Night Of Destiny – Bradford

Yasmin Mogahed

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Channel: Yasmin Mogahed

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Episode Notes

Yasmin Mogahed delivers a lecture/talk at the 2016 Night Of Destiny conference in Bradford.

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Are the Millennium in a chiffon regime? smilla rahmanir rahim wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah Allah Allah He was Sophia Jemaine Arab Israeli Saudi westerly Omri wahala lok, the Tamil is any of Coco Kohli.

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So, if Dahlia was competing with low blood sugar, I'm really competing.

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We were just speaking about house panel light. Speaking in Ramadan is quite a challenge. Because typically we either have to talk to people who are starving, or people who are in a food coma, if it's depending whether it's before or after thought.

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But Bismillah.

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So, this topic today or this theme, is one of Les little cards. Now one of the meanings of a lot of cards is the night of power. And I want to talk a little bit about power in this concept of power. But but not the kind of power that you know, tire and seek or Feroz seek, I want to talk about a different kind of power. And that's the real kind of power, the internal kind of power. Because you see, as Dahlia pointed out today is the beginning of one of the most sacred one of the holiest times of the entire year, these Knights are the most, the most holy of the entire year. And so what I want to do is I want to take a moment and talk about what is what is the significance of, of this knight

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and of these knights and of this, of this particular time of our lives. And that is that this is a time if we, if we want to talk about power, we have to talk about change, because one of the things about about life in general, is that the only time you know like, how are you going to know that something is dead, whatever it is, whether it's a plant or a tree, or a human being, the way that you know that something is that is that it stops changing. So this concept of change is directly related to life. If we are alive, we must continue to change and we must continue to grow. And it's only when we die, that we stopped growing and that we stopped changing. So this whole idea of you

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know, somebody really wants to

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you know, sometimes when your friend is not happy with you, and they want to like kind of like a jab at you, you've really changed.

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And it's like considered an insult always right. What do you mean? No, I haven't No, I haven't. Well, why are we so afraid of change? Change is part of life. And in fact, if we are not changing that it's an indication that we have died. If somebody is not growing, then it's an indication of death. It's not a good thing. And so what we want to do is we want to learn about change. But how does change happen? Allah subhanaw taala gave us the formula for changing the quarter end. In Aloha, aloha euro Maverick Coleman Hatoyama. And for him, this is the formula for changes is this area within this area? Is it something extremely revolutionary, and that is this every time we get in a

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situation we don't like? So whether that situation is our community, whether that situation is personal, whether that situation is global, international, political, financial, emotion, whatever that situation is, we always tend to get into situations there will come a time in our lives when we get into situations we don't like and situations that we want to change yes or no.

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Okay.

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I'm big on Do you guys know this? I'm big on.

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Yes. enthusiasm. It's like Okay, good. Good. Cuz I remember they told me that Bradford community last time I complained that y'all were just blank faced. But you guys are gonna prove us wrong. Right? Okay, awesome.

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So so we get to situations that we don't like we get to situations in our lives that we want to change. So this is a very important question, how does change happen? Where do we seek power? And the answer to the question of how change happens is in this in this formula, this secret magical formula in the law has led you how you may be Coleman Hathaway or maybe unfussy him. Indeed, a law does not change the condition of a people until they change what is inside themselves. This formula can be applied to everything, this formula can be applied to our political situation, this formula can be applied to your your personal problems, your your emotional problem, every single issue that

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we have, this formula can be applied to it. And we can always look into every single situation and figure out what do I need to change? And by the way, this is just a side point. This is what made Adam alayhis salam, and at least one of the things that that made them different. Because at a time when they both you know Adam alayhis salam was told to do something or or not to do something. And he did it. He was told not to eat from the tree, right?

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It please, was told to bow so he's given a commandment. It believes refused. And Adam slipped

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listening. Fair enough. But there is a very significant difference in them that happened after and that had to do with how they viewed the situation and then how they responded as a minor who salon didn't try to blame it please, which is very interesting because it would have been very easy because even a law said that a police made them slip.

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it bleeds made them slip. But as omalizumab didn't blame employees, he blamed himself. He said in now Valentina and fusina were in Nam takfiri, Lana water hymnal and akuna Minal Casa de indeed we have done what we have wronged our own selves. You know, when you fight with your siblings, and it's always like, it's his fault, or it's her fault, right? When you were a kid, hopefully.

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Now it's fighting with your spouse, but anyways,

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it's always it was always the other person's fault, right? No one ever said, You know what, Mom, I completely take full responsibility. It was completely my fault. And I started it. And I'm very sorry. Typically, that's not how the conversation went. Typically, it was it's her fault, or it's his fault, right? And so we always want to put the blame outside of ourselves. This is this is, unfortunately, this is part of our neffs. Right? Well, this began with shaitan. This began with a belief that he did not take responsibility for his mistake. He did not take responsibility for his he did not humble himself. Instead, he actually is blaming a lot interesting enough. He's actually

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saying because you have kicked me out, you know, when we have this victim mentality. Do you ever heard of that? No, we would know anything about that. Right? That victim mentality and please started that. At least started a lot of things. He started racism. He started you know, he set the precedent for so many of our diseases. But here, he is not taking responsibility. He's not humbling himself. Instead, he's fine. He's not saying it was my fault. He said it was your fault Yella, you kicked me out of genda. And because you kicked me out of Jenna, I'm gonna do this, this and this to your slaves. That's what he said. But what did add them Elisa Lam said say in now Valentina and

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fusina. Indeed, we have wronged our own self. He is taking full responsibility for his mistake. Enough alumna and fusina were in lam takfeer Lana water handle an akuna Minal Casa de Indeed, we have wronged our own selves. And if you don't forgive us and have mercy on us, we will be among the losers. So he is humbling themselves, and he's taking responsibility. So what happens to add the monies to them? Well, number one, he gets forgiven. He gets forgiven. And number two, he goes to Earth as a prophet. That's intense. That's pretty different than what happens at least Yeah. blank faces. No, good. I'm getting not. That's pretty different than what happened to at least Yeah.

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Okay, awesome.

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All turning into honors, it's awesome. Okay, so um, so it's very, very different. it bleeds it leads became cursed forever, and Adam became a prophet. And this essential difference of humbling and taking responsibility. So internally, we have to change. If we want to change externally, how can that change start to happen? So all of us, most of us aren't quite happy with our political situation, Dahlia spoke a bit about Islamophobia. You see, the thing is about Islamophobia. The thing is about a semi phobia is we speak a lot about the problem itself, right externally, and we need to talk about that. But there's a very interesting Hadith of the prophets, I send them

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something that the Prophet says that I'm taught us more than 1400 years ago, okay? Now listen to this, this, this Hadith, it's very, very interesting because the in this Hadith, the prophets I send them is talking about a political situation, he says that the people will soon summon one another to attack you. Sound familiar? will summon one another to attack you, as people summon one another to share in their dish. So we're going to eat soon, right? You don't want like, especially Back Home Depot for Oman. So you have these huge plates. And people sometimes share in that. So they call one another. But this is they're calling one another to attack us, as people call one another to share

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in their dish. All right. And then the companions are asking, Is it because we will be small in number. So they're assuming that power comes from number rights? So they're saying is it because we will be small in number? And the prophets I send them says no, actually, you'll be larger number. Sound familiar? You will be large in number, but here's what's gonna happen. So so far, the prophets I said it was talking about a political situation. Yeah. But then what does he begin to say? Then he says, then he says that something he described the situation further, and he says that you will be large in number, but you will be like the froth on the ocean. If you've ever seen like waves, or the

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sea or any kind of large body of water, there's these bubbles, like scum that comes on the top of the ocean and it has no

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Wait, the thing about the scum, the the bubbles on the top of the of the waves is that it just goes wherever the tide takes it, you know, it doesn't have any self determination. If you were to explain it, he said that the oma will be like that

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sound familiar, that the owner will be large in number but weak, extremely weak and we'll be you know kind of just going with the flow weak like that and if you were to you know try to like hold that scum or those bubbles it has no substance, it has no substance, he compared the own at that time. To that end, he said something else very important, he said that Allah will remove the fear from the hearts of your enemies, and he will put something in your heart Now, this is the disease I want you to focus on. He said he will put one in your hearts and the and the companions as what is what happened. And he defined it like this. He said Hope it dunia will call out here to mouth.

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Simple as this hobbit dunya the love of dunya walk are here to mount the hatred of death. What is the prophets I send them talking about? He is describing a political situation. And he is diagnosing it spiritually. It is a political situation we started out by being attacked. Yeah. And then he defined he he diagnosed it spiritually. He said there is a disease in your hearts. And that disease of a weapon that disease of hope. adonia will curl hate and mouth is what's going to make you weak. And because of that your enemies, they will summon one another to attack you, like people call one another to share from their dish it is that which will make you weak. So when we talk about power,

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real power is internal power. real power comes from the inside. But how do we get that power? And how do we get that change? How can we start to change internally, I'm just going to talk about four points or four types of power in terms of this path. First, the power of the heart, the power of the heart. One thing that we learned from the prophets I send them is this is a very, very important principle. And that is the prophets I send them he describes in in after a long I had a hadith about rules how Tom and Hillel at the very end of the Hadith, he says something very, very important. He says in nothing just said the motor club. Indeed in the body, there's a lump of flesh, either solo

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hat if it is set, right, Solihull, just to the corner the entire body is set right?

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What is the first sir that and if it is corrupted faster than just to do kulu? The entire body will be corrupted. Allah Hale called, indeed is the heart. What do we learn from this? How do we learn that despite what we may think about the mind, and various other things, the heart is the master of the body, the heart is the master of the body. Because if you if you fix the heart, as the Prophet slicin is teaching us, if you if you fix the heart, you fix the rest of the body. If you corrupt the heart, you corrupt the rest of the body. And by the way, people say no, no, you know, this whole argument of mind? If no, it's the mind, the mind is a slave to the heart. What do I mean by that? I

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mean that we use our intellect and our ability to make plans based on whatever's in our hearts. So if in my heart is a disease of greed, then I will use my mind to get power to get up. If in my heart, there's a disease of, of wanting power of one, etc. So it's so what I do is I use my my mind as a tool to obey my heart. So the key is what's in the heart? What kind of heart does a person have? This is the master device. So we got to work there. That's the point. We got to work on the heart. Now some people might say, Okay, then I wear my hijab and my heart. Right? Or, I fast in my heart, I don't know, you know, but the problem with that is that we forget something very important.

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And that is that our actions affect our heart, just as our heart affects our actions. It is not a one way thing we went when we went Allah subhanaw taala says that the heart is the master of the bot when the prophets I said, um, teaches us that the heart is the master of the body. Why he says that, when you fix the heart, it will fix the rest of the body, it will fix the rest of your actions. So there is a direct relationship between our actions in our heart, and it's it goes both ways. Because we're told that what we do, puts a stain or or cleans our heart. So what we do affects our heart, and our heart affects what we do. So that's another thing to keep in mind that there's that two way

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that there's a two way relationship between the heart and action. Similarly, in addition to that, I want to point out every time Allah subhanaw taala in the Quran, talks about the believers or talks about a man for example, what does Allah say, and levena and I know

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Well, I'm in a solid heart. I mean, not every time but a lot of times Allah subhanaw taala connects these two, that those who believe and who do righteous deeds. So the two go together. All right. So we have the power of the heart, we have the power of focus. So this is the second one I want to talk about. There is a power in focus, there is a power in what you focus on. And there's this principle that if you keep in mind, it really changes your life. And that is that whatever you focus on grows,

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whatever you focus on grows, what do I mean by that? The more you focus on something, the bigger and bigger and bigger it gets. Make sense. So what that means, for example, is if I, if I'm a type of person who focuses on problems, do you know anyone like that?

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If I'm the type of person who focuses on what's going wrong, what's the barrier? What's the problem you had? I mean, if I'm that type of person, then my problems get bigger and bigger and bigger. And it's if there's like, sometimes we'll be, there'll be like one problem in our life, right? Just like one really huge problem. And what do we do? We focus on it, right? So we start thinking about it, we start talking about it. Basically, we just that's all we do is obsess over it, what happens to it? Does it go away? Does it get rid of it grows. And that's the problem with with what we focus on grows. If we are a problem focused people, then we are going to become surrounded by our problems,

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we become consumed by our problems. I don't honestly think there's a better example of this concept than the story of Musa alayhis salaam in front of the Red Sea. Because in this story, you have these two types of these different types of focuses. It's essentially a lot showing us different types of focuses. What do I mean? So you have you have Musashi Salaam, standing in front of the Red Sea, and you had he's with his people, Benny, israelian, right. And then you have a superpower army approaching from behind them coming coming to them, and in front of them is the Red Sea. So what's happened now? They look pretty trapped. It looks like a pretty bad situation, right?

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So what happens in this, Allah tells us what happens. phenom Mathura and Gemini call us harbor Musa in Lamu. dracoon. So when the people of Musa check out the situation, they say, indeed we will be overtaken.

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You know, when you and I collectively as a community, if you know personally, when we face a problem, Has that ever happened? Okay, you know, when we face a problem, and we feel trapped, and then we say there's no way out, and we feel like there's no way out and we say enameled raccoon, and we feel another inanimate raccoon, we feel like we will be overtaken. That's it for us.

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Do you know why that happens?

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Do you know why Benny is thought he said enameled raccoon. Because Benny Isreal eel was focused on the army and on the Red Sea. Benny is slow Ian was focused on the problem. Benyus while he was focused on the barrier. Benyus, Ian was focused on the wall, you get it? And so the obstacle was their focus, and all the answers because they were focused on the obstacle, they didn't see any way out. And so they said, Indeed, we will be overtaken in Alamo dracoon. Then Allah contrasts and shows us a different paradigm, a different focus. And that was the focus of musasa then guess what he says? Call Allah Kela he says, nope.

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They're saying we're going to be overtaken you guys a lot of us feel this way. Especially right now. We feel like we're being kind of like surrounded and encroached upon and our enemies are calling one another to attack us like people call one another to share from their dish. We're feeling that Yeah, we're feeling that and and this attack doesn't have to just be physical attack and literal attack, but every kind of attack, every kind of attack.

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Whether it is it is it is financial, whether it is it is actual physical attack whether it is in your in your self worth and daddy as Dahlia was saying, in just how you view yourself as a community in your Islamic ID. These are all attacks, we feel this, but the question becomes what are we focused on? Because musala salaam was focused on something different. He wasn't focused on the problem. He wasn't focused on the Red Sea. He wasn't focused on the army color candle

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He said, No, no, by no means are we going to be overtaken on a kennela. In my IRA beside him. He said, Indeed, my Lord is with me. And He will guide me through. And that was it. And that was it. Because his focus was not on the Red Sea. His focus was not on the army, his focus was not on the problem. His focus was not on the barrier, or the obstacle, or the Trump or the whoever. Yeah, his focus was on Allah.

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You know, I'm so sorry. I'm tired of hearing about all the fear. What if Trump gets elected? What Guess what? Even if Trump gets elected, Allah still there?

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Get it? Like, yeah, I get it. Like I get it. He's, he wears a strange to pay. And I know he's strange. But at the end of the day, like, that's all I see, that's all I see.

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But at the end of the day, guess what? A lot is still there. Allah will still be there. Allah will always be there. He was there at the beginning, he will be there at the end. And sometimes we lose focus. Sometimes we lose focus, and we focus on the problem. I get it. He's a problem. I get it.

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But why are we focused on the problem.

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And when we focus on the problem, we become more and more afraid, and become more and more paralyzed by fear. Because fear grows when you focus on it. Similarly, when you focus on hope, and when you focus on the light, it also grows. And that's why Mussolini's Salaam was able in that situation to not be afraid. He was able to say, No, he didn't even shake like he wasn't, he wasn't shaking. He said, by no means No, we won't be overtaken, because my Lord is with me. That was the reason why he wasn't afraid. It wasn't because he's really strong wasn't because he had that awesome staff. It wasn't because of the means. It was because he saw a lot. And then Allah guess what Allah did? Allah

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split the Red Sea. So what did I do, Allah made a way out in such a way that no one could imagine. That's what happens when you focus on the lights instead of the darkness. Because I can sit here and I can say, Oh, my God, it is so dark right now. It is so dark right now, oh, my God, the lights are off, oh, my God, or I can work on going and getting a candle and and bringing some light to the room. So that's why we have to be very careful in terms of what we focus on.

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The other thing I want to point out with regards to focus is the power of focusing on what's positive, the power of gratitude. One of the most, you know, the things that if you just kind of look at psychological research, if you do like a scan of psychological research, one of the most powerful things that they found in terms of well being in terms of treating depression, is the power of gratitude, the power of what you focus on just just writing down five things that you're grateful for every day, can treat depression, just that. That's what they found in studies. So the point here is that we can either be a people who are very negative, and focus on what's going wrong, and what

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they voted yesterday.

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Or we can focus on what's right, we can focus on the light and the hope, because again, at the end of the day, Allah is still in charge. Allah is still in charge. Kela in my era beside him, we have to remember that today because yes, we see armies approaching. And we see barriers and we see problems and we see the Red Sea. But we have to have that understanding that Allah is with us. And yes, He will guide us through.

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Finally, here's what I want to say.

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There is a power to remembering that our goal should be hope. And our goal should be excellence. But be careful making your goal perfection. Be careful of making your goal perfection. I want to point this out because in so many of these discussions, the people I speak to at these gatherings tend to be people more on the practicing side. So that's why I try to emphasize this more. A lot of times what happens among the practicing community is that we have this false notion of perfection. That for me to be a good person, I need to be a perfect person. That the moment I make a mistake, it means I should give up. Because I was supposed to be perfect and when I'm not perfect, I fall into

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despair. The reason I point this out is because I really hate shaitan Okay, and

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This is one of his favorite tools. It is one of his favorite tools to make us think that we're supposed to be perfect. Ironically, we wait a minute, but shaitan wants us to to be really bad. No, by making us believe that we're supposed to be perfect. He has set us up for despair. Simple as that. Just make this person think that they're supposed to be perfect. Their family is supposed to be perfect. their spouse is supposed to be perfect. Their community is supposed to be perfect. And then the moment things go wrong, you give up and you want to just you know, Okay, forget it. This whole idea of

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um,

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she did what? She wears hijab, and she did what?

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You mean, she's a hijab, and she did XYZ, you know what I'm saying? Ever heard that before? Or, you know, she, it's this idea that once you, for example, wear hijab,

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you become an angel, and you're not allowed to be human anymore. And so what we have done in this, I'll tell you what we've done, when we act that way. Oh, and my, my absolute favorite. She might as well just take off her hijab.

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Do you know why that upsets me so much? Because it's someone saying, just stop trying. You know, I'm saying like, you you weren't good enough to try. It's so bad. It's so bad. And when I say things, I say things like that I am aiding shaitan against my sister. When I say Oh, she did this mistake. So she might as well take off her hijab, that is completely, absolutely screenplay written by shaitan absolutely signed off by him because what it is, it's an idea of all or none, right? Oh, you couldn't be perfect. So you know, you should just take off your hijab, or you couldn't be perfect. So just stop praying, you know, this idea of I'm being a hypocrite, you know, this hypocrite idea,

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oh, you're gonna commit that sin, and then you're gonna go pray, or you're gonna commit that sin and then you're gonna go to the masjid. You might as well just stop praying. Because you're being a hypocrite. Why am I saying this? Why am I saying this? Because this becomes a block and a barrier to changing internally. Why am I talking about change, because we will never change as a people. Our condition will never change until we change until I change. So that's why I'm saying you might not think this is relevant. What does this have to do with Trump or what is this, it has everything to do with our situation until we change inside and we start having hope and we stop having despair,

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things will not change externally. In the law, you Hiram abiff Coleman, hatha yoga mat, the unfussy him, we have to we have to come back to fighting despair, because I really, really believe that one of our biggest problems is despair. One of our biggest problems is despair. We look around us and we see darkness. We look around us and we see armies we look around us and we see the Red Sea. And then we we become hopeless. We look at ourselves and we and we're like, You know what? I might as well stop trying. And this happens because we have the wrong expectation. So finally what I want to do is end with this, realized that hope is not in who gets elected. Hope is not in a political situation.

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Hope is not even in your own deeds, but put your hope in Allah subhanaw taala Kela in Nehemiah beside in according Callie Heather was stuck for lonely welcome in our funan Rahim subhanak columbium Dec eye shadow net Illa Allah and a stockbroker to blue lake wa salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.