 Okay, so for those again who have been tuning in we stopped last week. We're still on chapter 3, but inshallah My aim is to finish chapter 3 today. So there are a few sections that we want to talk about so Let's see here last week. We ended on or two weeks ago. I should say we ended on The section on commanding good and forbidding evil. And so today we are picking up on empathy so this is a Particularly an important topic for me because so much of the work that I do actually Is revolves around this word empathy? you know a lot of the talks that I've given and just my a lot of the work that I've done over however many years I've been teaching and in the community. I feel like I've centered on this prophetic quality of really just trying to put yourself in the shoes of another to feel the Pain or the experiences of another so that you become more compassionate towards them. And that's really essentially What empathy is oftentimes? It's a term that's confused with sympathy, but they are quite different empathy means to be in the feeling with someone Or in excuse me in feeling with someone and then sympathy means to be with them in feeling So what that means is you know when you're observing someone for example, you know They're grieving let's say or they just went through a difficult Hardship if you have sympathy you're observing them. You're with them. You're watching them and you feel bad. You feel pity But it with empathy. It's beyond pity or just sympathy. It's actually Feeling the same Emotions that they're feeling grieving the loss with them really feeling it as if it's your own Pain there are some people who are so empathic that they can actually even with physical pain They they someone may describe for example Oh, I have an ache in my tooth or a back, you know, ache or some some sort of pain And if the empath is really, you know, just very cued into that person They can feel this a pain or a sensation in the same area and of course, you know, people are Empathic in different degrees, but there are certainly people who have that and so This is a prophetic quality and if you've ever heard me talk about emotional intelligence This is one of the qualities of emotional intelligence, right? There's five key qualities self-awareness self-regulation motivation empathy and social skills And so we go into a really deep or a long Explanation of what empathy is but let's look at what our scholars have to say here as it is in the book So the most beneficial spiritual practice for our hearts is to avoid judging and criticizing people and to cultivate empathy and compassion in our hearts for the creation of Allah To do this it helps to remember the narration of Prophet Isa Which was found in the Mu'tah of Imam Matic. So here this is Matic relates that Related to me and this is Yahya Ibn Yahya speaking that he heard that Isa Ibn Mariam said Who used to say do not sit in a gathering without the mention of Allah for you will harden your hearts a Hard heart is far from Allah, but you do not know Do not look at the wrong actions of people as if you were lords But rather look at your own wrong actions as if you were slaves Some people are afflicted by wrong actions and others are protected from them have mercy on those who are afflicted and Show gratitude for his protection. I mean martial. It says it all right. It's such a balanced view of life of the world of circumstance of the fact that there are people who are Tested in different ways and if you are not tested in a particular hardship or sin or You know shortcoming then just be grateful But don't you know look upon people with that critical eye that judgmental eye where you think yourself above them just rather You know be Merciful towards them be compassionate and know that they're being tested and it was something that a lot of Allah is Protecting you from because you know, maybe by your arrogance towards them You will be tested with the same or worse. So it's it's in your own benefit to not be judgmental but also and to practice empathy is to not Is to see people again for where they're at and to not see yourself as better than them But rather that we're all sinners. We all make mistakes. We all Sin in different ways and and are tested in different ways And so just to have compassion that when you see someone, you know being Afflicted with something or or falling into some sin That of course, I mean if they're close to you you can counsel them and give them the see-ha But you certainly shouldn't Look down upon them or speak ill of them and spread, you know spread rumors because this means that you See yourself above and that's really the core I mean the central issue of people who are judgmental right judgmental and critical people do see themselves as above other people And so this quality of empathy is just recognizing your own humanity your own ability to make mistakes and then not being critical of other people and having that humility and that total awareness that Whatever guidance you have Is entirely from a loss of heart that it's not because you're necessarily better or you some people You know, they think that because of their own deeds That they are superior morally, you know, they're superior or maybe because of lineage a lot of people Think well their family their upbringing their education their wealth their status affords them You know this rank above other people or protection from doing certain things But that is really flawed view all of the good that we have isn't is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala all of the guidance We have is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's not from our own deeds And this is what humility and what following the provisional sometimes example teaches you is that you don't ever attribute Any good to yourself you're always attributing the good to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and you Attribute your own flaws, of course to yourself, but you see people you humanize people and you don't look at them Again with this judgmental eye So this is the you know topic of empathy and again so important. So I love this quote of Isa Peace be upon him because it's so comprehensive, you know He's giving us clear direction to how to protect our hearts from getting hard first. He tells us right don't sit with people who don't mention Allah and that's actually really important because Judgmental people, you know birds of a feather they flock together You usually learn those behaviors because of a company that you keep and right now for example You look at social media and you look at so much of our culture is legitimizes or, you know allows and even encourages Gossip it encourages, you know, just the tabloid culture that we have of Following people and looking at what they're doing and then just talking about people, you know All of these things that are not part of our faith We are taught to mind our own business to not be nosy and pry into people's private lives Or be concerned about whether people are doing but when you have a society That not only, you know make this is so widespread, but actually encourages it believe it or not earlier Last week actually for a post that I was writing. I was just doing some research and I found articles in pretty, you know prominent publications That were advising people or even the titles of the articles were, you know, the benefits of gossip Like gossiping could actually be good for you I was like, oh the black and then, you know, I did another post on cursing and how we should, you know But this is just a tangent, but you know in cursing and how we should avoid foul language and someone sent me My brother actually he sent me an article that had just been published the same day that my or the next day after my post That said, you know as science science proves that intelligent people curse that is a sign of intelligence So unfortunately, there are people in our society who glorify these behaviors that are not part of our Faith they're not acceptable according to our faith and we have to protect our hearts from that and so if you normalize certain behaviors Or you're hanging around people who normalize those behaviors you will Adopt the same behaviors and that's certainly the case for cursing as well as gossip as well as a lot of the Flaws character, you know, just the wrong actions and character flaws that people adopt because of the company they keep So it's so important to heed this advice Don't sit with people who don't remind you of Allah who don't mention Allah's path out because you know if you carry on with those types of groups Then the consequences that you will be distant from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because your heart heart will start to harden, right? And then, you know, he so it's just really beautiful the way the phrasing of this is because it's really like it's so comprehensive and then To prevent, you know, not only from your heart from hardening. He addresses Arrogance and and looking down on people and then he encourages empathy So these are all really beautiful qualities prophetic qualities that we should adopt inshallah So this was the first us or the the section that we left off last time So let's go on to the next and that we're still on chapter 3 for those who have the book We're on page 35 now So you can follow along and some of these sections are a little longer than others So I wasn't able to type out the entire section, but I do have You know, most of the the content that we need to cover and I'll just read whatever is left so This middle the next section here is on supplication. So which of course we know is the and here It says that supplication is another profound practice Pray every day for our afflicted brothers and sisters throughout the world Especially defenseless women and children may Allah give us from his presence a protector who is victorious The state of the community of Muslims is at a low ebb in history But we believe in the promises of our prophet As-salaam concerning its rectification in the latter days And we should hope and pray for the day when the community's prosperity returns and the believers are united and protected I mean, so, you know, this is a Advice it's messy how all of this is entire chapters on practical steps to change our condition So this being you know almost towards the end of the chapter. It certainly is important For us to do this every day and that's why right off the bat It's it's a it's a command right we should be making Every day for our brothers and sisters throughout the world and sometimes we can get short-sighted With our door and sometimes we can skip it all together. I know my personal me personally I've definitely struggled with that just jumping from one thing to the other prayers You know, I have to do my prayers But then I don't sometimes I forget to sit down and just have moments of pause after my prayer We're actually remember to make the ah, you know, not just the ones that we we've learned to do after the prayer But actually to remember people to remember, you know, people that I've lost for example loved ones or people that I know Right now are going through hardships so what's helped me in the past is to Sometimes I mean I've made the list. So if you have a list sometimes that's really helpful to keeping your pocket Or to keep on hand So that right after prayer you can just take it out because if we are being honest our memories fail us all the time You know, I was just telling somebody yesterday that that's a big part of Human, you know our frailty as human beings is that we're very forgetful and even If we want to do something earnestly and sincerely sometimes it's our memory lapse that can prevent us, right? It's not Will or desire or sincerity, but it's just the fact that we're we're forgetful And so it does help to have reminders visuals something that will trigger the memory for us So prayer lists are certainly helpful But you know, this is advice about the importance of remembering that We should make it off for everybody not collective thoughts, right? Not just You know ourselves, but also all of the people who are oppressed and and suffering throughout the world And then to not lose hope, you know, because that's one of the Tactics of shaitan is to Bring people down by saying we'll look at the muslim world and people are in such a terrible situation And he'll just try to you know, just kind of chip away at our Our conviction in our faith and we have to know better and say no everything is written Allah is in control And we just have to do our part, you know, just every if all of us do our part, inshallah We'll see the benefit and this is the whole book the whole book is about really focusing on every individual focusing on their own Power and their own potential and really just working on Restoring what needs to be restored within themselves and then the ripple effect that that has because it does it has a ripple effect if we all We're doing toba for example if we all were, um, you know doing good works collectively We would see the benefit of that but the problem is of course There's so much a kafla heedlessness in our community in our world now And forgetfulness and so there are people who are certainly doing their best and then we have People who who are who have just forgotten and they're going astray So we need to you know, get on the same page basically so this idea of Of remembering the importance of dua is very important. So alhamdulillah. This was also part of again the list of things actionable items that all of us can do individually to Practically begin to change our condition Now the next section also very important here. Let me get the slide up listen to that Excuse me It's a bit of a delay. Okay. So this is on a physical health. Alhamdulillah. So here we go Um, let's just go ahead and read and this is I've divided this slide into or section into two slides because he first they first address um Physical health and then hygiene. So we should all make it a practice to take care of our physical health And hygiene the problem is I said surely your body has a right over you So this is now we should exercise regularly remove harmful foods from our diets Um, and then you know, we're called to be witnesses over humanity and all things the problem It's an upset of strong believers better and more beloved to a law than a weak believer in each there's good And then you know other suggestions, which are all part of the sunnah martial arts Wrestling, we know of course the problems I'm wrestled right self-defense archery These are all ancient prophetic practices and effective ways of keeping fit and sharp Playing sports, you know is useful It teaches people to work together and cooperate in addition to providing healthy competition tempered by good sportsmanship And we know that the process of them, you know, he loved to Have competition with his wives with the sahaba even sometimes with children He raced on foot on horse on camel. So he was very active, right? and so certainly important that we all uh, you know, take a note of our Our health and make sure that we're doing the best that we can and you know, if you have health issues Other things that prevent you from doing things then be gentle with yourself and do follow You know, whatever instructions your your doctors or medical Team has in place for you and be gentle But these are just in terms of what you can control like our diets and and what we're eating We can certainly control and make sure that we're eating halal. We're eating good wholesome foods, right? organic foods clean foods making sure that we're not contributing to the the the mass You know the food industry that just you know mass produces without really much care Of what the ingredients are the preservatives the dyes the toxins all those chemicals that are in a lot of our foods So for conscientious of these things and try our best to eat The good foods and and eat of the halal, of course foods InshaAllah, this is really a big step and then to do as much as we can in terms of physical exercise So the next section is connected to this but it's again about hygiene, which is the other The other part of this. Let me go to that slide One moment while this catches up. Oh, I went a little forward Sorry, okay. So cleanliness Of course, we know the hadith right that cleanliness is half of our faith So it's a characteristic of Islam and this is both internal and external cleanliness, right? There are aspects of the prophetic practice. So external hygiene This is, you know, certainly taking a bath grooming wearing clean clothes We should be vigilant to stay keep ourselves clean from impurities one of the practices that I I Sir, you know, I speak about and I I really think is very important that we teach our children even from a young age Is to always try to maintain their will do and to be in the practice of You know, if they need to use the restroom Always just having that rule of thumb to just make will do, you know Be always in a state of purity and attract those You know angelic, um, you know the angelic beings to you and repel the the demonic Beings we don't want them close to us. We want the angels close to us, right? And they are drawn to the people and will do so being in those clean states And then maintaining our homes and other possessions cars vehicles, whatever we have Places that we have if you have an office, you know, if Allah's blessed you with multiple homes, but just trying to be A person who embodies this quality of cleanliness so that when we Go out People are not put off by body odor. I mean suffer all this is a complaint. You know, we've heard so many times about Just going to the masjid even and praying next to people who smell like food or who have body odor, you know, this is Really, we have to be very careful about offending people because honestly, there are people who May have a bad experience One time and that's enough for them to not want to go back and you don't want to be the cause For for someone being so repelled that they don't or repulse so they don't want to come back to the masjid You know because you didn't fulfill your obligation of making sure you're you're clean that you smell well, you know and of course now we're in Quarantine so this doesn't directly apply at the moment But inshallah when the doors of the masjid open again or just in general you go out anywhere you go to someone's home You go to the store public places Just being mindful of Yourself like when's the last time you washed you cleaned do you I mean I I do this with my boys I have two growing boys one is a 12 year old the other is a nine year old and you know We all know the smell right when they go outside to play Uh, I'm sure girls girls get it too, but it's just that smell of outside You know, especially boys who running around and doing god knows what outside, you know they're playing basketball and And sports and all these other things that they're doing riding their bikes But they'll come sometimes with that smell and I it's just a rule for us You know, you have that smell in the shower or you know, make sure you you're freshening up make will do wash your face get everything off You know clean your feet we have to get boys in the habit of cleaning their feet And this is just basic knowledge of you know physiology and growth and development the teens They're they're going to go through those growth spurts and they're going to have odors and we need to teach them From a very early age that they have to be responsible for themselves But if they get in habits early on then inshallah it'll help them to Adjust to the the life of a Muslim, which is you know making will do throughout the day praying our prayers inshallah on time Always being in a state of purity But if you don't habituate your kids early and then expect them to learn all this, you know late It's very hard So I'm very much a proponent of getting our kids in these habits early and making sure that they Are always mindful of themselves checking their their smells and have them because I know as a teacher and as someone who does Coming-of-age talks to teens teen girls I have actually had to address this particular issue multiple times, you know with With uh with teens because their teachers or staff or other students have sometimes Unfortunately had issues with some Of them being completely unaware that they have body odor and that they're physiologically, you know, they're changing and they're they're you know, they're Things are changing and they need to basically be aware of those things They're just not aware and it's not their fault. We don't fault them, but I've had that discussion several times So I think we should protect our kids From those embarrassing situations awkward conversations with classmates or teachers and just in our own homes Teach them early on get them kids, you know Get them for example deodorant kits if you're You know, if you have teenagers and they are beginning to grow hair teaching them how to remove hair This is important. These are things that they should learn and then making sure that Even with young children, um, you know, I know some Muslims just because it's convenient They don't they don't teach them, you know, it's in jab early Because it's like oh, it's just a little kid. It's just a toddler It's okay. I'll wipe them clean and that's it. No get them used to the concept of a sinjad that we wash We clean impurities off You know, get them in those habits. Uh, don't wait until Their school age or older if they if you start them young with that Inshallah those habits will just be very natural and it'll feel very comfortable comfortable for them So all of those things are really important but here the um, the rest of this section, uh, the prophet said clean your yards Right and then one of the greatest benefits of calamities is that invites us to the love to love to the love of Allah All right, because Allah's power says in, uh, chapter two Surah Baqarah Verily Allah loves those who turn to him constantly And he loves those who keep themselves clean. So beautiful. Mashallah Now this quote at the bottom is also really important. This is from even, uh, qaym al-Josie al-Josie um, he said Did I type the whole thing? I'm just checking. Oh, okay. So he yeah, I type most of it He said that what we eat affects our behavior and Allah's power has prohibited The flesh of predators and omnivores so that we do not become like them We should avoid to the best of our ability process foods feed our families wholesome So I'm the love so a lot of the stuff that I had mentioned earlier about just eating Good foods because you know, you are what you eat. We've all heard of that We believe this we do actually believe in that so Trying to eat the best so that inshallah we embody the best qualities So this is the section on health or um, and hygiene. So now we're going to move on I'm gonna like I said try to finish chapter three inshallah today so that next time we come we'll start on chapter four So we'll wait for this next slide to load Sorry again for the delay there's always a lag it seems Yep, and it went ahead. Okay. So the next one is the section on commitment And um, again, I love this. It's just a small paragraph but powerful powerful message here We should renew our commitment to the religion of Allah and his messenger So Allah has said him every day of our lives Our sole purpose in living should be for Allah's sake We're renewing this pledge of one's life to Allah and then to his messenger So Allah is that I'm is an important daily reminder of why we are here and how we should act The only way we can truly be witnesses to humanity is to live our truth This takes great effort, but its rewards are nothing less Than guidance and success in this world and then forgiveness and trying from the next I love this because it really resonates with me You know the idea of just remembering What am I doing here? Why am I here? Why did Allah create me? Having those really deep internal dialogues with yourself and realizing the power of existence the the message Behind our existence the fact that Allah created us is really profound right that he He could have not created us right he could have Created us into something else an animal an inanimate object But he gave us life and he gave us this honor of being Potentially, you know even greater than the angels if we so choose to to act that way And to be in the umma of the best of creation So Allah Allah said I'm so so much of that is really profound if you think deeply on it But also resonates because I remember when I first wore hijab 20 plus years ago a long long time ago One of the um One of the one of the reasons why hijab was so Powerful for me, and I'm sure it is for inshallah all sisters who wear hijab and all brothers who um within with the same intention grow their beard and wear their kufi is that When you step outside the house and people look at you and they recognize you whether they're muslim or not You they are doing you an incredible favor You know, uh because we're so forgetful right like I said earlier We it's one of our frail frailties. We're just we're weak. We have a lot of weaknesses One of them is our memories. So the fact that complete strangers With uh with no maybe awareness of what they're doing for you They're actually reminding you that you're muslim, you know behave Remember remember who you are remember why you're here. Remember that you are responsible and you're accountable Before god because you know ihsan from the hadith of jibreel. We know Is um is to to worship all as far as though you see him even though you can't see him But you're aware that he sees you That awareness is the goal, right? It's we should all Strive to be that aware of our lord to be so Aware of his existence and his his watchfulness over us That in every moment we are mindful of what we're doing that we're Keeping away from the haram certainly inshallah, but we're also Doing good works. We have good intentions. We have good thoughts, right our actions and our our inward reality are our matching right so the fact that I can go to the store and um or just sit in my car And and drive away and I see a neighbor And uh, they wave at me and I'm reminded you know You're you're in hijab that neighbor that person in the street the car next to you or at the gas station or at the grocery store When they look back at you when they do a double take or when they stare at you and maybe hold that gaze a little long Remember, why are they doing that? It's not because you're radiating, you know, uh Some you know, you're just so captivating to look at You know, maybe mashallah there are certainly beautiful people who who have that power Um, I do not count myself among those people but there are people mashallah Yes, who will get those double triple looks because they do have that Uh that exceptional radiance or beauty, but if you don't have that, alhamdulillah, you have Something else that is um, you know like a neon sign And it's getting you those looks but it's also a reminder for you That Allah is watching. You're a muslim. You're accountable for yourself. So I always thought it was a great privilege Um, because I'm so forgetful normally That by wearing my hijab, it's helping me to stay accountable, right? It's helping me to remember when I'm on the road and someone cuts me off Like I used to when I was younger. I had maybe some choice words And other gestures because so far, you know, this is what we're what we're taught in this society, you know teenagers especially We're very reactive when we're teens, right? So anyway, you're taught to react and you're taught to get aggressive and you you're taught all those things But Islam, you know, alhamdulillah teaches you know that let people go if someone's cutting you off on the road Don't personalize everything. Why do you have to personalize it that a person doesn't know you? Maybe they're Rushing because they have to go somewhere and maybe there's an emergency. Maybe there's something going on that you have no idea about Maybe they're about to lose their job Because they're running late for work and they have bills to pay so if we humanize people and we just start letting go of the need to uh Personalize everything and also remember that we are accountable before God then inshallah we regulate that's self regulation You start to change your behavior, right? So but the hijab certainly helped me because I would remember Uh, oh, I can't do those things. I can't do what I used to do I mean, I'm talking like right when I transitioned, right when I first started wearing hijab It was a big adjustment But I thought it was such a so cool because I was really like Amazing to me that just by wearing something on my head. I had hyper vigilance all of a sudden of who I was Uh vis-a-vis my my relationship with Allah and the people were helping me and that's one of the main reasons I mean obviously also because it's part of that. I believe in it. But one of the reasons why I've always Um, love my hijab and inshallah. I pray that I I always wear it and I always keep it on because of that It's such a great reminder. Alhamdulillah So, you know this this whole section is on that on having that awareness and renewing our faith and remembering our purpose That Allah created us to worship him and being really committed in our our purpose that we have You know, there's a limited time that we all have And that we're going to do our best to use our time in the service of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and really Truly sincerely because we're so indebted. We feel so indebted and feel so grateful for the blessing of existence Um, but that is what compels us that that is why we choose to to Wake up every day and at the crack of dawn or before And why uh, we're always In pursuit of our lord inshallah So, um, that's a section on commitment. So we'll go to the next section Alhamdulillah, we're moving forward again. I apologize for those who Um, we're here and Waiting for me inshallah. We're going to still get through this Okay, so let's see here um, the next section here is time so Bismillah, um And it's uh, pretty uh serendipitous as I was just excusing myself for being here late But let's look at the section and that this was a longer section which I did not get to type out the whole thing But I'll read so we should all be committed to utilize utilizing our time as wisely and productively as possible To squander time or allow the theft of this precious gift of time is a sin The reality of which will only be clear in the next life each moment is priceless and once gone Can never be replaced Wasting time is a perennial problem the first century stoic Seneca said that the problem is not that we have such a short space of time But that we waste so much of it Life is long enough and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things If the whole of it is well invested But modern life is a concerted conspiracy to deprive us of our precious time The tragedy is that most of us are willful conspirators Subhanallah, that's really a lot to um Digest and think about but really if we're being honest with ourselves holding ourselves accountable. It's true We do waste a lot of time Um, and our modern conveniences have only made that so much more of a reality for all of us We don't even have to move Some days there's people who can spend their entire day in their bed Because they have everything coming to them, right? So there was a time where we had to get up get up We were forced to get up and leave and and get things But now with our phones and apps and all of these other services just a click of a button food comes to us our You know, whatever other Important things that we need groceries necessities. They can come to us We want to shop. We don't have to go to the store anymore You know stores are shutting down malls are shutting down because people don't need to go Outside anymore. They don't choose to and they'd rather shop online So so many of these things are now Redirected and coming to us. We're not moving anymore. But what are we doing? in with all that convenience is that we are A lot of us anywhere are just indulging And that's really the big Problem of our time is that there's so much indulgence Of the nuffs and the nuffs is lazy. It is indulgent in and of itself So it's like we're feeding Our little nuffs monsters that we all have and they're engorged and they're really just out of control And that's why you're seeing so much Just hedonistic behavior and all throughout the world and through society Because we've enabled our egos to control us. We've done that just by not really appreciating the value of our time Not being aware of things You know, even if you think about Leisure time, for example, that's something that is such a blessing and it's one in the hadith too, you know There's a hadith take advantage of five before you lose five one of them is free time, right? So the concept of free time is also something pretty it's it's a modern reality, right because Back in the days, like I said, if you go Way before modern life people had To use all the time that they could especially if you're talking about You know daylight hours. This was the time of you know, making income and Food and whatever else you needed to do to to make sure that you survived So you didn't have time to waste and then at night you had to rest you had to recuperate You had to recover and of course, um, there was worship and so there was just a very regimented schedule But now I think we just have Very open schedules and we can kind of do as we like and we're all, you know guilty of this, of course At varying degrees, but we all do certainly waste time So we have to take ourselves into account and say How much of my time is being wasted on things that are not beneficial? And they're just indulging You know, whatever it is that I like to do and how much of it is benefiting Me my family other people. I mean if you're doing service works or doing good works Masha'Allah that aren't necessarily ritual worship or related to worship You can make those things acts of worship because you're doing good deeds, right? For the sake of Allah some have that so always You know understand when we're talking about time here It's not, you know worship and and all the ritual acts on one side and everything else on the other No, it's about is it beneficial what you're doing is it benefiting anybody? Is it good work? Is it something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will be pleased with or is it Blameworthy first of all because there's a lot of things that we could be doing that are Wrong that are just not right You know and and we we have to take ourselves into account or is it harmful? You know gossiping We're consuming You know things that are not good to take in if you're watching things listening to things that are Haram or have filth and foulness Those are things that are blameworthy. So, you know, it's it's really understanding what we're talking about which is Beneficial actions good deeds worship all those things. Is that what you're engaged in or is it that you're just Living, you know to your own comforts and whims and desires and you're not really thinking about Mortality and that's why the remembrance of death is important because when you remember death It is, you know, the the destroyer of desires, right? That's one of the the terms for it The remembrance of death that will destroy our desires because you're you can't really think about Indulging when you're faced with your own mortality and you're and you're facing it regularly or often So, um Now this section is a bit longer. So I'll read what I didn't get to type um We fill our lives with distractions and time-consuming trivialities like mindless entertainment And countless other activities that produce little or no benefit Perhaps the greatest thieves of time in our age are the television and the internet So now I mean mashallah, they're getting direct. This is you know, these are our teachers and they're they're telling us what we need to hear Trivial conversations on phones and social media are a modern form of vain talk Right the quran says the believers are those who avoid vain talk more over the problems I said I've informed us that a lot loads That he said she said qala wa qila right or qila wa qala Conversations where you're just kind of talking about. Oh, did you hear about so and so oh no tell me more and then It's just gossip basically and you're you know in the grapevine as they say This is all blame worthy and and the fact that Allah swt that loads that imagine how much of us Engage in that every day Our lives are akin to an hourglass and each grain of time that passes takes one instant closer to our inevitable meeting with Allah Reflection on death is a serious and constant way I'm sorry reflection on death in a serious and constant way is one of the greatest catalysts for change When terminally ill people realize they are dying They undergo a profound transformation and make peace with many of the people they had hurt And had bad feelings toward when they were well. We are all terminally ill And prisoners on time's death row It is only a matter of time before the execution of the angel of death makes his call We should reflect on the sound hadith consider yourselves already people of the grave While a governor's pardon is rare in this world Allah's pardon is very much a possibility in the next hope of a divine pardon is reason enough for good behavior While in prison as reprieves are generally given to model prisoners the provisionalism said this world is a prison For the believer and a false paradise for the unbeliever. He also said there are two blessings Most people are cheated out of good health and free time Our very souls are the greatest thieves robbing us of our good health and free time So really powerful reminders on the value of time the importance of making sure that we are Mindful of how we use our time and that we are mindful of our own inevitable demise because again Just to close this section when we remember death often As someone so beautifully said recently mom so hey um From from uh Yale He the chaplain at Yale. He recently gave a talk and he said That when we remember death often it's the purpose of that is that we we are better at living We will live better, right? It's not to get Caught up and and be uh morbid and sad and depressed, but it's actually to be to live better So inshallah that's the purpose of the value of time and remembrance of death The next section we're gonna again try to finish this up inshallah, and I'll leave some time for questions If you're still with me, I hope you are I again I hope you guys are here, but if not inshallah, you'll get to watch the recording. Oops. I went way ahead. Okay attitude So this is um the next section and then we have one more this month We were created to know love and serve our lord and to honor our parents and our faith is not complete until we want for humanity What we want for ourselves? Let us aspire to be people whom our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam will be proud of on the day of on the day He is given the banner of praise We should never settle for anything less than excellence in our lives And for this religion ihsan Virtuous excellence and everything is the acme of our faith. We should set out to perfect To the best of our ability our knowledge of allah our love of allah and his prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And our services precious gift to his precious gift to us islam The prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam also said surely allah has prescribed excellence in all things What in allah lama al muhsineen allah is with the people of excellence. This is chapter 29 69 So subhanallah, you know, this is just your general attitude, you know, having a really positive Attitude and always looking for beauty, you know ihsan Excellence but just doing things with beauty doing things with that love doing things with sincerity Um, this has to do with the attitude that one brings to anything You know, if you have a project for work or school and you don't really care much for it And you're not you don't care about impressing your teachers or your parents Um, and you just want to get it done You're gonna do it maybe because you don't want to fail, but It might not be your best work, right? And we've all worked on groups where there's there those go-getters who mashallah really put in a lot of work And then there's those who don't do anything, but they want all the credit So I think those uh dynamics really do teach us a lot about our nature And you have to ask yourself. How do I um, you know, how am I in those situations? Do I come in hoping someone else is just gonna Do it all and I'll just kind of slide in with the bare minimum Or do I actually put in a good effort? Um, and you know, we're all sometimes just because of life we might You know, we might vacillate between these different You know states maybe sometimes we're really Into something sometimes we're not but I think in general when it comes to being Muslims we should have a very clear understanding Of our purpose the fact that again, we're here to serve Allah Uh, and we should know who he is We should feel inclined To get close to him to love him to increase our love for him to always always always Have the best opinion of Allah to never question him and to never think for even a moment to let your heart betray you Um And to think out of the blue in any way where you question Allah because he is not One to be questioned. We are the ones that are questioned. So to really strive for that type of Relationship with al-spah that of course the provisionalism to know him to know his seerah To uh, to just really love him and to appreciate him For all that he has done for us and all that he will do for us inshallah because of course It's his shifa that inshallah we all are uh, we all need and we we are going to be desperately Seek out or seeking on on the on the day of judgment. So You know just being really clear that we should feel this This positive yearning for for Allah and his provisionalism But also that we understand our purpose And we do things well. We do things with a good attitude and a state of gratitude inshallah So this is the section on attitude and then the last section for chapter three Inshallah is on Devotion, we'll wait for the slide to come up Here we are So it's kind of you know leading a good segue into Into this because it's connected. We should commit to realizing taqwa within our lifetimes Actively and consciously and devote ourselves more to it than others devote to mastering the many trivialities That in this life offers Among humanity are those who take idols besides Allah They love them with the same love One should have for Allah but those who believe Allah believe love Allah even more So subhanallah, you know Just to prioritize to make sure that we understand that again, we have a great purpose here and if we're gonna You know Like slack off and really not do our obligations to Allah But then we're so committed in our work and in our relationships. You see people who are so committed In their material, you know pursuits worldly pursuits But they'll make a lot of excuses when it comes to worship This is a person who's got their priorities completely upside down, right? So we have to Have that taqwa to know what is expected of us and to really Be always aware of of our lord And then they go on to say realizing taqwa during our lives is possible There is no injunction in the Quran that cannot be achieved by those it is incumbent upon The purpose of all the wondrous signs that Allah has placed in us life Ability will speech sight hearing and knowing Will be realized and here Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says In the Quran wa fi anfusikum afalaa tubasirun in yourselves. Do you not see chapter 51 21? So subhanahu wa You know just really powerful reminders about accountability, right? There's a lot of actions throughout chapter three practical steps, right to changing your conditions We started off with the five pillars active outreach, right focus cooperation And we can actually I do have that slide just to kind of have a summary of everything we talked about in chapter three I'll go back to that slide In a minute here while it catches up So we went all the way through all of this subhanahu wa ta'ala in chapter three But here is the slide. So we talked about the five pillars active outreach focus cooperation good character kinship Families charity of Quran and remembrance of Allah commanding good and forbidding evil And then today the last sections here on empathy supplication physical health commitment time attitude and devotion Subhanallah, may Allah bless our teachers. What a comprehensive Um, you know list of things that we can all work on no matter where you are in your spiritual journey You can find something on this list to work on or multiple things. I'm sure That you can help to advance your your Your state, you know in your journey So alhamdulillah, may Allah bless them and protect them for just putting all of this together for us We have chapter four inshallah for next time where we are going to talk about exercises for attaining taqwa So we ended ended on devotion which talked about the importance of of taqwa And now we're going to talk about exercises for actually how do we How do we attain taqwa so inshallah look forward to that discussion with all of you And I'm going to stop here so that we can see if there's any questions again Thank you so much for sticking on if you are still with me and I apologize for the late arrival But alhamdulillah, we made it So let me stop share And then see if there aren't any questions here Okay, sorry. I have to go through a few different screens So hopefully I'll find Something here Uh, someone's asking someone and will this be saved? Yes, sister Munira It will be saved all of the talks that we do at mcc are alhamdulillah recorded and we save them They'll be here on facebook um in the video section on the mcc east bay page as well as on youtube So you can see all of the talks and this is I think gosh, I want to say session number 12 or 13 I can't remember. Uh, we're we've been working on this text for a while So alhamdulillah, we have quite a few sessions for this class already recorded and available, but you should be able to see this as well Did I see Breeze grateful. Wasalaam aleykum aleykum wasalaam. Thank you for your Greeting. I appreciate it. I don't know if there's any more questions Let me refresh here on facebook I don't see any more questions there, but let me go to youtube And we'll see we have any more comments here Okay, I appreciate it. I don't know. Sorry All right, uh, so I have a question here. Mashallah sound like i'm sister asai How does one convincingly show loved ones that that films music and media always pollute the spiritual heart? That the malevolent agenda is to promote destructive ices. What a great question She's like, okay, I didn't sister. Sophia mashallah for that great question. You know, it's um It is hard when we are speaking from emotion and I've always found Just in my own experience with my family if you're on, you know, people are on different wavelengths or pages whatever and so when you speak from emotion You're going to get a mixed bag of reactions because people are just in different states But one of the best things that um, I think just does Make for a stronger case when you're trying to convince someone is doing the research and actually presenting with facts whether it's There's uh, they're and I'm sure there are you know, I don't I can't think of anything off the top of my head but I'm certain that there are either articles that are written about just the um negative effects of a lot of the modern You know entertainment that we have I mean spiritually but also just Emotionally mentally if you look at the themes of a lot of the film and uh, you know Just the shows are just really dark. They're very very dark and demonic And you see people I mean, I don't know. I just think it's not a coincidence that you see All of these anxiety disorders and suicidal ideation and a lot of depressive disorders increasing And if you're looking at what people are spending their time on You know, what what are they doing? Who are they engaging with the most? you know, if you're spending it on Social media all day and just browsing and there's research that already confirms that, you know You're looking at social media. Most people do feel depressed after browsing through Instagram or Facebook or whatever and looking at other people's lives. They just feel like they're missing out so it contributes to a lot of Problems, you know with with self image and just seeing oneself differently because you're comparing and contrasting So social media for sure there's research but television and film certainly too because So much of it has to do with promoting things at least for muslims anyway that are very much against our faith. I mean even our own Muslim actors and people who are in hollywood unfortunately are also falling into the same traps, right where they're taking on You know characters and not all of them, but some of them certainly are Filling roles that are just they're doing things that are completely haram and then on public You know on a screen for millions and billions of people to watch all over the world You have to think about The the factor I mean how you know you sinning or when we sin privately It's between us and Allah But when we publish our sins we know from the hadith this is really Very dangerous all the bad and so many people now are polishing their sins So a lot of that has to do with you know, yes actors are doing that But even now on for example tiktok Or other social media you see a lot of muslims just falling into the traps, you know of shaitan By mimicking and doing what everybody else is doing not really thinking about there's negative impacts to these behaviors There's spiritual negative impacts emotional mental So think a relationship, you know, how many marriages have fallen apart because of for example porn addiction This is a very real problem in our community. There are people who are addicted to pornography Because they you know started Just allowing or you know themselves to To get caught up in things and and not really guarding themselves. And so we have to take Seriously lower your gaze, you know, you open the door to a lot of these things The floodgates will open upon you and if you're weak spiritually, you're not praying You're not in a state of voodoo, you know, you um, it's like you're really making it hard for yourself The majahidah is even harder and so many of our Youth especially are really caught up in this so if you're you want to convince your family I would certainly say try to look for research that supports what you are concerned about there are conservative Websites, um, even they don't have to be muslim per se You know, there's conservative christian groups and other groups that are very concerned about media in this country or in this world And they're trying to provide alternatives But they do oftentimes take, um, you know, do the research and for for you So that you can make a pretty convincing argument that look, you know by watching These shows or listening to this type of music or playing these types of video games This is what you're subjecting yourself or your children to please take it seriously And inshallah just ask for a lot of da'a but be gentle because you know people are At different stages and you want to never come across self-righteous that's I think one of the biggest hardships that people have when they're giving nasiha is When you're correcting another person, even though that's not your intention because they're not where you are Um, and you know, it could be shaitan. It could be their own nefs They just want to kind of shut down what you're saying even if it's true They'll interpret your words to to be as though you're judging them So you have to be very careful in your delivery, you know That's why making sure you're not emotional is really important because as soon as emotions get in the picture It sounds like There's some ulterior You know motive or or just it can go so many different ways But if you're like, listen, I I love you. I care about you What do you know here? Let's talk about this. Let's have a discussion and have an open dialogue Very different than just coming in and going. Hey, stop doing this. This is wrong and you know kind of like you've already You figured it out and you're just going to tell them what to do. I like to have dialogue I like to just kind of bring things up But you got to know your stuff you got to research you got to have numbers and and stuff on hand So do the work first and you will be more convincing Insha'Allah, so I hope that answers your question a long answer for your question Insha'Allah, are there any other questions here because I don't see them but I will Go back to Okay, I don't see any more on facebook Any more here on youtube Insha'Allah not then we can close up and I want to thank you guys again for sticking it out with me Um, and I apologize for being late insha'Allah Okay, so I don't see any other questions, but I do want to return the salams of some of you here. Mashallah Malwin, I want to say Issa Khan from Bengal. Mashallah. Noor Safi. Wow. We have people Tuned in from different parts of the world. That's that's lovely. Thank you Thank you for giving us your time tonight. Insha'Allah All right, you guys so I'm going to go ahead and end Insha'Allah and we will with Bismillah What was it to Hold on. Let me check the date February in two weeks. So two weeks from today. Insha'Allah Bismillah We will meet in two weeks uh from today and we will start chapter four So you can read ahead if you have the book and I'll see you then. Thank you again. We'll end in the Saliha. Remainder of your evening and thank you