 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, Alhamdulillahirrahim. Alhamdulillahirrahim. Alhamdulillahirrahim. Alhamdulillahirrahim. Al-Halidi wa sahbihi. So we are talking about deceptive desires. So we're just gonna continue this discussion, inshallah. And today we're just reviewing this framework that we've set out for deceptive desires and talk a little bit more about what the desires are that human being has. And then from there, inshallah, we are going to go over a specific desire in each class. So what we've been doing is on Wednesday nights, inshallah, we're doing a class once a week, 7 p.m. just for about 20 or 30 minutes or so. We're gonna be covering different desires that you and I have. So today's topic we'll be focusing on this kind of framework of desire. And then we'll be talking specifically about the desire for food and what impact that has on our, on our self and on our spirituality. Cool, all right, Bismillah. So let's go ahead and dive in. As we've been chatting about, we live in a world where everybody is really obeying their desires. And God says in the Quran that you and I can be slaves to him or we can be slaves to our desires. We can take our desires as our Lord. We don't wanna be that type of person. That's not the type of life that we wanna live where something material is controlling us or some carnal lust is controlling us. No, we want God to control us. We want to submit to God. That's really the type of approach that we wanna have to our life. So Allah says in the Quran that whoever restrains their desire is going to be able to enter paradise. So that is one of the ways to enter paradise is if somebody is able to restrain their desire and they're able to restrain and control themselves. So it's like right when you're about to do something haram or something that you shouldn't do, right when you're about to look at someone you shouldn't look at, right when you're about to eat something you shouldn't eat, right when you're about to drink something you shouldn't drink, you control yourself. And that is at the essence of this religion is it's all about self-control. It's all about self-discipline. It's all about trying to find ways in order to calm your nuffs down which is the ego that you and I have and then find ways to grow our spirit. That there's a constant war inside of us between what's called our nuffs which is our lower self and our spirit which is the spiritual self. It is trying to help us ascend. The spirit is trying to help you ascend to higher places. The nuffs is trying to pull you down to lower places. It's your job, it's your task rather. It's your goal to control the lower part and to tame the nuffs and then to focus your energies on cultivating the spirit. That's what spirituality is about. Spirituality is the idea of achieving a station, achieving a nearness to God by cultivating your spirit. Let's talk a little bit about how to do that and let's talk a little bit about how desires play into this. So first of all, we all have desires. Desires are not a bad thing as we've been chatting about. It's normal to have a sexual desire. You and I are gonna be attracted to people. That's normal. We are going to have desire to eat. If we didn't, we would starve. We're gonna want to eat. We're gonna want to eat good things. It's all normal things. We're gonna want to have a desire to earn some money so we can have a home. We're gonna want to have desire to have clean clothes. All those things are there. It's when those desires get out of control that problems start happening. So it's when you and I start to obey our sexual desire, let's say to the point that we start doing things we shouldn't be doing. We started scrolling on Tinder and swiping all the time and trying to just release that desire. Or we start to engage in watching pornography, right? Or somebody is channeling that desire in by having illicit relationships or someone starts to have an affair or somebody starts to have any other type of relationship that we know we shouldn't be in. That's when that desire becomes problematic. But the human being who controls that desire is going to be rewarded significantly, right? And that's in this life and the next. Nobody likes somebody who can't control themselves. And you see how ruined human beings are who can't control themselves. Even the last president of the United States that we've mentioned before. I mean, literally all throughout his life, no ability to control himself, like not, right? And then to the point where when he was younger, he was engaged in a variety of different affairs, sexual assault, rape cases against him. And then it became about the desire for money and he got that and then the desire for fame and he got that and then for followers. And then from there it keeps going, now you want power. Okay, I wanna be the president. Now I'm not gonna let go of the power. I'm gonna stage a coup. These are all because the inner self is not tamed. When the inner self becomes tamed, then inshallah, you and I are able to achieve the levels of success because you walk around and you're like, dude, I'm not gonna submit to that thing you're submitting to. It gives you almost a type of freedom. It's a really beautiful thing that when you are not a slave to a desire, you have freedom. When you are slaves to a desire, you do not have freedom. So those are the obvious desires. Then we've mentioned subtle desires and what are subtle desires? These are desires that are, as you get closer and closer to God, as you get closer and closer in spirituality, your subtle things start to pop up and you have to be on guard for these as well. These are desires like wanting people to notice you. Oh, I'm worshiping someone watching me. Oh, I am reading extra prayers. Is someone gonna notice? Oh, I'm gonna post this comment. I'm gonna post this video. Is somebody going to take notice of what I'm doing? It's this idea of validation from other human beings for your religious actions. It's called ostentation. Or in the hadith where the prophet's son said, it's called the riyat in Arabic. The word is a riyat. It's called this kind of bragging ostentation. Or it's just like being full of yourself. Oh, you think you were all that, right? And all of us have met people. We've all met people, unfortunately, and we might have been there ourselves where it's like this type of judgment because somebody says they're more religious than you and so they make you feel like, I know what I'm doing and you don't know anything. And that's as a result of that, I'm better than you. Well, in the Quran, the one who says I'm better than you is Satan. Shaitan says, I am better than Adam. I'm better than Adam, alaihi salam, because, and he has a faulty reasoning, of course. He thinks because he's great for fire and Adam's greater from clay, alaihi salam, that that's why he's better. But that's what religious people can also become arrogant. And that is a very, very big problem because that's called a subtle desire. It's you using your religion to become arrogant. And when that arrogance starts to enter into yourself, that desire becomes difficult to control because now you're impressed with yourself. And then you'll see people start to fall. This happens all the time, you know, really, really famous people who gain fame through religion. And we see this a lot. I was reading about like different creatures or these mega churches and whatnot that, you know, for whatever reason, these people gain a lot of fame. And then they think that they're all that. And then they get caught up in affairs. They get caught up in scandals, caught up in all these other things. It's because their desires were never controlled. They just shifted the desire from a basic desire that you and I might have to a more unique, subtle desire that somebody who's on a specific path might start to have. So that is something to be on guard for. Now, the goal is not to eliminate desire. Again, we need our desire to live in order to function. The goal is to channel our desire in the right direction. That's our goal. So what does that mean? It means that what is the right direction? There is a way for you and me to take our desires and to rather than fall for material things, it's to have spiritual desires, high aspiration. So we wanna channel these desires to three areas. To loving God, first and foremost, we wanna have love of knowledge. Number two, love of knowledge and wisdom. And number three, we want actually enjoy worship. These are again, high aspiration. Now you're probably thinking like, how am I supposed to get here? I'm the same way. I'm like, this is really hard. This is what the scholars mentioned. What's kind of mentioned is the higher stations. And so we know the goal. Yeah, that's gold medal. That's the first place. Okay, now how am I gonna get there? It's slow and steady process to get there. But if you make the intention, the door opens. That one of the great saints of our religion said, and with one intention, if you make it sincerely, 70 doors, 70 doors of Tophik, meaning divine assistance and blessings and guidance open for you if you make that sincere intention. So right now, one thing all of us should do, make an intention, especially because we're in a blessed month of Rajab and because Ramadhan is right around the corner, we got two months before, yeah, about two months or so. Make an intention that I wanna change this. This is the year I wanna change. We all know in life when we've had major changes and the intention is the first thing that comes when you and I wanna change. So have that high aspiration, that high himma it's called, the high goal, right? And then start working towards the goal. So there's a general method for controlling desires and then there's specific methods for each desires. The general method is that you and I have to bring every part of us into, you and I have to bring rather than every part of us, we have to bring certain faculties that are inside of us into an equilibrium. What does that mean? That means that like, let's say, this works for all character traits, by the way. Let's say somebody is like super cheap. Like someone's like super cheap. They're just, they're known as being stingy. For them, in order for them to become moderate in their spending, they need to go to the extreme of generosity. This is what the scholars prescribe. Go to the extreme of generosity. Always be the one to pay, always be the one to donate, always be the one to give upfront, right? And then they will go from this place and they force themselves to go here. They'll end up in the middle. That's called equilibrium. So in Ramadan, we have a whole month of fasting, not because God wants us to be hungry all of the time. Like we don't have to fast 12 months out of the year, but it's because 11 months out of the year, most of us are in this category. We're always eating. We're always engaging desires. We're always caught up in something or another. He says, yo, for one month, stop all that stuff, at least during the daytime to stop all that stuff. And then you will be calibrated because you would think logically, God would say six months you do this, six months you do this, but God says in Ramadan that like the blessings are multiplied by 10, 50, 100 times, 1,000 times depending on God's generosity, right? And his generosity is limitless. One of his names is Al-Kharim, the generous. That in Ramadan, that generosity is so amplified that whatever we do, it's one month, but God helps us bring us into an equal degree, right? In that one month. And then we leave Ramadan emerging from the month of Ramadan. Hopefully like, okay, I'm feeling better. I'm feeling more balanced. And then we got to start that kind of struggle again. So desires have to be conquered, but it's a slow process, right? And by the way, as you, as anybody has questions, whether you're just post them in the comments and inshallah we will, or in the chat or whatever it is, and we'll try to get to them at the end, inshallah. We would love for this to be a discussion as well. So that is the goal from the equilibrium perspective. Now the general kind of over-the-counter remedy for this is first you have to learn, knowledge is a medicine and knowledge is a light. So first we have to learn. Second, you have to put in the struggle, okay? I got to put in the work. You're just like, when you want to go to work out, you got to like lift, you got to put in the hard work, you got to run, you got to train. Same thing with spirituality. In order to grow, in order to gain in control of desires, you've got to put in the work. So you put in the work, right? Learn the knowledge, you put in the work, but the most important thing is you beg Allah to help you, because you and I are not about to do this alone. I mean, this world is full of craziness. There's too much going on. It's not easy. We can't do this by ourselves. So we ask Allah, yeah Allah, I'm really struggling with this thing. Like I cannot for the life of me control myself in this, in this situation or that situation. If somebody's struggling with smoking or drinking or partying or in illicit relationships or with, you know, on another side, like someone is trying to do good deeds, but it's struggling with people noticing them and wanting to be noticed and wanting to be praised. You just turn it to Allah, you turn the affair over to him and you say, yeah Allah, I'm trying my best, but I need you to help me. Because Allah says in the Quran, those who strive in our ways, surely we shall guide them. You and I just have to try, remember that. This religion is not about getting an A plus, it's not. Sometimes we think that we got to be perfect. You weren't, we weren't created to be perfect. Allah says in the Quran, that we created mankind weak. He's created us weak. We're weak, we got to sleep. We got to eat, we got to use the restroom. We're weak people, we get tired. We can't lift like an insane amount of things at the same, right, at one time. There's, we're weak in so many ways. We're weak with our knowledge, we're weak with our abilities, but in our weakness is our strength. Because when you show weakness before Allah, Allah assists you with his strength. And then he gives you the ability to succeed in ways you never knew. But when you rely on yourself, well, we're weak, so how can you rely on something weak? When you have Allah, who is the Al-Qawiyyul Matin, who is the strong and the mighty one, right? He can assist you. So when you and I are focused on our desires, or not focused on desires, focused on trying to control our desires, remember, it's about knowledge, the general kind of over-the-counter remedy that's given by the scholars and by the prophets on. Learn the knowledge, it's the light. Put it into practice, spiritual struggle, and then rely on Allah. Beg Allah, Allah help me. Whatever it is you can do, and never let anybody, I don't care who they are, don't let anybody ever close the door on you. If some religious person or a family member, or even a parent has closed the door and says, you're never gonna change, you're never gonna be fixed, you're never gonna do this, you've just done too much bad, just ignore them, and remember your relationship with Allah is unique. Allah forgives whoever he wants. He forgives whoever he wants. There's so many stories in the hadith that at one time there was a prostitute, a prostitute, and she was, she went to super thirsty, and so there was a well, and you know, back in the days they had wells. Until then now we have like access to running water, you know, like give water, all those people in the world who don't have access to clean water. So she went down to the well to super thirsty, and she used some way to get water, so there was no bucket, so she just kind of used her hand, right? And then she came back up and she saw there was a dog who was super thirsty just like her. So she's like, yo, this dog is thirsty, I need water, I should figure out a way to get this dog some water. So she takes her shoe, and she goes back into the well, and she brings water in the shoe, and gives it to the dog, and the dog punches his thirst. And Allah forgives, the prophet said in hadith, sound hadith, Allah forgave her for that action. He forgave all the sins that she did again, as a prostitute, right, who was committed, you know, for mischievous sexual actions we shouldn't be doing. And, but she had a certain softness in her heart, which led her to do this good deed, and Allah forgave her for that. So you and I, like Allah's mercy is limitless, it's not an excuse for us to do whatever we want, and be like, yeah, I'll forgive you, that's another extreme, but what it is, is it's a way for us to remember that our Lord is forgiving, and don't let someone constrict Islam into this like narrow view of you gotta do one, two, and three, and then you get into heaven, and if you do A, B, and C, you're going to hell, and other, and that's it, and their interpretation of religion is the only interpretation now. Religion is vast, there's room for everybody, there's room for us in our mistakes, and there's room for us always to turn back to Allah, to begin that process now, inshallah. So that's the overall method. So let's talk specifically about this desire now for food. And why am I talking about the desire for food? But we live in a time when the country, that especially in the West, food is like everywhere, right? So we have buffets, you have immediate, you have apps that you can just order food on, there's always snacks in our pantries, we're just always eating. Now, what does food have to do with desire? It's interesting. So food is actually known as the mother desire. It's literally the chief desire, and I didn't know this at all until I started reading about it, how important controlling the stomach is to controlling the rest of your body. So think about it like this. You and I have a muscle, an internal spiritual muscle called discipline. That spiritual muscle is primarily governed by what we eat and how much we eat. So if we eat a lot, then it's gonna be covered in a certain way. If we don't eat a lot, then, or if we eat a lot and if we eat to excess, then that muscle won't grow. If we reduce our food intake and we fast and we control ourselves, then that muscle begins to build itself, the muscle of discipline. So food is this kind of mother desires that we don't have to, we have to control it. Which is why Ramadan is so important in life, the Prophet ﷺ fasted in Ramadan and many times outside of Ramadan. I mean, it was so important because he taught us that patience is half a faith in hadith. And he said fasting is half of patience. So if you have faith, patience is one half, fasting is one half of that. So you can say fasting is like a fourth of faith in this hadith. And then we know the five pillars of Islam, fasting is one of the five pillars, right? So we know how important it is. So food control is important. But this is not just food control with regards to fasting from pre-dawn until sunset like in Ramadan. That's not what we're talking about only. Talking about food control in all the situations, right? So when you and I have a full stomach, this is what scholars mentioned. When you and I have a full stomach, we start to get more energy and we start to have the desire to do more things. Now it sounds kind of weird because most of us are always, right? But think about the times when you've been hungry and the weakness that you feel and the overall lack of desire to sin that you feel, right? Ain't nobody bad to be hungry, sitting there hungry and thirsty and then gonna be like, oh, let me swipe right here and let me do this. That's not gonna happen, right? Or like, oh, let me go and smoke some weed because I'm really hungry. That's just gonna make you more hungry and give you the munchies. So that's not gonna work, right? So usually when you're hungry, there's a lot of humility that forms. And remember, this is a spiritual alchemy. So alchemy is the process of transforming lead into gold that used to be done back in the day by like proper alchemists. Now, spiritual alchemy is an internal process of transforming yourself, transforming yourself in an amazing way from the weak state that we're in right now to a more developed state. Food controlling what we eat is one of the best ways to do that, right? Because this internal humility starts to form and the desires are then tamed in other ways. So the food is the chief desire and then the next desire that follows that which we'll be talking about later, inshallah, probably next week is sexual desire. So immediately, right? The desire that governs our not ability to lower gaze or all watching things we shouldn't be watching or watching pornography, whether it's clear pornography or soft pornography or watching or just engaging in illicit sexual relations. We're living in a culture where like marriage is not really a priority anymore. Everybody's just hooking up with each other. It's people are having sex at younger and younger ages and like we gotta talk about this stuff. I mean, these are things that are happening. So we shouldn't shy away from having the discussions of what's actually happening and what's relevant in our society. Because we know, we struggle and we know we've got to control these things. So food is this mother desire though that's something to be controlled. What does overeating do? It brings a level of, so this is like from a scientific and a spiritual perspective. It's mentioned that it makes somebody lazy. It clogs the mind, it impairs thinking and then it makes your desire stronger and from a spiritual perspective. So you get more desire to wanna do more things. So discipline is this muscle that's built and hunger is the medicine that allows you to build this muscle of discipline. Secret, if somebody has discipline, you're gonna be very successful in your life, inshallah. There's no matter what you're doing, human beings who are disciplined, who have routines, who are able to control themselves, who are able to control their impulses. There's a different level of success that they're able to achieve. I'm talking about in this life, not even getting to the next life. Allah says in the next life that those who are able to control their desires, inshallah, will achieve a state of jannah. So that's where discipline becomes so critical and so important and the desire to control our food intake is so linked to that. So what is this medicine of hunger and control of the food? So when you and I lose our discipline, when we lose our, when we start overeating, we start to lose our discipline and then we start to fall into all these other sorts of things. Let's talk a little bit about what the benefits are. There's a hadith where the Prophet's son said that the devil courses through the blood in the children of Adam and you and I should limit the devil coursing through our blood, like kind of running through our blood with hunger and thirst. And a pair of phrases in the hadith Prophet's son indicated that type of meaning. And he also said in the hadith, hadith is a statement of the Prophet's son that we use as kind of an authentic religious teaching to help guide us. Where the Prophet's son said that the son of Adam fills no container worse than their belly and a few small mouthfuls of food should suffice them. But if he or she can't stick to that and they should have one third for food, one third of their stomach for food, one third for water and one third for breath. So room to just breathe and do thicker and just kind of be able to exhale and inhale. In our society, it's like three thirds for food, one third for water, one third for juice, one third for something else, like until you have two or three stomachs, right? So remember, the devil is coursing through your blood. Prophet's son said, this is some spiritual knowledge he's teaching us. You limit the devil with hunger and thirst. You say, no, I'm not gonna let you run me. You're not gonna let you control me. I'm gonna just cut you off. I'm not gonna let you be inside of me all the time and limit you with just restraining my food intake. It doesn't mean you go to extremes in your anorexic or that you, you know, that's a different type of topic. It doesn't mean you go to extreme and you stop eating. No, but you limit, you stop a couple bites short. You limit that. So what are some of the benefits of hunger that the scholars mentioned? These are mentioned by some of the greatest scholars in the history of our religion, spiritual masters is what they're called. It says the benefits of hunger among them are first, that hunger purifies the heart and it illuminates the soul. Second is hunger sharpens your insight, right? And so this desire, the ability to control desires comes when your intellect is working. You and I all know the opposite of this. So we said hunger purifies the heart and sharpens your mind. The opposite of this is when you are not, when you're overeat, we all know the word food coma. We've all gotten into the coma before most likely. And when we just overeat, you're just like, oh, I'm so full. And then you just want to like do all these other things, right? Because the fullness now leads to a route for as we indicated, as they had been indicated for Shaitan to have more control over us. The second thing is it does is it brings a softness and a purity to the heart and it allows the heart to be more impacted, more impacted, right? So you want your heart to be soft, right? Have you ever met people who like, they cry easily? Like something just small that they see or that they watch and they start crying and they start weeping. That's an amazing thing. We should not take light of that. That crying and soft easily coming to tears means the heart is soft. The Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, our messenger, our master, our leader, Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, may Allah bless him, preserve him, increase him, send salutations upon him that he had a very soft heart. He would regularly be weeping, regularly be crying. There is no idea of like men not crying. No, men should cry, women should cry. Crying is very, very important, very important. But the softness that an individual has and sometimes we feel bad about it. Oh my God, every little thing makes me cry. That's not a bad thing. No, it means your heart is soft. And when the heart is soft, it's impacted more seriously. So you want your heart to be able to get impacted. That's what you want, right? So when somebody gives you a reminder or when you hear something or when you are just reflecting or when you're praying or when you're just about to do something bad, the softness kicks in. And it's like, no, you're not gonna do that because softness and purity are linked. You want your heart to be pure. It's one of the goals of this life. Allah says in the Quran, It's successful is the one who purifies themself and destroyed is the one who isn't. Purifying yourself is about controlling your desires and beginning this journey, meaning the inner self. That is what we are trying to accomplish, inshallah. And food is a very, very important aspect of that. So let's, you know, we're gonna try to just kind of wrap this up and summarize a little bit. And again, if anybody has any questions, please post them in the comments. I don't think I see anything. No, let me see. Yeah, I don't think I see any questions. Cool. So let's talk a little bit about the... It's different. Yes, I'll mention that in a second, inshallah. So let's talk a little bit about what some of this, how do we practically implement some of this? So we first just have to decrease when it comes to the desire for food, right? When we know number one, that it's linked to everything else that we're doing. And number two, we know that it is linked to increasing our other desires. What we have to do is decrease number one, just the amount that we eat, that we eat, just little by little, just even one bite can go along with just a little bit. And number two, we decrease how often we're eating. So let's say that like we eat five times a day, bunch of snacks. We just slowly reduce it to like four times a day. And then you get to a healthy medium of three times a day, right? And let's say you're eating like this big of a portion size, you just reduce it slightly, just by a couple bites. And then a little bit more, don't just throw out a whole meal or something like that. No, no, no, just slightly, right? And then, and then from there, you have to decrease the quality, like taste of the food. So you don't always give your nuffs. The nuffs is the lower self. And it thrives off of, the nuffs thrives off of, fulfilling it's desire. It loves delicious things. I want a cake, I want cookies, I want brownies, I want this, I want chips, I want fries. You know, my nuffs loves fries, for example, right? So you and I have to give it, okay? If it does, if it listens, you give it good things, but you have to treat the nuffs like an animal. That, okay, if it doesn't give, behave, you have to, you're not gonna get this thing that you wanted today. That's gonna start to result in spiritual cultivation. That is going to result in a successful cultivation of purity inside of you, and a successful taming of the desires. So then there's then, that's the tips for reducing the desire. And then there's channeling the desire in the right direction. How do we do that? All these desires are meant to be, God created them in us, right? So it's not a bad thing that we obviously, we're gonna eat. We wanna do all these things. The first thing is, okay, we try to eat cleanly, number one. And number two, by clean here, I mean eat halal as well. So if we aren't eating halal food, okay, we slowly work our way towards that. We try to aspire, I'm gonna try to eat halal meat. I'm gonna try to eat some fish, even if I'm not able to do it all the time. Try to eat halal meat because there's a spiritual secret and a spiritual benefit in halal meat that only the person who eats it will be able to feel that benefit. And it comes in a narration that person who eats halal for 40 days is able to achieve a state of light inside. So it's okay if we're not doing it, but we just slowly work on that, right? And a more kind of haram that we limit, not in like a way that we are so negative on ourselves that we feel like we wanted to get despair or quit, but the more that we limit and the more that we start to add good things, the more we're gonna be able to progress spiritually and more we're gonna be able to take these things. The second aspect is for us to eat cleanly, eat clean and pure food. These days a lot of the food is manufactured, a lot of it has MSGs, a lot of it has, it's been, food has been raised in very, very problematic ways. And so we just have to also try to eat in a clean way. And the more you and I can eat in a clean way, the more pure we are going to be able to become because what you are, what you eat, we've heard that saying, right? So if you're eating some like animal that has had all this anxiety and all these other types of things that have manifested because of the way some corporate farm is treating that animal, it will manifest inside of you, no doubt it will. And we ask Allah protect us, but that type of stuff is real. So eating halal ideally, then eating cleanly. And then the third thing is just kind of stopping before we're full. Stop a couple of bites short. This will start to impact our other desires in the right way. And now some of us might be thinking like, dude, talking about food over here, I am struggling with all these big things and you're talking about food, I'm struggling with drinking, I'm struggling with smoking, I'm struggling with partying and stuff. All this is a framework, keep that in mind. So anything, this will work for any desire. Whatever you and I are following or struggling with, we just simply reduce that. So we three methods, you decrease the amount, you decrease how often you do it, the cadence, the frequency, and you decrease the overall, like you could say deliciousness of it when for the food instance, or you could say the, what's the right word, the overall pleasure it gives you. Does that make sense? So if somebody is watching something that shouldn't be watching, they should reduce the amount, they should reduce the quality of that and they should reduce how often they're doing it. These types of things are going to give us the inner cultivation that we need and it's gonna help us tame our desires in the right way. And so if we do that, insha'Allah, we will start to feel, we'll start to feel closer to God, we'll start to feel this type of spirituality manifesting inside. And we live in a world where there's too much focus on the outward and not enough focus on the inward. Remember this, Islam is an inward path. The outer rules are like, if I take this water bottle, the outer rules are just the like, shell and the casing of the water bottle. You've got to follow the outer rules. We know that, we struggle with them, but we've got to follow them. But the goal is to get to what's inside, which in this case, you're not until I'm thirsty. This case is water, right? You want to get what's inside. The inside of it is the spirituality. And so there's so many people that are focused on this and that, that they just make this black and white difficult thing that constricts you because they have never tasted the sweetness of what's inside. You and I have to have the outer framework and then be able to arrive at what's inside. If we do that, Allah inshallah will not let us down. He will give us success because he says that if you strive in his way, he will guide you. And there's hadith which indicates if you come to him, hand span, he comes to an arms span. If you come to him walking, he comes to you running. You and I just have to take the first step. So let's make that intention right now inshallah today that we're going to take that step. We're going to work on taming our desires, on channeling our desires in the right direction, on trying to control ourself, on not being like every single other person in this world who broadly speaking is just caught up and is a slave for our desires. Let's be slaves of God and not slaves of anybody else and certainly not slaves of our own nafus, of our own lower selves and of our egos. Let's try to submit to him and he will help us inshallah, not only in this life, and inshallah he will help us in this life, but also in the next life. We pray that Allah give everybody Taufiq and success and tasir and easiness in this path. And now we'll go ahead and, you know, field any questions or comments that are posted. So I'm seeing here, inshallah somebody asks, salamu alaykum, how often should one cry? Should one make oneself cry to soften the heart? I cried out, okay, how does one, okay, got it. So there's not like a prescribed amount that one should force themselves. I think it's when one, when you are feeling overpowered by emotions or by crying that you should release that. You should not control it. It can actually result in internal emotional blockages when somebody doesn't release the emotions that they're feeling. I'm sure some of us have seen this movie Inside Out, a Pixar movie, which kind of shows this in a very, very nicely crafted way, right? That what happens when you and I don't allow ourselves to express our emotions. But the second thing is if we are able to, we should try to just, it's like the watering of the heart. Crying waters the spiritual heart with the heart doesn't get water. It's not going to flourish spiritually. So you have to engage in moments where you just feel like humbled before God and just saying, I'm sorry for this or I'm scared of this or I love you for this. And so these types of things will inculcate a type of softness and the crying should come from that. So hopefully that's helpful. And then somebody says, how does one reduce the anxiety about the afterlife, e.g. death? So good question. I would say that, I'm almost out of my mind. It's not a bad thing to be worried about death. Like that's not a bad thing at all. The believer should regularly remember death. Like we're going to die. We're going to go in a grave. I'm going to be like, it's a very, very real thing. In today's society, they try to hide death from us. They try to just completely not talk about it. It's like we are subject. And in Muslim society, it's not supposed to be like that, right? Like, you know, there's certain time we shouldn't speak about death. When somebody eating and whatnot. But otherwise it's something that like should be discussed and it should be thought of because it can immediately, I mean, I don't remember when I, when I really tried to like change in my life was when a couple of people really close to me and back in college, just they started dying. And I was like, dang man, death can come at any moment. I better wake up, better stop some of this stuff, right? So that anxiety actually in that case helped, but it shouldn't be an overwhelming anxiety. What it should be, it should be balanced. So the way to do that is to actually be, okay, like I'm looking, because when you die, that's when you can meet Allah. And Allah says that Allah loves the one who loves to meet him, right? Allah loves to meet the one who loves to meet him. And I'm paraphrasing here, but that will be the moment that you can kind of be released from the pains of this world. So it shouldn't be a negative thing. We should feel like death is going to be positive and positively beneficial for us. So hopefully that makes sense with this question about how does one reduce the anxiety about it? And the anxiety should not become overwhelming, should be balanced. And we should remember that it will be positive, hopefully that the one who lives their life in a good way, we should pray for a good ending. And we should hope and pray that it will be a positive experience for us, inshallah. So hopefully that helps. Let's see if there are any other questions. No questions? If anybody has questions, just please post them in the Q&A or in the chat. Okay, somebody asked a question here. How does one help someone who is having a crisis in faith? Okay, so this is a very good question. How do you help somebody who's having a crisis in faith? Bismillah. First and foremost, do not overwhelm them and try to convince them of all the intellectual reasons to come back to the religion. That's not the way to do it. You don't wanna overwhelm any human being. What you do when somebody's having a crisis with their faith is, first, you gotta try to pray for them. Like sincerely, if you really care about them, sincere levels of prayer, ideally in the middle of the night at the Hajj at time, if possible, at the time right before Fajr, if possible. That's the first thing, especially if it's a loved one or somebody you really care about, that's very important. Second is try to understand why they're having a crisis. Just talk to them. Ask questions. Don't give them a lecture. Ask questions. What's going on? What is it that's leading to this crisis? What is it that's leading to this issue? So try to understand a little bit more of the details. And then the third thing is, give them, okay, you know, this is what helped me in this situation. This is what helped me in that situation. Don't make it a, what's the right word? Don't make it about you, but also don't make it like such a bad thing that, oh my God, they're having this crisis and like what are they gonna do? They're gonna leave Islam. Ultimately, guidance is in Allah's hands. You have to keep that in mind. That's where the dua helps. But if somebody is having a crisis in their faith, which is the question. First, pray for them. Second, try and ask them a lot of questions. And third, give them examples of times that you or somebody else you know has struggled with something and how they overcame it. That will be the first step. And then remember, you put in a little bit of effort and Allah will take care of the rest. Don't worry if they're really, really, really struggling. And if they are having a trauma, as somebody just asked if it's a trauma, a lot of us are traumatized with the spiritual upbringing that was problematic. And if that's the case, then try to point them to like beautiful examples of people who don't have that background. So many people came from a very, very strict black and white halal haram. This is it. This is the only way. Everything else is an innovation. Everything else is this. You can't do anything in your religion. You can't even live your life because you're gonna go to hell type of approach. I see a lot of Muslims and they eventually leave like the major practices of the religion because it's just too constricting and that's not Islam. Try to help them work through what the trauma is. You mentioned that you said I told the loved one that life is a test. That works only when somebody has the spiritual framework for understanding what a test is. You can't tell somebody it's a test if they don't even understand why tests come. The first step is belief that tests are going to help them get closer to God. And that's a hard belief to cultivate. It's not easy. So I wouldn't start with that. I would kind of go at that when you feel like they're ready, but try to work through the trauma and have them seek like a proper spiritual counselor or spiritual guide in order to work through that crisis. So that was the question. Insha'Allah, that helps. Insha'Allah, that situation will get better. Insha'Allah, don't worry. Just pray and Allah will help, insha'Allah. Does anybody have any other questions? See if anything popped up here. Somebody mentioned sorry, it's just hard to find balance between being since you're in soft hearted and strong world into this society. That is a really, really good point that somebody mentioned. So it is certainly difficult to find a balance between being sincere and soft hearted. Thank you for mentioning that point. It's important though to not lose the beautiful aspects of our religion and the beautiful aspects of our tradition because this society just limits us. Don't let this society limit you. Don't let this society that's been created by the white man to do the things that serve the white man and serve their corporate interests limit the way you and I operate. No, you and I should be sincere. You and I should be soft hearted. You and I should follow the example of the promises on to the best of our ability in balanced ways that we can do it in this society but not let the frameworks and the colonizing frameworks and the problematic frameworks and the subjugating frameworks and the subverting paradigm and all these types of things prevent us from the inner beautiful traits that our religion has to offer. This is what Islam has to offer the world. We have character to offer. We have spiritual development to offer. We have personal development to offer. When a human being has all these things that's really when they start to succeed but that we have to kind of put in that effort first and foremost and then people will see that beauty and they will start to be guided inshallah. So try to keep that in mind. It's a very, very good point somebody brought up. If anybody has any more questions, please post them. We'll just wait for another minute. And inshallah, I'll just go ahead and close with a quick Dua and if any other question pops up we'll cover it inshallah. Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Alhamdulillah. I mean, Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barakah ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa aali wa sallim wa sallim. So, ya Allah, ya Allah, Alhamdulillah. I mean, we're going to ask Allah to guide us. Ya Allah, we ask that you guide all of those people. Ya Allah, who are struggling with their deen, who are in difficulty, who are facing a crisis, who are facing a trauma, who are facing any problems. We ask you to allow us to curb our desires. We ask that you bless this month. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barakah wa barakah wa barakah Please put blessings in this month of Rajab and Shabbat and allow us to reach Ramadan. Ya Allah, with anameen, ya Allah, allow us to get closer to you. Please don't allow us to be discouraged. Please don't allow us to have despair. Please don't allow us to have any worry, ya Allah, with anameen, ya Allah. Anybody who's struggling with any aspect of their life, any sin that we're struggling with, ya Allah, please, ya Allah, forgive us, ya Allah, pardon us, ya Allah, cure us, ya Allah, and remove this difficulty from us. Remove our challenges, remove our tribulations, give us our sincerity, and give us as much, as much closeness to you as possible with ease, fi khayb, we'll look for lafiyah and give us guidance in our ability to get close to you coming directly from you and allow us to strive in your way as much as possible. Jazakumma ala serah, so insya'Allah we'll continue this every Wednesday at 7 PM, sorry we're a little bit late today, started a little late today, I was having technical difficulties, insya'Allah, Allah will help. And we'll get that together next time, so we'll start again next Wednesday at 7 PM. Jazakumma ala serah, please keep us in your prayers. Everybody have a great week. Thank you so much. Bye everybody.