Yousuf Raza – Quran Daily Surah al Fatiha Ayah 2 Ar Rahmaan Ar Raheem II

All right, salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

Hello everyone watching.

This is Yusuf Reza and we're doing Let's

Grow Quran Daily.

It's not coming out as daily as I'd

want it for it to come but some

of the ideas that I want to express

are more difficult than I thought they would

be.

I wanted to keep it as simple as

possible, but sometimes just the ideas get so

overwhelming that for me to formulate how I'm

going to present that it's a little daunting.

So to be able to communicate what depth

or what benefit this particular ayah has to

offer us, especially reiterated, repeated in our prayers,

there's a lot that I still want to

communicate.

One of the dimensions that I'm going to

pick up on today is how our feeling

of being unworthy may be somewhat addressed by

how we carry ourselves or the attitude with

which we recite Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim and

ponder over it during our prayer.

Please understand that all of what I'm talking

about with respect to what these ayat of

Surah Fatihah have to offer as benefit, as

shifa, as a possible remedy of certain cognitive

distortions or of certain pathological or depressive or

depression-promoting thoughts.

All of these are thoughts or are concepts

that are coming in that have to be

first understood and believed in.

And number two, repeated in our prayers.

Because understand that depression or depression-like thoughts,

they sustain themselves as beliefs over a long

period of time and they translate into emotions.

So as to be able to dispel them,

so as to be able to contradict them

and replace them, first we have to understand

the newer, better belief and then to be

able to repeat it to ourselves.

Since the depressive thought and belief and the

resulting emotion had a very long time to

really sit in our brain and mushroom into

other depressive thoughts, ideas, and emotions.

Or just replicate itself and become stronger and

stronger.

And so to be able to replace them

with more adaptive, with more constructive, with more

growth-oriented, with more optimistic ideas and thoughts,

not only do we have to repeat them,

but before repeating them, they have to be

very, very believable.

We have to understand and believe them.

And it becomes simpler if we already at

least theoretically hold on to that belief, but

then it is a matter of strengthening, further

consolidating that understanding and then going on to

repeat, repeat, repeat as prayer helps us do.

And so the repetition that the depressive process

has or any other maladaptive, pathological, psychopathological process

has, we get to offset that with these

constructive practices aligned with our prayer.

These constructive cognitive practices, thought practices that we

align with the prayers that we're doing anyways,

and we get a better realization of how

Surah Al-Fatihah can be a shifa, a

cure for what we ail from.

So coming to Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim again,

one particular, very commonly seen pattern is that

of a feeling of unworthiness, which is more

common in those predisposed to depression and anxiety,

but then every single one of us will

to a certain degree experience that every now

and then.

A feeling of unworthiness, a feeling of just

not being good enough.

So one thing that that stems from, one

possible root or source of that, yes, there

is a guilt, but then there is an

exaggerated guilt.

There is a pathologically, neurotically exaggerated guilt, something

that a guilt should not be allowed to

lead into, but it does, is with respect

to feeling bad about ourselves, feeling unworthy about

ourselves, and then how that stems from certain

childhood or teenage experiences of not having been

the perception of not having been loved, right?

Feeling that we were not worthy of love,

feeling that we were not loved.

Now, the key point here is feeling.

That may or may not have been the

case, right?

Maybe the kind of love that was extended

to us by our parents was insufficient, or

maybe it was sufficient.

Again, that being bracketed to a side, usually

it is sufficient.

Maybe it is not done in the most

effective manner.

Maybe it is not communicated in a language,

in an emotional language, that we understand.

And so as far as parenting is concerned,

we would stress upon expressing and communicating in

the language that children would understand or teenagers

would understand.

But nevertheless, if we are now those adults

who were those children or were those teenagers

who felt unloved, that feeling is a reality

in itself.

Even if that was not a proper perception

of reality, but it was there.

It was misperceived.

It was mistaken.

It was a misunderstanding, but it persisted for

years upon years upon years, and we carry

it with us through our adulthood.

And whatever childhood memories or teenage memories we

do remember, they are colored and biased by

that feeling of not being loved.

And most of what we remember in terms

of incidents and events are precisely those times

when that feeling of unworthiness or lack of

love, that my parents don't love me or

nobody loves me, etc, etc, was more pronounced,

right?

So those events are supercharged as they were

emotionally, and so they are more they are

better remembered or even misremembered, incorrectly remembered, whatever

the case may be.

This leads for a lot of us to

not give ourselves the leeway, not give ourselves

the break that we need, not go easy

on ourselves, and maybe not even consider ourselves

worthy of growth.

Not even consider ourselves worthy of developing, of

achieving, of doing great things, because we think

we're not great people, we're unworthy, because we

were unloved.

So one thing that Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim

does after Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen has already led

for us to acknowledge that we do not

have this inherent sense of entitlement that I

should get everything good and great and awesome

just because of who I am, Ar-Rahman

Ar-Rahim communicates that you are still loved.

That there is a mercy that extends to

you despite not having that entitlement.

That there is this love, this grace that

is extended upon you, that is that reaches

you, that has reached you, and that will

be continuously available to you, is enveloping you

right now, and is accessible to you now

and in the future.

And so to be able to reiterate that

to yourself, so as to fill that cup

up, because really to lead a meaningful life

and become a loving person, feeling loved is

important.

As you constantly hear, you cannot serve from

an empty cup, but let's be real.

Sometimes when you're carrying that perception of not

being loved by your parents throughout your childhood

and teenage and even your life, and then

you may not have the best relationship at

home with your spouse, or siblings for that

matter, whatever your immediate circle family and friends

is, they may genuinely be, and we are

living in that society where people are so

self-obsessed, where people are so self-centered,

that even whatever relationships we do extend or

whatever love we do communicate seems to be

so utilitarian and self-serving.

So to be going around with empty cups,

to be going around with the feeling of

not being loved or unworthiness, it's pretty norm,

it's pretty, it's become a norm, even if

it's not normal.

It's pretty common.

Right?

So Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim, what it does

is that it helps for us to offset

all of those experiences in our daily lives

and force us to consider and think and

acknowledge that yes, we are being loved.

Yes, we are being enveloped by grace.

Yes, we are being treated with mercy.

Right?

And how all of those different things are,

I really do want to go into more

detail of that perhaps tomorrow.

And once we get a recognition of that,

this reiteration and this just pausing after Ar

-Rahman Ar-Rahim to think that, to believe

that, to remind ourselves of that, it would

help for us to be merciful to ourselves

foremost.

And then there is another dimension to this

of being merciful to others.

How that becomes something of a responsibility as

a consequence.

Something of an embodying of an attribute of

Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala that is necessary

for us to do.

That we have to be merciful to others

if we expect mercy for ourselves.

Right?

So again, this will be picked up tomorrow.

Thank you so much once again for watching.

Let's grow Qur'an daily.

Your support, your sharing, your comments, your appreciation

would help ensure that this project continues as

best as possible.

And wa-akhiru da'wana and alhamdulillahi rabbil

alameen.