Faith In Action – EP07 – Relationship With The Self – PT 1

shaytani r rajim Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah. In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, The Most Merciful All praise is due to Allah and made his peace and blessings be upon our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, welcome back again to faith in action. And we begin by saying, Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh, who made the peace and the blessings and the mercy of Allah, be upon all of you. And thank you for joining us once again, into our program, we're still talking about the concept of faith and how in Islam, faith necessitates action. And that faith without action is really dead. And if what you believe in does not impact how

you behave, then what you believe in is not important. But we've been talking about part of faith is reflected in our interaction with others and interacting with ourselves. And we left last time in talking about interacting with self, and how it is that in Islam, Islam teaches self acceptance, self love, self control, avoid self deceit, avoid selfishness, and so forth. And we left off talking about the idea of misery. When there is no harmony between our values, principles and ideals, and our behavior, the higher the gap, the more misery we invite to ourselves. And also, we said that the higher the gap between our potentials and where we are practically at this point, so that that also

invites a lot of misery to ourselves, because I am aware of where I can be. And I have the tools that our last panelist Allah has bestowed upon me, that enables me to get to my potential, yet I do not choose it, or I do not use it. Because I am being held back by my self imposed shackles, beat procrastination, the laziness, Wi Fi, beat anxiety, whatever it is, sadly, sometimes we are the ones who hold ourselves back from achieving our potentials. And that can be very pressing. And it can be very saddening to the point that it can even lead people to be so depressed, that they may even entertain things such as you know what I would like to hurt myself suicidal ideation. And remember,

that is not acceptable in Islam, hopelessness should never get us to that point. But what we need to do is overcome this issue. And because sometimes when whenever we see that the potential is so way out there, and practically where we are is way down here, you see that and it just becomes very depressing. And all a sense of hopelessness overcomes us at that point. And we don't want that to happen. So what do we do? They say that, if problems prevent you from seeing your goal, instead, then you are in trouble, acknowledge the problems, but never lose sight of where it is that you are going. So what do we do? One way they say that is make yourself take small steps towards achieving

your potential or towards achieving your goal. Mountains, what are they really made of, they're made of a lot of sand that came together, made rocks that came together that formulated the mountains that we have. So the point is, nothing ever is insignificant, so long that it is part of what gets us up there to our potential, we must commit ourselves to it even if it be many times to be very insignificant. And that is why Subhanallah a person should never undermine act of goodness, acts of goodness or not to be undermined in the Hadith, the professor lumpy actually literally forbade that let you learn how to communicate malvaceae. Khurana meraviglia. Do not belittle any act of goodness.

And sometimes he even said that do not belittle any act of goodness, even if it be the sharing of half a date with someone. Now if you are hungry, half a date does not really make that big of a difference. But what it does is that

It's a step towards achieving, you know, the elimination of hunger, is it? If that's all what you can do, then do it. Do not deem it insignificant. Because the minute we deem things to be insignificant, we stopped doing anything that I can do it because it won't make a big difference. Well, what are the things that make the big difference? I can't really do it right now. So we ended up very stagnant. stagnation is not good. So we want to do this. And that's why also in the Hadith, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam speaks about consistency. I have with Amelie ilahi, Edwin Mujawar in deeds are our most loved by Allah, our deeds that are consistent, even if it may be that

it is few or as little, but the person is committed to it, there is consistency in these deeds. So what we want to do is, if you are in that situation, potential is up there, practically we are down here, what we want to do is we want to take these little steps as we are achieving our potentials, what these little steps do is that with every step that is accomplished, there is a sense of achievement, and that is really good for us, because achievement gives us a sense of hope. I did it, it was done. So inshallah, next time, I will take more steps and so forth. Another point, it's also very important is that do what is possible right now, and do not wait for the situation to get

better. And that is part of the self deception, that sometimes we practice against ourselves. And that is, I will do it, when it's the right time. I will do it when it gets better, though many things, do what is needed right now, do not wait for things to get better. Remember, faith is all about action. So we are continuously doing something. Okay. And at different times, faith requires that we do different things. But we must all the time be doing we must all the time, be in action actions that are most appropriate to the situation that we are in. There is a statement that says that in an MLM been reliable, we'll be late we'll be late. But certain deeds, Allah accepts and

expect during the day. And he was neither accepted nor expected it is done during the night, uncertain deeds, Allah accept and expect during the night, and Allah will neither accept nor expected during the day. Why? Because the night has its own deeds, that they have its own deeds, different times of our lives, they require different actions depending on what is the challenge that is presented to us at that point. So at that point, we don't wait for things to get better, what we do is we do what is needed for the time that we are in. So the point is, do what is needed right now Do not wait waiting is not good waiting eats up the time. And at that point, we let somebody or some

other event be in control. And we give up that which Allah subhanho wa Taala has given us and that is the sense of duty and the sense of responsibility that we have been talking about last time. Another point also that is detrimental.

ignoring what seems to be insignificant initially, may actually change it to a big deal later on. Give an example, they say that of all the things that we need to take care of regarding our own personal lives, enhancements, development growth, we can classify it in either that which needs to be done now. And that which can be taken care of later on. But the way that we have been relating to the things that can be taken care of later on, is that we absolutely neglect it. Because we tell ourselves, I'll just take care of it later on. I'll take care of it later on. And at that point, it was not really a big deal. There were other things that were more important that we were busy with,

which was acceptable, but it is not acceptable, that all the insignificant things that we totally ignored, because eventually they will become a big deal. So the point is, Do not wait for this

either. Another point that is also equally important is to remember that work is a blessing, not a burden. Most of us have this vision of when I retire I like to retire when I am young so that I have absolutely no responsibility. I have no boss to answer to No boss to wait for the check and salary from I have my thoughts about traveling I have my thoughts about almost what we want to be is responsibility free. And as such what we do is that we do our work at this point.

nicoma as a burden, and not as an AMA as a blessing. Now, sometimes we may have jobs that really require a lot of work and pay very little that requires so much attention and exhaust our energy and there is nothing wrong with being dissatisfied with this kind of work and we should try our best to you know, get something that is more suitable for us. However, if we view in principle that work in itself is not is a burden, then we are in trouble. That is not acceptable, but rather what needs to be done is what is a blessing and insha Allah I will enjoy every bit of it to the best of my ability. So, in principle, working is good. Please do stay tuned. We're going to take a short break

and we will be right back in Sharla.