Yousef Bakeer – Be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Alhamdulillah.
As I'm sure most of you know,
I,
my name is Amin.
I'm part of Value Ranch Youth. Alhamdulillah.
And as you may have heard this past
weekend,
we had a very very,
very fulfilling fun,
adventure.
The first of its kind with value ranch
youth, alhamdulillah,
where we took, the high school men and
we went out. I see a lot of
them here actually. We took them out
about 5, 6 hours
to into West Texas,
into Palo Duro Canyon State Park
and we,
had we enjoyed a lot
of walking, a lot of sites,
we started off by arriving, pitching our tents,
having a hearty meal, Alhamdulillah,
and a good night sleep and that next
morning we woke up at 4 AM and
we started our walk. We started walking almost
3 miles up a trail.
We
then hiked another quarter of a mile up
a mountain to get to the location that
you're seeing up on the screen right now,
which is where we prayed fajr
and we had many beautiful reflections,
overlooking
the entire canyon
at the park, Alhamdulillah.
There were many beautiful reflections from the mentors,
from the youth themselves,
they were looking out and just in awe,
All they could do was praise Allah and
make beautiful reflections.
Following that, we hiked back down. We had
a good time with the brothers. We had
some nice suhbah in the afternoon and then
that night we headed back,
before Maghrib, we headed up into a cave
that, was right down from our camp area.
We spent some time in the cave, we
had some more reflections, we had a recitation
of Surat Al Kahf,
we climbed up the mountain and then Alhamdulillah
as
as things happen,
we got rained on. Alhamdulillah, we had to
rush back to our camp, tie down the
tents.
Overall, the entire trip was a beautiful experience,
of a lot of things such as you
know, sabr for a lot of these people,
for a lot of these men who hadn't
done something like this before, a lot of,
you know, rushing back,
getting their responsibilities done, being able to put
the tents up, being able to set them
down when the rain started,
and just a lot a lot of things
that were very necessary for these men
to show.
So Insha'Allah,
we'll have Sheikh Youssef Zakir, share some of
the reflections from
this
trip,
insha'Allah.
That was actually one of the most beautiful
experiences I had with the youth, because it
was a time where
I felt
honored to be part of this program.
Why? Because,
a,
youth were
spending a full weekend
without even being concerned about the phones. I
wanna tell you something about this camp. We
were actually in real tents.
We're not in cabins.
We were in real tents. Meaning,
we were just in the desert.
And just seeing the youth
being not concerned about
their technology,
about things that they used to be they
used to do before the camp or after
the camp, used to do in the house,
things that they're very comfortable with, seeing them
being not concerned about this was a big
blessing. SubhanAllah.
As we were just hiking, it was a
long hike. It's about 3 to 4 miles.
And towards the end, we had to climb
a cliff,
just to get that rewarding scenery at the
end.
I was reflecting about this moment,
and I said to myself, SubhanAllah!
This is how dunya is and how aashira
is.
Because ultimately,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
That Jannah
Jannah is accessible to those
who are actually going to put the effort.
Because a lot of hardships that you and
I need to go through,
in order for us to get to this
rewarding destination.
Just the way we were we're sweaty, we
were tired, we were exhausted,
and we're just trying to push through it.
At the end, I felt my muscles getting
heavier and heavier.
And I needed to actually, you know,
push through it because
I have to do it so they can
do
it. Even though it's tough, and I'm getting
older now but
I just tried to push through it, so
I don't fall in front of
these amazing high schoolers.
Alhamdulillah, we get to that destination. The first
thing that comes to mind is that, SubhanAllah,
if there is no
struggle, there is no reward.
If there is no struggle
in this life,
there is no reward.
This idea
of
raising our children to be uncomfortable,
in order for them to grow, is very
essential.
Very essential.
SubhanAllah, I was just reading the definition of
of discipline.
And it is about what? Who can give
me a good definition of discipline?
Discipline. What do you guys think? What is
a good definition of discipline?
It is
a consistent
act of control
to achieve a desirable goal. What does that
mean? It means this is the full this
is why are we here? Allah
gave us 2 nafs.
Give us a
good side of our nafs, the nafs that
desires good, and a nafs that desires evil.
And there is always consistent
battle, consistent fight between these 2 nafs.
And that's why we're here actually in this
dunni.
It's to see Allah wants to see
who is going to win at the end.
The good nafs or the bad nafs?
What should we do for the good nafs
and the nafs of Khayr to win?
Is that needs a lot of discipline.
A lot of discipline in a daily basis.
Many choices
that we make that can get us closer
to the evilness
or can get us closer to the goodness.
And you cannot you cannot
choose to follow the goodness if you don't
put the effort for it. If you'll be
an if you don't if you don't think
that you can be uncomfortable in your life,
then you're feeding the evilness.
Why? Because these are desires, tempting.
It's very tempting.
We need to teach our children
that they need at some point to be
uncomfortable.
They need to be uncomfortable.
That's why, subhanAllah, with uncomfort
comes a
lot of skills.
People overseas,
why is it that people in Egypt, or
Palestine, or Jordan, or India, or Pakistan,
you see young
gentlemen,
and young sisters
are actually
learning
much more than a child in the US.
Has much more skills
than a child in the US.
I myself, I knew people in Egypt. They
know 7 languages.
They know amazing skills.
Why? Because this is just the environment itself
has built them in a way that they
have to make it. And they're very uncomfortable.
And so they grew.
The main problem I see even with the,
you know, people that they're getting into marriage
in the 1st 5 years,
This idea of not being able if not
being able to be uncomfortable
with the first issue that happens in marriage,
I will quit.
And I wasn't built
to confront my issues and be uncomfortable with
some situations. I was not built
to function like this.
Why there's high turnover
in jobs in the 1st 5 years?
People quit very quick to quit.
Why is it?
Why?
It's about the same concept.
We weren't
trained to be uncomfortable.
So that's what we practice during this camp.
Be uncomfortable.
It's okay to be sweaty, to be, you
know, to feel very hot, to have not
the best bed that you're used to, the
best mattress that you have in house. It's
okay to wake up from the heat, and
it's okay to walk in the depth of
the night at 3 o'clock in the morning,
and go all the way until you hit
fajr, and then you pray fajr. It's okay.
It's okay. That's that's part of your growth.
Don't hesitate to put your children in a
position where they're uncomfortable, so they can grow,
inshallah.
That was that was such a beautiful,
camp. I I I really sincerely
ask Allah
to reward all of the volunteers,
all of the all of the mentors, all
of the teachers that they have put this
camp together.
Such a a learning experience for myself as
well.
Parents for being part of this.
And,
I mean, one one more time,
for all of your efforts. May Allah
reward all of your endeavors,
and make it heavy in your skill. Make
it heavy in the skills of all of
their the the mentors and the teachers,
and guide our youth to the righteousness, You
Rabbal Alameen. JazakAllahu Khaira Assalamu alaykum wa atulahu
wa atat.