Yasmin Mogahed – Reclaim Your Heart – Covid
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So, here we are. This is an unprecedented Ramadan. There's so many mixed feelings, so many conversations, many, many webinars, many, many appeals. I think people are maybe just kind of trying to figure out where do I turn? What do I do? What do I do first? Kind of what should I focus on? I guess this is a question a lot of people are feeling. So let's let's make it simple. The prophets have a lot to sell and said in a hadith in FL Jessa de modo Illa, Eva Soler had Salah * just to do kulu indeed, in the body, there's a lump of flesh, if it is set right, then the entire body will be set right? When either faster, that's faster, they'll just do kulu li will heal. And if it is, if
it is corrupted, the entire body will be corrupt, corrupted. Verily, it is the heart. If we want to know how to change our lives, how to change our relationship with Allah, how to change our relationship with the creation, how to revolutionize our Ramadan, we have to go back to the words of the prophets I send them he said by changing the heart, we change everything. By changing the heart we change the whole body that means we change the actions of that individual and when you change the actions of an individual you change a society you change the world. And so this is actually not a small topic. This isn't like a feel good topic. Sometimes people think oh, this is very Hallmark.
It's very, you know, fluffy, wishy washy, like oh heart stuff. No, it's actually the stuff right because the prophets I send them told us that that is the master of the body. And and you know, a lot of people try to say but no, my head My head is the master of my heart. But But actually, the type of heart that you have, actually is the one who dictates how you think and dictates what your mind now comes up with to follow your heart. And so it is essential that we talk about the heart The heart is not just something that we you know, we talk about in cool quotes, but the heart is the most essential thing we need to purify the the
the beautiful Dora of Ibrahim alayhis salam O Allah, Zina Yama, Obasanjo, Malayan family 1111 Atala Habib, Caliban Salim that this is Prophet Ibrahim and he's calling out to Allah do not disgrace me on the day when everyone is brought back. When nothing will benefit anyone of wealth or children, except for the one returns to Allah subhanaw taala with a heart that's steady with a heart that's healthy with a heart that sound now we've been given the month of Ramadan. Now here's what happens in Ramadan. Allah subhanho wa Taala is helping us out big time, right? Whenever we, as we go through life, we know that we have various enemies where you can think about it as a as a as a righteous
struggle all the time, right? So we have external enemies, and we have internal enemies. And these are the enemies that are that are pulling us down. What is the external enemy, the external enemy is the shaitan and his army from among humans and jinn realize that human beings can also do the work of shaitan and can be from the Sheltie and this is why, you know, in sort of the nasty samina ginetta ness that when we're asking for protection from this West West and Vanessa, the one who whispers and then retreats, it's from the jinn and from human beings, okay, so our external enemy is the shell theory of jinn. And it's now what's the internal enemy, the internal enemy is just as real
and sometimes even more dangerous, and that is my own self. This is called the next the next is my lower self and this is the part that that calls me towards evil which tells me to just obey my lower desires that that we are on we're in this world to eat sleep and you know, reproduce that it's all just about the body, the body and the sort of the the physical pleasure. So now what's happened is Ramadan comes around. And now think about it. What has allowed done in Ramadan, Allah says that when Ramadan begins, the shell team, that the that the doors of Paradise are open, the doors of Hellfire are closed, and the and the oil team are chained. So now what Allah subhanaw taala has done in his
infinite in his infinite mercy is that he has he has taken out one of our enemies, he's tied him up literally. Right. So what does that do? It gives us a head start, it actually gives us the opportunity to be more successful at this righteous struggle. What's this righteous struggle? Well, the struggle to purify our hearts to strengthen our hearts to have called Boone Selim to have a healthy heart and to then be successful when we meet a loss of data because Allah says that nothing will benefit anyone so we can spend all of our time here making money having a lot of power, but Allah specifically says that
These two things will not benefit anyone, men and women own wealth and children children are a representation of power, especially at that time. So so so what will matter is ultimately in our success is that did we return to Allah with it with a heart that sound and now Ramadan comes around and Allah subhanaw taala chains up the external enemy. So what's left now? Just the internal enemy, our neffs right? So, so it's just you and your neffs now, right? It's just you against your neps and then Allah does something else to help us out and that is that he prescribes psyllium he prescribed fasting, right katiba la Kumasi Yama come equity of Allah Latina metacognitive la lecom that the
hood so the last time I said that he he has prescribed fasting upon you, as he is prescribed on those who came before you why, so that you will learn God consciousness. So here now Allah subhanaw taala has prescribed something that will tame the neffs that will weaken the neffs. And by taking out both of these enemies, the shell team from the external enemy through the chains, right because he ties them up. And then by weakening the neffs through fasting, Allah subhanaw taala is putting us in the absolute best position to purify our hearts to work on this project. And this is by the way is the most important project of your existence in this life is the purification of your heart, the
strengthening of your heart, because as I repeat again, yo ma young Solomon when I've been 11 at the La Habra, Caliban Salim that on the day of judgment when you return back to Los content of ultimate success will only be for those people who who came back to Allah with a healthy heart. And therefore that's the most important endeavor of our lives is to build a healthy heart to build this thing called collarbone Selim. Right That's That should be our our focus. Why? Because that's ultimate success. And to have a corrupted heart will be ultimate failure as we know, in the Quran. Allah subhanaw taala when he makes an oath, right, he does it to to to emphasize a point right? Now if you
look and you study the Quran, there is a there is a place in the Quran where Allah subhanaw taala makes the longest list of oaths and that's sort of the shrimps was Shamsi What do haha well, comedy that Allah and then Allah goes on to make these oats one after the other I believe it's 11 by his creation, in order to say what could fly Hamza caha, wakad, the whole album and this Indeed, he or she has has, has succeeded, and this is ultimate success. It's not like success. I got a raise success. I published a book success, you know, I got a promotion. This is ultimate success. Indeed he or she has, has succeeded, who purifies it, who purifies the naps? Who purifies this? The naps
are the heart the internal part will called the Hoberman this, and he has verily failed, who has allowed it to become corrupted who has corrupted it. So this is the most important endeavor that we have. And now Ramadan is here. And now we have a fighting chance to do it because shaitan is chained and our neffs is weakened. Now how can we do it? First and foremost, we have to focus on the oxygen of the heart, the food and water of the heart and that is the remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala Vica Allah subhana wa Dinah's remembrance is what keeps our heart alive. And if we are not a people who've been regular about our Salah Ramadan is the time to establish that habit. Because if you're
not praying, you're not breathing, simple, full stop. Like there's nothing else to talk about. Because prayer is the first thing you're asked about on the Day of Judgment. And I'm talking about the photo ads, right, the five daily prayers, so so the first thing we have to focus on is that is that spiritual oxygen of the Salah. All right, and Ramadan is the best time to build that habit, you know, they say it takes a certain amount of time to build a habit. And now we have that exact amount of time, essentially give or take in Ramadan. So if you build that habit in Ramadan, praying and praying on time, and make a commitment to continue to stick to your prayers afterwards, because you
have to understand that there is nothing that will benefit you if you're not praying. There's a hadith that says that the prophets I send them that the prophets I send them said that the first thing we're asked about on the Day of Judgment is our prayer. And if it is set right then then that person will be successful. And if it is not, then that person will be will have failed. And so it won't be that that that if that person says
Law isn't in order, it won't matter what else they did. That's a very, very, very intense thing to think about right? That it won't matter what else you did so so law is that thing, it's the only action keep Listen carefully. sulla is the only action that scholars disagree whether or not it takes you out of the fold of Islam. Some say it takes you out of the fold of Islam, some say maybe it takes you out of the fold of Islam. But you don't want to go anywhere near something like that. This is the only action the only sin that can actually potentially take a person out of the fold of Islam. So Salah is a serious thing. And so this has to be the first thing that we commit to, in this
condition where now we are at our you know, it's like the best condition for us to really, really come back to Allah to purify our hearts, our external enemies, chained our internal enemy is weakened through fasting. Now let's do what we need to do. And let's really take advantage of this opportunity while our enemies are, are down, you know what I mean? temporarily, yeah, so take this opportunity, build the habit of your Salah, and increased in your ticket increase in your remembrance of Allah Subhana Allah subhanaw taala through the earth, God make a habit of doing the morning and evening of God make a habit of saying the earth God before you sleep, these are the
these are the applications of the prophets, I send them that he used to say throughout his day, there are a lot of apps out there that can help you. One is my daughter got two A's at the end, fortress of a Muslim in a draft form. And there's many of them, you get one of these apps and make a commitment. You don't have to say all of them, but just say I'm going to I'm going to commit to seeing five every single morning or I'm going to commit to saying seven or 10 I'm going to put down 10 minutes and I'm going to do that or 20 minutes or however what you can commit to remember that a last minute that he loves the actions that are that are consistent even if they're small. And so the
the core and then finally, end and if most and one of the most important is the book of Allah subhanaw taala This is the month of the horrid, build a relationship rebuild a relationship, mend the relationship with the book of Allah subhanaw taala with the Quran, this is your Creator speaking to you, how can you not listen? How can you not understand how can you not make an effort to at least understand what your Creator is saying to you? If a king or a president were to send you a letter, even in a language you didn't understand you would make every effort to at least understand what's in that letter. Right. And this is not a king Gora president, this is the creator of all
kings and all presidents and and the one who has all control over every single one of them, the One Who, who, who, by his will and might allow the microscopic creation to bring all the kings and presidents to their knees just now and we're witnessing the power of a loss of habitat right now with COVID-19. So this is the most powerful, this is the creator and he sent you a personal letter right and though in the end, it's his words to us to every single one of us, and they are personally applicable to every single one of our lives. It's not like it only applied back then it actually tells your story today, so rebuild that relationship mend that relationship, strengthen that
relationship with the with the book of Allah subhanaw taala and this is how we're gonna be able to to leave this Ramadan with a heart that is purified, called buen Saleem and in sha Allah we pray that Allah subhana wa that allows us to return back to him with a heart that is sound and healthy and that Allah allows us to leave this this this life
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