Yasmin Mogahed – Maintaining Spirituality in Everyday Life
Presented on November 10, 2013
University of Vermont
Yasmin Mogahed – Maintaining Spirituality In Everyday Life
AI: Summary ©
The importance of worship in the church's worship process is emphasized, including the need for people to submit their preferences to God and finding the root word. Regular prayer and taking care of oneself are emphasized, along with the importance of praying and asking for help from God in one's worship and certification for personal growth. It is crucial for personal health and success, and seeking help from God in one's worship and certification is crucial for personal growth.
AI: Summary ©
I want to begin by
having fun I have a little more
right now than I did earlier today.
That's all praise to God for that. Because
this morning at the airport, I was like trying to order coffee and the dude was like,
it's a little bit better now. Hopefully you can hear me. I begin my talks
that I began with, first of all, we begin and we should begin everything in the name of God. And so when I say Bismillah, I'm talking about
it's actually a whole way in which we live our lives, in fact, and that is in the name of God. Because
we've all been put on this earth, right? We're all here together. But there is actually a purpose why we were put on this earth. And a lot of people go through their whole lives and they don't know what that purpose is. But God has told us in his final revelation, which is clear to him, and you know, through the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad is defining what that purpose is. There's a very important to aim for and in which Allah Spano, Dionysus, or Mahalo to Legion never ends in that layout.
And what this verse means is that
we have not created jinn and human beings, except to India, except to worship us to know us. So Allah, here, God is talking about himself. And so we learned from this verse, the answer to a question that a lot of people have, which is like, what am I doing here? Right? Kind of like, what am I doing here? On a, like, a lesser scale? Like, what am I doing here in college? What am I doing here? You know, some people aren't sure what they're majoring. And then there's a bigger question of what am I doing here on this earth? Right? Why was I put here? And this is a very clear answer of what am I doing here? And the answer is that we were put into existence. In fact, in order to know
and love and worship God,
this creates
a whole different way in which we live our lives in. And so what it does is it gives meaning to everything that we do. And it's important to to understand what worship means. Because I think that for a lot of people, and maybe in a lot of different faiths, different religions, different ways of worshipping God. Worship has been reduced to just prayer. Worship has been reduced to just go into
a service once a week. And and that's what is considered worship, right, something that's ritualistic. But the concept of the Buddha in Islam, the concept of worship in Islam is very, very much more inclusive than just that. And it's deeper than just the external rituals. It is true that the external rituals are part of worship. Of course, the prayer is part of worship, and the rituals are part of our worship and going to these services to a praying Juma and listening to the foot button. This is part of our worship.
However, worship is more encompassing than than just that. And therefore,
it is actually possible to turn your
your studies into an act of worship, it's actually possible to turn marriage into an act of worship, and to turn on, you know, being kind to one another, you know, helping the environment, picking up something harmful from the world, smiling at someone, being kind, being giving, being generous, working to stop oppression, all of these are acts of worship if they're done in the right way, and with the right intention. And this actually transforms our entire life because then what happens is a person has meaning to what they're doing, and if it is done, for the sake of God, then it can be considered part of your worship. And if it is, of course, done, based on the example that we were
given on witches
profits.
Because, you know, sometimes people,
they might say, well, I want to worship God in this new, special way, right? But what we have to be very careful about is that we have an example in the Prophet Mohammed Salim. And in fact, we're told that his example is the most beautiful example
of God tells us that he describes him as Switzerland has twins, it's a beautiful example. And we cannot improve on his example, we can't say, Well, you know, I think that this thing would be better, this better way to do it, because he already has perfected the best way to do it. And that's why he is our example. So the more we stick to the sadhana, the closer we can get to, you know, having everything in our life be an act of worship, in the proper way, the prophet will have made and this is also important to realize that when God sent messengers, he did not send angels to us to teach us. But he said, human beings just like us, he always sent human beings. And even when the
angels came, they came to the human being with the message. From the beginning of time, all of the prophets and messengers were humans, from Adam, all the way to Mohammed Salas. And we believe obviously, it all of these messengers, we believe in Jesus as a messenger, we believe in Abraham as a messenger, we believe in Moses and all of these messengers. And in fact, we actually believe that they all came with the same message. A lot of times people misunderstand and think Islam is a new religion. Islam is not a new religion. Islam is the oldest religion. Because Islam the word is stem just means submission.
submission to what? And this is where we have to ask the question submission, for what, because every single human being submits to something. Everyone is in a state of submission to something, but everyone submits to different things. So it's kind of like we take different objects of worship.
So some people they submit themselves to money, or they worship money, this is a person money is the most important thing to them. It is what they revolve their life and existence around. It's all about money. This is a type of worship. And so that person also has an object of worship, but it just isn't god, it's mine.
And other people take their own selves as, as objects of worship, other people take and submit to their own desires. And that's also a form of submission. But again, it's not submission to God, it's submission to my desires. Such a person is someone who, you know, whatever they feel like doing, they do, regardless of whether it is moral or amoral, regardless of whether it hurts others, or it doesn't. I feel like it's how I do it. Whatever makes me happy, whatever feels good to me, that's what I do. And so this is also the type of worship, but it's a worship of one's own desires. And this is where morality doesn't, it doesn't play a part right? I feel like it. So by doing it feels
good. So I do this is actually turns a human being into resembling the atoms because an animal has urges just like waiting, right? An animal has the urge has the desire to eat, the animal has a desire to drink, the animal has a desire to reproduce, right? So these are desires that animals have. However, the difference and the crucial difference between a human being and an animal is that a human being can stop and think, Wait, is this moral? Wait, is this right? Is this the right thing to do? Just because I feel an urge, do I just obey? Or do I stop and ask? And when we when we when we give up that?
That, that that? That part of the equation of stopping and asking, and control and self control? And, and personal choice, right? Because God gave us free choice. And if we don't use that to make moral decisions, then we were really no different than animals. Because an animal again, you know, before an animal reproduces, the animal doesn't ask, wait, are we married?
Right? Well, let's let's go, you know, sign the contract.
Animal doesn't do that. It has no concept of its right. It's like I'm attracted to this other person or animal, the opposite gender. So you know, we hear and we obey our desires. That's the way downhill moves. And this is why when a human being begins to live in the same way, then they're not distinguishing themselves from others. We have been given an extra privilege above
Animals and it's called free choice. It's the ability to reason and to think, is this right or wrong? We don't just feel a desire and obey. And when you do that you become a person who is.
It's an obedience and a submission to one's desires. God describes these people in accordance with a Jeff. And he says, Do you see the one? What's translated? Do you see the one who takes his own desires, as his,
as his God as his object of worship?
How to worship your own desires is that you obey your desires no matter what.
And so is snam. Again, what is this them? Islam is to submit, but not to any of these other things. It's not to submit some money. It's not to submit to society's standards of right and wrong, which change every day. It's not to submit to what's in fashion. It's not to submit to my own desires, but it's to submit to God and
that's what Islam means. And that's why prophet added was a Muslim. And Prophet Jesus was a Muslim, and Prophet Abraham was a Muslim, because a Muslim needs one who submitted themselves to God, and God alone.
And that's why you see that the message given to all prophets was the same message. And that is the message of tohave. The message of pure monotheism, monotheism Now, again, monotheism is a term that we often don't understand. Because sometimes we limit monotheism to mean, yeah, we believe in one creator, which is part of monotheism. But so people believe in one creator. In fact, the people of Christ at the time of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam believed in a creator, they believed in Allah. But they used to say that we are worshipping our items are stone items to bring us closer to him. So they it's not that they didn't believe in a God, they believed in a god. But the concept of tohave,
the concept of monotheism is not only about believing that there is a God who created the universe, and then he has nothing to do with my life. Okay, that's not true and pure monotheism. monotheism is yes to believe that there is one creator, and that there is one Sustainer of the universe, but it is also to believe, and to practice that he is the only one who is deserving of my full obedience, my full worship, my ultimate love, my ultimate fear, and my ultimate hope, than my ultimate dependency. All of that is cohesion. That's all part of token. And so every prophet came
with this message. He called me to LA mela, Camilla, and oh, my people who worship God, you have no other Illa. But him.
question now is what does a lie?
You know, when you become a Muslim? Say, one statement and you become a Muslim? as a Muslim, we say the statement many times a day. And it is what?
What?
This statement alone will make a person go from being a disbeliever, to being a believer to being a Muslim. So this is a really important statement. The question is, what is it mean? Who will translate it?
And when I say this, this is this isn't like,
a lot of times we think, well, we already know what that is right? I can translate it. Oh, it means there's no God, little luck.
First of all, it's not a good translation. Second of all, we don't really know what it means, let alone means that there is no either. Now we're back to that word. There is no Illa except for God.
Alright, I guess I can understand that. But what is it?
What is emila? This is really the central question that we have to ask in our lives. What is out in the world, if you look at the root word, the root of this word,
it has many meanings. But ultimately, it means the thing that you
that you adore, and worship and obey. In other words, it is that thing that she puts at the center of your existence, at the center of your life. And we learn is the first thing that comes to your mind when you wake up in the morning. And he lays the last thing on your mind before us. And he lays that in your life, which has so much power
over you that she would do anything for it.
And he left is the thing that occupies your mind and heart most. And the last is what you obey above all other things. So when he left again, now we have to bring it back to understanding it is not just what you pray to. That's why I'm, I argue to you that every person has any lab.
Everybody does. Everyone has something that that's most important to them, right? Yes or No, whether or not you believe in God, you have something that's most important to you, you have something that you live your life for.
You have something that you love most, you have something that you fear most, you have something that she would sacrifice anything for.
You have something. And like I said, for some people that is their own selves, their own ego, their own desires. For some people, it is money,
they are a slave to the dollar. That's the reason why you see people
that when the stock market crashes,
they take the pistol to the head. It's because they lost there
was no more reason to live, because I lost all my money.
Because that was the center that was everything to me. But because they took something other than God, and put it in a place that only God should be. So when it's gone, they break. This is complete, breaking this is devastation. This is why Romeo and Juliet didn't want to live in when they thought that the other one was dead.
Because they're centered, you know what I mean? their reason for existence, their purpose was this other person. And when this other person was no longer in the picture, you no longer have a reason to exist, and therefore, they committed suicide.
So I mean, suicide is an extreme example, course, you know, when someone commits suicide, because
we lost a lot of money, or they commit suicide because somebody broke up with them. that these are extreme examples of what I'm talking. Because what happened here, there's actually one example I read about.
That happened in India. And I guess this seems to happen.
Sometimes
there was a woman, and she was unable to have a child
unable to have a child first, I think she tried so long, maybe like 19 years. And she was unable to have a child. And finally she burned herself alive.
And the reason that they said the reason that she burned herself alive is because she could not have a child.
I want to reflect on that for a moment. Because not being able to have a child is a very sad situation, it is a very hard test. But if a person believes that there is no reason for them to exist, outside of being able to have a child, then there's a problem. And that is because the person's
their reason their center, was being a mother. And that should never be our reason of existence of motherhood itself. motherhood is a very global role. But when you make motherhood, your reason for existence, then what happens when you lose your child? Or what happens if you can have a child? Or what happens when a child comes up and gets married?
Since this is the whole, not able to let go,
that we have, why do we have a problem sometimes with the mother in law son,
the mother in law phenomenon is is a woman who gave her whole life in some way or sacrificed her whole life for her child.
And in a sense lift for that child who lives right.
In a sense, the child was at the center. Her child was at the center. Her role as a mother was her most important rule.
So when the child grows up, and gets married, she's not about to let go of her center. So she just can't let go.
This is what a false attachments because they're in the end and of course let's let's clarify here. All mothers love their children. But I'm not talking about love. I'm talking about a sense of omens worship, I'm talking about taking something other than God and putting it in the place where only God should be at the center at the reason of my
existence, right? I, if I live only to be a mother, then I've lost the balance. If I live only to be a wife, or I live only to be a doctor,
or I live only to be a millionaire, then I've lost balance. The proper balance is
that our center is God. And that is why every prophet came to teach this to their people. Because simple message, yeah, call me there are boo la mela coming in. And while all my people worship God, who have no other Illa, but
same message, even though the books, different books and different times the same message, which is that God is the only thing worthy of being that central in your existence, okay, that should define your purpose by him and not by anything else, not by the way you work, not by much money you have not by your career, not by your family, not by your ethnicity, by anything else. Those are all things which are
common boom, those are all things that come and go. Because we know everything in life.
Everything in life is possible way. And this is a reality that even an atheist cannot deny.
Right? Even an atheist cannot deny the fact that they are aging, the day that they live, and that they will die. Can anyone deny it.
You don't have to believe in God.
But you cannot deny it, even if you don't believe in God.
So everything is passing away. And there's only one thing that remains. And that last panel kind of tells us
and he says kulu
kulu, Manali and everything is passing away,
while college will eventually become and what remains is the countenance of your war. So that's the only thing that remains a move, step back and we look at our lives, and the things that we get so caught up in. Sometimes it's school, sometimes it's making money. Sometimes it's our friends, sometimes it's our relationships, sometimes it's mother, or whatever it is, the things that we get so caught up in, they're all passing me, they are all passing away, they don't ask a woman. We live in a society unfortunately,
that teaches women that their value is based on how they look, simple message. Their value is based on how fit they are, how attractive they can be to men. And if you're beautiful outside, and you're considered successful, that's success. And no matter how successful you are in any other field,
it will be your looks that are highlighted. And this is actually interest study the media and you find this.
When you look at for example, I did a study.
I was studying looking at the portrayal of women in sports, female athletes. And what I found was
when men, when male athletes are depicted, it's all about how they achieved and their know how they play their sport, right? It's about their achievements. But when female athletes were depicted, it was all about how hot they were.
It was all about how hot they are. And how ma when you went, if you did a search, like just a simple Google search of female athletes,
all with the whole first page basically was breeding the hottest female.
That's a woman's Valley.
And then typical male athletes, it's all about you know which one scores the most right? Which one achieves the most has nothing to do with books. When we talk about Kobe you're not talking about
are you talking about how many? How many points, see how many rebounds, right? But with women, that's not the way that women are judged. In our society. Women are judged based on how they look. And that's why actually at the time when I was doing the research,
and the Kournikova
probably heard of her tennis player was the most highly endorsed female athlete. And if she could play tennis,
she wasn't very good at tennis, but she was still the most highly endorsed female athlete. And the question is why?
And it was just because of the way she looks. So that's, that's how women are judged.
This is, you know, and then and unfortunately what happens is, we as women, we get caught up in it, right? You get caught up in it.
But all of these things so a woman suppose she achieves you know, she's a model. She's a supermodel. Okay? She got that achievement?
What is she gonna look like 20 years from now?
What is she gonna look like 30 years from now? does it last? Is that going to last, all the plastic surgery in the world can make it last forever.
So these things that we hold on to define ourselves by, they don't last. So what is lasting? And that's what we have to at some point in our life, we have to sit and ask ourselves that question, What does matter? And what is lasting? You know, right now, you know, when you're in school, you're caught up in your grades, and you're caught up in school. Yeah, right. That's like, kind of like the end of the world because you got a bad grade. And I remember that. And I was in school. And now when I look back, it doesn't matter. Even though I'm not like, you know, it's not like the Hereafter, and I'm looking back, it's just a few years later, and it just doesn't matter. But at that time, you
know, when I got back that organic can, but first,
I was also like, kind of pre med myself, but then I changed my field. But
I finished all my pre med requirements, all of them. The only thing I had left was a two credit organic lab, I hated. So I was like, unless I'm really sure I'm gonna go to med school and take that lab, but I took all the rest of their requirements. And, and it was like, the first time I got that organic test back, and it was like, it was like, the first time I really bombed an exam. Whoa,
it was a hero felt like the end of the world, right? And you know what? It's not,
you know, you later on look back and was like, does it have any bearing on my life whatsoever. And I'm not telling you to buy more tasks, but I'm just talking about perspective.
I'm just talking about perspective. So if the idea is that we really have to take time to step away and things into perspective,
what really matters? What am I really doing? What am I really doing here? Yes, I know, we're students, right? But what am I really, really doing here? What's my purpose? And ultimately, you're gonna have to ask yourself, who am I trying to pull?
You're gonna have to ask that question. Because there's so many different people, that you're gonna run into so many different things that you're going to try to like, get approval, you're going to try to please. But ultimately, you really have to make a choice of who is it that you really are trying to please. And all these people that you try to please In the meantime, again, it's all passing away, right? They're not always going to be there. And their approval is ultimately like, you know what, you're playing Monopoly.
People play Monopoly for
most of you at some point in your life. I prefer monopoly.
monopoly has great the point of it is like to own as many things as you can. And to make as much money right in the winner, someone who has the most Monopoly money. So while you're playing Monopoly, even though it's suppose you're like, you're winning, you have you have the most money. It feels good, right? for like a second, right? But let me ask you this. What can you buy?
Can you take your Monopoly money and go buy a house? Can you take your Monopoly money, go buy a car? No, would that be funny, someone should
go to the store and like pay Monopoly money, or be a good exercise. The point is, that the approval of people is just like Monopoly money. It's like a kind of like, makes you feel good for a second, right? Because it's like an ego thing. But ultimately, it's worthless. ruthless in the sense of ultimately, you can buy anything with it. You can buy anything with human praise, can't can't buy anything with it in the real in the real world.
And the only approval that really matters is the proof of God.
And that's the only currency that has any actual value.
We have so many illusions around us. It's just the playing Monopoly game. Life's like a big Monopoly game.
So we run after these things, right, but they can't buy us anything. So perspective is extremely important. How does this mean that we live our lives, that we don't go to school, don't get married, and we don't, you know, our neighbors and friends, you know,
colleagues and stuff? And the answer is no, that the Prophet Mohammed silibinin said, peace be upon him. Titus
proper balance, that the proper balance to have in life is that we are involved in dunya. We don't, we can't avoid that. Like it is not. The sooner it is not the example of the Prophet peace be upon him to pull away completely, not getting married, not, you know, have a job, but just be in the masjid all day that is not the Sunnah of the Prophet peace be upon him. And in fact, one time, there were, he heard about.
Or there were three people who came to him,
two or three. And they said to him, one of them said to him,
I will be asked about his worship, okay. And then they decided one of them decided, I'm going to pray all night. And I'm like, not simply put on. Another one said, I'm going to not get married at all, it was just as a as a way of being closer to
his choice,
to not get married, and other ones that are fast all the time, and not break. So what they're trying to do is to try to get closer to God in this in this way. But the prophets peace be upon and responded to them. And said that I have the most God consciousness, the most fear of God, I'm the closest to God. And I get married to him, and I sleep summon I pray stuff, and I fast something I break my face. So what he's teaching them is that true
nearness to God, is not that we're not involved in dunya. But here's the key. And it's very, very difficult. But it's like there is a saying of it with a woman. And when she says that detachment from dunya, or resort, is not that you do not own anything, but that nothing owns you.
So not that you do not own anything, and nothing until you might have money for Do you own the money or does the money on you.
So again, it has to do with being involved in these things. But these things are not your center, that your center is always gone. So it's kind of like,
while you're involved, while you're you know, you get married, and go to school, and you get involved in, you know, activities in here, and they have friends who have, you know, you have a life interview, but the heart is with God. And that's the balance that we have to find. And it's often very difficult to reason it's difficult is because we get distracted. And what happens is, if you think about it in this way, they kind of bring this visual to mind, that for heart, ultimately should be focused on God. So even while you know, with my body with my limbs, I'm doing other things, right, I might be studying, or I might be getting married or cooking, or whatever it is I'm
doing, but the heart is facing God. That's how the profits is.
They lived in this life, their heart was with God.
Now the problem is, and the reason this is so difficult, is because what happens is,
as soon as we get involved in another activity, our heart shifts, and focuses on that.
You understand what I mean? The heart shifts, and now is facing whatever it is that they're doing in dunya. Instead of still being with God. So what happens is we allow all these things to absorb into our hearts until we actually become heedless of God, you become mine. You know, our prayer just becomes actions, just movements. But our heart is with the exam I'm studying for the interpersonal and a married, I'll mean what what this person did to me what this person posted about me, right? All of these kinds of things occupy us, because the heart begins to absorb these activities instead of letting it just stay outside the heart, the heart, see one beautiful example.
It's a metaphor that was used by one of the scholars. I think it's a really great example of what this concept is that he explained that this whole life dunya dunya as this world right, is like an ocean and the hearts are like boats on the ocean.
Now when you think about a boat on the ocean,
well, yes, it has to be there and it has to cross the ocean to get to its destination, right?
But what happens if the boat allows the ocean to enter?
What happens if there's a hole in the boat and the ocean enters into the boat?
Well, let's think about the Titanic. Titanic was like massive, right? The Unseen
cobalt ship,
things like this is the unsinkable ship.
What happened? What happened is the theory is that it just got a few holes in
the glacier and got a few holes in it. And because of those holes for water entered, the ocean entered.
And as a result, this massive ship, massive split in half industry. And
that's what happens to the heart, that the heart in this life, the moment it allows me to enter, again, it's Indonesia, we're not talking about leaving Linnea not talking about you're not allowed to have money, you're not allowed to get married, don't have those things, which don't let those things enter the ship, right? You don't let those things absorb into the heart where you love and are attached to those things. Because when you do that, it becomes like that boat that allows water into it. And when the boat, when the heart allows you to enter, that's when the heart breaks. And that's when the heart becomes owned by
you know, the boat is in charge, right the boat, it can steer itself, so long as it does not allow the ocean to enter.
But when a boat allows the ocean to enter now doesn't charge the ocean. Right, the boat doesn't have control anymore, the ocean has control. And this is what the idea is that when you allow money to enter your heart, money controls, you do not control your money. When you allow status to enter your heart, then status controls, you do not control. When you allow what other people think, and your image to enter your heart than that controls you. You don't control it anymore. And so this dunya was never intended to enter our hearts, although put us in this life, to go through this life, for not to become part of it, and to allow it to enter us. It's like being in this life. And I have this
because our true home and our first home was one paradise.
That's where we began. And that's inshallah where we're returning this, this stock that we have called dounia, called Novus life is just a stop. It's just a stop, and the Prophet peace be upon him. When he described this. He said, You know, they were offering him like something comfortable to lay on. And he said, in this Hadith, he said, marry with dunya, what do I have to do with this life? I'm like a traveler, stops in the shade of a tree for a while. And then continues on is
this life is just that shade of the tree. We're just traveling through this life. And no matter how long you live, even if you live 100 years, when you compare 100 years to eternity, any math majors.
When you compare even a giant number to infinity, it looks like zero doesn't mean it tends towards zero. The point here is that is that even if you have 200 years, which most of us won't, we don't know how, but even if you look 200
that in comparison to all of eternity, which we know is the Hereafter, this life is just a blink of the eye. And compared to forever, right? It is just like the shade of that tree as you're traveling. And so we have to really have the mindset of a traveler. And I think it's like somehow the Prophet speaks the truth, right? He said, Be in this life like a traveler.
This was his advice to us. You want to know, how do you be, you know, maintain spirituality in college? How do you maintain that? at another level? How do you maintain spirituality throughout? The answer is in this heady be in this life like traveling?
Right now?
I'm travelling factor not from Cincinnati. I was traveling there too.
And so right now I have I'm staying at a hotel right. Now there is a certain mindset to a traveler. Right. Now I went and I entered the hotel room. Now suppose I went in there and I didn't like the decorations on the wall. I still like them. Or I didn't like the color of the bedspread. How much trouble? Is that going to cause me? Right? When you are traveling. Last time you were traveling, and you stayed at a hotel. Did you start furnishing your hotel room?
Did you start getting attached to your hotel bed
and you didn't want to leave? Right How many people
When you're traveling and you're staying at the hotel, you're staying at the Hilton or wherever you're staying. How many people started getting furnishing and started decorating their room and started complaining? Oh, I don't like the bedspread, I'm going to go buy a new one from, you know, like, home, whatever, whatever store you're going to go buy from? You don't do that. What's the reason?
What is the reason?
It's temporary. It's very simple. It's because you know that you're only there for a while, and then you're leaving. And so you do not become attached. Nobody in the world becomes attached to a hotel room.
Right?
become attached to our homes or houses. Because it says if we think we're gonna live forever,
we forget. You guys are students, because we'll understand this your dorm room.
If you look at the difference between how someone decorates their dorm room, and how someone decorates their house, they will understand my point, it is totally okay to like have both furniture in a dorm, isn't it? Or just like something cheap used? Right? Yeah, yeah. You're not gonna go buy expensive furniture for your dorm room. Right? Okay, even if you got furniture, and maybe the guys will understand this.
Even if you got furniture, I'm pretty sure you didn't buy expensive furniture for your dorm. Right? Okay.
But go and look at some of the houses. There's a difference, right? And the idea is, even though you're gonna stay there, stay, you're gonna stay in that same dorm for four years. But it's still temporary. And in your mind, you know, I've just traveling, I'm just a traveler. I'm just staying in this door, and I'm leaving. And that's your mindset. No one, no one gets attached to their dog.
Am I right? You don't get attached to it. You're not like No, I don't want to leave.
Please, don't don't I don't want it to be over. You can't wait to the point is, the point is that that mindset of a travel, there is a natural detachment. Yes, you still interact with your dorm room, you still live there, and you still sleep there. And you still use it. Right? But you don't fall in love with a dorm room.
And you don't become so attached to it either to you with a with a with a hotel room. So the idea here is this this whole life should be like that dorm. And that's what the prophet peace be upon him his teachings, be in this life, his whole life like a traveler, so that you're not so caught up. Because you know, you're leaving. That's how he was, even though he didn't get here. And he was a father. And he was a leader. And he was all of these things and a friend, right and a neighbor. And he played all these roles. But he knew that he was just there, like, you know, like a traveler stops in the shade of a tree for a while, and returns. And that's called perspective. That's called
perspective. And that's how you go through this ocean of dunya. Without drowning, without allowing the dunya to enter that things come and go if you don't allow them to take over in your heart.
That right there isn't the perspective and the theory. But here practically What does happen is that you might become sort of,
maybe this this type of reminder refocuses us, it refocuses our heart give us perspective, but here is the nature of this life and the nature of the human being is that we forget and we are forgetful and in fact a word in Arabic for human is insane. And INSEAD shares the missing from this year which means to forget. So even the root word of mankind is forgetting. We are by nature forgetful.
This is why we have something called
something called remembrance and reminders. The Quran itself is called the vicar. It's referred to as they can, because it reminds us and if we don't remind ourselves of this reality and this truth regularly, then we will forget. And we will get caught up in school and in money and in status and in people. We will will get caught up and we will let the ocean enter and we will get old and we will sink.
So this is why God for example, has told us to pray five times a day. He didn't tell us to pray once.
He didn't tell us to pray twice.
And not only did he tell us to pray five times a day, but all these prayers are not all at once.
You're not all before you sleep. Now just, you know, just print them out together, say a couple prayers before you sleep. No, they are spread out throughout the day,
throughout the day, and there is a reason for that, because God knows our nature, that we do forget. And we do get distracted by what we're doing in the day. This is why he gave us the prayer to refocus us five times a day. And in fact, when it was first commanded, it was 50 times when the story is that the commandment for prayer came to the Prophet peace be upon him in the magnificent journey, right. And so we found that our knowledge when he was taken up to the heavens, and it was at that time that God commanded the prayer, and at first and of course, it was the, you know, the, it was intended this way to be five, but at first, and this is to teach us something, by the way,
there's a lesson in this. At first it was 15.
And we are told that he had a conversation with Masonic
Musa dealt with the children of Israel, but they're never going to pray 50 times, ask God to reduce it. So he went, and he asked God to reduce it, and it was kind of reduced. Finally, he said, five and most it says still said, they're not gonna do it. He was ready.
But the profits, I couldn't ask for them. And so I didn't want to ask more than that. This is how it was intended. So So what did we learn from that? First of all, let's, let's look deeper. Imagine, for a moment, if you actually pray 50 times a day,
would you really have time to do anything else is kind of like that would be all you do. And I think that there's a very deep lesson in that, to show us that that's actually
why we've recreated is that it's worship, that that's ultimately our purpose.
And that the rest of the things we do in life are kind of just, you know, that that's the motions, but that our actual life is prayer, prayer in the sense of worship in every sense. But what God has done is he's given us the five
equivalent to the 50. This is to show us like, to show us first the importance of prayer. But at a deeper level, the importance of worship, that actually our life is about worship, and all the rest of the stuff we do in our life. That's kind of the the fillers, okay? But we live our life the other way around.
What we do is this, we take our activities throughout the day, I have a class meeting, I have a game to watch, I have a party to go to whatever it is, I want to go to the mall, whatever it is that we do. And then we say, okay, when I have time,
right? If we pray at all, this kind of like, I'll fit it in wherever I have time, as if we were put on this earth to go to class or to the meeting, or to go shopping, or to watch the ballgame. And that that's your purpose. And the prayer. You know, that's what I have. So you see, what we've done is we've completely left our purpose. Yeah. And instead, we've given up our purpose, for the sake of a ballgame,
or a trip to the mall, whatever it is that we occupy our lives with. We've lost focus. You know, it's interesting, because we think about how should we actually structure our day, if you want to know how we should actually structure our day. Think about what happens in Ramadan.
Okay.
Would anyone schedule at the time?
know, it's like, I'll do stuff before or after, but not during that.
time because when I get to eat, right, and so it's like, muscle, it becomes a pillar in our day. Right? Right. But that's just because we're gonna
fabric becomes another pillar because that's what I have to stop eating.
Right? But the rest of the year, you don't even know one method of is, notice that the only time
you know this is the only time we know each other to the minutes.
Right? It's like there's 30 days. There's 30 days when it's like that.
There are 30 days when you could ask anyone in the world who's Muslim, once Muslim, I will tell you to the minute
3841
I'm sorry, it's not a 33 It's a 32.
But then the rest of the months of the year, you asked him 111 o'clock?
I think it's somewhere around.
Seven, right? What's the point? Like? what's the what's our issue? Our issue is that method of prayer becomes a foundation when it has to do food. Right? This thing, federal prayer, What's
missing? fetchit? is like, for some people, it's just horrible.
And it's no big deal.
But if you miss fettered in a bomb.
What does that mean?
It means you missed the whole
point. So we've been really upset about missing really, like, Oh, my God.
No, it's really Oh my God, I missed the whole
budget is no big deal. 11 months out of the year, but it's the end of the world. I mean, really, people get really upset. If it happens for one month.
The point I'm trying to make here is that we have our priorities completely upside down, that our day is supposed to be structured around the prayer, and then we fit in the rest of our lives in between.
That prayer is the pillars.
And then everything else fits in between the pillars. And xpower. Has, have any of you guys visited Mecca, anyone gone from a few people.
You know how when you're there.
And you're here discussing, say you're going to meet up with your group, or with your family you're going to eat or you're going to meet? How do you talk about when you're going to meet?
After the prayer before I before and after Melbourne for us. Notice that when you're there, because we have the proper focus. The day is designed your own prayer.
Don't talk about time.
Talk about.
But yeah.
So your day is scheduled that way. But that's the proper way
to schedule.
So we have to really come back to
the prescription that was given to us by God.
Voice is something take for granted.
You know, when you go to the doctor,
the doctor gives you a prescription.
And the prescription says that you're supposed to take the medicine three times a day, at specific times.
You go home
and you take that medicine
do you say well, you know what? I'm going to take it whenever I feel like it.
Or I'm just going to take all three doses right before I sleep because you know what? I don't have time I got class, right? Or I got asleep.
answer is no. You don't do that. Because you know that you need to follow the doctor's orders in order to take care of your body in order to cure yourself.
See, God has also given us a prescription.
First and foremost is the prayer.
God has given us a prescription that five times a day, supposed to take that medicine.
And if you don't do it, right, meaning that you mess with the timing, or you don't take as many as you're supposed to. It's just like that prescription that you're not taking properly. It doesn't work.
We have to know that.
See, why do we listen to the prescription of a doctor? What's the reason? Well, because we know the doctor knows best, right? The doctor knows best of how to take care of us. So we trust a doctor. We trust his knowledge. He knows what he's talking about. Isn't it funny? Trust the human doctor. But we don't trust the creator?
I mean, do you think that the creator told you to pray five times a day? And he doesn't know what he's talking about? Do you think that he made you, he doesn't know how to take care of you.
Which trust human beings, if we have a Toyota, we trust, the Toyota manual tells us to take care of the Toyota, we're not gonna go see a Nissan.
Because, you know, the one who made the car knows how to take care of the car.
But yeah, we don't seem to think that the one who made us knows how to take care of us, and we don't follow the rules.
But when you don't follow the manual,
who do you hurt?
When the doctor tells you don't drink poison, it's not good for you. It's not gonna be a good idea. Don't drink poison, it's gonna kill you.
And you decide that you're a big rubber. Okay?
So you're gonna go home, and you're gonna say, I'll show that doctor.
I'm gonna show him. And I'm going to drink this whole bottle of poison. In fact, the metric two bottles of poison just to show the doctor what a rebel I am. I'm hard, right?
Who are you hurting?
hurting yourself, you're only hurting yourself. And when God tells us that there are certain things we're supposed to do, and certain things we are not supposed to do,
and we decide to go against those
prescriptions. We are the ones drinking poison.
We don't hurt God, we don't hurt the doctor.
We are hurting ourselves.
So we have to break out of this idea
that, that Islam, that our religion is just, you know, a bunch of rules, right? And that I just want to rebel. Because it's not a bunch of rules for the sake of rules. It is for our own good. It's a manual of how to take care of ourselves, how to take care of our hearts, how to take care of our souls, and how to take care of our bodies. And it's just like, I mean, it's just ironic, because we will listen to a doctor, everything he tells us to the letter,
we will take the medicine on time, we won't skip a dose, we won't take all the doses all at once. Because we want to take care of ourselves. And we know he knows we have a blender for God's sakes. We read the manual of how to take care of the blender. We don't just make it up ourselves. We ask the manufacturer how to take care of a blender. But we don't ask the manufacturer out take care of this.
Something so much more valuable than a Toyota or, or blender or Mercedes. Okay.
Even more valuable than the body that we have right here is the heart and soul inside. We take care of our bodies. Some of us take care of our bodies really well. We feed our bodies here. We're careful to breathe, right?
We exercise.
We do all these things, right? We take care of our bodies. We work out wanting to be you know in shape and everything. Which is great, right? This is part of our Mmm. But it's interesting that we take care of our bodies, but we neglect our hearts, we neglect our souls. And it is the soul inside of the body that actually remains because what happens to the body?
What happens to the body 100 years from now?
Everyone knows the answer.
It becomes dirt becomes dirt. This body that we're so worried about. Right? We're worried about how you know how many times we feed it our times we you know we work out we we take care of him keep it warm. We're so careful about our body, aren't we? That body is going to become dirt. But you're so careful to take care of it.
The soul underneath it, the heart underneath it doesn't become dirt,
the soul underneath it continues.
And so what we have done is actually extremely tragic because we take care of our body which is big
dirt.
But we neglect our soul, which lives forever.
Right? Our soul we know lives forever in the hereafter.
It lives forever. That's the one we're neglecting. But we're very careful about our temporary body, which has become injured.
We will eat every day.
We will feed our body. Nobody says I don't need to eat today because I ate last week. I'm good.
But we don't feed our hearts. We don't feed our souls. You know what the food of the heart is? The food of the soul. It's the remembrance of God. It is the prayer. But we don't. We don't care about that. We can starve the heart. That's okay. We can serve the soul. That's okay. But just don't start my mind. We can miss fetcher. But just don't make me miss.
Right? We're worried about the food of the body. But we are not worried about the food of the soul. This is the reality, isn't it?
Another thing we do is we clean the body. Right? No one says I don't need to take a shower because I took a shower, you know back in September.
Right?
You wouldn't want to be in the same room with that person. Right? How come?
What's the reason?
That person will be covered in, in dirt in sweat, right? And will smell bad. That's a physical, physical spell physical dirt. But you know that the heart also gets dirt on the heart also gets smells bad. But we don't smell it in the physical world. And the thing that makes the heart dirty is our sins. How do you clean the heart? Clean the heart through repentance through tobacco is too far. And turning back to God and seeking forgiveness. That's kind of like the shower. Okay, that's the bath. But the problem is, we are like those people who say I don't need to take a bath today because I took one last year. I repented. You know, like when I was 14, or something? I don't know when when
we last repentant. But think if that was the last time you took a shower?
Can you think about that right now? Maybe it was?
What if the last time you took a shower was
right? Like, that would be really problematic, right?
But many of us, the last time we've taken a bath for our hearts is a long time ago. It needs to be consistent. Because just like you keep your body clean, you need to keep your heart clean. And then finally,
is there anyone who says I don't need to breathe today? Because I breathe. I took a couple breaths yesterday.
Or I'm going to miss a few breaths today. I'll catch up tomorrow.
We don't do that. Because we know that the body needs air and needs oxygen to stay alive.
When a person is not praying, it's just like the one who's not breathing.
But it's the heart that ends up suffocating. Make sense.
Our prayers are like oxygen from the heart, oxygen for the soul. And when you're not praying, it's like the one who's saying, Oh, you know, I'll miss a few breaths. You know, maybe miss this like three hours of breaths. And I'll catch up.
But we don't see this. And so we don't understand that it exists. Because everything we believe in has to be something I feel and I touched. And I see. Well, that's a very, very deceptive, because the most real things in life are those things you cannot see.
Can any of us see God?
No. But he's really
can't see the angels can make their real. We can't see Jenna, we can't see paradise we never did. We can't see how fire never did. But those are real.
We have not seen our grief, but it is real. We haven't seen death and even seen death for their own death. But it is real. So the reality is that the things that we cannot see are real. And just because we don't see them. And just because we choose to deny them doesn't mean they're normal.
It doesn't mean that they're not going to happen. You know, if you have an exam coming up, and you choose not to study, you choose just to party and to just pretend that there's no exam. It doesn't mean it doesn't happen. It will happen. You still have to do
If you just end up failing,
we are all going to die. And if you live your life party, just pretending that that exam is never going to happen, that we are going to meet. And the fact that I deny that, or that I live my life as if it's not going to happen, doesn't mean it's not gonna happen. It does happen, but I just end up failing, just like that exam guided stuff.
We have to make these decisions, we have to be conscious of what's real, and take care of those things that are lasting,
take care of those things that are lasting, we have to establish the air of the heart, which is in the remembrance of God. It has to be established, wherever you are, just like I mean, it's not like when you're busy studying your grief, right? Is there anyone who's like, No, I'm too busy to breathe right now. Right? Doesn't happen. But we can never say that we're too busy to give our heart oxygen. That remembrance of God is oxygen, prayer is oxygen. So we have to be very careful. And the timing of the prayer is crucial. Just like I said, about the doctor and the prescription, it's supposed to be at a certain time. God knows what he's doing, believe me. And what he said fetcher is, at this
time, from this time to this time, and it's an hour and a half or an hour, 15 minutes. It's because it's supposed to be at that time, it doesn't mean that it's whenever I feel like waking up.
Okay, God knows what he's doing when he prescribed something for us. And if I choose to ignore it, I do not harm anyone more. So remember that when you drink poison, you don't harm the doctor, you harm yourself. When you don't eat, you're only harming yourself, when you don't bring harm.
You're not harming the doctor have been told you need to eat, you need to breathe, and you need to not drink poison.
So keeping in mind this, taking care of the heart, feeding it giving it oxygen and cleaning it through the pet repentance.
Finally,
is the protection of the heart. We have to protect our hearts, just like we protect our bodies. We protect our homes, you know, if you have like, a lot of valuable jewelry, okay, or a lot of valuable things in your home?
Where do you put in
a safety deposit box and put it in a safe box. And then you lock your doors and then maybe you have a security system and you have a fence, you have all these different protections, right? Because you don't want someone to come and take those valuables right?
within our body.
Within our body, there is something very valuable, it is more valuable than those all the jewels combined. And it's called the heart. Each of us our heart is the most valuable thing that we have. It's the heart that determines our eternity. You know, Allah tells us, you could add on the tongue of Ibrahim Ali Salim.
Why not to any young man, you yo yo Malayan family when I've been on 11 a lot of convincing.
Here Abraham is asking God to not disgrace me of the day when everyone is brought back, talking about the deep judgment. The day when neither wealth nor children will help any person.
You know, we live in this world of Monopoly money, right? wealth and status and power. They seem to help us. In reality, they don't help anyone the day when neither wealth nor children will help anyone in them and a lot of convincing except for the one comes to God returns to God with a heart. That is sound with a heart that is studying heart that is that is healthy.
From this we learn that this is our jewel, this is what we have to take care of. Because this the health of this is what's going to determine forever for you. And
so that's pretty important. Right? I said about that exam, right? You know, a year later, it doesn't matter. It didn't matter.
I'll tell you what, doesn't matter. This matters. The heart matters, because now we're not talking about a year or a day, but we're talking about for ever, forever is determined by this date of your heart by the health of your heart when you leave this way. It what state was your heart? How was your heart when you returned back to God? Is it a healthy heart? Or is it a sick heart? Or is it a dead
there are a lot of people walking around. Their bodies are alive but
The hardest.
Because they don't feed the heart. They don't give oxygen to the heart. And they don't clean the heart. And they don't protect. So of course, it's dead. And they look like they're alive. But it's only the body.
It's just an illusion of life, but it's actual death. The prophet SAW I send them said, the difference between the one who remembers God, and the one who does not, is like the difference between the living and the dead.
That's true death isn't the death of the body. Because the body is not, that's not the death. The true death is the death of heart, the death of the soul, by not remembering by not knowing God, by not being close, and worshiping and remembering.
So what I wanted to remind you and myself, is that while we go through our life, just like you continue to breathe, while you're a student, and while you're getting married, and while you're doing all these things in life, and getting a job, building a career, going to med school, whatever, you're still continuing to breathe, because you have to stay alive. And in the same way you continue to eat. And the same way you continue to be with your, your body, that you have to do the same for the heart, you have to continue to give the heart air through the remembrance of God, and the five prayers, and remember that they were commanded at a certain time for a reason.
Don't break the prescription and think it's gonna have to follow the prescription and have your priorities straight. You know, sometimes we miss prayer for the most ridiculous reasons.
You know,
this is kind of a funny example. But think about it for a moment.
Sometimes people miss prayer because they say, Okay, I'm in class, or maybe I'm at my job. Or maybe I'm at a meeting, or I'm at the mall, or I'm watching the game or something. But now think for a moment. If you were in class, or you're in a meeting, and you need to use the bathroom.
And it's like, seriously an emergency, you have got to use the bathroom. My question is, what do you do?
Is there anyone in the world?
An adult?
Who would say, anyone in the world who's an adult who would say, actually, this meeting is too important. I think I'm just going to take care of my business, right? I'm not going to use, I'm not going to go to the bathroom to use the bathroom. No one does that. Right? No one says, I'm in this exam, or I'm in this this class, I'm not going to get up and use the bathroom. And the reason why we do that is because it would be too humiliating, wouldn't it?
And yet, we have no problem being humiliated in front of God. I'm missing the prayer. So we don't want to miss the bathroom. We all will make time to go to the restroom. But we will not make time to go pray. So isn't there a problem? If you're asleep in your bed, and no matter how comfortable you are, no matter how tired you are, you need to go to the bathroom. What do you do? Tell me what you do.
Everyone, everyone has the same answer. I pulled myself out of bed even if I have to rip myself out of bed. And I go to the bathroom, don't we? So why is it that we will get up out of bed just to use the bathroom. But we will not get out of bed to pray. In fact, we might even get up to use the bathroom. Go back to sleep and not pray.
Right? It's just because I don't want to wet my bed.
It's right. I mean, really think about it. What's the reason? It's because like we have been, we have been on what's the word?
We have principles. And our principles are that it's not okay to use the bathroom anywhere outside of the restroom. That's just the principle. And we've all accepted it.
Even though it's not a physical necessity, but feel what I'm saying. No one goes around and says, Oh, you know what, I don't have time to use the bathroom. So I'll just wear it depends, right? That's not what I'm talking about.
No one does that.
And that's because we make priorities. And yet with prayer, it's just like, Oh, I don't have time. I don't have time. But yeah, you have time to excuse yourself and use the bathroom. Or I was too tired, but yet you're not too tired to get up and use the bathroom.
One other really funny example is
if I told you that at the time of fudger like say okay, about 6am or whatever, whatever time that every day at 6am there would be a
a bag full of cash, right outside your doorstep.
I'm talking like not just a couple dollars, but like $1,000, save $1,000 full of cash at 6am. But that it will be taken away at seven.
Okay, my question,
anyone in this room gonna be like, I'd rather sleep?
Raise your hand if you'd rather sleep. Raise your hand, honestly. And I know you won't be telling the truth.
Nobody would do that, right? Because what's the big deal? Wouldn't you set your alarm set like 50 alarms?
You'd be like, call your neighbor, call your friend, please. You can't let me oversleep, right. You can't let me over sleep is only going to be out there for an hour. If I've overslept. That's a disaster, right end of the world. And then how would you feel if you slept?
Right? It'd be kind of sad, right? kind of really upset. Now imagine it was a million dollars.
Now being upset, it's gonna be like,
right. So at this point, you have everyone on your block calling you to wake you. Right? And you have like every alarm in the house. And we do that for money. We do that. We do that for something finance.
But you know what? To wake up and prefetcher is worth infinitely more than that. Any amount of
value will see the true value.
Because waking up and praying to God, now we're dealing with God. And it's not a finite, God is not finite. And God's reward is not final. No, gender is not finite, right? gender is not just a million dollars, genders like infinite infinity.
So what's happened is we just aren't using our brain. That's really what's happening. We're not actually making the right decisions, because we don't see things properly. But if you saw it in that way, if you saw it in that way, even if it was a million dollars, you could never miss that opportunity. Right? I will tell you something funny, shallow.
That's a million dollars. We do that. And we do more than that for like $50. And I'm gonna prove it to you. Black Friday.
Right? No, come on.
Seriously, how much do you say?
Right? these deals that will count literally outside for how much do you say? Forget $1,000 account saving 1000 to save like 50 bucks and people standing outside in the cold in the freezing cold? to hedge with time.
That's there to hedge funds.
So don't you think that's interesting. So it's not theoretical, this is actually happening.
People will lose sleep. People will stand outside at the crack of dawn and sometimes they will stand outside, literally can't outside stand in line in the freezing cold just to save a few dollars.
But we will get up and pray. Right. So this is the reality. This is the
the state of humanity. We don't see this property? Because we have.
So
So I think we have a few minutes for questions. Yeah.
Anybody have any questions? Any brave souls?
Yes, I will question when, when it comes to like, you know, sometimes, you know, you have like, you have to make a decision that sometimes it's, it's very hard, you know, like,
you know, what, what would you suggest to think about what would you suggest to like, focus and when, when you do make a decision, you know, like, it's, you know, it's just a lot of butterflies.
So, like, what would you suggest?
So,
do you?
Is the decision something where you don't know which way to go? Or is it a decision where you want something but you have to sacrifice it something you want? it? I guess it would go in people's perception.
You know, like, there's like, I feel like the issue, like doing something you would go like step by step, but there's some times where it's like that critical step. You know, you can do like an intermediary step. So there's always that critical step that you know, like that. You really need that. You know that just that gut
Good, how would you like, for example, speaking in public?
Okay, so I guess there's different ways to look at the question. The question is about making decisions and when you have to make difficult decisions, and it sounds like when you have to be very important decisions. So, I think those are two different issues. One is when you have to make a very,
you have to make a decision and you don't know which way to go. Okay, that's one aspect. Another aspect is when you have to make a decision, and you know what you need to do, but it's difficult to deal with. Okay, so I think that there's, there's both of those options, and to the answer to both for when you're making a decision and you don't know which way to go.
Allah has given us this amazing tool called the staccato is to kata is a prayer that were taught by the prophet peace be upon him. And if a prayer itself is, you know, simple, you you pray, to records for the intention of is to combine the two units of prayer, and then you read this to have this application. Now the application itself, it's not too long in review, you read it, read it in Arabic, and read the transition. But basically, the, the meaning of the, of the staccato is that you begin by acknowledging that God knows, and we know
that God is able, and we're not able, and then we're asking God, to do what is best. So we begin by saying, if this thing is good for me, then make it happen, put blessing in it, make it easy. And if this thing is not good for me, then take it away from me and take me away from it, and then bring me what is good for me, and make me pleased with it. This is very all encompassing.
Now, people can make a space heard about anything. You know, it's something that people do
with marriage with a job of making a decision about school to go to but but it's the color is really the attitude that we should have about everything in life, which is always asking God to do what is best. And be willing to accept that sometimes we want things that are not best for us.
But we ask God to take those things away from us, but to replace them with things that are good for us. And to make us please, that's very perfect, you know, in terms of decisions that you're not sure,
decisions were kind of steps we have to take, or it's something you have to do and know you have to do, but it's difficult to do. In that case, again, you seek the help of God, you know, one thing that we have to keep in mind is that we can't do anything on our own. And that's one of the problems I think one of the big deceptions of the world that we live in, is this illusion of self reliance,
illusion of self reliance, and thinking that humans are self reliant, that they're regardless, we're we know, we're, we're in control. And that's a complete illusion. And it's a complete lie. We we are not in control of anything, we are not able in and of ourselves without the help of God to do anything. So, so always, always asking God for help is crucial. If you try to rely on yourself, it will give.
If you try to just do it on your own, we'll be able to do you know, when we pray, and we say at least 17 times a day.
What the outcomes, and the meaning of this is you alone, we worship, and You alone, do we seek help? So we need the help of God in everything that we do, even in our and especially and even in our worship. So in our worship, we need the help of God. We cannot be good Muslims, unless Allah helps us to be witnesses. We can't be successful in anything unless God helps us. So what I would say is seeking the help of God and not trying to rely on yourself.
Actually, you know, in the question you said about public speaking, it reminds me of the example of Moses sexually.
Because Moses and Moses had to do like the scariest public speaking ever, which is to face Pharaoh. And that was his mission. So I mean, we just talked to like regular people, nice people, you know, like people who actually are friendly and want to listen to you that that's our public speaking. But his public speaking was to talk to like, the greatest tire and to walk there. You know, the man who's killing babies as a policy. That was what he was, and that's what he had to approach. But we'd have a lot to learn from this certification. So he asked God's help, they'll be sure
So during World War expand my chest for me of the shrine so the boys sit in the army and make my matters easy for me. He was a prophet but he's asking God for help of the shrine something where you're suddenly only make matters easy for me what Hello awkward me miss me have gone Connie, take the knot out of my tongue so that they will understand.
Well, this this is the spirit we should have this asking God to help us and this this is actually the God that I make always before people lecture anytime we're gonna
speak. You know we have to give a talk or even just you know, you need to talk to a friend about something really important. Make this job