Yasmin Mogahed – Serenity – Closing The Gap How To Come Back To Allah
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Santa Monica, this is Jasmine Mujahid and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio.
We are the title for today's show is
closing the gap how to come back to Allah subhanaw taala. And it's a show for for those people who feel, and this is something we often many of us probably have felt at one point or another in our lives, that we are so far away from Allah soprano data, and we don't know how to come back. And so
today's show is actually sort of about about that topic and about how how do we deal with that when we do feel distant from Allah subhanho data. But before I begin on that topic, I actually wanted to share a personal experience, which was very powerful for me, and I hope that inshallah we can gain some lessons from it for for listeners, and again, a reminder for myself. And as some of you know, I live in Southern California, and this is, you know, where we air the show, and last night, I was asleep. And I actually got woken up by an earthquake, and Subhanallah, the, the, if you can imagine what what that's like when you're, you're it's you're basically unconscious, in a sense when you're
asleep, and then all of a sudden, you're being shaken and Hanalei in me, you know, when that happened, the the thought, you know, that it brings to mind is that this is this is a loss of Hano data reminding us and I posted a status actually about it last night, and then Subhanallah this morning, I was also asleep and got woken up by another earthquake. And, and so I, you know, I just, I can't not reflect on this. Because,
you know, so many of us are asleep. And we we don't really realize, and Allah subhanaw taala is waking us up, that these things, for example, the earthquake that that I felt last night and the earthquake that I felt again, this morning, and in the earthquake, that that everyone in this in this area felt is just a reminder from Allah subhanaw taala out of his mercy, of just a glimpse of what the day of judgment will be like, lots of panel data tells us in nuzzles ela society, shame on that, indeed, the shaking of the of the Day of Judgment of the hour, is a mighty thing. We are supposed to be waking up from our slumber we're supposed to be waking up and realizing that all of
these things that are distracting us are just putting us to sleep, and we need to wake up because every one of us will be woken up whether we like it or not at the time of our death. Our death is not really a death, but it's actually a waking up. It's a it's it crossing over to another life and it's it's the real the real life now. The life we're in now, is sort of the test drive. It's Allah subhanaw taala says, In Surah Al mulk tabarrok Allah DB at the hill molk hawala coalition codere and levy Hala col Mota, while Hayato Leah bluer, komyo, Kumasi and Amina, it is he who created death and life in order to test you which of your best in deeds, this whole creation of death and life in this
in this world, the creation of death itself, the creation of life itself in dunya is to test us which of us are best indeed. And we don't really wake up from this dream like state of dunya until we die.
But but but the goal of a believer is to wake up earlier the goal of a believer is to be able to wake up while they're still alive in this in this world. And waking up means that you're able to see this life for what it is that it is a test. That it is ultimately an illusion. That if you if you depend on the things in this world, you will be let down because these things are not real in and of themselves. They are all the creations of Allah subhanaw taala and reflections of him he is the source and if we don't see that if we can't see through everything in this life and and and view Allah subhanaw taala behind it that
We have missed the point, then we have become distracted, then we have fallen asleep. And Allah subhanaw taala out of his mercy sends us things to wake us up, literally, literally to wake us up, he shakes us. And Subhanallah It's, um, again, this isn't something that that I can just say, for, you know, literary effect. But this is literally, this is actually what what happened to me twice in the last 12 hours is I was actually woken up, physically woken up by two earthquakes. And this is this is just a reminder of Alice pano data, reminding us to wake up, we are really asleep. And we're running after things. We're running after money. We're running after other people we're running
after what, what, what keeps us up at night? It's wondering, and worrying about what are people thinking of me? And what have people done to me? And what are people going to do to me? And, and what's happening with my reputation or my status? Or, you know, what, what's happening with my career? And, and and am I losing money? Am I gaining money? I mean, the things that are consuming our minds and our hearts are all just illusions, we are fast asleep. And what today's show is about is about waking up from that sleep. And how do you do that. Because when you're asleep, you're you're you're not aware of the reality. When you're asleep, you're in a dream world. And you think,
while you're asleep, that the dream world is real, right? When you have a dream, you believe while you're in the dream that it's very, very real. If it's a good dream, or it's a bad dream, if it's a good dream, you're very happy with it. And if it's a bad dream, you're terrified. But you believe that it's real while you're in it. And it's only when you're able to wake up from that dream that you look back, and you see the dream for what it is. And you know that it was just an illusion, and that it was absolutely temporary. We know only when we wake up that a dream actually only lasts a few seconds. Similarly, when we wake up from this life, and the people on the Day of Judgment, ask
each other. How long were you in that life, people will say Yeoman elbahr, the young, the people will say a day or part of a day. And then they'll say ask those who are keeping track. Because it will feel like nothing It will feel like like it was even not even a full day. And yet while we are in this dream of dunya, it feels so real. And it feels like it will never end until something comes to shake us. And this is actually what happens when we encounter events in our life, which wake us up. Sometimes those events are tragic, sometimes those events are lost. Sometimes those events are things that, that bring us back to Allah subhanaw taala because it shows us it exposes for us our
own desperate need for him. And I don't know, you know, there are few better examples than an earthquake. When you sit in you reflect on an earthquake. And you compare it to, for example, some other natural disasters, I used to live in the Midwest where the natural disaster was tornadoes. And in in, in Wisconsin, where I grew up, we would we'd have something called a siren, tornado siren. And it was something they would they would practice, you know, so it was the first Wednesday of every month, they would play the siren. It was there was a system for predicting tornadoes, you could you could somewhat predict it, you could spot it, you can, you can see where it is, you know,
using their system, you can see you can follow where where it's going. You can give people warnings, there's there's a system called a tornado watch and a tornado warning. You know, the watch means that the weather is in, you know, is it's the type of weather that could be, you know, conducive for a tornado and a tornado warning means they've actually spotted one. So it's like you feel some sort of maybe some false sense of security that at least you can know ahead of time, you can predict it somewhat. And you can, you know, take shelter, but with an earthquake, you know, and even even with a with a tornado is there's this there's this concept of taking shelter, right? For a tornado,
you're supposed to get under the ground because a tornado can just, you know, just go as at ground level. And so there's, you know, you need to have like basements and those types of places and that kind of things go underground. So, you know, you you have these two things, you have a somewhat of a warning and then you have a place you can go for shelter. But when you reflect about an earthquake, it's so scary because there's like really no warning. It just hits it just shakes you
And, and and where are you going to go? When the whole earth is shaking? Where are you going to go to hide? You know, where is that shelter where it's where you can run away from it. And I think that's just such a sign of Allah subhanaw taala and and of his power that you cannot escape a Lost Planet Allah except by going to have us upon Allah Allah Allah is land melda while Amanda mink Lake, that there is no there is no refuge, there is no there's no way to hide from Allah subhanaw taala except in Allah subhanaw taala He is the only refuge and he is the only thing that we should be running away from and running to Subhana Allah we run away from the anger and the displeasure of
Allah subhanaw taala by running to the the protection and pleasure of Allah subhana wa tada it's it's it's an it's there's there's nothing else like it were that the only thing we should really be protecting ourselves from is him. And the only thing we should really be protecting ourselves in is him. It's just him. La ilaha illAllah so this this who this waking up this awakening is where we have to, we have to go back to we have to, we have to shake out of this coma that we're in, we are so drunk with the with the love of this life. And you know Allah subhanaw taala says, yo Matata nessa sakara will now home be sakara while at kinaba law he should eat that day when he's describing
the shaking of the Day of Judgment. He says on that day when you see the people drunk, but they're not drunk. It's that the that the punishment of Allah subhanaw taala is severe. And and so we're, we're those people are being described as as acting as though they're drunk from the terror. We we are Subhanallah we are asleep and we are drunk. But we are we are so intoxicated with the love of his life. And we need to really wake up out of that. The question is, how do we do that, it begins by seeing the reality for what it is, you see, that this life is something that is given to us for a particular reason, Allah subhanaw taala did not do anything without a purpose. He didn't just put us
in this life to eat, drink and be merry, and just you know, buy buy clothes, and get a big house you know, get get get married, make money and then die. That is not the reason why he put us in this world, there is a there is a there is a purpose, why you have been created, there is a purpose why I have been created. And if we are not seeking that purpose, then we will have failed this, this this test, we will have failed the ultimate reason of why all of this is here. Now, if you think about these, these people who go through life and never really ask, why am I here? Where am I going? It's a lot like a person who is living one day in, say they're living in Los Angeles. And the next day
they find themselves in a completely new place, a deserted island and on the other side of the globe. And that person gets up looks around and says Oh, okay, and then they just start living their life and and never ask, how did I get here? Or why am I here? And who brought me here? And what? You know, how do I get back home? You know, no one, no one would act that way. If we weren't all of a sudden found ourselves on a deserted island tomorrow, we would probably ask a couple questions, we would probably wonder how we got there, and what we're doing there, and how to get back home. Right? And and this is really the the the types of basic questions that we need to be asking about this
world. We just ended up here. We just ended up here. And we don't bother to ask why we don't bother to ask how we got here. We don't bother to ask where we're going or why we're here. We don't bother to ask how do we get back home? And these are questions that as believers we need to ask. And we need to find the answers to these questions which Allah subhanaw taala has given us a lot throughout time has sent messengers to give us the answers to these questions from the beginning of time. Allah has never left us alone when he sent Adam alayhis salaam down to this earth. He told him that if there comes to you as there will a guidance from me who ever follows that guidance on them shall be
no fear nor shall they grief that left home phone Allah him while at home. Yes, I know that. That if Allah subhanaw taala is saying this. When he sent Adam down to this earth. Yes. He is sending Adam
down to this earth, to a place where there will be some people who will be enemies to one another there will be bloodshed, there will be these things, but and this is the very important but there will be a guidance that Allah will send throughout time, and he will preserve and he will never allow it to be lost. throughout time, every, every every instance that were the the guidance, or the message was corrupted or lost Allah subhanho that renewed it, Allah sent a new messenger because Allah promises this guidance to us and allowed promises to preserve it. So we never have to worry about where am I going to get guidance? Or is that guidance going to be there? The guidance is
promised to us as it was promised to Adam alayhis salam, when he first was sent down to this earth. The question is only am I following that guidance? Am I seeking the answers to those questions? And if I am, then there will be no fear upon me, nor shall I grieve. inshallah, I will take our first short break now. And returning we will continue on this question of how do I return to Allah subhanaw taala
Salam Alaikum This is Yasmin Raja heads, and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio. Today we are talking about this question of closing the gap and what to do when we feel distant from Allah subhanaw taala? And how do we go back? This is a question that I think we all face at one point or another. If we're paying attention, I think that it's only when when the heart is dead, that it doesn't even notice the distance between along that that person and Allah subhana wa Tada. If we feel that distance, then at least it means there is some life left in the heart. And there is always a chance to come back to Allah subhanaw taala. And to close that gap. We
I shared this morning earlier in the show, I shared the story about something that happened to me this just this morning, and also last night, and that is that I was fast asleep and I got woken up by an earthquake twice. It happened last night at around 11:30pm and again this morning, and Subhanallah just the the reflections and the signs that we can really learn and the lessons that we can learn from this. We need to wake up we need to come back to Allah subhanaw taala Allah is reminding us a lot in his mercy sends us these things to remind us he shakes the earth to remind us about a about the real shaking, right? This is just
you know, the, this is just a glimpse. The real shaking is the shaking of the day of judgment in nuzzles, Allah tissa t shaped and indeed the shaking of the hour is a mighty thing. That is the real shaking and this is Allah reminding us this is a loss upon without a warning us. We need to wake up, we are asleep and we need to wake up but how do we wake up? First we need to see this world for what it is. We need to ask these questions. Why am I here? What is my purpose? It did Allah subhanaw taala put me here just to run after my career just to make a lot of money just to get married. Just to to look a certain way just to have a certain status or just so people can say really great things
about me or or just so people can think highly of me is that why Allah subhanaw taala put me here. And if we think that that's why Allah subhanaw taala put us here, we are sorely mistaken Allah subhanaw taala had a much more sublime purpose for us. Allah says yml up to general ends allele Abu don't. We have not created jinn and human beings except to fulfill our Buddha told las panatela except to worship Him and end to end to know Him and to love Him and to obey Him. This is our purpose. Why are we why why this life? Why dunya why would why was life and death created a lot also tells us leaf blower comm au Kumasi anomala. In order to test you which of you are best Indeed, this
is the reason why Allah created death and life. It is to test us
If we're being tested, the question we have to ask ourselves is, how are we doing in that test, because we all get a grade at the end of the test. But the difference between this test and the tests that we take in our universities is that the professor in our universities does not help us in our test. The professor's in fact not allowed to help in in those tests, if you were taking a test and you raise your hand, and you tell the professor, Hey, can you help me out with this exam? Can you can you tell me the answer, you're probably going to be in a lot of trouble because that's cheating. And we sometimes view the tests of Allah subhanaw taala. In the same way, we think that
when the test is given to us, that we have to answer on our own and, and we're not allowed, we think we're not allowed to raise our hand and ask for help. But that's couldn't be farther from the truth. Allah subhanaw taala is not giving you the test, so that he can stand back. And he's high above any analogy, he so that he can go back and just watch. And he can just watch and see how you do without any you know, any help. That's not the point. The reason that's not the point is because none of us, none of us, no matter who we are, can do anything without his help. So if we think that we're going to take this test, and you know, I got this and, and I'm going to do this on my own, and I'm going
to rely on me, right, this self sufficiency, that the human being has an, I'm going to rely on me, and I'm going to be firm and I'm going to do this, we will fall because we cannot rely on me. I cannot rely on me because I am a creation and I am weak and there is no way that I can achieve anything without his help. Lehre Hola. While our quwata illa Billah there is no change in state or power or strength except by Allah. This is the prophet Isaiah. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has said that this statement, La hawla, wala quwata illa is is a treasure from the treasures of Jenna, we need to reflect on this statement. We are not we have no power or strength, we cannot
change anything, we cannot do anything except by Allah. So when that exam is given to us, and if we're not asking for Allah's help, then we will, we will fail, we have to ask, we have to seek Allah subhanaw taala. And know this, that is the purpose of your test, the purpose of your test is to raise your hand and ask for help Allahu Akbar Subhana Allah, it is completely different than the creation, the creation doesn't want to help you, the creation wants to watch the creation wants, you know that Allah subhanaw taala if you run to Allah, and you, the more you run to a loss of pinata, and you beg for help, the more he comes towards you, Allah tells us if you take one step towards
him, he takes 10 steps towards you, if you go towards Allah, walking, Allah comes with speed, this is Allah subhanaw taala. But when you go towards the creation, running, guess what happens, the creation runs away from you, that is the nature of the creation, as opposed to the nature of the Creator, when you run after dunya dunya runs away from you, when you are weak in front of dunya dunya steps on you, but when you are weak in front of Allah subhanaw taala and when you run to a lot and you ask for help from him, he comes towards you more. In fact, when you humble yourself in front of Allah subhanaw taala he elevates you and when and yet Subhana Allah when we try to you know if we
if we do that with the creation, when we when we come to the creation helpless and and in need and empty, you will find that you will only be humiliated further, when you go to the creation like that, and you go to the creation for help and you go to the creation for you know to fill your emptiness, right your absolute need. This doesn't mean we never seek help from the creation. Yes, we go to the doctor and we we ask our friends for help and that's, that's fine. That's a gift from Allah subhanaw taala. But I am talking about absolute need. When I am in my my absolute lowest place when I am absolutely empty and I am in absolute need. Where do I turn first. And if it's to Allah
subhanaw taala he elevates you and he fills you and he comes nearer to you. And if it's to the creation, it's the complete opposite we become humiliated further, and the creation and the dunya only runs away from you. The more you run after it, the more it runs away from you, though knowing this life for what it is it is a test. If you know that then you'll do a lot better if you're sitting in a class and teacher hands out a piece of paper
paper, and you think that that piece of paper is just, you know, scratch paper, you're probably not going to take it very seriously, whatever is on that paper. But if that Professor tells you, what I'm handing to you right now is your final exam. And you know that your performance on that exam is going to be significantly better than if you thought it was just some scratch paper to scribble on. Our problem is a lot of us believe that this life is just scratch paper to scribble on, that it's just pointless, that there's no real, you know, reason why we're here. We're just kind of going through the motions. You know, we're just, I feel like doing this. So I do it, right, I have this
inclination. So I follow it. I'm just being taken this way, in that way, by my own desires, and by the trends of society, society tells me to dress a certain way. I hear and I obey, you know, there was a point when, when jeans actually looked like jeans, you know, and now, over time, they've become tights. And it's like, nobody seems to notice this, this change. And, and I mean, I've, I, I've watched this and it's just, it's amazing, but it's like, somehow become normal. That jeans are no longer pants anymore, even their tights and ends and we just, we just go with the trend. If society says, This isn't style now we hear and we obey. Tomorrow society says Actually, these
tighter jeans are in style now. So we hear and we obey. And now you know, we're at a point where it really there's no difference between tights and jeans. And we hear and we obey and we just we do what society commands us to do. This isn't the way we should be. As as believers, Allah, Allah's Messenger has told us, that when we become that way, when we become just, you know, just going with the trend, and we have no firm firmness, that we become like the froth on the ocean, and the Prophet sallallahu Sallam predicted the state that we would be in, in this in this at this time. And he said, that there will come a time, when your enemies will come and attack you, like, like wolves or
like, you know, prey, how they they come and attack their prey, they will call others to also attack you, and the companions, they heard this, and they asked, Is it because we will be small in number and the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said, No, it you will actually be large in number, but Allah will take the fear from the hearts of your enemies of you, and instead put one in your hearts. And when they asked what is when he said, Hope it dunya will cut out here to mount it is the love of dunya the love of this life and the hatred of death, we see that the condition we are in this this you know the the prophets I send them described that we will be like the froth on the ocean, you know
the scum, if you look at any, you know, if you when you look at the ocean, you'll see that above the waves, there's just these like bubbles like kind of scum, and it has no weight. It's it's it has no direction, it kind of just goes where the trend or where the tide takes it. And this is the way we as an oma have become and this is what the prophet sallallahu Sallam predicted and what he said would happen, we become that way. And the reason we become that way, and what is the result, the result is that our enemies come and attack us, like, like wolves come and collect others to eat their prey. I mean, look at us, look at where we are in the world, look at what's happening to us.
And and we're told that the reason this happens is because of this, this one in our hearts, we are so in love with dunya. And we are so afraid of death, we are so afraid of returning to Allah subhanaw taala, we don't even want to think about our meeting with Allah, we don't even want to anyone to speak about it, that we are going to die. We are so in love with dunya. And as a result, it has made us so weak, it has made us in the situation that we are, we are in now, in order to bring us back from that situation, we have to remove this one from our hearts we have to remove and wake up from this love of dunya this, this this deep slumber that we're in, and this drunkenness
with the love of life. And he you know, the only way to do that is to really see this life for what it is. And one of the easiest ways. One of the easiest ways to see this life for what it is, is when you compare it to something better when you compare it to something more real. And if you look at this example, if you think about a child who is so in love with a toy car, it might it might be a very fancy car. It's a Ferrari, right a toy Ferrari, and that child cannot let go of the desire for that Ferrari that show
saw it in the store window and cannot let it go. And that child continues to just be obsessed with it every time he walks by the store, he wants that Ferrari. But what happens when that child grows up, and now the child sees through the store window to a real Ferrari, what happens to his attachment to the fake Ferrari what happens to his his love and obsession for the toy car? Naturally what happens is it just completely is overpowered by the the law and the you know, the love that He has for the real one, he saw the real thing. So the fake model becomes small in his eyes. And this is the same thing with with this life. We We were so in love with this this life, like that toy car
because we don't see the real car we don't see the real thing. The real thing is, is the Hereafter, Allah subhanaw taala describes this life as a higher it is the life higher the dunya in the same as Allah subhanaw taala describes the hereafter as a high ln, and this word in Arabic is an exaggerated form of the word life. It's the exaggerated more real, more true life, the Hereafter is the real life, this life is the lower life You can see this even in the word that a lot chose for this life. Dunya dunya means that which is lower from the from the root word that means that which is lower by definition, this life is the lower life and we can only see it as the lower life when we compare it
to the to the real life to the higher life and that's akhira you know, once you do that, it becomes a lot easier to let go of the obsession. But what we have to do that we have to see the hereafter we have to see Allah subhana wa Tada. And when you compare Allah to anything in this life, what is this life compared to Allah subhanaw taala? What, what is this life compared to the pleasure of Allah? What is this life and everything in it compared to being with Allah, in the Hereafter, or even before even before the hereafter being with a lot in this life? You know, that the scholar, as a scholar said, He who does not he who does not enter the paradise of this life will not enter the
paradise of the hereafter. What is the paradise of this life, the paradise of this life that he's referring to? Rama de la la, is the nearness to Allah in this life, the pleasure of Allah knowing that Allah is pleased with you feeling close to him, that is the paradise of this life. And if that's something we didn't experience in this life, then then you know, then we won't experience it in the hereafter. This is this this life and everything in this life is is just the a glimpse of the hereafter. Those people who are near to Allah subhanaw taala in this life will be nearest to Allah subhanaw taala in the next life was sabich una sabby hoon, Allah akel mojarra boon that those who
are foremost in their worship of Allah in this life, Allah akel mokara boon they will be the ones who are nearest to Allah subhanaw taala in the next life, sha Allah we will take another short break now and when we return we will continue on this important topic of returning to Allah subhana wa tada
Assalamu alaikum This is Yasmin Raja ahead and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio. We are continuing the discussion today about how to return to Allah subhanaw taala when we feel so far away from him, and you know, in order to get somewhere
to get to any destination, we have to be able to remove the barriers that keep us from that destination. And in this path to a loss of Hano data there are also barriers that keep us away from reaching our final goal which is Allah subhanaw taala himself some of those barriers that we need to know and remove. One of the barriers is our own sense
Every time we commit a sin, it puts us a black spot on our heart. And that black spot remains there if we do not repent, the next time we commit a sin, another black spot is put on our hearts. And again, it remains there if we do not repent. And over time, the the presence of those black spots actually makes it easier to send the next time. So it was maybe a little bit difficult the first time but it becomes easier the next and then even easier. The third and and progressively, as our heart gets covered more and more by the stain of those sins by those black spots, our heart becomes more and more sick, and a sick heart doesn't feel any more the pain of committing sin, it doesn't
feel any more even aware of that sin and until the heart becomes covered with those black spots and I would have believed the heart can become dead.
And so the question then is how do we cure these things can be Can Can someone come back if their heart is dead and can someone come back if the heart is sick? And the answer is absolutely unless panel data tells us and sort of tell Hadid lm yet in in in levena M and duck shark oolitic Lila woman as lm l Huck. Well, I akuna Kala Dina O'Toole Kitab amin kaaboo, football Allah human meadowfoam Casa Kuru boom, Allah is warning us in this area. Do not be like those people. But he begins by saying has the time not come nm yet and in in levena, M and o and doc sharp pulumi decree law as a time not come for the hearts of the believers to be humbled by the remembrance of Allah
subhanaw taala and then he warns us and says Well, I A Kanaka levina cateva min of cabbage. And, and they don't be and that they do not be like those who were given the book before fourth holiday who want me to focus at Hulu, boom. And so the time you know went over, you know, time
lasted and time went by, and their hearts became hardened. And Allah is telling us that, you know, he's he's telling the believers here, right and he's he's addressing the believers? Is it not time that our hearts should we come humbled by his remembrance woman as a liminal Hawk and what he has revealed from the truth, and the and what he has revealed from the truth, and that we don't be like those who came before that, that that you know, over time, you know, at first you you you hear something and, and you know, maybe it affects you but you know, over time, these is the stain of sin, for example, takes over, and we're not repenting. And so our hearts become hardened. And Allah
then goes on to say in the next day, and this is the hope of Allah subhana wa tada you know, some people who don't understand this, might think that that allows changing subjects in the next day, right? That Allah subhanaw taala now is talking about the dead Earth right like, first he's talking about the hearts and then the next idea and certain Hadith he talks about the the earth that Allah is the one who gives life, he's saying to us know that Allah is the one who gives life to the dead land to the dead Earth. So what is the connection here, and you can see that a lot in the ayah before is talking about the dead hearts, about the hardened hearts. And then in the next day, he's
saying that, that the hardened and dead Earth Allah can give life to it. So we are supposed to know that if Allah the same, you know, the same one who can give life to the dead land, can give life to the dead heart, we can always go back to Allah subhanaw taala and repent. And this is really the the practical steps that we can take out of this inshallah Our hearts are covered with these stained with the stain of our sins. And those sins, create a barrier between us and the law that is our barrier, but it's a barrier that we created with our own hands. And it can be removed through Toba it can be removed through is too far through repenting to Allah subhanaw taala coming back to Allah
consistently, it's not something we just do once. It's not just something you know, we you know, one day we decided we're gonna repent to Allah subhanaw taala and stop clubbing and we decided to wear hijab and that's it. We repented once and now we live through you know, go through a life. That isn't the way it works because all of us sin every single day. We are human beings. And we need to constantly be cleaning the heart. No human being would go a month without taking a shower. I mean, that's just gross, right? And yet we go long periods of time without cleaning our hearts. We clean our bodies, we take care of our bodies. We feed our bodies, but we we leave our our
Our souls to starve. And and you know this, this brings us to the next barrier that ends up you know, keeping us from Allah subhanho data. And that is the the something called hafla heedlessness, we are so distracted by everything around us. We are so distracted by our families and our school and our career and our and our apps on our phone and our texts and our and our internet. Facebook, we're just really so distracted, there's no moment when we can just pause and just think right and reflect like what am I doing? And how am I doing and and where where is my relationship with a lot? And what am I going to in what state Am I going to be when I stand in front of him? Am I prepared to
meet Allah subhanaw taala and in remembering that this is something which our Prophet peace be upon him told us to do regularly he told us to remember death. Are we doing that? Or is it something we're trying to avoid? Because we're so caught up in in just partying and just being in this life and you know, all different stages of life. We get caught up in different things but it's all dunya it's all dunya Allah talks about this in the Quran, you know when he says and also sort of that Hadid when Allah subhanaw taala says that Allah mo and Hayato dunya live on Willa Han was enough. And he goes on and lay in names one after the other, know that the life of this world is play and
amusement. And well I born when I was 18. And what I found hold on beynac omata, Catherine and Phil and Wiley will lead. You know, we go from one type of dunya obsession to another, depending on our stage in life. So when you're young dunya is all about play. Right? That's all you care about when you're little is just playing. And you know, anyone who has children knows that kids get very upset if you take away their playtime, you know that they wake up in the morning and the first thing they ask is, you know, can we go play with a friend? Or can we go to Chucky cheese? Or can we you know, it's it's all that occupies their mind is just playing. And then and then we move on to Lego as we
get older. Now, what not so much playing with action figures matters so much to us. But now it's more about amusement, entertain me, right? The video games and the movies and the music. It's it's entertainment business now that matters. Once you get to, to be you know, a little bit older and middle school and that, that kind of thing.
Live on what I own was in a tone, Xena tone was next. And Xena is you know kind of how you appear right? This beautification. And when you look at again, the next stage, maybe around High School, those of you who who know or remember, or are in that stage, what matters most is how you look how you appear. What are you wearing, you know, what brand, how does your hair look, this is the stage in our life where we spend an hour getting ready, or more who knows. This is the time when it when it's like it really matters, what one looks like, again, the aspect of dunia that one becomes lost and at that particular stage. And then you get older, tough at home beynac home and you get older
and it's about boasting. It's about which college did I get into? Which did you get into which Job did I get? How much money are you making? How much am I making? It's it's that we have to kind of have our status and and we have to feel accomplished and and kind of show off at that point and and compare ourselves to others boasting? What's up Katherine Phil Mr. Lee will I'll let you get a little older and and get settled. And now you're competing about money and children. You're competing about who has the bigger house and who has the nicer car? And what is my child doing compared to what your child is doing? How How big was my, my child's wedding? And how fancy and how
much money are we in debt, compared to how much you are? And how fancy was your wedding. And, you know, it's it's this, this now the competition becomes my child versus yours and, and money and, and how fancy our houses and our cars are. But you know, Subhanallah whether it's play or, or amusement, or, or Xena, or appearances and beautification, or boasting, or competing and money, or children, all of these things Allah is telling us, this is the highest, this is the life of this world. All of these things are things that pass away. And he goes on to give us the example in this area of of a garden, that that is very pleasing to the one who's who's who's planting it. Until it you know over
time what happens to that garden is it starts to crumble, and it starts to wither. And there's nothing left after that. Except Jenna or jahannam. This is a this is a metaphor that Allah subhanaw taala is telling us is giving us in this ayah to explain what is this life it's like that garden. It looks beautiful for a moment and we get very caught up in it but at the
And it crumbles. And all that's left is whether we were up whether we are among the people of Jenna. And we ask Allah subhanaw taala to make us among those who don't mean, or we are among the people of jahannam were with Avila We ask Allah to protect us from being among those, that's all that ends. That's all the result is of this garden that looked really, really nice for a while we can see this throughout this life, that the most beautiful things are beautiful for a moment. And a person a supermodel, it could be the the superest model in the world. But you know, what happens to them 10 2030 years later, they change. They look different. This is the center of this life, the most
beautiful flower will be beautiful for about two days. And then it withers. This is intended to teach us a law says that these are Signs for those who reflect and we need to start waking up and reflecting on these things. When you're woken up from asleep because of an earthquake. And you don't reflect he means that you're still asleep. You need to reflect you need to wake up and and think about these things. The things that are happening to you in your life are all signs. You just have to start to study them. You cannot go through your life in a coma. And just think that everything is random. It's not random. It's happening. And it's happening to teach you something it's happening
for you to seek, you know, for you to get a lesson out of it. Allah subhanaw taala is always speaking to us. We ask for a lot to send us signs. Allah is always sending signs Allah is always speaking to us. But we just don't understand. And the reason we don't understand is because we're so caught up in our apps, and in our phones and in our internet and in our jobs and our family and our friends and and all of the things that we're running after we're just so distracted, we need to wake up and come back to Allah subhanaw taala and really reflect on what is it that we're doing, and and how and where are we going? How are we going to be with Allah subhanaw taala we need to purify our
hearts. Buy buy through Toba. And that's the cleaning of the heart. And the other barrier we spoke about is love, love, love. Love is this heedlessness that we're caught up in all these things? What is the cure to this barrier? It is the remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala the vicar, the cure is the kid we need to remember a lot more. We don't remember him enough. At the very basic level.
If we're not praying five times a day, on time, then there is no way that we're going to have any hope of being successful in this life for the next because what we are doing is we are covering our hearts. From the remembrance of Allah we are covering our own hearts from Allah by not praying, and we're doing something else. Also very scary. We are opening ourselves up for the attack of shaitan. Allah says in the salata, tan harnett fashion, you will one card. That's the law protects and keeps you away from shamelessness and evil deeds. What happens when you remove that salaah now you're open to fascia and Moncada and you're now it's you know, you're entering the battlefield with shaitan,
with absolutely no protection, no armor, now you shaitan can get you and now your neffs can get the most of you, the better of you. And and this is because we have removed the remembrance of Allah through salah and other types of remembrance, whether it's through Doha, or it's default, or, or through tm, praying and praying and the last third of the night, and through keeping our hearts connected to the words of Allah subhanaw taala if a king were to send you a letter, and you knew that that King could do anything to you could give you anything had the power to to take your life or give you power status. And imagine that that letter was in a language you did not understand. My
question to you is, would you not go through every length to get it translated to at least understand what is this King saying to me? Now we would do this for for a human King, right? We do this for a human King, but we have no interest in understanding what Allah is sending to us. In the end, Allah has sent a personal letter to you and to me the code and don't think it was just sent for someone 1400 years ago, and it has nothing to we're just some it's just something we read, you know, in Ramadan, we finish it and that's it. It is relevant to you today and it will be relevant until the end of time it is for you personally. Do you not make the effort to understand it? Even if it's
in a language that is not your native tongue? Are you making the effort to understand it? So we need to come back to Allah subhanaw taala by realizing the nature of this life, comparing it to the real or life and removing the
barriers that keep us from Allah subhanaw taala our sins, removing them through Toba is too far, and the other barrier of heedlessness of lefleur. And the way to remove that is to remember Allah Subhana Allah through Likud. Surround yourselves with those people who remind you of Allah and do not surround yourself with those who take you away from the remembrance of Allah, that company, that bad company is a poison for your heart. Protect your hearts. If you want to be successful, and reach Allah subhanho data you have to protect your hearts, according Holly Heather was the heart of lalibela come in una Rahim. subhanak Hello byham Dec Illa Allah and let's talk for Kona tubo lake
was set out more Alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh