Yasmin Mogahed – Understanding The Reality of This Life

			So if this life is not perfectly good but it is not perfectly bad either what is it that Allah
subhanaw taala says in the Quran in my little sleeves, so, this area is super deep and it is also
very misunderstood and it is often even miss translated okay. So this particular area from that is
in Georgia.
		

			It is it says that in that indeed my last three years rather indeed with the difficulty is general
ease. And this is grammatical in the sense that difficulty in this area is specific and singular. In
my last resort Elif lamb is specific and singular. In Niumatalolo city, you straw you throw here is
general. So what the IEA is saying is that with any specific singular hardship, comes along with it,
along with it, this is the man here is so important. And it should actually transform the way we
view our lives. The man, just the word man, man does not mean after this, Aya does not say after the
hardship will come ease. It doesn't say that. It says with the hardship comes general ease. That's
		

			actually a game changer. Because what Allah is telling us is that this is the design of the
universe, that with every hardship, with every single hardship that Allah gives you, He will give
you it, he will give you general and abundant ease along with hardship. It's not after the hardship
only it is along with the hardship as well.
		

			And why does that? Why is that so transformational? Well, it changes what we focus on, it changes
what we become attuned to, if I am thinking, oh my god, everything just so bad right now. And
nothing is good right now. Because why do I start to feel that way, when I'm going through
difficulty, a lot of it doesn't have to do with the reality, but has more to do with the perception
and even deeper to do with the focus. So if my focus in the difficulty is only on the difficulty,
only on the challenge, only on the fear only on the pain and the loss, I will naturally not see the
ease and the blessings that I actually have, at that very moment. It's not that I have to wait for
		

			those blessings to come but I already have them and yet I am not seeing them because I am so hyper
focused on the difficulty and the challenge. So this is one of those concepts I cover in the class
transformed. So so so what I do in this class is I take this wide array of you know, practical sort
of experiences that we go through in life, you know, pain loss, our spiritual connection with Allah
subhanaw taala how we deal with our family, how we deal with our, within our marriages, how we deal
with in our, you know, our social, our social groups in our in our careers, and then talking about
love, talking about what is healthy love, what is unhealthy love, and then talking about how to
		

			navigate our challenges in life, and really just changing the way we look at our lives. And then the
way we respond to our lives, but one of the most essential things to find peace within the
difficulties not just after the difficulties because difficulties are always coming, you know, in
waves, right? They don't stop. And so fight, we have to find the ability to have peace within the
difficulty and, and one of the only ways to do that is to really change our lens to change our
understanding, and to change our focus. So the first sort of principle that I want to convey is that
in my last video, that indeed with the hardship is general ease, it's not just after, you don't say
		

			okay, it's all bad right now. And that I have to wait for ease and I have to wait for blessings. You
have them right now. But you just aren't seeing them. You just haven't given focus to them. And
because you haven't given focus to them, they seem to you as insignificant. Right? Let me just give
you an example. You know, the person who is struggling in their relationship say since I gave that
example, or maybe they have a relationship that ended but at the same time that same individual is
healthy
		

			Allah subhanaw taala has given them health, Allah subhanaw taala has not tested them at that same
time with disease, cancer, or, or any of the other, you know, many diseases that other people are
being tested with that same individual may not be tested with poverty, at the same time that they
have a list panatela has given them provision has given them risk has given them safety, has they
Allah has not tested them with the tests that people in other parts of the world where, where
they're literally their life is in danger every single day, you know, that there's they're they're
in war zones, places where their homes can be bombed, places where their families are not safe. And
		

			so while that individual and it is it is it isn't to minimize the the difficulties that we go
through. But it is more to widen the lens and to recognize that and really to contextualize those
difficulties to be able to see more, it isn't. And I think it's very important because on the one
hand, you know, like for example, in counseling, you know that one of the most important things that
you that you do as a counselor is to legitimize the the experience of the individual of the client,
right? to legitimize not to minimize, not to, to you know, to that's the whole concept of
gaslighting is that when you're minimizing our D legitimizing a person's reality or experience, so
		

			it isn't about D legitimizing that pain or saying it doesn't matter. You know, sometimes people will
use this type of rhetoric to, to invalidate someone's experience or invalidate or minimize someone's
pain. And that isn't what what is being said here at all. Rather, that experience is very real, and
the pain is very real. The loss is very real, but it isn't about it. So it isn't about saying that
that's not important, but it's more about widening the lens to include the other experiences that
are simultaneously you know, happening at the same in the same time. That Yes, that that that pain
is very real, the pain of loss, the pain of losing a loved one of a broken relationship, the pain
		

			of, of sickness, whatever that that test, whatever that challenge is, is very real. But it's it's
it's about widening that lens to include the other experiences that you are simultaneously being
given by Allah subhanaw taala. So when Allah says in mallow, so your straw is not saying that the
house is not real, it's not saying that the difficulty isn't isn't legitimate, but rather that he
gives us the capacity at the same time in order to help us to cope with that very legitimate pain
and that very legitimate difficulty.