Late Night Talks (2024)
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How Deeds Lead to Sorrow or Fulfillment | Late Night Talks
In the last 10 nights of Ramadan, Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Yaser Birjas reflect on the book “The Disease and Its Cure” by Imam Ibn al-Qayyim.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen, Sallallahu wa sallam wa barak a'nabiyyin wa muhammadin wa a'la alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam wa taslimin kathira thumma amma ba'd. My dear brothers and sisters, we welcome you back to this beautiful night of the last ten nights of the month of Ramadan from the Baleiul Ayn Islamic Center on the late night khatr and heart softeners with Shaykh Omar Suleiman, as we discussed the book of Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Yuziyyir rahimahu Allah wa ta'ala, al-da'u wa al-dawa, the disease and the cure. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala cure us from any disease of the heart, Ya Rabbil Alameen. This is now the 29th night of the month of Ramadan. So we have one more night, inshallah, to conclude this beautiful month of Ramadan. May Allah make it a month of blessing, Ya Rabbil Alameen. We ask Allah to count us among those who witnessed the Qadr and to get the full reward for the last ten nights of the month of Ramadan and the entire month of Ramadan, Ya Rabbil Alameen. Shaykh, in the last time we were discussing, we were talking about how when it comes to the subject of ma'asi and the sins, they slow down, of course, the journey of the heart to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We talked about how it removes the glorification of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the heart. And as a result, the person feels easy for them to fall into the sin. They are removed from the realm of ihsan. They're removed from the realm of iman. And if someone is out of those circles, obviously, it becomes easy for them to commit sins and so on. So we want to kind of like have the recap from last discussion, inshallah, so we can add it to our discussions for tonight, in which we're going to be talking about having that would lead the heart to always be anxious, fills it with fear and anxiety, obviously, because now the joy of connecting with Allah is gone. Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasool Allah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Imam al-Qayyim, rahimahullah, as he's kind of going through the consequences of these sins and the way that these diseases penetrate,
basically to just help you understand the logic of what he's building upon. So first he talked about the consequences of sin on your tangible belongings, the way that you materially perceive things, your physical perception. So the consequence of sin in your wealth, the consequence of sin in your health, the consequence of sin in your time, and the removal of barakah from those things. So basically the seen consequences, right, the seen consequences in regards to that which you possess. And we talked about the cure for that. And then what we kind of went into is really profound because he's talking about the unseen consequences of your seen sins and missing out on the unseen rewards of your seen good deeds. Now, I know that might be confusing to you, but let me put it to you this way. Yesterday essentially what we were saying is, is that if you worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the reward in the hereafter, not the reward in this world. However, as a result of your worshiping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the reward of the hereafter, blessing comes into your life in terms of your worldly affairs. The opposite is also true, that you should fear sin and the consequence of sin if the punishment is entirely reserved in the hereafter. Let's say that there was no consequence of your sin whatsoever, and the punishment was just the punishment of the hereafter. That should be enough of an incentive for the believer to withhold themselves for those sins. The greatest thing you could lose of the unseen is what? So just to recap really quickly, what's the worst thing that you could lose in the unseen? Allah Himself. And Imam al-Ghazali rahimahullah, he said that the worst punishment in hellfire is la yukallimuhumullah. Allah does not speak to the people anymore, that they're disconnected from the dua. Imam al-Uthameen rahimahullah, when he talked about the people in hellfire, wa qalu du'ulana rabbaka yukhaffif anna yawmin min al-adhaab.
They say subhanAllah, they have to call upon others to call upon Allah. They have to ask the angels to call upon Allah for them because they've been cut off from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. May Allah help us. So the worst thing you could lose of the unseen is your connection to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The best thing you could gain of your unseen is a connection to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That beauty of that relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the beauty of ihsan. So it's the unseen reward. Now here what we come to in this chapter inshallah ta'ala is the idea that your deeds also produce emotions. They produce emotions. And so they're going to have a certain type of effect and the type of pleasure, because we said yesterday you've got to replace the pleasure of sin with the pleasure of good and endure the pain of good rather than the pain of sin, which gets you no reward, right? So the idea here is that the type of happiness that a sin produces is not like the type of happiness that a good deed produces. The type of anxiety, the type of sadness that the sin produces is not like the sin, is not like the type of anxiety that the good deed produces. So now he's going to dig into this, back to what types of emotions do your sins produce as opposed to your good deeds? Imam Ibn Qayyim rahimahullah wa ta'ala in one of the chapters he mentions that one of the consequence of sins, qal al ma'asi tuzeedun na'am wa tahallun niqam. That sins will cause the blessings to be removed when niqam, adversities and trials and fitna and so on, to fall upon you. That's extremely dangerous. qal wa min al-uqubat anna ha tuzeedun ni'am wa tahallun niqam. That's what it's causing right now. fa ma zalat an al-abdi ni'matun illa bidam. Because no blessing was removed except that a person must have done something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was testing them as a consequence of that mistake that they've done. wa la halat bihi naqma illa bidam. The same thing. No trial comes except that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is also testing the individual
in that regard over here. qal wa la rufi'a bala'un illa bi tawba. And the consequence of that sin will be removed, will not be removed unless you bring tawba. You return back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then he says qal, that's the words of Ali ibn Abi Talib radiyallahu ta'ala wa rada, qal ma nazala bala'un illa bidam. No trial comes without someone have earned, unfortunately, that because of something that they've done. wa la rufi'a illa bi tawba. And that will be removed except with the tawba to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So now there are a lot of ni'm we're talking about over here. So this is very general right now. But one of the greatest ni'm that I would like to focus on over here on this chapter, which Ibn Qayyim ur-Rahim elaborates on, is that one of the greatest things we're looking for in terms of the connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You mentioned yourself, one of the biggest, the greatest loss I would say, any person can have is to have the disconnection from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the greatest gain you get is having that connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Because what does that connection give anyone? Anyway, the greatest blessing we're looking for in this world, and also the absence of it is one of the greatest pains that people they go through and they endure. And that is the subject of an anxiety, the subject of uncertainty. Because when you're uncertain, you worry so much, your mind is busy, your heart is busy, you're afraid, you're scared, all of that thing. And subhanAllah, that's why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he mentioned in one hadith, eight things. Eight things that it's a source of worry for us as human beings. And Imam Ibn Qayyim ur-Rahim, which I want to mention it to you here, قال فالذنب إما أن يميت القلب He goes, look, the consequence of the dhamb, the sin, it kills the heart. أو يمرضه مارضاً مخوفاً Or it weakens the heart, it gets your heart so sick that basically it's almost like a fatal sickness would be. A terminal illness for the heart.
قال أو يضعف قوته Or at least makes your heart weak that cannot stand against these trials. ولا بد حتى ينتهي ضعفه إلى هذه الأشياء الثمانية And this will continue until the weakness of the heart will be seen in one of these eight things that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned in one single hadith. And I want to mention them in short so we can talk about it here. قال The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to make this dua اللهم إني أعوذ بك من الهم والحزن وأعوذ بك من العجز والكسل وأعوذ بك من الجبن والبخل وأعوذ بك من ضلع الدين وقهر الرجال Or غلبة الدين وقهر الرجال In the translation, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to say يا الله أسيخ رفجني ومعك from الهم والحزن Which means from worry and from sorrow And he says والعجز والكسل From incapacity and laziness والجبن والبخل From cowardice and miserliness And now he says ومن ضلع الدين Means falling into debt that you owe to other people Or قهر الرجال Qal being overpowered by other people Eight things the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to seek refuge with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala from And Ibn Qayyim he says Look, these things will fall upon anybody because of their sins Because when they commit that sin they disconnect from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So right now they have هم and حزن The هم The هم, which is when you worry about something in the future الحزن When you start having that sorrow for what you've done in the past So you basically kind of keep thinking about the past You go in a constant browsing mode of what you've done And you start going in a loop Constantly, nonstop And also as a result of that, because you worry about the past And now you also you have sorrow for the past You worry about if the future is going to be better or worse So you're always in a constant worrying about the past and the future
That's one thing, first thing So this is so there's sort of the general, right? Like when you phase into all of these things Now, if we believe that istighfar, seeking forgiveness is the means by which we enter all good states What does that mean here? What that means, first and foremost, is فَقُلْتُ اسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّكُمْ إِنَّهُ كَانَ غَفَّارًا يُرْسِلِ السَّمَاءَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِدْرَارًا وَيُمْدِدْكُمْ بِأَمْوَالٍ وَبَنِينٍ وَيَجْعَلْ لَكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ وَيَجْعَلْ لَكُمْ أَنْهَارًا Nuh عليه السلام, when he said to his people I told my people to seek forgiveness If you seek forgiveness from your Lord He will send upon you from the skies He will produce from you or for you from the earth He will replenish you with what you seek in terms of wealth, in terms of family And all of that which you seek in terms of the good of this world will come to you And that's why Imam Hassan al-Basri رحمه الله When three people complained to him about three different things He just told them istighfar, istighfar, istighfar Seek forgiveness, seek forgiveness, seek forgiveness So seeking forgiveness is a means by which you bring about barakah, blessing in your worldly possessions Seeking forgiveness is a means by which you enter into Jannah Every time Allah talks about ad-dkhool ila al-jannah entering into Jannah in the hereafter Allah mentions before that يَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُورَكُمْ وَيُدْخِلْكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِيمٍ تَحْتِيَ الْأَنْهَارِ He'll forgive your sins and then he'll enter you into paradise To say that your sins put the barrier between you and paradise And then finally, as we said Your sins put the barrier between you and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So there's the general and then there's the specific Now, subhanAllah, it's important here to know that the believer will experience ham and hazam But not for the same things nor in the same ways The believer has ham, he has anxiety or she has anxiety What do they have anxiety about though? What do they think about in terms of the future? They worry about their own akhira, their own hereafter They worry about their ummah They carry that ham of the akhira, of the hereafter
So it produces a different type of ham The believer has hazam, they have grief But what are they grieving about? Are they grieving about their own personal losses? Oh, woe to me, you know, or how miserable I am And, you know, looking at their own personal losses as if they're global catastrophes and the worst thing in the world has happened to them because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala restricted just one thing from them No, they're looking at the oppression in the world They're looking at what has missed them of good opportunities to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So their ham and their hazam is different than the type of ham and hazam, the type of anxiety and grief that the sin produces And there was a hadith of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam here, sheikh If you don't mind, I'll just mention it really quick Hadith Abu Umamah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu An ar-rajul ansa'ala rasoolAllahi sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam Mal imam? A man asked the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam What is faith? He said, إذا سرتك حسناتك وساءتك سيئتك فأنت مؤمن If your good deed makes you happy and your bad deed makes you sad you're a believer Meaning that's the sign of faith Now, do you get happiness when you sin? You get some sort of pleasure But the type of pleasure that you get from doing a good deed is suroor It's inner joy, inner happiness It's a different type of pleasure, right? Than when you inject yourself with something of this world or you satisfy a desire of yourself in this world Likewise, when you sin the type of sadness that you get when you commit a sin is a different type of sadness than when you miss out on something of this world or you feel some sort of pain with your body So this is what the hadith will talk about now الهم والحزن The type of emotions that are produced the type of circumstances that are produced from sin are experienced differently than the one who has these circumstances produced for them as a result of some good deeds I want to add to what you mentioned, Shaykh To have that sense of ham the concern all the time and the sorrow all the time I believe this actually
It's Allah designed us that way Like by design, as human beings we were created to worry all the time basically And Allah SWT mentioned that clearly in the Quran when He says قال إن الإنسان خُلِقَ هَلُوعًا إِذَا مَسَّهُ الشَّرُّ جَزُوعًا وَإِذَا مَسَّهُ الْخَيْرُ مَنُوعًا إِلَّا الْمُصَلِّينَ He says إن الإنسان خُلِقَ هَلُوعًا That insan was created halu' which means what? In a state of panic Like always worry إِذَا مَسَّهُ الْخَيْرُ مَنُوعًا إِذَا مَسَّهُ الشَّرُّ جَزُوعًا When they were afflicted with a calamity they freak out and they panic وَإِذَا مَسَّهُ الْخَيْرُ مَنُوعًا And even when they're given something good when they're blessed with prosperity They also freak out So why would they freak out about prosperity? Fear of losing it Not having it anymore After they just had a taste of this kind of advancement in their life SubhanAllah So we're always in a constant state of worrying He says إِلَّا الْمُصَلِّينَ Except those who connect with Me You connect with Allah You don't have the same worry that everybody else has Also Allah says سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى وَاعْبُدْ رَبَّكَ حَتَّى أَتِيَكَ الْيَقِينَ You worship your Lord until you meet your certainty You worship your Lord until you meet your certainty What certainty he's talking about over here? Death So in retrospect, what does that mean? How are you going to live your life? Of uncertainty You're going to be living a life of uncertainty until you meet your certainty But if someone thinks about it Oh my God My life is going to entirely be in uncertainty That's scary Which is true But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave us a solution also He says وَاعْبُدْ رَبَّكَ Worship your Lord until you meet your certainty Like He says If you worship Me I'll give you that connection Connect with Me I'll lead you through the life of uncertainty Now the ultimate question Why would Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala create us in a state of panic? A state of worrying and concerns and so on The answer is very simple
To need Him To need Allah azza wa jal Because if all your needs have been met If all your concerns are gone If you have everything mashaAllah perfect 100% Where would you live? Where would you be living actually? In Jannah already Which is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made that ultimate certainty Which brings inner peace That's the rule you're talking about As a reward in Jannah So with the carnal delight of Jannah He says خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا That's eternity You're going to be living there eternally Right? About the food and drink in Jannah What is it? أُكُلُهَا دَائِمًا وَظِلُّهَا That the shade of Jannah And the fruit of Jannah is perpetual Which means never comes to cease to exist So if everything is there So you're certain about physical needs Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also says In the hadith of Prophet ﷺ When he mentioned to the people of Jannah أَرَضِيْتُمْ Are you pleased? And they would say Of course, our Lord, we are pleased He goes Shall I give you more? And they say More than this? What else can we get more than this? قَالَ رِضَايَ فَلَأَسْخَطُ عَلَيْكُمْ بَعْدَهَا أَبَدًا I'll be pleased with you Never expose you to my wrath Now that's an additional pleasure Certainty that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Always will be pleased with me There will be no change for the plan That I'm living right now But then comes the ultimate, of course Inner peace The ultimate yaqeen of everything And that is to see the Lord subhanahu wa ta'ala In a manner that suits His Majesty I just want to bring this issue here It's important to understand That you are going to be living In a constant state of worrying Constant state of anxiety, sorrow, grief This, that But you have the option To have worries about something That is worth worrying about and for Or you worry about something That is so ridiculous Or maybe not as valuable As important as it should be Because in our dunya Unfortunately a lot of people
They make the material world So important to them That losing it Is just like losing their lives Imagine someone for example Start losing followers On their social media accounts And I've seen some people On YouTube subhanahu wa ta'ala They had a meltdown A breakdown Literally a breakdown And started having a meltdown Because they see the numbers Of their followers are actually going down Because of something they've done Upset their followers So those are like the absurd examples But again it's like for yourself You know, what does that look like I always tell people I mean subhanAllah The Prophet ﷺ mentioned something Like I was reflecting on this hadith من أصبح و الدنيا أكبرهم Whoever wakes up And the life of this world Is their greatest concern جعل الله فقره بين عيني Like you wake up And poverty is right in front of your eyes already It's like the big looming poverty In front of you So the Prophet ﷺ is mentioning When you first wake up Well how are you going to wake up It depends on what you went to sleep with If you kind of ask yourself Like this is part of that real Honest introspection here What makes you lose sleep at night When you go to bed at night And you put your head on the pillow What are you actually thinking about Like what's causing you to lose sleep Is it something material Something of this world You're going to wake up And it's not going to get better Right, because you're already waking up In a certain orientation The believer goes to sleep And you know what Sometimes they sweat at night They cry at night But what's worrying تتجافى جنوبهم عن المضاجع They're tossing in bed But what are they tossing over Getting up يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُمْ خَوْفًا وَطَمْعًا Calling upon their Lord In fear and in hope وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنْفِقُونَ And then spending of the material world So what really is important to you Is what's on your mind When your head hits the pillow at night What keeps you up at night Really speaks to the type of purpose Shaykh I'll kind of give you these Something I was thinking about
SubhanAllah the other day If you think about Like the ulema As they were tortured in the past One of the features Or one of the ways that the The oppressors would try to Break the reputation of the scholars Is they would lash them Alongside the adulterers Alongside the alcoholics Right So they really wanted to take away From their honor Right So both of them You know both of these two people Like just imagine you're in a society Where you got a prison cell What are you in prison for? I killed 19 people What are you in prison for? I spoke out against corruption And I was trying to call people to Allah SubhanAllah They're both in the same cell They're wearing the same uniform Right They're going through the same motions But one of them Is fulfilled Has a sense of purpose They're facing قهر الرجال Right Which comes at the end of the hadith The cruelty of man But the cruelty of man For the exact opposite thing But that type of person Even when they walk the streets in chains And are tortured They have a sense of inner peace SubhanAllah Imam Jameel Al-Amin I mentioned him And by the way we're gonna have InshaAllah it's on a program with Imam Jameel Within a month or so after this After Ramadan Bid'ah with his son Those of you who are not familiar with Imam Jameel Al-Amin look him up one of the most transformative You know leaders in American history in black history and in Muslim history Muslim American history SubhanAllah. I heard his voice from the prison cell If you listen to even the recording some of them are recordings Online the man has such clarity Like such clarity of thought now again if you see him in prison he's on like death row He's on he's with the worst types of people right the worst types of people that have done really really horrible things But what you're there for and what they're there for is something entirely different, so you're both experiencing
Something bad from a worldly perspective, but for opposite reasons And so you're facing it with an entirely different spirit altogether, and that's how we have to be as believers. We've got to have Worry, but worry for the right things and in the right ways another thing Shaykh I'm just I'm sorry. I'm taking long, but how me what hasn't I was thinking about SubhanAllah You know a person who lives in sinful behavior Their sin is always catching up with them, or they're always worried about getting caught in their sin. Yep That's your whole life. You're either running away from your past sins, or you're worried about someone catching you with that sin So you're trying to hide your tracks or you're worried about how you're gonna hide your tracks It's just like it's the consequences of those sins are gonna mess up your family life. They're gonna mess up your wealth They're gonna mess up your spiritual life your individual life. They're gonna mess it all up So you're trying to cover up peace whatsoever no inner peace They live they live always looking over their shoulder for the wrong reasons altogether and sometimes That's how a part of the concepts of that they become suspicious of everybody else as well, too Like if they start if they know themselves they're doing all these things all these mistakes all this earth Now you start suspecting your spouse suspecting your children suspecting that you're your friends Because your mind is all completely messed up right now You know yourself, you know what you have done and what you what you plan to do So now you're kind of like worrying about everybody else maybe on the same the same situation How are they gonna basically catch me and in the act of this and that so they always worrying about that SubhanAllah And that's in itself is a punishment enough As as a result of their own doing unfortunately, right so comes to the next day He says call what I do a castle. I would have become the lads will castle and I allow a secret was with you from Incapacity and laziness now while ads this is basically it's it's incapacity by Cho by by circumstances like Completely being unable to do anything due to my circumstances whether someone may Allah protect the being in jail For example or because of illness or sickness for instance
The circumstances are against all Maybe progress in my life. So therefore We seek refuge with Allah subhanahu wa'ta be subjugated to something like this and then follow a castle Because of now it's basically Incapacity by choice right now. This is basically you choose not to do this because you don't want to do that and Sins could lead to that because when someone commits a sin, for example, they probably gonna put themselves in certain circumstances That will prevent them from accomplishing things that otherwise it would be easier for them. All right. There's also a connection Sheikh between This this do not by the way such a profound era because every every two words mentioned together related to each other And then every portion is related to the next portion So for example and hasn't is over the past, right? And usually someone who's stuck in the past is paralyzed like I can't move like I want it. I just sleep in all day I'm sad. I don't want to do anything because I just can't get over the past and then that's odds That's ads, right? And then at home, which is you know, so worried and anxious about the future You think you can't change anything about the future circumstances anyway, so you become Kessler you become you you have Kessler You don't want to do anything. You're lazy because you're like, I can't really change anything. Anyway, so I just is that you want to but you can't Okay Kessel is that you can but you don't want to I'm gonna say that again. I just is that you want to but you can't You're just you're shackled by something you have some willingness, but you're incapable and that's why we say a lot more for Lana Adjana, oh Allah forgive our incapacity with our brothers and sisters and Gaza and around the world, right? We feel incapable like we want to but we can't And Kessel is laziness. You can but you don't want to you don't have enough irada. You don't have enough will you don't have enough? Drive enough determination to take you to the next spot
So when I'm gonna claim was talking about the weakening of the heart Balfour irada like you don't really care like, you know, your heart stop desiring even making any change There are people in the world that have the means to fundamentally alter the world for good Yep, without really feeling much pain at all If every Muslim just paid zakah There would be no poor Muslim or probably no poor person in the world if every Muslim just paid. There's a cat Okay, there are people that could fundamentally shift The way the world works if they weren't so corrupt so apathetic so disconnected So, you know Kessel is like yeah, I don't I'm not really too crazy about changing my own circumstances Nor about changing the world or changing other people's circumstances I'm just trying to do me, you know, because they feel comfortable where they are already There is that level of unfortunately, you know sinful life that they realize, you know, what it's not gonna change anyway So why bother so as a result just gonna become lazy to even make that change allahumma son, and that's one of the greatest. So Difficult consequences deal with which is to the next one I'll well juvenile book and I see Clifford with Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala from becoming coward like even if I want to But I'm too intimidated scared even to make a move because again, I'm afraid to be exposed I'm afraid maybe to lose the pleasure of the moment that I'm also enjoying in that sinful life and so on there's a lot of lot of Moments of feeling coward in that moment. I'll well book it. I'm becoming right now becoming cheap Like you you don't want to you don't want to Generosity, obviously, it's opposite to this could not just about money with your time with your intellect with your ideas with your Effort and so on you just become distant from the people completely because you don't care anymore You become apathetic as a result of that right
and and the prophets I said made the connection between a person who's afraid to give of their wealth for the sake of Allah and A person who's afraid of losing their honor So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam swore by Allah that no one gives except that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala will increase him and No one increases in humility except that Allah will increase him in honor so you hold back as you know cowardice may Allah protect us from from being cowards you hold back because you're afraid of losing something and You hold back spending for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala because you're afraid of losing wealth Both of those represent Baha'a fitawakkil a weakness in your trust in Allah a weakness and certainty in the hereafter That you know what like if I give for the sake of Allah Allah is gonna give me more You know when someone said someone said this to me a while back This is donate your ego for the sake of Allah The hardest thing to donate for the sake of Allah is your ego The hardest thing in the world to donate for the sake of Allah You'll find a lot of people very willing to donate money, but not ego Because ego is more precious to us than wealth In fact, we try to preserve wealth to preserve an image usually or to preserve some sort of quote You know false sense of dignity, right? So people can donate wealth But they can't donate their ego for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala because they become too proud Shaitan did not get expelled from Jannah out of an unwillingness to give of his time Or to give of it whatever, you know equivalence of currency there is he was willing to do all the Ibada part but stuck book It's too proud Right, and so donate your ego for the sake of Allah so a person is shackled by something by a weak belief a weak sense of determination and Not understanding that the more that I give for Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala the material and the things that are not as tangible The more Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala will replenish me in return
Jeff this is also could lead to what we talked about before that sins breed sins as well, too And they beget sin. So when someone is already in this path sinful life, for example They have the concepts of the Masia They become so coward right now And if for example if they wanna if you if they want to do something good or at least enjoying something Like someone drinking for example They will always feel of course, you know intimidated to call people out because of the same sin or Even they themselves try to change someone's other person's way because of that because they know themselves they have that same problem They don't feel they don't feel strong enough to talk about let's say for example One of the most common sin these days watching the haram for example Because another they have it as one of their issues So they don't feel brave enough to talk to people about this issue. So they keep it, you know, they keep quiet about it Similarly when it comes to becoming right now stingy Why because sometimes some of these sins are requires a lot of resources and Instead of now giving you their money into the higher They want to save that money because hey, I still want this I still want to pay for that and they become as a result of that also they become stingy subhanallah their wealth, too And so you get these like two extremes right the hadith gives you the the full spectrum Most likely you don't fall In this category or that category you're somewhere in between right? You're kind of leaning in this way leaning in that way So most likely you're not necessarily spending on like some of these blatant types of sins But you're you're wasteful. But then when you're called to give for the sake of Allah, you're like, ah, I don't know because You're not so sure of the reward, right? Even though you'd never say that you'd say I believe in Jannah, but clearly your actions are saying otherwise and when you talk about honor Look subhanallah for someone to stand up to a tyrant They have to believe that there's something that they have that that tyrant can't take away from them and that's what frustrates tyrants so much Because they don't get it
That's why Quraish couldn't understand the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. What do low to do you know for you? Do you know and they said oh we get it sweeten up the price You want more women? You want more you want more money? You want more power? We get it right because that's how they were right So it's kind of like their own they were projecting their own insecurities their own lack of belief on the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Likewise a tyrant always makes the mistake of thinking that I can physically break some someone and Make them powerless through physical force Because I derive all of my strength from physical power and all the instruments of power. And so why are you not breaking? Why aren't you stopping right? I'm doing everything to you to take away your dignity and you're not breaking because if I was in your position I would break because everything I derive my self-worth from Are these these instruments that you don't have so the believer has something greater than that and it's experiential And so they stand in front of a tyrant and they're not afraid they have because what can you do to me? What can my enemies do to me this is the slogan of the believer right how many people have recited this to themselves What can my enemies do to me? Qatli shahada, kill me you martyr me. Thank you. You sent me to Jannah you know you sent me to Jannah quickly, so Qatli shahada and Seclude me in a prison. It's khalwah. It's seclusion with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala I was sharing with what Imam Jamil said hafidahullah ta'ala may Allah Azza free him He said I'm in the school of Yusuf alayhi salam That's why those are his words like I'm I'm I'm happy You know they put the man in solitary confinement by the way Because he was converting too many people to Islam in prison even his guards were converting to Islam So they had to start rotating guards out from him because he was converting the guards to Islam, too So they keep isolating him from people in prison you talk to him You can hear the man smiling
I'm so I'm going the recordings online where his son posted some of his recordings online the man's been in prison for two decades Alone and he sounds like the happiest person in the world. It's you know it's like oh, yeah, I'm in khalwah I'm secluded with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. What are you gonna? Do to me now? Oh? Deport me kick me out. That's siyaha. I'll get to contemplate on the signs of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So you're either sending me to my Jannah in the hereafter or you're putting me Into a place where I can realize that Jannah with myself Or you're expelling me to where I can contemplate on the one who I have hope in in the first place My garden is in my heart that those are the words of him to me Rahim Allah my Jannah's in my heart If you don't have that Jannah in your heart You're gonna try to find it and everything else and you're never gonna find it And then what's that what's that gonna lead you back to al-hamm what hasn't? All right, you're gonna. Go right back to him and hasn't had some castle worry distress concern sadness Laziness incapacity, but if you've got that Jannah in your heart you have a driver That produces something out of you all the time Because you're seeking something beyond this world So I'm sure that leads to the to the last statement that the Prophet says I mentioned on well Don't add a new car or a job Don't add Dan is being Right now because of being in debt to people like you put yourself in financial Problems as a result of probably maybe your sinful life. Yeah, you're you're unfortunate Unfortunately not paying attention to the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala So you end up basically in debt because of that and that's right now you doing this by choice God will allow a Rijal and you have been empowered by other people the cruelty of people now that's by circumstances But the sin can lead to these things, you know being in a sinful life Unfortunately, you might be wasting time, especially if somebody Allah protect us all goes through an addiction Any problem in this case?
They're gonna be spending so much money on this kind of lifestyle and lead them to many problems Some people are not necessarily addiction in terms of drugs or or anything else But addiction to fame addiction to partying addiction to having you know That the high life and all that kind of stuff you can imagine how much money they're gonna have to put into this to enjoy That kind of lifestyle so puts them in so much debt and then got her Rijal They become right now vulnerable because of some of the thing they do and I'll say I cannot help you know God but thinking about one unfortunately one of the Our our generation decades problem the the Jeffrey Epstein's issue Right the exposure of all these celebrities in the world and all of them are going through Haman hasn't They have worry and they have sorrow they feeling incapacitated They feel lazy to do something about it. And now many of them also there's been so coward, you know hiding they're also kind of hiding their money as well because you know, what's that that also is gonna come their way and Then everybody's right now. They owe someone something and overpower somebody else. It's just check. Yes, sir. You're too relevant, man Brought in Donald Trump yesterday and then he brought in now bringing in Epstein Island now Oh, all I'm saying is that somehow like imagine current imagine people Lead a life. I'm alive. It's a fake life. Yeah, I mean so again, it's all it's all interconnected But the believer how about the majority of the Muslims are what? majority of the Muslims are Dua for the prophets my son mentioned this like the majority of the believers will be from the poor But you know what they live within their means they live certain comfortable circumstances actually, you know like getting into some some basic level of like, you know The way that these societies function many of these Muslim countries and many of these swaths of poor people Most of these people actually aren't in debt Funny enough. Most of them don't even have bank accounts if they do it's like they're on a day-to-day
But they're not really in debt Right, they're kind of just living their very simple lives They go out they do kind of yet could have been a mini Eddie the way the prophets I some describes a kitty I slam like when you travel the World and you see most of these Muslim countries and most of these people It's kind of like day-to-day and they're doing their thing, right, but they're not like, you know Opening credit card account after credit card account after credit card account and getting buried in these large sums of debt now sometimes the believer is tested with debt and that's why the do not is there right, but Sometimes a really, you know a bad lifestyle and sometimes it's not sinfulness again. You're like, all right Yeah, I'm not spending on all these services but you know what are you maybe spending a little bit too much on this dunya because you think that's where you're gonna get your happiness from and It's not actually giving you that so you're spending habits are not very good And then you're holding back your Sadaqah and didn't the prophets like some say that Sadaqah breeds more from Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and more Baraka and more blessing so you're thinking like I'm doing everything right, but It's not working now, we're not we don't believe in the prosperity doctrine Islam we don't believe that if you're rich God loves you and if you're poor God hates you because the prophets like some said the majority of Will enter Jannah through their lack of means in fact They'll stay humble kind of be day-to-day and that's the way that the majority of ummat Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam enters into Jannah But this is talking about bad behaviors leading to bad circumstances Then it's not just oh Allah get me out of this. It's I Need to repent I need to make the changes in my life so that I can start to climb out of this and again Fahri job the oppression the cruelty of man most people Will escape the cruelty of man by living mediocre lives Right but look you you live a righteous and a noble life you'll experience the cruelty of man So we say the man you know what the man means check right let me say is the man Some of the man we're talking about the system. Oh, okay the man you know so
We get the cruelty You know because of righteousness versus cruelty because of bad habit No, right, so the prophets like some experienced the cruelty of man But for all the right reasons like you think about what was the prophets like some doing to the people of Mecca? He's trying to get them to Jannah. He wasn't hurting anybody He's trying to call them to the way of Tauheed and as a result of them if they were to embrace that Tauheed They thought they would lose out on this world so they oppressed the prophets. Nice of them So it's two different reasons Two different ways in which you're encountering that reality again the believer is you know brought back to the table by that du'a to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and that's why this du'a is to be said every single day every single evening by every single believer No matter how you got to this place make this du'a and then ask yourself if you are in a state of self inflicting some of these wounds And causing these circumstances producing these circumstances producing these emotions yourself I shake the amendment came with him a lot concludes that by saying woman I'll go back to you and as a result the consequence of course of these sins He says call and Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala you'll keep you can be a robber well Hope that Allah subhanahu will put will plant fear and intimidation Into the heart of the sinner fell at the Rahula khaifa maruba always scared always paranoid Hope of the New York school absolutely for caliphate not part of his nullah al-adham He goes look obedience to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala is your greatest fortress This is where you hide yourself, but this is where you protect yourself from any attacks I'll allow the amanda who can amen in the one who enters this fortress of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala Which is the obedience to Allah azza wajal You will be safe from any punishment in this world in the hereafter Woman Harada and who and if you leave if you step out of that that fortress he says
I'll have to be in Macau from in Cooley Janet, then all these All these fears will surround you from all directions But and then he says for that I did a lossy in law a couple who can know when a genocidal Look, he says that the the sinner his heart is just like between that the wings of a bird Which means in haraka to reach a little Bob college a top always paranoid always ready to fly Basically, so he goes if the wind even moves the door. He will start thinking. Oh my god. They caught me But yeah, I thought oh my god They caught me when Samia walk up Adam in coffin you're gonna do them but I thought and if you hear footsteps They realize this is it This is the moment. I'm ruined. Basically, I'll be hasabi. We have some Anna. Kula's a hat in LA every cry they feel So it's for them. They're calling them right now Well, couldn't look through him cause it in LA that every bad thing every atrocity every problem is coming their way Come on, and that's the one of the beautiful statement. He mentions is called In Arabic subhanallah sounds amazing call from an half a la ha Manahoo minkooly shay wa man lam yakha fillaha a half of them in kooly shay Please translate this perfectly for me. Whoever fears Allah Allah will grant him security from all other things and whoever Does not fear Allah Allah will cause him to fear all other things So the the circumstances the people and subhanallah the prophets I some mention So there's like if you think about our situation, this is a good way to kind of bring it all together Especially in these in these last ten nights, right when you're asking Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala for things Your inability to personally move towards Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and our inability as an ummah to attain victory Okay on an individual level hubba dunya All right, so kula khatia the love of this world is at the root of every single sinful behavior
Every sin is produced at the end of the day out of loving this world too much Why do you have envy because you love this world too much? That's why you envy people over this world Why do you have anger because you get angry over your ego angry over this world too much? Why do you have you know greed? Why do you have lusts that get out of control? Why do you have this? Why do you have that at the end of the day you can trace every single sinful behavior to an addiction to this world Right, you have an unhealthy attachment to this dunya and then eventually you will undertake Sinful means of attaining it right because it becomes by any means necessary. I just got to get it, right It's my fix and just because Allah has shut the door of one of those things from you Doesn't mean that you don't love the world too much in some other way So it starts off with that So on a personal level what's stunting your growth is hubba dunya is loving the world too much on an ummah level When the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned that our ummah will be plentiful There'll be so many Muslims in the world subhanAllah. Look how many Muslims are in the world, right? We're in the billions in the billions two billion people, right? But the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying you're nothing foam You become like foam. Why? Because he said you look off equal ubicum and one you have in your hearts and one I said, what is it one? He said hubba dunya, but karahi it's a note. You love the world too much. You hate death too much now, by the way Kuluna Nakara who knows as I shall be alone and I said no one likes death We all hate death. We hate the experience of death. No death is not a pleasant thing but if your fear of death is Stopping you from leading the type of life that you're supposed to live Collectively you become a paralyzed ummah you become a group of wimps can't do anything Because you're always afraid of the power You're always afraid of what's gonna happen on the other side and what's gonna happen here?
What's gonna happen there and I can tell you the secret ingredient of the people of Gaza They don't love this world too much and they don't fear death Right, like that's where this is coming from. So on a personal level I don't love this too much and I'm not too afraid of that Why because I know that on the other side there's something greater than what everyone is pursuing on this side So on an individual level and on a community level as an ummah level This is where we fall short when we love the world too much and we start to fear death so much That it shackles us from pursuing the things that we need to be pursuing So that's why at the end of the day, what is Ihsan breed and I think I'll end with this shaykh Ihsan breeds a desire for the hereafter Right, we're talking about like capturing that that connection with Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala When you start craving the akhira, when you start craving Allah's reward, when you start craving the hereafter, when you start entering into the reality of that certainty That's why it's called yaqeen All right, seriously, that's why it's called yaqeen. It's a reality. It's I'm already, you know, I feel like I'm already in it Even if I can't see it Experiencing it, right? So once you have yaqeen, once you have certainty in the reward of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala Why would I give up my Jannah for something lowly of this world? And so Ihsan breeds this desire. Here you are, last two nights of Ramadan, losing sleep You know Putting yourself through all sorts of things because like Laylatul Qadr is better than a thousand months We're here better than a thousand months here or better than a thousand months in terms of the reward that Allah will bestow upon You so I'm willing to put myself Through the tired, you know, the tired, the tiredness, the fatigue, the struggle because I believe in that reward
Ihsan breeds a connection to that reward. Voluntary deeds breed a connection to that reward to where you'll start to crave it The way that other people crave things of this world and may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala make us of that state Ameen, ameen, ameen. That's why Ibn Qayyim, rahim Allah, he concludes this chapter by saying look the reason why Those those worries and concerns they increase in the heart of the person who commits sins because When you obey Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala brings you closer to Allah Azza wa Jal Even if you're physically not close to the person that you love, if you're physically not there You still find that sense of connection with them Like if your loved one has traveled away from you, you still find you feel that they're with you at all time Imagine how far you think you're away from Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala But if you worship Allah Azza wa Jal, you still feel that closeness, that ma'iyah with Allah Azza wa Jal But someone who's sinful, you might be living in Mecca All right, living close to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in Medina, Allah al-musta'al But you feel so distant from Allah Azza wa Jal and from that connection because there's no ta'a there There's no ibadah, the ma'asi is shunning away from Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala Sheikh, can I give one more quick example? Malcolm X, al-Hajj Malik al-Shabaaz wa'l-Himawla One of the things that frustrated the FBI was that they dug into his personal life And they couldn't find anything that they could hold over his head and threaten him with Said this guy's like a saint Literally, you read the reports, the FBI reports on him They monitored every phone call, they followed him everywhere They're like, the guy's like a saint, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink He's always on time for his meetings He doesn't have, you know, like the affairs are not there Like there's nothing we can blackmail him with Which would have given them qahru rijal over him, right? They would have had the upper hand over him, right? Like the FBI, what did they do with Martin Luther King Jr.? They blackmailed him with that double life Like some of those things on the side, like that was a way of blackmailing him They couldn't do that to Malcolm, they could do that to most people
So Malcolm lived with a sense of dignity and honor To where, yeah, they're probably gonna kill me But there are no skeletons coming out of the closet And there's nothing holding me to this world Right? He looked at the birds and he said You know, I believe that these birds fly by the permission of Allah SWT And so, you know, I'll be alright If this is what it's gonna be, then I'll go that way So you've got to think about that Like what are you living? What are you immersing yourself in? And where do you derive your purpose? And where do you derive your drive? Because that's going to create an independence of sorts from the people So Malcolm was independent in that sense, right? He was fully dependent on Allah SWT May Allah SWT grant him shahada And make him better than what we thought of him You know, Shaykh, talk about the double life, subhanAllah I mean, as human beings, we all probably have different ways of living Public and private Even the sahaba radiallahu ta'ala anhum waradahum They went to the house of the Prophet The houses of the Prophet SAW Asking the wives of the Prophet SAW About the ibadah of the Prophet SAW His way of living privately Not that they were, audhubillah, suspecting Astaghfirullah, the Prophet SAW would be doing something wrong Audhubillahul haram But they want to know, at what level is he privately? Right? So when they went to the houses of Aisha radiallahu anhu Aisha, she cut that act, that pursuit for them so short When they were asking How is his conduct, his manners at home? She goes, She's just going to like, stop it Don't waste your time His akhlaq, his akhlaq would always be the Quran Which means, privately, publicly, he's the same person I guess all of us, subhanallah, when you're private Privately, you have a different way of living, unfortunately But when you're publicly, you display something different I mean, Allah subhanallah, to make us all authentic and genuine To what we really believe in So that's one way of looking at it People, subhanallah, privately have different things The other sahaba who went to the Prophet SAW's house Was asking about his level of ibadah
When they were told how the Prophet SAW used to worship They felt, the Prophet, he's a messenger of God Allah has forgiven him all his sins But for me, I'm going to fast every single day The other one says, I'm going to be spending my nights in ibadah Every single night And the third one, he says, I'm going to abandon the pleasure of this world I'm not going to get married at all And the Prophet came to correct that feeling He says, no, that's wrong I fast and I break my fast I pray and I get some sleep And I also enjoy the pleasure of this world But with moderation So we want the people to understand That when it comes to, of course, those sorrows and griefs and so forth Look, with the yaqeen from Allah SWT The yaqeen with Allah SWT, you'll find that into the connection Into the ibadah, into the ta'a The closer you are to Allah SWT The more certainty you will get And nothing will... You won't worry about anybody else after that Because Allah SWT is there with you And He is for you Sheikh Ibn Rajab comments on this double life concept And so this is the paradigm shift I want you to think about What's the difference between the sahaba and their fear of private versus public And a hypocrite and their fear of private versus public What's the difference between the two? The companion feared naqs al-ta'a The deficiency of their good deeds in private Whereas the hypocrite feared the presence of evil in private There's a difference between the two The sahaba, they feared, like when we go home We're just not in that same state of iman We're not in that same state of faith We're not worshipping Allah in the same way We're not like we are with the Prophet SAW But the sinner, the hypocrite in particular Feels what, or fears what? That the purposeful إذا خلوا بمحارم الله The purposeful consumption of that which is displeasing to Allah SWT in private So there's a difference here Yes, we can't be in private who we are in public all the time And we're going to feel that discrepancy sometimes
But let that discrepancy not be one Where there is a purposeful undertaking Of things that are displeasing to Allah SWT in one realm And then covering that up in the other realm Trying to cover up your tracks in the other realm May Allah grant us that consistency So we have so many questions right now And people still commenting on things that I don't know man They say Sheikh Yasser clearly They say it to me They said Oh they said Sheikh Yasser Clearly Sheikh Omar tried to copy your thobe style But he couldn't make that test work I don't know Not me They're voting There's 33 votes on this one Says that's true May Allah forgive them all I beg to differ Mashallah Nice try Now to the serious point It's a very legitimate question here And I think it's on the mind of many many people who say How can we get to the point that we think about the akhira More than our day to day problems Like the idea of this makes sense But when you have to deal with school and bills and other problems It's hard not to worry about these issues So go back to Imam Al-Ghazali mentions the three states of fasting Because fasting is supposed to breed a certain type of mindset So he says that there's the fasting of the limbs And the fasting of the stomach Which is the fasting of Islam Where you leave off food, drink and intimacy Then he said there's the fasting of taqwa The fasting of God consciousness Where you fast from backbiting You fast from gossip You fast from things that are sinful The spiritual consumption of evil Then he said there's the fasting of ihsan Which is excellence Where you fast from worldly thoughts Where you become consumed with thoughts of the hereafter Rather than thoughts of this world So you can't get to this
Until you go through properly these two things So you have to fast from haram physically On a regular basis And then do that for long enough To where you no longer desire it In your physical consumption And then you have to fast with taqwa To where you don't build up the spiritual plaque That gets in the way between your heart Actually experiencing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So you have to fast from taqwa So am I giving up the sinful behavior in this regard as well Then you fill your head and you fill your heart With the Qur'an With the seerah With the stories of the sahaba of the prophet With introspection Putting pen to paper And actually writing out for yourself Charting out like where you're falling short And where you think you could do better That's when You know it's almost like You have to bring The best level of discipline that you have With your worldly affairs To your spiritual life as well You can't be mediocre in your pursuit of spirituality And then expect it to supplant The type of attachment that you have To your worldly life You gotta be more disciplined in your spirituality Or at least as disciplined as you are With your worldly pursuits And the believer is consistent The Prophet ﷺ said كَتَبَ الْإِحْسَانَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ Allah wrote excellence on everything So the believer has discipline with their worldly life They have discipline with their spiritual life And so when they have those two forms of discipline And when the pursuit of the hereafter Is given priority to the pursuit of this world They'll always have perspective Even when they face the obstacles of this world Because they will realize That those perspectives Those problems, those obstacles Are temporary And not dooming Because of their belief in the hereafter وَلَا تَجْعَلْ مُصِيبَتَنَا فِي دِينِنَا لَا تَجْعَلْ دُنْيَا أَكْذَرَ هَمِّنَا وَلَا مَبْلَغَ عِلْمِنَا
The Prophet ﷺ taught us to say Don't let the dunya Don't let this world become our greatest concern And don't make our greatest tragedy Be in regards to our deen Don't let our tragedy be in regards to our deen Right So those two things go hand in hand as well Your priority and your problems One more thing to this matter, Sheikh Please A lot of people when they're concerned about their daily chores And daily, of course, you know, activities for life They are concerned What they're looking for is the certainty That Allah ﷻ did not guarantee for them They're trying to stay in control of everything In control of the consequence and the result of their studying The result of their work The result of their marriage The result of this You need every single activity of your life To be pleasing to you In a way that is meaningful to you So you try to control everything And as a result When you realize that you can't Because Allah ﷻ promised He's going to test you with everything So if something goes wrong in some of these areas That is not a testament that you are messing up in your life Or that's a punishment for you You could do everything right in your life And still Allah ﷻ will test you With the thing that you love the most Are you pursuing this degree in school? Okay It's capturing your heart It's taking all your thoughts All your mind and all your thinking Always thinking about this So Allah ﷻ will throw obstacles in the way As a result of that And you start worrying too much about it Even more Instead of worrying about pleasing Allah ﷻ Now worrying about losing it again So the worrying is in the wrong place, unfortunately So people, they need to worry about pleasing Allah ﷻ And Allah ﷻ will facilitate what is best for you Whether it's the thing that you're looking for To accomplish Or something else But if you trust Allah ﷻ He'll also give you that peace and tranquility With whatever outcome that you get from that Regardless of what you do Here's one question that seems that many people They would like to have an answer for, Shaykh When it comes to being in a relationship, in marriage Where the spouses are not on the same level of the deen and iman
So in this case, obviously it worries people You know, husband is worried about Okay, will my wife ever be You know, upgrade to that level The wife, she worries about her husband Will he ever be You know, get that level where he would be The leader for our children, for example So what we tell these people When it comes to someone with different level of iman So this is a really tough one because And to be honest with you It's always scary to talk about this Because people have such varying circumstances So This might not apply to your individual circumstance So the first thing I'd say is that If you're not married yet Don't try to marry someone for something else And then try to, you know Make it religious afterwards And what I mean by that is that If you're pursuing someone for the wrong reasons Don't complain when things are not going right That's why the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said فَافْرِضَاتَ دِينِ Like pursue deen Let deen be the primary driver For when you initiate a relationship The other things should be satisfactory Right? Deen should be the driver A lot of people take it the other way, right? They have another driver But deen has to be satisfactory Satisfactory meaning different things to different people For some people satisfactory is that they pray That's not going to go very well You know, for you Honestly, it's not enough Right? So you've got to think about what drives you before you get married Now if you get married And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala opens the door for one of you To have that turn, that change of heart The first thing is just like I tell someone When they convert to Islam There's going to be an initial friction Between you and your family But you know what? Let them see consistently That you being a better Muslim Or you being a Muslim in the case of a convert Or you being a better Muslim in the case of a repenter Is making you such a better person to them To where they're going to love that you became more religious Like wow, you know You're so much better Since you started going to the masjid
You're so much better Since you started listening to Sheikh Yasir Brijas You're so much better Since you started this Since you started that You're so much better You're so much more pleasant Like yeah, you know I'd love for you to come with me I'd love for you to undertake this with me And then start It's also really You've got to understand It's not the same as a child and a parent You're leaving me behind And now you're looking down on me Right? So the other side of that Is praising the potential of the other person Praising the potential Of the other person Like hey, you know mashallah You've always had this and this and this about you And that's a prophetic trait And I just know that inshallah ta'ala As you continue to build in your relationship With Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala That you're going to be an even better Muslim And you're going to get here and you're going to get there Like I believe in you One of the worst things you can do in a marriage by the way And it's like a trick of shaytan truly Is beat down your spouse and think that you're going to get something out of them As a result of that Men or women Like talk them down and think that by talking them down They're going to improve That doesn't happen You've got to talk them up to where they can get to Men and women, I'm serious We do it to each other Praise the good and increase it And make the bad Unbefitting of them Not dooming them to the bad And that's why the Prophet ﷺ condemned What? You stink, there's nothing good about you One bad thing and you're done It's like alright If that's the case I'm not even going to try to be good anymore Because you took the 10% bad And you negated the 90% good So why am I even trying to be good For the 90% of the time So you've got to talk them up on this all together So you've got to show that you believe in each other Believe in each other's potential
Talk each other up And let them see the best of you through your own Religious pursuit and Allah al-musta'an Sometimes that is going to be your test Like Asiya was tested with Fir'aun Wow Like I think about that SubhanAllah Where is Asiya? Asiya, perfect woman of faith Perfect woman of faith Like how high is Asiya's position in Jannah? She's literally married to the worst man to ever walk the face of the earth Fir'aun, the bottom of hell And the highest of paradise Like what a discrepancy, right? So your spouse insha'Allah ta'ala is not Fir'aun Man or woman I know some of you will think that Your spouse is not Fir'aun They're not the devil Insha'Allah ta'ala there are ways usually for people Again there are extremes and there are really bad situations There are ways insha'Allah to work together And to tawassul bil-haqqi wa tawassul bi-slam To bring each other closer bid'ah Shaykh I have a question about forgiveness Someone's saying and we're going to summarize the question over here Is that they have done a mistake in the past And they repented from it And they thought that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala You know after doing all what they've done that's been forgiven But then Allah is testing them right now in this life With something similar to what they have done in the past And now they're kind of like feeling upset about it They're just like basically like When would I know that Allah has forgiven me? And if I may comment before I give to answer this SubhanAllah For me I think this is one of the Unfortunate way of dealing with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Like look this is a sense of entitlement for forgiveness Like I'm entitled for forgiveness Because I did my part I repented, I came back to you And I fixed my situation Why aren't you forgiving me? That's too adab with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala You'd be completely impolite with your Lord subhanahu wa ta'ala I mean Allah azza wa jal He did not make this a secret He made it clear in the Quran That I'm going to be testing you
I will be testing you with so many things He mentioned all the list of things that you're going to be tested with So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guaranteed your reward He guaranteed your reward But did he guarantee your reward today? Did he guarantee your reward in this dunya? He didn't, but he guaranteed your reward Just like the sahaba when they came to the Hudaybiyah With the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam And then eventually they were told you're not going to do umrah Take off your ihram Slaughter your animals Let's go back again to Medina And the sahaba said, Ya Rasool, you promised You promised us that we're going to do tawaf around the Kaaba He goes, I did Did I say it's going to be this year? They said, no So okay I still promise you You will come and you will do tawaf around the Kaaba But not this year So yeah, this is my comment on the question itself It's like when you're Think of it as a parent And to Allah belongs the greatest example Apologies to my kids in advance for using this example It's like when you get in trouble And you say sorry And like immediately In the same sentence Hey now, can I not be in trouble? So this immediately demonstrates the insincerity of the apology Alhamdulillah, my kids are always sincere I'm clearly not talking about my own kids I'm talking about in general Like kids with their parents I'm sorry And then right away Can you take away the punishment now? Do I still have to face any consequence for my behavior? Then you weren't really sorry You're not getting the point then Sometimes Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Will still let you taste the dunya-y consequence The worldly consequence of your sin And that's a means by which the purification happens That's a means of purifying it from you And raising your rank So sometimes you gotta be willing You gotta be willing to deal with the set of cards That you set for yourself You have to be willing To deal with those circumstances Adam a.s. still had to deal with The consequences of his sin
Even though Allah forgave him So yes, sometimes it's there That doesn't mean Allah hasn't forgiven you Just take it as a sign of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Expiating or elevating for you How to overcome an anxiety over a sin That you're not sure if it was forgiven or not Well, Allah doesn't want you to have anxiety over that sin Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants you To count on him forgiving it for you But Allah a.s. also does not want you To become arrogant as a result of that So just remember that people more sinful than you Were forgiven for greater sins What's the point of the Prophet s.a.w. Telling us about a man who killed 99 people And then killed 100 And being forgiven by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala I mean, has anyone in here Killed 100 people? Please identify yourself I'd really like to know Like imagine if you killed 99 people And then you came and you asked Shaykh Yasir Brijas Hey Shaykh, do I have a chance? And then Shaykh Yasir said no And you said alright, I'll make you 100 May Allah protect Shaykh Yasir I'll give him hope man You'll probably tell him You're forgiven but don't go ask that guy in the other office Because he'll definitely tell you no Or you should probably do something about him But the reality is You haven't done that sin So in the same way Here's a way for you to look at it The Prophets were tested Despite being way better than you Right? So you're never going to be as good as a Prophet Meaning you're going to be tested Because even those that were better than you Were tested And the people that came before you Also included sinners that you're never going to be As bad as, but Allah accepted their repentance So Allah will Accept yours as well, so long as you Turn back to him, and that's the point of giving you These stories so that you know You do have a path back to Allah Someone said that they've done something wrong in the past And they repented to Allah But now they're worrying About it, the fact that every time They look back and think about it
They kind of like those Memories How bad is that? Depends what kind Of memories we're talking about Shaykh Like for example I don't know what the question said It didn't give details But for example, the smell of bacon For example, right? That's another question Yeah, yeah Like man, I want to become Muslim This is true, I want to become Muslim But I love my pork sandwiches So I become Muslim, so you'll get over your pork Sandwiches eventually, you'll get over your bacon Sure, I mean you can miss your pepperoni There's halal bacon now too Alhamdulillah But I think the question is actually So maybe a more personal Yeah, look You always have Dual influences so long as you're in this life, right? So if you kind of think back Like what's calling you back to Your lower points in life, it's your lower self Or al-gharour The one who always calls you to lowly things So shaytan's gonna be Hanging out with you sometimes Right? You know what you used to do back then? That was great, right? You should try that again, you should go back to that Don't you remember how great it was? And he'll try to make you forget the circumstances The consequences as a result And all of the sins But like, hey, you remember what that was like? That was amazing, right? So he'll take your reminiscing down to a path of Desiring once again So that's why the Prophet And Ibn Qayyim talks about this brilliantly Cutting things off at the khatrah Cutting things off When it's a passing thought Don't let your passing thoughts become settled thoughts If you can cut off a passing thought From becoming a settled thought Then that's good If you can cut off a settled thought from becoming a niyyah From becoming an intention, that's good If you can cut off an intention from becoming a azeema Like determination to commit it, that's good
If you can cut it off before the deed, that's good So the earlier you can intercept that signal And be like, nope But Shaykh, imagine if someone's Keeping the transmitter in the closet And I mean by that, some people They want to repent to Allah, Ramadan starts, right? They know that their problem Is addiction to certain, let's say Behavior, or certain stuff, or whatever that is For example, music, for instance Some people, they listen to this horrible music And as a result, it's just like Their language is always filthy The way they behave, the way they look at other people, you know Because of what they've learned from this music It's just horrible That's what they're going to do They're just going to turn off all their playlists And just put it on the side They're not going to delete it Because I paid for it So therefore, I don't know, after Ramadan Maybe I'll just go back again So why pay again? So I'll just keep it on the side Basically, some people, when they repent They leave their coat, the sinful coat Hanging behind the door Just in case, you know, if it doesn't work out At least I can pull my coat and just go out there again And that's one of the biggest problems That we have over here People, subhanAllah, they want to repent But they don't have Because repentance, to be effective You have to have three conditions Number one, that you cease And first of all, you need to quit committing that sin Just like what we call The first law of the hole If someone dug a deep hole for themselves Right now, they're way down there What is the first thing you need to do The first thing you need to do In order for you to get out from that hole What is the first thing you need to do Stop digging So you need to quit the sin The second thing, that you regret What you've done Those joyful memories can be dangerous That means the person Did not really do the tawbah properly They don't feel guilty for Disobeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala They still You know, feel joyful for that moment Meaning they don't really see Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Is so great that the sin
Was grave enough to displease Allah That's dangerous And the third one is to determine They will never go back again to that Now if you keep that transmitter in your closet And even if you're doing ibadah and salat In the middle of the night In the masjid in Ramadan And the transmitter is still transmitting Somehow you're going to pick up that signal At some point and go back to it Don't turn your Eid into a welcome back shaitan party That's your orders, right Don't say from now that right after Ramadan is over I can't wait to go back to this That's how you know that your Ramadan was not accepted at all If you already have that in you And you have that mind set Like I'm just going to go back to it Look, don't leave Don't leave that transmitter there Don't leave that door open Just like we say keep the doors open between you and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Shut the doors between you and shaitan Right, don't leave them halfway open Because he's got a lot of ways To push it back open for you He waits for you to hit the low moment again That pulled you through that door in the first place So let's come back through this We've been through this before This isn't our first rodeo Come back down this way I know how to make you feel better when you hit this point I remember a young guy one time Many years back, during the time of the CDs Do you guys remember what CDs were? By the way, only like 20% of the room Actually nodded their heads Which is really frightening Because all your playlists used to be on CDs Just to let you know The clouds were just something from the future Now it's present, alhamdulillah So this brother, his problem That he used to be an addict to music He just listened to music Day and night, he just can't stop listening to that And he had so many of these CDs They were expensive to buy them Especially if you do original, for example, the CDs So when he repented, guess what he did? Or at least when he repented According to him He was asking me He's always, you know, not feeling comfortable He doesn't feel that his repentance was acceptable Blah, blah, blah
So we went through the repentance And then he admitted to me He goes, okay, I have to tell you something He goes, alright, sheikh You know, I paid so much money for that collection I said, alright He goes, I don't know, I felt so guilty to throw it away So I put everything in boxes And it's under my bed And I'm like, alright That basically That basically tells us what the problem is then Because you're sleeping on your bed Trying to read Quran And your mind is just like In all these boxes How can repentance work in this situation? You have to You know, the opposite of that Is a brother that I know, subhanallah Who was asking me I remember when he became Muslim He was like, hey sheikh, is listening to this stuff haram? And I'm sitting there thinking to myself Man, he's only been Muslim for two weeks And I give him some hope And kind of give him a little bit And so I'm giving him an answer Technically, but start off with your ibadah And it's a process, and Islam is a process And he stops me, he's like Is it haram? Is it displeasing to Allah? Is it getting between me and Allah? I said, yeah Subhanallah, he pulls over Breaks the CDs, dumps them in the sewer Just like that Subhanallah That's really what's really beautiful It's almost just like, oh, okay, Allah doesn't like this Done And that's really what it comes back to How strong is your driver? How strong is your driver? Taqwa al-Qulub That reminds me of a story, I want to conclude with this inshallah When I first moved to Bosnia I mentioned this story many times Probably some of you remember that story Subhanallah, so it happened that We lived in In the basement of a house That belongs to a family MashaAllah They're new back to Islam, I would say So during the war, they returned back to Islam MashaAllah, they were practicing and so on But they're doing their basics of the practice of the deen So the lady of the house
May Allah have mercy on her, Rabb al-Alamin She almost like, later on she adopted us like her kids Really, subhanallah So, one day One day, out of nowhere Out of nowhere, she comes and she knocks on my door And she I open the door, I said, yes? She goes, come with me I'm like, where? She says, come with me I'm like, oh my god, I got scared Really, I said, bismillah, so I walk up with her And she, when we came to the main door She goes, wait So I'm waiting outside her door And I'm wondering what's going to come out through that door May Allah forgive me Eventually, she comes out Holding in her arms all these figurines Crystal, porcelain You name it Unbelievable stuff She's like, oh my god, I don't know how much it cost her to collect Make all that collection She asks me, she goes Is that haram to keep in the house or halal? I'm like, oh man That's a tough question What am I going to say? And I'm trying to explain to her But again, like you said She cut me off She goes, just tell me Is it haram, can I keep this in the house? Is it haram? You talk about statues, literally You could say I said, no, it's not halal, you can't keep it in the house Wallahi, no hesitation She went to the trash can, she did this Poof, threw everything in the trash can She went to the house, she goes, salam alaikum Close the door And she left me hanging out there I'm just like, what just happened? I went to the trash can, look at that stuff I'm just like, whoa That must have cost her a fortune Subhanallah But that's when someone is genuine And they want to just leave that life Of the past behind And not worry about it at all And never even think to make a detour To go back again Or just look back and say, wow, what a beautiful life I had I need to give you an inspirational story Of one of our shahadahs, by the way Sister that just became Muslim
And she was asking About the hijab And she was asking About how to wear the hijab And she said I want to get this right from the start Because I don't want to leave any room for shaitan To make me half step this One of the sisters just became Muslim She's like, I want to wear it right So tell me how to wear it I want to start on the right foot With Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Sometimes it's easier to start on the right foot Than it is to stop Zigzagging on the path your whole life And so She was just saying, I was like subhanallah What an amazing approach to life What an amazing approach to Islam We all have our struggles, we all have our sins But we can't lose the standard of perfection And when we're falling short We got to go back to the driver And it may be You know what I think of when you tell Because I've heard that story before Like 400 times by the way You know what I think of When I think of that sister And I think about other people What if that's the deed that got them to Jannah What if they come to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And Allah put you in Jannah, why? Because you just went and did that Like just that moment of truth Being truthful in your repentance to Allah Can I elaborate on her story as well Please She She treated us like her kids Later on When I went to Jordan and got married Brought my wife with me in Bosnia there And she took my wife like her daughter-in-law This is it She always brings us food Just like her kid Literally treating us like I'm her son And that's my daughter-in-law basically And then eventually We had to move from that house Went somewhere else but our connection was always there Going back and forth, back and forth The day came After three years living in Bosnia With my wife over there When we decided to come here to the US And honestly
I don't know I don't know exactly The impact of that decision In her life until just last year Or the year before that In 2020 2021 I believe 2022 We went to Bosnia I went to Bosnia after 18 years not being there Or 20 years actually not being there So When we arrived there Suddenly the daughter She kind of found out that we were there She used to be a little girl Subhanallah So she finds out a way to connect with us She goes, I need to talk to you So we meet with her And she's telling us You guys have no idea how much my parents loved you I'm like What are you talking about She goes When you guys left that apartment My mom, she said to my father You're not gonna rent that apartment out again They're gonna come back And subhanallah Subhanallah We didn't know about that though We used to visit, go there and eat with them And come to our house, subhanallah All these years Eventually not even one year after we left To the US They called me, she passed away And she said I think Your departure just broke her heart Subhanallah And then 20 years later We go back again to Bosnia We go to visit the house over there The apartment is still empty Subhanallah When we arrived there The father was still alive, subhanallah So he had it open for us So my wife and I were just like Oh my god, remember So we go in there, literally still empty They had some belongings here and there But they never rented out to anybody Because she always had a belief That they're gonna come back And her husband, out of course subhanallah Love and being faithful to her He fulfilled her promise
She said he never gave it out in rental after this Waiting for you guys Subhanallah, we sit with him Meeting with him and he told me Look I'm tired, she's been gone for over 18 years Right now And I'm very old, I don't know Why I'm still here Because his life was all around her Wallahi And then eventually we come back here Two months later he dies Unbelievable I'm just like, his purpose was Waiting for us to arrive to give us that Amana back, subhanallah So yeah, I mean You meet people like this These are like stories from the past But this is Living evidence The goodness and subhanallah The truthfulness and how genuine people can be in their lives May Allah subhanallah wa ta'ala Admit them to Jannatul Firdaus We also got a shout out like our Bosnian brothers and sisters They're amazing people, mashallah I went to Bosnia once and I fell in love with it I bless them and have mercy on them And join us with the righteous Can I plug in then my Bosnian trip Yeah go ahead So if anyone wants to go to Bosnia We have a blessed voyage with the Maghreb Institute Coming up inshallah wa ta'ala The first week of August It's going to be August 3rd through August 9th You're more than welcome to join sheikh I'll take care of you Don't worry about it inshallah Chavapi and downsants Nothing like it So if anyone's interested Some of you alhamdulillah went with me in the past two years on this trip It's something, it's unique Many many people don't really realize how beautiful Bosnia is How important Bosnia is in the history of the Muslim Ummah It's extremely extremely important subhanallah And there are tons of lessons we can learn from the Bosnian experience For ourselves here in the United States and elsewhere inshallah wa ta'ala Jazakum Allah khaira jama'a wa baraka wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu Allah bless you, bless your families all together Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu
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