What Is Your Greatest Struggle

Yasmin Mogahed

Date:

Channel: Yasmin Mogahed

Series:

File Size: 25.17MB

Episode Notes

Share Page

Transcript ©

AI generated text may display inaccurate or offensive information that doesn’t represent Muslim Central's views. Thus,no part of this transcript may be copied or referenced or transmitted in any way whatsoever.

00:00:10--> 00:00:18

Santa Monica, this is Jasmine which I had and you're listening to serenity, streaming live on one legacy radio,

00:00:19--> 00:01:08

I hope that inshallah you are benefiting from these blessing days that we have entered into. As you know, we are now in the last 10 days of Ramadan. And these are as we're told by the prophets, I send them the most blessed day days of this month of mercy and we ask Allah subhanaw taala to make these days beneficial for all of us in our path to a loss of Hano data, and a means to bring us near to Him and to purify us, inshallah, I mean, today, I've asked a question, and we're going to be discussing your answers to that question. And that's, and that question is, what is your greatest struggle? This is, I think, an important question for us to discuss because it gets at, you know,

00:01:08--> 00:02:01

what, what are those barriers that keep us from actualizing, true happiness and true freedom. And in order to really understand, you know, these, how to get there, I guess, you have to define these, these concepts, what is true happiness, and, and what is true freedom, and a stroke, our struggles, are things that, you know, sometimes get in the way of actualizing, those, those those goals. And when you look at there's, you know, the definition of true happiness, and the definition of true freedom, you'll find that there have been many definitions proposed, throughout time, the the most prevalent definition of happiness and freedom that we see today in society, is the happiness of the

00:02:01--> 00:02:33

physical realm, the, the physical pleasure, this is pretty much how happiness is defined that as long as my physical desires are being satisfied, that that makes me happy. So if I'm, if I'm hungry, I eat that makes me happy. If I, if I want, you know, to buy a certain thing, and I, and I buy it, and I have it, and I own it, then that means I'm happy now. You know, whatever physical

00:02:34--> 00:03:20

desire I have, or any command of my, of my body, as long as I obey it, that that then means I'm happy. And this is, you know, as we know, those who believe and those who know that there are different elements of a human being there are, there is the physical element of the human being, we have the body, and we have the desires of the body and the needs of the body in the physical realm. And then, but we know as believers that there's, there's another realm, there's another aspect of the human being, and that's the soul, the heart. And that's a completely different realm, that's the realm of the unseen. And you'll find that so much of the focus on happiness is only in the first

00:03:20--> 00:04:07

realm, it's only in the physical realm. And the second realm is oftentimes neglected. That we think that somehow, that the second realm, the heart, and the soul is going to be satisfied by satisfying the first round. And that's not true, the two are separate, and that the things that that satisfy our body, do not satisfy the heart and the soul they are, there is a different food for the body than there is for the heart and for the soul. But we, we live again, and we you know, we live in a society that that very much focused on pleasure being the physical type of pleasure and, you know, owning things and, and things that we can feel in touch and see. And that's what what pleasure is,

00:04:07--> 00:04:59

is defined. And when you look at the concept of freedom, you'll find that the definition of freedom as we have in society, again, is it's it's freedom of the neffs. So it's the the idea that as long as I can do whatever my neffs tells me to do, then I'm free. But if you look, you know, deeply at this statement, you'll find that in fact, that's the worst type of slavery. Because if I'm, if my neffs is free, then it means that my heart and my soul that me, I am enslaved to it, because my neffs if my neffs does whatever it wants, if my neffs is in command, then that means I am a slave to my neffs. So that actually is not freedom, but rather, is the opposite. It's slavery. The truth

00:05:00--> 00:05:49

Freedom is freedom from the neffs not freedom of the nuts, that for me to really be free, I need to be able to say no to my neffs I need to be able to be free from my neffs and the commands of my neffs. Because as we all know, everyone has an EFS everyone has less upon what Allah tells us, the Alabama hafele Judah heart, what the law, that that every inch of that the human being has the the inspiration of, of, of goodness, out of full Judah of corruption of, you know, the the bad things, and what the what and the and the righteousness and the goodness, we have both parts inside of us. And it's this inner battle. And the question really is, who wins, and who leads me, there is a

00:05:49--> 00:06:27

battle. And that's something that that we we have to accept. And if we don't accept it, then we've already lost the battle. If we don't know that we have enough, and we don't acknowledge that we have enough. If we don't acknowledge the battle itself is is raging inside of us, then it means we've already lost the battle. And there's, you know, we're not even resisting, because we didn't even know there was a battle. It's just the neffs is in charge. And there's, it's kind of like a submission, when you submit to something you're not battling anymore. So you don't feel that internal tension. But, you know, when when there is that what is called jihad or nefs, the struggle

00:06:27--> 00:07:15

of the neffs, the internal struggle against the next, when that's going on, there is that internal battle. And the question again, is who's in charge and who is going to win, and sometimes our neffs wins, and sometimes it doesn't, but the struggle is to make it so that we are our hearts are free from our naps. And rather, rather than making our neffs free itself, so what we what we want to do is we want to chain the next we want to sub subjugate the neffs. To to what Allah subhanaw taala has commanded, instead of the other way around, oftentimes we'll find that people will, you know, even in their interpretations of Islam and interpretations of the, of the Quran, in the words of Allah

00:07:15--> 00:07:57

subhanaw taala, even the Shetty out of the laws of Allah Spano data, if they want to subjugate those words and those laws and that and that could lend itself to their own whims to their own neffs. So again, the neffs is in charge. For example, if someone doesn't want, you know, the nephew doesn't like to wear hijab, or the neffs doesn't like to give up, usually to give up interest, or the nest doesn't like the sun because the neffs wants, you know, a certain profit margin that it sees is will be easier if if it if it takes certain types of loans and etc, or, or the neffs doesn't, doesn't want to, to cover up, you know, the beauty of the of the body and a woman doesn't doesn't want that.

00:07:57--> 00:08:42

But the nest doesn't like that, for example. So what some people do is the nafs already has made a decision, the neffs has made a decision that it doesn't, doesn't like a job, or it doesn't like giving up usually or it doesn't like these things, these rules. So what then the neffs does, is it starts there, and then we move backwards. So we say okay, we don't like this, then we go to the Quran, and the rules of Allah subhanaw taala, the revelation of Allah, and we start to dictate, and we start to try to interpret or reinterpret the the words of the end in a way that fits what I like, because I didn't like hijab to begin with, I didn't want to put it on. So now I go back to the

00:08:42--> 00:09:29

Quran, and I tell the poor and what it should say, actually, this is what it means actually, you know, put a hijab is not in, in in the hood, and or this is not what it means. So but if you look at this, I'm going about it in the complete opposite way. I'm not coming to the end, looking for the looking to submit to what it says. Instead, I'm looking for the quota and to submit to what my whims say. So I started with my whim in command, I started with my knifes in command. And then I want to make the rules of Allah subhanaw taala submit to my whims submit to what I like submit to what I think is right. It's this concept of I don't think that you know, that doesn't make sense to me. I

00:09:29--> 00:09:59

don't like that or I don't believe that it's this very me centered, you know, paradigm, whatever. I think whatever I want whatever I understand, must be truth, ultimate truth. And this is this is completely the opposite of what Islam really is a snam is about taking me out of the center and putting God there and saying that it isn't about what I think it isn't about what I want. It isn't about what my neffs commands me.

00:10:00--> 00:10:53

It is about Allah subhanaw taala It is about what Allah says, It is about what Allah wants. And, and, and Islam, the very root of the word means submission, it means that I am, I am submitting to God, I'm submitting to what God says, and not to what my myself believes or wants or thinks. Because ultimately, you know, we, whatever we, whatever we feel or understand, ultimately is limited, I may, I may or may not understand a ruling. But if I have firm faith that Allah knows best than I submit to it, I don't need to necessarily understand every single part of the of a surgical procedure that a doctor is about to undergo on me, you know, that I'm about to undergo, and that, that I don't

00:10:53--> 00:11:42

necessarily need to understand every single part of that procedure. But if I trust the doctor, if I trust the surgeon, then I don't, I don't worry. And I and I go ahead, and I submit, and in fact, we we submit our entire bodies, we know we're basically giving ourselves, you know, when we do go to a doctor or we go to to a surgeon, we are trusting that surgeon enough to take a knife to us. And and and and it doesn't, nobody says that I'm not going to take I'm not going to do the surgery unless I first understand every single part of what he or she is doing. You know, and then otherwise, I'm not going to do the surgery that I that I'm you know, that I'm desperately in need for. We know that

00:11:42--> 00:12:21

that's not our specialty. We know not everybody can understand neurosurgery, not everyone can understand exactly what's going to happen in that procedure. And we acknowledge that, I acknowledge that that's not my field, that's not my specialty, I'm not necessarily going to understand all of it, I may generally understand that, that I have to do this surgery because I have a tumor and it has to be removed. But do I understand every part of that procedure and and every part of that disease to to the level that the surgeon does? No, of course not. Otherwise, I would be the surgeon, you know, operating on other people, but I don't have that expertise. Now imagine we, we we we

00:12:21--> 00:12:54

understand this with a human being but we somehow feel don't feel that way about the creator of all these human beings and all these surgeons and all these patients, like we somehow become arrogant with Allah subhanaw taala in thinking that we know better, you know, like, well, this rule doesn't really make sense to me, so I'm not going to follow it, it's kind of like telling the surgeon, you know, the the procedure that you're about to do to save my life doesn't really make sense to me, so I'm not going to do it. And

00:12:55--> 00:13:39

that would be pretty foolish. And nobody does that. There is a there's a certain level of understanding and a certain level of trust that this, this isn't something that's that I can, that that I know that I've studied that I have the ability to, to understand fully. And that's okay, because it's in the hands of the specialist. And yet, we aren't willing to see that and Allah subhanaw taala, as high above any analogy, that all of our rulings in Islam, all of our our affairs are in the hands of the ultimate specialists. And that's, that's Allah subhanaw taala he knows what he's doing. And we cannot know everything that Allah subhana wa tada knows not even close. So we

00:13:39--> 00:14:22

have to humble ourselves in that way. Again, submission, submission means we hear and we obey. Now, this, you know, for those people who then you know, respond and say, but you know, it's not blind faith. This isn't blind faith, this is submission, what it means is this blind faith would be that you just go to a random person on the street and you say, you know, I, I believe that you are a surgeon, I believe it, you know, you don't have to give them I have no reason to believe it knows no evidence, but I just believe you know, and, and you just pick a random person, and you say, I believe that you're a surgeon, so go ahead and operate on me. That would be blind faith. But if you

00:14:22--> 00:15:00

went and you have and you researched, and you found the most qualified, and most knowledgeable surgeon in the country, and then went to that person and say, Okay, I know you know what you're doing, I know who you are, and I know you know what you're doing. And now I'm going to submit to you, you know, performing this surgery on me, even when I don't fully understand every single minute aspect. Now that is submission. This is how our faith should be that we we don't blindly you know, submit to just

00:15:00--> 00:15:48

urandom deity, but we have, we have many, many, many signs of the oneness of the of the existence and the oneness of the Creator. This is something Allah subhanaw taala has given us the ability to find, he says that there are ads all over the universe, that that the that the hole, everything in creation is a sign. And all we have to do is use our intellect to find what those signs lead to. And when you do that you are led to the same conclusion that Ibrahim alayhis salaam was led to. And we know from this illustrative story that Ibrahim Allah has sent him was looking at the stars and the moon in the sun. And you know, out, you know, each time he would say this is this is my Lord. And

00:15:49--> 00:16:32

you know, and commentators say this was this was metaphor, he didn't actually worship or believe that that was his Lord. But you know, the lesson here is that, that the stars, the moon, the sun, all of those things, were were they disappeared, eventually they were limited, using one's intellect, you can see that there is a creation and there must be a creator, and that the creation is limited, there is nothing that we can see or feel or touch, that is, that is perfect, and that is lasting and we can see that and we can understand that with our, with the mind that Allah subhanaw taala gave us with the eyes that he gave us, with the hearing with a touch, he gave us all the tools

00:16:32--> 00:17:19

to be able to find him and to realize who he is, he gave us the revelation. So we know him and and then it is after finding him and knowing him and realizing La ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasul Allah, then we submit after this last panel that it says, you know, you, you, you, you dress in this way, you pray in this way, you pray this many times, we hear and we obey, that is the procedure that once we trust and we found the you know, the specialist, we then trust and we and we submit, and that is them. inshallah, we will take a short break now. And when we return, we're going to go to your answers to this question of what is your greatest struggle?

00:17:30--> 00:18:27

This is your screen, which I had, and you're listening to serenity, streaming live on one legacy radio. We are taking your questions on this question on this topic of what is your greatest struggle. And one of the answers we received says, concentration in my prayers, draws and recitation. The struggle to focus in our prayers is something that I think most people can say they can relate to at one point or another, if not all the time. It is a struggle to stand and pray to Allah subhanaw taala and to be completely present, and the reason why this is a struggle is because Allah subhanaw taala is unseen. And everything in dunya is seen that we can we see the dunya and we

00:18:27--> 00:19:18

experience and we interact with the dunya in a physical realm. And yet Allah subhanaw taala is in the unseen. And we as human beings we struggle with that we struggle with realizing that what is not seen, is oftentimes more real than what is seen Subhana Allah that the source of everything that we see, is actually unseen and everything we do see of the scene is just a reflection of the you know, the source which we don't see and this so this becomes very difficult for us. Because we become so distracted by the things that we do see, you know, and and interact with our money, our children, our spouses, our careers, our school, our exams. These are the things that consume us. And I think

00:19:18--> 00:19:59

first and foremost, I can give some practical tips, how we can improve on in our concentration during the salaah. This is actually a class that I did for new dawn Institute. It was a class you know a joint class I did about how to gain kushida and salon concentration and focus in salon. If you are interested in receiving a link to that recording, you can send an email to info at New Dawn institute.com. We will also be doing a class this Saturday in fact, at 3pm Pacific and the topic will be making the most out of the last 10 days of Ramadan.

00:20:00--> 00:20:48

And beyond maintaining the the momentum that we have in Ramadan. And you know, to get to get to that place where we can focus better in our prayers, I think it's important first to look at what are the barriers that keep us from that, that focus. And essentially the barriers are, are two of two kinds. So one is the internal, whispering the whispering of our own neffs. And the other is the external whispering the whispering of shaitan. And it's kind of, you know, the key here is that we need to protect ourselves from both types of whispering, and just, you know, an abridged version of the internal whispering the whispering of my naps has to do with my attachments. It has to do with what

00:20:48--> 00:21:33

is most important to me, and what does my life really revolve around, you'll find that those things that we keep thinking about in our prayers are those same things that we keep thinking about all day, it's those things that are most important to me, it might be my job, it might be a problem I'm facing, it might be my exams, or my friends, or my spouse, that these are the things that end up consuming our minds in our prayers as well. And that's natural, because my heart, it has certain things inside of it and certain attachments inside of it, those same attachments enter into my Salah with me. So the key here is we need to clean out our hearts have these, these, these false

00:21:33--> 00:22:17

attachments and these things that, that we're too concerned about, that have distracted us from the remembrance of Allah outside of our prayers, so that inshallah we can remember him better inside of our prayers, it's very key that we understand the connection between how we are in mind and body and soul outside of our prayers, and how that's directly related to how we are inside of our prayers. And the other aspect is understanding what we're saying, it's going to be pretty hard to build a relationship with a person, for example, if every time you communicate with that person, you're talking in a language that you don't even understand. If you're speaking Chinese and you don't, you

00:22:17--> 00:22:55

don't speak a word of Chinese, you don't even understand it. And that's what you use to communicate with your friend, you're probably not going to have a very strong relationship. And you're probably not going to be very focused on this conversation because you don't even understand it. So it's very important whether or not Arabic is our first language, that we at least learn the meaning of the things we're saying in our prayers. At the very minimum, the basic things that we say Subhana Allah, Allah Subhana Allah belavia semi our linemen hamidah Allahu Akbar, the Fatiha extremely important that we understand. It's short enough that we can learn. What does this mean when I'm saying it?

00:22:55--> 00:23:39

What am I saying to Allah subhanaw taala Shouldn't I know, I'm having a conversation with a friend, I know what I'm saying. But when I have a conversation with a law, I have no idea what I'm saying. And that's not very conducive to a strong relationship. That's very key. And and you know, another advice is to prepare yourself emotionally and mentally and psychologically and physically force a law. Part of that preparation is in the will do on las panatela has designed it in such a way that we you know, we make will do this is a this is preparing ourselves, physically but also spiritually to enter into the the, the conversation with our Creator. So we'll do and, and and just mentally

00:23:39--> 00:24:24

getting into that into that mode. Another good preparation is praying Sunnah as you pray, you know, you're praying something before you get into the thoughts in those prayers where there is a Sunnah before, that also helps to get you into the mindset of leaving dunya behind and facing Allah subhana wa Tada. And that's key, we have to be able to leave dunya behind. But if we're holding on to dunya, so, so, so tightly, it becomes impossible for us to let go, even for just five minutes, that is an indication that we're holding too tightly to dunya we need to let go a little bit and focus more on the remembrance of Allah subhanho wa Taala even outside of our prayers in order to be able to focus

00:24:24--> 00:24:26

better inside of our prayers, inshallah.

00:24:27--> 00:24:29

The next question says,

00:24:32--> 00:24:49

my struggle I used to love someone and now they're gone, even But even after they're gone, I still love them. And the same way I used to, but now I seriously want to forget them and be dedicated to Allah. And I want my love that I had for that person to go towards Allah.

00:24:50--> 00:24:59

May Allah bless you and even just the realization that we want this that's the first step. Allah subhanaw taala says that when you take

00:25:00--> 00:25:41

One step towards him he takes 10 steps towards you. And and just the fact that this is your arrow that this is what you want. This is what you what you what deeply you want. That's the first step and inshallah May Allah make it easy for you, I would say, first and foremost, make the art of Allah subhanaw taala to remove this person from your heart, and ask Allah subhanaw taala to fill your heart with him and to fill your heart with the love of of Allah subhanaw taala and the remembrance of Allah which extinguishes any other competing love, the love of Allah subhanaw taala there is no comparison between the love of the Creator and the love of the creation. So with the more that your

00:25:41--> 00:26:04

heart is full with the love of the Creator, the more that it that it extinguishes any competing love asking Allah subhanaw taala to make that easy for you. And then begin in your path or begin in your walking towards Allah subhanaw taala first and foremost through increasing your remembrance, increasing your your thicker and thicker is is in many different forms prayer

00:26:06--> 00:26:42

is too far, asking Allah Subhana Allah to forgive you, Toba Vicar, the quarter that the prophet SAW Selim would would would make in the morning and in the evening, and before you sleep, there is a there's a there's a supplication for pretty much every single motion that we make in this life. And there's a supplication for leaving the house. There's a supplication for coming into the house. There's a supplication for putting on your clothes. There's a supplication for eating, there's a supplication for finishing eating, there's a supplication for driving, there's a supplication for entering the bathroom, there's a supplication for leaving the bathroom. There's a supplication for

00:26:42--> 00:27:24

intimacy, there's a supplication for pretty much every single action. And this is really to show us that we should be remembering Allah in every single situation. That's how we have to train our hearts, to always have the remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala filling it, going back and learning the supplications saying them Subhana Allah, you know, Subhana Allah, hamdulillah Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, these things, Allah subhanaw taala says, are light on the tongue but heavy on the scale of good deeds, those are the things that we need to fill our, our heart with, and our tongue with. And, and, and and the other important aspect is istikhara, asking Allah subhanaw taala to

00:27:24--> 00:27:25

forgive us

00:27:26--> 00:28:09

stuck for a lower a tool like Allah subhanaw taala You know, he has many different attributes of forgiveness. One of the attributes of forgiveness is is the one you know Allah for. And when we say his stuff in a law, we are seeking, that we are seeking Allah subhanaw taala by that attribute. And there's a there's a sense in this attribute of not just forgiveness, but covering something up, covering up your sin, and not just covering up your sin but covering up the consequence of your sin. When we say a stuck at a law, we're asking Allah subhanaw taala not only to forgive our sin, but to cover it, and then to cover the consequence of that sin because all of us, when we commit a sin,

00:28:09--> 00:28:46

there are consequences to that sin, if we committed a sin with a particular person, or we maybe created a relationship that shouldn't have been there are we allowed someone to enter our hearts that that we should not have, or anything to enter our hearts that should not have been there, or we allowed something to compete with the love of Allah in our hearts, there is a there is a very painful consequence to that. And when we ask Allah Subhana Allah Allah is able to protect us from that consequence, stuff, it'll law, I stuff, federal law, ask a loss of panel data to protect you from the consequences of our own actions. When we allow something to enter our hearts that shouldn't

00:28:46--> 00:29:32

be there. The the the one who suffers is our own self. This is this is a there's a very painful consequence to this to this action, we ask Allah subhana wa tada to protect us from that, and to purify our hearts, and to fill our hearts with him and his remembrance. And that is how, you know a person is able to get over these things, of what I actually call love addictions. It's an it's just another form of an addiction. Ultimately, we want to feel good, we want to feel that hi and, and you know, through being in love, or sometimes the feeling that a person gives us, it actually creates in your brain, it it releases an neurotransmitters in your brain that, that, that that simulate the

00:29:32--> 00:30:00

same feeling that a person has when they're high on drugs. So this is this is actually you know, like an addiction, it's a very powerful sort of need, that people get get very attached to is to have that, that that that high, you know that feeling of, of being high. When you're in love or when you're, you know, you're really into someone. And so we have to break these things like we break addictions and one of the ways to do that is

00:30:00--> 00:30:35

Again, of course, to increase your remembrance of the last part of that ask a lot to make it easy for you. But also you need to remove any reminders of that person, you know, it doesn't make sense that we're trying to get over an addiction or an alcohol addiction, when we're taking sips of alcohol here and there, it's not, it's not going to happen, right, you have to completely cut out the drug, you have to completely cut out the alcohol or the or the the cocaine or whatever it is that you're addicted to. And in this case, you need to completely cut out that person that you're addicted to. And in order to get over that addiction, and that's, that's a process called

00:30:35--> 00:31:13

detoxification, you're detoxifying your body from that drug, by cutting it out completely. That means you stop looking at that person's profile on Facebook, it means you stop trying to contact that person or allowing that person to contact you, it means you have to start blocking phone numbers and emails and, and and profiles. That's what it means. And if you're really serious about your treatment, that's what you have to do. And that's the that's the only way to get to really get over an addiction. And and then you fill your your heart with Allah subhanaw taala. That's your treatment. And this is this is actually a topic I wrote about in one of my pieces. And it's called

00:31:13--> 00:31:54

removing the intruder on curing love addictions. And it's it's on my website, ismene majed.com. It talks about this, this common issue of what happens when we've allowed something that wasn't supposed to be in our hearts, to enter our hearts? And then how do we what are the consequences? First of all? And then second, how do we how do we cure that in sha Allah? May Allah make it easy on you and all those in that same situation? I mean, inshallah, what we'll do now, we'll go to the next question, before we go to break. And then we'll continue taking your questions. At the at the at the email serenity at one legacy radio.com, as well as in the chat box.

00:31:56--> 00:32:12

So this person says, My biggest struggle would be trying to become a better Muslim woman, but due to my weak, amen, I keep moving to and to and fro, I improve a lot, then after some time, I find myself sucked again into the glamour of this dunya. This is my biggest struggle.

00:32:13--> 00:32:56

So this is actually again, a common struggle as human beings that we have, and this inconsistency, another person there. And they also set a similar, shared a similar struggle, which is that they have trouble of being consistent. You know, another another person says my biggest struggle is to be consistent. Whatever it may be from pray prayer, to a heart to sitting with my kids, and teaching them put end, to never sticking to whatever, I never stick with whatever I try to do, and I don't understand why. So there's, it's a similar theme of this lack of consistency that we want to be better, but we kind of take two steps forward, and then we take three steps back, or maybe just one

00:32:56--> 00:33:01

step back, or maybe five. And and I think that there's a lot of reasons why this happens.

00:33:02--> 00:33:53

First of all, to emphasize the importance of consistency, the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said that the action that is consistent is, is more beloved to a lot, even if it's small, than the large, you know, deeds that are inconsistent. And we can see this reality in the physical world, if you want to get in shape, you're going to have better, you're going to have better results, if you work out, you know, 20 minutes a day, three times a week, than if you worked out for five hours, once a month, or you know, twice a month. The idea here is, you know, even if the time all added up to be the same, you know, in the month, the consistent, small things actually have more of an effect on your body,

00:33:53--> 00:34:37

physically than doing a lot just one day and then not doing it for another two weeks, we see this in the physical world. And it's the same rules, the same reality in the spiritual world. It's those small actions that are done consistently, that have that tone, your soul that tone your heart better than doing you know, all night PM, you know, and then you know, maybe or even like a retreat, you go to it, you know, two days, three days straight, it's just, you know, or attic half even for a few days. And then that's it for you know, two months, there's, there's, you know, very little iPad, that is going to have a lot less effect, a positive effect on your heart than then if you had

00:34:37--> 00:35:00

consistent action that you do to keep you with Allah subhanaw taala another place that we see this in the physical world is with food. I could, I could eat enough for I mean, you know, when you look at food, right? We need to eat consistently. In order to live, nobody can come and say that. I'm going to take

00:35:00--> 00:35:41

All of my food that I need for a month and just have it all in one meal, that won't work, you know, you'll get very, very sick. And beyond that you're going to eventually starve anyway, because you need that food consistently throughout the month, you can't just take it all in one dose, and then be okay for the next two or three weeks. It's the same thing with the remembrance of Allah, it needs to be consistent. Even if it's small, even if it's one a day that you're reading, but you're reading it consistently and you're reflecting on it, it's going to have more of an effect than reading the whole Quran in Ramadan, and then not touching the code and for the rest of the year. So it's

00:35:41--> 00:36:05

extremely important and even if you didn't finish the end for an entire year, but you're reading one a day consistently, then you will, you will have you will have more of a positive effect than if you read the holster and one month and didn't touch it for the rest of the year. shaula when we return from this break, we'll continue with this question of consistency. And why is it that we go up and down so much in our rabada

00:36:13--> 00:37:07

SLM Assalamualaikum This is Yasmin Mujahid and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio. Before we continue on the discussion of what struggles Do you have, we have a couple of announcements. Tune in this Saturday from 12 to 4pm. Pacific Standard Time for an emergency Islamic Relief radio THON fundraiser to help the suffering people in Syria. It's hosted by Hossam Eilish and guest speakers are shipped to a web MMS, a checkout and met her Xen and many more. Also tune in all of next week from 9am to 2pm. Eastern Standard Time for one legacy radios fund drive that will include our regular programming along with special guest speakers and much more. And

00:37:07--> 00:37:58

another exciting announcement that I have is that inshallah, tomorrow is the day that my book will be published. inshallah, it will be available online, worldwide, in countries across the world inshallah I will be posting the link of how to order on my Facebook and also I will also have, how to order on my website, www dot ismene which I hid.com and so inshallah, tomorrow August 10, it will be released and that means shall it please keep us in your eyes and we pray for Boca until fifth inshallah may may be beneficial and pleasing to Allah subhana wa Tada. So going on the topic of why do we go up and down in our, in our a bad in our and in our Amen. This is first of all, something we

00:37:58--> 00:38:40

have to realize is part of human nature, that there is nothing constant except a law, human beings are not constant, our mn is not constant, it will go up and down. This is something that the prophets of the law to send them taught, even the greatest of companions, a buck or the lion, for example. There was a time when the him he had believed that, that he had become a hypocrite. And his the reason why he felt that he had become a hypocrite was he said that when we are with you, when he felt that when he was with the prophets sallallahu wasallam he had said, Amen was so high that it was as if he could see Jenna and Johanna. And when he went to his family, he started to you know,

00:38:40--> 00:39:23

feel different that he got like more distracted. And the prophets I send them assured him that you know that the men that there's our you know, there's an hour for this an hour for that, that it's it's not always going to be consistent the amendments, that doesn't mean that you're a hypocrite it means you're a human being. The only thing that's consistent and constant is Allah subhanaw taala. Allah did not design us in that way. So so what we need to do and the key is first realizing that the reason why it's important to realize that is when you do start to sort of lose momentum in your a bother or lose momentum in your Eman. You don't lose hope. And you know, I mentioned that

00:39:23--> 00:39:49

sometimes we take two steps forward, and then we take five steps back. Sometimes we take two steps forward, and then we take 15 steps back. And I think the reason why we end up doing that is because I might take two steps forward. And then you know, one day I'm, I'm not, I'm not at the same spiritual high. So I might take one step back, but as soon as I look and I see and I look down at my feet, and I say oh my God, I've taken a step back. I become so

00:39:50--> 00:39:59

upset and I and I start to lose hope. And I start to despair so much that I let go, and it's that despairing part. It's that letting go

00:40:00--> 00:40:41

part it's that giving up part that happens, that actually makes me slip backwards 15 steps. So the key is there, the key is what do I how do I respond? When I find myself taking one step back, I'm still okay at that point, but maybe I'm not feeling at the same. Or maybe I was, I was, um, you know, had a certain level of, of Eman rush, you know, right after the conference, or right after the hook bow right after the lecture right after Ramadan. And then, you know, time goes by, and now I'm not as much You know, I'm not, it's harder to get up for a fidget, it's more of a struggle to get up and pray, it's more of a struggle to, to, you know, wear my hijab or whatever it is I'm struggling

00:40:41--> 00:41:22

with. And all of a sudden, at that point, I just, I become so disappointed in myself that I give up hope. And I say, you know what, there's no point, there's just no point in in continuing to struggle, I might as well give up. That is from shaitan. That thought is from shaitan. The fact that when you mess up in any small way, or if you if you're, you know, your Eman is not as high. Or there's some dip in your Amen. You shaitan will come and tell you, well, now it's time to give up because you're no good, you know, you, you, you try so hard and look, you're still messing up. That's how shaitan gets you to let go and then slip down the 15 steps back. This is where you have

00:41:22--> 00:42:01

to catch it and say, You know what, I'm human. And you go to Allah subhanaw taala. And you say, Allah, forgive me, and help me, forgive me and help me, that's when you have to do it. And that's when you have to be the most firm. You know, you're not feeling you're not feeling it. At that point, maybe you're a man is kind of low. And it's really much more of a struggle to get up for pleasure. Well, you know, what, you you have to just work harder to do it. And you consist a wall, you're striving harder at that point, because it's, it's not as easy right? Now, when you're in your in your low, right, everybody has their high, and everybody has their low. And when you're in your

00:42:01--> 00:42:06

low, it's not as easy anymore to get up for two hedges, it's not as easy anymore to get up and pray.

00:42:07--> 00:42:48

And so at that point, yes, it's going to be harder. But that's why you just have to struggle harder. And you're going to have to force yourself to continue and be consistent, that is key. And at that point, while you're striving at the same time, you're asking Allah, forgive me, and help me, forgive me and help me, there's anything we want to take out of this, it's that, you know, just keep with that, keep with that dot, forgive me and help me that is default, asking Allah subhanaw taala to forgive us for our weakness, and then helping us helping asking Allah subhanaw taala to help us to overcome our weakness. So forgive us for our weakness, and help us to overcome our weakness. And

00:42:48--> 00:43:29

then if you are consistent with that, guess what happens, you go back up, and then the next time you will go down again. But if you're consistent in doing these things, these three things first, being, you know, asking a lot to forgive you asking a lot to help you. And then striving even harder to be consistent. If you do those three things, then as soon as you get to that dip, you'll come back up more quickly. And you won't do that slip that goes back to you know, negative, write that back the 15 steps or the 20 or whatever. That's what prevents it, you have to really block out the West west of the whispering of shaitan, who wants you to to just give up at that point, all you messed up. So

00:43:29--> 00:44:09

you might as well give up you're gonna go and pray after you just committed the sin. You're such a hypocrite. That's shaitan shaitan wants you to believe that because shaitan doesn't want you to pray. So shaitan wants you to to to keep yourself away from the source of cure. Right? You make a mistake. So that means that okay, I sipped a little bit of poison. So what should I be doing? When I sip a little bit of poison I should be, you know, running to the antidote. But shaitan comes in says, Well, you know, you sipped some poison. So you know, you you might as well just sip some more poison. And definitely don't go to the doctor, definitely don't go and seek the antidote. You know,

00:44:09--> 00:44:49

this is how shaitan wants to kill us. He wants to kill our heart and our soul and and keep us away from from Allah subhanaw taala. And this is how he does it. If we commit a sin, this is a poison that we've taken into our body. But we need to, we need to cleanse our body of it. We need to run to the antidote. And the antidote is in the prayer. The antidote is in the remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala how are we ever going to be cured if we refuse to go and seek that antidote? And if we if we are instead, since we took a sip of of poison, we might as well just drink the whole bottle? That's kind of how shaitan gets us. Well, you know, you already did this sin. Yeah, you

00:44:49--> 00:44:59

might as well give up just just go ahead and just keep sending just, you know, what, what's the point you know, you already messed up? What you know, you're you you committed the sin. So why are you going to pray? Why don't you just stop praying

00:45:00--> 00:45:38

All together, you know better yet, why don't you take off your hijab because, you know, you're committing all of these sins, you might as well not be a hypocrite. And he, you know, I've heard it so many times this idea that Oh, I'm just being a hypocrite. It's like a person who, who, again, he, they took a sip of poison. So now they think, Oh, I'm a hypocrite because I'm, I'm going to try to, you know, cure myself through. That's what Salah is, you know, when you're, when you're doing these acts of worship, whether you're wearing hijab, or you're praying, that is how we get cured of our diseases, that's how we're going to be purified from our, our our sin, is that we're doing these

00:45:38--> 00:46:21

things for Allah. Now, if we give up even that, then we are giving up the antidote and the cure to those disease, diseases that we've that we've acquired through our sins. So it's extremely important not to lose hope, to keep consistent, ask Allah Subhana Allah to forgive us consistently. And and to ask for his help consistently know that every single human being slips sometimes, and every single human being makes mistakes. If you thought you weren't going to make any mistakes, then that meant that you thought you were an angel, it means that you don't understand the definition of being human. The definition of being human is that we do make mistakes. And Allah subhanaw taala loves

00:46:21--> 00:47:04

those who come back to him, and who seek His forgiveness. That's not hypocrisy, that's being human, that's being humble. And that's what we need to do in order to be successful. And consistency. Put certain things that are an absolute minimum, regardless of how low you feel, you can never give up your five prayers, it doesn't matter if you're not feeling it, it doesn't matter if you're too tired, you have to, you have to discipline yourself, where this is an absolute must, it's not something I can give up, and you have a certain regimen that you commit to and you tell yourself, no matter how tired or lazy, I feel, I will I must do these things. And and you make a list for

00:47:04--> 00:47:38

yourself of what those things are. At the very minimum, it's the five daily prayers, it should also be connecting to the court and regularly, you know, your, your, whatever your schedule is, and you put a minimum, and maybe when you're in your high, you can do more. But make sure that there is a bare minimum that you do regardless of how low you may feel, or how unmotivated you may feel. And then that's how you get out of this, this little dip. And that's how you prevent it from being, you know, going into the abyss, right, just just slipping down and just letting go.

00:47:41--> 00:48:00

We, we all you know, we all struggle with this. And we ask a lot of data to make it easy on us to to to maintain that consistency with a loss of data. There's a couple questions in the chat box that I was going to take. And and and they're they're somewhat related. And one of them talks about.

00:48:01--> 00:48:04

It's difficult, this person says that.

00:48:07--> 00:48:44

Yeah, it's difficult to give up some of their friends from the of the opposite gender, because you know, some of these people had supported them before they were Muslim and that kind of thing. And I think for from this, I just want to just inshallah share a greater principle, and that is that anytime you you do sacrifice something for the sake of Allah, He will replace it with something better. Allah subhanaw taala doesn't ask us to give something up, and then just leave us empty handed. But Allah always gives us what is better if we if we give up something for his sake. So never think that you're actually losing, but you're actually gaining if you are doing it for his

00:48:44--> 00:48:56

sake, if you're giving up a relationship which is not pleasing to Allah, know that if you do that, for Allah sake, Allah will definitely replace it with something better, and rewards you for that sacrifice.

00:48:58--> 00:49:38

Someone else said that a number of people actually said that their biggest struggle is this, that when they commit a sin, they repent, and they really, you know, make the intention not to return to the sin and they really are repenting sincerely, but then the end up going back to that same sin. And it just happens repeatedly again and again. One thing that we'll find is that there are certain sins, which shaitan will come and whisper to us, you know, and, you know, maybe if we are not protected from shaitan, or we're at a weak place, and we don't have you know, enough protection by the remembrance of Allah, we might fall into that sin. But you'll notice that when shaitan whispers

00:49:38--> 00:49:59

to you about doing a sin, it may not be the same sin again and again. You know, shaitan doesn't really care which way we we disobey Allah as long as we disobey Him. So if he comes in whispers, one, one suggestion and we refuse, he'll just change it up, he'll suggest a different suggestion, a different one. He doesn't really care what type of sin but when there's a particular sin that we are

00:50:00--> 00:50:42

Consistently going back to that particular that exact sin, and it's it's, it's you know, it's a, it's it's an addiction to a particular type of sin, then we should know that that's our own knifes that's our own self, and our self, our own lower self is, is addicted to that type of sin or that particular thing. So in the way that we deal with that, it's different than how we deal with shaitan shaitan, we deal with the shaitan by seeking protection from Allah subhanaw taala, the only place where there is protection. And and when dealing with the neffs. It's the same that we seek protection from Allah subhanaw taala from our neffs. But also part of that, the action that we need

00:50:42--> 00:51:30

to do is to weaken the neffs. And that's what we spoke about at the beginning is to is we need that freedom from the neffs, where there is a process of purifying the self, so that the neffs is not the one in control. When your neffs says do this, we don't hear and obey our neffs. But the neffs is no longer so powerful. And we have to think about the nefta neffs as this like wild beast inside of us. And it's wild, so long as we continue to feed it, so long as we continue to obey it, it gets stronger and stronger, and more and more wild and harder to control. But when we weaken the neffs, and when we stop obeying the neffs, then that nefs that wild animal type thing, this wild, you know,

00:51:30--> 00:52:13

creature, this, this thing that we have inside of us, sort of like a beast, it becomes weaker, the neffs inside of us becomes weaker. And then we can overcome. You know, it's it's, it's the difference between a this big monster versus, you know, maybe just like a little poodle. And this, this, the different strength of the knifes and how how how much overpowering it is depends on how much we're feeding the neffs and how much we're obeying the neffs. One of the ways to weaken the neffs. So it doesn't have so much of a control over us and consistently bringing us back to you know, certain sins. There, there's two, there's two ways to weaken the neffs just like weakening a

00:52:13--> 00:52:55

wild, you know, if you want to, you know, break a horse a wild horse, the two things that you do is you've reduced food intake. And the second is that you overburden the horse. And in terms of the neffs it's very similar. One of the ways to weaken the neffs is to reduce the intake to the naps there are certain things that feed the neffs and make it stronger. One of them is actually overeating, over speaking talking too much. You know, looking you know, looking at things that which which Allah subhanaw taala has forbidden us from looking at indulging in the things that the neffs has, it commands us to do. These are things that help weaken us fasting is one of the best ways to

00:52:55--> 00:53:32

weaken our knifes and and then second we overburden the neffs through increasing our worship increasing are a bad and sapan Allah Allah has given us Ramadan with this, you know this exact prescription we are fasting and we're increasing our a better and we ask Allah Subhana Allah to make that a means to weaken this this beast that that we potentially can have out of control inside of us. According Holly Heather was stuck for a lot. He will come in the homophone Rahim to panic alarm, ham darkness shadow and Isla Hill and istockphoto corner to Lake was salam wa Alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh