Yasmin Mogahed – Serenity – 5 2 12

			Santa Monica, this is this meme, which I hit and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one
legacy radio. Today, I actually have a sort of a special show, I wanted to talk about something
that's actually very dear to me. And it's a topic that I hope inshallah will touch the lives of
other people. And it was sparked by something that I experienced a few months ago. And that is that
I met a woman. And for those of you who have been following my page on Facebook and or Twitter, you
know about this story, but I met a woman, her name is Taya, big. And upon a law
		

			meeting, this woman has really, really affected me very, very deeply subpanel law, this, this woman
has a special of five children. And three of her children, when they turned around the age of three,
her first child, one day, she she was, you know, she was that she was at her school. And basically,
the mother got a call from the teacher and informed the mother tayyiba that her child wasn't, wasn't
speaking anymore, she had, she had stopped talking, she just wasn't talking that day anymore. She
was completely normal. And, and then one day, she, she wasn't talking anymore. So, you know, this
was concerning to the teacher, she wasn't sure what was wrong, you know, the mother wasn't sure what
		

			was wrong. And she continued to not speak. And so she eventually, you know, she took her to the
doctor. And what she ended up finding out from the doctor was that her daughter had a rare genetic
disease called MPs. and due to this genetic disease, her daughter would never speak again. And that,
in fact, she would,
		

			little by little lose on her her ability to, to walk, to see to, to eat, to swallow. And, and she
would little by little lose all of these abilities until she eventually died. And so, this woman was
being told this about her child and then her next child, her other daughter, she, the same thing
happened to her, she, you know, started again, this, this, this pattern, and she found out when she
took her to the doctor, that she also had that same disease, and the same thing was going to happen
to her. And then her third daughter, she has three daughters and to two boys and two sons, and she
found out yet again, this child also had the same disease. So, now, she has three three daughters
		

			with this with MPs. And now, this this was many years ago, and now the three of them are, they live
in wheelchairs, they an oxygen and they they cannot speak they cannot walk, they cannot even swallow
their own saliva Subhanallah and so, I actually got the honor the humbling honor of visiting her in
her home and Subhanallah it was an
		

			extremely powerful experience, because on the one hand, you see this external situation, that is so
		

			intense, basically the three of them, you know, in their wheelchairs, and you know, oxygen tanks
around and the, the externally It was a very, very powerful and intense situation, but what really,
really moves move to me was tehava herself, actually, and
		

			when you looked at her, she was just Masha Allah, just smiling. She was she is one of the most
pleasant and, and beautiful people to be around. And it was her statement that really, really moved
me that was I am when this is this is a quote, I am drowning in gratitude.
		

			SubhanAllah it's, it's amazing to me because
		

			we have so much and we're not grateful.
		

			But she's drowning in gratitude. And what that really shows you is, this is the help of Allah
subhanaw taala that no matter what situation you're in, if Allah makes it easy for you, you can you
can smile through it, you could smile through its Panama, and right now, you know, she was she had a
need that I found out about recently just about the plays ago in the evening and that was she had a
need for her daughter.
		

			New wheelchair builders were getting too small and causing bruises on her on her on her daughter. So
she needed a new wheelchair. And I noticed this, actually, she hadn't asked me anything about I had
noticed a post that she had on her Facebook, in which they had a contest, and they were trying to,
		

			they had a contest, whoever got the most likes on a picture with the company, the wheelchair company
was going to give away a free wheelchair. So I saw that, and I thought inshallah, you know, we can
do this, right, we got this. So, we did and ended up you know, it's panela the likes went through
the roof and Hamza that she,
		

			you know, she, she's far ahead of others. And then and then I realized, as I talked, talked with her
more and more, how much of a financial crisis this woman was in. And you would never know it again,
by just talking to her and, and seeing the smile on her face. And seeing her though, that this woman
has smell lamella increase her the contentment that she has, that that she actually, I found out
that her family is very much in debt due to these medical bills, and that the community was not
helping her that she was, you know, she had tried in the past fundraise for surgeries that her
daughters needed, and, and people just did not give for years. So Pamela, and,
		

			you know, she, she needed medical beds for them, they were severely in debt, they needed to move to
another house, and they couldn't be until they fill their debts, a number of things and so panela
you know,
		

			what happened in the last 2448 hours was something very, very inspiring. And that is that when, when
we posted about her situation, SAP HANA life was absolutely amazing how much the community came
together and and gave for her for this cause. And if, you know, if you look at pages, or the the
website is there, but Subhanallah in just one day, we raised I think we're right now over $33,000 on
just one site, and there was a different one on PayPal, but Subhanallah it's just this story turned
out to be such an inspiring story, not just of, of gratitude, and and, and, you know, ease in
hardship but also of the community coming together. And really standing as one body as the prophets
		

			of I said them said that the the oma is like one body, and if any part of that body is in pain, the
rest of the body comes and, and, and acts and you know, reacts to help that part. And this is
exactly 100 that what we've witnessed, and inshallah will continue to witness and I asked you to
continue to support this cause and to spread it, and you can find them on my page and either on
Facebook or on Twitter. And so said this cause because Subhanallah This is exactly what it means to
be one body to be one oma that when you see some part that's hurting, you feel it as if it's part of
your own body. And inshallah we're gonna take a short break here. And when we return, we'll continue
		

			on the reflections from this very inspiring story.
		

			Salam aleikum. This is the end you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio. We
are talking today about gratitude. We're talking about a personal story that I've experienced, and
you know how much I learned from it and reflections on that. And inshallah I hope that this story
can be a source of inspiration for other people as well. And there's a number of different lessons
that I hope that we can take from it. One of the one of them is that you know, Allah subhanaw taala
says, For example, and they'll put n in ma Los Rios RA, and this is one that we hear you know, we've
probably heard this is since we were children, but this area is very often miss translated. And
		

			usually if you ask a person What does enamal Osorio mean, people will say, after hardship comes
ease. And this is not what the ayah says the A S has enamal three asstra and the word ma means
width, not after it doesn't say bad, bad in Arabic, bad in Arabic is after but here it says Ma, and
what that means is that with hardship comes ease with at the same time and Subhanallah This is
		

			You know, really a lesson that we can see in our lives and in the universe, every time we reflect,
we can see that any time Allah subhanaw taala gives a hardship upon someone, at the same time, he
gives them ease at the same time. And, you know, that he is comes in different forms. So what that
means is, no matter how hard something is for you, no matter how heavy a trial is, you will always
have some ease in that trial. And we don't you know, and it comes upon a lot from Allah in different
forms. So if you think back to whatever time in your life that seemed like it was the absolute
hardest time in your life, and you bring that to mind, you know, when you when you were in it, you
		

			may have just focused on the problem itself. And maybe you just felt this, the, the weight of it,
and you didn't notice the ease, but if you really reflect on it, you will see that there were there
was ease at the same time, that it wasn't entirely bad. So if Allah subhanaw taala, for example,
gave you financial difficulty at that time, but at least but you were healthy, and your children
were healthy. You may be when you you know had a health problem. Yes, your maybe your health was
compromised, but you had your amen and your amen was strong. So Subhanallah there's always you know,
in fact, it isn't just one ease, you know, with the hardship but rather so many countless Allah
		

			subhanaw taala says, well endowed dunya Mottola, he left suha if you tried just tried to count the
Nam the favors the blessings of Allah subhanaw taala, you would never be able to count them you
would never be able to. Because it's so much. It's so many you know, and we may have one hardship
and have, you know, a million eases a million blessings. We have our eyesight, we have our hearing,
we have the ability to swallow our own saliva and swallow this was something that I never even
thought about. I mean, who thinks every time they swallow, and hamdulillah I just swallowed my
saliva and I didn't choke on it. Nobody does that. Because you don't even think about it. It's just,
		

			it's just automatic. It's an it's a gift that Allah subhanaw taala gave us. And we never thank him
for it. Because we don't even notice it. We aren't even exposed to the the lack of that gift and
what that would be like, and Subhanallah when you see someone and this was, again, an eye opening
experience for me to see a woman whose child cannot swallow their own saliva, and therefore she has
to suction it, otherwise they choke on it. And that to me just absolutely blew my mind because I can
swallow my saliva and I never say Alhamdulillah for it, because it's just something we take for
granted. And there are countless things just like that. So the idea that we have to realize is that
		

			in Amal Srinivasan, Allah never will give you a hardship without also giving you countless eases at
the same time. And similarly, Allah subhanaw taala will never give you a hardship that you cannot
bear. Allah says in the, in the last episode of tillbaka law, you can live alone of sin, Allah was
that Allah never puts a burden on a person on a huge honor on any of us, except what we can bear
that we have to you know, realize that Allah subhanaw taala knows exactly what he's doing. And Allah
subhanaw taala knows exactly what we are able to carry, and what we are able to withstand. And, and
he has a perfect order. Never think that whatever it is that you have in your life, you just it's
		

			too much for you. Because if it was really too much for you, you wouldn't have it in your life.
Allow only gives you what you can bear and Allah gives you the ability to bear it. And Subhanallah
sometimes the greatest blessing, the greatest ease, the greatest provision, in the time of hardship,
is that ability to bear it, it is the sub it is the patience that he gives along with the hardship
in order for you to bear it. And if you're really blessed, it's the rudder that Allah subhanaw taala
it gives you the ability
		

			not just you know, Subhan Allah the ability, not just to say, yeah, I'm dealing with it, I'm okay.
But to say I'm drowning in gratitude. That's a whole different level. And that's what a riddle is.
That's what contentment is. And that's the highest level ask Allah subhanaw taala to to bless us
with that type of level that whenever something hits us, we are able to say no matter what it is, I
am drowning in gratitude. So Pamela, this is such an inspirational message and this is real this is
you know, handled there's there's many stories we have profits and peace be upon them all and
companions that have you know, passed away but this is
		

			This is today this is now this is a New Jersey, you know, analog this is happening and this is this
is something that we can all attain that by the help of Allah subhanaw taala no matter what he gives
us, we can we can actually make it something that is that is for us and we can even within that
hardship smile, you know Subhanallah you think about the sia and what happened to her the the wife
of Freetown and this was one of the four perfect women as the profit side of them told us and when
she was, you know, she, she had it hard, you know, she was married to the worse to being right. And
the most oppressive and he used to kill, you know, children, babies just so that they wouldn't, you
		

			know, take over and, and yet she was in that hardship she was being tortured by him and his and his
henchmen. And Allah subhanaw taala gave her the ability to see her home in Jenna. And it was through
that vision of her home in Jenna, that she was able to smile. Now imagine that you're in the midst
of your hardship, in the depth of it. And yet Allah gives you the patience and even the riddle of
the contentment to be able to smile, even in that hardship. That is the help of Allah subhanaw
taala. That is the Nasir of Allah subhanaw taala we always think that the help of Allah subhanaw
taala only comes when the hardship is removed. But that's true. the help of Allah subhanaw taala is
		

			the is the karma, the ability to be steadfast in the heart, the ability to have patience, in the
hardship and the ability even to have thought and contentment in the hardship. When you think about
the the people of the ditch and you think about what happened to them and how they ended up in the
woman who whose children were thrown into the ditch and were burned. And and you know, here we look
at the story and we say man, it's a depressing story. They all ended up dying, they all ended up
going into the ditch. Where was the help of Allah. And yet, the help of Allah came in the ability of
that woman to stay steadfast that that woman was able to stay steadfast on on her fifth on her he
		

			meant even despite what was going on with her, and that Allah subhanaw taala gave her the aid the
ease in that her own child said to her, her own child spoke to her and said, have issues you are on
the truth. And so that was where Allah subhanaw taala gave him his and his and his help is that he
made her able to be steadfast and this is what we asked Allah Subhana Allah for is that that in our
hardship, it is not the hardship that we really should be afraid of. But we should be afraid that a
hardship would hit us and we are not in the refuge of Allah subhana wa Tada. That is what we should
fear. Because if you have shelter, you don't worry about a storm. If you have shelter, you don't
		

			worry about rain. If you have food, you don't worry about hunger, but the only time you worry about
rain or storms or hunger is when you don't have food or when you don't have shelter. So we ask Allah
subhanaw taala that he always give us that food and that risk of his neediness and of sub and an end
of Ramadan at the highest level and of his refuge and his daughter, inshallah may take another short
break and when we return I'll be hearing from you in the chat box.
		

			Salam Alaikum This is Jasmine Mujahid and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy
radio. I want to go ahead and look at the chat box and respond to your comments and your questions.
But before I do that, I want to remind you first you know about the website and about donating and
sharing this this cause this family needs our support not just now but but regularly monthly.
inshallah we hope to set up something to help them monthly. I did post the the link in the chat box
as well as on my on my on my page. And I also want to remind you about the podcasts for serenity on
one legacy radio. It is it is really important and I asked you to subscribe to serenity I we need to
		

			support the radio station and for basically a nominal fee 995. You get access to all the podcasts
		

			for an entire year on serenity, and what that does is, you know, a lot of times people can't
necessarily catch it live. And so this gives you access to the podcast anytime you can download it,
you can have it, listen to it anytime you can burn it onto CDs, whatever you want to do, but it
gives you that unlimited access, and most importantly, it also supports the radio station and we
want to inshallah support this, this effort and inshallah bless it. So in Shall I ask you to
subscribe, you can go to my page, www dot Yes, mean with jahad.com. That's why SMINMOGH ed.com. And
if you go to the bottom of the page, it tells you, there's like a link where you say get access.
		

			Now, go ahead, and you can click on that, and it can give you the the way to subscribe, I'm sure
that you'll get a username and password. And after that you have access to all the podcasts for a
year, inshallah. So just a couple things one person had suggested, and I want to share the
suggestion in the chat box, that every day, just thinking and bringing to mind the things that you
are grateful for, in fact, vanilla researchers in psychology and in basically the Science of
Happiness, what they have found is that there's something the theory holds that basically people
have a certain level of happiness, and not much changes it in general. So if like a tragic thing
		

			happens to you, that level dips for a while, but then you basically go back to your kind of your
threshold of happiness, your your your level, and if something good happens, you know, you win a
million dollars you get married, whatever it is, it'll it'll go up for a little bit. And then you go
back to that same level, that there's kind of like this level of happiness, and it's a little bit,
it's not much moves it up or down, except very temporarily, and this is this has been replicated a
lot in psychological research. But one thing that they did find among the few things that can
actually increase your threshold or your level, your base level of happiness is gratitude.
		

			SubhanAllah, that just being grateful, more grateful can actually just make you an overall happier
person. So besides it being a part of you're a better part of your, your worship to Allah subhanaw
taala, to thank him and to be grateful to him, it actually is good for you, that it makes you
happier and makes you a happier person and a better person. So it's something that is extremely
important that we do regularly is think about all the things and thank Allah subhanaw taala, for all
the things that we are grateful for, not only the things that we have, not only the things that have
happened to us, but for the things that have not happened to us, and will come to the lab, we also
		

			have not gotten into a car accident and become paralyzed, we also have not lost all of our
belongings, you know, there's a lot of things that have not happened to us that have happened to
others. So we ask Allah subhanaw taala and we thank him for the things that we have and and the
things that have happened and the things that have not at all that Allah subhanho data has protected
us from and Allah has protected us from a lot handed up.
		

			Lastly, there was the question that what do you do when you have events that are haunting you from
your past or a hardship in the context of hardship? And again, you know, the answer that I would
give is the answer for everything is Deanna that Allah subhanaw taala seek refuge in Allah. Allah is
the refuge and the only refuge when we pray at least 17 times a day we say he can't Nabu what Yeah,
can a Stein at least 17 times a day if we're just praying our five prayers, just those we say to
Allah, new alone, do we worship and You alone do we seek help from and and so what I what we really
need to internalize and understand is that Allah is the only refuge Allahu mastan Allah is the only
		

			refuge in every single thing that we face. whether it's good or it's bad or it's easy or it's hard.
Allah is the only refuge so I I say seek refuge and Allah subhanaw taala ask Allah subhanaw taala to
to cure you to save you to make it easy on you. Because the only one who can cure us the only one
who can save us the only one who can make things easy is Allah subhanaw taala and know that nothing
is easy, except what Allah subhanaw taala has made easy aloha melesa Hola, illa majra alto Santa, Oh
Allah there is nothing that is easy except what you have made easy and if Allah wills he can make
the hardest thing easy as we see in the case of ESEA and as we see in the case of Thai have a big
		

			accordion Holly Heather was stopped for a lot he will come in our phone Rahim was salam wa Alaykum
warahmatullahi wabarakatuh