Faith In Action – EP07 – Relationship With The Self – PT 2

Shaytan rajim Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah All praise is due to Allah Allah His peace and blessings be upon our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, a Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. Who made the peace, the blessings and the mercy of Allah be upon you. And welcome back to Faith in action. We've been talking about the relationship with the self, and how that is a reflection of action. And we're talking about some certain beliefs that hinder our growth, the enhancement of the quality of a character or life that we can be living. And one of them said that when we view work as a source of a set of burdens, are not really a source of

joy. Well, that is if work is what we will be doing every day, that can also be a source of misery for us. And there is this belief, or let's say, a fallacy that people have. That is if I were to retire early, when I have nothing to do, I'll be traveling, I have less responsibility. I don't have a boss to report to I don't have a boss to wait for money, and a check from we think that will be happier. Statistically speaking, they actually say that people who have nothing to do, they have more tendency to be depressed. And I know that in the States, men who retire actually have a higher rate of committing suicide after their retirement or not during their time of work. We're also told

that people who have this early retirement and they have very little to do, they are more prone into developing depression, rather than people who are actually working. So what needs to be done is change our views regarding work Islam praises were the messengers of Allah held different jobs. We've told that Prophet Zachary alayhis salam was a carpenter. Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was a shepherd, so was Jesus. So was Moses. In fact, the prophet peace be upon him said Mammon, Libyan Illa, Allah said that there is no prophet except that they all, you know, cared for sheep and goats from before. And they required even including your prophet of Allah and the Prophet sallallahu

alayhi wa sallam said, Yes, I used to do that. So the point is, yes, certain type of job, society, collectively, you must work together to alleviate the difficulties, the overworking the underpaying of some of our brothers and sisters in the community. But in principle, work should not be seen as a set of a number of burdens. But rather, it can also be a source of joy, as well. Another point that is also very important is the idea of, we have to change our language when we're talking about ourselves, you know, that words have such a great impact on us. And inshallah we have a whole episode that is just dedicated to the idea of Kalam, you know, toward and the power of words. But

when we talk about ourselves, they say that the more positive words that we choose to say about ourselves, we're not really changing reality. But what they saying is that reframing and that is, you can look into the same set of events, the same facts, but give it a different name. And one name will be more positive, and it will be more actually liberating and more encouraging than the other. For example, we can call a person, a survivor, or we can call the same person a victim. What do you want to call them is being mugged is just being beaten? Well, if we call them victims, we are right. If we call them survivors, we're also right. But which word is more empowering to call them

survivors? It is factual that they are victims. But they say that it actually does more to them positive change invites more positive change, if we were to call them survivors, rather than calling them victims, and we have to have this practice with ourselves. So for example, when we are labeling certain setbacks that we have done, instead of calling ourselves or I am such a failure, you know what we can reframe that and say, Well, this does not really go as well as I have anticipated. We're not changing fast, but what we are doing is that we are reframing, and of course, as you know that this is this is one of the greatest teachings of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he speaks

about a human sadhaka that a goodly word is charity. And not only do we want to be people who give good words to everybody else out there except ourselves. No, we want to be able to say and speak good to others, the same way that we speak that good to ourselves, as well. Another point in this process also is

evaluating our measurement of success nowadays, for example, for a long period of time, success had to do with did this person lead a normal life? Did this person have good character, the divorce and leave a good positive impact in society. These were the ideas by which we would say such a person led a good successful life. Nowadays, these ideals have changed, and the measurement for success has also changed. Now people measure success as to how high did you get in your position? How much have you attained in your possession? So now it's about your position, and it is about your possession, what not so many people have that position or too much possession. And if we keep doing so, if we

use this measurement as a way to measure whether we have been successful or not, there will also be an invitation to misery as well. And we do not want that. Another point also that slump stresses is do not undermine the concept of fun, fun is good, and fun is actually a necessity, fun rejuvenates our spirit. It makes us more dedicated to our principles. And in the Quran. We've been told about messengers who laugh. Sulaiman Alayhi Salam forever cinnabar hackerman Allah, He smiled and laughed at what the unsaid use of Allah His salon, his father, yakko Valley Salaam, his children came to him and they said, Please have use of come with us so that we can play your way up north on a lab in the

other recitation said that why don't you send us live with us so that we can all eat and play and have fun. And this is the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and we also have in the sooner Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam invited people to do so. Now the issue is this. Sometimes we mixed up the Prophet peace be upon him for Bade excessively engaged in fun, logic filled with the heck do not laugh excessively. Do not make having fun, the focal point of your life that point the process of them said to me to calm it kills your conscience, you become very desensitized to the misfortunes and to the difficulties and the challenges that other people are

facing. But fun is very important. And that's why we have the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam raising his wife Ayesha. They said that initially, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam won the race last delays later on, and that was really nice. You had incidents, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam had a very fast camel. The name of the camera was aswat. And it was outracing old camels. And one day a better one came and he said, so you think you have a fast camel, my camel can beat your camel. And everybody is excited about this race that took place. And they said that the camel of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam lost the race to the Bedouin. And the companions

were very disappointed. We have companions who said who would come in and they would see the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam upset and they will say that I will not leave unless I make him smile. Because in smiling and in laughing, that actually rejuvenates the spirits of people. Nowadays in psychology, there is actually a therapy that revolves around making people laugh. So that people who love actually have a better immune system than people who do not laugh, but a believer in part of being good to the self, in part of that good relationship with the self, we do not neglect the idea of having fun, as well. Also, one point that is equally important, is the idea of the ability to

delay, immediate gratification. We live at times now, when we think that if we feel like it, we have to have it immediately. We are really lagging on self control. And what is happening is that the minute we desire anything, we are unable to delay our desires. And not only that, but we are requiring almost immediate gratification for the things that we do. Our believer is actually able to control that part of being good to yourself is that you're constantly making sure that you are in charge over your desires and not having your desires in charge over you. This idea of delay gratification, delay, the fulfillment of desires to make sure that you are still in control. I was

reading in one of the books they were talking about, the less attachment we have for things, we actually the more happier we become the more

We depend on ourselves to be happy, the more chances we have to become happy than if we were to depend on things, and other means of entertainment to make us happy. So the author of the book, and the name of the book escapes me at this point, he was challenging the readers. And he said that you have to detach yourself. And he was proposing certain activities, setting that you know what if you want to see how much you have succeeded, and how far you have gone, in getting yourself trained in detachment, he just suggested two examples. He said, see if you can buy yourself a book that is a thriller book, he said that when you get to have have the very last chapter of the book, where all

the actions and the story is going to unfold, and you will find out what has happened, said, see if you can close that book, donate it to the local library, or not have your heart attached to the book, as you're leaving it in the library, see if you can do this, he suggested that you rent a movie, and action or thriller movie. And then he said before the end of the movie by 10 minutes, see if you can turn it off and take it back without seeing the end of it. And the point was, the less attachment that we have said that the actually the happier that we are getting. So a believer is a person who is able to delay gratification. Two final points we will make very quickly. Part of being

religious is that we refuse to be ordinary people. We want to be extra ordinary people, because that's what Islam calls for that you just don't want to be pious, you want to be amongst those leading to, to the path of piety. And the final point is, please do remember that being religious is the source of happiness. Religious does not mean misery. practicing Muslim does not mean that this is the person that is continuously depressed and hopeless. but rather a person who is religious, is a person that has peace of mind, a person that has harmony between his actions and his ideals, harmony between his behavior and the principles that he and she adheres to. And as such, there is

this tranquility that we will be feeling when we are in this path of our being and being good servants of Allah subhanho wa Taala May Allah subhanaw taala always make us of those who put their faith in action. With this, we come to the conclusion of this part of our program. Thank you for joining us, until we meet again we say Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh