fit throttle law he Letty furthur anessa, La Hoya and this is the fifth row adhere to this, this is the fifth row of a law, it referring to this fifth, the fifth rule of law upon which he has created all people, no change should there be to the creation of a law, this is the correct way, but most of the people do not know. So here Allah is explaining to us very clearly that this complete submission to the One God the complete, you know, pure monotheism, right monotheism meaning that there's only

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one thing that

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worship. And when we say that there's only one thing that we worship, it does not just mean that we only make the law to Allah, or that we only bow down to Allah. But worship has a much more comprehensive meaning than just physical rituals. Worship also includes these other things that we spoke about. Worship also includes how I define how I define good and bad, what defines for me these things? What is it that I revolve my entire existence around? What is it that I'm willing to live for? And what is it that I'm willing to die for? What is it that I cannot live without, these things really get to the heart of worship. So we might say, La Ilaha, Illallah, with our tongues, and then

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we might bow down to God with our bodies, but our hearts bow down to other lords, our hearts bow down to other idols, and sometimes those other idols are material things, sometimes those other idols are money, sometimes those other idols are status. And sometimes those other idols are our relationships with other people. Sometimes those, those other idols are people in our lives, we take a lot of different types of things as idols, and and sometimes, you know, even though our body is bowing to God, our heart is bowing down to something different. And so here, the question is, Why does that happen? When we are naturally bowing down our hearts to Allah subhanaw taala, when we are

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naturally in this state, and when the Prophet says, and then tells us that naturally, every child is born in a state of fitrah, every child is born submitting to God. So what happens? Where do we go wrong, if that's our natural state, obviously, if that's the direction we naturally move, then then in order for us to get off of that direction, there had to be a barrier, there had to be something that we did wrong, or something that we were missing. And that's where we have to look, what is it, that could be the issue of what is what is blocking us from what's already our natural path, what is blocking us from our natural disposition, and then once we find out what those things are, then we

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can remove them and inshallah get back to the natural path and the natural disposition and propensity that Allah subhanaw taala had already created us on.

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Now, when you note you'll notice that the very next verse, in sort of that room goes on to explain more specifically about this path. And Allah subhanaw taala says, What's translated as adhere to it, turning in repentance to him, and fear him and establish prayer, and do not be of those who associate others with a law

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in this next area, which is cha verse 31, of sort of third room and sort of the Romans chapter 30. So the first verse was 3030. So area 30, of certain room, and this verses 31. Here, Allah subhanaw taala is giving us almost like a recipe, telling us what are those things that we need to do practically, in order to stay on that fifth row, in order to really be able to stick to stick to that natural, you know, the nature that Allah subhanaw taala had created us on on that natural disposition? And the first thing Allah says, Is Mooney Bina.

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Now, this word, Inaba, you know, this is this is to turn to Allah subhanaw taala. in repentance, this is assuming from the very beginning that we aren't perfect. Because if you were perfect, and you never committed a sin and you never made a mistake, you wouldn't need to repent, you would need to go back and humble yourself to Allah Subhana Allah, and this wouldn't be the first thing mentioned in this area, but repenting to Allah going back to Allah subhanaw taala all the time, and and admitting your mistake, and and and and repenting and asking Him to forgive you and acknowledging your need for him. It's really, really important that we don't go through our lives

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with the you know, the the deception, that we don't need God with the deception that we're okay on our own. Oh, I don't you know, I can I can do it on my own right? That is extremely, extremely dangerous. And it is a complete deception. Realizing that yes, when we mess up we go back to a lot when we mess up. We admit our mistake, we admit our weakness, and we admit our need for Allah subhanaw taala in ABA, coming back to Allah subhanaw taala and repenting

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and then Allah subhanaw taala speaks about

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Another concept and that is taqwa in this area Allah ven says and those P and fear him So Allah is commanding us.

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You know here he's he's giving specifics about those actions that that we need to do in order to stay on the fifth row. And you'll see that the next one is Taka. Taka is usually translated as fear of God fearing God. But taqwa is, of course much, you know, there's a there's, it's more comprehensive than just fearing God. Another way to translate it Or another way it has been translated, is God consciousness, being conscious that God is watching you at all times, and whatever it is that you're doing, even if no one sees you, no human being sees you, you know that Allah subhanaw taala sees you. And you know, there's that famous story that we heard as children

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were, you know, boy, everybody, all the kids were given, were told to go to a place, you know, where no one could see them in order to, you know, it might have been to eat like a piece of like a treat or something. And they all went, and, you know, they came back and one of the children said, You know, I couldn't eat it because there is no place where no one can see me, Allah always sees me, there is no place where Allah subhanaw taala is not able to see me Allah is always seeing us even if the human beings don't see us, if we're doing something in private, which is displeasing to him. Know that he sees you and that consciousness that he is watching you know, consciousness that he

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does see you and you're committing that sin in front of him. That that that consciousness is taqwa And beyond that, that the root of the word taqwa comes from, it means to cover yourself or to shield yourself. So taqwa essentially, is to shield yourself from the wrath and anger of Allah subhanaw taala, from his punishment, and from his displeasure, and also to shield yourself from the evil within yourself from the evil of shaitan. And also to shield yourself from being distant from Allah subhanaw taala, both in this life and in the next life. So, what is a shield? It's a cover and we all need to cover ourselves. We need to cover ourselves from sin, we need to cover ourselves from

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the displeasure of Allah subhanaw taala that comes as a result of sin. That's the law. So the next, you know, the next aspect here is taqwa having that fear of Allah subhanaw taala.

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And then Allah says, What? Then Allah subhanaw taala talks about a call Miss Salah. Now here Allah is not just saying,

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prayer. But the word that's used before prayer is a calm, and in calm means to establish something. So here Allah is saying is the establishment of prayer not just to pray, but to establish prayer, both personally and collectively? How do you establish prayer collectively? Will you make places of prayer, right? You make places of worship, you have met Sajid, that's establishing prayer, because it's not once in a while that you pray, but there is a place in the society where, you know, prayer is, is going to happen five times a day, every single day. That's the establishment of prayer, not just prayer. And then, of course, there's the establishment of prayer on a more, you know, on a

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smaller collective, on a more personal level, you can look at the family, that you have a you have established the prayer not only for yourself, that you're praying, but that you also make sure that your family is praying that you have a system where the prayer has not just been established, for you personally in your room, but it has been established in your household in your home. Prayer is established in your home worship is established for you, for your children, and for your spouse and for all of your family. And then of course, your friends, and it goes out from there. And then the most personal level is is me myself, that I have. I have established prayer that I don't just pray

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when it's convenient, or when I'm in a gathering and everyone else is praying. Or maybe or I don't just pray, you know, when I get home from work, or before I sleep or maybe in the morning, but that I established the prayer, meaning that when the time of prayer comes, I pray and that it isn't only when I'm feeling it right it isn't only when I'm feeling energetic or maybe you know, today I'm having a spiritual low so I'm not going to pray. That is not the establishment of praying. Establishing prayer means no matter what you're feeling, no matter where you are, no matter what the the environment, circumstance, the environment

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circumstances are when it's time to pray. You pray, and and you know, you Subhana Allah this is this is something you can see, you know, Mashallah, when you're a member I was walking in an airport and of course it was in UK. You don't usually see it in the United States. But over in the corner there was a guy praying, you know, Mashallah, he, it was time to pray he, he found a coordinate he prayed. And that's it, you know, and, you know, Subhanallah that's, that's what it means to establish prayer, no matter where you're at. When the time comes to pray, you, you find a corner and you pray. And you know, Mashallah you can you can actually find this also, on YouTube. There's a video of a

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brother, I think, in New York City or something. And he was a taxi driver. And you can probably look this up after after the show. And any any there's a YouTube video of him actually preying on top of his of his taxi cab. And it's just so wonderful. The guys just you know, it was time to pray, you know, you didn't find another, you know, maybe empty space or clean space. So he's literally praying on top of his, on the hood of his of his taxi, taxi cab, Mashallah, you know, and this is the idea that you can see this, this, you can see Muslims praying, you know, all over the world, in every type of type of circumstance, because this is not just a religion that we practice, on aid or in

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Ramadan. It's not just a religion that we practice on Fridays, at Juma. This is a complete way of life. It's something that that we have to establish in our lives. And establishing prayer means that my life revolves around the prayer, it isn't the other way around. It isn't that the prayer revolves around my life, it isn't that, okay, I get up. And I got to do these things. I got to, you know, I got to go to school, and then I go to go to work. And then I got to take kids to, you know, soccer practice. And then when I have time, I'll fit in the prayer. But it's the complete opposite. And we have to really reorient how we see our lives, that it should be the prayer that is established the

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prayer, which is the pillar of our lives, and then we fit in our lives in in between. And you know, there's one of the best places you really see this in real life manifesting itself is when you go to Mecca, or you go to Medina, and

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you know, when you have a group or you're going for Oman, or you're going for Hajj, and the conversation is it's never even, okay, we're gonna do we're gonna meet at x y&z time, it's always we're going to meet after how are we going to meet before the hood, or we're going to do this after mothership. And, and the whole concept of how the day is organized is completely different. It's not about, you know, before or after a meeting, but it's before or after a prayer, that our life is really organized around these established pillars. And so the prayer should be those pillars that you establish, and then everything else, you know, goes around those. And this just brings us back

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to the ultimate purpose that we have. It's it's just bringing us closer to that purpose. Why are we here anyway? So I mean, shouldn't we ask, we were here.

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We've been put on this earth. And we and we haven't been put on this earth for no reason. We've been put on this earth with a very specific role and a very specific purpose which Allah subhanaw taala clearly states will mount holochain agenda will insularity Abu Dune and we have not created jinn and human beings except to worship except to serve and know and love God to fulfill our mobile data to Allah subhanaw taala that is our one and all and only purpose ultimately. So how is it that we're going to put aside our purpose, in order to go to the mall or, or watch a movie or play a game, the idea here or or check out someone's profile on Facebook, you know, that, that we have put aside our

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very purpose of why we were put on this earth in order to do these things which will not benefit us, but in in most cases harm us on the day of judgment and on the on at the time when it really matters. And then all of the the the fleeting things of this life have passed away. Those are the things that that are going to matter. You know whether or not we we establish the prayer in our lives, both individually on the family level Coconino community level collectively, as well, that this is what's going to benefit us when it really matters. And this is, again, we're told of this by the prophets on the line who send them and he tells us in a number of a Hadith, that the very first

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thing we are asked about on the Day of Judgment is our prayers. And and and you know there's different relations of different Hadith to this.

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Fact, but that, that once the prayers are checked over and if the prayers are all right, then that person will have succeeded. But if the prayers are not, then that person will have failed. So we have to realize that the very heart of our issue usually can be seen in the prayer, that this, that the wicked itself, the remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala, when it is deficient, then everything else falls apart. And that's when we start to see those other symptoms that we spoke about at the beginning. And so we have to come back to that connection with God through His remembrance and through his worship, as he has prescribed inshallah, we will go ahead and take another short break

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now. And when we return, continue on the topic of spiritual CPR.

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Have Sam wanna come?

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And you're listening to serenity, streaming live on one legacy radio. We are talking today on the topic of spiritual CPR, that question that we often have of what am I doing wrong? I you know, I have this problem or that problem. What what really, am I doing wrong? Why do I not feel close to Allah? subhanaw taala? Why am I so confused? or Why am I always being disappointed? Why do I have these symptoms? You know, both emotional and psychological? And, and and what is it that I'm doing wrong? So, we we've talked today about, you know, we were reflecting on two of the ads from sort of that room where Allah subhanaw taala talks about the nature of the human being, as being the that

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that one would turn their whole self to Allah subhanaw taala to his religion, to his Deen to the way of pure monotheism, ultimately, La ilaha illAllah that there's nothing worthy of our worship and ultimate love, or sacrifice or fear or hope, except God Himself. And and how is it that we stray from that so easily or so often. That's what we're speaking about today. And the next area, I have 31 of suta room talks about specific things that are necessary ingredients to sticking on that path of fitrah and and sincerity to Allah subhana wa Tada. And the first one was Inaba, that we turn to Allah subhanaw taala in repentance, and and then we spoke after that about taqwa and the need to

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have fear of Allah subhanaw taala consciousness and to protect ourselves to shield ourselves from the displeasure and the Wrath of Allah subhanaw taala and, and also to shield ourselves from sin and from our own knifes and from shape on and from the distance from Allah subhanaw taala being distant from him, we want to shield ourselves from those things. And then the ayah goes on, to speak about other things in which you know, other other characteristics, practical things that will keep us on that path. And the next one was if calm is solo, and just talking about the importance of not just praying but establishing the prayer in our life and never ever giving that up. When something is

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established. Not only is it is it becomes the pillar of our life, but something that is established cannot easily be taken away. And that's key. We cannot be like those people who you know if I'm if I'm in the mood, I'll do it right if I feel like it if it's convenient if everyone else is doing it, I'll pray. But but that's not establishing prayer that's not a call Miss Salah is Palma sola means that something is firmly planted or firmly rooted or firmly established. And it means that it doesn't just sway with the wind. It means that no matter where I am, emotionally, psychologically, or environmentally, I pray, and I pray when the time comes, I pray if it means I need to, you know,

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pray on my taxicab or pray on my taxicab, I need to pray in the corner of an airport, I pray in the corner of an airport if I'm in class, I need to take my leave. I need to pray in the hallway. I do what I need to do. But I pray when the time comes to prayer that is establishment of solo in all miss solo. Without that we cannot be successful in this life for the next and I want to emphasize that again. And again. This is a theme that we are told again and again and again, in the Quran. And in the Sunnah of the prophets, I send them in in a Hadith, that the prayer is the heart of this faith. The prophets I send them told us that the difference between a believer and a disbeliever is

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in the Salah. That's a very strong statement and in fact because

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of the statement and other statements like it, some scholars actually say that those who abandon prayer are no longer in the fold of Islam, that's very, very scary, we take this thing very lightly, and yet it is a very heavy to Allah subhanaw taala. And interestingly enough, we take things as being very heavy, when they are not heavy in the eyes of Allah subhanaw taala, when we look at the things that really become a big issue to us, you know, things that have to do with what people think of us or other types of status issues, or, you know, even even other sins, you know, when we would look at a person, we might point at that person, you know, look at the way that that person is

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acting, or this person is doing this or that, and yet those sins themselves, do not take them out of the fold of Islam, that there's no scholar who will say that, you know, once you, you know, even drinking take, there's no scholar who says that drinking takes you out of the fold of a stamp, there is no scholar who says even stealing takes you out of the fold of Islam, there's no scholar says that, you know, not wearing Hijab or, or you know, having even committing fornication, any of these things, that they take you out of the fold of Islam. Of course, these are major sins. However, there are scholars that say that if you don't pray, you are taken that that takes you out of the fold of

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Islam, that's very serious. And yet Subhanallah how we look and prioritize our life and how we look and prioritize the things in Islam, we don't use this, this, this criteria that's given to us, by Allah and His Messenger, we kind of use our own criteria, maybe what's comfortable for us, or maybe what society hands us. And so then we, you know, we look at certain things as being really, really bad. And we take the issue of our prayers very, very lightly, the same person who can talk about a girl because of the way she's dressed, maybe just, you know, sitting there while everybody else is praying, you know, and, and, and, and yet, again, there is this conversation about this girl, and

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look how she's acting, and look how she's dressing and, and yet, we're not even, but we've abandoned our prayers, or we're not even praying. So we need to come back to really understanding the heart of the issue,

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the heart of the issue and where that foundation comes from establishing the prayers. And I want to point out here because I think this can also become a deception, where people will say, Well, you know, I don't need to wear hijab, or I don't need to do these things, because all that matters is my heart. And the reason why that statement in and of itself can be very misleading, is that this the condition of one's heart will necessarily manifest itself in our actions, the condition of one's heart is going to be, you know, shown externally, the prophets on I send them said that in the body, there is a lump of flesh. And if that lump of flesh is set, right, then the entire body is set is

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set, right. And if that lump of flesh is corrupted, then the entire body is corrupted. And verily it is the heart. So from this hadith and others, we see the relationship between what is in my heart and how I act, and what is what is the relationship between what is in my heart and what my body is doing, what my limbs are doing, we cannot separate them. Because the heart is the commander, the heart is the master, whatever condition your heart is in, is going to be shown in how you act. And so if my heart really is clean, and my heart really is beautiful, or if I really do have hijab in my heart, then it will manifest itself externally as well. It's just a natural, you know, a natural,

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you know, result of whatever is in my heart, is that it's going to come out in action. For example, I can say that I, you know,

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I love God, right? I can say, I love God, and God is, is is the most important thing to me. So, so I'm a good person, right? You know, don't A lot of times people say that, you know, it doesn't matter what the action is, because the heart is good. But But if you look at this statement, really, really and be honest. What happens when you really do love someone or something? Imagine a person when a person is madly in love with another person, how do they act? The answer is, you know, if you're really honest, if you're really honest, if you if you're in love with a person, you do whatever it takes to make that person pleased. You do whatever it takes to make that person happy

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with you, to make that person love you to make to do what that person wants to do what will make that person happy. And so this is a natural consequence of love. We cannot claim that our heart is good and we love God in our hearts.

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When we don't, you know, we don't do what He commands us to do. We can't claim that we love God in our hearts, and yet refuse to obey his commandments and refuse to, to stay away from that which he has told us to stay away from. Because that's not honest, it's disingenuous to say that I love him. And yet I'm going to disobey Him, I love him. And yet, I don't really care about whether or not he's pleased with me, I love him. And yet, I don't really care about what he's told me to do, what he's commanded me to do, and what he's commanded that I stay away from it. That's a contradictory message. And it actually, it shows that maybe my claim of love isn't really, really true, and isn't

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really really deep enough. And maybe it actually is that I love other things more. For example, I love fashion, more than I love Allah soprano data or I love, you know, style. And what what society told me is, is is is beautiful or attractive, more than I love what Allah subhanaw taala has said, is beautiful and attractive to him. Because they don't, they're not the same as you know, you just got to look around to see that they aren't the same. What's beautiful to Allah subhanaw taala is modesty. And yet what's beautiful to society is the complete opposite. It's, it's it's the complete opposite. You know, it's, it's, it's showing more, it's tighter clothes. And and so we really at the

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end of the day, we have to look at, well, my actions are a testament to what I love most. My actions are a natural consequence of what is filling my heart and of what I love most. So it does not make sense to say that yes, I love God most. And yet I obey something else more than I obey Allah subhana wa Tada.

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And then lastly, the a a, a a 31, of sort of that room, talks about, about schicke Allah subhanaw taala says, well at akuna minal mushrikeen. So first a lot talked about in Abba, repentance. And then Allah subhanaw taala talked about taqwa. And then Allah talked about establishing the prayer. And lastly, Allah warns us against taking any objects of worship with him, and realizing again, that these objects of worship are not just in what we pray to, or make dua to, but also in what we love, and in what we obey. And if I love my money more than I love Allah, then I'm willing to do anything for that money. If I love so called beauty more than I love a lot, then I'm willing to do anything

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just to be beautiful to society. If I love a person, more than I love Allah subhanaw taala then I'm willing to do anything to be with that person, even if it's hot on even if it's a relationship, which is displeasing to Allah subhanaw taala even if it's within the, the, you know, the the institution of dating, which is displeasing to Allah subhanaw taala I'm willing to do it still, because I love that person. Most, when I love something else, more than I love Allah subhanaw taala I'll do anything to please that person, I'll do anything to be with that person, even if Allah subhanaw taala has said that it's forbidden, it's something displeasing to him, but I will choose

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that over Allah subhanaw taala because that's what I love most. So we have to be so so careful that there are no rivals, in our hearts with Allah subhanaw taala in love or fear, or hope or dependency, and that it should be a loss of panel data alone, that has the power to to to make us say, semana altana, we hear and we obey, we should not be saying we hear and we obey to anything else other than Allah subhanaw taala and what is pleasing to Him? If we're saying it to, you know, the bottom line, if we're saying it's a money for saying it's a fashion, if we're saying it to another person, then we really have to check what it is really, that we love most in our hearts. So practically, to

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summarize, when we ask this question of what are we doing wrong? And why do we have these you know, these symptoms that we see in our lives? We have to ask ourselves these questions. Are we praying? And are we praying on time? How much are we remembering Allah subhanaw taala practically in our life, how much is is reading Quran and understanding it? How much is that a part of my life? How much am I in the company of those who remind me of Allah? Or am I in the company of those who take me away from Allah? subhanaw taala? Is my company poisonous for me? Or is it healthy for me I know for a fact that that bad company is a poison of the heart. So when we ask this question, we have to

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look at you know, are we what is my company? How much am I remembering Allah? subhanaw taala Am I praying

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Am I? Are there sins that I'm continuously committing? Without turning back and repenting? Am I am I continuing on on these sins and refusing to leave them? Am I refusing to leave a heart on relationship? Am I refusing to leave a heart on business? Am I refusing to leave? You know how to risk money that's coming in a hot arm way? And am I refusing to leave? Looking at hot on things? know that whatever you're looking at whatever goes into your eyes is going directly to your heart and and it makes an imprint on your heart. Am I am I refusing to lower my gaze? Am I doing these things and then wondering, why do I have a problem? Why am I sick? Why do I have these other

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symptoms, we make ourselves sick, we take ourselves off of the natural propensity that Allah subhanaw taala put us on that propensity of fitrah of towhead we take ourselves off of that. And we borrow we put up these barriers, our with our own hands of things that we love more of not remembering Allah subhanaw taala of not praying, of being around those people who poisoned us by taking us away from the remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala instead of being around those who remind us of Allah subhanaw taala I asked Allah to make this path easy for you and for me, and to keep us away from all those things that take us away from Allah subhanaw taala who knew me when I asked that

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this, that this that this, that this path to Allah subhanaw taala be made easy for us and that we inshallah end up together in general for adults. I want to let you know that inshallah there will be a new show starting Wednesdays at 10am and the host of this show is Terry hole holdbrooks. He is actually an ex Guantanamo Bay guard who converted to Islam. His show will be about current events Islam and the world through his eyes. According Callie Heather was stuck for a lolly will come in the horn Rahim. subhanak Hello Beckham duck, Shadow en la ilaha illa and istockphoto kona tubo Lake wa salam o Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh