Yasmin Mogahed – Love Discerning The Real From The Unreal

Assalamu alaikum This is Yasmin Mujahid and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio. So everyone's kind of talking about it. Either people love it, or they hate it. But the fact is that we are in, you know, love is in the air in at least that's what,

you know, flower shops and card shops want you to think, because yesterday was Valentine's Day. Now, there's a lot of discussion going on in the, on the internet and you know, people, people pretty much all talking about this, this concept and some people are talking about it from the perspective of whether or not we as Muslims should be engaged in, you know, these types of celebrations and other people are talking about it from the perspective of, you know, it being kind of like a corporate holiday. And, and so there's different perspectives and and I actually want to talk about,

you know, come at this from a different angle today. And that is that I'm not going to talk about the Philippine aspect of whether or not we celebrate these or other holidays, but I want to talk about the heart of it. And that is about the concept of love itself. And I want to begin by talking about what love should not be, and kind of go into what

you know, how are we taught about love from from a very, very early age, in fact, and kind of unlearning some of these concepts, and then getting into what love should be. So Love is a serious mental disease. Or at least that's how Plato put it. And while anyone who's ever been in love might see some truth to this statement, there is a critical mistake made here. Love is not supposed to be a severe mental disease. Love is supposed to be very different. If being in love, means that our lives are in pieces, and we're completely broken, miserable, completely consumed, unable to function, and willing to sacrifice everything, then chances are it isn't love. Despite what we are

taught in popular culture. True Love is not supposed to make us like drug addicts. And so contrary to what we've been growing up watching in movies, that type of all consuming obsession is not love. It actually is usually tied into a different concept which we are taught in the Quran and by the prophet sallallahu wasallam. And that's the concept of hella. hella is basically it's usually translated as one's lower vain desires or lusts. But hella in general is just, you know, it's the inner inclinations that we have, whether they are of a, you know, emotional inclinations, psychological inclinations, intellectual inclinations, those are all held up. And so Hela is

basically by definition, that which is not from Revelation, that which is not from guidance of Allah Subhana Allah and His Messenger, it's what my own inclination pulls me to. And sometimes, unfortunately, there are people who take their * and take their own inner inclinations, as a lord. And in that way they start to worship their desires and their lusts and their inner inclinations, whether intellectual or emotional, or, or, you know, whatever type and Allah subhanaw taala describes those people who follow these desires as being the most astray. Allah subhanaw taala says, What's translated as, but if they answer you not know, that they only follow their own, help

their lusts, and who is more astray than the one who follows his own hella, without guidance from Allah subhanaw taala and this is chapter 28, verse 50. So Allah subhanaw taala here is describing a people who follow their own, however, without guidance, and he describes those people as being the most distrait so this means that if I have a desire for something or I have a desire for someone, that I follow that desire, and I disregard the guidance of Allah subhanaw taala by choosing to submit to this * up over the guidance of Allah