Reminders
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2 Things We Take for Granted | Daily Reminders
Dr. Altaf Husain encourages us to recognize the two things we normally take for granted - health and free time - and suggests ways to preserve and utilize them during this time of uncertainty.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi ta'ala wa barakatuhu. InshaAllah this message finds you and your family safe and in the best of health. And we're hoping that you're making the most of this time that you have together as a family. And that indeed inshaAllah ta'ala you're making the most of the blessings of not only the company of one another, but the ability to reflect upon all of the blessings that we actually have. It is narrated by Ibn Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala anhu that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that two of the things, among so many other reminders that he gave us and so many other aspects of our lives, two of the things that people squander the most or take for granted or really don't take advantage of a lot, two of the things squandered the most are health and free time. And I reflected on that because I think it's important that even though we're living in a time when there's so much uncertainty, anxiety, fear about what is going to happen or in fact just the anxiety of how long this particular living arrangement will last, we forget to first turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and give gratitude for the fact that we have good health. That alhamdulillah on the most part people who even if they have certain existing conditions are still able to get along day to day through medication and other ways so that they're able to at least have a fairly functioning life. And this is something that we can't just take for granted and I think it is something that we need to reflect on
to give not only gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as a blessing but also to try to protect it. So that as we have the second concept is about free time, as we have more time, we shouldn't necessarily replace and turn our days into nights and nights into days by sleeping in for too long, staying awake too late, not getting enough sleep, perhaps getting caught up in a lot of online and social media activity or watching movies or doing whatever, playing video games, anything that's keeping people from necessarily doing what's right for the body. Which would mean that to protect our immune systems, to keep them strong, to eat well, to eat healthy, to rest well and rest as often as needed because we're not under the same pressures as we are when we have to report to work at a certain time or school or college or wherever else, whatever other obligations we have. So the health aspect of this is critical because we're right now living at a time when we're relying on information that's given to us by medical experts and public health officials and we have to take that seriously. We have to take whatever it is they're telling us to take the precautions, but we can't stop turning to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and making dua for not only protection from some of these different challenges and conditions and especially the virus, but also seeking protection for what may come because it is possible that people may start to at least have mild or somewhat excessive, if you will, manifestations of some of these symptoms that are associated with the virus and that can cause anxiety because they may not be able to get tested immediately.
Whatever the case is, what we should not be doing is stopping the dua, stopping the adhkar, stopping the connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, praying regularly with the family, not only for the five times a day, but also pausing to make dua so that the children understand that we are taking precautions, we are exercising best judgments in terms of our health, but ultimately the healing comes from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that He is the shafi, He is the one who gives the healing and indeed He could be the ultimate protection for all of us at all times and so we can't just focus on the public health and the medical experts, but we also need to remember to turn attention to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in terms of dua. That's for the health aspect of it, the physical health. The mental health aspect of it is to start to really minimize what we're doing online and I don't mean, because of course now with children being in school and many even college students having to study online and take their classes online, that everyone, it might seem like we can't escape the media, social media world and the online world, but what I'm talking about is taking control of who you are and how you are contributing to the buzz of activity that's happening online. So to ask oneself, before you forward any particular messages, what's the benefit of that particular message to the group to which I'm forwarding it? Unless there's a very specific benefit from that message, you may consider not to do it. Of course, people want to smile and laugh and be a little bit light-hearted in the middle of all of this tense sort of environment.
That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying we stop laughing or we stop taking advantage of moments of being light-hearted. I'm talking about excessive sharing of information, sharing of posts that may not really be of benefit, but people feel obligated or obliged because they see something came in from you and it's unread and it's just sitting there. What should they make of it? What should they do with it? So I recommend heavily that you kind of develop a filter system. So you kind of look at it and say, do I really need to forward this? Do I really need to take up people's time? Now, if there's very specific information that has an imminent threat information or a particular information about store closings in your area or some kind of activity by law enforcement in terms of saying that people shouldn't go out at certain times or whatever, those kinds of information, that's fine. I think that everyone would agree we should share. But I think we should just exercise caution in terms of how much information and activity we are contributing to online. That leads me to the last part and I'll close here is the notion of what the Prophet peace upon him said about squandering free time. And here I really want us to realize that not only are we just coming out of the Isra wal Mi'raj as a major milestone in our tradition, but also between Rajab and going into Shaban, we're very close to the month of Ramadan. And so I think it's important for us to really take advantage of this free time to maybe set a challenge among ourselves. How many days are we going to fast? How many sections of the Quran will the children read and try to read before Ramadan? Anything that keeps somewhat of a structure within the day, a connection with Allah, but also makes really beautiful uses of our time insha'Allah.
And of course a lot of downtime can help to build family bonds and relationships that may have been strained or stressed because of our normal routines of running to work and homework and school and all of those things. Now we are all asked to stay at home and so we have no real excuse to say we're running out of time and we can't really take advantage of it. So I close again by reminding that I began by sharing the hadith of the Prophet peace be upon him, as narrated by Ibn Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala anhumah, about squandering two of the blessings, one of them being health and the other one being free time. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala indeed help us to be among those who heed the warnings of the medical experts and the public health officials and take care of our physical health and our mental health, but also take advantage of the free time insha'Allah to draw closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, seek forgiveness from him, seek his protection and indeed may Allah bless all of you with continued safety and good health. Keep us in your dua and do check out yaqeeninstitute.org for more resources and as much as possible support this institute. This is your institute and insha'Allah we look forward to producing greater content and great high quality content insha'Allah with your support. Salamualikoum wa rahmatollahi wa barakatohu.
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