Yasmin Mogahed – Refuge In The Middle Of The Storm

joins your affairs. A law gives you contentment in the heart. And a law makes this life come to you even if it hates to, that this life is in the control of Allah subhanaw taala you don't get this life by running after it. A law makes this life come to that person.

Now how do I find that refuge in the middle of the storm?

The answer is it is only in the nearness to Allah subhanaw taala. But what is it that keeps us from getting closer to Allah? A lot of times as I said, it is despair. shaitan will come to us anytime we mess up anytime we slip, and he will make us believe that we're not good enough. Or he'll make us think that there's no hope right? Just give up. One of the statements which I hate so much, is statements like, she might as well take off her hijab.

You know, this kind of attitude that the girl the sister couldn't be perfect. The sister does XYZ. She might as well take off her hijab she might as well just give up that's what we're saying. When we say things like that. We're saying you might as well give up just stop trying.

We are enabling shaitan against our sister when we say things like that.

When we tell people give up you're not good enough. That's shyt Bonnie logic that is completely signed off by shaitan Elian never says you're not good enough. Allah never says that. Well, yeah Anybody else? Aladdin Oscar for Allah and for him. latoken Ottoman Rahmatullah say, Oh, my slave who have wronged your own selves, you have, you have transgressed against your own self. Allah is not addressing the ones who are perfect. Allah is addressing the ones who have messed up. Why? Because we all mess up. Sometimes because we're human. That's part of the design. We have to remember that Allah, if Allah wanted us to be sinless, he would have made us angels. If Allah wanted us to be

perfect, he would have made us angels, there is a purpose in the design that Allah made. And that is this. And we know this for many a Hadith, the prophet SAW, Selim tells us that if we were not to sin and repent, alone would take us off the earth. Allah subhanaw taala wants us to repent, he wants us to come back to him. He wants to hear our voice. What would be the benefits

of having this type of imperfect design imperfect within the human?

You see, when I slip, and when I realized my own imperfection, what does it do inside of me?

What it does, or what it's supposed to do is it's supposed to humble me. And it's supposed to make me realize how much I need Allah.

Because here's the problem.

We human beings, we have this tendency, sometimes when we see ourselves, you know, when he you know, when a person is like first like on top of their Deen, right? Like when they first start to practice. Either they're a revert, convert, you know, newly religious, you know what I'm saying? And this is like, this is like when you're kind of in your spiritual high. And you know, your this is when you're on top of your head job. And you know what I'm saying, You're on top, you're, you're you're, you're started wearing hijab, you're you're dressing that you're involved, you're just, you know, you're kind of like spiritual Eman high, right? It's almost like being on spiritual steroids.

Right? You're like, powerful, right? Or you feel like you are. Now what comes along with that state? Typically, what comes along with that state typically is something called self righteousness. Unfortunately, isn't it when someone is like, you know, in that, like, Hi, unfortunately, one of the pitfalls of that Hi, is that I start to feel proud of myself. And I start to look down on others who are not who or who do not seem to be doing what I'm doing.

That's one of the pitfalls of seeing myself, like awesome, you know, seeing myself as as really religious.

So then what happens? Well, what happens is, this is a temporary state. This high, by definition is temporary. No, amen. High is permanent. Amen. As the prophet SAW, Selim teaches us goes up and down. This doesn't mean there's something wrong with you, it means you're human.

But the key is that when you go down in your Amen, this is where shaitan is going to come at you with hopelessness. You see, here's what happens. So I'm in my high right and we've all gone through this probably right at some point in our life. We're we're in our spiritual Eman high. But then what happens eventually is I slip in one way or another

Either I commit a sin that you know, or, or even a big sin, or I'm just not as motivated, something happens and I am no longer at that high and I start to come down. This is a very crucial place in my journey by the way. The reason it's so crucial is how I respond at this point is going to determine whether or not I am successful in the end. How I respond. It's not how I respond to the highs that's going to determine my success. It's how I respond to the lows. It's how I respond after I slip, that's going to determine my success or my failure.

When we look at the difference between Iblees and and Adam alayhis salam, we see that he believes was told to bow and he refused. And Adam was told to avoid a specific tree and he ate from it.

But there is a very big difference between obliques and Adam alayhis salam

and if I asked you what did you do wrong? You would tell me what at least did wrong as he refused to bow right?

But let me ask you this question. What if every single person who ever in their entire life missed one measure Salah was going to go to * who would go to Gemini? Exactly.

You understand what I'm saying? So you're telling me that he believes his mistake was that he didn't bow right. That's one such step how many such doesn't fudge

for right for if you in any time in your life just missed one federal law you already refused for such does that makes you four times worse than ablaze?

Does it?

So what's what's the difference? Why is it that we still have a chance to enter Jenna, even if we missed a salon in our life? We miss more than one such that this is just one federal guys.

What is the reason?

Is that Adam after he slipped his response was Robin as alumna and fusina were in lamp takfiri Lana, what are Hamner and akuna? nominal caecilian. His response after he slipped was not hopelessness. It was not despair. But it was humility. And he said, Our Lord, we have wronged our own selves. And I find this very powerful, because you know, Adam doesn't even try to blame Iblees. He doesn't even try to say shaitan made me do it.

You know what I mean? Even though shaitan is the one who deceived him. But he doesn't even blame him. What does he do? He takes full responsibility for his own actions, something we don't usually know how to do. You know what I mean? It's always someone else's fault. It's America's fault. It's Israel's fault. My point is that there's something in me that needs to change. It's not always the problem is outside. It's not always my husband's fault. My wife's fault, my kids fault, my friend's fault. They made me do it. You know, when you're a kid, and you're fighting, it's like he made me do it. Right. We always want to put the blame outside of ourselves. But Adam didn't do that Allah His

solemn. He took full responsibility for his own actions and his own mistake, and he acknowledged it and he humbled himself. Robin as alumna and fusina we wronged our own selves. We're in them takfeer Lana, what are hamdulillah and akuna minahasa Dean, and if you don't forgive us and have mercy on us, we will indeed be among the losers. He acknowledges his own mistake, and then he acknowledges his desperate need for Allah.

And that is the path to salvation. It isn't in being perfect. It isn't in saying, Well, I'm just never gonna slip because that's impossible. It's impossible for you and I to transform into angels, because that's not how we were designed. We were designed as the prophets I send them said, all the children of Adam are going to slip are going to make mistakes, but the best are those who repent.

And so our salvation and the salvation of Adam alayhis salaam was in his his default in his Toba in his return to Allah and in his seeking forgiveness from Allah subhanaw taala. As Eunice Allah His Salam did that Illa Illa Allah Subhana Allah in the quantum of volume in he acknowledged that he was among the wrongdoers This is our salvation.

We have to remember that. So when we slip and this is why I'm mentioning it. Because when we come to this low when we come to this slip, this is where we're going to determine whether or not we are successful or we fail. And that is how do we respond to the slip? How do we respond after we're no longer we no longer see ourselves as perfect?

Do we take the path of shaitan, the path of despair? Because shaitan when he made a mistake, he didn't repent. He didn't repent. He said, because you've kicked me out. You know what he's doing the exact opposite of Adam. He's blaming Allah.

He's blaming Allah for kicking him out. It's like, it's your fault. But he doesn't take that he doesn't take the responsibility. And he doesn't ask for forgiveness. He blames Allah. And then he decides to rebel until and to spend the rest of, of each of the of the time in this life rebelling against Allah and trying to take as many of us with him as possible. He didn't repent. He lost hope, at blesser. It leaves despaired. He despaired. So we have a choice. When we slip when we're no longer at that high, we can either take the path of Adam alayhis salaam or we can take the path of release. And the path of Adam is the path of hope and Toba,

of hope and Toba.

And the path of least is the path of despair. And that is why at least wants us to take that same path. That is why one of his favorite tools in his toolbox is the tool of despair to come to you and tell you just stop trying. Just give up. You might as well take off your hijab.

You might as well stop trying trying to go to the masjid, you might as well stop trying to get closer to Allah because you know what? You just keep messing up? Well, you know what, Allah knew that. And Allah tells us this. And he says, so long as we continue to go back to him, even if we keep messing up, he will continue to forgive us. This is what it means to be at Rahman and Rahim, do not realize that the most emphasized quality of Allah is the quality of His mercy. If we weren't going to mess up if we weren't going to be imperfect if we weren't meant to be imperfect, in fact, if we weren't going to sin, why would the most emphasize quality be His mercy and His forgiveness?

Allah subhanaw taala wants us to come back to him. Allah subhanaw taala wants us to seek His forgiveness. And when we do that, inside, we become polished. And you know, scholars say something very powerful. They say that sometimes, after you slip, and you make Toba, your heart can actually be more beautiful than before you slipped in made Toba.

So this idea of all you know, but I've already messed up there's no way I can fix it is completely a lie. And it's a lie of shaitan you can actually become better than you were before you slipped.

And you become you can become more humble. Because remember what I said when you were on top of your stuff and you were arrogance, and then you slipped and then you became humbled?

So let that slip not make you hopeless but make you humble and turn back to Allah subhanaw taala I'm calling calling Heather was stopped for a lonely welcome in Nova furan Rahim subhanak Hello byham Dec eyeshadow en la ilaha illa Anta stop Federico to Blake was Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.