Yasmin Mogahed – Truthfulness
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of trusting oneself and avoiding negative impact on others, emphasizing the need for transparency and action to avoid violence and avoid negative consequences. They stress the importance of avoiding harms and acting for the benefit of others, rather than just on deeds. The focus should shift from deeds to incorporate actions to ensure everyone is aware of their own progress and opportunities. The speakers also remind viewers to donate to the cause and encourage them to be true to themselves.
AI: Summary ©
Racing towards the final week of Ramadan 360,
and then the final few days as well,
Insha'Allah.
I hope everyone, yes, as Farida said, is
doing well, that you guys are maximizing as
much as you can, and that you've you've
been inspired through some of the things that
you've been hearing and learning from Al Madrib
Institute's
sessions, our series right now, our YouTube series
with Sheikh Hamar Shukri, which honestly I've been
bingeing, rewatching, enjoying so much, and I hope
that you guys have as well,
and that you've been doing as much as
you can to maximize your adra in these
blessed days and these final nights,
May all accept from you all, make Make
it heavy on your skills. Make you written
as one of the forgiven,
and grant you all.
Charlene,
welcome back
from UK, from the UK. MashaAllah. Shout out
to the Brits, MashaAllah, who are coming in
later and later. Now, subhanAllah, with the time
change and still pushing through and joining us
live here for Ramadan 360.
It's a pleasure to be with y'all, and
it's a pleasure to have you guys continue
with us. May Allah make it easy on
these final nights, and Jazakumullah here for incorporating
us into your Ibadah as well.
Today is gonna be a major is gonna
be an amazing session, alhamdulillah, because of course
we have the much anticipated, the much loved
Usada Yasmimujahed
with us for the first portion of our
Ramadan 360 program, our 30 days of live
sorry. 30 days live virtual course on living
by the book,
and we are back with a bang with
her. You've seen her maybe through the webinars
that we've had. You've had some short, beautiful
reminders from her, on the topics that we've
been covering on, Oh You Who Believe, and
on the stories of accepted dua. And now,
alhamdulillah,
Insha'Allah, you'll get a chance to benefit from
her today again on the topic of truthfulness,
which is going to be the ideal, the
principle that we are focusing on for today,
InshaAllah.
I do wanna shout out, I know we
typically do all the charity sponsors, but today
we wanna do a day just focusing on
the amazing work of Forgotten Woman, which is
our UK charity sponsor. So again, shout out
to the Brits who make it with us
every single day. SubhanAllah.
Make it live, especially to attend in your
evening time for our Ramadan 360 program. Jazak
Makar Tafaslin for dropping that link for forgotten
women in the chat over here.
It's launchgood.comforward/almagrib
dash f w. But again, it's linked here
in the chat here here on YouTube, and
it's linked on the description,
sorry, here on Zoom, and it's linked in
the description on YouTube.
Forgotten Women, for those who may remember from
previous years of Ramadan 360, is a charity
that is really, really, really close to my
heart, especially because
they they take care of women in in
war torn areas who are victimized, who are,
who are,
victim of some of the worst crimes, especially
women and children, and female children specifically, and
they ensure that those who are providing aid
are the front lines, are females, are women
staffers, women aid workers,
so that those who are receiving the aid
are given, you know, that that's that's the
feeling of protection of safety, and they're not
taking advantage of. Unfortunately, a lot of, especially
secular organizations that provide aid on the front
lines of conflicts,
sometimes it's the aid workers themselves and sometimes,
unfortunately, there's been some a lot of a
lot of,
unfortunate news coming out of the experience of
the oppressed
folks who are receiving aids being victimized by
those who are giving the aid. So alhamdulillah,
Amalgrib has been very stringent with the charities
and with the organizations that we partner with.
We're so cautious, especially because a lot of
people have questions about, are is there is
the aid coming to the front lines? Are
people receiving it? What's happening? Where, you know,
is is is it stuck at the border
in Rafah? And alhamdulillah, you'll you'll see the
transparency that you've seen from Islamic Relief, our
Canadian, you know, charity partner and forgotten women
as well have been able to get 7,
airplanes worth of aid into Gaza because of
their great relationship prior to October 7th with,
other charity organizations and partners on the ground.
And I'm super excited that, we're able to
partner with them and that we're able to
to to come together as a community as
we do year after year and facilitate prayer
for our and facilitate
relief for our Muslim brothers and sisters, especially
those who are experiencing the travesty that's that's
happening in Gaza right now. With that said,
I do wanna give you guys a chance
to,
join me on screen, start your videos, stay
connected, and make sure that you,
enable as best as you can. I know
not everyone can join every day, but may
Allah make it heavy on the skills who
do because I'll tell you right now, the
folks on my screen are the ones that
are easiest to make the offer for, because
I remember their faces.
I remember
their reactions, their connections, even when they're like
straight faced, even when they're tired after a
long day,
it's easy to remember you. And of course,
those who are very vocal and very engaged,
may Allah reward you all. And if you're
just able to attend and benefit,
in short snippets of time in between your
busy schedules, Again, may I like, accept, reward
you all, but it's a little special, a
little extra little shout out to those who
make it on screen. I see Christina, Ilham,
Leila, Brother Hassan, Aisha, Ahmed, Shout out to
little waves. I see Alhamdulillah, Brother Salim, of
course, Hafsa, Masha'Allah, coming in from a really
beautiful background.
So we're gonna jump into our program once
again, day number 22. We're racing, racing, racing
towards the end. I will say I'm sure
we've heard a lot of,
you know, like, harrowing stories coming out of
WhatsApp.
I'd love to hear from you guys in
the chat. What is the story? What is
the event that struck you the most? What
is the thing that has really, you know,
made this genocide real for you and that
has allowed you to tune into your daaas.
What are you channeling into it? It'd be
good to kinda hear everyone else's perspectives. I
know a lot of information has been suppressed
online,
so we struggle to find all the information
about what's happening on the ground, but a
lot of us have seen stories and snippets
of some of the events that are taking
place. So please do share that as well,
Insha'Allah.
And of course, it's unimaginable. It's it's really
painful to witness. It's horrifying to see what
our innocent brothers and sisters have been experiencing
getting slaughtered in their own homes, having their
their entire communities decimated, all the potential sources
of their survival being destroyed systematically
1 by 1.
And it's really important for us as a
community to come together and to replace what's
been lost and to protect those who can't
protect themselves. And while the entire western world
is coming and and ignoring and and and
and diminishing the the suffering of our Palestinians
and and removing aid from them for us
to make up that difference and to protect
our brothers and sisters as we would want
ourselves to be protected if we were in
that situation.
I know it's it's very difficult, as mister
Gonzales is saying, to watch the videos and
to witness their suffering, but that's almost that's
the very least of our our of our
efforts that we can do. And it's important
if whatever capacity that you have to continue
to be active, to be vocal. I know
it's been 6 months in, but that they
rely on us getting tired and us on
us giving up and not and us not
giving financially anymore, on us just just getting
worn down, and we can't afford to be
worn down as we all know. With that
said, again, Forgotten Woman is one of the
amazing charities that does some of the great
work on the ground, and I highly recommend
you guys check them out whether or not
you're from the UK or not. I've supported
them from Canada. They have the the especially
LaunchGood is really convenient because it has your
local currency that's already built in there. So
you you don't have to worry about paying
any kind of exchange fees. So please do
make sure that you're supporting them generously in
these last 10 nights, and especially because in
the UK, you guys are already in your
nighttime.
With that said,
we will have an amazing talk to look
forward to today. We'll have a reminder from
our our friends in Forgotten Woman later on,
but I want to bring you guys back
into our session today with Usada Yassine Mujahid,
who's gonna be speaking on the topic of
truthfulness. She's one of the the instructors again,
you don't really need to introduce her. Her.
She's one I'm sure she's heard
so many times that same phrase of, you
know, she needs no introduction. But for those
who are not familiar, who are newer to
the, Amoghrib community or to the Muslim community,
she's a specialist in in spirituality and relationships
in psychology and personal development. She's been an
international speaker and author, and her written word
is is even more powerful, I would say,
than her than her spoken word. She's been
a writer for the Huffington Post and an
author of the books, reclaim your heart, love
and happiness, and very recently healing the emptiness,
which she just launched on-site,
as a class as well with the Almagrib
Institute. You may have had the pleasure if
you're in one of our major hubs and
cities to benefit from it already, and she's
gonna be touring with us soon post Ramadan
as well, insha'Allah.
So we're really looking forward to benefiting from
her here. You may have benefited from her
online through Amagrib Online and Faith Essentials as
well, but we are always blessed to have
her with her with us at these sessions,
alhamdulillah, and, to get a chance to spend
some time with her as we have been
in Ramadan 360 and through our webinars. So
with that said, I want to bring on
Usaida Yasmin. I know I've taken a little
bit of your time, but I wanna jump
right into your talk.
How are you doing this fine Monday?
Oh, we can't hear you just yet. You're
muted still.
Give me one second. Oh, you know what?
That's me. That's not that's not you. That's
me. That's me.
Try one more time, miss
Villa. It's it's so you're still muted. Hold
on. Let me just ask. There we go.
This is this is the this is me
loofing one second. Alright. Alright. 3rd time. I
was like I'm like try I'm like trying
to I'm like, I'm trying to unmute, but
it's not like Anyway, it's to the wrong
Yasmin. There's like 4, 5 Yasmin's in this
session.
So I found the right one. How are
you doing, miss Dana? Alhamdulillah. I'm well, alhamdulillah.
How are you, Hafsa? Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. I'm very
excited to jump in, masha'Allah. I'm I'm excited
for the topic of truthfulness. We've been been
linked to a lot of the themes that
we've been covering so much in Ramadan 360,
but especially zoning in on these final 10
nights, we're all trying to get as much
inspiration for our ibadah and for our connection
to Allah and try to the best versions
of ourselves that we can be. So cannot
wait to jump in as sadah.
Thank you so much.
And salaam alaikum everyone.
So I actually,
I feel so honored and actually humbled to
be speaking about this topic.
A lot of people,
including myself,
don't really understand
the the depth of this concept
called. Now,
the concept itself,
the translation of the word is
usually, obviously,
truthfulness.
But oftentimes people limit
the their understanding of truthfulness to just the
truthfulness of the tongue.
Now as you and I know, we are
not just a tongue, right? We are,
essentially,
driven by this
lump of flesh in our body called the
qalb, the heart.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, in
fact, told us the importance of the qalb
because he says,
indeed in the body there's a lump of
flesh,
if it is set right
the entire body will be
set right and if it is corrupted then
the entire body will be corrupted.
So, indeed, we know that the the Kalb
is actually the master of the body.
Now, when we talk about silk,
silk here is referring to
not just truthfulness of the tongue, but truthfulness
of the
not just truthfulness of the of the words,
but truthfulness of the heart.
And that is a very very deep concept,
which I want to try to touch upon,
today inshallah.
So the definitions
of
for example,
Ibn Qayyim Rahimahullah when he defines
so, Ibn Khayyim writes a book about the
stations of those who are journeying towards Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala,
those who are who are really
on this journey that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
tells us about,
That we have not created jinn and human
beings for any
other purpose except
and
is to
know Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and then to
submit
entirely, lovingly,
fullheartedly to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Worship at
its at its deepest essence,
not just to pray
or make du'a to something, but to truly
submit your entire self to that. That is
actually the purpose for which we were created
is.
So, when Ibn Khayyim write writes this book,
he's talking about the different stations
on the path
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. This is
the the stations of a Selikin,
those who are on the path to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Now, what he explains in this book is
that the greatest station
is
The greatest station is Why? Because
as he defines it, it's the complete
resolve.
And here resolve, the asthma, asthma. And this
is when you have made a complete when
you've made it when you've made a a
decision and you're completely resolute in that decision
as
a strong want or desire and this is
and I'm gonna talk a little bit about
because is very important to this concept.
It's a
strong a desire or a want
by which the heart will have a strong
truthful
drive
to seek a way or a door to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
It is a strong inclination
that overcomes
oneself.
And I want you to listen carefully to
that part and to hold on to that
part. That's gonna be the,
very deep
essence
of silk. That it overcomes
oneself,
one's own
desire, one's own Iradah,
one's own nafs
and forces that person to instead
of seeking oneself,
seeking
Allah Now let me explain. So there are
some examples that I wanna use before I
continue to explain.
One of the examples,
this is a narration of a story that
happened,
at the time when there was, you know,
at this time when when there was care,
you know, when people were doing business at
this time, it wasn't how we did business,
or how we do business now. You know,
we do business online and then we ship,
the goods using
using, DHL or using UPS,
the postal service. This was like in order
to do business, you had to travel with
caravans full of your goods
for months at a time and it was
extremely
difficult to do this. So one of these
cases was a caravan
where this person had been traveling for months
and,
and had finally gotten their wealth, you know,
their money and they were returning to their
family
when a group of bandits came
and basically stole
all of the goods.
Now while these bandits were, you know, taking
their the goods,
they also ended up taking the food
as well. And so, what this person narrates
is that he saw the group of thieves
sitting and they were eating, but he noticed
that their
leader so the leader of the bandits of
the thieves was not eating and he went
off by himself.
And when he found out why that leader
was not eating,
the leader, again, of the bandits, of the
thieves said,
I'm not eating because I'm fasting.
Alright? So now keep that in mind.
This is a man who literally leads
thieves,
and yet he's fasting.
And so the man says to him, who's
just been literally robbed and taken over by
these bandits,
his reaction is like our reaction, which is,
what are you doing? You're you're a thief.
You're leading bandits of thieves, and yet you're
fasting.
And you know what the man says? The
thief.
He says,
it's a door that I leave open to
Allah
It's a door that I leave open to
Allah.
Now let me explain that for a second,
and then I'll fast forward to what happens
many years later.
What he's referring to here is he is
recognizing
at some level that what he is doing
is wrong. He is truthful
about the fact that his lifestyle
is sinful. It is wrong. That he is
going against the laws of Allah
That he is rebelling against Allah
And so he's not pretending.
He's not making excuses
for what he wants to do. But he
is at least truthful
and and admitting that what he's doing is
wrong.
And yet
and because of that,
he wants to keep a door open
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in hopes
that at some point
he can reach Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that
Allah can
reach to him and guide him through that
door,
To leave the sin that he is now
living in.
Now, fast forward,
many years later, this man who was robbed
is now at Umrah.
And while he's there, he sees a man
who was so
intensely repentant.
This man just looks like he is
really, you know, like the essence of Tawba,
and he's turning to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
with so much humility.
And he goes closer to that man and
he recognizes that it is the leader of
the bandits.
Now why and this is
this is exactly what is meant here by
siddiq.
Even when that man was in the midst
of his sinning,
he was at least
truthful
about the fact that number 1, what he
was doing was wrong. He was not justifying
it.
He was not,
he was not making excuses for it but
rather
he was truthful enough to recognize that what
he was doing was wrong and he continued
to leave a door open of Ibadah.
Now, why do I say this? Because I
think a lot of us,
when we find ourselves
in a place where we're not living a
good life or maybe we are sinning or
we're living a sinful life,
sometimes we go down one of 2 pathways.
Oftentimes, what we see, especially in the modern
world,
is the pathway of
basically,
comforting the nafs.
And in this way, basically,
justifying the sin.
Right? If you want to,
you know, take off your hijab, you won't
say that I'm struggling with this command of
Allah. Instead he'll say, I'm being true to
myself
or I didn't wanna be a hypocrite. I'm
actually
feeling more closer
this way. So it's a justification
rather than an admission and a truthfulness
that, yes, I am struggling with hijab.
I am struggling. But rather instead of that
truthfulness, we go and we justify
and we beautify the sin.
Similarly, we see this all around when it
comes to things like haram love,
when it comes to love that is outside
the the laws of the Sharia, whether that
is whether that is in dating or in
extramarital affairs or that is in any type
of attraction to someone who is not halal
for us, whether that has to do with
gender or that has to do with whether
or not that those two people are married.
But at the end of the day, do
we acknowledge and are we truthful
that this is wrong, but I'm struggling?
Or do we
justify? And do we say,
but it's love. Right? Love is love. Right?
The idea of love is love is what?
It's the justification
of something
even when it goes against the Sharia, when
it goes against the laws
that are determined by our creator.
So what is truthfulness?
Truthfulness is for me to admit
even when I'm in the wrong,
to admit that what I'm doing
Yes, I am struggling
and when
we have truthfulness,
even when we're struggling,
even when we are sinning in fact, if
we continue to have truthfulness
and we are not trying to,
sort of make the laws of God subservient
to our nafs,
but rather
trying our best to make our nafs subservient
to the laws of Allah. When we have
that,
even when we are in a place where
we might be down or we might be
living a life of sin,
So long as we have truthfulness with Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and we do our best
not to close all the doors to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
Then insha Allah eventually,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala can pull us out
of that life of sin. And that is
what this story indicates. Now,
a lot of people,
get confused
between 2 very similar concepts.
1 is the concept of Ikhlas, which is
sincerity,
and the other is the concept of
which is truthfulness as I've described.
What scholars explain is the difference between
sincerity,
and
truthfulness
is that sincerity is to seek Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
without
seeking the praises
or the,
the gifts that we would get from the
creation.
Right? So it's to seek for the sake
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
without
and basically detaching ourselves
from reward or praise from people, from the
eyes of the people.
So it's sincerity,
which is oftentimes what we talk about is
this,
you know, being safe from riya, for example,
to show off. It's that I'm not praying
or fasting or giving zek or giving a
charity or zakah for the people or so
that the people will will see me or
give me something of praise or acknowledgement or
recognition.
That's sincerity. That's ikhlas.
But then there's another level.
And that other level
is when I seek the pleasure of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala
without getting something or without
the the gifts
so and so or the the ownership of
my nafs.
So when you are sincere,
when you have Ikhlas,
you are trying to seek the pleasure of
Allah
without getting gifts
from the
people.
And when you have when you have truthfulness,
it's to seek the pleasure of Allah
without the payments and the gifts from the
nafs.
And this is where Ojib comes in. So
I'll give you an example to explain this
this idea.
Imagine that you wanna pray tahajjud.
You wanna pray qiyamulayl.
So you find a time
when you pray and no one knows about
it. Right? That's sikhlas. Right? That's sincerity. No
one knows about it. You're doing it purely
for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But then,
as you're praying and, you know, you're really
you're really killing it with your prayer, you're
really killing it with your with your recitation.
So now your nefs sees it. Your ego
sees it. And now your nefs and your
ego starts to say, wow, Look at that.
And so now, what happens is what you
what can happen is that you can now
do it for the nafs and for the
ego,
Basically,
to be impressed with yourself.
So so, sincerity is to is to worship
Allah,
not looking for praise from people,
not looking to impress people.
Which is even deeper,
is to worship Allah without looking to impress
yourself,
without looking to impress your ego, your nafs,
without looking to be like,
you know, like, I'm I'm awesome, you know,
to yourself.
And subhanAllah, this is something a lot of
us miss.
When we look at, you know, there's like
this this this beautiful statement.
In fact, it is very much a struggle.
This beautiful statement,
where where, one of the companions says
that
one of the most difficult,
sort of
the the most the most difficult traps
is when we are
seeking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala but we are
stuck
in the in sort of the,
the chains
of seeking the approval of people. So he
he's basically talking about what is the worst
type of bondage? What is the worst type
of oppression.
It's essentially when we become
distracted.
Yes. When we become distracted from Allah subhanahu
ta'ala
because we are so focused on pleasing people.
He says that is one of the worst
types of,
slavery
is to become distracted from Allah
because we're so focused on pleasing people.
But he said an even worse bondage
and even worse oppression
is to become distracted from Allah
because we're so focused on pleasing our own
self.
Listen to that. How deep is that? Like,
we're so focused.
Not okay. We might get over people. I
don't care what anyone thinks.
But then what's it? What is it? Oh,
I don't care what anyone thinks. I'm gonna
do me.
Right? I'm gonna do me. I'm gonna do
what makes
me happy.
I'm gonna do what I think, what I
want, what I desire, my
all that matters is me. And that's that's
even worse. That's a that's an even deeper
type of bondage. Because even if no one's
around, okay, you're no longer a people pleaser.
But
now, if you become a slave to yourself,
that's that's also a type of slavery and
oppression.
Is to free yourself of that type of
bondage
where you are not distracted
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by the nafs.
Just like sincerity or ikhlas is to not
be distracted from Allah Subhanu Wa Ta'la by
the people. Oh, I want to please people,
I want people to look at me and
say this or I want people to say
I'm
that. Okay. You might not have that but
sit is to not be distracted from Allah
by your own nafs,
that I like this.
I want this. I think this. You know,
someone tells you this is haram,
but you want it.
This is haram, but you desire it. Right?
You love it and you are not willing
to give that up for the sake of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so what sit does
is it becomes
one of the biggest doors to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala that even when we are in
the midst of living a sinful life,
if we continue to hold on to
be truthful with Allah. Don't lie to yourself,
don't lie to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala about
where you're at and be truthful in your.
Now, going to
is that very determined
desire and want.
Truthfulness in your desire, in your want
is very important.
Do you truly seek Allah
Are you truthful in wanting to please Allah
And if you are truthful
in wanting to seek and please allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, Allah will help you. Allah will
open the door for you. The question is
this,
am I truthful?
Because many of us, yeah, we say, oh
yeah. Yeah, I wanna I wanna do good
or I wanna I wanna please Allah
but are we truthful?
Or is it that we are either looking
to please people or looking to please ourselves,
doing what I think, what I want, what
I desire
without being willing to submit
to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and wanting allah's
happiness
over my own happiness. And inshallah, I'll wrap
up with this.
So one of the stations going back to
the book, that I mentioned at the beginning,
Madera j Salikim, one of the stations that
Ibn Al Qayim refers to is the station
of Iradah. And Iradah
is this this this desire or want for
something.
And he explains something very profound.
Listen to this. Right? He says that the
station of iroda,
true iroda,
is actually to not have iroda. What does
that mean?
To not
have
a want or a desire
of your own
except for what Allah wants from you.
So as they say,
that this this
which means,
I desire.
I want
to not want
except what Allah wants.
Now, how deep is that? That is the
essence of
It is to be is to want what
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
wants without that interference of the nafs.
Now we are all
imperfect and human
and these are stations that, you know, they're
not like
you it's easy to get there and then
you just live there and, you know, you're
you're you're, you know, you you sit back
and no more struggle.
We are constantly
struggling and Allah Subhanu Wa Ta'la
appreciates the struggle. Allah Subhanu Wa Ta'la sees
every single one of our struggles and so
what we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
to bless us with sincerity and to bless
us with truthfulness
but to make it easy for us. We
ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make it
so that we want
what Allah wants and that the wants of
our nafs and our self do not become
obstacles
to seeking the pleasure of Allah
You always leave us speechless, and I feel
like so many people are in the chat
are here resonating. I can tell by the
number of questions I've received from the very
beginning of the session. Usually, people wait until
the end to to to send their questions,
and I I see, so many of them
coming in. And I know you guys wanna
continue benefiting from us, but we're just gonna
have a quick pause, Insha'Allah,
to hear from the amazing folks at Forgotten
Woman
and my sister from another mister, sister Sadia
Sajid. Inshallah, so Sadia means hang tight, inshallah.
We'll be right back with you for the
remainder of our session on and truthfulness inshallah.
With that said, Sadia,
it's your show inshallah. Welcome back to Ramadan
360. It's been way too long, a full
calendar year almost, I would say.
How have you been?
Very well. Thank you. JazakAllah, and thank you
so much,
for such a beautiful talk.
It's a topic that's very dear to my
heart, when it comes to Sudhak. Can we
talk about Sudhak in relation to siddhaka as
well? Absolutely. It's definitely something that I really
do resonate so powerfully with me. So Barkol
Afrika for such a beautiful topic. And I
think it's something that we all need in
these, like, best few days. We've only got
a few more days left of Ramadan.
We need that.
This is our spiritual sustenance that we actually
need to consume in the in these days.
So
for this. And of course, as always to,
Al Maghrib for always hosting such amazing things
just as we need it as well. Baragolafikum.
So I'm here on behalf of, Forgotten Women,
which is a charity that is based in
the UK, but they operate across the world
where there is most needed. And they're a
charity that has been set up specifically to
try and support women,
who are in desperate need and children. Now
we find that across the world, wherever there
is a conflict, unfortunately, it's women and children
who suffer the most. And they are the
ones who, even in their most absolute depths
of, you know, despair and vulnerability,
they are unfortunately exploited against. So, subhanAllah, this
charity was set up to try and protect
the sisters who are in
their moments of absolute
darkness and ensure that no one can further
exploit that tragedy, subhanAllah.
So it's a in a way, I'm doing
that by ensuring that it's women who are
delivering aid to other women and supporting inshallah.
So it's it's a wonderful charity. I'm really,
really honored to support them. And we are
here to talk to you. Of course, it
comes as no surprise about,
Gaza.
And, you know, subhanallah,
sis Yasmin has been talking to you about
truthfulness.
And so I feel like it's pertinent then
that this particular
session now is I I also pull on
the the truth and speak with truth.
And I think it comes as no surprise
that, you know, for the last 6 months,
we have watched in horror as bombs after
bombs after bomb has dropped on Gaza.
We've watched as lifeless body after lifeless body
has been pulled out of the rubble, as
child after child has been murdered.
SubhanAllah, we have watched as more than 35,000
innocent lives have been taken, and that's just
what's been reported and recorded.
We've seen
statistics come through from Gaza.
I can't believe people here are doing the
maths for this, but it's true that this
is the truth.
2 mothers are killed every hour, and a
child is killed every 6 minutes in Gaza.
This is the reality.
But it's also true
that for all of the souls that have
been wrongfully
killed and taken from this world,
they're gonna be dipped into Jannah. And then
when they pull back out, they're gonna be
asked, did you suffer in the world? And
they're not even gonna recall what suffering was.
And that's what we hold on to. And
that's what our brothers and sisters in Gaza
hold on to when they
it is their loss more than it's our
loss. It's their loss more immediately. And they
still say,
They still
say And so we should learn from our
brothers and sisters when they are losing their
loved ones. Entire families being wiped off the
civil register, and they still say, alhamdulillah, we
should learn from them. But it's also true
that for all of those lives that are
being lost
and our hearts are bleeding for them, there
are still 2,000,000 people in Gaza right now
as we speak who need our action, who
need our love, who need our concern and
our compassion.
And they need us to give them our
best. Not our least, not our something. They
need us to give our best. SubhanAllah.
Now at the moment in Gaza, right now,
as we speak, 1 in 3 people in
Gaza
is starving.
1 in 3 people in Gaza is going
without food.
After 6 months of this systematic withholding of
food, they are now being systematically killed. And
alarm bells are ringing all around the world,
subhanAllah. Alarm bells are ringing. All the
the the famine,
watch, societies and and organizations are ringing an
alarm
saying, if something isn't done,
this that this scale is gonna tip, and
we're gonna start seeing catastrophic
numbers of death. We're talking, like, up to
200 deaths per day because of starvation.
So when I say that when we are
asking you to donate, to give food to
the brothers and sisters in Gaza, to our
mothers and our children in Gaza, you are
preventing a catastrophe. You are keeping people alive.
Unfortunately, right now,
we we know the situation is very, very
difficult.
But what forgotten women are doing is actually
being able to give aid in a very
dignified way. You've seen that aid distribution. And
if you haven't, I I urge you to
go and look at them. There are aid
distributions happening, and the trucks are coming. And
it's a throng of people, masses of brothers
who are trying and fighting
in their desperation
to get the aid. Now imagine your sisters
in Gaza. How are they supposed to try
and make their way through that thronger people
and come away with aid? How are the
children supposed to do that?
It's un it's unrealistic to expect them to
be successful in those situations. It's not it's
really it really is. Forgotten women are actually
giving aid directly to our brothers and sisters
and our mothers and our children.
Is putting it in their hands. And this
is a pack that's not gonna last for
one day. It's not gonna be like one
hot meal distribution, which is fine to do.
It's good to do the hot meal distributions.
But what about a food pack? That means
that that brother and sister,
the mother, child in their tent who has
been displaced multiple times over
is able to eat food for an entire
month.
The pack that forgotten women are sharing, it
is incredible. It's got food in it. It's
got water within that. It's also got hygiene
kits to make sure that at
the moment in the camps, in the refugee
centers, in the schools, in the shelters,
disease is literally spreading like wildfire. So these
hygiene kits are crucial to per keep disease
at bay and make sure people are still
able to keep themselves clean.
And then there's the dignity kits. And for
our sisters on this call,
imagine 6 months without having the dignity kits
that you need when you go through your
time of the month. Our sisters are using
tent scraps.
They are wading out into the sea to
wash themselves. You can give them that, and
it's all into one combined pack. So forgotten
women are doing this across the board in
in razza
They are working with the with women in
razza to make sure that this aid is
reaching sisters directly. And so our sisters are
given the dignity that they deserve. They are
given the aid that they deserve in a
most dignified way, and it will last a
very long time, Swan. It'll be at least
a month's worth of supplies. So for a
month, they have ease and they have comfort.
And, subhanallah, I've had people genuinely come to
me and say, well, how can you guarantee
that those people are even gonna be alive?
And it shocks me that people ask this
question. SubhanAllah. Life and death is in Allah's
hands. We are not in control of that.
But what I will say is
if it is written that those people
who receive that parcel are to pass away
the very next day
and they don't get to consume it for
a month, would you not prefer that in
their last moments on this earth,
they are met with our love and our
compassion
for them. That they got their last moments
on earth. They had a morsel of food
because their brother and their sister cared for
them. And when we go back to Allah,
because the death is gonna come for all
of us without doubt,
we are also gonna be questioned.
What did you do for your brothers and
sisters? And if you had fed them, you
would have found Allah. So I urge you
all please visit the website, make a donation.
Even if you've given, I pray and I
beg that you understand that right now, we
are seeing
a a a catastrophic
wave of inhumanity and cruelty
being
raw asunder upon our brothers and sisters in
Gaza.
And so it's incumbent upon us to be
a bigger wave of humanity, a bigger wave
of love, and a bigger wave of compassion,
and to show our brothers and sisters that
no matter what happens in the world, our
love for them, our humanity for them is
still there with our brothers and sisters, and
we are not gonna allow them to just
pass away passively and just sit back and
watch the content that they put out there.
It's not just content. It's there because they
want us to act. So please act. We've
only got a few more days of this
blessed month. Could tonight could be the night
of power. What you do today could be
something that is multiplied as if you've done
it for 80 years. And what could be
better than being there at the time of
need for your brothers and sisters? Allah says
I am with the brothers not just he
is with the the Muslim as numbers they
are with their brother and sister in their
time of need. So if you want Ar
Rahman, and if you want Ar Rahman, and
if you want Al Kareem, and if you
want Abu Dhud, be that for your brothers
and sisters. Our prophet
was
the mercy to mankind. That's who he came
to be. And as his followers, we also
have to be mercy to mankind. So let's
just embody our mercy inshallah.
Eid's coming up. Make a sacrifice for your
Eid gifts for your loved ones and ensure
that your brothers and sisters are eating rather
than starving to death. You may have a
holiday plan for this summer.
Sacrifice your holiday. The greater your sacrifice will
lie. The greater your sacrifice, the greater your
reward will be. And this is what Allah
is testing us with. When it comes to
truthfulness,
when it comes to our our is, are
you truthful when you say in a 1000,
in our millions, we're all Palestinians. Because if
you're truly in your your 1,000 and your
1,000,000, you're with your Palestinian brothers and sisters,
you will sacrifice everything that you've got for
our brothers and sisters right now who need
us. And this food pack is not just
a food pack. Believe me, it is a
lifeline that is keeping that that balance scale
at bay. It is ensuring that that tail
that scale does not tip. And if we
stop, then the scale will tip down. And
unfortunately, we are gonna see those catastrophic
levels
of,
200 deaths per day. That's more than what
we've been seeing already, his partner. So the
time is now. We have to act. We've
only got a few more days left of
this blessed month. So what we do now
in our actions, insha'Allah,
will be multiplied. And if we truly believe
that the night of power is in these
nights, why not seek it in the best
way possible, insha'Allah? So I pray, insha'Allah, that
you do as best as you can and
give as much as you can and give
it with the best of intentions that you
Allah,
whatever I give of my love, of my
compassion, of my generosity, I'm never gonna outdo
you. So whatever I give today, I know
that you're gonna show it back to me
manyfold.
So, yes, you can give your zakat to
this. It's not a problem. You can give
your zakat. This is a zakat that will
it's going directly into the hands of our
brothers and sisters inshallah. So I believe I
haven't had a lot of time. I've only
had about 10 minutes,
but I've also know for a fact, and
I've I've seen this many times over, it
only takes a moment for your hearts to
become softened and to respond. So even if
I've only had 10 minutes, I truly believe
10 minutes is more than enough time for
the the words to hit your heart and
for Allah to unlock the hearts because it's
not my words that are gonna do it.
So I pray Allah unlocks your hearts and
he makes you give as much as possible
for our brothers and sisters, even if you've
given many times over over the last 6
months. This is the point where you're being
tested for your truthfulness. Yes. You've given before,
but can you make your answer better? And
the answer is always, yes, you can. So
please give as much as you can and,
commit yourself. Because believe you me, even if
everything was to end tomorrow,
we need to be with our brothers and
sisters long after all this has ended. We
need to be with them for decades to
come to help them rebuild their lives.
Sister Sadia, it's always such a pleasure to
benefit from you, from your reminders, and we're
tying that into the what we've been learning
and what we've been trying to practice throughout
this entire month. This is you said it
best. This is a test of our sincerity
and our efforts and our truthfulness towards the
peace of people of Wazuh. To everyone who's
supporting here in the chat. Sadia, we look
forward to seeing you inshallah again in the
future. May Allah make it accepted and may
Allah make it, make your maximize your efforts.
That was Shisadia Sajid from Forgotten Women. As
you guys know, Forgotten Women is one of
our UK partners, our charity partners, and you
guys have heard from her own words the
impact that they're having on the ground in
Gaza. Please do take that link. I know
Facelina's dropping it and the chat keeps moving,
but keep looking for it. It's launchgooddot
comforward/amaglibdashfw.
It's in the YouTube description as well. And
Masha' lives has just been refreshing as we've
been in this session and seeing the impact
that you guys are making. But I know
with 339 of us here on Zoom with
almost, I think a 100 something of us
on YouTube as always, There's so much we
can do as a community, and as Adia
said, if you've given, like, there is not
the just keep giving as much until you're
depleted, honestly,
at this point because there's nothing that no
no amount of suffering that we're gonna experience
that's gonna equate to anything of the amount
of suffering that the people in Palestine are
are experiencing. And I love that this is
something that gives them some dignity for some
time. That gives them some reprieve because running
around for food every day, not knowing when
your next meal is gonna come from, that's
another form of psychological torture. So let's give
them some relief. Let's give them some full
bellies, some peace of mind, some take away
some of that fear from that that the
horror that they've been experiencing and reduce that,
reduce their suffering, reduce their fear, reduce their
hunger, reduce their anxiety, and let us be
the source of that so that at least
we can say that we did something that
we were, we heard this, the call that
we were reminded that we saw what was
happening and that we were not silent and
that we spoke up or that, and that
not only we spoke up and we acted.
So yes, we're at 3,000
now. I don't know what currencies that's in.
I know it's based on British pound, but
keep going, keep pushing. Let's hit that goal
today and then some and keep keep supporting
because this is food. This is hunger. This
is the the basics of human existence. We
cannot not answer that call.
So, please do so and keep doing so
as we move on to the Q and
A portion of this talk and we'll keep
checking in to see where we're at towards
their goal. And again once the goal is
hit that doesn't mean the hunger eliminates
so keep keep keep keep, you know supporting
inshallah even after that. With that said I
know a lot of you have sent in
questions so so we will make sure that
we do some q and a today before
we get a chance to reflect on today's
beautiful topic. But I'm gonna bring Usaida Yasmin
back inshallah for this portion. Welcome back, Usaida.
I hope that you have benefited as well
from that. That was such a beautiful tie
in to the talk that you were giving.
But I'm trying to to to squeeze in
as many questions as we can in this
limited time that we have. So the first
question that I have received is, how do
we become truthful to Allah about where we're
at when we're not sure about where we
stand in our journey, especially if our iman
fluctuates or if we go up and down
with good and bad deeds?
Well, miss Milla,
the the reality,
is that we all fluctuate in our iman,
and all of our deeds
fluctuate. You know, there is the the famous
story where the companion,
Abu Bakr Radiallahu An and Tanzila came to
the prophet
and and they said, we've become hypocrites and
they were,
you know, they were they were panicking because
why? He said, why are you saying that?
He said, because they said, because when we
are with you, oh, Rasulullah,
it's as if we see paradise
and hellfire with our eyes. But then when
we go back to our families, you know,
we're not in the same state. And the
prophet
said,
if if you have the same iman, if
you were the same in the exact same
state as you were,
you know, when you're with me as you
are, when you're not, when you're with your
families, then the angels would shake hands with
you in the streets.
So he's teaching us that part of being
human, it would mean you're an angel. Right?
You're just
that steady state. So part of being human
is that
and falls and so all of us have
that.
But truthfulness is about being honest about who
we are, what are our flaws, you know,
what are the things that we really really
want.
Right? Wanting
to do better.
Wanting to be better
And the truthfulness
of that the truthfulness of that desire
is gonna show up in your effort.
Right? It's like, you know, all these motivational
speakers who are like, you know, if you
really want it, it's
says,
you know,
I really wanna get in shape. I really
wanna get in shape.
But they never go to the gym. They
never eat healthy.
They, you know, they eat 12 donuts a
day. They you know,
saying that you really want to get into
shape,
that's not truthful
if it's not in any sense driving you
towards any action.
And so what it really is is about
just being
truthful about that desire and that want.
And with that truthfulness, even if we're lacking,
and we are all lacking, and again, that's
the lesson, we all go up and down.
Amen goes up and down and and deeds
go up and down.
But if we can just be truthful in
our desire
to be better and to be closer to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and then be honest
about where we're at rather than trying to
sugarcoat it or,
reducing dissonance
basically by justifying,
you know, so a lot of people what
they'll do is, if I want a certain
thing
and it's haram,
instead of saying, I'm going to try my
best to resist my desire. Yes. And even
if I give into that, like, say someone
really loves alcohol
and they just love the way they feel
when they're, you know, when they're when they're
drunk or high.
And and, you know, they can either, you
know, and maybe they they they they fall
into that to that desire.
Well, they can either say,
you know what? I'm
I I had this weakness and I am
I know that it's wrong, but I know
that I know it's wrong and I know
that I'm that this is a weakness.
That person
is gonna be better off than the one
who says, you know what? Actually,
alcohol is not haram
because, you know and then they'll justify it
somewhere or another. Or you know what? Marijuana,
you know, like so the the idea here
is that are we able to be honest
about our struggles?
We all have struggles,
but are we truthful about our struggles or
do we try to make Islam
be subservient
to our desires? Do we try to change
and twist
the laws of Allah?
You know, who is it halal to be
in a relationship with? Who is it haram
to be in a relationship
with?
And it's not determined by my desires.
If I desire something, it doesn't make it
right. And so being able to,
to submit to what Allah says
over what my nafs says.
Jazakamullah.
Beautiful response. The next question that I have
submitted here, if I can pull it up,
is,
how do we how to practice not getting
impressed by your own good deeds and that
you do in seclusion?
So I have a
what I think is is a good way
to to not be impressed by our own
good deeds,
and that is to recognize
who we are being compared with. So if
we imagine
so I think again, there's 2 there's
there are two sides of this. Right? There
are 2 dangerous extremes here. Right?
One dangerous extreme is which is to be
impressed with myself.
Another dangerous extreme
is hopelessness
and despair.
Like, I'll never be good enough. Like, I
can never do this, so I'm just gonna
give up. Right? 2 very dangerous extremes. Either
I can never get there,
you know, these people are so much better
than me, there's nothing I can do, there's
no way, so I give up.
Or the other side is, look at me,
man. Like, I am I'm killing it with
my PM. I'm killing it with my Quran.
I'm killing it with my hijab. Like, I'm
and then you start to become arrogant.
Now,
I think that the cure
to
to what you're asking which is being impressed
with oneself
is to recognize if you think about Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and imagine
who is standing at the door of Allah
with us,
Who is offering? So if we imagine that
we are standing
in front of Allah offering our deeds to
him.
Think of what I am offering Allah. So
say
say I'm killing it with my fa'am. Alright?
I I stood up and I prayed for
x amount of time. I I read the
Quran. I finished the Quran. Okay. So I'm
offering Allah this. This is my deed, You
Allah.
But now think of who's standing next to
me.
Well, I got next to me, I got
prophets, I got martyrs, I got angels.
Like like, angels,
they worship Allah
so much from the be that there are
angels from the beginning of time till the
end of time just in sajdah.
Beginning of time till the end of time,
just in sajda.
Like,
I mean, how much sajda can I do?
And yet,
when they when, you know, the end of
time comes,
that angel who was in sajdah from the
beginning of time till the end of time
says,
I have not worshiped you enough, You Allah.
This is actually not enough.
So, now, taking that perspective and now bring
it to what I am doing,
no matter how amazing I might think I
am,
it does not compare
to
an angel who is in sajdah from the
beginning of time till the end of time
or to a prophet
or to the martyrs or to the, you
know, the the shuhada and the and the
auliya. So,
that's one way to kind of humble myself,
I think.
Now,
again,
it we can end up going to the
other extreme and being like, what chance do
I have? Like, who am I? I'm not
an angel. I'm not a prophet.
I'm not,
a Wendy. I'm just I'm just Yasmin. Like,
I'm just me.
So what
hope do I have? Right? And I think
the cure to that
is something different. Right? So the cure to
that type of hopelessness
is
not to look at
what you're offering
because what you're offering will never be enough.
I repeat, the angel who was in sajdah
from the beginning of time till the end
of time is saying, we have not worshiped
you enough.
Like you can't actually
give Allah what he deserves. It's impossible
because he's infinite and I'm finite and I'm
limited.
And so instead of focusing on the little
broken piece of pottery that I am offering
Allah,
instead of focusing on that,
I focus on the generosity
and the mercy
and the love and the and and the
desire to give of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So it's shifting the focus.
When I'm looking at my own deeds
when I'm looking at my own deeds,
it is to shift the focus
to what Allah deserves and re recognizing there's
no way that what I am giving is
anything to be impressed with myself about.
But when I'm feeling like, oh my gosh,
like,
nothing I do will be enough, so then
I fall into despair.
Then you have to also shift the focus,
not from your deeds, but to the generosity
and the mercy of Allah
The one who
is just listening to this hadith
where it talks about what pleases Allah
How do we please Allah? How do we
please Allah? We're thinking like, what can I
do? And this is a hadith that says
that using
a
a like, you know, like a little wooden
toothbrush,
it it it freshens your your mouth, and
it pleases Allah.
Something as small as a can please Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. Why?
Not because it's a big action, but because
Allah is so generous and Allah is so
merciful.
And Allah is a shakur. Allah is appreciative
of even the most minute action that is
done for his sake and bringing it full
circle with
Ikhlas, sincerity,
and with suk. And when you do an
action with suk and sincerity,
if you do an action with with your
heart in the right place,
even a tiny action,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can multiply it and
it can it can please
Allah. Not because the action is amazing, not
because you're amazing, not because I'm amazing, but
because Allah is amazing. And because Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is the most generous
and he is Al Wahab, he loves to
give gifts. He he wants to give us
forgiveness. He wants to give us Jannah. You
know, when we talk about seeking what Allah
wants
and,
that I wish, I wish, I I want,
I desire
that I would not desire except what he
wants.
What does he want? Well, Allah tells us
in the Quran what he wants.
He he wants to he Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala
says,
that Allah wants for you is
and he does not want for you difficulty.
So what does Allah want from us?
In another ayah, it says, we were told
that
that Allah
wants to make things easy on you.
That that that mankind was created weak. So
if we look at what Allah wants, Allah
wants ease for us. Allah wants to forgive
us.
Allah wants to make things easy on us.
That Allah actually wants to turn to us
and forgive us so that we'll turn to
him and seek his forgiveness.
So this is what Allah wants from us.
That was such a I think the the
words in the chat can't even do justice.
That was such a recentering approach to Zaq
Malakher for giving us so much extra time
and being so thorough in your responses to
the questions. I know there were so many
other beautiful questions that came in, but just
for the the sake of time, we have
to keep it moving so that people get
a chance to inshallah today and fully benefit
from today's 22nd day of Ramadan 360. Jazak
Mo Khurrza. Once again, it's an honor as
always to have you back with the community,
back to recenter us, refocus us, especially right
you know, as we go into these blessed
final nights of Ramadan. May Allah accept from
you and your family, Ashish. And you know
you know, Hafsa, I wanna end with something
if possible.
So as I was listening to the, charity
appeal,
Hadith came to my mind that I think
is so relevant
to the appeal and everything that we just
spoke about. Okay. And that is it. One
of the 7 people who are shaded
in the shade of Allah, right? The shade
on the day of judgment where there is
no other shade except the shade of Allah
And and this is a very interesting description
which maybe many of us didn't understand. We
heard it. We didn't understand it. It says
a person
who gives charity so secretly
that his right hand
does not know what his left hand gave
or his left hand does not know what
his right hand gave. Now think about that
statement.
Your right hand and your left hand have
nothing to do with people.
It has everything to do with yourself.
That that
actually that description
is is describing.
It's describing what we were talking about now
that even the charity,
your right hand doesn't know what your left
hand gave. Meaning,
that you're not
impressed with yourself about your charity because you
don't even know what you gave. Like, you
gave it, but you're not watching what you're
giving
enough that your right hand doesn't know what
your left what your left hand gave. And,
SubhanAllah, is this thinking that one of these
7 people who are shaded in in Allah's
shade when there's no other shade Is this
description of a person who gives
like,
the word is it's it's shares that same
that same root of truthfulness. A person who
gives charity
so with so much truthfulness that they're not
they're they themselves
are not aware of what they themselves are
giving. So that there isn't that there isn't
that I'm impressed with what I've done.
Beautifully said.
Once again for that amazing reminder for being
part of this community once again. We'll see
you very soon online,
either through your courses or hopefully
in person as you're touring around the states
this summer with us. For now, take care.
That was Usada Yasmeemu Jahid for day number
22 of Ramadan 360,
and I'm glad that this session hit you
as much as it hit me. SubhanAllah,
there is just something different about Usaddah.
May Allah preserve her for us and allow
us to continue to benefit from her for
for years decades to come.
Yes. I know we want her to come
to every corner of the world, and I
love all the love that we have for
her, subhanallah, in the talk. And I hope
that you guys who've been here from the
beginning have benefited immensely from today's theme and
the actualization of that theme through our efforts
today with forgotten women. Once again, their links
have been dropped here in the chat. Please
make sure that you maximize
this massive reward of feeding the people Philistine
in these last blessed nights, especially those of
you who are in the UK right now
already in the 23rd night. Some of you
are finishing or have just finished your 23rd
night, and many of us are going into
it.
You guys have hit over 50% of the
goal already.
Please let's keep going. Please share. As some
some people said, if you don't have the
capacity to give right now and or you
you've given already multiple times, please just keep
sharing every time I refresh it. Masha'Allah, the
number ends up increasing. Let's hit at least
that goal and then some, and let's make
sure that we are SubhanAllah,
it's crazy to me that that you know
it's 17 ks, 1 you know I saw
100 something,
100 people can be paid can be fed
for an entire month with 10 ks SubhanAllah.
There's only 2,000,000 some people in Gaza. If
all of us came together as an Ummah,
I know it seems like big numbers right
now, but SubhanAllah, this is doable for us.
So I hope that we take that as
a real, like, for an entire month after
6 months of this hardship, I pray that
we come together and we make this a
successful effort. And please again, keep sharing that
today's forgotten woman day here in Ramadan 360
let's meet let's exceed their goals and and
let's make sure that we take care of
the most vulnerable in our ummah insha Allah
With that said, we have a little bit
of time left to continue our program insha'Allah
and to reflect on the topic of Sid
with Usalatemia Zubair for day number 22, Usadetania.
It wasn't my fault. It was I know
the session was super strong. Already come it's
no one who thought of it. Michelle, the
topic is amazing and it was sister
Sadia's presentation was so powerful. Incredible. And that
Allah much needed.
You know, you you have all all all
of these emotions and feelings, and you need
to be able to know how to channelize
them. Exactly. So may Allah
reward,
charities like forgotten women who
are working
and providing us with the opportunity to do
something here. Because if it wasn't for them,
what could we do sitting over here? That's
so sweet. And I think it's so beautiful
that
it's women who are helping women. Women. Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
I absolutely love that.
Alright. Let's begin. Let's jump
in.
Bismillah. Alright.
So the word Situk
occurs,
about
a 155
times in the Quran in various forms.
And as we learned, slitq is not just
a
virtue. It's actually a station of closeness
to Allah.
In the Quran, Allah
mentions,
the the reward of those who obey Allah
and the messenger
that they will be
with those whom Allah
has blessed.
And who are they?
And if you see here, siddiqeen
are mentioned right after the prophets,
and siddiqeen
are people of truth.
And these are people who are other than
the prophets,
and their station
is after that of the prophets of Allah.
Now linguistically,
the word is
synonymous to the word.
Means firmness.
Okay. The strength of something.
So sit linguistically
is is when something is robust,
when something is
sturdy.
And this is the nature of
truth
that it is
firm, it is strong, it is here to
stay.
Truth has a strength to it, which is
why it remains, and its opposite
falsehood
lies they're weak.
Right? They have no strength to them, which
is why
they get washed away over time.
They they do not last.
And this is something very important to remember.
Because when we hear lies
all around us, we feel this kind of
fear that, you know, truth is being buried.
People can attempt
all they want. They can lie
outright
and
It's so evident these days how people can
just lie through their teeth. It's it's
shocking
that how how can a person lie so
much? But remember
that lying
has a weakness to it,
be because of which it cannot last.
And truth has a strength to it, which
is why it lasts.
And truth is the opposite of lying. It
is the opposite of deception. It is the
opposite of hypocrisy.
Right?
Now we see that truthfulness,
silq
is in one speech.
It is also in one's intention.
Alright? It is also in one's resolve and
determination.
And that means that when a person is
resolved,
they have the determination to do something. They
don't waver. Truthfulness means that they don't waver.
They don't quit.
Truthfulness is also in one's actions,
such that their actions align with the truth.
They align with their speech.
And truthfulness
is also in one's adherence
to the religion of Allah.
Alright? And this is,
mainly what,
Ustad Hayasmin's speech was about. Right? Being truthful
to Allah
and being truthful in your commit in your
commitment to worshiping
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Now we see in the Quran that truthfulness
is described as
a, means
an attribute
of Allah
And this is one of the greatest,
you can say any it's it's one of
the greatest virtues of truth.
The fact that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes
himself as truthful.
And he this is enough for us to
to adopt this quality
because Allah
is truthful.
Say Allah has spoken the truth.
Who is more truthful than Allah in speech?
Who could be more truthful
than Allah in speech?
Allah
was truthful to you in his promise.
Right?
Allah
and his messenger were truthful.
The people of paradise will say,
All praises to Allah who was truthful to
us in his promise.
So
truthfulness
is a.
Then we see the truthfulness
is also a quality of the prophets of
Allah.
We say in Surat Mariam Ibrahim alaihis salam
is described as siddiq.
Ismail, alaihis salam, is described as
someone who was truthful in his promise.
Alaihis salam is described as.
Yusuf alaihis salam. Yusuf,
oh, man of truth.
And siddiq is not just someone who is
truthful. Sadiq
is
and he's someone who is very, very, very,
extremely truthful.
And what that means is that they're truthful
in their speech, in their actions, and in
all of their situations,
but also that they are mussaddik,
meaning
they confirm
the truth
of
what should be confirmed.
Alright? And this requires
knowledge.
Okay? You cannot
confirm
the truthfulness of something without having knowledge about
it.
Right? And it also requires alaamalu salih, righteous
action, because you cannot confirm the truthfulness of
something just with your words.
Right? You have to prove it with your
actions.
So the prophets of Allah, they're also praised
as,
those who were people of of extreme truthfulness.
And then we see in the Quran, the
truthfulness is also
described as a quality
of those who believe.
And the interesting thing is that when Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes the believers as truthful,
he's not just referring to their
to the truthfulness in their speech. No. It's
their truthfulness
in their resolve,
in their
worship of Allah, in their commitment
to Allah.
So for example, in Suratul Al Ahab, verse
number 23, Allah mentions
Among the believers are men who were true
to what they're promised Allah.
Meaning, they they did not break their promise
to Allah.
Whatever
commitment they made with Allah, they fulfilled it.
Allah
mentions in Surah Al Hajjrat verse number 15,
the believers who
strive in the way of Allah. Alright?
Allah says,
Those are the ones who are truthful.
Who? Those who say that we believe,
and then they have no doubt whatsoever, and
then they strive in the way of Allah
with their properties, meaning they spend
their property in the way of Allah.
They they they,
you know, offer their services.
Alright?
They they strive.
So truthfulness is not just in your speech.
It is in your adherence
to Allah's religion.
Allah mentions in Surat Al Baqarah, verse 177,
about what real piety is.
That piety is not that you just turn
your faces towards the east or the west.
Alright?
Meaning an outward display of piety. No.
Real piety
is of the one who believes in Allah
and the last day and the angels and
the scriptures and the prophets
and the one who
gives his money
in spite of love for it.
Okay?
And he he wants that money for himself.
He loves it,
but he gives it in the way of
Allah for the pleasure of Allah to who?
To the relative, to the orphans, to those
in need, to the travelers, to those who
ask, and also for the freeing of captives.
Those who establish prayer and give zakat and
fulfill their promises whenever they make them, those
who are patient
in times of hardship,
in times of difficulty,
and also in times of war,
these people, Allah says,
They're the ones who are truthful.
So truthfulness is not just about what you
say,
that did you did you put the water
over here? Yes. I did. Right? It's it's
not just about your speech.
It's also in your actions, in your commitment
to Allah, in how you spend your money.
Allah says about the about the in Surat
al Hashad, verse number 8,
that the fuqara, the,
those who were driven out of their homes.
Right?
And they seek the favor of Allah.
And
they help Allah and his messenger.
Those are the ones who are truthful.
And then we see in the Quran that
Allah
commands us to be truthful. He makes it
a requirement for success. So in Surah Tawba
verse 119,
Allah says,
Be with those who are truthful.
Because in this world, there is literally a
war between truth and falsehood.
And it is
truth and falsehood because of which people will
be separated. People will be separated on the
day of judgment.
Those who believe in the truth, adhere to
the truth,
are truthful to Allah, they are the ones
who who will be successful.
Right?
Allah mentions in
24.
That Allah will reward the truthful
on the day of judgment. Why?
Because of their truthfulness.
Because they believed in the truth. They spoke
the truth. They lived the truth.
They remained committed to the truth. They were
truthful to Allah, so they will be rewarded
on the day of judgment.
And Allah will punish who? The hypocrites.
If he wants or he will turn in
mercy on them if they,
repent.
And then we see in the Quran, Allah
also mentions great reward for those who are
truthful.
The the first
is the fact that they will be with
an Nabi they they will be among the
Sudiqin whose station is very high right after
that of the prophets.
Allah says in Surat Al Maida verse 119
that
that this is a day when the truth
of the truthful people is going to benefit
them.
And what is it that they're going to
get?
They will have gardens beneath which reverse flow.
It wherein they will abide forever. And so
to Zumr
verses 3334, Allah
says,
the one who brought the truth and the
one who confirmed the truth. So who's the
one who brought the truth? The prophet of
Allah
And who's the one who believes in it?
Those who who those who, you know, believe
in him and follow him.
Right?
Those are the righteous.
Allah says
They will have whatever that they want with
their lord.
Because sometimes,
for the sake of the truth, you have
to give up a lot. You have to
sacrifice a lot. You have to give up
your own wishes. Now I was just thinking
about,
the the position of the Ansar in Madinah,
how Allah
praises them.
That That they would give preference to the
mujahideen
over themselves
even though they themselves were in extreme hunger.
They didn't have enough to eat for themselves,
but they couldn't bear
that somebody else is going to go hungry.
So in in the silo, we, you know,
we we we learn in the hadith, we
learn about the incident where,
some
a family of the unsal was hosting some
of the guests of the prophet
and they didn't have enough food.
So what did they do in the dark
in in in the dark? They put out
the lamp,
and in front of the guest, they were
pretending
to eat. They were hungry themselves, and they
were pretending to eat. Why? So that the
guest would not feel bad that he's the
only one eating.
Think about it. This is truthfulness.
This is.
Allah
mentions in Surat Al Irwan verses 15 to
17 about the
reward of
of those who believe, Allah
mentioned some of their virtues,
that they are.
Those who are patient and those who are
truthful.
And of course, there are many other verses
that mention the reward of those who are
truthful. We should ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
for the ability to be truthful. There's a
beautiful hadith in which we learned that the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam taught Shaddadi bin
Aus,
a beautiful dua,
in which part of the dua is
that That, oh, Allah, I ask you for
a heart that is sound and I ask
you for a tongue that is truthful.
Give me the ability to be truthful in
my speech.
And the beginning of the dua actually is
Oh, Allah, I ask you for steadfastness in
all matters.
Give me the ability to be steadfast
in,
in in in the matter of religion.
Any in in my commitment to my deen,
give me the ability to be steadfast, and
that is your truthfulness.
May
Allah grant us all,
this beautiful virtue,
and I'm so sorry we had, like, a
minute or 2.
Absa, is it okay if we go past
6:15 today? Just Yeah. A few minutes to
take your questions. Because I wanna I wanna
hear this is such a great topic. It's
been such a beautiful session. Let's hear from
a couple of more people
before we close. Couple of people. So I
see Laibah's had her hand up. So, Laibah,
you go first inshallah, and then guys get
your hands up as quick as possible so
you can be next in line inshallah. And
just while we're doing that, remember, please keep
that link in mind. I've seen the numbers
slow down just a little bit. We're so,
so we're doing so well towards the goal,
so please keep donating to lashko.comforward/amalgribdashfw.
Live. I'll go right ahead.
Miss Mila. Well, before today, I never knew
that having such a deep in, you know,
you know, consult about this topic was very
necessary for
us. After having such a beautiful lecture on
today's,
new topic, I am so eager to practice
this in my real life, inshallah, and I
try to be more truthful
to what we, you know, what we learned
today. But other than that, I would I
was so, you know, happy when you say
to me that Alvar is truthful and he
is truthful in his promises.
Sometimes we do get, you know, a little
bit
overwhelmed by, you know, by, the surroundings and
by, you know, the the lying and oppressors
getting more in this dunya
and being like, oh my god. What if,
like, I could have have that if I
could be just a little bit more flexible
with my Islam or with my training? But
then you remember that indeed Allah is truthful
in his promise. At the end of the
day, it's Allah who's gonna provide for you
if you're truthful to him, and he's he's
he's gonna be returning back to you and
being truthful to you because
it's him. You know? Him being truthful in
nature is what motivates us all Muslims to
stay. So just like I said, that was
a very needed reminder.
Wonderful. Wonderful. Beautifully said, Laibha. Zahra, you're next,
Inshallah. Zahra, go right ahead.
Hi. I was just wanting to emphasize on
the point of truthfulness by,
and the extent
of of what she was saying by,
the I by going back to,
example of,
of, like, slavery and, like,
even
what what what she was saying is what
it reminds me of slavehood. And then it
just reminds me of an ayah in the
Quran when it said the, my prayer, my
sacrifice, my life, my death belong to God.
And those and those
of Asar Khashafil
Asar,
when he said the,
he who knows,
what is that? His soul belongs to God
and a portion of him remains to other
than God. So it is that,
so when I was just doing the, like,
I I was just thinking about it,
The the truthfulness is in us pushing everything
aside and focusing only
on and nothing besides him.
Yeah.
Good. Next person. Sorry.
Beautiful reflection.
The next person we have in mind oh,
I saw Maheem, but I think I lost
you. So we'll take z from the Philippines.
Inshallah, go right ahead, z.
So I'd like to just share a short
reflection regarding
about being truthful.
Is that, being truthful always leads us to
great things in life, such as,
Allah being with us
no matter what happens. Like, no matter who
presses us, no matter who tries to ruin
us, as long as you stick to the
truth, you'll always win even at the end.
That would be all.
Is that kind of thing? Monica, Vicky. And
those of you who are making fun of
my microphone, I've had it
since the beginning. Okay? It just used to
be here,
and today I just moved it forward.
That's all I did. I was gonna call
it out too. See it. Doesn't mean it's
not there. She sounds the same. Oh, that's
so funny.
Great reflections.
I thought I should settle this. You know?
Yes. Before before the 59 increases. Although
Abdul Rahman's microphone is Sweet. It's digital it.
Okay. Let's take maybe one more person.
I see brother I think it's Al Buntezer.
Please go ahead, Bismillah.
Hello. Assalamu alaikum.
By the way, I am from the Philippines
also.
On my reflection regarding the truthfulness,
it is also interconnected with the,
what we call this,
you are sensitive to others
regarding how you serve the Ooma,
how you will consider even you have a
little amount of money you can give to
the others.
So it is also to,
what we call this, interconnected to the conserve
conservativity
and also
how you how how how how to become
a a what we call this?
How to become you will
yeah. Yeah. That's it. That that would be
all I think.
You know what you said reminded me of,
and, we can end with this, Absa. Yes.
It reminded me of the
expedition to Tabuk in the Sila. We learn
about how
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam encouraged everybody to
contribute whatever they could because the journey was
long.
And
people were bringing in whatever they could, but
among the companions, there were those who were
not wealthy at all. And they some of
them would work as porters literally,
you know, or or watering the the fields
like actual physical labor
for which you don't get paid a lot
of money. Right?
And one of them worked
for many hours and all that he earned
was just a handful of dates.
And he brought that to the prophet
and the prophet
put that on top of the pile
of, you know, all the things that had
been brought as contributions.
I mean, the prophet
made a big deal out of it. It
appeared to be small,
but it was put on top.
Right? And the hypocrites were the ones who
were mocking at the time that this is
how they're gonna go
and defeat the Romans.
But it's not about how much you bring.
It's about the
of of your heart. Right? Your your truthfulness
to Allah
that, yeah, Allah, this is all I I
want to do more, but this is all
I can do.
Right? So bring that truthfulness in your actions,
and
with that truthfulness, a small deed
will be counted as huge.
Right? A small deed will be accepted
by Allah
because of your sick. And if sick is
not there, then even the biggest of deeds
will not carry any weight on the day
of judgment.
Right? We know about the man who will
be brought, who, you know, who will say
who who will who will be a reciter
of the Quran.
Right?
The the man who was killed in the
way of Allah. Right? So,
apparently, the one who was killed in the
way of Allah, and the the the so
called shahid. But these two people,
they did what they did for fame,
and they got that fame. They didn't do
it with.
So
those big deeds will bring them no reward.
So
is extremely important in every action of ours.
Alright.
Thank you so much for the final reflection
for day number 22
of Ramadan 360 on the topic of sith
and truthfulness. Honestly, you guys have made this
this day very special from our speakers, to
the audience, to the way that you've engaged.
So many great reflections I saw typed out
in the chat as well. I can't read
through all of them, but or read through
some of the ones that really stood out
to me, but
please keep sharing those on Telegram and through
Padlet. And I love the love that you
guys give to each other. It is, it's
true. Someone was saying, I instantly get refreshed
whenever I come into Ramadan 360. I think
we saw that Tamia was saying the same
previously. Other speakers have said the same is
that they come in, they're tired, it's near
the end of the fast, and then it's
like a jolt of energy.
So for building this community. And please, as
we've said today, today is forgotten woman day
at Ramadan in Ramadan 360. Please donate generously
at that link or drop it once again
in the chat in the chat, launchkit.comforward/,
there you go, amagribdashfw.
Please donate as much as you can. I
know over the last few months that we've
been all feeling like, seeing all these horrific
images, seeing, you know, families devastated, kids devastated,
and all we wanna do is we wanna
give them a hug. We wanna give them
some relief. We wanna, you know, relieve their
burdens and from and their harm and their
pain. And this is some a really tangible
way we can do that and an effective
way that we can do that, not just
for a moment, not just for a second,
and then they go back into that same
suffering, but to do that for for a
month inshallah with with a month's worth of
food, that's such an immense blessing that forgotten
woman is able to facilitate. May Allah reward
them and accept from them and make it
easy for all their line workers.
Because I know it's a huge struggle on
the front lines right now in Gaza. And
just do the easy part that we're doing
here, which is just to give and to
show our love and show our hug and
show our our our care for the people
of Palestine, our response to their calls by
just feeding them for a little bit, giving
them some hygiene kits, giving them a little
bit of dignity as they try to suffer,
as they try to to push through for
the and and and eradicate as much of
the suffering as they're as they're experiencing right
now. So please continue to do so. I
know some people might be waiting for their
nighttime to kick in or their their their
if the heart to kick in, that's absolutely
okay, but keep that link and share it
with others. And let's, as a as a
community, do something beautiful once again, Insha'Allah.
Once again for being with us for day
number 22. Tomorrow, we're gonna kick off day
number 23 of Ramadan 360. Another beautiful day,
another beautiful talk as we wrap up the
final week with Sheikh Amari Shoukri, who's gonna
be back with us on the topic of
excellence. I know Sheikh Amari never misses. He
never disappoints. So it's gonna be another beautiful
day. Please do join us, for that. For
now, take care. Stay happy, stay healthy, stay
safe. Make the for the people of Palestine
to be happy, to be healthy, to be
safe, and give, donate give, give and donate
generously to that effort and to that cause.
And we'll see you guys tomorrow. Assalamu alaikum.