Yasmin Mogahed – I Want To Come Back To Allah, But Do Not Know How

Salam Alaikum This is Jasmine Mujahid and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio. Today we're going to be doing something a little bit different. We want to start inshallah opening up the lines and hearing from you sharing your experiences sharing your own reflections. And and also asking your questions so that this inshallah becomes like a discussion. And today's topic is a topic that a lot of people have contacted me a lot of people have asked, you know, questions that relate to this topic, and it's the topic of transformation. It's, it's, it's for those people, and you know, a lot of us reach this level where we, we want to make a change. In fact, there are

things that we wish that we could be and things that we wish that we could do differently. But it feels like, it's such a difficult thing to do. It's, it seems like such a long road, and it feels like this far off, you know, this far off place that we can't reach and just the idea of how to get there, how do I get from where I'm at right now to where I want to be? And that's basically the question that we're going to be discussing today. And inshallah a little bit later in the show, I'm going to open up the the phone lines, and I want to hear from you guys. So inshallah, stay tuned for that. Basically, what I want to give today is a combination of theory, a combination of, you know,

the understanding the idea of change, and the idea of transformation, along with specific action action items that we can do in order to really transform ourselves and our lives. To begin with, the very first step in any kind of transformation in any kind of change has to be internally with your intention. So a lot of people actually have part of this down where internally, they have a wish almost. And it's it's a wish to be better. It's a wish to change their life, it's a wish to turn things around to get closer to Allah. And you know, inside there is this desire to be to be better and to be more devoted to the deen. And yet, there is no, it hasn't been actualized. And so the

question is, how do we move from that wish to actualization of that wish. So the beginning at the beginning, it has to be there, it begins with an intention. And what I mean here is a firm truthfulness of the heart, where you say to Allah subhanaw taala, that you want to change that you want to be better that you want to get closer to him. Now that's really where it begins. Because here is where you see the difference in outcome, that the one who has that really

sincere decision, basically, it's a it's a, it's a movement of the heart. So this is before the actual, you know, actions come but just internally, that we You see, the person who really makes their heart is truthful has is truthful to Allah subhanaw taala of wanting to change, and is sincere in that. And you will find that if we do have that, that you will, that you will see that transformation happen. And Allah subhanaw taala will make it easy for you, if you start with that sincere intention. So the beginning step is that intention is that truthfulness with a law. And I would say even turning it into an action, where you make law. So you begin with a.to, Allah subhanaw

taala, that you that he helps you to make this change in your life, that he enables you to turn away from the things that you're the sins that you're committing. So if you're living, you know, living a certain type of life right now there's, there are sins that you're living, and there are habits that you have. And you ask Allah subhanaw taala to, to make it easy for you to leave those cents to break off with those things that you're doing that are displeasing to him. So you start with that you start with that dot. And then I actually would say that you take it even a little bit, another step because what happens is we sometimes have like these sort of bursts of internal bursts of

motivation, and we say you know what I really want to get, I really want to change my life. I really want to come back to Allah, and then we don't act on them. So what happens is, after a little while, it goes away, and we go back into our normal routine and our normal heedlessness and our normal circle of friends in our life, right? And so the key is that you have to act upon that burst that that burst

Motivation at the moment that that you that you're in it that you have it. So when you feel so you feel that sincerity, and you feel that truthfulness that you want to change, and then you make that.to Allah subhanho data, and then you make an action, you somehow act on that. So the first thing that I that I mean, personally what I did when I was going through that point in my life where I wanted to make a change, where I wanted to devote my life to trying to be better, and taking a different path in the path that I had taken. And what I actually did, because I was personally, I was afraid that, that that moment of, you know, like spiritual high or a man rush would pass, and

then I wouldn't make the change that I that I hoped to make at that moment. So what I did is I tried to sort of trick myself into having to do it, by making a promise. And you know, how, you know, you can make a promise to a person. And you know, it's like, it's a little bit easy to break that promise. But what I did, to sort of sort of force myself or to kind of trick my naps in a way is I made a promise to Allah subhanaw taala, that I would do, there were certain things that I made a promise that I would do, and certain things that I made a promise that I would stop doing. And by doing that, I was trying to keep myself so that if I go back to my, you know, my regular routine,

that I would remember, even if I wanted to, you know, slip back into my old habits, that I would remember that I had made a promise to a law, and you can't break a promise that you make to a lot, it's a lot harder. So because of that, you make that promise, and then you feel like now, you need to stick to it. And in fact, that's exactly what happened for me personally. So I made that promise. And you know, that promise might be and each person is different. Everyone knows what it is in their life that they need to change. And for some people, it might be a promise to never miss another prayer. Maybe someone is struggling with Salah that they're not praying regularly. And this is this

is actually a major sin to be not praying regularly and on time. So maybe their promise to Allah subhanaw taala will be that they will never miss another prayer. And that Salah will always be a priority in their life. And for other people, maybe that promise will be that they're going to start wearing hijab, or maybe if they have taken off the hijab, they will put it back on and that they're going to inshallah and they ask Allah subhanaw taala to make it easy for them to put it back on, or to put it on for the first time and to stick with it inshallah, for other people, it might be a promise that if they're in a haram relationship, that they're going to break off that hot on

relationship. And these are all you know, when we get into the realm of these things, these are sacrifices, and we know from the Prophet sallallahu Sallam that anytime we sacrifice for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala whatever it is that we sacrificed, Allah will replace it with something better. And we have to know that with firm faith that when we do give up something for the sake of Allah, this is not taken lightly by Allah subhana wa Tada. And we need to remember that, you know, for example, Allah subhanaw taala in the in the Quran says that, that you will never reach piety you'll never reach righteousness, will antenna will be Rohatyn physical metal, hip bone, which means that

you won't reach better and this righteousness is piety, this goodness, until you're able to give from that which you love. So here, it's it's not I mean, if you're just giving from something you don't really care about, if you're sacrificing from something you don't really you're not really attached to or you don't, you know, it's not, it's not hard, then it's not really a sacrifice. And in fact, it's not really, it's not elevating and purifying you in the same way, that if it's something that you really love, and something that you really want. And then when you give up something that you really love, or something that you really want for the sake of Allah, the result

of that is something amazing. I mean, that result is, is, is so much higher. And if you think of even the example of fasting, the example of fasting is exactly that. Because in when when we fast, what we're doing is we're giving up what we love, we're giving up food, we're giving up drink, we're giving up intimacy, these are all things that we love, and in fact, things that we need that our body needs, and yet we choose to give up those things for the sake of Allah subhanho data. And when you look at the reward for fasting, you see that it's unlike the reward for other acts of worship. Allah subhanaw taala says that for fasting He rewards for it in a very special way. Unlike other

acts of worship, when you think of other acts of worship, you know there's some share for that for the you know, for the person maybe it feels good or maybe they enjoy it, but with the fast Allah subhanaw taala says that the reward is from me that I will

rewards the fast you know that he says that other acts of worship are for the for the worshiper, but the fastest for me and I will work and I will reward for it. And when you look at even, you know this that the reward for fasting the Allah subhanaw taala tells us comes at two times, it comes in this life when when the one when the person breaks their fast and it comes in the hereafter when they meet Allah subhanaw taala but this can be extended to really any sacrifice that you make, for the sake of Allah where you where you put what Allah loves, over what you love, and anytime you make that sacrifice Allah subhanaw taala rewards greatly for that. In fact, one of the people who are

shaded in the in the shade of Allah subhanaw taala when there is no other shade is one is the one who is tempted towards the Hunnam, or having a hot arm relationship, and doesn't give into that because of fear of a loss of huddled on this, this is specifically one of those people who are given this, this amazing reward of shade on the Day of Judgment. So we should you know, if it's something that's difficult for us to do, we we realize that the more difficult it is the insha Allah The higher the reward is, and what happens once you make this decision. And you make this promise to Allah subhanaw taala. Now, if you are truthful and if you are sincere in that Allah will now make

your path towards what you have intended, easy for you. And that's what's amazing about taking this first step towards Allah subhanho data, as Allah says, in the high difficulty when whenever someone takes one step towards Allah, Allah takes 10 steps towards them. And if you come towards Allah subhanaw taala walking, a lot comes towards you with speed. So if you take that first step, Allah subhanaw taala will indeed make it easy for you, Chawla We'll take a short break right now. And when we return, we'll continue and we'll take calls

Selam Aleykum. This, this means and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio. So the questions have already started to come in on the chat box and you know, keep them coming. inshallah, we'll also be opening up the lines and you can call in at 1-800-955-5548. And the international number is 949-340-9665. So inshallah, what I'm going to do now is go ahead and get to the other steps. So we began and we discussed the the internal desire, the wish the sincere and truthfulness, the sincerity and truthfulness to Allah subhanaw taala that we want to make a change, that there are certain things in our lives that we want to to turn around, we want to devote our

lives to Allah subhanaw taala we want to get closer to him and become more serious about our Deen. And so the first step we said was this, this internal intention and wish and and truthfulness and then making a promise to Allah subhanaw taala.

Now, the question then comes and actually this was a question that was asked in the chat box? And it's an excellent question. It's a question of his diploma. She says that or he slash she says, his diploma, that's the hardest part in the change process, please advise on this. And this is a very good point is to karma means standing firm, that once we make, you know, we might make a change. But then the problem is, and the difficulty is, is remaining firm on that way or on that change. And so, what I want to do right now is talk a little bit about that, and inshallah we're going to continue to get to that point. But after we, you know, we make that promise to Allah subhanaw taala now what

we have to do is follow through. And what we need to understand is that the heart is something that tarnishes like anything, the prophets, I send them tells us like all things over time, it rusts and that there is a Polish for everything that rusts and the Polish for the heart is the remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala So to begin with, if we're not praying, then what we've done is we are not remembering Allah subhanaw taala in the way that Allah has made mandatory for us, and so we cannot expect our hearts to be clean.

And not rusted and close to Allah subhanaw taala it's impossible if we're not praying because we have removed the means by which to get to Allah subhanaw taala and by the means by which to clean one of the means by which to clean the heart of its rust. So even though I am Rahim Allah has said that the heart gets rusted by two things, and they are love law and and since and loop. Now health law means heedlessness. So heedlessness is the situation sometimes, you know, you have certain times in your life or maybe, you know you are committing a lot of sense, okay, so there might be some some Muslims, they live a life where, you know, maybe they drink or they're, you know, they do drugs or

they, you know, the clubbing, you know, that whole scene where it's a lot of, you know, a lot of Masia their life is they commit a lot of these, these sins, which are considered major, major sins, and you know, maybe like relationships outside of marriage and etc. And that's one, one of the ways in which the heart becomes tarnished, in which the heart becomes dirty. And, actually, the sins themselves, create a veil, or almost like a wall between the heart and Allah subhanaw taala. So this is the reason why that person cannot feel doesn't feel close to Allah doesn't see Allah in their life. They're living their life, but they're completely distant from Allah. And the reason for that

distance is the sins themselves, the sins have created that veil. And so the way to remove that veil of the sins is through Toba is through repentance, and in order for repentance to really be accepted by Allah subhanaw taala. There are certain qualifications, certain criteria that you have to follow. One of them has to do with remorse, you begin with a sense of remorse, you have to feel bad about the sin, you have to recognize that it is a sin and feel a sense of hurt at the sin and pain and remorse. And secondly, you need to stop doing the sin. So remember, we said that we were going to make promises to Allah subhanaw taala that I'm going to stop this particular sin or I'm going to,

you know, I'm going to I'm going to make this change. And so you you actually make a sincere promise to yourself into a law that you will not return to the sin as well. And so the three parts is the first the remorse. Second is that you stop this in you don't you don't you don't make Toba to Allah subhanaw taala and continue to be doing the sin and that's not a sincere Toba or repentance. And then third, you make the sincere intention not to return to that sin itself. Now, Toba then becomes like a cleanser that Toba cleans now the heart from the stain of the sin. And you should never lose hope that you know, you know, some people might be hearing this and thinking what will I have way

too many sins? Right? My, my heart is too covered with these, you know, the spots of these sensors? No, there's no hope, you know, there's no use. And that's absolutely untrue. That itself that thought itself is from shaitan. Because shaitan wants you to feel that way wants you to feel like there's no hope, and you have too many sins, and there's no way that you can ever clean your heart of those sins. And, you know, the idea here is that to say that is as if you're believing that your sins are greater than Allah's mercy. And that's impossible because we know Allah as mercy encompasses and is greater than all things. And so you're there's no amount of sin that could be

greater than Allah's mercy. And recently I posted a status about this. And it's, it's something that that I think we don't usually realize, but a lot of times people they feel like they can't go back to Allah subhanaw taala because they have a past, you know, like, you know, they did certain things in their past. But you know, what, you know, who had a greater past than you are me home on the lawn, and the homeowner, the Alon, was, I mean, if you think about his past, and basically in his past, he actually was on his way to kill the Prophet sallallahu sallam, and you know, and at that time, they used to bury their daughters alive. Okay, so I don't think that inshallah any of you have

such a past, and yet, and yet this man on the line became one of the greatest men to ever walk the earth. And why is that because of Toba because of this, this door that Allah subhanaw taala gives us to come back to him and completely transform our life and completely transform ourselves. And we have examples of this in our in our history. And in fact, these are the greatest examples. He was one of the 10 people who was promised genda and so you know, we should never ever let shaitan deceive us into thinking that it's too late for us, or there's too much that we've done in our past because it's impossible. Allah subhanaw taala is door's always open so long as we still live, and we

ask Allah subhanaw taala that we would always repent to him and always

Come back to him before it really is too late. And that, you know, that's once we leave this world as long as we are still alive, it is never ever too late. So we said that that one of the first, you know, the first tarnish or of the heart, the first thing that that basically, you know, covers up the heart from Allah subhanaw taala is our sins and, and the solution to that is Toba and changing our life and asking a less opponent that is sincerely and repenting. But the second, the second aspect that covers the heart and tarnishes The heart is something else, which is a little more subtle, and that is heedlessness Muslim. So sometimes we talked about this group of people who are

like, you know, like, they're considered like living like the bad life, right? They're the clubbing, they're clubbing they're drinking, they're this, you know, they're living in so much sin. And we can look at those people and right and a lot of times people look at them and judge them and see them as being really, really bad Muslims, right. But there's another group which are engulfed in something called hoffler. And a call flow means heedlessness. Now they may not be clubbing, they may not be drinking, they may not be doing drugs, but their entire life revolves around what are they wearing? How much money do they have? How big is their house? You know, who which dinner party? Are they

going to? What did this person say about them? What did that person do? their entire life is revolved around dunya. And, and this state, even though they're not committing these other big sins, this state that they're in, they are they may be just as far away from Allah subhanaw taala as those who are committing the sense, because their entire life, they don't remember a law. All they all their concern is is this life, everything that's happening in this life. And so that state of love lab is also a state where you are distant from Allah subhanaw taala, even though you don't recognize it, maybe as much, you know, people won't look at that person and say, oh, wow, you know, they're so

lost, even though really, they are so lost, that that that state of being, you know, I'm consumed with just what am I doing? You know, what, you know, just everything that's happening in Indonesia, like, my job, my money, my car, my status, the people in my life, what are they saying? What are they thinking? What am I you know, these are the things that consume us, then we are we are just as distant from Allah subhanaw taala. And so that also tarnishes the heart and keeps the heart far away from Allah subhanaw taala. And what is the cure to that is the vicar of Allah subhanaw taala remembrance. So basically, the two, you know, sort of the two diseases, those two causes of harm to

the heart are the sins and heedlessness oral health law. And the two cures are there for Toba repentance, turning back to Allah moving away from the sin leaving the sin. And secondly, the the remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala is the cure for hoffler or, or, you know, the cure for and remembering a lot of that is the cure for that heedlessness, which makes us distinct from Allah subhanaw taala. So inshallah we're still you know, looking for you to call in you, you know, basically, what we're looking for here is we want to hear your stories, your reflections, your questions, you know, what are some of you know, maybe some of you know, you know, other people who

have gone through this transformation, or maybe you yourself have gone through this transformation, and you have a story that could benefit us and, and you'd want to share. So the other part now has to do with is to karma. So, in the example that we're talking about here is transformation. Now, I want to give you guys a metaphor, because I really like metaphors. And the idea here is if you think about a wound, so suppose you have a wound on your body, and you want to treat that wound, what is the first step in treating that wound well is realizing that you have it and making the intention to clean it and to cure it. So that's the first step and we talked about that internal intention.

Secondly, you're going to go and clean that wound, you're going to take antibiotic cream or whatever, and you're going to clean it. And that cleaning process is like the Toba. That cleaning process is when you're going back to Allah, you're crying, you're asking Allah subhanaw taala to forgive you, you're making the intention, never to go back to the sin that you sacrifice. Whatever it is, even if your neffs loves something, you sacrifice it for the sake of Allah, and Allah replaces it with something better. Now that cleaning process is is extremely important. But now what happens if you leave that wound open? So you cleaned the wound? And now it's open? So what's going

to happen over time? And this gets to the question in that came from the chat box, which is about karma. Now, if you leave that wound open, what's going to happen? Is this going to get reinfected you're going to get more, you know, bacteria that's going to get into that one. So now we have to get talk about how do we keep the wound clean. How do we keep it from getting

reinfected. How do we keep ourselves from going back to that old life that we that we're trying to change and get away from? And really, the answer is that it has to be a constant process of Mujahideen of this struggling. And part of that struggle is actually constant Toba, that you're constantly looking back, going back to Allah, seeking His forgiveness, and refocusing your life on him. But there are other things that actually contribute to this re infection. And they're what what I'll call poisons of the heart. So there are poisons that that we surrounded ourselves with that are actually infecting our heart. And so what we need to do is realize what are those poisons, and block

off those poisons, so that once we clean the wound, it stays clean. Now one of the poisons of the heart is, is what we're looking at our eyes, unrestrained glances basically, when Allah subhanaw taala tells us in the Koran to lower our gaze, there's a reason for it, when Allah subhanaw taala, you know, whatever Allah commands, and a lot here is, is commanding it in the Quran, in his words, and he is commanding both the women and the men specifically, you know, sometimes he just addresses, you know, mankind in general, sometimes the address addresses the believers in general, but in this case, he specifies believing women and believing men it is it is very emphasized that they should

lower their gaze. What does this mean? It means that whatever goes into my eyes, whatever I look at, goes straight to my heart, and it and it imprints on my heart. So if I am constantly looking at what I'm not supposed to be looking at, if I am constantly looking at the huddle at what is prohibited for me to look at whether I'm checking someone out, or I'm looking at things that I'm not supposed to be seeing that that is actually pouring dirt into my heart, we don't realize it, we think we do not, you know, we're just looking at it, oh, you know, it's no big deal. But we don't understand the connection between what we see, and, and the condition of our heart. And there is a direct pathway.

So if we want to guard our heart to protect our heart, once we've cleaned it, and to keep it clean, we have to guard our eyes, our eyes will will will affect the condition of our heart. And in the same way, our ears, that's the other pathway to our heart, what we listen to what we hear of whatever we're listening to, and hearing is also imprinting on our heart. So if we're listening to garbage, if we're listening to, you know, people who are putting down women or putting down, you know, like talking about religion in a in a mocking way, and this is what like what we're listening to, and this is what we're hearing what we're ingesting, that's also putting poison into our hearts,

and it affects the condition of our hearts. And the other pathway is our tongue, what we are speaking, what we are saying, also has a direct impact on the condition of our hearts. And so all of these things are things that we need to lock off, we need to keep track of if we want to prevent that poison from pouring into the heart itself. The second poison of the heart that I want us to be aware of is bad company, that the people in our lives, the company that we keep, can also be a poison for the heart. So if we want to take this path, and we want to transform we want to, you know, this is a very important part of that path is that we have to make sure and who it is that we

are keeping in our company who our friends are, who is it that we spend time with, because the company itself is also a poison of the heart if it's bad, and there's actually an area in the Quran, where Allah subhanaw taala tells us that on the Day of Judgment, the people of Hellfire will say that they wish all that I had not taken so and so as a friend, this is one of the things that we are going to wish that we're we asked the last panel data to protect us from this, but this is something that some people will wish on the day of judgment that they had not and this is this is specified specifically in the quote on that they had not taken so and so person as a friend, because that your

company, your friends, your companions, they affect you, and they affect the condition of your heart and they will either you know help you towards Jenna, or help you towards Johanna mouth of Allah. So keeping track of who you know, and if it means and sometimes what happens when people start to change, people start to try to improve themselves, their old, their old crowd will actually naturally start to sort of pull away. And usually the first response to this is a little bit of hurt because you know, we love our friends and we're you know we had a good time with them and we're close to them. Maybe we've known them since we were kids. And so that the first reaction is we feel

kind of upset about that.

This, but what we if we were to take a step back, this may be a protection from Allah subhanaw taala. The fact that that our company is changing, it may be part of Allah subhanaw taala as protection, that, you know, if you think about that wound, you cleaned it now you need to let it heal, and you need to keep it clean, what do you do, you cover it with a band aid, and you're you know, so you so that you're not letting that poison come back into it. And sometimes, when a lot takes certain people out of our life, it may be a protection from us, because those people were not good for us. That company was not was not good for, you know, for our for the condition of our heart

or for our Amen, and our path to Allah subhanaw taala. So when it comes to karma, those are the two you know, the two poisons that we want to avoid, are the you know, the the pathways to the heart guarding the eyes, guarding the ears guarding the tongue, and then the company that we keep. And then remembering that this has to be a constant process, we can't expect that we're going to, you know, we're just going to go full force in this, you know, project spirituality, right, we're going to go full force, and then just like, let it and it's just going to take care of itself. After that, you know, when we're working out, we don't go full force and spend the day at the gym, and then not

work out for another like six months. And that, that that's not something that's going to be effective when it comes to the condition of our body. Similarly, when we're trying to transform ourselves and our our hearts and our souls, we can't just have this, this push in this, this Hi, and then just let it go. Because this is a constant struggle. It's something that we have to keep up. And you know, when someone wants to get into shape, they know about this, they know that it's something they constantly have to struggle, they go to the gym regularly, they lift weights regularly, this is something that they'll do for the sake of their body. But we are so lazy to do

this for the sake of what matters more, which is the sake of our hearts and our souls. And so that to take care of these things, we have to remember that it will be a struggle. And it will not just be something that we do once we have to consistently be remembering Allah, and we have to consistently being be asking for forgiveness and and and making Toba and going back to Allah subhanaw taala in the same way that we consistently feed our bodies, otherwise we starve. And in the same way that we know that, you know, if you take if you take water away for an extended period of time, you will dehydrate and you will eventually die. And if you take the remembrance of Allah

subhanaw taala away from the from the heart, it also will dehydrate and die. And that's what we want to you know, protect ourselves from shall I'm going to go ahead and take a short break, I asked you inshallah, to go ahead and call in and give us your reflections and your own experiences. And also you can write us in the chat in the chat box.

Santa Monica,

and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio. And we are speaking today about transformation. How does it happen? How do we maintain it? in you know, what are the steps that we can take? And right now we have some questions in the chat box that I want to cover some really, really great questions. One of them I read says, What if I feel like my heart is too rusted to be cleaned? I know I am doing major sins and cannot clean them. How can I repent? I do not feel any close to Allah. I do not know how to repent, I do not know how to repent, how to feel I am guilty. So this is the sense that I was sort of talking about earlier. It's that feeling of it's just I've

done too many bad things. I can't go back to Allah. I can't repent. And this is again, this is a West WESA This is a whispering from shaitan himself because Allah subhanaw taala His mercy is greater than your sense. Allah subhanaw taala as Mercy is greater than your sins, that's what we have to remember. When we minimize a loss upon His mercy. That's when we feel this way. We have to understand that Allah has mercy is infinite. And your sins are finite, Your sins are limited there's there is it's not infinite. Allah subhanaw taala although you might feel like there's so many, they still are not greater than the mercy of Allah subhanaw taala and Allah Himself tells us in the

Hadith, glitzy that even if your sins were to fill, you know, to reach the sky and fill the area between the heavens and the earth. And you were to come to Allah subhanaw taala sincerely, and and this is very important, associating no partners with him, that he would give

have you back forgiveness as big as the sense as big as that area right that we taught between the heavens and the earth, and that and every time that we do that Allah subhanaw taala, if we are sincere, Allah subhanaw taala does not get tired of forgiving. Remember that Allah is not like a human being, this is one of our major problems is we don't really understand who Allah is what Allah is. And we tend to, you know, use the rules that work with humans with Allah. And this is a problem because Allah is not like a human, a human being gets tired of forgiving, you know, I can wrong, I can a person only so many times and keep saying sorry, it keeps saying sorry. And then I do the same

thing again, I do the same thing again. You know, like, I can hit your car only so many times and say sorry, before you're like, I'm not gonna forgive you anymore. You need to stop. Right? So the idea here is that Allah isn't like that. Allah subhanaw taala. No matter we could commit the same sin over and over and over. And as long as we are sincere, and we return back to him, Allah does not get tired of forgiving Allah is not like a human being laser chemistry, he shade there's nothing like Allah subhanaw taala There is nothing like his mercy, and his forgiveness. So we should never think that and again, remember that that thought itself is from shaitan say out of la mina shaytaan

regime and look away from your sins, and look instead at Allah subhanaw taala has mercy and focus instead on Allah subhanaw taala has mercy. And when you do that, you will find that your sins are still less than a loss upon Oh, that is mercy. So you know, one of the beautiful statements is of one of the predecessors is that I looked at my sins, and I found them to be so many. But then I looked at the mercy of Allah subhanaw taala. And I looked at and I found it to be greater. And that's the point is, no matter how big our sins are, Allah's mercy is always greater. The other thing is that when you repent to Allah, you know, you're you you make you you ask Allah subhanaw

taala, to forgive you to clean your heart, but you have to make sure that you are, you know, doing, you know, again, I want to emphasize because if you're doing this and you're not praying, you're not praying or you're not praying on time, is then what you're doing is is you are this is this is a commandment of Allah subhanaw taala. It's an appointment that we have with a lot and we are, we are missing that appointment every single day, if we are missing that appointment, and then we say, but we want to get close to Allah, that it doesn't work, you can't, you can't say that. I'm going to, you know, you know, if you want to have a relationship with someone, and they have set an

appointment with you, and every single time they set the appointment, you don't go you don't show up or you show up late, you know you're not, you're probably not going to be very convincing in your desire for a relationship with that person. You have to be keeping that appointment to show that you want to get closer to a lot and that is the pathway. Allah subhanaw taala has made it the first step. And it is the first thing that you're asked about on the Day of Judgment. And in fact, it is what distinguishes a Muslim from a non Muslim. So this is extremely important when we talk about we can talk about all different acts, acts of worship, we can talk about all different types of sin,

but when it comes to the Salah, this is a different level. This is the thing that distinguishes as the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said in the Hadith. So he had this is what distinguishes a Muslim from a non Muslim. So you have to begin with the Salah if you want to make any kind of real change if you if you want to get closer to Allah subhanho data. The second question that I wanted to cover from the chat box is what do you do when you have no one who shares the same views as you who wants to make the change like you? Is it better to be alone than with bad company? This is a really important question. And I'm glad it was brought up because I would say it absolutely is better to be alone

than with bad company. And sometimes it is in the times when you are alone that you are closest to Allah subhanaw taala and in fact even if you have good company, this is I want to stress this. Even if you have good company, it does not substitute for the time alone with Allah subhanaw taala Everyone needs if you want to get if you really want to build your relationship with him. Everyone needs that time alone with a law and this sometimes happens in the last sort of the night and pm in whatever time it is after fetchit that you have a time where even if it's after even if it's after salah and you're just making the law, you have time alone your reading quota on that that time

cannot be replaced even if you have the best of company even in even if if if you're surrounded with shoe you who are teaching you it's still cannot replace that time alone with a loss upon Oh Tada. And I can't

emphasize that enough. So with regards to having bad company, it may be that this is Allah is doing this for a reason. And it may be part of your training, that you need to be alone for a while, and that you don't have the good company and therefore you will have to be on your own for a while. And sometimes this becomes a blessing really, because what it does is sometimes it builds your relationship with Allah even faster and stronger than if you did have company will load on an island, you ask Allah Subhana Allah to make it easy for you and to guide you to that which he which pleases Him most. But for sure, you want to avoid the bad company. And definitely It is better to be

alone than with bad company. And then the other question that I got here on the chat box is, I have a question. What if you are emotionally attached to someone? How can you change that? How can you let go of that person if you're not with them, but keep thinking of them? Well, this is a topic in and of itself. When it comes to attachments and emotional attachments to people. It's also something that I write about a lot. So, you know, if you check out my website, yes, Ninja had calm, I have a lot of articles that talk about this exact issue, the issue of attachment and specifically to people. The problem with these attachments, is that when you become so attached to a person in this

way, and it's all you think about what's actually happened is that there's a place in your heart, there's a there's a spot in your heart that is supposed to be reserved for Allah, and you have instead put something else there. And what I mean by that is that it is Allah subhanaw taala that should be the first thing on my mind when I wake up. And it's Allah subhanaw taala that should be what I think about when I'm praying, and it's Allah subhanaw taala that should be the last thing I think about before I sleep. What keeps me up at night, what makes me most happy, what makes me What, what, um, what I most, you know, what I what I hope for most, all of these things are supposed to be

reserved for him. But what happens when when we put something else or someone else in that position in our heart, is now we've given those rights that belong to Allah to someone else. So now instead of thinking about a law, first thing in the morning, we think about this person, instead of worrying about what does Allah subhanaw taala? Think of me? or How is it? How does he love You, Me? I'm worried about how does this person view me? You know, even in my Salah, instead of thinking about, you know, Allah subhanaw taala is this being accepted, you know, trying to focus on the law and the salaah. Instead, I'm thinking about this person. And these are all signs that there is a false and a

very unhealthy attachment, that must be broken. And what happens is, you know, that that attachment itself actually serves as a veil between you and Allah. And in the same way that we talked about sins, we talked about hoffler. And this is also another and because this is a topic in and of itself, I didn't get into it, but attachments to things other than Allah in this way, also serve as veils between you and Allah and B. And the reason is that you are your heart instead of facing a law is facing something else. And that other thing is what's really most important to you and what really you can't live without, and the way that you really get at these attachments. And that's why

I mentioned these questions. Some of the ways you get at these attachments, is by asking yourself, what is it that keeps me up at night? What is it that I think about most? What is the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning? And if that whatever that thing is, you know, what are some other questions? What is the thing that makes me most upset, most angry, most sad, most happy, the things that can control our emotions in this way. Our points are, those are the things that really we are attached to. And usually it's one thing or something related to one thing. And what you will find is that thing that you have put at that position, which only belongs to a law will

soon turn into your greatest source of grief, your greatest source of pain, your greatest source of suffering, that thing will actually end up hurting you and causing you the most pain. And the reason for that is that you have put something in a position that it was never meant to be in and it's a position that only Allah subhanaw taala should hold in your hearts and in your life. But inshallah, again, I talk about this more in detail in my articles on the website. Yes. Meanwhile jahad.com and it's something that you know, it's a process and you learn through time and actually you will learn whenever you do put something at that position. You will learn

through experience that it will cause you a lot of pain. And it's because it's not the heart wasn't created in this way the heart was created to have only Allah subhanaw taala to hold that type of position. And anytime we put something else and other person or money or careers or status, those things will actually end up causing us a lot of pain. Because it's you're putting something somewhere that it doesn't belong, and in actually inshallah working on an article right now about this, revolving around this area, where Allah subhanaw taala warns us of doing this, and in this area, Allah subhanaw taala tells us that not to call unless panatela warns us in this area, not to

call on any other ILA other than Allah. And in the end of the ayah, it says that if you do that, you will be among the tormented letter whom Allah Allah and Allah. And, and, and when he he warns us that when you call on an ILA, other than Allah subhanaw taala, you will be among them rather being and that is a sort of torment that we really feel in this life even before the next and the, the idea here is that an elf is more than just something you pray to, when you go and you actually study the root of the word Illa it gets at a very, a deep meaning of actually a refuge, a shelter, the thing that you go to, when you're most in need, it's, it's basically the thing you feel so strongly

for, it's, it's a lot of these, these, this meaning of, of basically, the description of of how you know, how you see being in love in the media. And, you know, in novels, usually what is happening is this person is, is taking another person as their ILA in some sort. And when you do that, it causes a lot of torment. And so we ask Allah subhanaw taala that he be our only ILA and that he be the, you know, that have that level in our heart, unlike anything else, and that we ask Allah subhanaw taala to make it easy for us to transform our lives and to get closer to him or politically, Heather was stuck for too long. He will come in Nova funa Rahim was Salam alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh