Yasmin Mogahed – Man Of The Hour

			Whether they're human or shaitana regime smilla rahmanir rahim wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah
Allah Allah He was savage mine. Rubbish raha sada Siddeley Omri wahala loc, the Tamil assignee of
cocconi. Any of you who have ever heard my lectures before, know a few things. Number one, I always
begin with this dot. And this happens to be the DA of musala his salon. The reason why I love this
diet so much is because Musa alayhis salam was given a very, very heavy task, Musashi Salaam was
given the task of approaching the greatest tyrant to walk the earth. And that was Pharaoh, Pharaoh
to give you some context, as you know, was a man who killed babies as a policy. Pharaoh was a man
		

			who stood up and said, No, no bucola Allah, I am your Lord Most High. He was the most tyrannical
tyrant.
		

			And what Musa alayhis salaam had to do was he had to approach this tyrant. Now when he was given
that task. He made this beautiful drop, but I'll be shortly sorry, Oh Allah expand my chest. Rob
Mishra. He saw the soldering wires serially, Omri and make matters easy for me.
		

			Rubbish roughly soldering wires, certainly Omri wahala. oka determine the Sani of Gokhale take the
nod out of my tongue that they may understand my speech, I asked Allah subhanaw taala to do exactly
that. I ask Allah subhanaw taala to make whatever comes out of my mouth, be truthful and be
effective and be beneficial for myself and you because the first pair of ears are my own. Now the
story of Musa alayhis salaam is one of the most personal stories to my life. And so when I was given
this topic, I was just kind of like, how am I going to talk about something so personal, although I
talk about bits and pieces of Masada Sam's life many times. But while he was going through and I was
		

			reading the verses, about Musa alayhis, salaam, it was very, very hard to read them without crying.
And the reason for this is because everyone has gone through stuff in life. And I think that, for me
personally, one of the stories or one of the examples in the Quran, that has resonated with my own
life the most, it was the story of Musa alayhis salaam. And throughout different parts of my life,
there were different parts of his story that resonated with me. And so I'm going to do my best to
try to share that without getting super emotional. But I'm going to begin at the start of his life.
Now we oftentimes talk about Musa alayhis salaam, but we miss and maybe we don't focus as much on
		

			someone who is related to Musa alayhis salaam, who I personally gained a lot of inspiration from,
and that is the mother of Musa alayhis salaam. Now what happened to this woman is that she lived in
a time when children when when when little boys were being killed, and she has a little boy. Now I
want to take a moment and reflect on this for a second. When you're afraid, when you're afraid of
losing something that you love, what is your knee jerk reaction? What is our reflexive, you know,
immediate, instinctive reaction, when we're afraid of losing something that we love, our instinctive
reaction is to hold it tighter, is to attach to it and to cling to it harder and more intensely,
		

			because we're afraid of losing it. Now, musala is salaams mother is actually being told to do the
exact opposite. She is actually being told to let him go.
		

			She's actually being told that if you want to keep him, you have to let him go. That if you actually
want this to be protected, you have to you have to put your trust in a law, and you have to let him
go. And so what she's being told to do is to put her child in the river, can you just think for a
moment, the amount of telecon the amount of trust that she has to have in Allah subhanaw taala, to
be able to let him go and put him in the river. And yet, this is exactly the lesson of that had she
held on to Musa alayhis salam, he would have been killed. There is an irony here because she is
actually by letting him go and putting our trust in Allah. She's protecting him. So she is being
		

			told to let him go and put him in the river. But she's being given a promise.
		

			Allah subhanaw taala makes a promise to this woman. And he says to her, in Aurora, dewy Lake, we
will return him to you. So the promise of a law is, trust me, I'll bring him back to you. But just
trust me right now. And I'll take care of him during this period of time, but just trust me and I'll
bring him back to you.
		

			Now
		

			There's something else that really strikes me about this part of the story. And that is where a loss
of huddled on it says and sort of for her,
		

			that when he did return Moosa to his mother, and, and and by the way, Allah subhanaw taala returned
Musa to his mother in a very miraculous way. And it also shows there's so many lessons upon Allah,
it shows that sometimes Allah subhanaw taala withholds as part of his plan. So how did Allah
subhanaw taala withhold in order to return, he made masala Sallam reject all other women to take
milk from that he rejected all the other women so that Allah subhanaw taala returned musallam to his
mother.
		

			Now when a law explains this return, and you know, somehow I was I was at a retreat. And at the
beginning of the retreat before the retreat had started,
		

			the sheriff said, you know, we had like a period of time where we would just read just a portion of
code.
		

			And so what I did was I just opened up to one of my favorites folders, which is sort of Haha, so I
opened up and I read sort of 400 reflected on basically probably the first 15 days or so.
		

			And I got to this one verse, and it just struck me in a way that I never realized before, and that
is when Allah subhanaw taala says, what are the now who in our own me he came to Korea, I know how
Allah
		

			that we returned Moosa to his mother. Now, it's the reason why that he states that blew me away. He
said that we returned Mussa to his mother, so that her eyes would be cool, and she wouldn't be sad.
Why did that strike me so much? Because we go through periods in our lives of extreme sadness. And
sometimes we think that it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to people, it doesn't matter even to
sometimes we may feel that it doesn't matter to Allah. And yet, Allah subhanaw taala is making
history happen, because of one woman sadness, just because of one woman sadness, he is doing
something that will be that will make literal like, literally it will make history in, in throughout
		

			throughout till the end of time.
		

			And that's because he didn't want one woman. She wasn't a prophet, a woman, right? He didn't want
one woman to be sad. And he wanted one woman to have that peace. So he said, we returned him to his
mother, so that she would have the coolness of her eyes, and she would not be sad. And there's
another reason a third reason that Allah says, when it's Adam and Noah de la Huck, and so that she
would know that the promise of a lie is true. Why are we being told this story, because every single
one of us are going to be tested, and we're all tested in different ways. And there's going to be
times when Allah subhanaw taala is going to make us be, we're gonna have to choose, we're gonna have
		

			to make decisions between what we love and what Allah loves, between our plan and alesse plan,
right? And so what we learned from this story is that when we choose Allah,
		

			Allah will bring back to us and replace, and even bring us something better than what it was that we
gave up for his sake.
		

			Because she's letting go of something for Allah sake. Right? And she's putting our trust in Allah.
And then what does Allah do? He returns Musa to his mother. And not only does he do that, he
protects Moosa, and had she not done that, then she would have lost Musa alayhis salaam, she would
have actually lost him had she not let him go. And so what she had to do was let him go so that
Allah subhanaw taala, protected him, and then brought him back to her. Now what's very interesting
is this, Allah says, and this is also a lesson for us folks focus on this
		

			a law in it. I just finished saying that Pharaoh was the greatest tyrant, right? Pharaoh is the one
who's killing the baby's cat Pharaoh is though is the is the murderer here. And where does musallam
go? He goes to the actual home the house of the enemy. Now why do I want us to reflect on that
because it shows the power of Allah. It shows that Allah is the Protector, it means that even if you
are in the mouth of the lion, literally, even if you are overtaken by the enemy, if Allah protects
you, you no harm will come to you. That's the other part of this story because Allah is telling us
that he was an enemy, he was an enemy, or though he was an enemy to Mussolini. salami was an enemy
		

			of Allah and it was in his home that Allah put moose on his son and showing us that allows the
protector even if you're in the middle of the storm, even if you're in the home of the enemy. Even
if the enemy is living right there next to you a lot can protect you still. And a lot protected
Mussolini's to them and then brought him back to his mother.
		

			Now, one of the reasons why this story there's many reasons but there's a lot of reasons why this
story was very personal to me. And one of the reasons why that there came a point when I had to make
some very difficult decisions. And in those decisions I had to, I had to be separated from people
that I loved, and I had to let go, but when I did that Allah subhanaw taala, and I had full trust
and an end and Allah subhanaw taala would protect Allah would take care of and Allah would return.
And Allah keeps his promise. Allah subhanaw taala keeps his promise. And every single one of you I
know that in one way or another, there are going to be times when you are going to have to make
		

			difficult decisions. But if you put your trust in a law, this is what Allah is teaching us. When you
put your trust in Allah, just like he returned musala salaam, to his mother, Alyssa Panasonic keeps
his promise, well, it's an en la de la hoc, so that she would know that the promise of Allah is
true, and that everyone till the end of time would know that the promise of Allah subhanaw taala is
true.
		

			Now Musa alayhis salam, he grows up, and now I'm going to fast forward a bit. And now Musa alayhis
salam is going to meet Allah subhanaw taala This is like the introduction to Allah subhanaw taala.
Now when he meets Allah subhanaw taala in this this, this section in sort of thought he talks about
it, a lot introduces himself to to musala Islam. And when he introduces himself, he says in me and
Allah La Ilaha Illa Illa Anna sabudana akima salata Lee decree. Now there's something very important
now before that, of course, he tells him that he's the ROB introduced himself as the Rob and then
asked him to take off his shoes. And now he introduces himself as the elac. And he says that, that I
		

			am the only thing worthy of worship the only Allah Okay, so therefore, therefore, worship Me, and
how does he tell him to worship him? He says immediately. Now, this is another reflection for all of
us, in the very introduction, that Allah This is the Lord of the world, right? He's introducing
himself to masalas to them, and one of the very first things that he's saying is to establish Salah
		

			so this shows us the importance of Salah that he says establish the salah for my remembrance, and
then he goes on and he talks to masala Swami tells him the mission that he has. There's another
reflection here that I want to make and that is that Allah subhanaw taala says that he made some
autocannon FC Okay, that he he fashioned Musa for himself that musala salaam was being fashioned,
the masala Islam was being raised by Allah subhanaw taala developed by Allah subhanaw taala for a
mission, fair enough.
		

			And yet, and yet, and this is where I want there's sometimes there's like this myth that we have,
that when we love Allah subhanaw taala or when we start to take the path of spirituality, we don't
need other people. There's this myth. And why I want to point this out is because Musa alayhis
salaam, Allah is saying, I created you for myself and yet Musa alayhis salaam right after this
conversation, what is one of the first things he asked, he asks for the help and the support of his
brother, he asked for Allah subhanaw taala to send his brother with him to support him. And so this
shows from the very beginning that our path to Allah subhanaw taala doesn't mean that we don't need
		

			people. And it doesn't mean that we don't have very, very important human relationships, that those
human relationships have a purpose. And that purpose is that it helps us in our path.
		

			There's another time when Musa alayhis salam says to Allah subhanaw taala, probably in neelima and
delta LA and Haydn faqeer. He says, Oh my Lord, I am indeed poor to whatever goodness you send down
to me. And what does Musa alayhis salam get after that?
		

			He gets a job in a wife.
		

			Right? So Allah here is showing us see the proper balance of our Deen the proper balance of our Deen
is that we love Allah subhanaw taala and we have a special place in our hearts for Allah subhanaw
taala that does not negate our our human relationships and it does not negate the importance of our
human relationships. And in fact, the human relationships that are based in Allah subhanaw taala and
that are based in the love of Allah subhanaw taala are the strongest, and are so beloved to Allah
subhanaw taala that were told on the day of judgment when there's no other shade. One of the people
who are shaded are those who loved each other for the sake of Allah. They came together for the sake
		

			of Allah and they separated for the sake of Allah and Allah and we're also told that one of the
highest places in Jenna, are for those people who love each other for the sake of Allah. And that
place is so amazing that the martyrs and that prophets are looking at it. So so this is this is a
		

			Less than for us, that our path to Allah subhanaw taala is not alone path, our path to Allah
subhanaw taala also Allah sends us people that help us and Allah sends us gifts. And this is part of
our gratitude to Allah to be grateful for that Rebecca had lenna mean as well Gina was literally at
no kurata are you all love gift us? And by the way a gift is by definition, undeserved, right? It's
not like people are given this because they're better than others. This is a gift of Allah, what is
that gift that we're asking for? Gift us with making our spouses and our children the coolness of
our eyes? This is not a contradiction to that aspect is still not to kind enough see that I've made
		

			for myself. Make sense? So here we have musala his solemn speaking with Allah. He's asking Allah for
that support of his brother then he is going to go and face Pharaoh. Now at the end of the
conversation a lot again repeats the importance of the kid. So we said we started with Allah saying
I am your I am your Rob I am your inner so worship me, okay masala By the way, the word of came is
Salah. It doesn't mean just pray, because ochem comes from sustained. So it's actually Allah is
saying established Salah. Because you see, here's the thing about Salah right? It's easy to pray
once or twice. It's easy to pray when everyone else is praying and you're at an event except at
		

			weddings. For some reason. I don't know what half the people don't get up and pray. But anyways,
it's easy to pray when everyone else is praying. It's easy to pray when you're not at an airport or
something. You know, it's easy, but what's difficult to pray is when it's inconvenient. When you're
at your job. And when people are going to look at you or when you're outside or when you're on the
road. When you're really really tired when you're sleeping right then it's harder and that's why
Ally's not just telling us to pray. He does not just say pray Salou. He says Aki masala and akima
Salah means to establish Salah. That means that you pray when it's convenient. And when it's
		

			inconvenient. You pray when you're when you're when you're tired. And when you're not tired. You
pray when you're happy and when you're sad. There's no such thing as you know, if you look at your
Salah as your oxygen, no one in the world says I'm having a bad day today. So I think I'll breathe
tomorrow.
		

			Nobody says I'm I'm busy at my job. So all I'll take you know I'll breathe tonight. I'll take an
oxygen later on. Or I'll leave that till next week when I'm done with finals or something. You know
what I'm saying? It makes no sense. And the reason why is that you need oxygen to stay alive Simple
as that whether you're happy or you're sad, you have to keep breathing. Similarly with Salah
		

			Salah is one of those things that just keeps us alive. And so here the importance Allah is telling
us to establish Salah to establish vipkid do not slack in in my wicked Allah tells Masada his solemn
when he's when he's at the end of the conversation. Do not slack in in my ticket. Now before I move
on to one of my favorite parts of the story. I want to say something else that happens in this
conversation. And that is that Mossad I said I've had this thing called a staff and Allah subhanaw
taala asks him during this conversation, metal cabbie Amina kya Musa, what is in your right handle
Musa and masala is lm says he also is Oh Allah, it's my it's my stuff. I lean on it. Now what was
		

			very interesting is at this retreat, remember I told you the retreat where I opened up and I read
from a of one to 15 I'm sort of All right. Well, once the retreat started, and I had no idea this
was going to happen. No one knew what he was going to talk about.
		

			He goes up there, and he begins to see it. And it just so happens that he was going to do Tafseer of
as one to 15 of his little thought for the entire retreat, no joke. I was like, Whoa, it's something
in these areas I really need to learn at this point in my life. And one of those things, and I think
that if there was any lesson I learned from that retreat, it was this, that when most eyelids slam
is being asked, What is that in your right hand, he said it is my staff, I lean on it. And Allah
tells him to throw it.
		

			Throw it. Now one of the things that the shift said was that the Leaning on the staff, and and there
of course, are different interpretations. But one of the interpretations that he explained is that
the Leaning on the staff was like the Leaning on the creation, the Leaning on and the dependency on
the means. And he's being told to let that go. And why is this important? I just finished telling
you that we have and sometimes we need people in our lives. And now I'm telling you that he
shouldn't be leaning on it. And there's no contradiction here because
		

			What he is being taught is that you do not depend on those things. So he's told to throw it. And
again, this is another form of letting go, isn't it, just like moose, his mother had to let go, he's
asked to throw it. But, but something really amazing happens when he throws it a lot makes it turn
into a snake in front of his eyes.
		

			And then he says, Take it back, don't be afraid. And he and I will return it to its original form.
Now what what the chef explains here very profound, is that Allah subhanaw taala is the one in
charge of the creation. And the same creation that can be your supporter can also turn into a snake
and vice versa. And it's in the hands of Allah subhanaw taala that Allah is the one who controls the
states. And Allah is the one who controls the hearts. And so you have to realize that while we love
the creation, that our ultimate dependence is on Allah subhanaw taala. So when he takes it back,
though, when he takes it back, it turns back into the stuff. So now what the ship explained is that
		

			when he took it back, it was in his hand, it wasn't something he was dependent on. And one of the
things that this is obviously this is a this is a metaphoric example. But what it taught Musa
alayhis salaam is the ability to put his focus the focus of his heart on Allah, not on the creation.
So he loves the creation, he wanted a wife, he wanted a job, he wanted the support of his brother,
but his ultimate dependence is on Allah subhanaw taala. And his focus he learned the ability to see
through and this is this is going to become very important later on.
		

			He's learning and he's being trained in the ability to see through to see through the illusions of
the means. Make sense? I'm gonna explain where this then becomes useful later on. So fast forward.
		

			Musa alayhis salaam is standing in front of the Red Sea.
		

			So all of this training that musalla Islam has gone through since he was a child, a law has always
been taking care of him. Allah has always been watching over him since he was a baby. And now we're
fast forwarding to this scene, where now he and his people, Benny Israel are standing in front of
the Red Sea.
		

			And a lot tells us this story, he says, phenom Mathura and Gemini color of hair boosah in llamo
dracoon. I want to take a moment and talk about this these two paradigms musala salam is with a
group of people Benny Israel in now Benny Israel LR are standing there with masala Islam, the Red
Sea is in front of them, and behind them is a superpower army. Pharaoh and his army are behind them.
What do you think? If you were in that situation? What's your reaction going to be?
		

			pretty much most of us, our reaction would be just like their reaction and their reaction was, we
are definitely going to be overtaken in nelumbo dracoon. That's it for us. Have you guys ever been
in a situation that looked hopeless before? Have you ever been in a situation that that you couldn't
see a way out? Have you ever felt trapped? See Musa alayhis salam was put in this situation? Many of
us, you know, I mean, obviously, none of us are probably going to ever be stuck in front of a giant
body of water with a giant superpower army behind us, right? But then why is Allah telling us the
story, if it's not relevant,
		

			we won't be necessarily in front of the Red Sea. But we will be in situations where we feel trapped.
We will be in situations that look hopeless, we will be put in situations that we don't see a
solution. And we think okay, what am I going to do. And when we are in put in that situation, Allah
is teaching us how to see through so many Israel, he is seeing the Red Sea and seeing the army and
that is where their focus is, you know, when you're in a situation and if you focus on the problem
itself, that's all you're gonna see. If you focus on the barrier itself, if you focus on the
obstacle itself, that's all you're gonna see. And it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger in your
		

			eyes, it actually starts to grow. You know, if you it's this amazing thing about the psychology of a
human being, if you focus I want you to imagine for a second there's a wall in front of you. The
more you focus on that wall, the more it gets bigger. The more you focus on the wall, the higher it
gets, the bigger it gets, until it actually surrounds you.
		

			And you will see no way out. And the reason why, by the way, that's an illusion.
		

			It's an illusion. The reason that it looks that way is because you're focusing on the barrier.
You're focusing on the block, you're not focusing on Allah, you're focusing on the barrier itself.
And so the barrier looks bigger and bigger. And that's exactly what many Israelis did. They were
focusing on the Red Sea. They were focusing on the army. And so they were hopeless. They felt very
afraid. They were scared.
		

			And it had to do with the focus of the heart. Are you focused on the block? Are you focused on the
barrier? Or are you focused on something else? Now, what's so powerful is you see the comparison,
the contrast of musala, his salams focus, and then his response, color color. He said, Nope.
		

			colors like a very emphatic No way. No, nope. They said, We will surely be overtaken. He said, No.
		

			And why is it that Musashi Sallam said, No, why was he so certain? Why was he so sure? Was it
because he's really strong? Is it? Because Is it because you know, oh, guys, don't worry, I got
this. You know, he didn't say that. He didn't have this nifty staff. You know, he wasn't in the
habit of splitting seeds. You know, this didn't really happen every day. It's not like he knew what
was going to get him out of the situation. He had no idea.
		

			It's not like he knew how he was going to get out. And yet he was certain that Allah would get him
out. Why? Because musala Islam wasn't focused on the barrier. musala Islam wasn't focused on the
obstacle and the block, he was focused on Allah, and he knew in Maya ob saidin. He said, by no means
will we be overtaken, why, because indeed, my Lord is with me. And he will get me through this.
That's all he needed. All he needed to do was see Allah in this situation, all he needed to do was
shift the focus of his heart, shift the focus from the block from the barrier from the obstacle from
the problem to Allah, and all of a sudden, literally, Allah opened the sea for him.
		

			And that is because he had the proper focus. And he knew, and he put his trust in Allah. And he
said, that my Lord is with me, and He will guide me through. And that's exactly what Allah did.
		

			You know, it's very easy
		

			to put our reliance on Allah when we see the way out, when we know already the solution, you know,
it's easy to be like, yeah, yeah, I put my trust in Allah. But here's the plan, you know, it's like,
this is gonna happen, this is going to happen, and we already have the whole thing planned out, we
know exactly what's gonna happen, then we say our trust in a lot. That's pretty easy. But what's
really hard, is when we have no idea what's gonna happen. What's really hard is when there's
complete insert uncertainty, what's really hard is when we have no idea how Allah is going to get us
out. We have no idea how the solution is going to come. We have actually no idea what's going to
		

			happen after we take this step. It's it's an unknown, it's the unseen. But that's what telecoil is.
That's exactly what telecom means. It means that I don't see the solution. I don't know what's going
to happen tomorrow. But I do know one thing for sure. And that is in Maya, Robbie, say I did, indeed
My Lord is with me, and He will guide me through and when we have that kind of attitude. Allah
promises something that he will split sees for us. That situations that look impossible alone make a
way out that situations where we don't see a solution alone will give us a solution from places we
never imagined. We may have tequila, Zhi la Maharaja, why your resume in high school I gotta say,
		

			whoever puts a love first taqwa whoever has God consciousness. Whoever focuses on Allah first.
Whoever guards themselves from the Wrath of Allah who makes a love first. Allah will make a way out
for them, and he will provide for them from places they never imagined a huning Connie Heather was
Dr. Lonnie welcome. innovaphone Rahim. subhanak olavi hendak eyeshadow en la Ilaha Atlanta's the
critical eye tubulin was Salam alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh