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Acts of Worship

Practice Patience

May 21, 2020Dr. Hassan Elwan

In our fast-paced world, we are losing the ability to be patient. Dr. Hassan Elwan offers some tips on how we can practice patience, slow down, and learn how to focus on our worship.

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
Bismillah walhamdulillah wassalatu wassalamu ala abdalil mursaleen sayyidina muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi al-tayyibina al-taghireen. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi ta'ala wa barakatuhu. Yes, whomever does not wash his hands can infect and perhaps kill many others. And whomever does not regularly wash his heart can perhaps infect and kill the hearts of many others. Like we live in a new time that requires some new habits to be developed so that we can protect ourselves and our beloved ones from new viruses that are around. We haven't seen the new age that we live in has spiritual viruses, nay some spiritual pandemics that are widespread that can infect one's heart. And I can become contagious and I can infect and hurt many of my beloved ones. I need new habits to be developed to protect my heart from being infected and from infecting others. Like any disease has symptoms, coughing, fever is not the disease, it's the symptom of the disease. When we wanted a medicine, we're looking for a medicine not for coughing but to get rid of the virus. Spiritual viruses are the same way. The pandemic I'm speaking about, the spiritual pandemic has symptoms. What are those symptoms? When I say my salah, when I pray, I can't focus, my quality of prayers is not that high. Tell me what to do. When I say I'm an angry person, I get agitated easily. Tell me what to do. I don't have any patience. I want to be a more patient person. Tell me what to do. I get bored so easily. Something we notice in our kids, they can't stay put for like two minutes without being stimulated. What's going on? That's a symptom. What's the cause of this?
So I can develop a habit that if I do, I can get rid of the cause of all those symptoms. The Prophet ﷺ said, إِنَّ الْعَجَلَ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ وَالْأَنَا مِنَ الرَّحْمَنِ Surely, hastiness, being fast, the inability to wait, we lost the ability to wait. That is from Shaytan. And the opposite of it, الاناء, slowing down, being deliberate and focused, is indeed a character that's given to us from the most merciful, the most compassionate. We live in a time that everything is accelerated. Everything is fast. Everything is telling us to speed up. The way we drink and eat fast food, we eat quickly. We don't even chew, we don't even taste what we're eating. The way we drive, we drive fast. The way we speak, we speak fast. Can you imagine if I slow down in this video and it takes nine minutes? Will you watch it? No, no, it has to be three minutes. I don't have the attention span. Come on, accelerate. We interrupt each other. If my wife is speaking and she's slow, I can't wait. We're fast to judge people. I can't suspend judgment. The technology I'm using. I download something that has to come in one second, 100 megabit per second. We lost the ability to wait. Without the ability to wait, there is no patience. That's why we cannot be patient anymore. Without the ability to wait, I'll get angry so easily. It doesn't take much to make me angry. I get bored if I'm not stimulated. I can't sit with myself. So I need to develop the khuluq of what? Al-An'am. I need to protect myself from this speeding up. This way of life that characterizes my age. How can I do that?
Well, I have to change the way, I have to develop new habits in the way I live and in the way I worship Allah. So when I'm driving my car, drive five miles per hour below the speed limit. Why? Don't you want to focus in your salah? The way I am in salah is a reflection of the way I am outside of salah. I can be hasty in everything I do. And then Allahu Akbar. And then I need to focus. When I work, I open 10 windows at the same time. Don't do that. Slow down one thing at a time. Quality. When I'm checking out in an aisle, which aisle do I pick? The shortest one. Let's pick the longer one. But why I need to be? That's exactly why. So I can develop the ability to wait. Patience. Wait. Slow down. It's okay. Be in dhikr. In my ibadah. In my worship. When I say Allahu Akbar, it's time for salah. I slow down. If I cannot control my thoughts, I can control my body. I'll move slowly in salah. I'll recite slowly in salah. So I can develop the habit to slow down. After salah, one of the most powerful habits that we need to do to avoid that ailment is dhikr. After salah, salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah, salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah, let's go, let's go. No. That's exactly why I'm going to wait for two or three minutes. Do what? Do the dhikr. Subhanallah. Alhamdulillah. Allahu Akbar. And I take my time. Nothing is more important than what I'm doing. That's what I tell myself. If I can do that five times a day, I can develop patience. I'll wait and I'll be patient. Yes, yes, I can. It can take five minutes. Nothing will happen. Let's stay down so I can slow down. And I'll do it slowly. The technology I'm using. You can download apps like Time Out Free or Break Free.
Those are apps you put on your phone and at random, every now and then, they'll freeze your phone or your laptop and tell you, please wait. Can you imagine my kids if I do that to them? Why, Baba? Why are you doing this to me? So that you're going to be patient. So you develop the ability to be a composed, focused human being. So you develop the ability to sit alone without being bored. It's okay. Life is short. Therefore, we all need to slow down. I ask Allah to grant us the ability to be more patient, more composed, and to slow down in all worldly matters. سبحانك اللهم وبحمدك لا إله إلا أنت نستغفرك ونتوب إليك السلام عليكم ورحمة الله
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