Reminders
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The Shadows of My Worries | Daily Reminders
There is a proverb that goes: worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. When we are faced with a challenge and focus on the big shadow of that challenge, we give too much weight to it and it stops us from taking the means necessary to conquer it. Sh. Omar Suleiman describes how we can deal with our worries by appreciating Allah's greatness.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Abdullah Suleiman al-Shaytan al-Rajeem. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillah wa salatu wassalamu ala rasulillah, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So I want to welcome you all back. Alhamdulillah, we are continuing our nightly reflections. As I said, the only exception is going to be our Wednesday nights where we'll have a webinar at webinar.yaqeeninstitute.org. And yesterday we covered community, institution. Next week we'll cover family, inshallah, on Wednesday night. And then the week after that we'll talk about the individual and how to build resilience as an individual. And then the week after that, inshallah, the Wednesday before Ramadan, bi'idhninahi ta'ala, we'll be doing Ramadan prep, inshallah. So what I wanted to talk about today was actually this profound saying that I feel like matches up very much so with what we're encountering right now. We have worries. We have obstacles. We have things in front of us that cause us great anxiety. And our worries are often of a changing nature. And one worry goes away only to be replaced by another. So you get out of one circumstance and another one presents itself to you. Sometimes things that could be anticipated. Sometimes things that were feared for a long time. Sometimes things that you never could have anticipated at all. So if anyone were to tell us a few months ago that this would be our situation right now with this coronavirus pandemic, very few of us would have been able to fathom such a thing. And that's sort of the state of our politics. It's a state of so many different things. The changing nature of things around us. And of course, as we said two nights ago when we talked about this idea of 99 names of one God, you need to be able to connect every single one of those circumstances to a name of Allah so that as you connect to all of Allah's names, with your changing circumstances, you develop a connection to the one who never changes, to the one who is never shaken, to the one who is never affected by the changes that take place around.
Now, with those worries though, oftentimes it comes down to perspective. And there's a wrong way to look at them and a very proper way to look at them. The wrong way to look at them is to say that they don't exist, is to dismiss them, is to pretend like there's nothing to be afraid of, is to say that there is no concern and there's nothing that we can do about our situation. And what that leads to is a lack of taking our own means to better our situation, as well as a lack of trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The other thing, the other way of looking at this, is to keep your worries in perspective. And the saying that I was talking about, and you notice the title is the shadows of our worries. There's a proverb that I really love that worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. And if you think about the hadith of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, where he talked about poverty. And he said salallahu alayhi wa sallam, whoever wakes up in the night and this dunya, the material world, is their greatest hem, is their greatest worry, جعل الله ثقره بين عينين Allah will put poverty between his two eyes. And so if you think about an object in front of your two eyes, and if you put it right between your two eyes, the inflated size of that object is significant. And the saying that worry often gives a small thing a big shadow, kind of reminds me of that. Why? Because if you think about the things that are in front of us, when you take a challenge that's ahead of you, and you focus on the shadow of that challenge, then you give it too much weight in your life, and so you don't bother conquering that obstacle. You don't take the means that are necessary to be able to conquer that challenge or that obstacle that lies ahead. Because you're so worried about the shadow. You always go worst case scenario.
You're thinking about things in a very troubling way, in which you assign greater weight to your challenges. Now, how do we deal with that? If you think about the beauty of the simple words, Allah Akbar, God is greater. God is greater. Allah Akbar min hamdik. Allah is greater than your worries. Allah Akbar min huznik. Allah is greater than your grief. Allah is greater than your obstacles. Allah is greater than your ease. Allah is greater than all of those things. The way that we say that every single time, not just when we start our prayers, but every motion that we make in prayer, we remind ourselves, Allah Akbar, God is greater. And we constantly say that throughout the day. What that does is, instead of the shadow of the concern and the challenge that lies ahead, it minimizes the shadow, and it causes you to focus on the enormity of Allah's all-encompassing greatness. Allah's greatness encompasses all things, encompasses the heavens and the earth. The obstacle that's ahead of you, while it may be an obstacle, doesn't need to be given a shadow. Focus on the size of that obstacle. And as big as you think the obstacle is, remember, Allah Akbar, God is greater than that obstacle. And this is something that we often will remind ourselves of when you're talking about an enemy or someone that oppresses you or someone that harms you. فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَخْشَوْنِي Don't fear them, fear me. إِذَا كَانَ اللَّهُ مَعَكُ فَمَنْ عَلَيْكِ If God is with you, who can be against you? So we often think about this in terms of putting our enemies in perspective, that God is greater than our enemies, God is greater than those who persecute, God is greater than those dictators and those oppressors and those that harm.
But what happens when you remove the personification of that enemy, of that challenge, and you still see it in the same light? Don't fear it, fear Him. Don't be intimidated by it, but instead focus on Him. This cannot defeat you, this cannot overcome you. Allah can overcome it. You can overcome it with your Lord, with your trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So take the means, and this is that balance that we constantly speak of. Do what you have to do to overcome that obstacle, but don't give it a greater shadow than it actually has. And don't forget the greatness of your Lord that would allow you to conquer that obstacle no matter what. So, فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَخْشَوْنِي Don't worry about them, worry about me. Don't worry about it, worry about me. Focus on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah can help us overcome anything that's ahead of us. And yes, these challenges are legitimate. The things that we're going to face as individuals, obviously with varying degrees, are going to be significant. But Allah is greater than whatever challenge lies ahead. Minimize the shadow, focus on Allah's greatness. Minimize the fear of it, focus on the greatness of Him. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow us to be amongst those that truly put our trust in Him. And to allow us to conquer whatever challenges lie ahead, we ask Him not to leave us to ourselves. For when we are left to ourselves, then we will be defeated even by the smallest thing in front of us. But instead to be with us so that we can defeat and overcome even things that appear to be greater than us with His greatness subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allahumma ameen. Jazakumullahu khayran. I'll see you all tomorrow insha'Allah ta'ala. I'll be going live insha'Allah at 2pm Eastern, because it's Friday tomorrow. And also tomorrow night insha'Allah.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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