 Asalaamu alaikum and Eid Mubarak to everybody. Hope you all had a very very pleasant and blessed Ramadan May Allah accept everybody's fasting and Qiyam and Quran and any other good that we attempted to do and we ask that Allah accept it by his mercy and not by Our efforts because our actions have many deficiencies in them Alhamdulillah. So Ramadan has ended. It was a very blessed month and it went by like this And so what we'll start with today is we'll start with just some some quick Kind of reflections on how we can keep the Ramadan momentum going and then we'll get into The rest of the discussion in this book that we've been Following along which is essentially a guide on practical spirituality, inshallah. So As the month of Ramadan comes to an end and as the month of shawwal enters We know that some of the blessings of the month of Ramadan are that Allah locks up all of these shayatin And he closes the doors to hell and he opens the doors to heaven And as the month comes to a close Some of these blessings also come to a close and so shaytan and the shayatin right not just one We're talking about significant numbers of shayatin are released And they began to wreak havoc because they have They have a lot pent up of evil that they've not been able to do They go and they see the believers and the believers are in a state of light And there's nur with them and there is a forgiveness that they've achieved and they shayatin They don't like that. They don't like to see The devils don't like to see people who are in a state where they've changed and they've transformed And so one of the first things that the shayatin will go after is any good habits They see you and I have developed in the month of Ramadan They're going to go after them and they're going to pray on them Like imagine you have an enemy who's planning a strike and who's waging war on you And they know these are the targets that if I can hit these targets I will essentially dismantle the person they're going to war against and so they identify those targets And those targets are the good habits that you and I have developed Amongst the first habits that they try to target is the prayer The prayer the first thing the shayatin will do is can they get someone To abandon just one or two of the prayers they were doing in the month of Ramadan on the day of Eid So could they have people potentially miss Salat al-Fajr on the day of Eid Maybe someone was up late at night. Mrs. Salat al-Fajr. Maybe still pray Salat al-Eid Even though Salat al-Eid is not a far the prayer But but Mrs. Salat al-Fajr and then maybe they're so caught up in their Eid celebrations Oh, they're going to miss another prayer. Maybe they miss Bohr and Asr or whatever it is At that point the shayatin they start to win the battle immediately within a day The way it works is it takes a long time to develop good habits spiritually and it takes the shayatin a very very short amount of time to destroy them because you just have to kind of Start to go start to fall Right and the momentum builds and you kind of continue down Right and so we have to be really on guard in the weeks right after Ramadan Like I mean especially on guard with good habits We've developed and really really try to protect those good habits and go to an extra extra length To figure out. Okay. What can I do to make sure That what I was doing in Ramadan I can sustain a portion of that But at minimum I'm keeping my obligations and a few and a few extra things And you have to keep in mind that someone is waging war on you and uh that now the response has to be At at that level right sometimes we kind of think of it. This is just some Myth or is it really happening or it's what's in the unseen so we don't really see it And that we don't really feel the effects, but I'll tell you I'm sure all of us have felt the effect I'm in I've noticed per not in a very very pronounced way There is a difference and the first thing that happens is laziness kicks in laziness begins to kick in it's like Ah, do you really you maybe you're in a rhythm of reciting a little bit of Quran after prayer Are you really going to do that? It's you did that for 30 days. Go check your instagram instead Why'd you delete that anyways? You don't you want to see what your friends are up to you got to tell them You're not even good at maintaining social ties. What kind of muslim are you take a break? It's it's from all this Quran and this ibadah you just did 30 days You went hard now just a week give yourself a week right and boom slowly the habit that was formed They get they come at us they come at us they come at us right and the person who's like has no clue what's going on They're just like oh, yeah, like this is not a big deal. I'll be just fine. I just You know 30 days. I did all this stuff. I made all these du'as. I'm sure I'll be just fine And that's like a it's a it's a fine way to have that hope But it has to be met with a level of kind of practical effort and practically guarding ourselves That's one of the first thing that happens a general laziness Begins to kick in and the laziness starts with the prayers And so the first advice I would have is and that the scholars advise us is be really really really scrupulous About your prayer after the month of Ramadan Do not let just like we were focused in the fast that oh, I can't miss a prayer. I can't miss a prayer Right, everybody naturally hopefully is up at Fajr time anyways because they ate they ate their their Suhoor meal Everybody naturally is we're trying to pray Isha in Jama'a Right and the shiatin will say if you were somebody who was Consistently praying in Jama'a in the in congregation Jama'a means congregation right in this case in the masjid, let's say the first thing They'll say why you got to go to the masjid. There's no more tarawih. That's the first thing they'll come and it's like Well, hold on a sec tarawih is not a fard Right, tarawih is what's called a sunnah mo'akka that emphasize sunnah. So is praying in the masjid for men It's an emphasize sunnah right for for women praying at home is is generally Preferred but they'll try to come out with us with these like strategies. Uh, why do you gotta do this? That's that's where Ramadan type of thing And so then that person who has developed a great habit of praying every Few few prayers in the masjid like oh, they slowly start to leave that then they're like Oh, why do you have to pray in congregation at all? Just pray by yourself. You'll have more more time You'll be more focused. It'll be quieter right and they'll slowly get us away from the congregational prayer Even though praying in a group is 27 times the reward according to some hadith 25 times according to others In terms of the amount of reward that someone gets Then if somebody was waking up at the early part of fudger or was already awake during fudger time Maybe they had prayed a little extra. Maybe they had prayed a lot of tahajud Maybe they had began to um do a little extra ibadah at the time of fudger They'll say well, no just sleep in a little bit. You got it's a lot of sleep to catch up on Just sleep. It's not a big deal. You can do more tahajud in the next Ramadan. Just sleep right and then the next thing you know Miss you miss fudger right and and what what happens It's like how did that how did that happen right someone was on such a good rhythm? And they'll try to break that rhythm So the laziness with prayers is the first thing that comes that they try to get at The second thing that the shayatin will try to get it is good habits You and I have developed with regards to our limbs and our tongue specifically So in Ramadan while generally speaking Muslims, we should be careful with what we say Throughout the whole year and Ramadan people are extra careful not to not backbite to not gossip to not lie To not cheat right to just just to just to avoid foul language or people are extra careful But in the post post the month of Ramadan, what will happen is They'll say slowly slowly slowly You might as well talk about this person talk about this. You're not backbiting or you're just mentioning a few bad traits What's the big deal? It's a true. They're true. Anyways, as the khutba was given here last Friday Mashallah that the Khatib mentioned that literally mentioning something about anybody that they wouldn't like Right, even if you mention that oh, this person is you're referring to them They're not present and you say oh, yeah, that short person and they don't like being called short Or like, oh, yeah, that guy's kind of big, right? You know, and they don't like being called that And now that's the someone who's backbiting somebody and it's a true statement. There's nothing factually incorrect about it However, it's considered backbiting and it and it literally the the sin Of backbiting will completely pollute our good deeds. It will really severely corrupt our good deeds, right? Um, it's very very easy. So what they they go for the what the low hanging fruit Oh, how can I get this person because they just maximized all the good Allah just gave them all these amazing things the night of power These thousand times 700 times 70 times reward for doing certain things all this forgiveness Allah's freeing hundreds of thousands if not millions of people from the fire every single day and they're like, oh Allah just gave them all of these really really exponentially Multiplied rewards. How can I now find the deeds which will exponentially hurt them and and get them to do these deeds Right and get them fall into the sin. So the prayers and dropping the prayers and the And and the deeds of the tongue getting loose with with the tongue are the two main ones That I would advise watching out for and then everybody knows their own habits their own bad habits So we all know whatever bad habits we had before the month of Ramadan And we know the habits we worked on hopefully in the month of Ramadan And then we know which areas we're still a little bit weak on we haven't quite fortified been fortified So we have to be especially on guard, right? For some people it's lowering their gaze, right? For some people it's listening to haram. Maybe someone gave up music or at least foul music in the month of Ramadan Now one song comes back only like that song is turn it up and then next thing, you know the next thing next day and boom Someone is completely back to listening to all the foul music that then negatively impacts their heart and It's it's there is a there is a ripple effect, right that that ends up happening where it starts to impact other deeds so we all know the types of Sin or types of bad habits that we could be caught up in so I'd recommend just Jotting it down if you didn't already do so in in Ramadan of like This is what I was doing before now. I've hopefully transformed. I'm going to give these things up Try to make some time while that Ramadan momentum is still there right in this in this first week And jot down a few things. Okay. I got to really be on guard against a B and c and I got to really make sure to make time for x y and z in my life And I have to consistently keep that rhythm up And the way to consistently keep the rhythm up the way is you're basically disciplining what's called the the nafs the ego inside of you And the fasting is the fastest way to discipline the ego because the e the nafs desires food More than it desires anything else. So when you deprive it of food it gets it hates it It cries out. That's why the first few days of fasting the nafs is losing its mind and just completely Crying out but then afterwards right it starts to become disciplined and starts to listen to you It doesn't control you anymore. The desires don't control you anymore. The human being is the one who's a slave to Allah But you have to be a slave to somebody or the sorry the muslim is the one who's a slave to Allah But somebody who's not a muslim And who it follows their desires is a slave their desires. You're either a slave of the two their desires or Allah There's not really an interim Or anything in between right your desires and enough being being one and then Allah of course being Our lord and you want we want to be slaves to him if we're slaves to him That means we follow what he wants us to do if we're slaves to our own desires We do whatever we wish and we say well I don't really feel like praying i'm gonna sleep more Fault the desire of sleep don't really feel like lowering my gaze I'm going to look at somebody fault the desire of sexual appetite. I don't really feel like Giving up this this haram source of money. It's really great. I really want to earn more money We follow to the desire of money and wealth and so on and there's a list of different desires, which we fall to so we just have to really make sure to To avoid those inshallah so before we move on to the next section. Does anybody have any Kind of questions or comments or anything that they'll mention that they want to ask Okay Okay Great, so we can go ahead and move on to the to the next section. So the the next section in this Blessed book that we've been reading is about the importance of encouraging good encouraging good and Ramadan is a time where generally speaking there's a lot of encouraging of good happening, right? and that what what I mean by that is you see somebody fasting And you see them slipping or doing something Everybody is like feels a little bit more inclined to be like no, no, no don't do that You're fasting right or you feel someone might say that to you or you might say you know what you're fasting It's more virtuous to do To do this deed right you should probably avoid that other deed So the encouraging of good is something that is very very present in our communities Especially in the month of Ramadan however many times Throughout the rest of the year we fall short in encouraging ourselves to good. We start with ourselves always encouraging our Families to good and encouraging our friends and society to good and the main thing that gets in the way of that Is we tiptoe around like well, is it really my place? Am I really the one who needs to be says and our time? Everybody feels like if you say something and again, we're going to talk about the right way to to encourage good shortly but if you say something it must mean you're being judgmental and You don't want to be judgmental and you don't want someone to feel judged quote-unquote And so as a result of that it's very very difficult to encourage good But there is a way to do so that's in alignment with the way of the prophets of Allah That will bring us a lot of benefit In our life if we're able to do so So the first thing that he mentioned is it's a duty For the muslims for a group amongst the muslims to regularly be encouraging others to to good others in society And then the general the general muslims right It is that the chief traits of the prophets that that's what they spend their time doing You read in the Quran the stories of the prophets that they're trying to encourage their Their poem their community to do good and trying to prevent them from engaging in corruption and in foul acts and in lewdness Right And so because you you you the more that somebody Morally stands for something deep deep deep rooted inside the more they'll feel troubled when they see a society or they see a group of people Straying away from that thing And so the prophets all stand for the highest levels of morality. They are the stewards of morality And the exemplars of morality and so when they see immorality spreading throughout society It deeply pains them and then of course their main Mission in life is to get as much of society to do good as possible And to prevent as much of society from engaging in in haram And so Allah says in the Quran that let there be a group Or let there be from among you a group Who invite to goodness right who encourage who enjoin beneficial actions encourage good actions and who forbid Haram or reprehensible actions. They forbid they they they tell people Probably shouldn't be doing that right and that they are the ones Allah describes as successful if you look throughout the Quran one of the ways to There's many many ways to benefit from the Quran one of the ways to benefit in the Quran is you pick a trait That that Allah mentions in one area and you're going you find all the different ways that Allah mentions that trait And then you say you know what i'm going to work now for this period of time this month or year or whatever it is On this trait among the traits that Allah mentioned the Quran and the people are successful. He's like there is a there is a Kind of a dichotomy that exists in the Quran where Allah says these are the six these people are successful They're the winners and then he openly says these people are unsuccessful. They're the losers And he describes the traits of the successful people Right Have this trait the one of the traits we just mentioned in terms of encouraging good that there are people of prayer That there are people of of charity that there are people of kindness And so on there are people who restrain their anger. There are people who who are Who know how to deal with hardship and our patient through it and then he describes the traits of the people who are The opposite of successful and this is we're talking here about eternal success Which results in success in this world as well, but not necessarily like material success, right? The two are not the same And then he describes the traits of people are unsuccessful and he literally the word is used like the Those are the khasirun the one who loses the losers at the end of the day And these people are people who arrogantly disbelieve in Allah, right? Not like a type of questioning I don't really know if god exists, but like a complete arrogant rejection of the truth, right? They are those who treat others poorly. They're those who talk In a harsh way with others who have bad character who neglect the prayer Those people who are people of hypocrisy. They say one thing, but they do another and so I'll let describe There's many many other categories or many many other traits that this category of people has Right, and so it's one of the ways for us. Hopefully in ramadan We were able to connect a bit more to the Quran it's one of the ways for us to Benefit tremendous with the Quran is to find these traits of people and to try and Exemplify those traits and so this is one of those traits that the people of success have is They are Trying to encourage others to go then Allah goes on to mention that the category of People within bunny israel and you'll see often that god is mentioning bunny israel as that the children of israel In a in a in a negative light right saying that they were given all this guidance And they were given all sent all these prophets and yet they still just were neglected They still rejected the truth They still rejected the truth Right and so amongst the categories of people that he says those of the of the bunny israel who disbelieved that they Rebelled they used to transgress and they restrained they they did not restrain each other from wickedness Rather evil They they would do evil deeds right and then he says that guard yourselves against chastisement Which cannot fall exclusively on those of you who do wrong now? This is a really we'll get to the second one in a second But the first category is Allah is basically reprimanding these people who guidance was given to them But they basically did not encourage others in society to be guided right they did not try and Encourage good rather they were okay with everybody around them just doing whatever they wanted to do This is this is actually really really important the the muslim is We are not okay with Everybody doing their own thing like deep at the deepest level of your heart You cannot be okay with everybody doing the only thing it doesn't mean you speak out always However at the deepest level Of your heart if you see evil going on in the society and i'm talking about moral evil social evil Political evil economic injustice And and so on corruption oppression all of the the worst types of things that happen We have to feel bad about it and we have to at least hate the sin It doesn't mean that we are the ones who go and fix it It doesn't mean that we are the ones who necessarily are the are Given the position to go and speak out against it even But at least we have to hate it inside the minute the muslims get into this state Where we just accept everybody doing does whatever they are going to do and This is at the legislative level at the legal level if a law is passed that encourages haram in society We should not be okay with it doesn't matter if we want to speak out again a deep down inside We should be like no no no this is going away from the islamic principles that our religion has set right and many many many times If we start to be comfortable Oh, well everybody should be able to do what they want to do if you read the quran That's the opposite of the quranic narrative. Allah does not say let everybody do what they want Allah says you try to guide people and you try to bring them to these principles of truth and justice And then if they still don't believe i'll take care of them But he doesn't say you just let them do whatever it is that they want to do just let people run Social havoc or moral havoc on society and so that's really really important because at the deepest level The way and joining good and forbidding evil becomes a real Trait inside of us is first we have to We have to want good for people and what i mean by wanting good is not only good in this life We have to really want good for someone in the next life deep down inside you want people to be guided You see someone that's struggling and you you you feel sincerely concerned. Oh my goodness. I really really like this person I just wish they could be guided to Islam And you pray for them and you try to help them with something right? And if you see someone struggling with the sin muslim or not muslim The you feel concerned. Ah, man, this person is like caught up This person is drinking this person is smoking this person is addicted to something. How can I help them? I really wish they didn't do this not and what I don't mean by this is you like go at them If I don't you know, this is haram and you know, you steal it what they're doing from them You throw out their face and you know, that's not what i'm talking about But at least you should feel like uh, this pains me deep down inside That's at the point where now you know that your islam is about more than just you Right and now you're actually starting to be there's concern going on and it starts with your family first and foremost If you have siblings parents cousins others that you really see them them struggling with certain things It pains you deep down inside and like at minimum you're praying for them Right and that's the most important thing really not like to not to minimize that but uh, at least we're doing that But then ideally we work our way towards encouraging them Um towards towards good things and this is this is in alignment with the hadith of the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Or he said any of you who sees A reprehensible thing to change it with his or her hand And if you are unable to do that change it with your tongue And if you are unable to do that Then with your heart you feel about it you feel it in your heart like we just mentioned And that is the weakest degree of faith now that is the weakest degree of faith now To contextualize this this is not everybody's position So we said that the enjoining good and forbidding evil is what's called a farad kithaya There's two types of obligations. There is a farad ayin, which is an individual obligation Meaning let's say your prayers you have to pray your own prayers. You can't be like I can't tell omer omer You know a lot of quran he just pray all my fudgers and my ish has for me like just you know Just can you do that and you know he might even say yes, but but that wouldn't work because that's a farad ayin for me Right it's farad ayin however There's what what are called communal obligations, which there has to be a community from amongst the muslims that are engaging in um In joining and encouraging other people to good and as long as there's a community That's doing that some group of people in our society, right? Then the the obligation is lifted upon everybody else But if you get to a point in society and you go to an area Or you're in a time where nobody's doing that you have to step up and do it It does not matter if you think you're not credentialed. It does not matter if someone thinks that They don't have whatever qualifications if you are able to do it and no one else is doing it It's a responsibility. You don't see it as some status thing You see it as I have a responsibility to try and help people and if I don't help them Who's gonna help them nobody else is helping them everybody's just kind of doing their own thing or doesn't know how to help them right it's one of the Blessings of our oma that there's people who keep the dawa alive the invitation alive They they there's groups like the the the tablighi jamaat that they go out in They go out in the path of Allah and they're going to various communities around the world trying to invite Others to good trying to encourage other people to follow the religion and so on that There's that there's a concern there clearly you're going to take out all this time from your life And take your pto and your vacation to go out and invite others to Islam Like who does that right, but if you have you have a concern for people Then you want you invite others you invite others and every group by the way that has that came after the time of the Prophet So there's always little things that people can find you pinpoint this issue with them This issue then we're talking at a general principle level right that they're that if somebody has this concern They will be trying to invite others towards good and they'll be trying to spend a portion of their life and a portion of their time To do that right So that's it's a communal obligation. Now what what I mean by that is when the Prophet ﷺ is giving us this advice We have to first know how to apply the advice before we go out and implement advice This goes this goes wrong often. So either you have Muslims who we feel like we shouldn't say anything. We just kind of completely mind our own business to stay quiet And it is it is good to mind your own business the Prophet ﷺ told us to mind our own business in a different hadith However, I'm talking about in this case. You see someone doing something wrong and you're just like I'm just going to let it go Unless not my place it there's there's there's some we've gone to that level And then there's others who they feel is their responsibility to tell everybody What to do if it's not in accordance with their with their view Right someone is not wearing their pants in a certain way and you have to do this You have to do this you have to do this No understanding of the difference of opinion in the religion and just operating a very very strict harsh view And this unfortunately happens the most for our poor sisters that people are always trying to police them This you have to do this you have to do this you have to do with with it's not their job to do that Right, there is there is a group of people who have the knowledge and who should be giving advice However, it's not every man's job or every person in a state of Fort unquote position to be going and policing everybody But that that is the state that we live in with with Muslims sometimes So you kind of have these two these two groups Right, but the middle way is the way of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam And what that what I mean by that is you have to first know How to give advice and then you give advice So here what Imam had that is give telling us is giving advice is very very important. However, it's And it we should feel deep deep down inside like we want to help others However, then we go into um the way the way in which we we do it, right? And so first thing it requires is knowledge you have to have knowledge about what you're advising What I mean by that is You don't just willy-nilly tell somebody about a religious matter because you heard someone Your mom told you something that her sister told her that this auntie said that you're like Oh, I think this is the right thing and then you go and you advise somebody and then you find out later That wasn't even a real thing, right? You have to be the knowledge has to be firm and you have to be grounded in that knowledge, right? And that's the first thing the second is you have to be you have to know the principles of of giving advice in the first place Right the principles of giving advice I'll get it. I'll get into those in a second And the third is you have to have some level of wisdom wisdom means, you know, which knowledge applies at which time Not all knowledge applies to everybody equally Not all knowledge in our religion applies to everybody equally. What do I mean by that? I'll give you an example if I were to ask you. Hey, you know somebody who's 55 55 year old male and the month of Ramadan comes Is fasting obligatory for them? Yes Does that answer yes? No Yeah, okay, so you'd say yes, okay. Now. What if I said, okay 55 year old male Is fasting obligatory for them? You said yes, and then I said well, they they have a Severe case of diabetes. What would you what would you say it's fasting obligatory for them? Well, you'd say it depends the question is depends Okay, so the first is you have to have to consult their physician and the physician will then give them Ideally a Muslim physician will give them the grounds of hold on a second If the fast is going to make you more sick Right, and it's going to harm your health then it would be and we're talking like significantly It has an impact on your health. It's it would be impermissible for them to pass The ruling is not the same for that 55 year old man as it would be for another 55 year old person Who does not have a condition Right, or like for example, you know my my My my wife's grandmother that she she has She she has a condition where she can't fast and she really wanted to pass really badly But like her kids are like, no you can't fast. It's not it's not happening And she even though she really wanted to do it But for her the fasting would make her more weak and she would collapse and then end up in the hospital Often she can't she she wouldn't be able to do that, right? So in Islam context is really really important and what I mean But that and that's not an obligatory matter now when it comes to like these optional things context becomes even more important The way you advise somebody Who just entered into the religion, let's say or just started practicing the religion, you know, they're just getting into the zone They're just starting to practice They're just finding their way. They're kind of praying but they're still learning how to pray You don't advise them in the same way that you advise somebody who's been practicing Firmly for 10 20 30 years who prays five times a day and prays extra And is you know, somebody who uh tries to frequent, you know gatherings of goodness and and and you see them involved in the community And they might be in service of me or whatever else it is, right? You don't advise the two in the same way because one person ideally the second person if they've been practicing their religion correctly Will be just much more receptive to a certain type of advice and you can even be a little bit more real with that You know that you should you should be doing this right versus the first person Right, maybe they're still caught up in some things they were doing before they started practicing the religion And if you try to tell them that this is haram and this is haram and this is They're going to be like, oh man, this religion sounds black. I can't do this. This is way too constricting Right and the religion is beautiful But the way in which we present the religion it has to be done beautifully It cannot be I still remember that I think I mentioned this before And I remember I was just starting to get into the faith. This was in college and um, you know, somebody came and like it was it was uh, we were all praying and um in like the meditation room in our campus and then after the prayer someone's like the first piece of advice they decided to give was If you shake the a woman's hand You'll burn in this way and that way and meanwhile there's like a like a non muslim who's Checking people into the room like sitting there a woman listening to this And I was just like what are you saying? Like did you have any idea? First of all, this is we're in college Okay, second of all like half of us are barely getting by Okay, like maybe even some of the people in in in the muslim community We're just out at a party last night and you're telling you're giving us this advice of all the things you could be saying Is this really the way and then Then then there's some there's a sister right there who has no context of the religion And it's going to be made to feel like she is haram and because you Because she shook someone's hand and now you're in the fire like what that how is that? But no context no clue and I still remember that to this day and I was just like okay I'm never going to this person for advice because they clearly did not and they were A quote unquote religious learned person But they were of the path of people who were extremely focused on outward outward outward outward With very little understanding of how to have good inward knowledge and inward and a flock and context and so on Right and I'm sure the person's intention was good But like there's a million pieces of advice you could give somebody was that really the type of advice You're going to give in a college setting right now now you could go and you could give that advice In a much much more area where people are practicing much more firmly and be like look You know sisters and brothers. We should we give we give ourselves the hello from here right? We don't there's no need But but in general That's that's that's you have to have that context right so just it really depends on that's wisdom Wisdom is knowledge and knowing how to apply that knowledge and where to apply that knowledge and so the way that I'm sure some of you Are you know have come grew up in different muslim communities the way you see islam Sometimes practice let's say in oakland in the masjid we're in right now is very different than the way sometimes you see a masjid in In a very heavily desi environment or very heavily arab environment practice It's very different It doesn't mean that this is that that that one is wrong or one is right It just means it's different vibes because one is a much more american community That you have to make sure you adhere to what works for that community and one is is a community that has a very A traditional mentality and you cannot apply the american mentality to that community right? You have to know which community needs what and their leadership Has to has to kind of judge accordingly. So that's that's that's wisdom don't apply the same thing Everywhere in every place right the context is really really important and it's something we've lost as muslims this this context so that is the um The first thing or the second The second thing was with regards to In joining good So now how do we go about doing it? So now let's say someone is in a position where then they've they've gained adequate knowledge they feel like They want to give advice And they have some level of wisdom and understanding on how to practically apply that advice There's there's a few principles to follow here. First is gentleness To do it with love and gentleness Allah who latifun bi ibadihi Allah is gentle with his servants one of his names allati He's gentle and kind the prophet sallallahu alaihi was very gentle very gentle Imagine the most gentle person you've ever met in your whole life Maybe we don't even meet that many gentle people But hopefully we do and then you multiply that times a thousand And you still won't get to the level of gentleness of the messenger sallallahu alaihi was extremely gentle with people Soft gentle easy doing things with with a smile doing things with mercy Right, so gentleness is really important. You don't come at people With harshness with lewdness or with with with meanness or with arrogance Right, and so just be like, don't you know this is wrong? If I can tell you 99 of people if we are caught up in doing something haram, we know it's haram people know Very very rarely you're going to tell somebody Like who's caught up doing something like oh had no idea sometimes you will and then be like, okay You should probably stop that end of it. Okay. I should probably stop right but most of the time people know already And they just need they're struggling in life. So that's why they're caught up So they don't need someone to police them They need someone who cares about them and this is the difference of with with the prophets and with the saints Verses with many of the most we don't care about other people. We just want to be right They cared about people. They had no concern for being right Of course, they were correct. They were the prophets, but that wasn't their concern. They cared At a deep level. I'm talking so deep that they would spend their nights Weeping over the state of humanity and begging a lot to guide them. When was the last time we did that? When was the last time we just were up for half night for the whole night or an hour of the night or 30 minutes of the night Where we just wept for humanity Please help us. Yallah. We're going through this difficulty. Yallah. There's all these wars. Yallah. People are misguided. Yallah There's all this killing going on throughout the world. Yallah There's this more immorality and this sin and this when was the last time we did that Right, that's where the state of gentleness comes when someone starts to do have a that deep of a concern If we don't have that deep of a concern It's fine. We work towards it, but we have to know That if the person does not receive our advice It's probably because of something we did not because they are Oh, there's such they're so far gone that there's such sinners that they don't care No, it means that we did something wrong because if it's done correctly most of the time Most people will receive the advice properly, right? And so gentleness is really really important The second thing we mentioned wisdom. We already said with wisdom, right? So this is done with knowledge and wisdom and wisdom is knowledge applied properly. That's wisdom The third is it's done with compassion right and compassion here is That you want to be in all encompassing with Allah's mercy when you approach them most of the time when someone is giving advice They're giving advice for someone who's slipping Slipping going away going away from the direction they should be going in You don't want to push them away further if they're already slipping Don't push them away further from the religion Many times Muslims will give advice and we will push somebody away They were already like if the goal is here They're already over here and we the way we give advice pushes them even further like oh my goodness This is the religion that you know, why don't I go and meanwhile then they have all these options people are telling them? Oh, you know, Jesus loves you and he died for your sins and you can be forgiven Even you can do all the wrong in the world, but you're still forgiven and they're like, oh, that sounds like a better I mean, it's it's obviously not true Right, but that sounds like a better deal than these Muslims who are like, oh, you do this you're gonna burn And it's like hold on a second. There is a place for that There's a place there's a very very important place for mentioning The the punishment that exists that Allah's punishment. However His dominant traits that he starts his own book with that he began everything with is the rahman and raheem So why are you starting with the punishment? If Allah himself begins with mercy and if he mentions his mercy more often than he mentions his wrath And if he said a rahman and raheem, he could have balanced it out He could have said the most merciful and the most just Or the most merciful and the avenger and the most the the the the the most merciful and the one swiftened punishment He could have said, you know, I'm gonna go 50 50 with the balance I'm gonna go a little bit more towards mercy, but may I'm also gonna mention this trait He didn't do that though. He said a rahman a raheem and everything he says is with wisdom He doesn't just there's a lot Allah's Allah doesn't just mention something Right and no anthropomorphic way does not just mention without there being some some deep deep secrets and wisdom to it So he mentioned mercy and compassion as his dominant traits Right, so we need to have mercy and compassion be our dominant traits Mercy and compassion do does not mean That we are complacent like oh merciful. So like all the sins are okay by me, right? Or like I see someone doing something wrong. It's all good. I'm merciful Allah's merciful. It's all it's all good That's that's called like, you know, that's just confusion Right mercy though means I care deeply about this person's state in the hereafter And I really am concerned that if someone doesn't say something They're going to suffer and I can't bear to see anybody suffering if you were to see, you know Does anybody here have like a Like a little sibling or a child or like a little cousin like a little baby Right, if you see that little baby Helpless they're helpless you see them doing something. Let's say you see them God forbid walking towards the car or you see them There's like a large, you know, there's a fireplace and you see them walking towards the fireplace What's the first thing that that comes to your mind? You pull them away You pull and why is it that you're pulling them away? Like what is it? What's what's what's in you that's driving you to pull them away? You care about them You've got to pull them from the from the fireplace the people who care about others in society They're just pulling people from the fire. They're like, no, no, no, you can't go there. No, no, no You can't go there. They see them as they're just these are just helpless little children running towards the gnar running towards jahan them I gotta pull them. I gotta help. I gotta help not in like a I'm trying to be right And I'm trying to disprove them and so on and so on and all this debate and all that No, I just got to help everybody that that the desire is like a it's like a motherly instinct It's so deep embedded inside of them. That was the traits of the prophets that they were so they just cared about everybody They're like, I can't see anyone suffering And they cared more about people suffering Eternally, obviously they couldn't bear to see people suffering in this life But they did not want someone to suffer eternally because they actually the prophets a lot of them actually saw He went on the islamiraj. He saw what The the islamiraj is the night journey in heavenly ascension. He saw what The realities of the fire he saw what it is It was like very and of course the Quran Allah describes in the Quran Especially in the 29th and 30th juz It is a ton of mention of how severe the fire is and the punishment is and so we are supposed to be gently Pulling people right and so it's done with a state of compassion ideally It's done done with a state of Of mercy the the the next one is it's done while making dua beforehand for someone You don't start with telling them Something you start with asking Allah to help them Because if you and I think that we are the means of someone's guidance We're something's wrong. Allah tells the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam himself. You cannot guide anybody It is Allah who's going to guide you can try there were people on the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam's own family He tried to guide them. Allah did not will that they would be guided And but and Allah loves the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam more than he loves anybody. He loves him But Allah did not wish for for certain people to be guided and so they were not guided, right Now Allah is going to decide ultimately. So we first ask him we see when the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam He would make a lot of dua He would make a lot of dua when he was doing his dua when he would be making and and even people who harmed him As we mentioned the story of thought if he would still make the offer them because he hoped that some portion of either those people Or the generations that came after them would be guided And so the making dua beforehand is really really important making dua beforehand is really important Ideally, this is done. Number one of our teacher said that 80 percent of dawah of inviting Is making dua for people at the nighttime in the depths of the night And 20 percent is talking to them and discussing things and so on Right, we usually spend 99 percent of the time trying to talk to people And maybe like one percent of the time will make dua and even then we'll be like, oh my Allah guide this person Like we'll be like we won't really deeply sincerely make dua Gotta really invert that if we care and believe me anybody Anybody can become a muslim I'll tell you that the believers did not think that Umar Sayyidina Umar bin al-Khattab, radi Allahu anh would become a muslim He was he was so vehemently rejecting Islam and vehement rejection of Islam. He was completely opposed to it, right? He was Rejecting the muslims in society at that time. They didn't think that he was going to come to Islam But Allah willed differently and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam made dua for him And that dua converted him the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam continued to make dua for Abu Sufyan radi Allahu anh we didn't used to say they didn't used to say radi Allahu anh for Abu Sufyan But he became a muslim well into the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam after they fought For years and years and years they fought and they fought against each other And the dua of the Prophet continued sallallahu alayhi wa sallam because he's still even though he fought them He cared about them He just he was fighting them to get to for the purpose of guidance these were wars of mercy at the end of the day Right and many people then including the great commander Sayyidina Khalid ibn al-Qalid radi Allahu anh and others that they fought against the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam at Bother and at other battles and then they converted and they fought with the companions in the later battles Right and so the dua is very very important don't underestimate the dua It is a means of guidance Then the next principle when you want to encourage good is to do so with sincerity A sincere heart what I mean by sincerity is You really just want goodness for that person. There's no ulterior motive. You're not trying to get like, you know A little little extra something something for them. You're not trying to get them to Give you a promotion. You're not trying to get them to invite you to the house. You're not trying to get them to You give you a gift. You're if there is some person in a position You're not trying really to get anything. You just really sincerely care about them Sincerity is such a deep thing that it's like a sword which pierces anything it goes to It's how powerful sincerity is somebody really Cares and is super sincere It will assist them in all their efforts. And so if you Let's say you have a sibling or a family member Whoever it is and you really are sincerely concerned about them Believe me the sincerity will show when you ultimately decide it's a good time if you decide to advise them It will show They'll know that it's out of sincerity and it's not done out of sincerity and you're just doing it because you're like I want I'm right and it's very you have to be very careful with sincerity because If you're just trying to disprove somebody this happens often in our communities in our messiah Did people just want to just they just want to tell me you're wrong. I'm right again in debates Debating is nothing to do with our religion like debating and arguing. I mean there's a place for civil discourse But Argumentation and so and then there's no room for that in our dean for just for the awam for us normal people That's not our place, right? The Olimah can discuss and debate certain things as they need to but when people who love to debate They don't usually see That that there's not a sincerity and they're concerned for somebody they want to tell someone something Because you know, they're wrong and they're right Right and they want to prove someone or even sometimes I mean, you know for those who have led salat al-tarawee. I'm sure you know and you've seen this right that someone might be trying to correct someone else The the Imam who's leading the prayer And it's just done in like a in a way that there's no adab with it And it's like hold on a sec The Imam knows what they're doing if you really had sincerity for them You would go with the rules that Allah has has and and and Allah the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the Olimah have legislated for how to how to go about correcting somebody But when there's no sincerity, you just want to be like, no, I'm the one who's right I want to show that I have the more knowledge. I have more understanding of Quran and so on People just behave in a very strange way Knowledge can really mess you up really badly If you if the the religion Learning this religion improperly can mess someone up significantly and the proof of that is the hypocrites The hypocrites know a little bit a little bit little bit little bit and then they have they have knowledge They claim to have knowledge But Allah says the hypocrites are in the worst part of the fire the deepest part of the fire Why why is that? Because if you don't have knowledge and wisdom and and sincerity That's the what's the point the sincerity is so important a little bit of sincere doing a few acts with a little bit of Sincerity is much better than doing a ton of acts with no sincerity Right and it's in our time sincerity is a secret. It's really really important to try To have it right And then the next one is When it comes to advising his sweet sweetness of the tongue, it's literally he mentions here sweetness of the tongue Right, what does it mean? Sweetness or as he says a sweetness in the ears meaning the sweetness comes out of the tongue into the ears, right? What does that even mean? That again, it's done in a beautiful way Very beautiful way you try to think of the absolute best way you could give someone advice The absolute purest way the most gentle way In the nicest words possible, even if you show them instead And you advise them in that way that one time that the great Imam Hassan and Imam Hussein or the lawan they Uh, they saw an old man. He was he was elderly um, and he was like Completely messing up his wudu right like his wudu was like all over the place something was off with it Now these are the grandsons of the prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Obviously they have a ton of knowledge It could have gone to him and been like, don't you know the rulings of the wudu? How could you be doing it like this? Don't you have to get water up till here up till here? And then you have to wipe your head this much and so on and so forth. They didn't do that They said they went to the old man and they said Um, I believe that this is the way, you know like oh, oh, oh uncle Okay, could you could you we're actually just trying to like we're kind of competing with each other Of who can make the best wudu Would you mind? Just just watching each of us and then telling us whose wudu is is more beautiful He said, okay. Yeah, sure. So he goes so so one of them begins I don't know if it was Imam Hassan Imam Hussein or the alone But but um, let's say Imam Hussein began and he makes beautiful wudu right and very very I mean imagine what their wudu looked like they learned from the prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam directly Right So it makes a very beautiful wudu right gets all the different areas You need to get is doing all the different du'as of wudu, right and He finishes his wudu and Then Imam Hassan or the law on begins his wudu Also, you know does in a very Beautiful way with all the different etiquettes and the Sunnahs of wudu and the different du'as of wudu and he's not even done and this man is like I believe that the story goes that he was like in his emotional state and he says Look, what the way that you're doing this? I've been doing it wrong this whole time I've been doing it wrong this whole time like thank you so much for teaching me how to do this properly Right, they were so sincere. They and they take look it took them more time also They could have just advised him and been like let's show you real quick Just make sure you do this correctly. They didn't do that. They went through this lab first They took the time to come up with a story And a whole situation and create a whole situation So they could teach somebody Because at the end of the day if you really care about someone and if we're really sincere And we and we want to do things in the way of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam And of course they had learned directly from their grandfather Sallallahu alaihi wasallam that you will go above and beyond to try to help good akhlaq Because you know that makes a lasting impact on that person. Remember one time Helping someone sincerely can make a lasting impact that will change the course of their life Of whether it's that deed or whether it's literally the course of their life Like I can literally think of people who are and some of them were in positions of scholarship and knowledge and others were just Another brother or sister and I can think of the way in which they treated The way in which they treated me it literally had such a lasting impression that I was like Oh, I want to be like this person. I want to be I want to be a better muslim I want to even like practice more like what they practice because this is just so amazing the way that they just treated me And I remember other people who They had a ton of ton of information informational knowledge They practiced the religion in a very very A lot of a lot of quantity of worship and so on but they just didn't they just really messed up the way you felt about yourself And I was like I can't do this like this is too much. This is too strange. This just doesn't feel right Something's off with it, right and we should always ask ourselves like maybe it's me Of course, it's not like we always blame the other person Maybe something's wrong with with with us that we we aren't able to take the advice But there is a way in which someone goes and gives gives that Gives advice and so we should always keep that in mind And we we mentioned compassion and lastly just remember that if you and I act with mercy Allah acts with mercy towards us That have people who have mercy with people on the earth and the one In the heavens will have mercy with us, right as the narration goes Ok, I'm a call or something similar. So we want to really make sure we approach everybody with a state of mercy. Alhamdulillah So that's that's the majority of the the last two points we'll mention is If you think That saying something will make the situation worse It's better to just remain silent It's not an ever we already mentioned it's not everybody's job to enjoy good for medieval There's a group and you have to learn the etiquettes amongst the etiquettes or knowledge And learning the properties of advice of gent doing it with gentleness and with wisdom and with compassion And with dua and with sincerity and with sweetness of tongue and with mercy We learn that and we make sure we apply it in a wise way Then We try and help out right, but if let's say that you think Trying to advise someone will result in more harm than good And you don't advise them you stay you you at that moment Focus on making dua for them and do not advise them and this is the advice of mama haddad Because what ends up happening is that you could results in harm to them to yourself To someone in your family, whatever else it is, right? It won't actually results in a good outcome And this is where discernment is important. I would not advise someone is like really really difficult mental state Or is not present in their state. Maybe they're on some type of intoxicant or drug or something It's not the time to advise them, right because You want to tell them afterwards don't tell someone while they're drunk. Oh, you should stop drinking and good luck They're not going to understand what you're saying, right? Or they'll maybe understand for a little bit and then they'll forget you literally Literally people forget what happened to them when they were drunk if they drink enough They might even black out completely from what they did the day before the night before it all of that's erased Right, let's say or someone is high or whatever else it is You want to make because the or they might lash out, right? They might lash out at somebody What are you who you tell me this that and now you're like, oh Probably shouldn't say anything Then so you want to make sure you do it if if in that situation. It's not good You just feel in your heart. Yeah, this hurts me that this person is is doing this However, I hope that I hope for their guidance And then when it's a good time you advise them and if it's if there's a whole my a whole year might go by where you're like This person Like I've had a situation in my life or I was like this person if I try to say something to them They're gonna literally erupt at me and every time I would try they would erupt And I was like if I do I have my doing this or something wrong or try to come get advice from someone How should I do this? How should I approach them? And then I learned that hold on a second There's a condition that's going on with this person that they they can't even accept any advice right now Like there's advice is not something that's in their vocabulary right And so let's just wait and then you know a year or two years went by and now That's easier to give advice to that person Right or to discuss things that person or get advice from that person or whatever else it is And so we have to really really again put everything into context Everything into context And the final thing is when we see someone caught up in something We never hate the person We hate the sin. It's very important to distinguish between the two what I'm saying what I mean about that is Just because you do sin does not make you a bad person or an evil person, right? That somebody could have been doing a deed, right? Let's say the same example say no He was doing some pretty seriously bad stuff right before his Islam There was some there was some pretty evil things that went on I mean, he would literally at one point they said that they would take They would make an idol in the morning Take it on their trip with them on their journey Bow down to it then they would get they would make it with dates and they'd get hungry and then they'd eat it Right, like just really strange things um And in in acting in a very brutal manner and oppressive manner towards the the women in their life He even right before he he took his shahadah. He hit his sister Radhihal Anhu had already converted to Islam and at that moment remorse came to him, right? Now if everybody were just like let's we all hate him because of these sins How would he have ever come to Islam? The prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam looked pat looked he saw that but he looked at the potential in someone This is the key we have to look at the potential inside of human beings You go out and bow in oakland And there's a lot of things that are happening that you're like what is going on In the society in general ram's talking about because we live here And you have to see the potential in people the sahaba Were in a generation of people that were the before they converted to Islam They were literally some of the worst people that ever walked the face of the earth You you someone got mad at somebody and they'd erupt you know And they erupt and then they'd start fighting like a war would break out They'd bust out their shields I mean their swords right and start fighting each other And curse each other and so on and get their family sounds like sounds like a gang mentality to me Right someone someone says something to somebody else and immediately like what did you say in the boom it starts shooting that that happens in our time today But what happened to this generation when the light of the prophecy of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam came and the guidance of Allah came They were all guided towards immense good Right and They became the best people ever that they became the Quintum khaira omatin ukhrajat al nas you you are the best people ever sent forth to humanity And why they were the best people they enjoyed good and they forbid evil that was the qualifying trade that Allah said to them But what happened in that the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saw the potential and he unlocked each and every person's potential The potential of sain abu bakr was amazing potential different than potential some of the other sahabi They're all amazing right But the potential was seen so you always have to remember That the person you and I are talking to Or that we're discussing things with They have a lot of potential just because they've lived or we've lived 20 years 30 years of our life for how many ever years In a bad state in a tough state in a state of sin Or in a state of major wrong action doesn't mean we don't have potential we have a lot of potential to change We should do this with ourselves first and foremost and then with other people So see that potential one of our teachers mentioned he says people we're just like it's like you're like a you know like a cup of tea And it's like it tastes bitter when you taste it But there's just sugar is just all caught up at the bottom. You just have to mix it He said and that sugar is the sweetness of iman and just has to be mixed You just need someone to come and mix it Right and you might be the person who can come and stir that for them And when you mix it the sweetness begins to come out and they find their potential and you help them You and I inshallah help them unlock that potential. So it's a very very important to To remember to not hate anybody to not to not Feel anger Just be not not anger rather hatred like an intense hatred towards somebody because of something that they're doing No, we should hate what they're doing and And we should know that we've all had states in our life where we've done something we regret Everybody just hated us at that point. Who is going to how are we going to be guided? Right, we should rather If we we we divorce the sin from the person Okay, what this person is caught up in what i'm caught up in is not okay But now I got to make sure I see the potential that they have I separate the two and I look at okay This person likes to do this good thing and this good thing and they actually like to do this bad thing But it means that they probably have potential To be a really really like I remember one time someone I knew Um They sold drugs Back before weed was legal. They would like they would sell they would sell weed and they were really good sales person Like they knew they knew how to make a lot of money doing that. That's all around money And obviously it's not something you should be doing. They're really good at remember one time We were discussing something with somebody and I was like, you know If this if if this person could just apply this trait Of selling to like selling other things This would be amazing right eventually right people guided them and talk to them and slowly got them away from that That part of their life and they they started to To let's say they'll get their footing sell got involved in a job and guess what their career was those sales Right, and then they literally started to like sell the the dean I mean like they would try to they would be really good at dawa of the religion because they knew how to like Talk to people about stuff right and how to kind of quote unquote close a deal And so they would actually become fairly decent at At that part of of talking about the deal But but someone had to see that potential in them and help them unlock it Right versus just writing them off of this person's cursed They're they're they're completely doing look at how much haram they're doing. Yeah, there is a lot of haram There's a lot of bad that they were doing but the bad can Transform we just went through a month which was ideally a month of transformation It should hopefully a month of toba a month of repentance And the repent the doors of repent the final thing we'll say the doors of repentance are always open with Allah So don't close them for anybody If you were going to be in the world of trying to give people advice never close the door shaitan is the one who closes doors His whole job is to close the door. He's like that's the biggest sin. He can get you to commit his despair Allah will never forgive you. Look at you. You're just this you're this sinner. You do this the the the Muslim we never closed the door on anybody We have to keep the door open and we in fact open it more and more for people Oh, it's okay. You can you can you can still turn to Allah You can turn to Allah you can turn to Allah right repentance is there repent is there However with ourselves and this is really really important to not get caught up with ourselves We don't trick ourselves into thinking I can do all the sins I want and then just repent That's not the way we apply to ourselves with ourselves. We're strict. No, no, I can't get caught up in this I can't do this. I can't I gotta make because once I've made toba I gotta make sure to rectify my life But with other people who are struggling we keep the door merciful and we keep the door open and we keep the door We we try to keep it as expansive as possible because Allah keeps it very very wide open And we always want to be knocking on the door of Allah So inshallah, we'll go ahead and end with that if there's any questions just have about five minutes And then we'll go ahead and pray Isha Yeah Yeah, definitely. So the book that we're going through the question was where are we getting the different Principles of of enjoying good and we're reading this book the book of assistance by mama haddad and so he mentions it We're in chapter 22. So he mentions it in that in that chapter. That's also mentioned by mama ghazali and the Hialu Medin Um, I believe it's mentioned by ibn tamia and his principles on enjoying good It's consistent throughout the religion of the ulema in terms of Everybody is aligned on how you go about enjoying good and forbidding evil. Um, we're just usually have to learn how to apply those things Yes Is Good question the question was that What are the levels of terms of requirements of communal obligations and farthi faya and if you go to a place So there's no muslims. Are you required to then establish all the farthi faya? Should you even go to such a place in the first place that would that be considered? wrong and then What what do we mean by community here? Like is it just your family or others right that it? Good question. So I don't know the answer to the first in terms of are you required at that point to establish it It kind of depends on how you define community. Let's say like there's no Juma at all anywhere going on right like you have no access to it nobody can drive anywhere to access it And there's nobody and that's it would be considered. You know, someone has to establish that right then there's no access to Funerals to to pray funerals or to be to any islamic burial rites right like people have no way to everybody's cremating They're dead right and there's nobody who was who was properly doing things islamically You and you have no way to access those things So yeah, I need to look into would you be like individually required to To figure out to implement all those things. I don't know the answers Let me look into that inshallah and get back to you in terms of If you can Allah says in the Quran if you can't practice your religion In a certain place like meaning it's very difficult for you to practice it. You should leave that place So it's like you go to an area where it's very difficult to practice There's nothing there's nothing set up for you to practice and you're not the person who's going to go and do all the setup In order to to practice unless it's like a complete remote area, right? Like you're in the mountains and you're just kind of trying to be a aesthetic or something like that But other than that It would not be advised Usually to go to that type of area because it would be very difficult to raise muslims to raise a muslim family To properly practice your islam. There's going to be no halal meat Like you would be you would struggle to implement the religion But if it's possible for you yours you have your own food And you have your own way in order to you know, you have enough muslims in which you can you know establish the far the faraid in that area You know, it would be fine, but I I wouldn't advise it from like a Raising a community raising children perspective if that makes sense Yeah, but for the first one, let me look into that and then get back to you It gets very very nuanced because there's some situations in which like For certain people if you're in an area where there's absolutely no muslims and there's no And you've literally like you're in the mountains and whatnot The rulings in slatojumma may differ than let's say someone who's in an area where there are muslims and there are massages Yeah So sorry, it's not a full answer about looking to it. Inshallah Anybody have any other That is like Stopping something that muslims think is immoral, right? But we know that the state is going to use like the violence To like tear people away from their families If people like violate that law and do that immoral action so like Because how do we weigh out the like cost Like yes, the thing that the laws pass is like In line with Islam technically, right? But like we know that the state is not going to use like these like in general and like Islam relates to like guide people towards doing right or using like punitive and like Mm-hmm Yeah Yeah, okay Yeah, okay So the question was that if we when we're talking about enjoying good and forbidding evil and like ideally speaking out against something or Feeling or trying to stop it with our hands or feeling wrong about it in our hearts How do we balance that when it comes to let's say laws or measures and whatnot that are passed where Outwardly it might look like it's in line with our principles But the way it will probably be implemented will be against the teachings of the religion Yeah, and drive people away. No, it's a it's a good question So it's not like black and white like there's no one answer because it's so nuanced, right? Like it's very difficult in our society to try to understand. Okay How would this work? Like you might have a law which says it will reduce crime, but then it actually ends up making Turning a bunch of people into criminals who are not actually criminals, right? Which has happened many times happened in the 90s with certain types of laws that were passed That were specifically targeted. Let's say at the african-american community Right where they tried to criminalize things that community was doing but it was okay for you know White collar crimes to be committed. Let's say so it's it's it's difficult to know what the consequences of something are going to be What you would do in that situation is And a lot knows best but what I've what I've generally heard is you first try to weigh what the pros and cons are going to be And you have to have some like solid indication That you've really fear what is is going to actually take place if it's just like a hypothesis that like oh The law itself is just but I have an inkling in my heart that maybe they're going to mess it up in its implementation It's probably not strong enough to to warrant Kind of completely neglecting supporting that law, let's say, but if there's like a pretty strong indication You have experience in the past, right or Justice civil rights groups and so on are saying hold on a sec. There's an issue here You go to your local group. I would go to care. Let's say they usually have Positions or informal positions on these types of laws and be like hold on a second Is this really in line with what our religion is saying or something up with it? Let's say from a civil rights or social justice perspective and their advice and the advice of the scholars of that That region and so on is like hold on a second. No, you should probably stay away from this Or you should probably Speak out against it even though it might look good. It's like a sheep in wolf's clothing type of thing Then you you take that advice right because it's you don't not like the legislatures in our countries are acting with With good with good will and good intentions all the time We know that there's a lot of evil intentional and not however the same that the it does apply in a situation where If there's a law that's in for sure going to bring about more corruption in society and it's in violation of the principles of our religion it And and and we know that if this if this law is passed It's going to encourage more corruption more facade and more sin in that society We should not be supporting Right supporting the law and this happens in the last like 20 30 years Many many many situations where muslims we are supporting things we shouldn't be supporting I should rather we should be silent or we should be speaking out against them Right, but if you know like in the situation you just mentioned it will cause more harm than good Then it's just the sheep in wolf's clothing and you just have to do what would be Islamically justified and what the advice of the You know knowledgeable people In that area that field specifically would be right the people who studied law people who study Law enforcement study incarceration who are involved in the work of social justice and so on and and of course the people who have an understanding of the knowledge Yeah Does that kind of make sense? Yeah Yeah Yeah, yeah, no, I see I Yeah, I know I see what you're saying. Yeah, I see what you're saying. I think I think that's a um It's a difficult It's a very difficult situation when we're living in america and we're trying to deal with the justice or lack of justice system that exists Yeah, yeah, so there it's not like a it wouldn't be like a black and white It requires a lot of thinking a lot of praying a lot of me gets the heart of someone's involved in that type of work Okay, inshallah. Well, I think there's any other questions Okay, there's just one question. I think that came in um online If someone doesn't appreciate Uh with regards to clothing about wearing a job and that person is from family how to react so I don't exactly know if I understand the question but um If the question is that you are concerned about someone and the way that they are dressing But that they're not necessarily taking uh advice first like it's You wouldn't want to make a lot of the ah for You know rectifying the situation in the way that um In the way that you're trying to guide them and then the second thing that you would want to do Is you want to weigh that against everything else that person is doing right? So like sometimes we think everything is about clothing Especially with our sisters There's a lot of other stuff to worry about before you worry about that right, especially in the society that we live in right So you want to make sure the moral morality is rectified inwardly and outwardly And then you want to encourage them slowly towards doing that type of good but if you only make their religious practice about Let's say in this case about hijab and you don't talk about anything else It will be very very difficult to ultimately guide them To you know to the to the to the direction you're trying to guide them And so you have to approach it in a balanced way make dua and discuss follow the principles of what we just laid out in the class To discuss and deal with them with the gentleness and mercy inshallah I think those are all the questions What about inna inna kanta towab al raheem? Ya Allah Ya Rahman Ya Raheem Ya Tawal Ya Allah please Ya Allah forgive us Ya Allah pardon us Ya Allah accept our Ramadan Ya Allah accept our fasting from us Ya Allah accept any of the prayers we attempted to do in the Quran We attempted to recite and pardon any mistakes that we made and allow us to get closer to you Ya Rabb al-Alamin protect us from the sheyatine that are out after this month of Ramadan And protect us from their wasb asa and protect us from their attempts to induce us towards evil Ya Rabb al-Alamin we ask you for everything good the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asked for And we ask you protection from everything evil that he asked protection from We'll go ahead and pray Isha if somebody could just call the adhan