Sincerely, Yours
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Jazakumullah khayran for joining us for another episode of our weekly live show on Yaqeen Institute platforms. Sincerely yours. I'm your host Ibrahim Hindi. I'm with my co-host Sheikh Abdullah Aduru. Sheikh Abdullah, how are you? Alhamdulillah. Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone. Thank you for joining us. Alhamdulillah. I'm good man. How are you? Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Everything's well on my end. How is everything with you, family, kids? You guys doing well? Alhamdulillah. Everyone's good. Everyone's good. You know, we just had the... It was a nice conference over here. It was a knowledge retreat. Ultimately hosted by Miftah and Yusuf Qalam Institute and Yaqeen and Maghrib. MashaAllah. All these organizations coming together. It was very, very refreshing to see the du'as come together to remind people about the book of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So it was great. It was great. MashaAllah. MashaAllah. How was the turnout for it? It was good. I mean, one day they had to transfer from the hotel to the masjid, Masjid Irving, ICI in Dallas, in Irving. But Alhamdulillah, it seemed like it was, MashaAllah, flawless. Alhamdulillah bilal min. But just gathering of the du'as, sitting together after and just, you know, laughing. It was beautiful. MashaAllah. It was great. MashaAllah. MashaAllah. That's beautiful. Alhamdulillah. You know the brothers at Miftah, they're funny. You know, there's Mufti, hey, you know these guys. I gotta get them on here. May Allah bless the brothers and their mother and father, MashaAllah. Ameen, ameen, ya Rabb. As always everyone, we're, you know, this is a live show. We want to hear your comments. We want to hear your questions in the chat. Let us know where you're coming at us from. Give us your salam. Let us know what city you're from, what country you're from. We want to interact with all of you. And during the entire session, you know, put your questions in the chat. We will check them, InshaAllah. And hopefully maybe choose one of your questions or messages to share with our guests, InshaAllah. We say salamu alaykum, sister Aisha from Somaliland.
I see sister Fatima, she's saying looking forward to having you online with ILEAD with Ottawa, Sheikh Abdullah. I think that's an event you're going to be part of. Alhamdulillah. I'm excited, Alhamdulillah. MashaAllah. Sister Aisha, salamu alaykum from Nigeria. Sister Anita, salamu alaykum from New York. MashaAllah. All over the place we have followers and people who are joining in, building a community, Alhamdulillah. People coming together to hear from our guests and to hear their story and hear some of their wisdoms and reflections that they have to share, InshaAllah. So InshaAllah, as we continue through this session, leave your questions in the chat. We want to hear any questions you might have, any comments you want to make, please put them in the chat. We want to hear from every single person, InshaAllah. Sheikh, we have a great guest today. Someone who actually, you know, we have a feedback form. If you look at the description of this video, there's a little link, you can click on that link. And so a lot of people click on that link and they tell me, please invite this person, please invite that person. And this person's name came up like four or five times, Alhamdulillah. One of the people constantly requested. Today we have with us Dr. Jinaan Yousaf. She has been an author for over a decade and most recently published a book reflecting on the names of Allah. She has been a student of Sheikh Akram Nadwi for many years and currently studies Tafsir and Hadith at As-Salam Institute. Dr. Jinaan teaches classes on the names of Allah for Swiss Online. She is passionate about helping Muslims connect to Allah through knowing Him by His names. And she serves as senior fellow at Yaqeen Institute. Please join me in welcoming sister Jinaan Yousaf. As-salamu alaykum Dr. Jinaan, how are you? Alaykum as-salamu alaykum, I'm well, I'm well. How are you? Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, I'm good. I know we woke you up for this session. You're up quite late to join us because of the time difference. We really appreciate you being with us. Alhamdulillah, there's a barakah this time. So Jazakumullah khair and thank you for having me. Thank you. Alhamdulillah.
So like I mentioned to you backstage, I'm going to be at a similar time waking up in the next couple of weeks. And I told Sheikh Abdullah about that. He's like, it's okay, you know, now you have to wake up for tahajjud because you're going to be up at that time. SubhanAllah. Alhamdulillah. Oh, you told us when we got on earlier backstage, you said it was 4.02 AM now, right? So it's like 4.09 right now? Yes, exactly. Yeah, 4.10 exactly. Yes. But like you said, it's perfect time for tahajjud. So inshallah after the call, you know, so Jazakumullah khair for giving me that. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah, happy to help. I used to say that to my wife when our baby would wake her up at night. She'd be like, she's up for tahajjud. She said, you know, sometimes you need to wake up for tahajjud. Why is it always me? SubhanAllah. So Dr. Junaid, you know, part of the point of these sessions is we like to bring on people who are involved in da'wah and people who are, you know, active in the Muslim community to have an opportunity for people to get to know you better. And I know Alhamdulillah, you've been producing so many works and written so many articles online, whether on Yaqeen Institute or Muslim Matters or other websites and organizations that are out there. And you've written books, Alhamdulillah, that I know a lot of people have read and benefited from. And so this is an opportunity for them to get to know you beyond, you know, just what they read in these articles and in these papers. So get to know who you are and maybe, you know, create some kind of sohbah from a distance inshallah. InshaAllah. So maybe like we could start with your, you know, your life story and your life journey. When did you make a conscious decision to be a Muslim? When did you decide, you know, this religion is for me and this is something that I believe in and I want to follow this path?
SubhanAllah, I love this question because I feel like when I look back on my life, there's like this clear, you know, trajectory. And, you know, you mentioned the book of the names of Allah. Like I truly feel like Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala like Al-Hadi, like the guide, you know, throughout my life. And so I would say there's like different stages to my childhood. I had like, let's say, pre-12 years old and post-12 years old. So, you know, pre-12 years old, I was not interested in religion at all. I knew I believed in Allah, I believed in God, but it wasn't like I was not interested in religion. You know, even for example, you know, my mom had started wearing hijab, you know, later on. And I remember thinking again, pre-12 years old, but I never wanted to wear it. So it was completely different. I was just like, oh my goodness, never want to wear hijab. I'm not interested in religion. And, you know, pre-12 years old, I was quite young. And then, you know, I think subhanAllah, about making a conscious decision, like I feel like it was two stages. There's like the kind of intellectual stage and then the spiritual stage. So I remember distinctly at 12 years old, I was in class and we had Islamic studies. And the teacher said to us, Islam is the truth. And I remember, you know, I was a pretty also skeptical child as well. And I was thinking, yeah, but I'm sure, you know, the leaders of like all religions, you know, tell their followers that they're the truth. So I remember thinking, you know, OK, but like, how do we know? Like I'm, you know, I'm surrounded by Muslims. The teacher told me that Islam is the truth, not a truth, but it's the truth. And then subhanAllah, how, you know, Allah is the guide. So I'm, you know, I was 12 years old. Remember we had gone somewhere for the summer and we didn't have anything to watch on TV. But if you can imagine, you know, CNN. SubhanAllah, just at that moment, a couple of months after I had asked myself that question,
there was like this huge feature on CNN about this website called, I think it was religion.com. And that they had, you know, writers from many different religions talking about different religions. I thought, oh, my goodness, this is my chance. I can actually hear about different religions from the people who follow them. So it's not others, you know, outsiders saying this. And again, please bear in mind, I was, you know, 12 years old, so this is not exactly like PhD research. But at that time, I, you know, I kind of, I got on that site and I remember they had this chart where they compared the beliefs of different religions. And, you know, subhanAllah, even at that time, you know, I thought, you know, the existence of God, the existence of Allah for me was non-negotiable, just intellectually. I was thinking it doesn't make sense without it. SubhanAllah, so it's just about religion itself, which religion. And so there was that stage, so I remember looking at religion.com and the comparison, they had this chart between the different religions. And I remember just looking at it just from, again, an intellectual perspective, I was thinking Islam, it just makes sense and a sense of who God is, like Allah is one. And that was it. A lot of the other religions, I remember looking at what they were, you know, saying about who God is, who Allah is, and it was very complicated. And I was thinking it doesn't make sense for God to be so complicated, because like if he's God for everyone, we're supposed to be able to understand him, you know, instinctively, right? It can't be something that I really have to make you, you know, that it's going to be so complicated that you as a lay person can't understand who God is. And so that was kind of the first stage. And then looking at, you know, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and his life, and I was thinking, okay, this makes sense. So this is like 12 and a half, I remember I was convinced, you know, intellectually, I see one of the comments says Judaism believes God is one as well.
So interestingly, when I looked at that, but there wasn't any, or no proselytizing, I guess, and I found that strange, because God wants to be known, like if God created us, you know, of course, then he should be, you know, God is one for everyone. And I remember, you know, about not sharing so much the religions that you could be, you know, Islam is like, no, you want people to believe in Allah, you want people to believe in God. And so that was kind of the intellectual part and plus the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Now, intellectually is not enough to get you to practice, right? You can intellectually, like, you know, you can say, you know, a person can intellectually believe, like, no, that smoking is bad for them, right? It doesn't mean that they're not going to smoke. And so I was convinced at this point, you know, 12 and a half, kind of, you know, years old, that, okay, you know, Islam and this is the right religion and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But I think, you know, the moment came, it's kind of really like, you know, an opening, really Allah is al-Fattah and Allah opens. And I had this wonderful, wonderful Islamic studies teacher, a different one. And she said something that, you know, again, at maybe 13 years old, we weren't used to hearing. And she said something like, talk to Allah. She wasn't, she didn't just say, you know, worship Allah, you have to, you know, she said, talk to Allah. You know, and you can, you know, it was a girl's school. So you have, you know, these like 12, 13 year old girls, you know, and you're telling them, you know, when you're in your room, even if you're just, if you're alone, talk to Allah, tell Allah about your day. You know, Allah knows what's in your day, but you know, when you're so excited to talk to somebody, even if you experience the same thing together, you still talk about it, right? Because you just, you know, you want this person, you feel like talking to this person when it's a person. So just talk to Allah. And it was very, again, I hadn't heard that before. And I was thinking, yeah, I should just talk to Allah.
And I think this started like the journey to, you know, trying to get to know who Allah is. And I'll say, you know, after that point, and again, you know, not to sound too dramatic, but I really felt that I fell in love with Allah, right? It wasn't just, you know, this kind of like, you have to do it because you're a Muslim, you have to do it because, you know, everybody else is doing it. You have to do it, you know, because, you know, inshallah, you know, which is a good reason. You want to go to Jannah, you don't want to go to, you don't go to hell, like all of these things. But I really, it was like this one time, I really felt that I was like in love with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And, and that's when like the conscious decision came that so anytime I heard something, you know, even for example, I still remember this, you know, you know, salat al-witr and the way somebody had explained it to me. I mean, this isn't exactly how the hadith says it, but somebody explained it to me that this was, you know, Allah's favorite prayer. And I was like, Allah's favorite prayer? Khalas, it's my favorite prayer. So, you know, you start to just jump on things that you're just like, I'm like, oh my goodness, if Allah loves us, I love this. And subhanallah, and I always say, you know, this goes back to Allah's name, al-Hadi, because when I look at myself again, pre 12 years old, I was like, I was not a good candidate for hidayah. Like I was not a good candidate for guidance. I don't think that I was, you know, I did not do anything that would, you know, make me kind of qualify, you know, for guidance because I wasn't interested at all. I just, oh my goodness, I could not wait to like thinking, oh my goodness, when I get my independence, I'm going to do X, Y, Z, and I'm going to do whatever I want. And then you think, you know, like, I think for me, like part of the biggest, I guess, proofs or personal proofs for the, for, you know, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is Allah and for Islam is literally just guidance. I was like, I was not a good candidate for guidance, but, you know, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you know, when he guides you, you're just like, wow, this is, this is just from Allah. He's al-Hadi, he's the guide. And so, so that's probably my, you know, two conscious decisions, the intellectual part, which, you know,
just convinced my mind, but I wasn't, it didn't make me practice so much, but then the spiritual, which is just realizing that you can talk to Allah and that, you know, Allah is there and that Allah listens and that, you know, again, if I can just say this funny story, the way Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you know, he knows all of us so intimately and different things, you know, work for, for different people. And I remember, you know, I, I wasn't, I didn't pray, you know, very well. I was intellectually convinced, yes, Allah, but, you know, I wasn't that great with my prayers. And I remember my friends had this sports match and I really wanted them to win. And so I came back from school and I decided to pray Asr and I was just like, I'm going to pray that my friends win. And my friends did not win, they actually lost really bad. Right. And I remember, I remember actually like laughing and I was actually, you know, kind of ashamed because I was like, I was like, I get it. That's on me. But like, okay, I'm only going to go to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I'm only going to pray Asr because I want my friends to win in this match. But other than that, like, I'm just, I'm not going to pray. I know for other people that might be like, oh, but this would make me not want to go to Allah. But it just shows how intimately aware Allah is of us. But for me, that was like, I felt that was directly to me, that like, really, you're just going to come to pray Asr, the only prayer that you're going to pray in the whole day, just because you want your friends to win, you know, this match. And so, subhanAllah, this shows how Allah knows our own psychology. And, you know, when experiences and things happen in our lives, you're just like, wow, Allah is really the Rabb, Allah is really, you know, the Lord and the nurturer. And he knows how to nurture you in a way that is very specific to you. SubhanAllah. Sister, you mentioned 12 years old. You were not interested in religion. What was it that this, what was it? Where were you? Where were you at this time, geographically?
So I was in the Middle East. I was in Dubai. Dubai. Was it possibly because I'm trying to think of the factors that made you not interested in religion? Not that saying that every 12 year old is interested in religion at 12, right? Was part of it because, you know, you're used to seeing things. It was so I don't want to use the word redundant, but Islam was everywhere. Therefore, actually voluntarily thinking about God was something that was, dare I say, not normal. You know, I think for me it was a number of issues. I think, you know, there was the when I saw people become religious, unfortunately, and again, it's, you know, it's out of zeal sometimes. And, you know, it's not like it comes from a bad place, but they would automatically, not everybody, but a lot of people would become not nice. When they became, you know, religious and they wouldn't give explanations for things. And it's not their fault, right? But as a 12 year old, when someone says, you know, you can't do this because it's haram. And you're just like, but why? And it's just like, it just is. How could you ask? How dare you ask? So it was kind of almost that. And I think, you know, also interestingly and funnily enough, I actually knew, you know, a few, a few atheists who were nice. And it was interesting. But I think, you know, again, my relationship with those atheists that I knew, again, I was like 12, pre 12 years old, was like, it doesn't make sense. Like, I don't understand. And I felt that it came from an emotional place and not a logical place when they would talk about that. So my lack of interest kind of like in religion was just the fact that when I saw people become religious, it just, you know, it didn't make them nicer people.
And, you know, it just seemed more fun to not be religious. Right. So if you went through this, like you could, you know, you could just not be restricted, basically. And I was thinking, oh, my goodness, I don't, you know, I don't want to be restricted. So why would I want to, you know, why would I want to pray or do this or just, you know, you know, restrict myself in so many different ways? But I also have to say, I was very blessed that even in different stages of my life, whenever we had Islamic studies, the Islamic studies teachers themselves. And I remember like each one by name, even though like I was young, they were actually extremely kind and extremely gentle and very patient. So I had this balance. It wasn't like everybody who was religious was just, you know, always in a bad mood or just, you know, kind of mean sometimes or something like that. Like I did have this balance. But I think it was just I felt the restriction. And especially as a child, you know, you don't want to be restricted. You want to be able to kind of do what you want and have fun. And so it was mostly I would say, you know, that that just made me feel like, oh, my goodness, I do not want anything to do with this. SubhanAllah. I'm so glad that you mentioned, you know, these points about you mentioned more than once, actually, you mentioned the first teacher that said, you know, Islam is the truth. And the next teacher that said, you know, talk to Allah. And this is how many years ago. So this is a good resounding reminder to parents and also to Islamic school teachers, because we know that Islamic school teachers can get burnt out, you know, because, you know, is the demand is so high. And sometimes, you know, the problems, the problems, the problems, the challenges that their blessed students face and the parents are not that cooperative on the other end. Sometimes Islamic school teachers can get burnt out. But, you know, you mentioning right now, I mean, Mashallah, you're an author, you know, you're studying, you know, you're studying Islam and you're teaching as well.
For you to just mention those those statements that were mentioned years ago, it gives hope, you know, a lot of because I talk to a lot of Islamic school teachers as well. And sometimes I don't want to say it's loss of hope, but it's just being burnt out. It's like what the parents are not contributing. They think that the Islamic school, it starts there, that it's supplemental to what happens in the home. So you mentioning that and you being a product of that, it really it really makes me makes me happy. I'm the law that you know, mentioning the statements of those, you know, that statement that just kind of lit a light bulb and you said, you know, talk to a lot. Networks. The as you mentioned, the spiritual side, it just started something else. So there's not a lot of care for that. No, I come and I, you know, I always say that I think the teachers who had this impact on me, they don't know. And I am and I keep thinking I'm like, subhanAllah, like especially the teacher. Her name is, you know, Miss Pfizer, the one who said, you know, talk to Allah like I should pray for her like until today. And I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, you know, inshallah, you know, whatever, you know, good that Allah has written. I'm like, you know, like you like you said, like you don't know the impact. It could be just one word. It could be, you know, your kindness. And I'm thinking, you know, subhanAllah, like maybe, you know, you're on the day of judgment and you think I don't have enough good deeds or, you know, but then you have mountains and it's literally because you said something to someone else. And then it's just this cascade of, you know, inshallah, good things happen. So like I yeah, and I remember actually seeing her once after that at a classmate's wedding and she invited her and I kind of, you know, tried to tell her, I told her, you know, Miss Pfizer, you know, I always pray for you. And she was so shocked and she just thought, oh, that's a nice thing. But she was she didn't even cross her mind. Just like, okay, you know, she's she was a student in my class and, you know, and, you know, she was she was a good student, you know, but I don't think she she knows like really the impact, you know, that that she had. So it's probably you really never know. Yeah, it's kind of amazing, amazing, amazing.
As that's impactful, you know, is never, never, never belittling the good that you do when you do this work for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You never know. I'm also Shaykh Ibrahim, you face it as well, that, you know, probably individuals that you met when they're in middle school, they come back to you and they're 30 now. And like, I don't know if you remember, if you remember me, firstly, you're like, uh, you said something and you don't even remember, man. That's that's, you know, that's the beauty of of doing this work. And especially with you, Dr. Jinnah, is now you're writing. I mean, you've written. So it's like manhood, you know, it's it's it's in surah now. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless the words that you write and everything that you touch in the work that you're doing, because, you know, it's going to be in your Mizan and your skill of good deeds inshallah ta'ala. Insha'Allah ya Rabb, insha'Allah accept and you overlook our faults as well. So on that note, like would you say that teacher was maybe like had the biggest impact on your life or are there other people that you really credit for for having like a big impact on on your life and, you know, the trajectory that you've taken? I would say in terms of spiritually, like definitely by far, I would say hers was the biggest impact, because like I said, it just started this whole new way of or a different way of having this relationship, you know, with Allah that, you know, like I said, like I was, you know, I was young. I was a teenager, but it was like it was the most it became the most important thing to me. Like I can only, like I said, describe it as like, you know, being in love with Allah. And even the way that she had said, you know, talk to Allah. She just made it, it was just very, very intimate, you know, like that you don't really think, you know, people say make dua, which of course is, you know, very intimate and it's important. But I think talking to someone is also very different, right? That you're just like, ya Allah, I know that you know what happened in my day, you know, but I just I just want to say like how I felt when, you know, X happened, right? Because that's what you do, right?
When you when you speak to, you know, somebody who's very close to you, they might have experienced or saw what happened to you. But you'll just say, you know, I feel really down. I, you know, subhanAllah. And so that I would say had the biggest impact on me spiritually. You know, even later, like I feel like I had, you know, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah that Allah put in my path. It's like a lot of, you know, amazing teacher, really good people. But and I think the beautiful thing also as well, you know, is when you learn also about the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and then you see in different teachers, you know, characteristics that kind of remind you of of of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And so I feel like a lot of people had, you know, an impact on me. Like I can't even say that this one because like it's in such different ways that you look at, you know, one person, you know, for example, say, you know, Sheikh Akram Nadwi, for example, you know, just like every time how he brings everything, you know, back to Allah and reminds you, you know, to do that. I remember when I was very young, I met, you know, you know, Imam Sahib Webb. Like initially my writings were on, you know, sahibwebb.com. This was many, many, many years ago. And I remember one thing, you know, that had an impact on me in terms of also her, but I was thinking, wow, mashallah, he he's very accessible to people. So, you know, you know, scholar and super busy. And I think at that time he was still in Egypt, at al-Azhar. And that had an impact on me that this person is so busy, but it's reminded me, you know, subhanAllah, of the hadith of, I believe you can correct me if I'm wrong, but he thought from the way the Prophet, you know, treated me, that I was probably, you know, of the best sahaba. So he asked the Prophet, you know, who's the best, you know, of the sahaba or who's, yeah, I think who's the best of the sahaba. And he said, you know, Abu Bakr, and he's like, okay, well, we'll second after that. He said, well, okay, after that, then went, you know, you know, Usman, Ali, and then I stopped there because I thought, oh, my goodness, I'm just afraid of being the last one. Right.
But the point I feel that really gets me about, you know, this, the story is that Amn al-Asr felt that he was the most important, right, with the Prophet, peace be upon him. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, made everybody feel that they were important, whether they were the best or not. And I think I've learned that from my teacher, that sometimes, subhanAllah, the best teacher, you know, they make you feel that they're accessible, make you feel that you're important. And I feel like that also had an impact that, you know, subhanAllah, it's just that, again, like how you make people feel. So that in terms of, yeah, like the impact on my life, I feel like it's a lot of different people at different times and different things that I feel like I try to take on. And I feel like also Allah subhanAllah, when he shows you something, it has an impact on you. It's also like, okay, you know, you have to also embody this. It's not just like, wow, this person was good to me. It's kind of like passing that on, that's okay, Allah showed me this, that made me, you know, that impacted me in a certain way. And so therefore I have to take that on and inshallah to impact someone else, you know, hopefully, you know, in the same way. And that's how it kind of, you know, it's spread like my teacher, for example, she tells me talk to Allah. To this day, when people ask me anything, I say, just talk to Allah, talk to Allah. So I'm thinking, you know, her words are almost like exactly verbatim, you know, being being said to so many people. And so, yeah, so it's just, yeah, definitely, you know, different people at different times. I feel like if, you know, I answer this question fully, we're going to be here, you know, it's 4.30am for me. We're going to be here maybe at 4.30pm. So I don't want to keep you all that long. SubhanAllah. You know, there's something interesting I've been thinking about. I know it's a little bit off topic, but you know, Sheikh Abdullah, when did you, when did you start, when did you convert or when did you start taking religion seriously? Was there even internet back then? No, I'm just kidding. No, this was a 19, taking religion seriously was 1996.
So like what age were you at that point? Say again? What age were you? I was, oh man, you really giving it away now. I was 19, 20. 19, okay. Yeah, I started thinking about life. It was really just about life. What is it all about? Yeah, what's interesting is I was looking at some research and it actually showed that the time period when people are more likely to convert is between the ages of 12 to like 22 or something like that. And so it's very interesting when you talk to people and you find that age 15, age 13, even people are starting to choose their religion, change their religion, people convert at these ages. And we think it's amazing, but it's actually majority of the people convert at those times. And I'm just I'm thinking like, do we sometimes take it, do you think that sometimes we overlook the youth at that age? And we think like they don't really understand, they don't know what's going on. But like you just said, you can look at your life from pre 12 years old and post 12 years old, right? Like, do you think that that age is actually maybe the most important age to start having these big conversations with our kids? Is this for me or Sheikh Abdullah? For you. I do, I actually think so, because even when I look at, you know, my friends were in the same kind of age group. We all, you know, we all had, you know, different kind of awakenings, but it was all at that time. And I think the foundation, to be honest, the foundation that was laid at that time, you can see basically the strength of that foundation later on, like in late 20s and 30s. Because I, you know, the people who I know who, you know, practice in a sense, because, you know, it was family, it was something that they were used to.
You know, things did get shaky sometimes at like, you know, kind of like late 20s and things like that, because the foundation at that age was a different foundation. It was kind of like something that you're used to, something that your family does, something that everybody around you does. So, you know, but then once that gets taken away from you, kind of like, I guess maybe doubt creeps in or even this thing, you know, like, you know, I remember, you know, when I went, when I first went to study abroad, I had this teacher who said, he said something, it was very strange, but he, you know, I was only like 18 and he said, oh, you know, and he asked these questions that now thinking about, I don't think were appropriate, but I'm going to say, he said, you know, what you guys, you've never like drank, you've never, you know, I don't know, like smoked weed or whatever. And I was thinking, no, like, no. And then he's like, oh, just wait, give it a year, give it a year. And absolutely, you know, and I, subhanAllah, I was in this class of, you know, different people of different nationalities and subhanAllah, you know, sometimes Allah makes people speak and they, you know, they literally, all of them jumped. They said, what? No, not her. And I was like, Allah, alhamdulillah. It's like they, you know, they said it, right. But the point is that even, you know, going abroad, I was never, you know, and again, this is, you know, you know, inshallah, you know, protection from Allah, but I was never interested, right. It never interests, I never felt that I was missing out. I never felt that, you know, if only, you know, if it wasn't for Islam, I would totally try this. Like it actually made me, you know, seeing the things that I saw, I was like, I would never, I never want to try these things. Like, why would anybody want to? But I knew people, you know, who did feel that like, you know, that, you know, it's embarrassing sometimes when you're sitting with people and you're the only one who's not drinking. I was like, embarrassing, I should be proud. I was like, what are you talking about?
I'm like, so it was just so it's really when I look at it, I feel like it goes back to that foundation that like, you know, what is your relationship with Allah based on? Is it based on everybody's doing it? You know, my family, you know, yeah, nothing that like gives you this like foundation relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala versus, you know, this talk to Allah, you know, like Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is, you know, Allah for you. And when you're having difficulties, you know, talk to Allah because then inshallah, you know, your strength, your strength comes from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and you really, really, it really becomes for you that I'm not even interested, like, why would I want to do this? So I really think that age, like you said, like sometimes we think like, oh, they're just kids. But like, that's really, really the age and sometimes I, you know, I have nephews and we used to do this thing that like every week I try to take them out. And, you know, that's always something fun, but at the same time, also try to talk to them, you know, about the faith because I'm just like, you know, this is the age where they have to feel that they have a relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so I definitely think this age is so important that we do neglect it. We say, oh, they're just teenagers. They're just this. They're just that. And they might be just quote unquote, right? But at the same time, like you plant something at that age and, you know, it grows and it grows and it just really depends what you've planted at that age. No, Mashallah. That's beautiful. You mentioned that because this is making me think about a number of things. Firstly, the simplicity of the message of talk to Allah. I mean, just like you mentioned, do I call him? But you say talk to Allah. It's very simple. Anyone can understand it immediately. When you say that, it's kind of like, okay, establish the intimate relationship by just talking to him. And most of the time you're going to do it alone. Anyway, you're not gonna get your friends out next to him. The yellow. No, I wasn't talking. I was talking. No, it's going to be just doing a lot more likely. Right.
So it's automatically establishing an intimate relationship with God. And when you sit, when you as you're talking, I remember that's what happened to me. Subhanallah. That's what happened to me. I came home, you know, 403 in the morning. And mom was not happy. Mom was not happy. I go to my room. I shut the doors of disobedience son. And I literally, I literally will lie. I'll be my drop to my knees. Start crying. I just talked to him. I just went. I just went. That's what I tell people like Congress. Just what do I have a memorized the door as I say, just go just just go. Let it all. Yeah, you know now that you're saying that it reminds me subhanallah. Yeah, just talking to him. And that was the key because that was the first time I literally just went out and just tears just going down my eyes. Just just profusely. I remember just feeling the drip after you're just going like a stream of tears and I was just like show me something show me something. Please guide me to the truth. Guide me to true. What I'm doing right now is definitely not right. Subhanallah. No, subhanallah. Now you're saying that because the simplicity of the message, but it's so profound and it's the essence of Tauheed the essence of recognizing the manifestation once of God is just talk to him, you know, and then that age of 12 and you know, that time is of the time of you know, to cut off is coming the spiritual response. You taking your nephews out and doing that and for all the uncles and aunties and the teachers, you know, especially don't think that they're too young like you're mentioning just like a lot here because you're planting seeds for something. When that time comes they have that strong anchor shallow. And actually just I want to piggyback off what you said about you just told Allah like just guide me to show me. I think that's also something that's so important like all throughout my life that I'm like, yeah Allah it's about truth.
So every time I was like, yeah Allah show me just please yeah and really I always tell people I'm like I like I swear to you that like if you just say yeah Allah show me like I can say well Allah really that sooner or later like Allah will show you if you're like in shalala if you're if you're sincere don't try to impose kind of like your nest. Like you said just be vulnerable just say like Allah, you know, I'm lost. Yeah, please like just guide me just show me the laws and had you there's no way that you're going to ask the guide Allah and he's not going to guide you. And so and I think also like I found that for so many times like I remember even again, like, you know going abroad and sometimes seeing things and I'm like, yeah Allah what's the difference between you know, me as a Muslim and you know this person for example, and you know, like who's not Muslim and who seems to be like so much better than me and maybe even a lot of the Muslims that I know like yeah Allah like what like I don't like what like is there something wrong here? And then sometimes then like Allah shows you something that you know, it's almost like about this holistic way of life. And again, I don't want to say something is like inappropriate but like, you know, you see new things. I remember, you know, there's somebody who you know, again, like I thought was my soul is person. So amazing. They they were in they're not Muslim, you know, but they were really, you know, defending Muslims against discrimination. They seemed extremely principled, you know all about the environment and I remember I was like Mashallah this person, you know, like doesn't doesn't believe but wow, like, you know, this is and I was thinking I was like, yeah Allah show me like what like what like what is happening here? Right? Like Allah just show me and I remember subhanAllah seeing, you know, seeing two things and you know, and this is just again and this goes back to you know, Allah showing you in a sense that you know, Islam is such a beautiful region. It's a holistic religion. This is the thing like it's not just confined to a spiritual practice or something. It's everything and so with this particular person, you know, you know, you know, because I grew up in a Muslim country. I'd never seen anyone, you know consume alcohol really or you know to a stage that they pass out or they do something.
And so this person in front of my eyes that I remember seeing, you know, get sick because they had you know, drank so much and it was it wasn't like there was a party or something was like a student something like in the evening. I remember being so shocked that why would you do this to yourself? Like why would anybody put themselves in a position like I felt it seemed to me very, you know, undignified and the other thing and this is a kind of a funny story and this didn't happen to you but it happened to you know, a Muslim friend who went to a cafe again with somebody who was social justice warrior, you know all about the people and then stole from the cafe right stole an actual like was a croissant and and my friend was like, oh my goodness. How could how could you how could you take this croissant? They're like no because these people are capitalists. So it's okay, right? And my friend was like I'm going to go pay for this croissant, right? And so and so and again, obviously not everybody's like that. We're not you know, we're not you know generalizing but I think again this came when I asked Allah. Yeah Allah show me and so in a sense Allah is like look Islam is holistic. Maybe not everybody's going to be the best all the time and they're not going to be so, you know, maybe even principle but the fact is the way of life that I'm giving you like this is the way of life. This is the perfect it's for your own personal dignity. It's for societal, you know, Harmony and respect and dignity and you see that and you're just like wow. Okay. Allah and Allah like I understand now I understand and so it's that thing that you're saying, you know, she had done that, you know, just say Allah guide me Allah show me and I feel like every time I've said that every single time whether it's in the moment or sometimes 10 years later while I'm 10 years later. I'm just like, oh my God, this is this is what this is it. This is this is what I was, you know, subhanAllah. So yeah, just you know, Allah, you know, the guide and Hadi doesn't turn anyone away. So definitely anybody listening just open your heart to Allah and inshallah Allah will show you. So Dr. Junaid, I think there's a ayah that you had chosen inshallah that you wanted to share
that meant something to you that you think can bring benefit to the audience inshallah. Yes, inshallah. So I had a difficult time choosing. I remember actually discussing it with like a lot of different people. So I I settled on this ayat in Surat Al-Insan. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says it's ayah 22. So chapter 76 so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says Inna hatha kana lakum jaza'an wa kana sa'ayukum mashkoora So, you know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, you know, and they will be told and so the preceding verses Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is talking about the people of Paradise the people of Jannah and and kind of what they have in Jannah and how they feel in Jannah and and then and then this verse comes and it says and they will be told so those people who are in Jannah who are in you know, in this eternal bliss, they are told all this is, you know, a reward for you. And then this part of the ayah your striving has been appreciated or your efforts have been appreciated and this ayah or this even, you know, this part of this ayah has always struck me because it just shows, you know, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you know, if we go back to Allah's names, you know, you know, one of his names is Ash-Shakoor that he is the appreciative. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying your efforts, your efforts, your striving, the fact that you tried this, this, this is, this is what's being appreciated. But how is it being appreciated? It's being appreciated with Jannah, with eternal bliss. And so this subhanallah always struck me because it's almost like Allah saying, just try like in this world and especially nowadays, right? It's all about your achievements or what you can show that your achievements are. And sometimes it can feel discouraging. You look at other people, you're just like, I could never be like this person who's done so many different things, whether worldly or even spiritually, right? Sometimes you're just like, oh my goodness, this person, you know, they grew up pious and I didn't. This person, they had a supportive family and I didn't.
And there's so many reasons why you might not be able to achieve something. But you know, with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you know, it's about your say, right? It's about your striving. And that's what Allah appreciates. And sometimes that I think, you know, sometimes we stop ourselves from doing something good because we're just like, I don't think I can do it. You know, I can't do it. It's too hard. There are too many obstacles. But over here, it's like Allah is saying that, you know, just try, just try. You don't know. And you know, again, you know, the beautiful hadith of Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam where he says, you know, if you do something good, you know, Allah rewards you again, just for this one good deed, you know, if the reward is times 10 or 700 times or even more than that. So if we go back, if you intend something good, and you can't do it, Allah gives you in accordance with your intention. And one of my again, my other, you know, favorite hadith of Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam where he describes, you know, two people, he says one person Allah gave them, you know, wealth and knowledge. And so they spend their wealth, you know, in accordance with that knowledge, because they know how to please Allah. So they do things with their wealth that are pleasing to Allah because they have this knowledge. And then there's this other person who has knowledge but no wealth. And they say, you know, if only I had like that person, you know, I would do XYZ. And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says, you know, فَهُوَ وَفِى الْأَجْرِ سَوَٓاءٌ Right? So, you know, in reward, they're the same, they're exactly the same. And I keep thinking, you know, like we, we do a disservice to ourselves, when we don't even try, when we don't even start because you're just like, you know, I'm so bad at, you know, at Arabic, I'm really bad at memorizing, my mind is like a sieve. So I can't memorize the Quran. I don't have time to seek knowledge, I don't have time to volunteer at the soup kitchen. I really, really want to, but I'm not even going to try because, you know, there's no way that this can happen. I'm not going to try to work on this relationship, this, you know, kind of tense relationship
that I have with a family member, because there's no point. They're just, you know, they're just, they're not in this place, right? So it's just like, Allah saying, just try at least have the intention, and then, you know, do what you can to, you know, act upon that intention. And whether you achieve what you wanted to or not, like, can you imagine, you know, on Yawm al Qiyamah, you know, inshallah, that you have suddenly this mountain of good deeds of a person who's memorized Quran, and you're just like, wait, that's not my mountain, that cannot be, I did not memorize Quran, I was not a hafidh of the Quran, you know, but then it's just like, no, but you intended and you were sincere, and you tried. And even though Allah, you know, He, you know, Allah, you know, took your life away before you were able to finish it, but Allah knows you were sincere. So you have the ajr of a memorizer of the Quran, you have an ajr of a person who tried to mend family relationships, you have the ajr of, you know, a person who was volunteering their time, you know, for, you know, for other people, you have the ajr of a person who prayed qiyam all the time, even though you're a doctor and you're on call, but when you could, you did, right? And so it's like, that's sadly, that's striving, you don't know how special it is to Allah. And for me, again, this, again, this is like, subhanAllah, like how Allah is so, so, so close to us that, you know, people, even sometimes the closest people to you will not appreciate your stride, like you're striving, like, you know, your best isn't good enough, right? Sometimes for people, even though you're like, well, I tried, I swear, like, I really tried to call that wasn't good enough, right? Because with Allah, you're like, yeah, I tried, and it really was your best. And for Allah, in a sense, that is good enough, because you really are trying, you tried so hard. And so again, you, you feel like this thing inside your heart, that alhamdulillah, Allah understands me, like, ya Rabb, you know that I'm giving this my 100%. People on the outside, they can't see it, they think I'm being lazy, they think I don't care, but I do, and I'm trying. And again, this is again, it's not just to be like, you know, you know, not putting,
you know, your effort in and just saying that I am like Allah knows, obviously, right? But if you really are sincere, like, subhanAllah, Allah appreciates every tiny thing that you do, every tiny thing that you do. And I just, I take so much comfort in that. And in this ayah, that like the people of Jannah, they're not told that because you did X, and you did Y, it's you're striving. This is what's appreciated. Wa kana sa'ayukum mashkoora. Like, so subhanAllah, so I feel like, you know, I don't think that I can, you know, reach a lot of other people. And inshAllah, spiritually, I see these people, I'm just like, mashAllah, how did they do this? But I'm just like, ya Rabb, you know, in the effort part, this is what I'm going to try. This is what I'm going to really put, you know, my effort into is, you know, the striving, inshAllah. So this is, yeah, this, this ayah just gives me so much, so much comfort, so much comfort, subhanAllah. JazakAllah khair, JazakAllah khair. Wa alaikum. Very nice message, alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Can I ask one question before we go on to the, the, what is it? What did you call it, Sheikh Ibrahim? Rapid fire? Rapid fire, yes, yes, rapid fire. Well, two things. The first thing is, can you tell us the name of your book, the name of your latest book that you were kind enough to send me, mashAllah? Reflecting on the Names of Allah. Reflecting on the Names of Allah, beautiful book, mashAllah. I had a time to go through it, actually, because I teach a names and attributes class, which I think, I think is very important for every imam, everyone, anyone, even to non-Muslims, teaching the names and attributes of God is one of the easiest ways and most impactful ways to tell people about the concept of God in Islam. I think it's so profound. And JazakAllah khair for writing that book. Secondly, you've probably been asked this numerous times, but I think the elephant's probably in the room. What is your, and I know this is a hard question, just give me one of them, I guess. What is your favorite name of Allah subhanAllah? You know, I've been asked this question so many times, and I always forget.
But it's like, it's always a different answer, because subhanAllah, you know, when you look at Allah subhanAllah, it's like it's holistic, right? And Allah subhanAllah, you know, you, you, you connect to Him and you, you seek refuge in Him and you turn to Him because of different attributes at different times in your life, you know, subhanAllah. And so I would say maybe right now, it's, you know, Rabb, Rabb al-Alamin. And the reason is, you know, obviously, like, Rabb is like one of the all encompassing names, like it has many meanings, it's not just like a specific meaning. So Allah subhanAllah, you know, He is, I guess we translate it as, you know, the Lord, but He is, you know, He, He sustains you, you know, He's, He's the one who's in control. But also I love, I love this part of, and I think it's not maybe captured so much in the English when you say Lord, but it's this idea of tarbiyah, that He's a Rabb, that He nurtures you. And, you know, when you think of Allah subhanAllah nurturing you, I feel like, you know, just, you know, and again, you know, when you look at the Quran, it's like all of the, all of the, the anbiya, they call upon Allah, you know, Rabb, like my Rabb, you know, like your relationship with the one who's nurturing you and nurturing the universe is my Rabb, mine, right? And so, you know, and it makes you look back on your life and you actually see the purpose. You're just like, wow, Allah was making me grow through this, like the thing that I thought was bad, it was actually subhanAllah, like this is actually the best thing for me. And so, and, you know, when you feel, you know, distant from people, you know, that you're never distant from Allah because He's your Rabb, He's Rabbi. And, and, you know, I think, you know, subhanAllah, it just, for me, it just shows this, like this intimacy of Allah subhanAllah taking care of you. And actually, I'll just mention a, you know, a short story related, related to this. So I was actually supposed to be in the States.
I was actually, I would have come back maybe a few days ago, and I had planned this trip. And I was very excited because, you know, I was going to go to different states and I was also going to go to Dallas and, you know, the, I was going to, you know, see like Yaqeen premises and like, there were so many different things that were planned. And literally one hour before I was supposed to leave for my, for my flight, the trip got canceled. And I was thinking, and I was thinking subhanAllah, but you know, inshAllah khairah, you know, always, you know, what, what Allah chooses and Allah's time over, you know, over our time and over, over what we want. And subhanAllah, in this time period that I was supposed to be in the States, something happened here that if I wasn't here, it wouldn't have happened. It just would not have happened. And I remember as, you know, I had the meeting and I remember getting this email saying, you know, this thing that you had asked for, you know, we can, we can give it to you. And if I hadn't been here, I wouldn't have known to ask. There were so many things that had happened. And I just took a step back. I'm like, Allahu Akbar. Like, you know, I was sad that the trip didn't happen, but I was like, I can't regret it because always what Allah chooses is best. And sometimes again, sometimes you see it and Allah shows it to you immediately. You know, he's your Robin, he's nurturing and he's taking care of you. And sometimes you need these spiritual boosts to see you're just like, wow, I can, it's so obvious that this was much better for me. But sometimes, you know, if there's a delay, you might not see that this thing is actually what's best for you. Right. But when you know that Allah is a Robin, you know that he's nurturing, you know that he is subhanAllah in control of everything. It makes me like, you know, I, I, and this is, this is also goes back to, you know, talk to Allah because when I can't see the wisdom, I take a step back and I'm like, Ya Allah, I can't see the wisdom in this. This seems all bad, but I trust in you. Like I know that there's going to be something that is good, whether in dunya and akhirah. And so a rub for me and like, Rabbi, really just like Rabbi, my Rabb, right.
It's really like, I feel like it just, it encapsulates this meaning and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, because he's nurturing you, it's always at the best way. And always when Allah shows you it's at the right time, but always keep your heart open and don't be like, well, this happened, therefore just keep asking Allah and you know, Allah is a Rabb, he'll take care of you. Like, you know, you don't need anyone else to take care of you if Allah is taking care of you. Really subhanAllah. SubhanAllah. That's so true. InshaAllah, let's move on to the rapid fire stage if you're up for it, sister. I'm a bit scared now. We'll go easy. InshaAllah. Do you prefer chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate. Okay. Shea or coffee? Oh, coffee. 100%. Mountains or oceans? Oceans. What's your favorite city, but you can't say Mecca or Medina because then it's too obvious. Favorite city. So it's between two, one, because I go to it, I guess a lot more, but another place that I felt kind of this at home. So, you know, Istanbul for sure, as far as cities go, it's just such a, you know, majestic kind of city and there's so much soul, there's so much rooh in it. And it's just, yeah, it's just so beautiful and I love it. But also I went a few years ago to Granada in Spain and even there, oh my goodness, subhanAllah, like it was so beautiful. And there's a beautiful mosque at the top of a hill. And I remember walking there every day. I was there for two weeks and it's so beautiful because it's overlooking Alhamra Palace and
the mosque itself is so beautiful and Spanish inside, like Andalusian in style. And I would say like, it's a close second. It's definitely a close second. It's such a beautiful city that you feel strangely spiritually at home, you know, even though like, you know, South Istanbul, it's not like a Muslim country, but there's something there that you're just like, I feel comfortable here. SubhanAllah. Okay, what's the most, I guess that's kind of the same question I was going to ask. What's the most beautiful place you've seen? But I think you kind of answered that. What language do you wish you knew? What language I wish I knew? I think Spanish. Spanish is, yeah, I studied Spanish in school, but only for a year. But yeah, I wish I had continued and kind of tried to get more fluent in it. So maybe that's something I want to put my effort in, inshallah. That seems like a common one. We've done this with a few people and they've said Spanish a few times. iOS or Android? iOS. Do you sleep on airplanes? Are you the kind of person that can do that? Yes. I actually use airplanes to sleep sometimes. So, you know, if I know it's a long flight, I'm just like, I am going to sleep. I will choose the night flight so I can just sleep throughout the whole thing. So no, I specifically sleep on airplanes, yes. It's a blessing. Alhamdulillah. What superpower do you wish you had? Oh God, that's a good one. What superpower do I wish I had? Read people's mind, maybe.
That's a good one for that one. Be like, okay, this person, you know, actually, are they hearing what I'm saying? Does it make sense to them or not? Maybe that might be a good one. That's a good one. I like that. If you could choose to be an animal, which one would you choose? Animal. Okay, this is going to sound very strange. I'm going to say, I know it's going to sound funny, a pigeon, but not any pigeon. The pigeons that fly around the Kaaba, because there are so many pigeons, subhanAllah, and they are always there. And I keep thinking, these birds, they're so lucky, and they're actually pigeons. I know it sounds funny, I could just say birds, I guess, but they're pigeons. And subhanAllah, they're always around the Kaaba, and they manage to keep it clean, mashallah. So, yes, I envy them very, very much. So, those are the birds that I want to be, if I would be an animal, yes, them for sure. That's a good one. It's one of the better answers we've gotten on that question. Okay, this is the portion where we take questions from the chat. I don't see too many questions. There's one nice one here, I think, an important one that maybe we can answer. From Sister Faiza, she says, what do you do when your kids don't want to follow the rules of Islam? So, I guess I'll answer this from the perspective, inshallah, of a person, of a child who did not want to follow the rules of Islam. Honestly, I would just say, be patient, be kind, and try to emphasize their relationship with Allah, because I think that's the foundation. When you love Allah, you want to follow the rules. Like I said, when I was young, I mean, even I'll say, like, I don't know if I mentioned, but when I saw hijab, I thought, I never want to wear that. It was a true, I was like, I'm never, there's no way that I'm going to wear hijab.
And then at 13 years old, I was telling my mom, I want to wear hijab. And then I remember it was actually my family, like, even though, you know, my mom, she wore hijab, she's religious, and she was like, you know, if you want to think about it, you're quite young, this is like, it's a commitment, you know? And I was like, fine. And then at 14, I was like, I want to wear hijab. And I was like, think about it, you're still young. And then, you know, at 15, you know, my friend had come back from Hajj, and she had worn hijab. And she said, you know, like, I, you know, like, halas, like, what's the point if I do it now or later? I should just do it. So I came home from school, and I told my parents, I was like, I am, I wear hijab now. And that's it. I'm not going to ask you to have people, you know, like, kind of, you know, not sort out, like, not in a mean way, but kind of just be like, really, just think about it. There's always going to be reasons not to do it. And so when your kids don't want to follow, you know, the rules of Islam, I say, just emphasize their relationship with Allah. Know that it's a phase. They can be, you know, literally saying, I never want to do that. I will never pray. I will never wear hijab. I will never do this, to loving it and falling in love with it and wanting to do it, just because of their relationship with Allah. But definitely, like, definitely patience. Definitely don't, you know, tell them that they're bad kids, because they don't, because that affects kind of your relationship with them. They'll be like, oh, my parents, they don't support me. So I think, you know, have that, you know, that patience with them and know that they can change. Like their children, subhanAllah, you know, in one or two years, they can be completely different people. So inshaAllah, may Allah, you know, guide us all and all our kids, inshaAllah. And I would add to that, I mean, just to add something, you know, subhanAllah, in Surah Taha, Allah says, ما أنزلنا عليك القرآن لتشقى We didn't send down the Qur'an so that you are distressed, so that you're sad. And then, إلا تذكرة لمن يخشى This is only a reminder for those who fear Allah. And then interestingly, it starts to transition into the names of Allah subhanWa Ta'ala. الرحمن على العرش استوى لهما في السماوات وما في الأرض وما بينهما وما تهثرى
And it's interesting. And I remember one of my teachers mentioned about this. He said that Allah is telling you, he sent you the Qur'an and in the Qur'an, there's all these rules. There's all these things you have to do. And he's telling you, I didn't send it to make things difficult for you. And then he starts to tell you about himself. And he mentioned to me a very interesting parable. He said, you know, if someone you don't know very well calls you and says, Hey, can you do X, Y, and Z? You're going to be like, I don't really know. But if somebody you know very well calls you and they ask you to do something maybe outrageous, meet me at 3 a.m. in the middle of downtown and you're like, are you crazy? But he's someone you really know well, and you trust them, and you have a relationship with them. You're going to show up, right? And if that's the way we deal with human beings, how would Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, if you know Allah azawajal and you have a relationship with them, then when he tells you do this or do that, you're going to do it. So he said, إذا عرفت الأمر سهل الأوامر If you know the one who's commanding, then the commandments be easier. And so buy basically, buy Dr. Jinnan's book and read it with your children and let your children know who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is and develop a better relationship with them if you want them to follow the rules of Islam. Let's see if there's another question here. From Sister Fatima, How does one continuously propel themselves to be of benefit to those around them in their community, even though they feel burnt out? How do you maintain balance? Subhanallah. So I think, you know, with this... It's actually very, very, very important to kind of, you know, be able to take a step back. And sometimes maybe it feels that you can't because there's so many things that are happening in the community. But really, like I would say the fuel, like I would say the times that burnout didn't feel like burnout is when I've been, you know, kind of closest to Allah.
And when I've been, you know, almost far from Allah or farther from Allah, you know, where the burnout feels like more intense. And I think, you know, you have to spend time with Allah. Right. Because I think sometimes when you do community work, it's obviously it's amazing and it's so important. But then we neglect ourselves. We neglect our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because you're always in the service of the community. Which, again, it's amazing and it's good and it's praiseworthy. But we can't neglect our own relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that, you know, you know, even talking about, you know, I don't know, you know, maybe you're tired with like waking up for tahajjud, you know, dedicating time, you know, before you go to sleep, even to, you know, we said this many times, you know, in the session, but, you know, talking to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And when you feel burnt out, you know, you say like, Allah, I feel burnt out, like, help me, you know, please, you know, give me give me the energy. The other thing is, I think, also have people around you who who can support you and who can remind you. Sometimes it just takes that, you know, that when you have, you know, one person or a group of people that you can that that you can kind of basically lean back on and that they can also like remind you, remind you through the Quran, remind you, you know, just by them, you know, being there for you, that you have this kind of the space where you can breathe. Because I think it's super important that we see, you know, we see the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, you know, we think like subhanAllah, even though he did so much, but he was also very, very balanced, right? So Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam was obviously always with this community. He was teaching them. He was out there, he was in the trenches with them. Right. But then we hear, we also see he was with his family. And, you know, he took, you know, he sought solace with his wives. Right. So he had this relationship and he had these friendships. And then also, you know, his relationship with Allah was the strongest, that like this is something that he loved, like he loved, you know,
like when Aisha asks him, like, why are you, you know, spending so long in prayer and your feet are swollen? And he says, you know, should I not be a grateful servant? It's something that he loved. So I think really, you know, realizing that community work is crucial and it's so important to me, Allah rewards everybody who does this community work. But remember that like you're a human being, you need to, you know, prioritize definitely your own relationship with Allah and also people around you who are good for you and can remind you. Inshallah. And I'm sure, you know, Shaykh Ibrahim and Shaykh Abdullah, I'm sure, you know, because you do a lot of work in the community, you might also be able to answer this much better than me. I think that's a beautiful, beautiful answer. Do you have something to add? No, I mean, just kind of, you know, kind of piggybacking what she was mentioning is that, you know, having a person that you can talk to and vent and, you know, SubhanAllah, Shaykh Ibrahim, I remember we had this session with Dr. Rania. Very nice talking about burnt out with madistan and they gave this session to the imams and, you know, some of the things that they were mentioning, you know, just kind of finding something that you like to do and making sure that, you know, you embark upon that. And just like you mentioned, ultimately just detaching when need be and making sure that you have that you take care of yourself and taking that as a, dare I say, even a priority at times to where, because if you're not healthy, then you won't be able to perform in the best fashion. You won't be able to, i.e. worship Allah in the optimal sense, inshallah, it's the best of your ability. So this is a question we typically end on, but one of our members in the chat mentioned it. What is something you wish that you knew when you were younger?
SubhanAllah. Yeah, I thought about this one a lot. And I could think, you know, two things. I think I'll just I'll mention one of them. And it's related to kind of also the ayah that we spoke about. But one thing like when I was younger, for sure, is to say like, just start and then, you know, find a way to finish. Right. So when I say just start, I think, you know, a lot of times, like I said, like, you know, we don't start on something because, you know, you look at the road and the road looks like too long. And and it's just like it just seems like no, like this is not for me. This is somebody else's path. It's not my path. But really, when you take that step towards Allah, like you're like Allah, like he encourages us. Right. Like even if you take baby steps towards Allah, right. Allah, he comes to you. So you take that one step. You know, Allah takes that bigger step towards you start to walk. Right. Allah comes to you running. And so I would say that, you know, come to myself because I know like personally, even though like, yes, Alhamdulillah, like I felt I was like in love with Allah and so close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There was still like a lot of things that I think I was holding myself back because of these like limiting beliefs that like, no, I won't be able to do this. And so I'm not even going to start. And then when I started later on, it's kind of just flowed. It's not that it was easy, but it's kind of like, OK, but, you know, when you take that step, Allah's like your destination becomes closer, even if it's only one step closer, you know, but it does become closer. So I would say, you know, that is a big one that, you know, just start and then find a way to finish because there's always a way to finish. There really is. Like sometimes I feel like for myself, I can say, you know, I make excuses for myself like, oh, this is it. I might not be able to. It's too hard.
You know, other people are going to say no. But it's like, but if you put in your mind that like, no, I want to finish this and I want to do this for Allah, especially if it's for Allah, you know, 100 percent if it's for Allah. Right. That you say like, you know, I'm going to find a way to get to this destination. Then Allah, again, Allah is Al-Fattah and you know, He's the one who opens and He will open for you like doors that you didn't know existed. Even though it might be hard, like some doors are going to be very hard to push through. They're heavy doors, but they're still doors that you didn't know existed and that you can go through. And so I would say I would say that. So if you're feeling that I can't do something, you know, there's no way that I can get to this. Just start like just just start and tell yourself, I'm going to find a way to make this happen. And Allah will find you that way. Like really, this is something that I can say that I learned later. And I wish I knew. I wish I knew when I was when I was younger. Alhamdulillah. That's so true. So true. SubhanAllah. Shaykh, is there anything, any other questions you want to ask before we wrap up? Yeah, I think it kind of answers the question which you just mentioned Nas. What would you tell those young girls right now that are at the age, around that age of 12, you know, and they may have these doubts, they may have this because I mean, this is kind of the age around that time, like nine to I guess 15 roughly. Where the choice of hijab, the choice of wearing the hijab, the choice of believing in Allah, the choice of doing these things is bound to happen. Right. So I think you kind of mentioned it right there. You know, what would you tell those young girls at that time in their life? Yeah, SubhanAllah. I think definitely it's kind of it is a thing of like, you know, just start. But definitely I'd say like, you know, just start but also know who Allah is and talk to Allah.
And there's always honestly, there's always going to be a reason not to do something right. There's always going to be that right. Like when I was young, you know, like I said, you know, I have a lot. So in my family, we're much more male heavy than female heavy. So one of the things that I was told, with all of your cousins, you know, like, what about that? And it almost made you feel that like, if you're wearing hijab, like you can't interact. And I was like, I can still interact with my cousins, they're still my cousins, right? This is I'm just gonna cover my hair, right? But that's it. But there's always a reason, right? There's always going to be and shaitan will make that reason seem more important than it is. Right. So there's always a reason, you know, not to do something. So sometimes I just say like, just do it, just start, just start. And I would say to be and also, yeah, so yeah, so I was just saying, yeah, definitely just, just start, ask Allah to help you. Even if you're struggling, sometimes, you know, talk to somebody who can help you, you know, with those struggles, and it's okay to struggle. Everybody's going to struggle with different things at different times. Some people might be hijab, some people might be their prayers, some people it might be, you know, being good to their families, like everybody's going to struggle with something. And there's always going to be a reason not to do it. But really, like once you overcome that, like you have so much strength, and that strength comes from Allah subhana wa ta'ala, that like you did that thing that was difficult, you don't know what awaits you, like what, you know, what doors Allah is going to open, what blessings Allah, you know, they're going to descend upon you, really, because you did the hard thing for Allah subhana wa ta'ala. And sometimes that thing that you thought was hard will be the easiest thing. Like, alhamdulillah, like I would say, you know, for, you know, for hijab, I've lived, you know, like abroad, you know, for so many years. And people always ask me, they say, you know, hijab is becoming this really controversial thing. Did you ever feel that, you know, you didn't want to wear hijab? And I can say, you know, subhanAllah, when I was young, and everyone was telling me, think about it, you think about it, you might change your mind.
But I did it. I was like, no, just do it. This is actually one of the things that I can say alhamdulillah, again, this is from Allah, and everybody struggles with different things. I struggle with different things. But this did not become the struggle. Like the hijab thing didn't, just because it's like, I just started. And for that, I felt like subhanAllah, Allah made it easy. And may Allah make it easy, obviously, for everybody. And like I said, I struggle with other things, you know, different things, and we're all going to struggle with something. But the point is that, you know, we say, you know, we just start and we say, Allah help me. And sometimes you might, you might fall along that path. Sometimes you might not do it in the best way possible. But the fact that you're just like, I'm still going to do it because Allah loves it. Like there is so much blessing in that and that builds you, honestly, builds your character. Like you're going to see in your worldly life that you can do things you didn't know you could just because you took on this for the sake of Allah. MashaAllah. MashaAllah. Khitamul Hamis. MashaAllah. JazakAllah khair, Dr. Junaid. I think this was an awesome session. And I think a lot of people, mashaAllah, have benefited so much from your words and just, you know, sharing your story and sharing your path with everyone. I know that it's going to make everyone feel, you know, stronger when they're walking their own path, inshaAllah. JazakAllah khair for your time and for waking up in the middle of the night to be with us. We really appreciate it. JazakAllah. Thank you guys. Thank you all for having me first day, but also for waking me up at this time. It's a blessed time. JazakAllah khair. InshaAllah you'll get the ajr of the du'as at this time, inshaAllah. InshaAllah some of those du'as will be for me. I mean for me and Sheikh Ibrahim. For all of you, inshaAllah. JazakAllah khair. And reminder everyone, we're here every Wednesday, same time, same place. We hope inshaAllah you'll join us next week as well to spend time with our guests next week, inshaAllah. I can't remember off the top of my head who's joining us, but inshaAllah we have great guests, alhamdulillah, every week.
And so I hope that everyone will join us for them, biidillah. JazakAllah khair. Assalamu alaikum. Thank you so much.
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