 Peace be upon you, everyone. Welcome to this wonderful class. I'm really excited for this class. I wanted to actually begin first by sharing a du'a for studying something that I'm endeavoring. It's one of my goals this Ramadan that I've memorized this du'a. So I figured, inshallah, I can share it here with all of you as well. So I'm going to quickly screen share. And I just have this image here for us to read from. And I encourage all of you to, if you can, you can actually purchase this if you want from the Zaituna College bookstore. But it's a really beautiful du'a that I think all of us, we're all students of knowledge. Hopefully, we all see ourselves as lifelong learners and students of knowledge that we are mindful to really call on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, even when we're in spaces like this, learning from each other, inshallah. So, Alhamdulillah, you could see here the meaning of this du'a. Beautiful. And it really, I think, puts us all, it puts me, inshallah, all of us in a state of humility where we are really asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make this path of studying His Deen easy and give us Tawfir and to make us sincere, inshallah. So again, you can get this. It's a really beautiful poster. You can get it from Zaituna College. But I do encourage you to memorize it. And if you want to take a quick screenshot of it for now, you can do that. You can also do a Google search for it. Just do a supplication for studying Zaituna College, and you'll see this image, inshallah. So with that said, I'm going to now share the document that I really am excited to read with all of you. It's something that has absolutely impacted my life. And I think that's precisely why our teachers, Mashallah, translated it and it taught us to study it because they wanted us to benefit from the saints of our tradition who just had so much insight and really helped to help us to navigate our path even now, centuries later. I mean, it's just amazing. So actually, I'm so sorry. If you give me a moment, I have a, I apologize, one second. I have some noise coming from the back. Sorry, my husband and sons are assembling something. And I think they forgot I had class. I just let them know. Thank you. All right. So I come to do that. Where is my, I'm sorry, I'm looking for my notes here. Oh, yeah, I just wanted to do a quick biography. Some of me wonder what, you know, if I hope you got the PDF, I know it was sent, the PDF of the document. But if you're not familiar with Houssi Ahmad Zarruq is his biography is really powerful too, just knowing who he is. He's a 15th century scholar from Morocco, Fais Morocco, to be specific. He has different titles, Ahmad Zarruq, Imam Azzarruq, Shihab, Addeen, Abu al-Abbas, Ahmad bin Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Isa al-Barnousi al-Fasih. That's the long name, masha'Allah, that he was given. But he was born in Morocco. And he has, again, many beautiful titles. One of his titles is Muhtaseb al-Olema al-Odiya, which is the regulator of the scholars and saints. And he really just as a spiritual master and gave us so many, you know, gems from the different texts that he's also produced. But his life story is actually also fascinating, because he was orphaned when he was young. And he was actually raised by his maternal grandmother, who was also a scholarly woman in her own right. Her name was Umal Banin. And if you read some of the stories that he shares about her and how she would teach him really beautiful ways of teaching Islam to children, you know, he mentions in one of his, in his autobiography, he mentions one of his texts, or one of the stories. He says that she told me that one night when I was two years old, I looked at a star and asked her who put it in the sky. And then she explained to me the duty of belief in that matter. She used to tell me anecdotes about the righteous and the reliant ones. And when she told me stories, she never told me anything except about the Prophet's miracles and the wonderful miracles of the devout. She also used to order me to pray even without performing the ablution. And when my maternal aunt once blamed her for this, she said, let him do so until he prays performing it. And I thought, you know, just that's one of many examples, you know, she would teach him about reliance on Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala by they would, they were, you know, very simple family. They didn't have much, but she would hide food throughout the house and then tell him to supplicate with her and that maybe Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala would put food somewhere. We would give them, you know, sustenance and then they would go on a little, you know, hunt looking for food. And then they would find it and she would remind him to thank Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So he has all of these beautiful memories from his grandmother, teaching him Dean, putting him on the path of scholarship. He taught, she taught him how to pray. She put him in programs for him to, you know, mother says for him to learn Quran and his being. So he really gives a lot of credit to her for, for his path. And I think that's just really beautiful for us to also remember that many of our scholars, they had, you know, mothers, grandmothers, motherly women figures who were very much a part of their journey of Islam. And I think that should incentivize all of us to really take the path of studying knowledge seriously and to be passionate about it and not to act as though it's the domain of exclusively men. Because certainly that's just not the case at all. But I really love that he attributes so much of his success to his grandmother. So much all there's a lot more to share about him and there are biographies available. But just in the interest of time, because this is a one hour class, I wanted to go ahead and share with you now the PDF. And you also hopefully all of you have that PDF. But let me go ahead and screen share here so that we can read it together. Now, I love this text is because it is a roadmap and it's just so beautifully organized, which also really impresses me because I'm looking at, you know, 15th century, the fact that, you know, him and men, even Imam Al Ghazali and other scholars, I noticed that they had the foresight to, you know, to put their teachings or to structure their teachings in a way that was really digestible to the reader in this, you know, like bulleted point way of structuring, you know, everything they taught. And I've always thought that was so fascinating because, you know, it's you would think, you know, I think for in the way that we're educated now, that's common, but I just wouldn't know or I didn't, I guess, think that, you know, people back then thought to do things like that, to actually organize like their teachings in this way. You know, I thought they would just be writing because that's how it was always taught to us that they were just, they produced so much, they were so prolific. So I thought they were more interested in just actually documenting and putting it all together, but to actually structure it in this way. I think it's really amazing too. But so he starts off basically, and we can just read this together and then provide commentary, inshallah. But, you know, he starts off and he says, if anyone has asked about the foundation of his or her spiritual path, he should reply. And then he gives us the five foundations and each one of them, we could spend an entire session on really talking about, but we're going to again, try to go through this, navigate this text together. But he lays out the foundation that if you are on this spiritual path, this path of Islam, and you're sincere, you really want to be a practicing Muslim. And you finally come to that point in life where you really want to embrace your faith, inshallah, we're all there. Then you need to, these are the goals. These are the objectives and these are the foundations. And so then, so let's, let's read through them. So he starts off and he tells us first that taqwa, right, that the most essential prerequisite of being on a spiritual path is that you, that we are mindful of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And you'll notice this as we read, continue to read that he puts these, these caveats or disclaimers that because, you know, that's pretty understood. It's kind of like, okay, I understand taqwa. We're all taught that. But what I love is that he, you know, he, he mentions here, and I'm sorry, let me just quickly zoom into this text to make sure you guys can all read along with me. It's clear for me, but I realize now that it might not be for you. Okay, Bismillah. So he says here, he puts the condition here. This is a conditional statement, right? So it's mindfulness of Allah, but how privately and publicly. And I think that's really important for us to reflect on because, you know, it's easy if you think about it because social pressure. And what I mean by that is, you know, whether you want to be a part of a group or you're afraid of being excluded from a group, you conform. And so it's easy when we're in social settings to play the part, right? We may behave actually even more religiously or more mindful of our behavior, of our words, of our language, the way that the topics that we talk about because we're in public settings and we don't want obviously the consequences of maybe unveiling certain parts of ourselves. And so we put on the persona or, you know, that and we all do it to a certain degree. But we have that nature, right? Of doing that. So I love that he is reminding us that while that is, you know, easy to do, even the monotheque, as we know, we're very convincing, you know, and they still are obviously there's hypocrites that still exist amongst us. They're very convincing and that they show up, they come to the same spaces, and they perform or they appear to perform the same, you know, rituals that we do. But it's really about the hearts and the true essence of a person's faith is known when they are alone. And I think that was really, again, it's when we say it now, as I'm saying it, I feel like it seems so obvious, some of these things, these insights, but I think to point it out and to make mention of it, leaves really no room for doubt or question that this is exactly what we want. We want to have this degree of Taqwa where when we are alone by ourselves, that's when we are truly mindful of Allah's power. So it's not just that we play a part, but that we're actually sincere. And so that's many of our scholars say that that in fact is, you know, an indication or if you want to know your state with God, and you want to know where you are, then you have to pay attention to what you're doing by yourself. So when you're alone, no one else is around. There's no way for people to see you do, you know, observe you. How are you using your time? What are you engaged with? And that is really an indication of your state. And then in terms of, you know, the broader meaning of Taqwa, there are so many definitions. And, you know, there are technical definitions actually in this book, where the foundations of the spiritual path was first printed for my understanding in English was in the book Agenda to Change Our Conditions. So if you don't have this text, this is actually a wonderful text as well, because it is really about doing what, you know, this text also discusses, which is changing. And, you know, coming to a point where you really want to start to practice your faith with sincerity. So they have the first entire chapter is on the definition of Taqwa and the benefits. And so, you know, there's different scholars who gave their own interpretations of what Taqwa means, but I'll just read briefly here. So see the other, what had been Ashab defines Taqwa as follows. The summation of Taqwa is avoiding prohibitions and fulfilling injunctions both inwardly and outwardly. And then in his book of definitions, Imam of Jorjani defines it accordingly. Linguistically, it means to ward off. In other words, it is to take precaution. According to the scholars of truth, it is to protect oneself from the punishment of Allah by obedience to him. And it is to guard the self from Allah's punishment due to an omission of a right action or commission of a wrong action. What is intended in ones of the hands is sincerity. And Ibn Ashab says that there's four aspects to Taqwa. And he says that first, it's fulfilling obligations outwardly, fulfilling obligations inwardly, avoiding prohibitions outwardly and avoiding prohibitions inwardly. So it's interesting again here is that even within the way that Taqwa is defined, this condition is necessary, right? That we are mindful inwardly, outwardly, publicly, privately, all these conditions are embedded even in the concept of Taqwa itself. So that's just again speaks to, you know, what your level of sincerity really is. Because we can all say on our tongues that we fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that we really are mindful of him and that we, you know, are want to obey him. But the proof, as they say, is in the putting or in the actions, right? And so that is determined both privately and publicly. So that's the very first foundation. So we have to commit to that. And that's where I think, obviously, Alhamdulillah, the month of Ramadan is a great time of spiritual reset for many of us, all of us, hopefully, for us to really come to terms with whether or not we're truly sincere. And so there's a lot of time where we're alone. And maybe we're not in our normal routines, because I know, you know, people take time off work. And usually there's adjustments made in our schedules for this last month. But we might find that we have a lot more time on our hands now that we're not eating and drinking and socializing and going out and meeting friends and meeting family. So what are we doing? You know, what are we doing? And so this is being the very first point is something that we should all really take inventory of ourselves and our actions and where we have been over the course of our lives and whether or not we can objectively and truthfully say that when we are alone, we are displaying Kaplah. And I think that's a question we all have to ask for ourselves. Like when we are by ourselves, are we mindful of our Lord or are we distracted? And then the next question obviously would be if we're distracted, what are we distracted by? And that's when we get to, you know, the practical steps of changing course, right? Because if we're not here yet, then inshallah, that's where we should be. And so we'll get to that later. But the next, you know, point of the five, right? The next one he mentions is adherence to the sunnah in word and deed. Again, you'll see it's a conditional statement. So, you know, it's very easy for some of us. I mean, I don't, you know, I was looking at, I have, I recently moved. And so I have a lot of books in boxes still. And I was looking through some of my boxes and looking through some of my books. And I realized, yallah, may Allah be gentle with us and not take us to account for all of the things that we're not acting upon, right? Because I'm just overwhelmed with how many books I have. And I love books. I just yesterday went to a bookstore because I had a little bit of time and I could spend a lot of time in bookstores because I love books. And I think a lot of us, you know, we may see ourselves like that. But then it's the acting upon the knowledge that we read or learn that is really important. So, you know, this concept of knowing about the Prophet's life. So knowing his sunnah, right? Many people know his stories. Many people, many of us have sat in classes. We've read his seerah. We've listened to lectures on his seerah. You know, we've even taught our children or other children, maybe, but we have definitely engaged with the sunnah on an intellectual level, right? And I think people, Marshall, I'm always impressed. Sometimes I meet people and they know, like, you know, the names of the Sahaba, like just, they know them intimately. They know so many details. But again, the true mark of taqwa or of whether or not you're doing this right is, are you acting upon the sunnah? Because it makes very little difference if you have all of that knowledge. But then in your actions, you're nowhere near trying to at least embody the Prophet's life set up. I mean, obviously, he's perfect. He's complete. He's our exemplar. And we may never achieve that level, but it's the effort that we're looking for. So if we're not even striving towards really changing our customs, our ways, and to adopt his ways, and that's a deficiency that we need to contend with and ask why. And this is where it takes a lot of self reflection and knowledge. You have to have knowledge of yourself in order to know what you're working with, right? So that's baseline. You have to know your temperament, your personality type, and then realize that in order to be more like, be more prophetic like, you're going to have to make some adjustments, right? And so that is going to require a lot of internal spiritual work and self development. You're going to have to face your blemishes. We all have them. We're all completely riddled with spiritual diseases and shortcomings and character flaws and vices, bad habits. We all have them. But again, when we say adherence to the sunnah and word indeed, it's being so aware of those things that you want to transform. And then you have obviously the example to model yourself after. So you're learning the sunnah for the provisional sunnah and it should fill your heart with pride and love and joy for him because that's also part of our faith that we love him more than we love ourselves. We should do that. But the actual true example or manifestation of that love comes from adopting his sunnah and really ridding ourselves of anything that goes against his sunnah, certainly that. And then the other things that we have to modify and change and refine over time, we do it with the need to try to be as much like him as we possibly can. So again, that's foundational. These are all the, you know, as, as, you know, the example goes of a structure, of any structure. You lay the foundation first before you build upon. So that's what we're talking about here. This is what, these are the prerequisites that we need in order to then beautify our faith, right? The process that Imam al-Ghazali refers to as the three steps, right? Of tahalli, tahalli and tajalli. This is where we empty the, the, the nefs of disease and all these bad habits. And then we, you know, start to grow in our understanding and knowledge and beautify. And then we really aspire to be our, the highest forms that we can be. So it's, it's a process, but this is what's required to even get there. And that's why I think it's so needed right now. We need to really understand this, this roadmap that he's laid out for us. So adherence to the sunnah word indeed, making sure that we know the process that is the way, and then we're also modeling that. So the way again, we walk, the way we talk, the way we eat, the way we dress, the way we deal with other people, the way our transactions with human beings. What, how is it? Am I just defaulting to my personality or the way that my family raised me, even if it's against, you know, the sunnah and I'm comfortable in that. And I don't really want to change. Those are the types of questions that we have to again contend with when we look at this point of, of making sure that our outward match matches our inward understanding, our outward behavior. So then the third foundation, right? Indifference to whether others accept or reject one. And I love this point again, because it's so relevant, especially in today's day and age, when people, I think most of us, if not all of us, are so affected by, again, the social pressure, right? The social pressure can take over in many cases. And a lot of our motivations, sometimes all the blah, are not for the sake of Allah. Our intentions are not for the sake of Allah. They are for trying to, you know, either ingratiate or, or, you know, enter certain circles, be accepted by certain people, or that we have a fear of being rejected. And so when we let social pressure dictate our behavior, and we're not really dealing, we're not on, you know, we're not facing our intentions or purifying our intentions, then that can compromise our good actions. And this is why, you know, further study of the spiritual diseases of the heart is so essential, because when you realize so many of the spiritual diseases actually have to do with intention, it has to do with the starting point of your actions, then it, and this makes a lot of sense. So being indifferent to other, others accept or reject one is, is, it's a, again, it takes a lot of internal work because we have to overcome insecurities. And when you're dealing with real life, you know, situations, people have trauma from their family backgrounds in, you know, things growing up, maybe they're in relationships where they're not supported, they're not really encouraged, they don't have a lot of positive influencers. And I use that word very carefully because I'm not talking about that word in the context of social media, but like people in your life that are really positive people. And it's sad, but a lot of people don't have positive people in their life. They have people who are detractors, or as you know, they say haters, a lot of the negative energy people who tend to be more critical than positive. So what that can do for anyone, and especially if you, you know, really go back into a person's history and their, and their upbringing and their childhood, this is how we, it's a breeding ground, right, for becoming more consumed with people pleasing, because we're looking for love, we're looking for validation. So you have, you know, people and a lot of people, this is what's, what's happened to them, maybe they didn't get the love and validation from their, their parents, or their other, you know, caretakers, or maybe, as I said, they had too much negativity. And so there was just this need for, for praise or acceptance that began at such an early age, and then it was never really resolved and that continues into adulthood. But you can see how that can spiritually compromise you if you're not dealing with those things. So really working internally to face your insecurities is really important. And then to, to kind of step back and, and start to really address how people, no matter how much they, you know, goodwill they may have toward you, they don't benefit you. And that I think was, for me personally anyway, a very big realization, you know, that there are a lot of things that people do for us and a lot of good that comes from human beings. But at the end of the day, of the day, they are the seba, the means, right? The, the, the, the one who is providing those blessings and gifts, even the words that people share, compliments, kind words, dua, it's all goes back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, because every good goes back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, every good. And so, and that doesn't mean that we don't acknowledge the good of people. That's certainly not what I'm saying, because we are taught to acknowledge the good people do for us, the kind words of support. But it's more about the metaphysical lens, right? Because you can see the world from a very worldly perspective, like, you know, just like, as they say, horizontally, what's happening. So you talk to people, you're engaging with people. And so you can just leave it at that level. But once you start to kind of zoom out a little bit, and you see that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala is the one who sent, you know, that person to you, at that time, or in, you know, at that time of your life, or in that moment. And, and he's the one who's directing, you know, at all. And so if, because for example, I'll give you an example, I've had, you know, I've given talks and have been up for a long time now. And, or I've written posts, sometimes my Facebook posts or my Instagram posts, I can't tell you, I have no way of even quantifying it. How many times I've had people come up to me and say, Jazakul Khiddin, I read your post, or I heard this, and I feel like you were speaking exactly to my problem, like, exactly everything I needed to hear. I needed to hear this today. I get that sometimes almost, you know, on all my posts, I've seen some comment like that, or someone will give a feedback like that. And to me, that's just subhanAllah. You know, that's what we say, you know, divine will, divine providence. That's Allah SWT just working through His creation. I don't, I believe truly in that. And I really believe that that person, Allah SWT is communicating, you know, to them directly. And so, you know, it's just an important lens to have. And it really does help you to rid yourself when you can start to think in that way of the need for human validation. Like, you don't look for it anymore, because you're just like, no matter what, it's not them. It's Allah SWT. So whether He, you know, sends those positive messages through people's words or actions, or it's manifest in the blessings that I cannot enumerate. We cannot, we can never, I mean, I really think about this sometimes, and I'm like, subhanAllah, it's overwhelming. If you've ever, if you've ever done a gratification exercise, where you sit, I'm sorry, not gratification, gratitude exercise, where you sit and you are trying to think about all the things that you're grateful for. It's happened to me several times before, where I feel, I don't even know how to, like, what is happening? Is it a physiological visceral reaction to the process? Is it a mental spiritual? I don't know. I don't know. But I feel this, like, it's this overwhelming feeling. And all these things are emotions are coming to the surface. And I actually have to, in a way, slow down, because I can see myself if I were to continue. I don't know, maybe it would turn into something that I don't know how to, I wouldn't know how to control, because, you know, sometimes these emotional states can arise out of these exercises. So I felt that before, because I'm like, Ya Allah, it's just never ending. And what I appreciate about, you know, our teachers, Alhamdulillah, I remember years ago, like something that I never, it never occurred to me in my entire life to think of was something that, you know, Shahamza had mentioned many, many years ago, one of his classes, I don't know what, but he was talking about this positive gratitude to Allah and how much we should be doing this. And he said, you know, think about like your eyelashes. And, you know, that kind of just, you know, started like this domino effect of thoughts that were out. I was like, yeah, because he was talking about like the blessing of eyelashes. And I was like, yeah, I've never once prior to that moment in time, ever said thank you Allah for giving me eyelashes. But then when he, you know, went on to describe the immense benefit of how eyelashes protect us. And now, you know, there are so many people, especially, you know, people who have like alopecia or who are going under going cancer treatment, they lose their hair. And so that also affects their ability to be out in public. Because can you imagine, Allah protect all of us. But if you don't have certain means to protect your, you know, your most important faculties, it would be very uncomfortable, right. And so people are suffering with these things all the time. So that was just a really interesting observation. But you see, if we're not thinking of these things, then we may never even get to that point of reflection, right. If we're not thinking that there's just too many things to be grateful for. So once you start living in that way where you are seeing the Munim, right, the one who is the one who blesses us or the source of all blessings, when all of your thoughts start to go back to him, that's when you break free from the shackles of needing constant human validation. And so this third point of being indifferent. So when people come and they compliment you that it doesn't affect your heart, where you are excited for that, you know, you may be like, Alhamdulillah. And that should really be the response that you have internally, outwardly, Alhamdulillah. And you mean it, like it's all from Allah. So, you know, deflecting compliments, sometimes people get into like, you know, and I think culturally also and socially, you know, there's a lot of insecurity around how do we receive compliments, because, you know, it's something that you want to know how to do properly, right. So how do you do it properly? Well, you give credit where it's due. And so we always, we should always accept compliments because their recognition of blessings that Allah has given you. So you don't have to, you know, negate a compliment. So someone says something nice about you, you don't need to, you know, go to that extreme of wanting to show so much humility that you actually start to negate the attribute itself or the blessing itself. We don't want to do that. No, no, no, no, don't say that. That's all true. We shouldn't do that. If people make observations to say Alhamdulillah, because that is Haqq. That's Haqq. We didn't do anything to warrant the compliment to ourselves, to take, to attribute that to ourselves. No, nobody's done anything. Like all of it comes from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. Even your most, think of the thing you worked the hardest to achieve, whether it's academic pursuits or, you know, other things that you may have accomplished in your life. No part of that can you truthfully and honestly say was from you alone. It's entirely by Allah's permission and his gifts for you that you were able to do those things. So that's what this is about. Getting to that point, if I just don't really feel moved, either way, by whether or not people accept me or reject me, because my only concern is Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. And it takes a lot of, again, real deliberation to get to that point. But inshallah, we all get there, because we're living in a time where I think, especially with social media, and now the pressure of the political environment that we're in, where there's just a lot of suppression of our true values and beliefs because of fear. There's a fear that I'm going to be judged or canceled or somehow I'll get this thing taken away from you, from me. And that's where I think, unfortunately, a lot of things have, it's fostered a lot of harm in our world when people just silently acquiesce and we don't really speak up or speak the truth. And not, you know, not our truth, as they say, nowadays, where everybody has their own truth. We're talking about truth, like speaking the truth. And of course, there's a way to do that. We have guidance on how to give, for example, nasiha or how to speak truth, as they say, to power. There's always guidance on these things. But the point is, is not allowing the fear or the desire to be accepted by people or the fear of rejection dictate. And that is, again, foundation. Also, it's like inshallah, you can see, and I don't mean to overwhelm anybody, but if this is the foundation of our faith, then you can imagine how beautiful and how much more is involved when we start to build upon that foundation. But if these are, this is what our scholars are calling us to the best versions of ourselves. So they're really helping us to, you know, to cleanse these, these impurities from our soul, inshallah. So that's the third point. And the fourth point we have is contentment with Allah in times of both hardship and ease. And again, so beautiful because this is in, you know, in, in today's world, it's very easy to worship Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala when things are difficult because it's a coping mechanism sometimes, which is good. I mean, there's nothing necessarily wrong with turning to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. But I think a lot of us may naturally do that, right? And you can see that when a tragedy hits, people usually turn to their, to their spiritual, you know, practice or faith or whatever it is, you know, I'm speaking generally as a human beings, right? If they have that, if they have faith. But the fact that he's put, again, this condition here, contentment, having ridah with Allah, when things are difficult to not just, I'm sorry, when things are difficult, but also when they're with ease. Because, you know, to be, and I'm sorry, I think I'm actually, I'm switching the two here. So I apologize. Let me, let me backtrack. So the first, this point is about contentment. So it's having pleasure with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala being content with Allah during hardship and ease, right? And that's difficult because it's easy to be happy with Allah, when things are going well, right? If he's, if everything's, you know, smooth sailing, you know, your, your personal life is great, your health is, Alhamdulillah, your children, your family, everything's in order, finances. I mean, you would expect nothing less than for you to be grateful and to be in a good state with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So that's kind of obvious. But what about when he withholds something? What about when you are put through a difficulty? Are you just as content? And that's the really good question here. And it's very much tied with the last point here, which is the kind of our, you know, you can, you can go between them to their interchangeable. But the idea is consistency, right? That you're not like, you don't treat Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala as though Allah, I hate using this analogy, but it's the first thing that comes to my mind. As though, you know, that he is there to just whip up like your, your dreams and wishes for you, you know, like, like, you know, that that's all you think of when you think of Allah. And as long as he's doing that, like your prayers are being answered, your dreams are being fulfilled, your desires are being fulfilled, that you're happy with him. But once, you know, things get a little harder and more difficult, that you suddenly start to turn away from him, you're now doubting, you're distrusting of his decree. Those are the types of things that I think, again, we have to be really addressed within ourselves. Do I do that? Do I feel constriction toward Allah, where I'm just not, I don't, I don't feel as open and as full of love, because now I'm going through something hard? Or is it consistent? Because I realize that all of it is good as the process I'm taught us, right? Alhamdulillah, ala kulli hal. Like that level of awareness, again, these are things that we're all hopefully aspiring to. But to see it all from him, that whether it's a tribulation in my personal life or hayr, there's openings, it's all from Allah. And there's lessons that I'm supposed to glean from these events, instead of just wallowing or falling into a state of, again, distrust or disease. And I start to, you know, question things. And that's, you know, these this is where paying attention to our thoughts, making sure that we have really good people around us who can help us. Because Iblis, obviously, that's the other part of this. He will see us in those vulnerable states. And, you know, he will magnify the hardships and minimize the blessings so that we start to fall into these really negative states. And so catching ourselves and say, wait a second, where was I, you know, I mean, when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was, was blessing me for years and years and years. And this is why learning, for example, the story of Prophet Ayyub alaihi salam and other prophets is so important, because they give us that perspective. Like, they lived years of abundance and joy and hayr. And so when the hardships came, they weren't suddenly, you know, having a crisis and fades, they were totally accepting that this is from the same source. And so that's how we can contend with, with whether or not we have ridah with Allah consistently. And then the last point, again, is very much tied, but it's really about action, right? Like, what is, what is our protocol? So when you're in a state of prosperity that Allah has given you all these blessings, right? Are you continuously turning to Him? Are you getting up every night for your, you know, the hajj and your prayers, making sure you're doing them all on time as early as possible? Are you engaging with the Book of Allah swt? Are you doing your daily adhkar? Are you doing that in times of prosperity? Or, as I was saying earlier, is it something that you do naturally or reflexively when things are, you know, when you're scared? There's a fear element, right? We go into panic mode. And we saw a lot of this, for example, during COVID, you know, you can just think back on the fear that took over so many people, many people found faith, right? That they didn't have before, which is Alhamdulillah good, guidance any which way is good, right? But it's about, you know, consistency, that if we're not, if we're, if we only, and I remember like, it was like an ongoing kind of joke when I was in school or college. But finals week was the time where everybody was suddenly super religious, you know, because we're, we're all worried that, oh, you know, we want to get the best grades. So people started to pray and somewhat even fast and they were very serious because they were scared that, you know, I need, I need to do well. And so I have to turn to God right now. But then as soon as they got, you know, the results, then they weren't doing the same. So that's the problem with, you know, the mind that doesn't understand that really, and if you look at all five of these points, the message that I hope should be very clear to all of us is it's really about consistency. And every single point, he's emphasizing that you can't have this, you know, difference as cognitive dissonance or this, you know, outward and inward duplicity where you're just a different person, you know, in private and public and you're not consistent. Consistency is again, I mean, it's one of the, one of the many beautiful virtues of the prophecy that we also need to, to be aware of that he didn't have these these dual sides. He was a very consistent person. And that that's not to say that he didn't have his private life with his, you know, family more intimately than when he was in social, in social settings, of course, that's just natural. But we're talking about character, we're talking about, you know, one's lived experience being aligned with their faith regardless of people, right, regardless of, of who's watching who's around. And I think it takes a great deal of practice, inshallah, to get there and may Allah give us all the food to get there. But again, what I love about this, you know, road map that Saddam al-Zarif has put out is he's laying it for us. He's given us the tools, he's given it to us the criteria for what we need to really build upon. And so there's so much to explore with this. And there's a lot more to be said and shared. But let's read from this paragraph. And then we can maybe stop if there's some time for Q&A. Here's this paragraph that follows right at the bottom. It says, the realization of mindfulness of Allah is through scrupulousness and uprightness. So now he's giving us the practicum, right? Like, how do we actually do this? So if you want to have true taqwa of Allah, you have to be mindful of it. You have to be thinking of it. And every moment you really can, if you try hard enough, you look at what you're doing in the moment and we can maybe go through some exercises where we do this, but just how you can train your mind to create a little trail that goes back to Allah. It's not difficult. It's actually easy to do. And I've kind of in my own life forced that process because I wanted to try to do that. So at every moment, I'll try to find something. I mean, obviously, I'm not perfect. I definitely fall short. But it's something that if we're deliberate about inshallah, we can do more than not doing it at all. So being mindful of Allah is through scrupulousness and uprightness. Again, just being aware of oneself, being upright, having the understanding of what good character is and all of the virtuous behaviors that we should be embodying as Muslims, just following the sunnah, the prophesy sunnah, which is the second point here. The realization of adherence to the sunnah is through caution and excellent character. The realization of indifference to others, acceptance or rejection is through patience and trust in Allah. And that's really again beautiful that we, because people will disappoint us, people will hurt us. So I think the more we learn to lower our expectations of the creation of Allah, then the more we will increase our expectation of the Creator. And that's really comes through patience and just tawakal, you know, just trust, putting our confidence in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, right? If you're grateful, I'll increase you. So knowing that the gifts are coming, and then anindithani abdibi, all of these beautiful, you know, teachings and principles of our faith that Allah swt is incentivizing us with, right? That if you, I am in the opinion of my servant, so just be mindful, but have the best opinion of Allah and He will show you in due time. And then the realization of contentment is through acceptance to what one is given and turning over the management of one's affairs to Allah. So, you know, again, it's a station to get to this point of really being content with Allah and people are going to, we're all going to go through different struggles in our lives, where this lesson may be really the point to make sure that we're getting this lesson that maybe, for example, again, something may be withheld from us for some period of time. We may be in that limbo of uncertainty, which is very difficult if you've ever been there before. If you don't know if something is going to unfold a certain way, whether it's with your health or a personal, you know, your personal relationships, it's very difficult to be patient, but to surrender or to, you know, to turn over one's affairs to Allah swt that is so beautiful, right? It's just such a beautiful concept that Allah, I'm incapable. I have no way of seeing this through. I can't see the future. I don't know what's in my good. And that's why I sell out the list to Allah. It's such a gift for us because we are literally asking Allah swt to take over our affairs when we miss each other in that way. But it's such a gift because it's true and we are surrendering to our Creator. And that's what He loves to see. The more we surrender and show our confidence and faith in our Creator, the more content He is with us. And then it's, that's where, you know, in the Ma'ala Suryaustra, in the Ma'ala Suryaustra, you know, that the ease will come after the difficulty. But He sometimes puts us through certain trials to get to that level where we really have surrendered. So it's, inshallah, Ma'ala, give us all of that. I mean, give us all that ability to get there, inshallah. And then the realization of turning back to Allah is through praise and gratitude in times of prosperity and taking refuge in Him in times of affliction. Again, beautiful, because the more mindful we are of Him and just constantly, Alhamdulillah, you know, really being in that state of just abundant gratitude. And, you know, and I actually like to call it even actionable gratitude because gratitude isn't just saying Alhamdulillah. I mean, it's part of it. It's shukr al-lisan. So it's the gratitude of the tongue. But it has to be deeply rooted in the heart, right? So shukr al-al-qalb is really more important that you truly feel grateful to Allah, you know, that it's not just something you're saying. But, you know, a good exercise would be the next time someone does something for you, catch yourself, because sometimes we'll say, thank you so much. And we say it because it's that social etiquette. You know, someone does something nice to you, you should say thank you. But how many of us take a moment and think about that? Like, I'll tell you just on Friday, I mean, I'll just thought about it right now. On Friday, I was teaching. I teach Alhamdulillah at a wonderful school at North Star, which is here in the Bay Area. Alhamdulillah. And many of our Rahmah founders and teachers are part of that school as well. Make da'a please for the success of the school and all the students and families. But I was teaching there Alhamdulillah. And just at the end of the class, right when we're all about to leave, one of my lovely students comes and she hands me, let me see if I can get it for you. I think I have it. She hands me this beautiful bag. And first of all, this bag, oh, I don't know if you can see it, not probably because I have a filter. Oh, wait, no, it's hiding my face. There you can see it. She gives me this beautiful bag. And I, if you, if you know me, I love this Zilej print. I have a lot of things in my house with this print. So I, and her mother actually, Mashallah is the one who put this gift together. So she knows my love for her, but I think she, anyway, she gave Mashallah gifts to the teachers and I was very fortunate to be counted among them. Although I don't work full time, but anyhow, so she gives me this gift. And I just was like so taken aback not because I was surprised at her giving me a gift. She's, they're a very beautiful family. But you know, I had been having one of those days, just feeling heavy. This is a heavy time for my family and I as it's, there's just a lot of things that happened in my, in our family. My father's eight year passing anniversary will be in just a few days. My mother was Allah, and Allah, she was ill last year at this time. So I just been feeling very heavy thinking about them. And, you know, she didn't know that. And I was, you know, just teaching mode. But she gave me this gift and it just like hit me, you know, with like real, because it's Allah, right? He's the one who, who puts, you know, these, these thoughts, you could say in the minds of his creation, like, you know, we need people all the time. Someone thought of you, you know, and they put together a beautiful gift. And then they came without knowing at all that you were having a heavy day. And they gave you this beautiful gift and it's got so many wonderful things in it. And they had no idea that they were going to make such an impact on your heart. But when you step back and you say, that's Allah, right? He's working through his creation. That's the shukr al qal. That's what we should be aiming for, like that degree of thank you, Allah. You see us. And you remove pain in this way. You know, so that's where the gratitude moves from the tongue to the, it's in the heart. And then it's the actions that you do that follow, right? The door that you make for that family. You know, the well wishes that you wish for them. And then, inshallah, maybe you'll have the opportunity to gift them as well, right? The head of the habu. We should be giving gifts because it's going to increase love for, for one another. The Prophet s.a.w. taught us. So this is a real gratitude, right? That we have that awareness that Allah s.w. is always the one where every good that we have is from him. There's nowhere else that, you know, that, that you can attribute the good of your life. Nobody else, your parents. Yes, they're again, the means, but it's Allah who blessed you with those parents. So Alhamdulillah, being mindful in times of prosperity. And then when things happen, right? When, when calamities hit, which they will, that we immediately turn to Allah, that our first thought is, yeah, Allah. And I'll give you again an example. You know, when, when my mother, Alayrahman was in the hospital last year, there was a period where, you know, he shared this because it's relevant and I'm already an emotional mess. So why not? But it's about Allah. When there was a point where she was in the hospital and this was before we knew the gravity of her state. We didn't know how, what was going to come. So there was a lot of momentum and, you know, we were looking forward for treatments and all of this. And so I had spent some time in the hospital with her. And at one point I needed to go home because I had a, I slept basically at the hospital in the car. I was just there for a few days. And I decided I need to come home for a break to just to basically freshen up. And, and then I was going to go back. So I sought her permission. She was still awake at that time. And I said, I'll be back. I just need to go, you know, and there was a bit of a drive. I said, I'll be back. And so I came home. And this is where, again, Allah, he's going to test you. I had just seen her. I just spoke to my mother. And my sister was with her. She was not alone. Everything seemed fine. I came home. I saw my children and husband after a few days. I went to freshen up and shower and I came out. And it was about a 15 minute window. And this is what I mean when calamity strikes. 15 minute window of me feeling somewhat like, you know, normal, as you can say, because I felt like I was in an alternate universe. When I came out, my phone was just buzzing. Like it was blowing up with message after message after message. And I was like, freshly out of the shower, I'm just trying and I see these messages. And I immediately was like, Allah, because it was my sister was with my mother and she had an unfortunate issue come up. And it was very, very serious, basically. She had cardiac arrest while my sister was in a room with her. And so I'm seeing these text messages just completely. I just was calling on a lot and I immediately ran out of the house at a record time. I got in my car and the entire car, I just cried more in that maybe than I ever have in my life. And I just begged him to please not take her from us. I couldn't even bear the thought of that. Like it was, I just saw her how, you know, just please don't take her suddenly from us. I just, I can't, we're not ready. I don't know what to do. And I begged and I begged. But my point in sharing is the doctors were with her. She's in a hospital. The nurses were there. My sister, family members were there for her. Nobody could help her. Nobody helped her in that moment. Allah does with his dominion what he wills. And he, in the moment that I left, just, you know, put her and all of us through that test. But it's again, he can do that. Our response to that is where we show our belief in him. And I just, for me at that point, it was like, Allah, you're the only one. I can't call on anybody at this point. And Alhamdulillah, you know, we got to the hospital. And although she suffered, you know, an incident was very serious. Code blew all of it, the whole thing. Alhamdulillah, they had stabilized her and she was again awake. And it was just like, Oh my God, thank you, Allah. Thank you for hearing on it, for hearing us. Thank you for accepting our dua that this, please don't take her from us. But, you know, it wasn't long after that he took his creation back. He called her back. And that was his will. And we had to, as a family, deal with that. It was, it was, that was our test. But this is life. This is dunya. So in times of affliction, the only refuge is Allah. And I'm telling you, from my experience, that was the hardest test of my life, weeks at the hospital. But you can ask the people closest to me in my life. I really couldn't even talk to people. I just, you get to a point where you realize, I just need Allah. And that's it. And the Quran was my best friend. And the prayer mat was my best friends. And that's, that's, that's what we need to really realize. If we want to get through the trial of this dunya, refuge is Allah. He's the only refuge we need. Alhamdulillah. So I think I did, I went over, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. But if we have time to go over some questions or comments, I'm happy to stay a little longer, maybe 10, 15 minutes. So thank you for that beautiful introduction to the text, as well as just kind of laying the foundation for us. And there wouldn't be a class with you, if you didn't share something to really move our hearts. Let's take a few moments to answer some of these questions that we have. We have questions in both the Q&A as well as the chat. Just going forward, it's easier for us to follow the questions in the Q&A because the chat is moving. So if you put your questions in the Q&A, it's easier for us to follow. Would you like me to read the questions or do you want to? Sure. If you want to point me to the questions that you vetted, that's helpful too. Or you can read them, however. Okay. I'm just going to start with the Q&A, just as a sort of disciplining. That way we know that students next week, when Shala will use the Q&A. So I'll start there. It says, As-Salamu alaykum wa s-ta'ala ho say, can you please address the idea of spiritual bypassing in the context of detaching from dunya? How can we strike a balance in being emotionally present and available in this life while working towards our akhira and not becoming flooded by dunya? Mashallah, a great question. It's something that I think may be the easiest way that I can answer it is there are others who've written on this topic of just becoming more self-reliant and the detachment process. But I did write an article that, for me, it was kind of my own way of coming to this point of realization that I really want to not have these attachments. And so I wrote an article for Medina Institute. Let me see if I can find it. But I feel like it really does help on this topic of how we can move away from our attachments of dunya and become more self-reliant, all based on the sunnah. This is actually a prophetic practice. And he encouraged us to not have attachments to even people and to not ask for people of things. These are things that I think more of us need to speak on. And I know it's a delicate balance because obviously we're in the world. We have relationships. We have to, we're constantly, I mean, there are rights that we have over people and obligations. So there is this, you know, balance that we have to find. But I think it's you, for me, I feel like so much of this gets resolved when we adopt a mindset and then we're fixed in that mindset. So our mindset has to be that metaphysical effort of mindset. And once you have that mindset, then the other things kind of just start to make sense. So I'll try to find the article. Insha'Allah, let me see if I can do that. And you can also share it next week. But if you find it in the meantime, we can always share a via email. Okay, so in the meantime, I'm going to read you the next question. Insha'Allah. It says, Masha'Allah. Everything you have said is on point and relatable. You mentioned the lack of love as a younger child that manifests as we become adults in society. How can we stay strong when we still seek the love from our parents, knowing we can't force anyone to love us in an affectionate way? But I guess my question is more pertinent to the patients needed to accept this. Being a daughter of immigrants pose the effect of receiving love in the means of meeting our basic needs and meeting our educational needs. But there was always a lack of love in a relationship. Yeah, Masha'Allah. I think, you know, I can also in a way speak about this because, you know, when you have multi like sibling families, you can, some children, it's all like mentioned, she comes actually mentioned this recently about like hierarchies that even within family systems, birth order, they're hierarchy. So some children get more love and others just don't. And I think some of us may have even had that experience where we get lost in the shuffle because there's too many and parents can only do so much, especially immigrant parents who are dealing with all the challenges of coming to a new country and starting over. So being forgiving that it's not personal, because sometimes we personalize things because it, you know, speaks to those insecurities we may have. And maybe we have core memories that are really hard to erase. So we start to build like a narrative. But at the end of it, when you have a more broader holistic view of things, you start to see that I'm personalizing. In my case, for example, my mother, I mean, she, you know, we're Afghani. And so she came from the Pashtun culture that was not very demonstrative. It was not a very affectionate. It's not a very, I mean, for women anyway, you know, some of our women are very tough women. And so my mother, growing up, she was, you know, tough, but she was also tough because she was put in a very difficult situation to raise five kids, leave her home country, leave everything behind, not speak the language, have to barely, you know, survive on whatever means that my father could produce. She was a homemaker. So she had all of that context that as a child, you don't, you're not aware of, you're not cognizant of. But as an adult, you are. So for myself, I started to really, once I had children, start to see my mother in a very different light growing up than I did when I was younger, which I did feel I was the fourth in line. And, you know, my mother and I would kind of had our differences growing up in my teenage years. So then I was a bit of a black sheep, you know, I wore, I mean, I came to Islam and I did a lot of things that didn't, I mean, I kind of broke the, the, the, the power of the expected expectations, I guess I challenged some of those expectations. So anyway, my point is it was, it wasn't until later on when I started to really see how much my mother went through and that empathy that I had for her made me realize I personalized so much that was not personal, my poor mom, like she was just trying to survive. And that actually completely changed my relationship with her. And we became very close, Alhamdulillah, up until, you know, her passing, you know, Alhamdulillah, I'm very grateful to Allah, I was able to take her to Umrah. Alhamdulillah, we had a lot of great times together, just talking, she would call me for therapy because after my father passed away, Allah, Alhamdulillah, she really had a lot of emotions. And so I, I just, we had a different connection, but you have to find the empathy within yourself to see your parents as they're, they're not always delivered. InshaAllah, nothing is ever delivered. I mean, that's not to say there aren't, and I'm not speaking about your parents, but there are parents who, Alhamdulillah, you know, may have, may have harmed their children, may Allah forgive them. But I think a lot of our parents may have inadvertently caused harm, but the Nia wasn't to harm. And once you come to that point, you can forgive them. But then also the other part of it, which is Allah, you know, like I, you know, to start to prioritize you know, the love that you have for Allah and wanting His Radha for you, just starts to make your human relationships, yes, important, but not as important. Because when Allah becomes your, you know, your focus, then He will start to fill you with a level of again, Radha within yourself that will heal a lot of these wounds. And I'm speaking from personal experience, you know, I've lived through a few different things in my life, where I feel like it's only the love of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala that healed those wounds for me, nothing else, only the love of Allah. Alhamdulillah. There's sort of a flip side question to this idea of, you know, it says how do you navigate family environments where there is an unset expectation to make appearances when you are someone that has the mindset of I have no need to please others or look for praise in those environments. So sort of like this little switch, if you're only looking to please Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and then in that way, you have no need to please others or look for praise in the environments, how does that, I can see that sort of as like going too far to the one side on, you know, the flip side. How would you address that? Yeah, that's that, I'm sorry, is this something that I want to read this question? Yeah, it's in the Q&A. Is it already answered? No, it's in the open. Okay, so if you, and I'm assuming, I don't know, sister, if this is the case, but I'm assuming maybe you are a trophy child, right? Because sometimes our parents like to showcase us for different reasons. So if you find that you're being used in that way, you know, and it's putting you, it's kind of making you maybe, you know, like it's difficult to reconcile your Nia because of it, then I would just say, you know, make your intention a bit, if it's your parents that are asking you to do things, but you're not in it for the praise, you don't really want to do things for others to know or acknowledge you, but you're doing it for your parents, then just make it your Nia that I'm doing this for the sake of Allah to please them so that they are pleased with me because that is also a huge part of our faith, that we seek out every opportunity to praise our parents. And if it means, you know, kind of putting ourselves in awkward situations for their sake, as long as internally there's no conflict, there's no ulterior intention, then there shouldn't be an issue, and inshallah Allah accepts your Nia because you're doing it for that beautiful intention. I hope that was in line with the question. Yeah, I think, I think you brought it back to Bid al-Wadi Dayan, which is a really good reason to do things, but sometimes we feel like, you know, we don't want to because it may put us out there or we're showing off or something, but if you can just bring it back to just putting joy in the heart of your parents, it goes a long way in terms of our relationship with Allah's fountain. Absolutely. There's one last one, when struggling with low self-esteem more often than not, you find the confidence in people's words and acceptance to what you've done, and when they don't, you start to question where you went wrong. How do you shift that reliance back to Allah's fountain and not what people say to you or about you? That's a great question. Again, I'm giving you like real lived experience here because, you know, as you know, being a public figure, you end up getting a lot of attention from people. And so then there is a time, I remember before I even understood the diseases of the heart, where I absolutely, I know I did, I had, you know, Riyadh for sure, Summah, probably all the diseases of the heart that deal with wanting to be known and recognized and people saying things to you and complimenting you. I had all of it. And like you said, you kind of grow a dependency on it, and when they don't do it, you start to doubt yourself. But over time, as I said, when you start to peel back the layers and see that sometimes, you know, people are, they just, you know, they say things that maybe they're genuine, maybe they're just saying that because that's an expectation that they think that you need to hear something, you know, but it's not always necessarily true. You know, some people do flatter, people do give empty compliments. It's just the fact. So I have just over the years realized like I inshallah, and maybe I'll always keep it so, but I don't put a lot of weight in the compliments that I receive. I'm very self critical. So for me, it's whether or not, you know, I feel like I put my best effort into something. If I did something with inshallah, with it, and I feel that I put my best effort, then I feel that they see it will come, you know, the facilitation comes, it comes, but I don't necessarily look for, you know, the compliments. I'm looking at it more like, you know, in terms of the effectiveness, the impact. So I think looking at the impact of your actions is more important than looking at how people perceive you as a result of what you do or say, like, you know, and I again, I'm, you know, I'm speaking from a very personal experience, but I think generally, just no longer seeking people's praise because you realize like there's very little value in what someone says to you if it's not true. And the true way, the true measure of yourself is with Allah, like how, you know, because people could think all sorts of things about you, they could think you're the nicest wonder, most pious person ever. But if that's not true, then why did that compliment impact you, right? It's just, it's just a perception. Whereas the truth, it's like a mirror. The truth is your, you know, relationship with Allah. And if you're striving, you're working hard, you're getting up, you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, you're self critical, you're doing your mahasiba, then that is a greater indication of your truth and your true essence and value than anything that anybody has to say about you, no matter who that person is, because they don't know you. The only one who truly knows you is your Lord. JazakAllah Khairan, if you could just end with the closing dua for the Yes, JazakAllah Khairan again, and I'm sorry that I didn't get to all the questions, but if there's a way to maybe log these questions, we did, we hit all of them. Okay, even in the chats, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, please, okay. Alright, JazakAllah Khairan, Bismillah, Rahman, Raheem, JazakAllah Khairan, everyone. InshaAllah, we will see you next week at the same time on Monday, and if there are any other questions you have, please send them our way. Thank you so much. Thank you, Sadafah Dua. Thank you, and inshaAllah, we'll send out a one-day reminder and a one-hour reminder for class as well as the link for the text via email, so it should come from Zoom, and it will have this, it'll be the same link, and please encourage others to log on and join this wonderful class, inshaAllah. Assalamu alaikum. Alhamdulillah. Assalamu alaikum, welcome, everyone. Thank you for being here. InshaAllah, we will begin shortly. Sadafah Dua is not able to be here today, so I'm kind of doing this on my own solo, so just bear with me as I bring up all my slides and get everything ready, inshaAllah. All right, alhamdulillah. So first of all, if you're here for the first time, welcome. This is our second session, Foundations of the Spiritual Path. The recording did go out, so if you weren't here for last week, inshaAllah, you can watch the recording when you're, when it's convenient for you, but we'll continue the text, inshaAllah, where we left off. Before that though, if you remember, I made mention last week that I was trying to memorize the dua for studying, and I shared it with all of you, so I'll be reciting that for a brief moment, and then we'll begin the actual text, inshaAllah. Alhamdulillah. Ameen, Ameen, may Allah accept it on behalf of everyone here, alhamdulillah. So the text that we are reading from is Foundations, and we're going to also pull that up, and hopefully you have your PDF as well, inshaAllah, we can all read together. Just again, bear with me as I bring up, there it is. Okay, so now where'd my Zoom screen go? Too many screens, wow. Okay, I lost my Zoom screen, it's hilarious. There you are, there I am. All right, one moment, this screen share. So here we go. So just a quick review for those who are joining us, maybe today for the first time. We mentioned last week just some biographical information about Sidi Ahmad Zarrukh, who authored this text, Shahamza translated it, and then we introduced it, starting with just this section here. So we read only a small part of it, this is actually pretty lengthy text, so I don't know how much we'll be able to get done in Ramadan. We may possibly have to go beyond Ramadan, but inshaAllah we'll do our best. So just a summary, basically the text is a roadmap for the seeker, for the person on the spiritual path, for the student of knowledge, for all of us, to really be able to clearly build upon a foundation. And so it's called Foundations of the Spiritual Path. And what he does is he introduces first the foundation, like what is required, what is the prerequisite of someone who actually is on this path, and he lists those at the very beginning. And then he works backwards in terms of mentioning what would be required to get to these foundations. So we started off by explaining and just getting commentary on what these foundations are. So for example, and again, I'll just quickly summarize them. We have the first one being taqwa, mindfulness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala privately and publicly, and then adherence to the sunnah in both word and deed, indifference to whether others accept or reject one, contentment with Allah in times of both hardship and ease, and then turning to Allah in prosperity and adversity. And so again, I pointed this out last week, but there are conditionals here. These are taqwa, of course, as a given, as Muslims we all understand taqwa, but the conditionals that he provides are that it has to be consistent. You have to be a consistent person, right? You can't just have a persona and show up, you know, part-time as being a person who has taqwa, because other people might be around you. So he puts those conditionals, actually on each point here, there are conditionals, but the first one is that you are, you have that taqwa, you can maintain it even when you're by yourself. And that's obviously a station to get to that level of awareness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. It requires work, which is what we're going to start to now explain. The prerequisites to getting to even to these five. So there's that consistency factor and then the same with the sunnah, right? Many of us, as I mentioned last week, we may be very well aware of, you know, aspects of the Prophet's life, certain teachings, because we've heard them, you know, we've heard them our whole lives, maybe our parents or relatives or from our teachers at the Masjid or Islamic school, Sunday school. So we may know them, but knowing them is only part of it. It's the action that has to follow. So there has to also be, you know, it has to show that you understand, you know, who the Prophet's life was, that he is our exemplar, and you are doing your best to emulate him. And that would show obviously in your actions. So you're constantly trying to better yourself according to his way. So, you know, and everything, this is where adapting, for example, the sunnahs would obviously be the first point. Like, what were the sunnahs of the Prophet's life? So how did he begin his day? How did he, what are the different, you know, actions that he did throughout the day? Where did he spend his most of his time? And then what are the accompanying du'as for those actions, right? Because obviously he was a human, like us. And so he, he did many of the same things that we do, but he also taught us how to do it best, right? So when he got dressed, for example, you know, starting his day, he did so in the best manner. And so he's showing us those steps, you know, how he started with his right and then his left, and then the du'a of actually wearing clothes when he would enter or use the restroom, leave the restroom. There's all these beautiful du'as that we should know, and we should certainly be able to almost imagine him as we're doing them, because that's what a guide is. It's someone that you try to, to emulate and follow. So to that degree, we should be familiar with the sunnah, and then obviously put that into action in our own practice. So the du'as that we say should follow his du'as. And just to even teach our children that this is how we protect them, right? We're at a time of immense fitnah, of immense fitnah. And if we're not giving our children the best course, then all of these other deviations, deviated paths will start to, to take hold of them, because, you know, we're, we're denying them, which is one of the rights of children, this, this knowledge. So we have to be very mindful, but first, obviously we need it for ourselves. So the sunnah is, again, we have to be consistent. And then the third point is also very important, that once you embark on this path to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, you don't concern yourself with the opinions of other people. And we have to also qualify that a little bit, because we do have social responsibility. We have responsibilities to our family, our community. So this is not, you know, what we find today, which is, you know, I'm going to do me and I don't care how it affects other people. That's not what this is. This is a matter of your heart. This is a matter of not being compelled to action, because you're trying to impress people, or you're trying to avoid being ostracized. Because what that does is it, it's, it's, it's an issue because the intention has to be for the sake of Allah. But when we start to, you know, factor in other people, then it's no longer purely for his sake. So learning how to do things truly, because we want his pleasure, we want his ridah with us, right? We want him to, we want to be pure and sincere in our devotion to him. But if we're also bringing in, you know, this group or that group or this teacher or that teacher into our heart, then this would be a compromise of that pure intention. So that's why the indifference is, is again, you have to work on yourself because you have to really have those conversations with yourself. Like, why would I seek the approval of other people? You know, in that type of line of questioning, you'll, it's a self-discovery process, because maybe there's, you know, factors, like, you know, if you, for example, are familiar with, you know, children who come from multi-sibling households, we know from research that some children, depending on where they fall in the order, may be susceptible to excessive people pleasing, right? So if you're a middle child, you know, you may have what they call the middle child syndrome, which is, you felt pretty neglected growing up because your parents' attention was given so many, so much to the siblings before you and the siblings after you, but maybe you somehow got lost in the shuffle, which is a very lived and real experience, you know. And I've, as someone who comes from a household of five or five of us, I certainly felt that growing up, you know, I felt, I'm forth in line, but I do feel like I kind of had the middle child affected because I felt it growing up. But recently, Sheikh Hamza actually was speaking about hierarchies, you know, that hierarchies are real, and he brought that point to this, you know, to, or he brought that perspective that this is from Allah, that Allah swt actually puts us in these systems, in these family systems in order for us to learn, right, that some he gives to some and he doesn't give to others. So it's very intentional that we experience these things, right? So if you're aware of yourself and you know that that might be something that you grapple with, then when you have this introspection, this, you know, where you're asking yourself like, why do I always seek people's validation, then maybe you can arrive at, you know, at the same conclusion, which is, I didn't maybe get that from my parents, right, another, and we've talked about this, or I've talked about this in previous talks, but, you know, Imam al-Razadi and others reference the potent eye of the mother and the father, but specifically the mother, that we as mothers have an immense power given to us, which is our attention, right? So children, we know they seek undivided attention, but mostly from their mother figure, so, or the, you know, the main caretaker who's taken care of them. So when we are deprived of that, then we go looking for, as they say, love in all the wrong places, right? And so a lot of children who did not get the attention from their mothers may start to seek it elsewhere. And this is certainly relevant in today's, you know, states. I mean, look around and you see a lot of children who were not raised by their parents. In many cases, they're being raised by other people because of the way our societies are structured. You know, a lot of people are working out, or both now we have double-income homes, and so the child either has a nanny or maybe a daycare or a school drop-off. So they get, you know, get lost, and now you're competing with not two, three, four, five, which would be maybe normal in a family, but you're competing with 30 students, right? For attention from an adult, and that can really affect the child's self, you know, image and view. So a lot of these things are very real human experiences, but once you start to pay attention to your own self and what drives your behavior, it can help to heal some of those even past wounds. And you know, there are many people who have unfortunately been deprived of that love that they, that was their right. But Subhanallah, you know, the love of Allah can absolutely heal all of that. So that's what this process is. It's getting to that point of, I don't really need to worry about being accepted or rejected by the people because if I have Allah, I have enough, right? I have more than enough. I don't need human beings when I have the Creator. And so that, that's really what the point is here. And then contentment with Allah in times of both hardship and ease and turning to Allah and prosperity and adversity are similar in the sense that, again, you're consistent and you have the right understanding that you have to not change your opinion of Allah based on your circumstances, right? That your fidelity, your loyalty, your love is true, pure, unconditional to your Creator because you realize that all of your blessings are from Him. And even if things aren't going well at certain points of your life, that doesn't mean that you turn from Him, but that you know that there's wisdom. Because when you have trust in someone, or in this case, obviously Allah, when you have trust in Allah, you don't doubt the reasons certain things have to happen the way they do. You know automatically that there is hikmah, but maybe that's something that you have to wait in order to learn or for it to be unveiled to you. But you don't doubt that it's actually there. You know that it must be khayr because it's from Allah. So that's what is required for this path. That level of absolute unconditional unwavering trust in Allah, knowing that He always has your best interests and whatever His decree is for you is always better than anything you could have decreed for yourself with certainty, right? With yakeen that you have that level of understanding. So, Alhamdulillah, I'm just going to, I think my screen share got bumped off, but we'll wait for, Alhamdulillah, I'm happy to see you. I think it's Saada Khadwa. If you can please re, give me back. Oh, there we go. You did it. Thank you. So I'll just go ahead and go back to the screen here. We're happy to have you here. Alhamdulillah. So we're just doing a quick summary and then we're going to jump into the lesson for today. So you know, having that understanding, again, turning to Allah in both times of hardship and ease and I'm sorry, contaminate with Allah in both hardship and ease and turning to Allah in prosperity and adversity. So now the first is like your, your understanding of who Allah is. It's your Al-Qaeda, right? The second point is your, your protocol, like what do you do? What is your protocol for when you have hardship? Are you the person that falls apart and goes, you know, completely into panic mode because you really don't have, you know, you're just worried and this fear overcomes you? Or is it that you have that trust that Allah swt that will make things easy for you and you just patience, you know, you kind of, you've read the stories, you know, about these lessons that we've been given. So this is what's required. And Alhamdulillah, that was, you know, last week's discussion mainly. So InshaAllah we can, if again, you're welcome if you're new, but you can go back and watch the recording to get more commentary on those five. For today, we're going to start with the building blocks, I guess you could say of the foundations, right? Like what, what are the pre, the first prerequisites for these five? So again, I love the way he structured this, this whole text, Mashallah, it's beautiful. But the first one that he says mentions is exalted aspiration. So basically, if you want to get to that level that we just described, this amazing, the foundation, right, then you would need to have high aspirations. You have to have high him, right? You cannot be a person who's willing to settle with mediocrity in yourself, especially, right? Because, you know, sometimes again, we're, get lost in our own, you know, whatever we're busy with, with our work, with our families. But when it comes to your work for the sake of Allah, you have to be a person who understands that you perform with the best that you strive for it. So it's not good enough for you if you, you know, and I'll give you an example. For example, there's times where, you know, I'm out and about and I come home and I'm rushing to come home because I have to print, right? I wasn't able to do it outside. So I have to pray. But, you know, it's kind of one of those situations. I don't know if you guys are like this, but I'm like this where as soon as I get home, you know, because I've been out all day, I end up, you know, wanting or it's kind of like a biological thing. I don't know, but because I'm in my comfort zone, I also need to use, you know, the restroom. So now I'm like, oh boy, you know, what do I do? Am I in, I'm in a situation, should I pray? Because, you know, I need to pray. Obviously, I don't want the time to go out. But, you know, I also don't like that feeling, that anxiety of I need to just rush to do the prayer because I need to rush to the restroom. So there's many times where I have prayed because I'm afraid of delaying it or getting distracted and doing something else and then forgetting. But my conscience then comes back and reminds me like you weren't really fully present in that prayer. You know, you were, you were very distracted. You were kind of rushing to get through because you needed to use the restroom. Is that, is that befitting for someone who is trying to better themselves? And so, you know, what happens next? Next, I come out and I make will do and I'll go right back to the prayer rug. It's happened many times before. But this is from this teaching because if you accept mediocrity in yourself, then that's what the nefs will acclimate to because the nefs is lazy. The nefs does not want to put in effort. So when we take the, you know, the fast route, the easy path, it will always push us in that direction. But the challenge, majahid and nefs is actually going against the nefs. And so I kind of, I don't know if I read this somewhere, if I heard a teacher mention this, but it clicked. It was whenever you have resolved to do something. And because we know ourselves even in the Qur'an, I don't know the specific ayah, but all it's not that it says, you basically, you know your own self, right? So you have to know yourself. But if you ever get to a point of resolve on an action and you're not, you know, you have to kind of question it, you have to question the source of that resolve. And this is where knowing the Khatir, right, the four sources of our thoughts is very helpful. Because if you understand that all of our thoughts are going to emanate from four sources, then you can start to suspect what is a thought that you should follow and what's a thought that you shouldn't, right? So what are the four sources? We have Khatir Rabbani, Khatir Badakani, Khatir Nafsani and Khatir Shaitani. And so obviously there's a split here. Two of them are good, always positive thoughts. Sometimes you might want to do something, but all of a a sudden you get this burst of inspiration and you're off, you know, instead of getting online and checking email, you're like, no, no, no, I want to read Khatir. That may be your angel, your angelic, the angelic thoughts that come to you, because we have angels that are with us, right? And they sometimes, you know, nudge us in good virtuous behavior. So it could be that. Istikhara or dreams are attributed to revelation, that it's a source of revelation. So these could be considered Khatir Rabbani, right? Or just a really strong, you know, conviction and something could be from Allah. So those two are pretty obvious that they're good. But the latter two, which are those thoughts that we should be suspicious of, emanate from the nafs and shaitan. And in order to differentiate or discern what's what, you want to pay attention to habit, because your nafs will, again, push you into things that are comfortable for you, that you've done probably before, whereas shaitan is, you know, he wants you to he wants to ruin you. So he's going to compel you to do things worse than what you've done before, he'll push you in a further, like a worse direction. So in the sense, in the case of, you know, resolution, like when you, for example, decide to do something like let's say you decide to, you know, wake up for the Hajj. Okay, so you have this resolve, you make the niya the night before, I'm going to wake up for the Hajj. Now when you wake up and the alarm goes off, and there's a thought and it's very, you know, the nafs is very crafty. The nafs is very crafty. So it'll come up with all sorts of justifications. You know what, you're sick, you haven't slept for three, four days, you have a work meeting, you've got so much to do, it's okay, just go back to sleep and wake up in an hour when Fudger comes in or two hours, whatever the time is, right? It'll give you all of these excuses. And so that is the thought that you want to be suspicious of, because it's such a strong resolution, right? It's so like, it's, it's, you're kind of flooded with all of these excuses all of a sudden, like where'd that come from? When before you had this beautiful intention, it's your nafs. And Shaitan may even, you know, inspire you with something worse, you know, I don't know, maybe you'll come in instead of praying to the Hajj, you find yourself, oh, check your email real quickly. And then all of a sudden your email, you go down that rabbit's hole. And now you're on TikTok and you've been watching TikTok the entire time until Fudger comes in, right? So Iblis knows how to get us, our nafs knows how to get us. So the point is, when you have such strong conviction on an action where you already had a prior resolve, suspected immediately be like, nope, that's nafs or Shaitan, I have to force myself to do it. Don't even stick around for this back and forth, but immediately know that these two evil forces that work against us 24 hours a day are at play, one or the other. And you have to be so aware of what's happening that you are, you force yourself into action, going back to that initial intention you had, right? That's how we overcome the nafs. That's how we elevate our worship from mediocrity, because mediocrity is just doing the bare minimum. I'm just going to do how I always have done it. But if you want to push beyond that, you have to learn to struggle against yourself. And that's what that looks like. It's suspecting the thoughts that we have, sourcing them, and then realizing that Allah inspired you when you had the beautiful intention. That was inspiration or it was maybe your angelic presence that was inspiring you. Who are you going to listen to? It's a choice now. Because you had the niya the night before. You set your alarm. What happened now? What happened now is you forgot that you have these two forces, demonic and the nafs, that are going to do everything to thwart your initial niya. So you have to fight them. And the way to fight them is action. Be true to your initial niya. Don't engage in, and as I said, don't have a back and mental back and forth. Just get up and do what you were going to do. So it's also an aspiration. I mean, that's just one way of doing it. But it really is wanting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, wanting proximity to Allah, wanting to be the highest, your greatest potential, wanting to really see who that person is. And that's why Ramadan is so special. Now, I had a halak last night with some teen girls. And so I made a reference. It was very outdated. But I just thought, let me throw it out there. Because sometimes these teens get into what do they call it when they go back and watch things that are from previous generations. I forgot that there's a term for it. But anyway, sometimes they'll watch things from the 70s or 60s or 80s. And that's how ancient we appeared to them. But I referenced a movie that I watched maybe around, I think it was the 90s. I saw it. I don't even remember the details of it. But the concept I remember, which was sliding doors, sliding doors with Gwyneth Paltrow. I don't remember the movie, but just the idea of the movie was so cool, which was, here's this woman. And she, it's basically showing like a split screen almost of two different paths that her life took based on one decision. So that's, it was a very cool concept at that time, right? So you get to see her, she made this decision. This is the course her life took. And then she made this decision. And this is how her life went into a total different direction. So I always thought that was so neat. And what I've realized is that Ramadan in a way is kind of like that, because we get to see ourselves in a light that we don't normally see ourselves, right? We get to actually pause the normal us, the 11th month of the year us, and have a new identity emerge, you know, hopefully a better one. And then the idea, I think, inshallah, is by the end of it, you have now a choice to make, you know, am I going to be this new improved version of me? Because Allah has given me ample time to really form good habits and just to become better and be more mindful. Am I going to be this person or am I going to go back or regress to the version of me that I had before this month? Because that's usually what happens, right? For many of us, we've definitely done that. May Allah forgive us. But that's where Ramadan is so amazing is that it gives us an opportunity to really have exalted aspirations. Why not? Why not have high goals? And that doesn't mean you feel like a failure because you didn't maybe hit all of those, you know, points on your checklist to do list or goal list. Don't feel like a failure, but be happy that you had the Himmah to even want to do those things. If you wanted to go to the masjid every night of Ramadan for tarawih, masha'Allah. If you wanted to to do multiple khatams, masha'Allah, if you were like, oh, I'm going to memorize this many surahs this month, masha'Allah, or do this many salawat every day, that's amazing. Alhamdulillah. But we can't lower the bar as we find, unfortunately, in this culture, that's what they're incentivizing or that's kind of how they're conditioning people. So just keep lowering the bar so everything's kind of become lower. Our language is lower. You do the bare minimum. You get participation trophies for everything. Everybody gets rewarded regardless of their effort and merit. That's not our way. You work hard and you reap the rewards of your hard work. And you're grateful to Allah for the opportunity and for the gift of being able to do those things. But you have to have the aspirations to start with. So this is required, right? So having, again, high Himmah. And then the next is maintaining Allah's reverence. Again, so important in this day and age. I mean, always important, but certainly in a day where religion is attacked and even God's name, as they say, is taken in vain all the time and in many cases even erased entirely. People don't want to talk about Allah, even within our community, but also outside of our community. We see, unfortunately, people sometimes becoming a little bit constricted as soon as people start talking about religion and getting too extreme or fundamentalist. These are the kinds of words I've certainly heard be used against me, describing me when I get into my desire to want to talk about Allah or praise Allah or reference Allah, because it's necessary. We should be. We should be thinking of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala all the time, directly or indirectly. But He should certainly not be erased and forgotten. How is that a reflection of gratitude when your every experience in life is due to the existence that He gave you, but then you can just forget Him. And of course, we're human. We get distracted and distractions are external. They pull our attention away. That's not the same as someone who is willfully denying the remembrance of God or just not revering Him as they should. And reverence to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala looks like, you know, saying Bismillah before you eat, saying, Mashallah, Alhamdulillah, subhanallah. When things happen to us, you know, there are a lot of things that Allah shows us amazing signs and we should have awe of Him. And that's why, you know, one of my why I love to teach children is because they just have it naturally and you'll see it, whether it's your own children or other children. There's always this awe that they when they're young, right, for everything, but they're they're they're teaching us of something that we once had that we've lost. So we have to now bring that back. And the way you do that is through the, you know, the reflections you have, right, the thoughts that you carry and the words that you say. So if you're, you know, for example, you know, I heard this story, I think it was, I was, I was just sharing this beautiful story on his social media. And it's so amazing. It was just such a powerful story, but I'll share it with you. He said that he met a woman who came to the masjid, he'd never met her before. And she said to him that she had only 100 pounds to her in her account, like that was all she had. But when the earthquakes in Turkey hit, she was so moved by the plight of the victims that she gave half of her wealth of her savings, 100 pounds, as you can imagine, is not very much at all to live by, but she gave half of it away. And she said that just a few hours later, just a few hours later, what happened, 8,000 pounds was put into her account. And it was from some loan, I think student loan that she had forgotten about years before, but a few hours later, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala deposited 8,000 dollars, just 80 times, right? Or actually, no, by the way, you have the math, you can do the math better between, yeah, you can do the math for us, but let us know how many times more that he rewarded her with subhanAllah. So I just thought that was so profound. And the reaction to these types of stories, some people, I've actually shared stories like this with people. And some people are like, oh, wow, that's neat. That's amazing. Or the, oh, that's cool. That's cool. And they kind of like, that's it. And they're not really impressed by these types of stories that we would see as obvious signs from Allah that he's showing his signs to us. So the believer doesn't just make it like, you know, respond that way. They actually respond with all subhanAllah. And then, you know, just allow yourself to feel the power of that, you know, that the story like, wow, what, what did we just witness? What do we just hear? And, you know, and then you can hopefully sit with yourself and maybe think of experiences you've had similarly. But it allows for this process of just like, Allah Waqfah, Allah, Allah, so amazing. And many times, you know, if you're paying attention anyway, you'll see these things if you're paying attention. But the reverence for Allah is all of these things. It's adab with Allah. It's knowing how to call on him by his most beautiful names. It's knowing how to speak of him, you know, as I said, and bring his remembrance into the conversations. We should never have meetings with people, you know, obviously professional meetings aside, but like when we meet with our friends, our family, our community, there should be the intention, whether it's the host of the gathering or someone there, someone at least should have the intention to make the remembrance of Allah subhanAllah. And if you find yourself in a gathering where there is no remembrance of Allah being made because everybody's talking about politics or vineyard and material wealth and school and kids and all of that stuff, then it's on you if you have that awareness to somehow share something, oh, let me share this wonderful story I heard or guess what happened or something or I read this, I or did you guys listen to the recent talk that so and so gave or whatever, make mention of Allah subhanAllah so that people don't fall into the habit of ever coming together and omitting him. That's that's tragic if you think about it, that we come together and we don't even mention the name of our Creator. So that's, you know, Remnants for Allah, also for his book, you know, knowing, for example, not to speak over the Book of Allah subhanAllah, it's a very important adept that we should have when we hear the quran being recited, that we know to quiet our just immediately, you know, go quiet, or if you have to speak, whisper at least, lower your voice and teach your children if the quran is playing, quran is playing. How do we carry the quran, right? How do we hold the quran? All of that reflects your reverence. When I was, you know, I teach quran from the day I used to teach young children, but we would spend a great deal of time on just practicing carrying the musha because, you know, it's not an average book. This is the greatest book. So they have to treat it like the greatest book and they should revere it. They should know to hold it with two hands. They should know to hold it above their waist. They should know to hold it in a state of will do. All of these things should be taught. I've seen, unfortunately, many people, adults as well as children, running through the masjid or from, you know, Sunday school or whatever, and they completely lost this. They carry the quran like it's, you know, another library book under their arm, or sometimes Awad-e-Bala hanging by their side. Awad-e-Bala. So we have to have proper reverence for Allah and also teach this to our children and our families and obviously body ourselves. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la also said in a hadith, Sahih and Al-Bukhari, the Prophets and said that which is that the Prophets and said whoever loves to meet Allah, Allah loves to meet him and whoever hates to meet Allah, Allah hates to meet him. So the reverence and love for Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, this is the, you know, the how it plays out. If you don't have it in you to want to meet your Lord, to make mention of him, to just be in awe of him, then it will be reciprocated to you al-Bida and we obviously do not want that. So that's a very important point again to be mindful of and then expending oneself in excellent service of others. So remember what we're doing is we've laid the foundation right of the path. Now we're helping to build upon or to put together what is required to get there. So these are the qualities that we have to have in order to get to those five. So the third being service of others, khidmah. Khidmah is a beautiful, a beautiful, you know, part of our deen that has also been lost, you know, wanting for your brother or sister what you want for yourself. It really comes down to our values and if you value the ridah of Allah, more than yourself, then it will be easy for you to give up your comforts for other people. Because you realize that the nefs, as I already mentioned, right, is not your friend. So to cater to it constantly is actually your own undoing. But to go against it will elevate you. It's better for you, right, to go against your nefs. We get so comfortable with comfort that we are opposed to discomfort, but sometimes discomfort is actually better for you because it pushes you outside of constantly being in that nefcy state. So doing something for someone else, right? You know, there are many examples I can give you, but, you know, just think about, let's say you're home, it's cozy, you just, you know, the house is clean, everything's kind of, you know, we've all had those days where we've just had a really nice day and things are going in the order that we want them to. And we just sit down, right? We've just sit down to, and we have our nice cup of chai and we're going to have our little piece of, you know, cake or cookies or whatever treats we've brought for ourselves. Maybe we're going to read a book, maybe we're going to turn on the TV and turn on something, inshallah beneficial. But we're just, we're now, it's all about us, right, self-care as they call it. And in that moment of just immense comfort, immense joy and ease, maybe you get a text message, right? And that text message is from a friend who is going through, she's distraught, she's going through something really difficult. And you hear from this friend a lot, you're in contact with her, she obviously you care about her, but this is the worst timing, right? So you have choice to make. I could leave the messages unread, she wouldn't know that I saw them because we have all the preview screen. And I know I use it all the time, I have to, right? So you may go back and use that feature on your phone to preview the message, but you're not going to look at it because you don't want to let her know that you've seen the messages, because you're just enjoying yourself too much. You can't give up your comfort, right? Now that's a choice you made, you're enough certainly, you know, compelled you to it. It certainly made sure that you did that because it wants you to not benefit from the rewards that Allah just pretty much dangled in front of you. Because what's greater than removing the distress of fellow believer, right? And between those two choices, I mean, I hope it's obvious. Yes, we're deserving of ease, right? We're deserving of that sometimes, especially if we're not doing anything haram. And it's fine. But in that situation, when an opportunity comes to you to do something against your own nefs, this is when you're really understanding the way the world works, because that temporary comfort you got from drinking your tea and watching your rom-com or whatever other thing you may have indulged in or read your book is nothing compared to the massive rewards you just got, because Allah is proud that I saw, He's witnessing your mujahidah against yourself. He saw that you said, no, I want to put aside my own comfort because my friend needs me. And I know this would please Allah so that we can't even fathom how many rewards you would get. And Allah is so generous with us. So that, you know, expending oneself in excellent service. And so then the excellent service is also important to clarify here, because if you're going to do something with pure intention for Allah, you can't do it begrudgingly. You can't do it huffing and puffing and annoyed. And what, you know, what does she need now when you're like griping as you're doing it? And, you know, these, we all have grown, inshallah, we've grown and we don't do those things anymore. But just think about Allah's witnessing you. So when you do it, you do it with excellence. And with excellence, it is controlling any negative thought that comes. You certainly don't, you know, vocalize those things. And you, you really make peace with whatever's being asked of you. And this is boundaries, you know, boundaries. And there's a lot of ways this, we can, this conversation can go in terms of how to do things with Ehsan. But I would say, create really healthy boundaries around these things, especially if you're someone that's called on a lot. Like if you have family and friends, and there's a lot of people that you end up having to do for, then you need to take care of yourself. And by creating healthy boundaries, you'll get to a point where you don't do things, as I said, begrudgingly or really with frustration. And there's resentment in your heart. We don't want that. We don't want to ever do things for others with resentment in our heart. And so that's where purifying the intention that it's for Allah, it's for the sake of Allah. And when we do things for the sake of Allah, it should always be done with, with immense, with, with, you know, happiness, with joy, with gratitude, because Allah's giving you an opportunity to draw closer to Him. But this is, you know, where intentionality, and it's a lot of heart working to get to that point. But it's very important to be, to desire to serve other people. When you're in the, at the Masjid, for example, you come in for an event, maybe it's a premier speaker, everybody's rushing to get to their seat. And you see someone, you know, struggling or, you know, instead of worrying, Oh, I'm going to miss out, I'm not going to get a front row seat. And you stopped to help someone because their bag was too heavy, where they were elderly, or they had maybe a physical, you know, disability. Allah is watching you. He sees that you had the need to do something, but you redirected yourself for the sake of someone else for his sake. The rewards of that, again, we don't know, but you should be certain that it will be far better for you to do that than to just walk back past your brother or sister in need to serve your own nefs. So these are the kinds of ways that we pay attention to our intentions and we become better. Fulfilling one's resolve. This is very important as well, because when we say something, we have to, you know, act upon it. We can't be the type of person that, that just throws words out, right? Because, and I'm pulling out from the content of character, because right on the very first page, right, we are taught the Prophesies that have said, Qadr Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, ayatul munafiqin salatuh, So this is in Al-Bukhari and Muslim, and the Prophesies said the characteristics of a hypocrite are three. When he speaks, he lies. When he gives his word, he breaks it. And when he is given a trust, he is unfaithful. These are warnings for us that if you get in the habit of throwing out a lot of words, a lot of lip service, a lot of false promises, but you don't, you know, fulfill them, this is dangerous for you. It's a sign of weakness, of spiritual weakness, because the believer, when you have an intention, you follow it through. When you promise something to your children or someone else, you follow it through, even if it's against yourself. And if you need a break, maybe you overshot, maybe sometimes we want to do a lot out of our love, but you can't. Then you at least have the humility to admit that, you know, you overplanned, you maybe didn't factor this or that, but you explain yourself and then you fulfill your promise maybe another time, but you absolutely don't just ignore it or trivialize it. Like, yeah, I saw what I said that I couldn't do it too bad. That's not the way that we should behave as believers, because it's, you know, to break someone's heart, to not fulfill a promise would inconvenience others in ways, you know, again, depending on the situation, that would really harm them, potentially. And that now, you know, all because of our own weakness, because of maybe laziness or just mismanagement of our schedule or time, we've now, you know, affected another person negatively. So if you take those things seriously, but just generally speaking, if you plan to do something or say you're going to do something, hold yourself accountable. That's what it is. Hold yourself accountable. Don't be a person whose word means nothing. And there are a lot of people, unfortunately, who, who've just been broken because of people in their lives who give them false hope, false promises, but they never come through. And it can be very, very, you know, hurtful in the long run, especially, I mean, just think of children who's, you know, who are, I know children, for example, who are in different homes, you know, their parents have divorced. And many of the, the suffering of children of divorce are because of this specific situation. One parent will be neglectful. They will promise, oh, I'm going to come into your basketball game. I'm going to come take you here. I'm going to take you shopping. I'm going to give you this. And then they end up not doing it. And then, of course, who has to pick up the pieces of that child, the parent that the child is with. It's very sad how common that is. But this is what happens when you're not working on yourself spiritually. You've, you've fallen into these very nefcy states where you are your biggest priority and you don't really care how your decisions or indecisions affect other people. So may love protect us from that, but just be a consistent person, be a person who follows through. And then the last one is so important. I mean, all of these are important, but in terms of daily, daily exercises, I would say this is so important, like on a daily basis, no matter what you're going through, this should be your state where you're always looking to magnify the blessings. You're always looking to, to, to count the blessings, right? Recently I came from an event and I came home the whole drive. I was just in a constricted state because I had heard from so many people, just a lot of suffering, you know, loss of children, multiple different losses that have happened recently. I saw people in these states weeping uncontrollably because of the loss of a child. You can imagine, right? And then, you know, divorce, being, dealing with infidelity, dealing with suicidal ideation, you know, parent who has taken their own life. And now the children who are also suffering with their own suicidal ideation. These are things that I heard all in one day. And I heard them in one day and I came home. And as soon as I came home, I just, my hometown family was there and I just said, we all have to say Alhamdulillah, like all day. And I told my children, I said, please promise me when you make your Sajdah that you really, really are in a state of gratitude to Allah because I don't think you realize, Alhamdulillah, how much suffering a lot of people are going through, that we're not going through Me, Allah protect us. But that kind of hyper awareness of your blessings usually comes from this very intentional practice of, you know, magnifying your blessings, but also, you know, communing with other people, talking to other people, observing other people, and seeing that suffer, there are people, everybody's suffering in different ways. And like Ibn Abbas, you know, Rodiullah taught us that there's immense, you know, benefits and tribulations. And this is how we get perspective, right? He's, he says, first, that it could always be worse, right? Whatever you're going through, could always be worse. And that's a factual statement. Any, you take anybody's suffering and whatever it is, as awful as it is, it could be worse, right? So that's a perspective we have to have. The second thing he says is that it's in your dunya and not your deem, right? Because a tribulation that affects like a material thing, a part of your life is different than something like a faith crisis. A faith crisis is real. That's, that's a very scary tribulation. So that's something to be grateful for, that it's just dunya, right? And then the third point is that the tribulation is in this life and not the next. These are things that give us perspective, right? That will hopefully then put us in that state of gratitude to Allah. Alhamdulillah. Thank you, Allah, for everything. Thank you for life, for existence. Thank you for my family. Thank you for my friends. Thank you for my health. Thank you for my mental acuity. Thank you for my ability to communicate. Thank you for my ability to be mobile, right? I mean, just think of how many people are dealing with neurodegenerative diseases or other types of diseases where they cannot move. And they have full, you know, they're awake mentally, but they can't move, male or protect us from those states. Financially, Alhamdulillah, if you have a fridge full and a pantry full, you're, we're living like kings and queens compared to people who don't even have potable drinkable drinkable water. They don't have these things. It's not a reality for them or food that's, you know, not that can be preserved, right? They have to eat whatever they can because that's all they don't have ways of preserving their food. So these are things that unless you're doing it, it will, you won't, you won't notice them. And then Shaytan is right there to do the opposite of this, magnify your problems. So instead of magnifying your blessings, all you're doing is wallowing in self pity over why did this have to happen and why this and why that. And I, you know, I deserve this and we just get in these really awful states. So these are, you know, regular practices we should be doing all of these, right? Make sure our goals and our intentions are high. Don't shortchange yourself. Seek the Akhira, not dunya. Dunya is low. It's, it's temporal. It doesn't last. Akhira is forever. Be always mindful of Allah and have the best adab with your Lord, right? We have to have the best adab with Allah. We only speak about him in the best way possible. We have khusna al-dhan with Allah. And there's actually, let me, I pulled out a hadith on this particular topic. Where is it? SubhanAllah. So there's a beautiful, oh here, this is actually one hadith, but there's something else I'll mention. So I believe in Masud, I mean, Allah be pleased with him said that, by the one beside whom there is no God, a believing servant is not given anything better than good thoughts about Allah Almighty. By the one who besides whom there is no God, a servant does not improve his opinion of Allah Almighty, except that Allah will give him what he assumes. That is because all good is in his hands. So this is of course, you know, la in shakartum, la azidah minakum, right? When we are grateful to Allah, when we're veering him, we're exalting him, he increases us. When we have the best opinion, right? Anand-e-dhan, the ad-dibi, I will, he basically confirms what you think of him. So this is what I've been asked, or I'm sorry, I've been listening to this calling us too. And so I'm sorry, I'm looking at the time. So let's read this last paragraph here before we pause for Q&A. So he whose aspirations are exalted is raised in rank. Allah mentions, or I'm sorry, Allah maintains the respect of he who preserves his reference. He whose service is for others is ennobled by it. Beautiful, the perspective, right? We are the beneficiaries of the service we give. It's not the opposite, because you think of service as a God serving people, but we benefit. We're ennobled by the khidmah that we do. He who does that, which he resolves to do, is a short continual guidance. So if you're a person of your word, you will be continuously guided by Allah. He who deems blessings to be great by his own eye has shown gratitude. And he who is grateful ensures an increase in blessings from the giver of gifts according to the promise of the truthful one. SubhanAllah, it's just so succinct, so beautiful, so powerful. But on this point of he whose, I'm sorry, Allah maintains the respect of he who preserves his reverence. This is also, I just wanted to quickly mention, because there are a lot of people who seek status, who seek, as we said in the beginning, acceptance by people who want to be respected, who want people, whether it's in their family, in their professional life, in their community, to look upon them with reverence, with respect. But they forget that that is something that Allah rewards to his believers or to his servants. And so it's not, you can't just get it, because how many professional people, how many people of who you think they would, it's warranted that they would have that respect, don't get respect, because Allah doesn't will that for them. So it's not something you can get from a worldly place. That type of reverence that people seek is through Allah. So if you're not going to revere the one who gives you that place and status amongst his creation, then you clearly don't understand how things work. So I just wanted to mention that. But alhamdulillah, we can pause it. I'm happy to stay for an additional however many minutes to go over the question. So Bismillah. Salafatullah, are you here? Yes. Thank you for another wonderful class, masha'Allah. I'm going to go to the Q&A where I've asked everyone to please direct your questions to the Q&A box so that we can keep track of questions asked during the session. The first question is asking for the dua that you started the class with. And I think that you had said that that was available on the Zaytuna website. Is that true? Yes. So I'm sorry, because I had mentioned that I do, I have a, not a PDF, it's an image of the dua. And so the way that I found it, let me see, I'll just quickly do it while you're talking and you're reading the other questions. So we save time. So let me go ahead and find it for you. Is it far away? All right, thank you. The second says, I often find that what people say to me really affects my mood. If it's something good about me or my work, I find myself extremely motivated and cheerful. But when I don't receive this kind of recognition, I start to feel low and think negatively of myself. My question is, how can the, how can the one that suffers from low self-esteem and low self-confidence find ways to build it up instead of being dependent on what people tell them about themselves? Mashallah. So I'm really glad this sister asked this question because I think a lot of people would probably fall in the same category, right? We are very affected. We do source external validation because of all the things I mentioned, maybe other things, you know, there's, you know, temperaments and different personality types. They seek, you know, these things out more. So being, I think, more self-aware of yourself. And I'm glad that you have this awareness that this is what's going on. Is the starting point changing? But also, I think I'm just going to throw it out there because I feel like this is also a factor. If you don't have good sohbah, right? If you don't have good people who reflect goodness to you, right? The believer is a mirror for the believer. So when you have really good people around you, they will know how to uplift you, but do it in the right way because throwing like flattery is looked down upon because it's empty. There's no substance to it. But when you have God-fearing good company who really wants your good, right? People who are good people who genuinely want to, for you to be successful, then they will uplift you in a way where it doesn't feed into maybe what has been going on, right? Which is there's this maybe insecurity that you're dealing with that those other compliments are kind of feeding into. But really, righteous people will always remind you that your blessings are from Allah SWT and help you to redirect even your own need for validation back to Allah. Because it's kind of just habit, right? If you start to take some of the attribution of your blessings, this would be something to work on because nothing, nothing, no good that we do is self-made, nothing. So all of it should be redirected to Allah. That's why when someone gives you a compliment, your mind, you should be like, you know, they're being nice. It's social. It's a product. It's like an etiquette. You know, you just want to say something nice to someone. But the reality, the haqiqah, what's really happening is they are witnessing Allah SWT who's blessed me with skills, with gifts, with abilities, and the, you know, the life force to actually do these things. So what they're witnessing is Allah working through me. So Alhamdulillah, wa shukulillah, right? It's all back to Allah. And if you can start to do that regularly, then the words are not going to impact you anymore because guess what? Whether they say it or not, it's true. Whether people give you the compliment or not, it is true. And if you're witnessing it because, you know, if you produce something amazing, you don't need other people to come and tell you it's amazing. You know it. InshaAllah, you should. And that's where confidence building is also important. Recognizing the naima, recognizing that you are, you're skilled at something is a good thing to do because you're recognizing that it's Allah who made that happen. But my point is, is whether people give you compliments or not no longer is important because it doesn't take away from the reality of what's happening, which is indeed Allah Akbar. Indeed Alhamdulillah, Allah is deserving of all praise. So I hope that's clear. Thank you. Our last question says, can you please give some advice for improving one's say, do ratio at work? I work in a corporate environment and it can be extremely draining. Sometimes I fall short in delivering and unfortunately it's starting to impact my performance. I work to support my family. How can I take the spiritual route for improving my state of affairs? InshaAllah, again, that's a very good and relevant question because, you know, a lot of people are struggling with the life, home life balance. And yes, we become overly ambitious with our careers. And so we want to do a lot. But I think, you know, having every business or every environment is different. I don't know what the company that you work at. But if you have people who are there to kind of help shape like your goals, you know, your trajectory at the company, like what your long term objectives or goals are, what your short term goals are, then maybe instead of leaving it to yourself, because sometimes if it's like there's sort of either insecurity or feeling of what do they call it imposter syndrome, there's a lot of these things that can affect our sense of self. Those things drive us to take on more than we can chew, right? Because it's like, oh, I got to show up. I got to impress people. And so there's a lot of insecurity driving that. But when you become more intentional and actually organized and plan, like have like a plan for your year, like, okay, so in my current capacity, this is where I'm at. But this is my target for the year or target for six months or target for three months. And then you're working with maybe a coach or like HR or whoever would be in your company, helping you to your supervisor, maybe shape how that's going to materialize. Then you're working, you know, in a very, like that is a much more structured way of goal setting, as opposed to letting the fear of maybe not doing enough and being, you know, I know there's people who are now very insecure in their positions because there's so many layoffs happening. So a lot of people are just in panic while trying to do more. But I think planning is always going to yield better results and planning with someone who's a little ahead of you in your role to be realistic, because they may offer great advice to you that says, Hey, don't do that, because I made that same mistake. And this is what happened to me. So asking for help, you know, and this is actually part of leadership. If you look at the different qualities of like leaders is knowing when to ask for guidance and help from people. It doesn't mean that you don't, you know, that it's somehow a negative quality. It's actually very intelligent to do that, to seek out your supervisors or people ahead of you and just say, you know, can you help me kind of put together some real practical, realistic, long term and short term girl goals for my work so that I can be balanced and not take on more. And inshallah, Bismillah. And always, of course, start with Bismillah. Yeah, I'll give you a feel for inshallah. Thank you, Sadah Hussai. You mentioned earlier in the class about the recording. Are we ready to share just? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you can always share the recordings unless something really wild happens on these sessions. I don't have a problem with the recordings being shared. Yeah, I'll put it in the chat. I just created a shortcut for this week. Oh, and then inshallah, I'll post this one soon. Be patient. We have a lot going on these days. Thank you. And thank you. So if there are no other questions, we're only doing Q&A box, right? So yeah, I checked the chat as well. And no other questions. And you can end with the closing door. Sure. Just one last thing. Did you check the math on Sister Luna's math here? Is that correct? 80 times 100 is 8000. I said that. The percent increase is a 7900 percent increase. So inshallah, we'll just think grander of Allah's. Inshallah. As-salaamu alayhi wa s-salam. So deferred to her for all your math questions, thank you so much to everyone. Thank you all for being here. And I look forward to our next session next week. And feel free to read ahead. And if you have any questions based on your reading, please provide them. Or send them to Salah Fadwa. Maybe we can look over those before we start. So with that said, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Thank you again, everyone. I wish you a beautiful morning afternoon or evening wherever you are. And please remember us if you haven't made a thar at a thar time. Inshallah. Thank you. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. As-salaamu alayhi wa s-salam. Wa alayhi wa sahbihi wa s-salamu t-tastimun katira. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, everyone. Welcome again. Alhamdulillah, it's an honor to be with all of you. We will jump right into it because I want to maximize our time. First we'll start with the dua. But the ad-dars, the student of knowledge, should recite before their studies. So inshallah, we'll recite that together. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. So with that said, let's go ahead and screen share, inshallah. So that we're all reading the document together. Alhamdulillah. So we are reading from the foundations of the spiritual path. And again, as Sadafuddin mentioned, the recordings for previous sessions are available, so you can go back and watch those to kind of bring yourself up to speed. But we have only barely scratched the surface. It's such a rich document, masha'Allah. So we've only covered the first section here and the second section. And today we're going to continue. So again, just to remind everyone, the way the document is built is it gives us the foundations of the path first and then the prerequisite things or qualities or actions that we would need in order to even get to the foundation. So it's kind of working us backwards in a way. So we talked last week about how if we wanted to again establish a strong foundation, we would need to have exalted aspirations, maintain Allah's reverence, expend ourselves in service khidmah, fulfill our resolve. So once we have an intention that we actually see it through, and then to be in the practice of gratitude, magnifying one's blessings, always mentioning them, of course, feeling the gratitude in the heart, mentioning it on one's tongue, and then working towards good deeds as a reflection of one's gratitude. So those are the three levels of gratitude. Now today we're going to talk about how we can get to those levels, because those are all conduct related. So the foundations of right conduct in order to get to what we just shared, to the place where we have exalted aspirations, where we can maintain Allah's reverence and we can do khidmah freely from a pure intention and we see through our intentions, making sure that we finish and complete them to the best of our ability, and that we're always in the state of gratitude. In order to get there, we have to then look at what the foundations of right conduct or corrective conduct are. So that's what we're going to talk about today. So again, he has these bulleted points here, organized, structured, so that we can really follow this through. The first point he makes is seeking sacred knowledge in order to fulfill Allah's commands. And this, of course, follows logic, right? That in order to have correct conduct, you need to know what correct conduct is. So knowledge and being in pursuit of knowledge is really important. And I've mentioned this in previous sessions as well, that we, as Muslims, always have to see ourselves as students of knowledge. And it's really important that we hold on to that part of our identity until we take our last breath, because Islam is so rich and it's so deep that we'll never be able to fully arrive at any level of true understanding. But at least we can be on that path, inshallah. So seeking sacred knowledge is first. And then just to share it, because it's a really good document, during the, I've been giving these sessions on the foundations for a couple of years now. And afterwards, this is on an app called Clubhouse. You may not be familiar with it, or you may be familiar with it. But I asked you, it comes in specifically, what would be a good text to follow up with this text, as well as content of character and other texts. And he pointed me to another text, which is really amazing. And that's what I'm working on now with some of the students who attend the sessions on Clubhouse. And I'm going to share that with you right now. Let me find the link for it. But he pointed me to this document called The Six Points of Tablif. And this was, this is actually a document put together by the group, as we may know it, called Tablir et Jamar. One of the main, I think the founder of it, his name is actually here in the document. I can't remember his name, but he put this together. Let me see if I can find it. So let me see here, is it? Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm looking for his name. Maulana Ilyas, Rahmatullah Ali. So he's the one who put this document together. And then another brother, by the name of Bilal Malik, translated in English. So let me go ahead and share this in our chat here, because it's a really great document for all of us to benefit from as well. As it kind of gives you many of the topics that we're going to talk about here, it gives you more broader explanations. And there's a lot of Ahadith and Quran. But that's the link for it. Oh, I think I sent it only to the south, but let me send it to the whole chat. So you guys should be able to see this now. So this is a document that we're reading together, but there's a whole section there on just the benefits, the merits, the objectives of acquiring knowledge and being in the remembrance of Allah SWT. That's actually the third point of Tabligh. And it's really beautiful. There's verses shared, but also, they mentioned here that the objective, the purpose of the alim is twofold. The first is that one is able to differentiate between the halal and the haram. And then as well as purity and impurity, what's legitimate, what's illegitimate. This would pertain to all aspects of life. So that's the first purpose of why we should acquire knowledge. The second is to know that at any given moment, in one's 24 hour existence, what Allah wants of him or her. And this is, they have an Urdu reference here, but it's basically recognizing the command relating to the present. So this is really profound because as we know, part of the challenge of the modern world is mindfulness, of is being present in the moment. It's very easy to get caught up with the distractions that are all around us. And even in our own minds, even within our thoughts, we can be pulled away from the moment. So what knowledge does as beautifully elucidated here is it first gives us all that clarity about right and wrong, basically, and good, pure, and impure, all of those things. But it also helps us to reorient ourselves in any given moment. Because if you're hyper aware of the gift of life, of the gift of the present, and also you have that taqwa that reminds you that Allah swt is watching, that your deeds are being recorded, that choices are going to be presented to you at every given moment and you will be held accountable. Then it brings you into that ideal state, that inshaAllah we all wish to be, which is again present with Allah. So these are the objectives. And then they go on to, in this document, as if you've opened it up, you can read, it's on page 11, you'll see the merits of it. And there's so many ahadith, mashaAllah, that you can just read through and skim through, that really give us a lot of insight into the value of knowledge. This is again not just something that we should think of as the activity of a student per se, like a registered student, someone who is pursuing that path of scholarship as a student that would maybe go on to do more. That, if you think of knowledge that way, then most of us would not feel inclined. But if you think of it that knowledge is a pathway for us to gain closeness, ma'rifah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then it becomes something for all of us to partake in. So here that's the first foundation. If you want right conduct, you have to seek sacred knowledge. And inshaAllah we're all hopefully doing that in our lives. We're all here and we're all students of knowledge. The second point is that we keep company with spiritual guides and the fraternity of, sorry, keeping company with spiritual guides and the fraternity of aspirants to gain insight into one's faults. So this is also another really important point because if we try to go at this alone, this path of spirituality by ourselves, very dangerous. And as they say, the one who doesn't have a spiritual guide, a sheikh or someone to help them, then Iblis will be their sheikh or their guide because he will delude you. He will make you focus on unimportant things and lose sight of really valuable things. So that's why it's very important to tether yourself to someone who is either again ahead of you in terms of if you can have access. Not everybody does. If you have access to a teacher who's in part of the chain of traditional sound knowledge, he or she has those credentials, then that would be the ideal choice that you are in a solid path of knowledge. But if not, then at least someone who is a little bit ahead of you, that maybe is older, has been down the path, knows what to stay away from because as we get to in a moment, there are pitfalls to each of these points which he's going to point out. That if you don't have, first of all, knowledge or at least access to knowledge by way of a spiritual guide, then you are susceptible to falling and slipping and causing and having real spiritual struggles that may be very difficult to overcome. So keeping company with guides but also a fraternity or sorority for the sisters, right, but a group, a group that keeps you accountable that also you can check in with. It's so important. We're a deen of Jama'a, we're a deen of Sohbah, we're a deen of the Prophet, some had companions all around him and they would always be in his orbit because obviously they wanted to be around the best of creation but I think that was a great model for all of us as well that have people around you, be in circles, be with people who you can remember Allah SWT with and as the Hadith says, al-mu'min al-mir'at al-mu'min, that the believer is a mirror for the believer. So if you don't have good company to help check in, to help, if you stray, if you maybe you stop, for example, let's say you're in a halakah or you have a routine with a group every single week and all of you come together regularly but then one stops coming. One of the attendees stops coming maybe they've been, they've fallen into a bad group. This happens all the time. People are consistent until something comes and distracts them, the dunya, shaitan, whatever it is, they're somehow now pulled away. Then your group that you've created or that you've been blessed with, hopefully, realizes your absence and will check in on you, will check in on you. They'll find out what's going on and maybe, inshallah, there is a path for you to come back. Earlier today I was watching a video of this young girl, she's mashallah, very beautiful and she was doing her makeup while she's talking. Now these are the trends where people have to be doing something while they're telling you a story but she was going on about her experience with hijab and why she left hijab and that she's not religious anymore. She's all the way, she's not even fasting and I just, my heart just sunk because I'm watching her listening to her very proudly talk about her experience in Islam as this forgotten past historical moment in her life that she's, she's not really lamenting about, she's not sad about, she's just kind of sharing certain things that happened to her and I just thought, oh, I would have been like, I wish she had, and maybe she did, maybe she had very good friends around her but she just, Allah is the one who guides and misguides but the point being is, it's sad to see that that can happen to someone that they completely leave the practice of faith but the beauty of having a good group around you is that they hold you accountable and that they follow up with you, they check in on you and they hopefully remind you of what's more important so that when you're distracted by something that distances you from Allah that you have this group that can hopefully bring you back in gently with love of course. So that is really important that we have those groups or those teachers, those guides to help us and then the third point that he mentioned so it's knowledge and then it's people that hold you accountable so knowledge is obviously the guidance that we need and we need to work on getting those from the proper sources so it is very much intertwined but also keeping in the company of really good people who will hold us accountable so those are the first two points of right conduct and then this is also really important for going dispensations and interpretations concerning injunctions for one's own protection so I know it's a word salad as they say it's quite wordy this one but it's basically talking about not looking for the easy routes because part of spiritual mastery and discipline is welcoming some of the discomfort we're in it right now fasting is absolutely to help us build willpower and it is uncomfortable you know we're not sleeping as much we're obviously not drinking and eating during the day but the discomfort that we experience has exponential benefits to it and so getting out of this very modern mindset that everything good is always easy right or everything good is always comfortable and easily accessible that's actually not true as anybody who's ever worked hard at anything will tell you that the more hard work you put into something the more value it actually has so sometimes what happens is you know we come into the practice of faith but then we're looking for all those little loopholes or ways out of doing things and we're kind of allowing that nefs to have you know some still some influence over us and you know this takes against for practice to to become aware of even those little suggestions those little nudges that maybe are always looking for ease right and so being disciplined enough to say I need to you know take on this practice diligently seriously and not a giveaway for my nefs to to basically you know to try to in any way give me that ease so that I fall into those habits and in those that becomes very difficult again to overcome so that's also the third point here on how to to correct our conduct our behavior so that we can get to the prerequisites of what are then the prerequisites for the foundational path so it's amazing Subhanallah that there's so much more to what what we would maybe assume to actually be on this path doing it you know with Ahsan with with the correct way and of course Islam is easy so I want to mention that it's not a difficult thing but it's a matter of working smart not hard and working smart is having this understanding and this structure and this roadmap and of course looking at the Sunnah the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as he's our exemplar that that's how we work smart when we work hard we're trying to do it all on our own which is the experience of many Muslims nowadays you know they just pick up books they they flood their their libraries with a lot of books they'll take classes here and there they may open up the Qur'an or just here kind of cherry pick different aspects of Islam which it which in and of itself is not a problem but if it's not guided if it's not done correctly then it can pose problems and I'll just mention this because it's relevant but you know recently during Ramadan there's been a lot of online feuding unfortunately and some of the most prominent that ease teachers maybe in you know in the West have been unfortunately caught up in a wave of argumentation caused a lot of fitna because you know there's this new Scottish Prime Minister named Hamza Youssef this obviously is not Hamza Youssef although many people got it wrong but this Prime Minister apparently took some positions on LGBTQ that are you know contradict Islam and so some people without really understanding the context with which he may have said things we don't know the thing is we it's always better to be neutral on these matters because you don't want to be held accountable before Allah to make the feed on someone right just because someone says something without a context you want to be careful so anyway this whole debate started and a lot of them began to argue and for now a couple of weeks ever since this was announced I think there's just been these back and forth videos on YouTube and a lot of fitna unfortunately and it's sad because this is the obviously and so to see that so many people are getting caught up in all of this as a result of teachers right and may Allah forgive them and guide us all but that's really heartbreaking because our teachers are supposed to be excellent examples for us and you know we're all human and you know there was Alhamdulillah apologies given and inshallah things are fine between the hearts but the damage that I think these types of things cause we just don't know because many people as soon as they see these kinds of behaviors they just turn away they turn away from the Dean so this is the value of having you know really not trying to just do things on your own because then you may be blindsided by your own nuffs and your own nuffs is dictating to you and you don't know it and next thing you know you're embroiled in some fitna whereas a teacher or a group or someone that really is close to you and I think even in the way that the apologies have been given it seems as though Alhamdulillah that is the case you know that somehow maybe teachers or a good company got to the individuals and they helped them to to redress their mistakes but this is again just the point of of the importance of value of having really good people in your life so so we're on point number three so now the fourth point here is organizing one's time with the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to maintain the presence of heart so this is also you know I think anybody who's you know pursuing whether it's a personal you know goal or this case studies or work or you know they have some objective they know that time is of the essence because time either works for you or against you and the best way to make your time useful is to be structured to be organized and to actually have you know have your calendar or whatever you know you use you can use all these modern gadgets I know people who still use daily planners which seem like relics of the past in today's day and age because they're not about like you know online stuff it's all written and they actually use the planners very effectively because they can see it and you know they can they take it with them wherever they go so everybody is going to have to choose for themselves the best way but I think organizing your time to make sure that you know you know what you're doing as we talked about one of the again objectives of knowledge is that at any given moment you know what Allah swt had that wants from you in that moment and that's just such a beautiful concept you know that that's why I mean that's how we should that's how we should exist right that we're always aware of the present so that we can know what what does Allah expect of me in this moment so scheduling yourself would obviously help you to do that because if you you know naturally I mean inshallah you know depending on our work and our schedules and our routines we may have already figured out a good portion of our ibadah in terms of our prayers right so those are usually kind of locked in because the prayer times are known to us and inshallah we're doing all of our prayers we're prioritizing them but then there's also other matters that we should think about for example our relationship with the book of Allah which is why I'm a lot of such a gift because you know it gives us the opportunity to really prioritize the Quran and more so I think that any other time of the year we become very consistent right in our relationship with the Quran and we will pencil it in as they say as a priority in this month so we're showing ourselves that is very possible right whether that's going to be after Fajr which is you know according to ayah and the Quran right that the recitation of the Quran at Fajr is witnessed right that this is the most recommended time to read Quran would be at Fajr time inshallah so that could be part of your routine and hopefully you're doing it you know you're doing it already right now that you can see that it is very possible because Allah showing you you're doing it so you know that you have that routine and then you know I had someone on Facebook the other day write a beautiful post about the merits and benefits of doing 1000 Sadawat every single day and I believe Ahmad Shah said that we should be doing at least 300 to 500 and that if a person doesn't have a spiritual guide going back to that second point that just doing Sadawat on a daily basis would compensate and that's just beautiful right because the Prophet's life said him is obviously all of our you know our teacher our Murabi he is the ultimate Sheikh teacher that anyone of us could want so even by by just doing our Sadawat on the Prophet's life said and we are protecting our hearts but obviously ideally would be nice to have a direct relationship with the teacher that's just in the event that a person is so remotely distant or not able to find one that they would at least have a recourse so the Sadawat though as this post was saying was the benefits of 1000 and much all the brother went on to give a structure that if you were to do you know however meant 200 I think he was saying after every prayer right this is 200 times 5 that you would gain a thousand Sadawat and he's you know he just beautifully gave the structure and the explanation that there's just you know the way you'll feel the way your day will go the way that you will experience the openings that come from such a beautiful devotion are you know are amazing so that's how when we talk about organizing one's time that's what it's about it's about looking at what practices moving I mean for now for example we're talking about the Sadawat but what practices moving forward can we maintain and how are we going to plug them into our schedule because obviously we were only created to worship Allah so that actually is the most important thing that we do but is that reflected in our day and where is it reflected because just the prayers alone which are you know undisputable or undisputed they're thought of we have to do them if we're distracted even during those prayers because that's who you know our creation were constantly distracted then now it's it's a matter of quality right not just quantity so and then where where are we compensating right where are we compensating and to me you know when I think of the prophecy Sadawat and his routine the du'as that he left us right at every single point of the day what I gained from that is that the prayers are spread out and they're you know really they're like massive kind of billboard signposts that tell us and remind us right that we have one purpose only and that's alhamdulillah but again because we're so distractible we need other little signs throughout the day as well so it's not enough to just have these five big neon signs that remind you you you're going to go back to God you will be standing in front of him and he will you know take you to task for all that you did that is is good but because our nature so distractible the prophecy Sadawat has left us all of these you know daily du'as woven within the day between the prayers right so you wake up in the morning you haven't even you know prayed fudger yet but you're telling you say the doffer for waking up and then you move to the bathroom and you say the doffer entering the bathroom and then you come out and you say the doffer leaving the bathroom and you say the doffer completing here will do and then you move forward and maybe you go and get dressed and you say that doa and then you know you go to pray it says SubhanAllah it's so beautiful because it's like every movement almost that we do or every action that we do even just I mean Bismillah that's that's what we should initiate all of our actions but that being our time being moist with this type of remembrance throughout the day is constantly reorienting us right so it's kind of like the nuffs within is this force that that causes you to look away from your path and shaitan obviously is calling you from the other side you know so you've got these forces that are taking your focus away from your path and then you have these other more better forces that are actually reorienting you when you look away and that's how we can understand the doa's that we say and the prayers that we say and this is just human nature right so organizing one's time really important and to also be mindful that's also the other part of it so it's not just that we're reflexively or moving quickly mechanically through our acts of evada but we're actually sitting paused with real presence right doing that to devor to fekor just thinking about everything that we're experiencing whether it's you know the breath that we're exchanging you know the carbon dioxide the oxygen just thinking about what an amide is to be able to breathe like you know I've seen I've seen people close to me who've been ill have really labored breathing and until you watch how stressful it is to see someone who can't breathe you might not take it I mean you might take it for granted but it's really something that if you're present with Allah like even these things these you know these systems these bodily functions that we're doing at all times without any effort right they're just happening because it's by Allah's will that you start to be like aware of it and like subhanAllah you know when it was cold the past couple of weeks for example I would look at my nail beds and you know if it gets really cold then your your extremities aren't blood supplies and getting it you'll see you'll start to see this bluish purple hue on your nail bed you know that's indicating to you that your your blood is somehow you know not getting to to your limbs right and you know there's science for that because when it's really cold your blood preserves your vital organs so that's why your limbs tend to be cold right as well until you warm up so your hands and your feet but it's amazing that we have all of these signs that Allah has created to help us to just be mindful of these things like you know you're you've got blood surging through your veins and you know there's all these I don't remember exactly what it is but it's it's insane the length when you add up all of the you know the the network of our circulatory system right but with the blood vessels and the capillaries and the arteries when you when you stretch it all out it's like thousands and thousands of miles and it's hard to even fathom how that is contained within our bodies but this is the type of thought process that brings one into the presence of of Allah Akbar right where you're just like an awe and I would recommend this because I think he's doing an incredible job there's a brother named Paul Williams and he he's a convert to Islam from from the UK he has a YouTube page called Blogging Theology which is very popular and he invites a lot of great guests but he also has I don't know if he does it on any other platform I just follow him on Twitter he has a very strong Twitter presence but he has this amazing hashtag that he started which is just so great and a lot of the stuff he shares I think would be great to even show your children because he finds these incredible examples of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala you know most of this is you know the universe whether it's you know celestial or animal or just the plants and vegetation but what he does is he shows us he reminds us and the hashtag he's created is called no design and he kind of does this thing where you know he writes no design and then there's like a little eye roll emoji and he's speaking to the atheist right because the atheists are so quick to look at human accomplishments and and fawn over them because oh we're so intelligent intelligent design but then they um they they don't have that same reaction to the natural world where there's phenomenon everywhere so anyway these are really wonderful ways that you can just get those kind of doses of wonder that we all are so in need of to bring us back into that state of this is incredible like the fact that we are in existence this is incredible like that we have consciousness right it is something to behold so those are the ways that we can do that but if again we have to organize our time and then under the last point he makes here is suspecting the selfish soul the nefs right in everything in order to free one's self from its whimsical desires and to be safe from destructive circumstances it's very hard to um you know like when we think of harm or or evil or darkness we usually think of external things right but sometimes we forget that the greatest harm to ourselves to our souls is actually within us it is the nefs it is the greatest impediment the greatest evil the greatest obstacle to our closest to a lot so to suspect the self is very important to constantly question oneself that when you do something you say something you know you you take a position right sometimes we take hardline positions on something and we feel very right to always be a little suspicious of oneself what is my motivation why do I feel so strongly about this is this a thought that my nefs is compelling me to or is it truly something of virtue this is how we we do this process of suspecting the nefs so um Alhamdulillah these are the five again foundations of right conduct and now if you just scroll down as we're doing you will see that he's going to go over the pitfall of each and this is also really relevant information because he's reminding us that as we pursue these ways of conducting ourselves to be mindful of what could happen along the way so the first is saying the pitfall of seeking knowledge is the company of sophomoric people whether due to their age and intellect or deficient religious practice in other words those who do not refer to sound principles of guidance in their actions so a person for example could take on the path of knowledge but then they fall into the wrong group that doesn't have good um you know first of all they they don't have uh you know a a a tradition that or or a chain excuse me they're not part of a sound chain of transmission this should be the first red flag because anybody who claims to be a teacher right who claims to have knowledge should be able to provide their background like who did you study with what what are your credentials and I think we understand that interestingly enough in uh in a material sense right if you go to if you wanted to you know take a class on mathematics or science or something else you would want to know the credentials of the teacher and make sure they go to a reliable or they went to a reliable institution and they actually you know are credible people so the same applies if not more to our faith and that um that requires transparency it requires someone being very open about their teachers and what they studied and what credentials they have and people who don't do that but yet speak as though their authorities are very dangerous very dangerous and there are many of them there's so many of them now online with uh tiktok because these spaces have exploded during the pandemic you know tiktok youtube there are a lot of that ease they they call they self you know describe themselves as that ease but uh just by their takes by the way that they speak they don't lack they lack adab which is a hallmark quality of a believer let alone a scholar or a teacher or a student of knowledge so a person who espouses you know righteousness and being and and tries to direct people to the book of Allah and the sunnah but does so with a foul tongue does so while simultaneously cursing other people that is not someone you ever wants to take dean from and so be careful basically that when you're seeking knowledge that you seek it from people who are actually credible and check their sources so that you don't fall into the dangerous groups that are that are bound right now the pitfall of keeping company with the spiritual guides and the fraternity is elitism deception and self-righteous meddling in the affairs of others this is an amazing point because this absolutely happens right group think is real when you start to follow a certain you know kind of belong to a group and you you carry yourself a certain way maybe where you live there's a certain group that is recognized by the community and it has you know some rank and status and now you've you're in that group that can be very dangerous spiritually because now is it the the you know the glory of being a part of a group like that that you're seeking or is it the glory of God right what are you seeking what what are you why are you there so the danger is that you might start to really again like the enjoy the perks right enjoy all of the doors that are opened for you as you are now part of this elite group of students or you know spiritual seekers so these are the things you want to be very careful of and also that sometimes when people get very enmeshed with each other they create unhealthy co-dependencies where they lose the respectful boundaries that we should always maintain you know just because someone is in your home and you're interacting with them day in and day out and learning from them doesn't mean that now you should pry or metal into their business or affairs but these are where you know just having more clearly defined boundaries would help which can be a problem if people get fall into this group thinks type of issue so there's just something to be mindful of not to fall into groupthink and and you know keeping company with with people who may you may feel that that sense of pride in just belonging to you have to be very careful with with these things so the third pitfall that he mentions is a foregoing distinctions and interpretations concerning injunctions is self-pity due to hardship so if there are rossas for example that you you know would want to seek out that because you're disciplining yourself you might start to shaitan you know your nefs might start to make you feel like you are you're a victim of some type you know like oh this is becoming so hard for you and I'll just give you a very brief example as we know you know for for women who are pregnant or nursing the option to fast is there and every woman has to make a decision for herself right every woman has to make a decision for herself so and you know many people would say it's up to you know the medical like if she has you know a doctor or someone advising her but also herself like if she knows that she's feeling weak that she you know can take that rossa there are more you know conservative opinions that would say it's better for her to fast and you know unless there is a direct threat to her or the baby so there's difference of opinion on this matter but someone may find themselves in this predicament where they want to be strong you know they want to be strong they want to maybe push through a fast while pregnant or nursing but then that you know because they're doing it for the sake of Allah and they're doing it to you know to maybe limit the amount of makeup fast they have they'll have to do later there's a lot of reasons what people would want to push through the fast right but then this idea might come where it's like oh you poor thing you know you're suffering and all of a sudden there's this guilt and this shame and and that's where you have to be very clear that when you make a decision right as we mentioned before that you see it through and you don't just start to a self pity because that is enough dictating to you and also don't rush into decisions right make decisions thoughtfully carefully because you want to commit to them and similarly with people who wear hijab you know there are a lot of sisters who wear hijab because they have resolve right they feel it they feel the hemma they start to do it but then somewhere down the line all of a sudden you know they they forget that there's you know if they take the more conservative route of wearing hijab they'll start to feel like they're missing out because oh so-and-so is wearing like a wrap and she can kind of be more creative with her style and she wears makeup and so there's all this whistless of the enters the mind and maybe that sister now starts to feel like somehow because she didn't take certain easy you know paths that she was she's being you know she's she's on the short end of it these are all you know again pitfalls that you want to be mindful of because enough lies enough deceives enough tricks so that's an important point and then the pitfall of constantly suspecting the selfish soul is inclining towards its upright states and goodliness but Allah's God that reminds us were he to offer every kind of compensation it would not be accepted from him so when we you know start to suspect the nefs that's also part of the trick of the nefs is we can start to feel proud of how well we are mindful of our nefs and so you know these are all just very subtle spiritual things that can creep in and compromise the purity of what we're doing and so he's pointing all these things out so that we can be very you know aware and awake and vigilant right and he goes on to say more over the noble son of the noble one Yusuf the son of Yaqub peace be upon him peace be upon them both says in the Quran I do not say the selfish soul is free from blame the selfish soul indeed commands to evil acts except for those on whom my Lord has mercy so that's just an example and some people attribute this verse to being Zuleikha who was speaking so there's a difference of opinion but here we're just citing this opinion so you know to to be careful that if you get so far to the extreme of thinking like you've got your soul figured out that that might make you feel you know puffed up a little bit and that in and of itself is a sign of the delusions of the nefs so there's all these things to be mindful of Alhamdulillah and I think we can stop so that we can allow for some Q&A before we stop and then we'll continue next week inshallah with the foundations of what will cure the sicknesses of the soul so this is going to be really interesting as well because we have to remember that we all are diseased we have spiritual disease of different varying degrees but we also have cures and remedies so inshallah we'll talk more about that next week but let's go ahead and I'll stop the screen share and so if I do if there are any questions and then I'm happy to take thank you Stela Hussain for that beautiful class today masha'Allah I just want to ask that everybody put their questions in the Q&A versus using the chat to make it easier for us to follow inshallah so there's two questions in the Q&A right now the first says salam how can we become more intentional with seeking good virtual sahaba if it is evident that seeking it in person is difficult where one resides masha'Allah excellent I mean a beautiful question I think you're at the right place I mean here we have Rahmah Foundation one of my favorite organizations because the whole purpose of it is to bring sisters together to learn from one another to be in these companies and if you haven't yet been blessed to attend a non-site Qiyam or Halqa then Alhamdulillah they do have a lot of online programs and they're going to have one I believe Tuesday evening and then continued through the odd nights Qiyam a major one on Friday evening so I think you know looking to contact people or organizations like Rahmah and asking maybe you could even say I'm in this particular region or locality is there do you is there a way is there a bulletin is there a way for us as Rahmah students to engage with each other so that I could put out like a bulletin maybe to say hey I'm in this area I would love to meet up with any sisters who are also in a similar area or is there anyone from the online virtual space that would like to have an offline group and you know I'm I follow for example this someone had this great idea so she comes out through the Zaituna College he has the book club right the first command book club and it's a great Mashallah space if you're if you're not familiar with it look into it but one of the attendees decided to go on telegram and create a group for all of the book club members so now everybody is talking to each other and then they have this amazing I don't know how they did it because I'm not really familiar with telegram but within that group they have a bunch of subgroups all based on top it's topical so they have topical subgroups like parenting and I'm like what a great idea you've brought people from an international audience together on a platform and now each person kind of has their own niche or you know group to to be able to to dialogue with so there's these options but I would definitely say contact you know the info Rahmah and see if there's a way for you maybe during one of the PMs to put that out there and we can put you in contact with some sisters inshallah may Allah bless you thank you actually didn't know that the book club had a group I need to get on that oh you're gonna love it it's incredible the subgroups I've just shocked at I'm like how do they do this we all should do it maybe you need a Rahmah foundation telegram page yeah maybe that might work if somebody knows maybe I should join that one to see how it's organized and then yes kind of go for that Allah's yeah I think we should and I'll help you with that Salafiullah because I think it's a phenomenal idea so may the sister who asked may you receive the reward of that inshallah if it happens hopefully it'll happen thank you people inshallah and again another question similarly related what are the best means for cultivating good sohbah in one's local community if there are no third spaces to gather meet people how can one initiate in this area if there is a clear gap alhamdulillah great great question jazaki lakhir and I had a sister a few years ago attend one of my halakas and she had just come back from like an alamea program but she was in the same boat like what do I do so I told her I said you know this is how we started off Salafiullah knows 25 years ago or so I've aged myself but yes that long ago we were doing halakas out of home rotating from home to home for the sisters who had space and just meeting weekly every it was called Friday night halakas but we were meeting weekly so I just told her you know just start at the home level with a few sisters and serious sisters make it once a week twice a week whatever works for your schedules but do it at someone's home don't worry about the space I saw her maybe a month and a half ago at an event where she invited me as a speaker to her organization that she now works with and she shared this with me I forgot about that in her exchange we started with four or five people and now look and I was shocked because I'm speaking at this incredible event with hundreds of sisters and it all came from that seed so start with just a small group in your home halaka and let Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala take care of the rest you'll see it expand maybe at some point someone will say hey we have a venue why don't you use it and you'll it'll just turn into something amazing but always have you know high him and inshallah I'll give you some fear that's great I mean even the Rahmah Foundation it was just a group of us that came together that wanted to have programs some 15 years ago and you know you just slowly build inshallah that we can have more of these types of organizations across the country absolutely absolutely mashallah oh I'm sorry and I just wanted to make mention because sometimes when people think of starting a halaka they fear that they have to have like a lot of knowledge but the best thing to do if you feel like you're with a group of people that are kind of all starting off is to look to the teachers so there's a lot of resources already so I know people who come together they'll watch a youtube talk and then they'll talk they'll read a book together and then they'll talk this is how we grow in knowledge and also how we respect you know we kind of stay in our lane so that nobody starts to get ahead of themselves and you know presumes to to be more you know on the more and more qualified than maybe where they're at because it keeps you in line when you have teachers to hold you accountable to so that's just something I want to mention but I'm sorry go ahead and set up but I think there are a couple more questions sorry I had to mute myself one of my children was like calling and I'm like oh well it worked out I didn't know but actually it worked out perfectly you literally started and ended as I was dealing with that so all right the next question says my question is how can I strengthen my soul to not care about what others say about me for example I recently hosted an iftar for in-laws and someone commented on the dryness of a certain food I felt I was very sad and felt defeated and had anxiety I worked so hard to host and cook and felt disrespected Subhanallah May Allah bless you sister the fact that you cooked in the month of Ramadan for guests supersedes any critique they could make of you and the thing is the best thing to do is when you see people lacking you know the most basic of that like the Prophet said when he didn't like something he would never criticize it he just would avoid it but he wouldn't go out of his way to tell the person this isn't good so if you see people lacking this very basic etiquette of how to receive your hosts and feel grateful that they cared to invite you that they cared to cook for you even if it wasn't the most perfect meal then you should just you know look at it like as a deficiency in them make to offer them but certainly not take their critique to heart because your reward is with Allah whether it was dry that's a very subjective thing some people could eat two people could eat the same thing one person comes out and it's raving and the other person's like no it's not so subjective criticism like that are not something you should ever you know like affect your heart because the Nia that you had in cooking for them and the beautiful you know reward the rewards that that are awaiting you as I said far supersede one person's criticism so don't attribute that as some flaw that you now have to worry about and and you know fear that oh no I'm a bad cook no it's not for a while they just lacked basic adab and make to offer them and make and just be content that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala that is pleased with you we don't need to be pleasing people because you'll never please people whereas Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala the bare minimum we do the bare minimum we do he is pleased with us because we still are are showing up that we're fighting ourselves it's not easy to fight oneself right so I think you did that sister your reward is with Allah this last question is my favorite says salams my mom is wondering when you're going to release a cd and anthology of your lessons I suggest give you a commentary on the cd set of purification of the heart along with your clubhouse sessions and some book writing on top of that too JazakAllah Khairan that's very very kind and generous of you mashaAllah you know I as a Sadaf I know is this is I'm kind of in this perpetual struggle because I love to write and then there's so much need in our community there's a lot of you know needs that come my way so I have a very difficult time managing what's what my heart tells me or my mind tells me because if I had it like my way I would you know be more I would be more structured be more be more consistent with producing and doing things because you know we all want to be able to have goals that are met but I think my heart gets pulled in so many different directions so it's really difficult and I I feel like a broken record just make the offer me please because I think at a certain point and I'm like we all do you know we're going to run out of gas and you know we're just going to have to slow down and maybe that's that's when you might see more more writing and more more content being produced hopefully inshaAllah but thank you for the good opinion may Allah bless you I think we'll just have to make you solar so you don't run out of gas inshaAllah inshaAllah and then I think that's it for questions tonight and then inshaAllah if you can just close with adha that'd be great absolutely again first of all just like I'm looking into the Rahmah Foundation to set the fedora and the whole team for helping put these wonderful programs together I love this text and I'm so happy to be sharing it anytime I can so thank you for the platform and thank you to all of you for attending week after week as we mentioned we will likely have to go beyond Ramadan so I hope you'll stick it out for as long as you can and inshaAllah the recordings are available to you as well so Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem wa la'asir إِنَّ الْإِنْسَانَ الْاَفِي خُصِرْ إِلَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنَ وَعَمِرُ صَالِحَةِ وَتَوَاسُوا بالْحَقِ وَتَوَاسُوا بالْصَبْرِ SubhanakAllah وبحمدك شدوان لا إله إلى أنتنا استغفرك و نتوبه إليك اللهم سلام و بارك على سيدنا محمد و علي وسحف وسلم تستيم الكثيرا سبحان الربيك رب العيزة يا اما يستيقون وسلام علي المرسلين والحمد لله رب العالم الحمد لله جزاكم الله خير and everyone inshaAllah we will see you next Monday wow this is I think the most punctual we've ever been one minute past the hour الحمد لله but we'll see you next Monday جزاكم الله خير والسلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته I'm about a good night and today is of course the day of the 27th so I hope that may Allah accept from all of us are you bad or whatever we gave inshaAllah for his sake may he accept it with that said I wanted to just also welcome there are today I did something a little different I have some friends hopefully joining me here on Instagram live as well I thought why not try this out I'm not a multitasker when it comes to these kinds of things but today seemed a little easier to do just hit the live button on Instagram but I'm for those of you who are watching on Instagram I'm with the Rahmah Foundation we are doing a class called The Foundations of the Spiritual Path if you go to my link tree on Instagram I want to thank Brother Omar for pointing it out to me that I had posted it there that you will see the link to register it's free anyone can tune in if you want to join the actual broadcast happening you can register for that because we're going to continue even inshaAllah after Ramadan so this class is basically on this document it's an incredible document translated by Sheikh Hamz Yusuf but it's written by Sidi Ahmed Zarruq and so we have been going through this for several weeks now I think this is our fourth session or third I can't remember but Alhamdulillah I'm very excited to continue this text so we begin inshaAllah first with our dua so we're going to do our dua together and then I'll jump into the text but again for those who are on Instagram you might want to come on the zoom call because there's a lot of visual stuff here to look at so hopefully it'll help you to follow along Alhamdulillah again peace be upon you peace be upon you everyone we're going to now begin the text or reading the text so I just wanted to actually share with you something that I worked on just a little while ago I thought for those of us who are visual learners this may further help to kind of see what we're doing here so I'm going to screen share actually I should just put this in the same tab so I don't have to keep going back and forth hang on one second let me add this to the same tab and then that makes my sharing a lot easier to do inshallah okay so what I have done a year is because as I've mentioned I say it all the time but it's true I am a visual learner I like to just see things so this is how when I imagine reading this text this is how I'm reading it right that we started off defining what the foundations of the spiritual path are according to city Ahmadzaruq who gave us much love so much content and rich insight into how to really be on a path right if you if we want to take our path seriously which inshallah we all do I mean we're here Alhamdulillah we're in the month blessed month of Ramadan inshallah we're fasting we're praying we're doing our Quran recitation our dhikr our charity we're doing all the things that we should be doing every day of the year because that is the purpose with which we were existed which we were brought into existence excuse me which is to worship Allah so all of these things we're doing and it's being facilitated for us and if we want to sustain this path right because that's what we're these are the conversations we need to start having how can we keep this momentum going then we need to really see it as clearly explained to us what the ask is and the ask which of course is you know benefiting us and only us is that we take seriously our path our spiritual path and we start to build upon it but in order to do that we have to first lay the foundation so that's what city Ahmadzaruq has done he's given us here the the five foundations which are taqwa right being mindful of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he you know just giving those summary points for us all to kind of again you know bring full circle what we're doing here but to be mindful of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in private and in public right so that's the condition there's these are all conditional that we have to have taqwa consistently we also have to practice the sunnah consistently in both word and action we can't just you know teach or or or share the the beauty of the prophesiedum's character and his seerah without acting upon it right that would be a huge fail and it would be actually a sign of ingratitude right to acknowledge on one hand that he is the perfect role model and the exemplar but then to not even embody it it doesn't make you very convincing right it doesn't make you convincing at all so we have to put it into practice and then in difference to whether or not people accept you or reject you this is really important given the context that many of us may find ourselves today where social pressure actually really does inform a lot of our decisions right many people are afraid to disappoint people whether it's their you know family or you know people in their immediate circle or outside of you know in professional circles wherever they go there's a lot of these things that people are factoring into their choices and decisions but in order to be sincere on the path you have to completely abandon that idea of letting the people dictate to you and really thinking more about what is in your best interest in terms of your relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so the creation becomes irrelevant right it's about the creator and then contentment with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala whatever difficulty you find yourself whatever you know situation you find yourself whether it's in times of prosperity or in times of hardship that you have a consistent ridah with Allah that you do not allow life's circumstances to turn your heart this way or that way from Allah but that you understand it's all from Him the blessings are from Him the tests are from Him right so your loyalty your fidelity your love your devotion your reverence to Allah remains the same undisturbed regardless of what's happening to you and then the fifth point is reliance right that your default setting is to turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you are in times of adversity or difficulty and in times of prosperity and this last point is really important because I think it's easy for us to turn to Allah when we feel helpless and sometimes even hopeless that may just be natural right we're inclined to do that because what other means do we have but when Allah is telling us that in times of prosperity and abundance we should actually be turning to Him this is I think sometimes lost on us because we're easily distracted by dunya and ease and comfort and luxury and all the things that we enjoy that we forget that it is those acts of devotion those you know the things that we do consistently that are really giving us the reserves that we need when things get bad right so we're kind of we're stockpiling we're adding we're building the reserves because spiritual reserves are necessary we should constantly be looking to try to fortify ourselves life hits people very hard I just spoke to someone earlier on a clubhouse call who lost her father Allah alhamdulillah to a car accident just 10 days ago sudden sudden death I mean subhanAllah taken in this blessed month of Ramadan of course and inshallah we pray that He is accepted as a Shahid but regardless it is still very difficult for the bereaved to process as a death like that but if you've been doing your work right spiritually consistently every day day in and day out doing your prayers reading your Quran doing your decade reading the stories from the Quran turning to the book of Allah then those when those events if those events are decreed for you when they happen inshallah you'll be able to stand you'll be able to have that you know that necessary strength to endure so this these are the five foundations and then if you remember we've talked about these again for those of you who've been consistently coming every week just like more hidden but we talked about how to what are the prerequisites of getting there how can we even achieve this it seems maybe too difficult but it's not subhanAllah because again our amazing scholars have given us the details or the or the prerequisites they've outlined it for us so exalted aspirations right Allah's reverence service completing our results if you have a goal you actually see it through and then being in a constant state of gratitude magnifying your blessings so these are the ways with which we can at least aspire to those five foundations and then all of that right requires proper conduct so I just love the way that this is structured and it really helps us to understand so that we can see and visualize where are we missing where are the gaps what do I need to work on right so the proper conduct is in and of itself its own foundation right and that's why you when you as you read the text this is how you want to understand it it's like levels right the highest level are the foundations right and we because of our state and the time that we're in we have to work on the on the lower levels we're we need to go all the way back to the to the original steps you know before we can even begin to get to the foundations and then build and beautify and build upon that so this is how we're working so the proper conduct he's also helped to to elucidate like what does that mean well how do you get to proper conduct you have to seek knowledge you have to know what proper conduct is you can't have proper conduct without knowing it you have to also seek out spiritual guides you have to look at people who are ahead of you on the path so that you can follow their example because trying to do this on your own is very difficult it's very difficult to to try to do this on your own and then you also don't want to look for those shortcuts right if you are intending to go on a path and you're you want to really experience the journey then you can't just be looking for loopholes right and there are of course that paths of ease that are within our Sharia and Vic that are meant to facilitate certain circumstances but if you are at the very onset of your journey are already looking to try to seek out the paths of ease then you're not really up for them for the arduous path ahead and you should be because this is what is going to fortify you so for going those dispensations and then organizing once time this is how we get to proper conduct and then the last point that we talked about which was to suspect the nuts right and so these are the ways that we get to proper conduct and then sorry let me just check here okay I think I didn't know I apologize I'm looking at this here I didn't get a chance to edit the bottom levels here so hold on to that don't don't don't don't don't look at that yet because this is really what the next level should be so just ignore that bottom level because this is what we're going to talk about today okay so today we're going to look at how to cure the soul sickness because if you want to get to proper conduct if you want to do all the things we just talked about right which is seek knowledge keeping spiritual guides for going dispensations organizing time and then suspecting the nuts you have to be mindful of your own delusions of your own spiritual diseases and afflictions so he's giving us these all of these insights so that we really are doing this right right we're really addressing our needs in a correct organized structured manner so I just wanted to share this and you feel free for those of you who are here to just quickly snapshot any of these and I'll share them again but I'm going to now flip over to the document because I just wanted to you know kind of bring us all back to where we left off last time so that we can now read together about the spiritual sicknesses so at the bottom of page 10 here so we have the PDF open let me zoom in here so that you can see we start this section right the foundations of what will cure the sickness of the soul are five so now this is a new level right this is the level of purifying the heart or the soul so the first thing he mentions is quite relevant because we're still in the month of Ramadan is moderation achieved by lightening the stomach's intake of food and drink so subhanAllah you see now that this is all you know and for those of course who are familiar with with other teachings like those of Imam al-Ghazali and others this connection of spiritual strength and the appetites is very well known and this isn't exclusive to Islam either many other religious traditions have you know have acts that involve abstaining that have acts that involve restraint right the Catholics of course we know they have certain periods where they fast we have other traditions as well the Buddhists the Hindus they have a traditional fasting and just being able to really not give in to every appetite and there's a great reason because when we are diminishing right the power of the nefs then that allows for what to emerge right think of it that way it's kind of like we have these two oppositional forces within us which are our nefs the appetite of soul right which calls us to all of our base desires and then you have the aqal and the the ruh that was that's created to worship Allah subhanAllah the higher form of our being that's constantly looking to draw closer to Allah and they are really working oppositionally and so when we suppress the lower nefs when we're not giving into our food and our drink and our sexual appetites and our sleep although sleep is necessary of course because we need it to function but we're not indulging and there's a difference there right when you're indulging and you just don't want to get out of bed because you want to be on tiktok all day or just you're pretending to sleep right sometimes people delude themselves to these things because they just want to basically veg as they say these this can this can really prevent us from achieving a lot spiritually speaking right so when we're suppressing all those things when we give into those things that's what I mean but when we suppress those things when we don't give into the lower nefs then what happens is we find ourselves suddenly having much more energy much more himma as they say right which is ambition or aspiration we feel that this this desire to to do more and then from the efforts that we give and of course in this month the mother of Ramadan Allah out of his generosity will expand time right the dilation of time so you suddenly find yourself just being able to produce more and have also other benefits like the clarity of mind right how many of us experience that so the to really achieve moderation which is you know temperance the ability to know when is enough right it's this is a virtue it's a quote one of the cardinal virtues but it's the ability to just really not indulge beyond your needs is something that requires practice because by by nature we want more right we're very nefcy beings and nefcy being that we want to constantly indulge these appetites that is the default setting of the human being so we have to work to moderation and that's where where fasting becomes incredibly useful to actually get to that level right and we we're given this month where it's required of us but subhanallah like with everything and this is the the sad state of the human being is that we cannot see the immense benefits of even what what Allah requires of us to do all of it benefits us you know it's not human beings are different right when you have certain tasks or work that you have to do that feels forced you know or is you have to do it like for for your employer or for school those things can really feel weighty because they're arbitrarily sometimes given based on the you know the the individual who's dictating right so individuals we can sometimes you know not always delegate or or give you know instructions on certain you know whether it's to children students or other people that are necessarily always going to be beneficial to them we we can sometimes because we're humans we make mistakes right so our ability to necessarily be able to you know to to to require of others things that are always going to be beneficial isn't that's not guaranteed whereas with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala every single thing every single thing that he expects of us to do is always beneficial consistently beneficial our prayers our fasts our Qura'an recitation everything we do it's not a chore that would in any way bring harm right it's all because it's all been determined by our creator who obviously knows what we need so he knows best what is in our best interest that that's why we have to really show immense gratitude that that our Lord is is you know he's giving us this opportunity in this month of Ramadan where he has made it require you know a funnel it's a pillar of a stand to fast right it's not optional because he wants us to go against ourselves right if it wasn't for how many of us would fast we wouldn't if we had the option to fast or not most of us would not fast I can guarantee it out I'll speak first about my own self I'd probably find ways to get out of it because it's optional but the fact that it's fun you know we got to do it we and we're believers we're committed we do it but then Subhanahu wa ta'ala we read the benefits so this is our generous Lord he makes it required for that reason right or what that's one of the reasons so that we can see for ourselves and then of course the rewards that he has waiting for us I mean there's just so much abundance there but the point is that moderation in in will help us to to cure our diseases but in order to become moderate we have to do certain things so that's where fasting becomes an incredible tool the next point of getting you know mastery over the nefs and purifying the nefs of these diseases is to be vigilant about places where one fears that they are going to make mistakes so this requires some brutal honesty with yourself like you we all know that there are certain people that may pull us into harm we all know that there are certain places and environments that when we go to we suddenly get a little too loose you know sometimes because of familiarity of just closeness of comfort level we lose comportment we lose other we lose the vigilance over ourselves and we may start to do certain things that we wouldn't normally do by ourselves or in other settings right and so that's why we have to be very careful like if you know if you had for example like let's say when you were in your high school college days you had a period of you know jahlia like we call it right like a period of ignorance you know you did certain things that maybe you're not proud of but you had you're a partner in crime to do it with right you had someone who was there with you and you guys did things together that person now unless they've reformed and you've reformed and you've really truly made toba can become dangerous to you right if you have kind of started to go in a different direction and that person is not at the same level right maybe they're not there yet and Allah guides whomever He wills but you leave the door open to maintain a friendship with this individual knowing that you kind of have this history with them and there could be a relapse you're risking your own soul right so you have to have the presence of mind to know that as much as that person maybe you care for them and you should we shouldn't cut people off we should certainly not think ourselves as better than those when we if we've kind of achieved a certain you know spiritual like we're being drawn spiritually we should never let ourselves think of ourselves as being better than others but we should just be honest and say I'm weak still right I'm vulnerable I could easily relapse if I'm with this person or go to this environment you know maybe if you're on a college campus is a perfect scenario I've had because I work with college students I've had this you know issue come up of you know non-Muslim friends, classmates who are really nice people and you get along with them but they always want to invite you to like party kind of environments you know and I recently actually had this question from my brother who was like how do you deal with that you know like you want to maintain a friendship with these classmates that you've forged bonds with but they always want to invite you to scenes that you know are not right for you as a Muslim how do you find balance and this is where boundary setting is really important if you allow yourself to let your emotions dictate to you then what you're going to do is say oh I don't want to be perceived as a bad friend and I don't want to be ungrateful or make this person feel bad I'll just go right but when you're trying to fortify yourself without you know any real concrete like you know established practice that would that is so far removed from that kind of behavior then you risk relapsing or falling into centralness right like if you're if a person for example is practicing their Dean inshallah for 10 15 20 years and they're pretty you know they have that strength and that fortitude likely those environments would never even tempt them they would never even go they just no question about it but a very young you know person on the path young not by age but like a seeker who's relatively you know new on the path has to be very careful not to allow that door to remain open and then to walk through it because it just takes then that's just so weak that in that case when you haven't built that fortification you could easily be called right like the siren call as they say of sinfulness or or sinful behavior it kind of puts people under a spell like you go to an environment with all your peers and there's a lot of peer pressure as we say but also you're you're a young adult you know hormonal teenager let's just say if that's the the context and you go to an environment where like you are enough is literally being hated to everywhere you go your eyes are able to look at things that you normally would not see your appetites are being you know enticed it's too much it is a sensory overload and next thing you know you may fall into sinfulness and once you cross a line with like doing a severe haram act that you know is haram it's a very slippery slope because she don't is now he is relentless once he has a person in his grip when he's got them to do something they've never done before so that the first experience right of drinking alcohol the first experience of smoking weed the first experience of touching a man or a woman that's not lawful to you and actually doing things with that person becomes a source with which he will continue to work the individual down right he will continue to entice you and also spiritually shame you to the point where you may think what's the point of you know I'm too you feel so guilty and you feel so terrible and have so much self-loathing that you start to distance yourself from the path and even from you know the spiritual friends or a company that you may have that were on the opposite side completely because you feel so disgusted with yourself and sometimes we we wear that shame externally so we feel like everybody can see it then we avoid those groups and this is exactly the path that the you know how sheath on works he gets people to slowly transform and slowly turn from one direction to the other so avoiding places is really important if you want to to remove these sicknesses and I would say this is not just also restricted to physical places because in the context of social media there are far more places we traverse that are haram from the social media perspective than we than physical spaces I would say the far more because at the access the access is so easy you know with it with the touch on the finger you can go down the most demonic pathways possible now it's very simple and that's why people are ruined many people become ruined spiritually speaking because it took a button it took a you know click and then all of a sudden they're down a very very very dark path so when we say avoiding vigilantly places where one fears misdeeds occur understand that there's multiple iterations of that it's physical it's virtual it's individuals it's not just places but also people that could also call us as mindfulness so as a second point the third is to see yourself in a state of perpetual humility right perpetual humility because that then forces you to always you know ask Allah for forgiveness right continuously asking Allah for forgiveness coupled with devotional prayers upon the promise I said in both solitude and gatherings of people and I love that he puts those conditions because you know making a toba or doing sada wet right when it's in front of people can lead to what we would call riyadh right which are which is which is performing spiritual acts for the the sake of just being seen right ostentation you want people to see you and sometimes when we're in certain gatherings right if you're sitting in a thick of a circle you're in a mess yet like you know last night last night was a PM all we all inshallah some of us were on virtual PM some of us are on physical PM whatever the case is if you're participating in something and people can see you and you're just kind of going with the motions it's easy to do because it serves you know the nuffs in some cases people are oblivious to these things but it you like the the feeling right of being part of the jama part of the group and so the intentions can be sometimes compromised whereas when we're doing these things separate from people's eyes and view and just completely independent this is where we really are showing our sincerity so toba and my perfect example is toba in a gathering where everybody's you know same together in unison like a loma in a kafu and toha bilafu faafu anni right these are all things that we could be doing in unison in a group do we really think that's the same at the same level and of course every individual heart is different but I'm just kind of drawing a parallel would you say that that would be the same as a person who is in their own private quarters not a single soul in sight and they are shedding tears for remorse before their creator this isn't about anybody else this is about true remorse to their creator true remorse or is it the same if we're all in a gathering and there's a you know kind of nice uplifting setting where everybody's doing silhouette and they'll prophesize them and we're all kind of just sharing that moment together is that the same as a person who is in every waking moment whether they're driving or they're excuse me they're walking they're cleaning they're doing something of benefit but there's nobody else that around and then they remember you know what I want to do salawat on my prophesialism because he his entire life right was for me for me to benefit from and I owe it to to him to at least to at least at the very least offer my words of gratitude by sending the salam upon him right so you just do that from your own heart it's not about just being a participant in a group activity it's about you demonstrating your true love and devotion to the prophesialism so that they're very different and I think we can all agree to that so that's why these conditionals that's the episode puts are so important because he's reminding us to purify our devotion not just to do it in the context of it being done with others and and yes there's still benefit and merit to that we don't want to disconnect from our community but to actually do it independent of that as well be consistent be real right so being in a state of Toba consistently will help you to not want to continuously what transgress the boundaries of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so that's the wisdom right that you are continuously mindful of your sinfulness in the past so that you prevent yourself from falling into further sin and then doing salawat then the prophesialism is in the same vein by witnessing his blessings upon you and not wanting to disappoint him right because inshallah we're all we should all seek that when the on the day of judgment inshallah when we're all gathered and we're all running around you know it's going to be pandemonium it's chaos that the fear that strikes the the human being in that day but what we find is our umma we're blessed in that we all are our sought seeking our prophesialism but he's also seeking us he's looking out for us and how does he know us right how does he know us he knows us by the marks of our will do by the limbs that are literally illuminescent right they're let they're lit up because of our will do so he will be seeking us and we will be seeking him but we should seek to not be those who disappoint him right so this is where the wisdom of doing the tawba coupled with the salawat where in both solitude and gatherings of people is so so profound mashallah and then so the fourth or the fifth excuse me point here is keeping company with one who guides to Allah and then this is you know Sidi al-Manzarru he's he's he's making a comment here he says unfortunately such a no one such a one no longer exists and he's talking about you know the 15th century where in his time he's witnessing this idea of a single spiritual master or guide was was fading it was it was just not they were they weren't in existence then so what about now and I think this is an important point because there are charlatans there are people who who pose as being spiritual guides but they actually have ulterior motives so I think you know he's he's making a recommendation but also warning that not to fall for just anybody and then there's more as we read we'll continue to read you'll see where he's going with this right so now he pivots a little bit and he speaks specifically about Abu Hassan Shadri Rahimullah who said what and this is the council that he gave so it's in the same context and he says my beloved council of me not to put my feet anywhere except where I hoped for Allah's reward so we just talked about avoiding places where one fears misdeeds and now this is a beautiful pairing to that right don't go anywhere if you don't feel that there will be reward for you why even go what's the point what's the point of going if there's no reward so this is the council right and then not to sit anywhere except where I was safe from disobedience to Allah so watching the gatherings watching the company that you keep not to accompany anyone except someone in whom I could find support in obedience to Allah so if you're going to hang out with people you're going to go travel with people you're going to work with people but they do not call you to obedience of Allah you know even marriage like I'm just subhanAllah it's sad because you hear so often these cases of divorce just popping up every single day I was you know watching a Qiyam last night where duas were coming in there was like a just people were asking for duas and several of them were please make dua for the sister the divorce to kids you know brother divorce divorce divorce divorce and you're just like yeah Allah what's happening what's happening you know Allah knows but I've worked it up to the in the community to see that many people will completely get caught up in the superficial you know they'll get caught up in the looks and the attraction and the emotions the tension that they feel with with a potential mate you know they get caught up in the attention that they're getting so if you're lonely you're feeling insecure and someone suddenly comes along and fills you with all the compliments in the world you love it you love the way they make you feel right that's all nuffs your nuffs is completely taken hold of you because if your rational mind was activated you would realize that human beings use people you know people will say whatever to get whatever they want they'll say a lot of things they'll tell they'll lie to your face and you know it's just the way that the nature of the human being is in order to get something out of you and many people do that in order to get something they'll flood people right love bombing is a very real thing that predatory people do so it's not something to necessarily be impressed by but rather to be suspicious of especially when it's done quickly you know someone you barely know and all of a sudden they're making all these promises to you and they're you know giving you all these you have to have the reasoning to know wait a second something doesn't seem right here and this is where our dean is constantly warning us how do you do that you look at character you don't look at the superficial you don't look at a person how attractive they are how you know the words that they use how charming they are those are not the criteria for marriage right or for for drawing close to people how wealthy they are but this is what we've come to now where these things matter much more a person gets completely infatuated with someone just because of the clothing they wear like I know people that that's what it was so I love the way they dress I love the swag they had swag so your criteria to give your soul and heart and body and mind to someone was because they dressed in brand name clothing and you don't see there's an issue with that and the reason why I mention this is because look at the advice here right not to accompany anyone except someone in whom I could find support and obedience to Allah if the person who you are going to give your entire being to is not calling you to be an obedience to Allah what are you doing right how do you possibly expect to have how do you possibly expect to see good come out of a relationship like that when the person doesn't obey their Lord and for women I'll say this because I really feel like we need to warn our sisters if he doesn't fear his Lord what on what basis do you have any assurance that he will give you your rights it's a very big risk to marry someone who doesn't display Taqwa and if you get caught up with the physical attraction and all the other superficial things and forget that Taqwa is the most important quality in a companion let alone a partner in life that you will learn a very difficult lesson and I think that's what we're seeing with the rise of divorce is that people let their emotions dictate to them but then they realize in order to sustain a relationship I need to have someone with a conscience right I need to have someone who understands what fairness is what justice is what rights are what balance is what compassion is and that can't be in the heart that's not it can't it doesn't exist those things can't exist in a heart that's completely heedless of their Lord so you just can't have your cake and eat it to as they say you need to prioritize but I find it important that he mentions this and then he says and not select anyone for myself other than those who increase my certainty and how rare are they to find there you go don't shortchange yourself in any of regards you know whether it's friendship and again this is just something to mention so many people I know they have quote-unquote friends that are really harmful to them but they don't they still continue to maintain those relationships if people are not benefiting you and they're causing you harm they're stressing you out they give you anxiety you panic when you see their phone come in you feel restricted and constricted every time you're around them what are you doing have a leader for yourself have a leader for your heart your heart is special it was you know created to know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and instead of knowing Allah it's being consumed with all this you know with all this toxicity of dunya and and it's not because the dunya just got in it's because we let it in right so we have to protect our heart we have to stand vigilant so that's you know the council's just to be very mindful of where you go who you spend your time with and and really protect your own interests protect your heart he also said may Allah be pleased with them whoever directs you now the opposite of this or whoever directs you to this world right has cheated you so when people are telling you you know give into your knobs and and just forget your spiritual religious obligations what's the big deal your heart is pure I've heard people say that to me literally I'll take your sin for you just let's let's go don't worry about it you know God is the most merciful our hearts are clean but I'll take it for you I mean that's like the height of of real all of it not only arrogance but also ignorance because we we should never feel so safe right nobody should ever feel safe and then he goes on to say so whoever directs you to this world has cheated you whoever directs you to deeds has exhausted you right and then but whoever directs you to Allah has truly counseled you so we have sometimes people who push us towards actions right whether they're worldly or other worldly without really directing us to Allah and that's important because sometimes you know people get again too preoccupied with the external or the outward but the heart matters and whether the sincerity matters so the true companion in this life the true person that you want to spend time with whether it's a teacher a spouse a partner a friend whoever it is is the one who is constantly directing you to Allah right who's constantly trying to remind you of your relationship with your Lord it's not about them right and I'll say this for example like parents when I do parenting sessions I'm always I try to remind parents that our role as parents is to you know give our children the necessary tools and all of the the you know the the tarbiyah that they need in order to navigate this world but at a certain point we have to get out of the way right we are in there or because you know it's kind of like when you you have a toddler and you're you're teaching them to walk right what do we do we usually hold their hands and we walk backwards while they walk forwards with us because we want to hold their hand and guide them in their direction the correct direction and we are in the path we're right in front of them right this is how all of us taught our children how to walk or we stand and we we we incentivize them to come to us right but we're in their way and they love us so much they want to draw close to us so they come and they start to walk Subhanallah that's kind of like metaphor for life right for the instruction of a parent we do that but at a certain point we have to get out of the way and this is really the difficult part for a lot of parents because we get so comfortable with the dutifulness of our children we get so comfortable with their devotion and love to us and we want them to constantly acknowledge us and you know be mindful of all the things we do for them that we sometimes realize we are an obstacle for them spiritually because if we could redirect or kind of slowly phase out and just leave and turn everything back to Allah we're going to help them a lot more so it's you know it's really about trying to do that in the most in every situation is just constantly direct to Allah Subhanallah for ourselves and our children whoever else but the the company that we keep that's what the best company is those who are like Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah it's all from Allah it's all from Allah it's not me it's not you we're in blessing we're in nama because of Allah that's it that's the person or the people that you want to keep company with and then he says here and I'll we'll close out with this he also said may Allah be pleased with him make piyati taqwa your abode so beautiful so simple so succinct make your home your your place that you reside in right taqwa and the delight of your selfish soul will do you no harm so long as it is discontent with its faults and does not persist in acts of disobedience nor abandons the awareness of Allah in solitude this is the formula right your nafs will not continue to wreak havoc on you if you can maintain taqwa and make sure that what that it's aware of its faults right so when we talk before about being suspicious of the soul that's very important to have that mind to be aware of that always to be vigilant that your nafs that which resides within you should become always suspect you know they have that word now when they when you want to say something is suspicious it's sus the nafs is very sus it's always going to be sus it will always push us out of the blood to to just indulge and to do things that that are going to take us backwards right so be always mindful of that and don't let it ever become too content with itself which we're going to get to soon right about this idea of being content with oneself it is a sign of spiritual disease and also obviously I mean it's obvious do not continue in acts of disobedience so whatever whatever haram you're doing at a certain point you've got to wake up and say what am I doing it's like your self harming you know we gasp when we hear of people's self harming right the teenagers are self harming they're cutting themselves everybody's like but in reality all of us are you know rude harming or nafs harming whatever you want to call it we are harming our soul and we're harming our body too I mean it's all harm but we are harming the most our the most essential part of who we are heart our self and that way our soul we're all doing it in this way so disobedience has to be you have to come make a break like I'm not going to be actively disobeying a lot it's one thing when you do something accidentally or you're not aware of something but to actively be doing haram aware of it and then not even feeling guilt over it you've kind of just resigned yourself that it's just who I am it's just part of who I am it's just what I do this has to stop and we all have to make feel good from that and then the last point he makes to also be aware of Allah and solitude and this is full circle right because we started off with that the foundation the first one is taqwa with Allah and private and in public and solitude the ticket of Allah and solitude far far outstrips and outweighs the performative the gift that we may do in the company of other people just being mindful of Allah when we're completely by ourselves and that's an indication actually of who we truly are what are we doing when we're alone right if you're alone no one else is there no one else is watching you what are you doing it tells you a lot of what you need to know where you are and the final thing he says I say that being content here it is with the self persisting in disobedient acts and abandoning awareness of Allah are the foundations of all illnesses tribulations and pitfalls SubhanAllah so it's like these are by the way the words of Sidi Ahmad Zadrul because those are councils from Imam Ashadri but now these are his words again you could just see by the font so this is the cliffhanger then I'm going to leave you all on for next week we're going to continue inshallah these sessions until we finish this text I'm grateful to the Rahmah Foundation because initially this was supposed to be part of Ramadan but I realized that this is such a rich document it's not going to be able to I'm not going to do it justice doing it in three or four sessions so inshallah we're going to continue but that cliffhanger we're going to leave you all with and just think about it deeply right he's these are he's not equivocating his words here he's very clear here that all illnesses tribulations and pitfalls come from these things right the self being too content with it perpetual or persistent disobedience and completely abandoning awareness of Allah those three things and we all have to answer you know eventually but let's examine ourselves now so let me stop here and I'll take some questions if they're already inshallah before we close out come do that finally come thank you again for another wonderful class so you mean telling you all about how little sleep I got last night and how good I'm feeling today it's not the path not the spiritual path how we can do that that's just it's like the the Facebook morning statuses exactly all those days it's so funny when you look back on what were we all thinking moment of our day was a status upon Allah Mashallah all right so this first question says As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu when you mentioned sincerity and difference to social and family pressures and pleasing the creator and not the creation what about wishing someone a happy birthday no cake yeah I mean these are like you know other questions for my understanding you know really comes down to like these types of cultural customs like in some cultures birthdays are a really big deal so if you're marrying into a family or you maybe you come from a family where this was just a custom I don't think there's anything harmful about it as far as I've for my teachers that we've learned so these are you know not things that we should preoccupy or get to caught up in because it's just it's out of its culture whereas you know there are other opinions that are very strict about these things but I feel like that causes sometimes more harm like I've seen people have you know disputes family disputes and if you really think about it just wishing someone a simple happy birthday should not cause problems right but if people become sticklers on certain things and then they politicize or make things you know everything about haram and halal and bidah and it turns into this big debate issue it just causes these problems in the hearts and that I think would be far worse so it's not a I don't think you know it's a big deal again this isn't my opinion this is what our teachers have taught that those types of things don't make issues out of it inshallah and just have the best of intentions that you're doing certain things to bring the hearts together all right thank you so how do we best identify our attachment to food when should we realize how culture and environment inform our desires any best practices huh that's a good question so I think you know you know I had a friend who who used to say you know it might be actually a popular quote but I just remember she would say it often that we fuel is a food is a fuel right and we should live live to eat no eat to live sorry eat to live not live to eat right because of the culture we're in today lives to eat they're obsessed with food preoccupied with food and you know there is there are there is the hadith that talks about you know the lack of baraka when food doesn't have baraka then you have an insatiable appetite right and so this is where it's all connected but I think if you're just consumed which is ironic that we use that word buy food because we consume food but if you're consumed by it you're waking up you're thinking about it you're dreaming about it you're like constantly obsessed like I was teasing someone I know recently that on Facebook we have one of the most probably active Facebook groups I've ever seen here in the Bay Area it's called Bay Area Food Halal East I think or something I think I'm on it but I'm not really on it but I just I see posts and people send me stuff and I'm like wow this this is such an active group and man mashallah I wish we had this level of interaction on other you know groups that are maybe more intellectual and I get it people you know especially during month of Ramadan they're hungry so it's kind of it's natural to do that but I feel like if that becomes like your life where you're just like browsing through menus and and looking at different restaurants all the time and you just want to eat eat eat eat eat eat there's there's definitely a problem there you have to work on breaking the that hold that food has over you that food is enjoyable it's it's a great Nama that we've been given but I think this is where practicing restraint and creating a an independence from food you know is really important like seeing your your patterns right is it certain types of food or is it just the entire you know topic of food that excites you because there are a certain you know we we we can certainly get addicted to certain foods right and if you look at the quality of our food and the properties of our food they're designed to be addictive so sometimes it's not even a person's actively seeking these things they're just consuming things that are affecting their brain chemistry or their physiology and they don't even know that they've created these these addictions or these food dependencies so there's so much there but I think the bottom line is if your mind is constantly thinking about food there may be something to explore there because and I want to be sensitive to also people who have had really difficult lives and food became a source of comfort I remember a friend of mine who had severe you know trauma as a child I mean really severe all the things that I they're they're made of nightmares that she you know she had gained a lot of weight and she said it was completely intentional she hated her body so much that she actively ate a lot and I that's a reality there are people who consume themselves because of real severe trauma so I don't think it's fair to just speak of these things as being somehow a person's weak it's more just paying attention to your mind whether or not the preoccupation is coming from something that may be more you would need to explore more from a mental health perspective or if it's just an enjoyable pleasure that you like indulging in that is distracting you a little bit too much you know I know someone who is stick thin I mean this is it's weird because you know we can't predict these things someone who is really much so thin like maybe less than 100 pounds but loved food to the point that their refrigerator was I would say it was like pregnant with food like you couldn't open it without something falling out and they said themselves like their eye was bigger than they could consume they didn't eat a lot they ate like birds they like like the portions were so small but they loved the idea of food and you know this again could there could be other implications all on those but I think each of us are going to have to examine our relationship with food from that perspective because I've been you know much less than the fedora we've all you know maybe some of you have been on this call have been around like really spiritually people who have mastered these things I I'm in awe they eat like nothing but subhanAllah they look fully nourished it's not like they look emaciated they just food is not interesting to them and they eat to live it's a fuel and that's very possible I mean I'll just share this with you because I actually from our teachers being around them I was so amazed by their ability to restrain themselves we would have these lavish you know meals sometimes because people would host and everybody's just pouring it on and then there's dessert and chai and you would look at their plate and it was like a date a small little morsel and water and everybody's drinking soda and it's just it was a scene but I would just look at them and go subhanAllah what kind of strength do they have you know and I actually this is a true story it happened to me when I went to hedge back in December of 2004 long long time ago this was my go out on Arafah I asked Allah subhanAllah I said please ya Allah give me the ability to completely restrict my food intake and have complete mastery over like my my nefs so that food is not interesting to me like I can I can basically I wanted to have what they had and I so I put that Da'a out there and subhanAllah it was amazing because Allah completely answered that Da'a and you know those of who know me personally you know I went through a period before I had children where I lost a lot of weight and part of the weight loss was me literally forgetting to eat I just cut off my Shahwah completely it was cut off I went entire days Allah is my witness wallahi I would have maybe one cucumber there was a couple of days I didn't eat but I wasn't even interested I was drinking water but I had no desire for food and you know I would go to girls parties halakas there was dessert plates everything brownies everything that you could want you know women usually go for the desserts men go for the meat we know that but I was completely unfazed I had no desire so it is very possible these are spiritual things Allah can turn your heart off from these things so I've lived it I know it's real mella give us that fortitude and strength to not be enslaved by our desires inshaAllah I mean sorry there's a I give these long answers I apologize Salafa, do I hope we're not we're fine it's like cows you know they just eat grass and they become these massive beasts and it's not like they go around looking for something else right no but it's part of us that we have these shahwas and so there's so much variety in the food that we can eat and it's it is it's a path it's just one of the paths that you can take to really train yourself but yeah it's interesting there is one more question if you have time for it I do absolutely so this one this person asks we're new parents and my husband always blames me for everything that happens to the baby example the baby has eczema and it's my fault how do I stay positive without having bad thoughts about my husband ya Allah that's really difficult I'm sorry to hear that it's not your fault you know Salafa put a lot sometimes men really want control or I mean I shouldn't say that they want control what I mean to say is a man especially husband a young father the way that Allah has created our men folk is that they have so much responsibility they're constantly bearing this weight of being responsible for their family and a new child a new baby an infant so vulnerable right as soon as something doesn't go the way that would be ideal the father may feel that he has somehow failed but it's you know a lot easier sometimes to scapegoat because to deal with to confront or to accept that maybe you know you somehow miss something is painful for some people so that's where a lot of this blame and shift goes between spouses especially and young children bring a lot of tension and stress for that reason but I think open communication is really important and what I would encourage is to always kind of especially as you're learning right I mean you have a new baby this is a learning phase for both of you and not you don't get a like a handbook on how to do this but I do think the more you show and demonstrate that you are ahead of these things like making sure doctor's appointments are scheduled in advance giving reports you know of daily things so that he feels like he knows what's going on it will actually protect you from these types of injurious you know accusations because it's it hurts so hurtful right you're the mom you're with this baby all day taking care of it tending to it and to have someone throw an accusation like that it's very very painful but I think if you think of it like from his perspective if he at least knows what's going on and sometimes men because they're working I'm assuming you're home with the child and he's out he doesn't know right what's going on and we as women sometimes we're so spent we don't think of the importance of actually sharing all of the daily stuff because sometimes you get so you know repetitive like oh okay every time I change a diaper I have to tell them no but it's more like anything that you notice or observe or just even checking and like when I was married with my I mean when my kids were younger and you know we were in Southern California with my husband I would just update him send pictures constantly keeping him in the loop is what I'm trying to say because if you keep him in the loop and he knows what's going on it's kind of like you're submitting these reports periodically then he'll feel some sense of like control right but if he's absent in the day it doesn't really have much to do with the the day in day out stuff a parent of of you know taking care of the the child then it will be very easy for him as soon as something goes wrong to be like it's your fault right so I think being a kind of getting into the team mindset as a mom is really important that yes I'm doing the bulk work of this you know of the child you know taking care of the child but I can at least bring him into the loop so that he feels we are a team in this I'm doing this part he's you know going out and you know getting you know I mean working and then bringing the sustenance for the family to be sustained where we are a team we just aren't communicating and I think in the absence of that communication these things happen and then fear sets in panic sets in blame shifts and it's just all this ugliness so try that try being more open and more communicative giving him those little reports inshallah and don't don't let your heart turn from him it's out of love and concern but obviously he's not emotionally managing himself well because he's blaming you but I think you can inshallah help to turn that around by just having a little bit more clear communication with him and also as I said being on top of those appointments and kind of reading and sharing articles on certain things that involve the baby it shows your productivity and he can't then blame you for for being you know for missing something because you've been actively doing that I hope that makes sense inshallah thank you so that was I sometimes I think too the you know when when maybe men are working in a professional sphere and they're used to that sort of having to assign blame to somebody on the team because things didn't go right and then they try to bring that home you know it doesn't necessarily work I mean obviously it doesn't work and so that may be and they're both new that that's the thing they have to remember as she has to remember you're both new at this parenting and it's really important that you allow each other to have time so just like she would like time to sort of learn about the best care for her baby she should also give her husband that time to learn to be a father in the way that he can and with his other responsibilities and with her other responsibilities so it's interesting to to see these new parents for those of us have been around a while we know it's these are just the easy days of dealing with the babies but you know it's important at the beginning I think too to just have that relationship and use you you know use your words of course absolutely and not let shit don't come between you too because he's that's what he will continuously do he'll find these ways oh he's blaming me no just be like you know when he's a dad he's worried about his baby he's not handling it right this is stressful we're both lacking sleep we've never done this before it's hard for both of us but I can you know show that you know like I said be proactive and really for the sake of the family and try to make these little adjustments insha'Allah I'll give you a talk for you insha'Allah Jazakallah please close the sub with the dua and then insha'Allah we'll be back to Monday schedule next week is that correct yes insha'Allah Jazakum Allah and thank you so much again everyone thank you please support the Rahmah Foundation by the way for those who are you know joining and benefiting from these classes insha'Allah they try to make so much programming available for women and young girls all over the world and I really they didn't ask me to say this but I really wish and pray in these last mubarak days and nights of Ramadan that we all do whatever we can to support this wonderful organization it is on my top list of organizations and they know Sadafado knows she basically owns me whatever she needs I'm at her disposal on the service but Alhamdulillah I just because I love the mission so much and this is really if we want to protect our future and I say I don't say this lightly I really mean this we want to protect our future as an ummah and as a community then we have to support our women because the women the woman the mother is the first house the first mother is the first school the first source of so much of the the dean that is transmitted to the child so we need to fortify our women folk and our young girls of course to be able to handle this insane world that they're in and then we will see the benefits of that in our household which will reach our boys and our sons and our men and inshallah but let us invest in organizations like the Rahmah Foundation that center women Alhamdulillah Jazakum Allah Khirin with that Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim Wa la'asir Inna l-insana la bi khusr illa ladina aamani wa aamir al-sali haqi wa du'asab al-haqi wa du'asab al-sabr Subhanak Allahumma wa bi hamdika as-shadu an-la ilaha illa anta al-saqtilak wa natsubu ilayk Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik ala Sayyidina wa maulana wa habibra Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alayhi wa sahbih wa sallam tasliman kathira Subhanah rabbika rabbil aizati amma yusifun wa salamun a'la al-mursaleen wa alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin Alhamdulillah Jazakum Allah Khirin everyone thank you again inshallah we will see you on Monday next week for the continuation of As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Wa alaykum everyone inshallah we'll begin in just a moment Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Ashraf al-anbiya'i wa al-mursaleen Sayyidina wa maulana wa habibra Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alayhi wa sahbih wa salam tasliman kathira As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone first of all Aide Mubarak inshallah I pray that all of you had a beautiful end of the sacred month the blessed month of Ramadan and a beautiful Aide Alhamdulillah it's been quite bittersweet for many reasons obviously the month coming to an end wasn't in and of itself bittersweet and then many of us I think are also still in shock and grieving the loss of our brother Sidi Mu'ad and Nas inshallah so I wanted to just take a moment and recite Fatihah for him inshallah hum may Allah swt Ota'ala grant him the highest station in Jannah-ul-Firdosa and may he be united with the Beloved Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He was a very dear brother MashaAllah and earlier today was his Jannah. So for those of us who may have tuned in, it was a very beautiful MashaAllah Jannah. There's so many people were there, so many beautiful people were there to make the offer him. And we ask that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala give his family Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala Jameeth. It's very difficult. I can't imagine a harder test than to lose a child. It's kind of like his parents are beautiful, righteous, God fearing people and from everything that has been circulating in the past few days, they've done nothing but demonstrate amazing faith and are really strong MashaAllah. But of course we know that grief is a very difficult unpredictable process and when you're surrounded by loved ones and community Alhamdulillah it does help to carry you through. But we ask that Allah Subh'anaHu continues to give them that beautiful Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala Jameeth when all of the news and this just everybody being there when people start to lead them and they're by themselves again. It's difficult. So our hearts are heavy for them. But Alhamdulillah, this is dunya. We have to I think just be prepared and as you know I think every year this seems to happen almost where some news will just come and completely take everyone by surprise. And it's difficult but it is part of our dunya and we're in many ways protected more so I think than previous like pre-modern people because sickness and illness, death were just so much more common. And a lot of parents actually it was very common to bury children not just a child but children. So for us I think because of modern medicine and a lot of the advances of our modern world we were hit so much harder by these things because they are not as common. Of course they still happen but may Allah Subh'anaHu grant us all strength and yakin and conviction and to remember that this is the temporal world and we're all going to leave at one point or another we will leave and there is no way to determine when that is but we have Alhamdulillah beautiful faith that gives us so much clarity and really if we just stick to our faith Alhamdulillah we can get through any difficulty and challenge so may Allah make it easy for us but Alhamdulillah. So as we all know we've been working on this text the foundations of the spiritual path throughout the month of Ramadan Alhamdulillah we are going to continue our reading of it. I begin I'll begin with a dua for studying that I really encourage everyone to memorize inshallah so I'll go ahead and recite that and then we'll begin and look at the text. So I'm going to go ahead and screen share because I had a couple of things I wanted to show all of you first of all this text that we've been reading I actually didn't I forgot that I had done a infographic on Instagram on this very text it's called the five foundations of faith that's what I titled it on Instagram but I wanted to share it with you in case you wanted to maybe grab a screenshot of this to help you I've mentioned it many many times but as a visual learner I think just seeing things laid out can make retaining knowledge easier so for me it works but here is the infographic I'll quickly go through this it summarizes basically the very first five foundations and also gives us the necessary questions to really self-examine right so first what is the foundation it's the lowest load-bearing part of a building typically below ground level and it's or it's an underlying basis or principle so it's a beautiful word because it actually implies we are building on this structure of faith that we that's you know the objective anyway that it's a lifelong process of knowledge acquisition and obviously application so you're constantly building you're constantly moving toward a goal of becoming a better version of yourself every day so there's this idea of building upon something but it's also a matter of establishing your principles of belief like what do you believe and what are the ways in which you manifest or represent that belief so the five foundations again this is just summary for those of you who have been here from the first week but good visual to kind of see it all out laid out mindfulness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala privately and publicly very important foundation for strong faith if you don't do this there's a problem right if you're mindful of Allah because everybody's watching you within as soon as you're by yourself that's clearly an indication of spiritual disease right there's a problem there because if you are alone and you do nothing to remember Allah and you actually do you know other things that you shouldn't be doing and you completely forget Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then this is again indicating that there is spiritual affliction that you have to rid yourself of the next is the adherence to the sunnah and word indeed and we're gonna we we already kind of you know went through each of these but i'm just reviewing it and also i have people on instagram live who are tuning in who i'm hoping will also look at this document and really understand it it's called the foundations of the spiritual path by cd Ahmed Zeruq so the third point here is the indifference to the acceptance or rejection of others so not being moved by whether or not people like you or not like you because that's not i mean you know our the reason why we do what we do is not for the pleasure of people it's for the pleasure of god so that becomes your criteria not seeking to be part of the in-group or fearing being excluded you know and being ostracized those are not motivations so really getting to that point and then satisfaction with Allah and hardship and in ease and turning to Allah and prosperity and adversity so those are the five foundations and here they are written out a little bit more you know as as you know in text form and then the questions that i think are also really important for us all to ask to determine where we are with uh in this you know spectrum of belief are important like how are you and you're completely alone um how close are you to the sunnah um in in your speech and actions do you talk the talk but but not walk the walk how much do you care about people pleasing or being excluded you know does your preoccupation with people prevent you from practicing your faith authentically and how much do you complain and whine about your life and events outside of your control do you resist the decree of Allah by questioning and saying things like why me right and then how often do you remember Allah when things are going well and remind yourself to be grateful or do you only turn to Allah when things are going back right so um and then we last week if you recall i shared with you these other visual aids to also just kind of lay out the foundations for us inshallah so everything we just mentioned right um what they are the talk about the sunnah the indifference the contentment and the reliance and then how do we get there right through exalted aspirations through Allah's reverence through the service of others khidmah is a really important part of spiritual um you know purification of spiritual preparation right we we better ourselves through the service of other people completing our resolves so having goals and meeting those goals and objectives and then magnifying our blessings being people of gratitude it's very important that we live um you know with gratitude every single day no matter what happens and you'll see this you'll see people of um faith even when they're tested in the most difficult circumstances you will never uh not hear their that them expressing their gratitude because in their grief in their sorrow in their sadness they can still um be filled with total gratitude to Allah because they can they're witnessing that they still have so many other blessings right so this is a very important um quality the believer must have and then we talked about you know proper conduct and how uh one gets to proper conduct so you know seeking knowledge is obviously the first point you can't get to certain levels if you don't know what the levels are or how to even you know what they are or how to get there right so you need to seek the knowledge keeping spiritual guides as part of that right where are you gonna get the knowledge from hopefully from people who are on the path and are are ahead of you uh in some cases you might find you know really uh qualified teachers to help you in other cases you might find other seekers on the path that are similar to you their students they're just trying to gain more knowledge and you can come together and have circles and study from with one another but whatever the case is to seek those out um I actually had a sister message me earlier today on instagram just saying that it's been very disheartening because she doesn't have access to female teachers and she was just saying expressing that she feels very weighted down by that you know that she doesn't have the access and I know that there are a lot of people who are in similar situations maybe in their region like where they are regionally they don't have teachers that they can access but this is why we also have to magnify our blessings because um alhamdulillah the internet affords us opportunities that many of us would otherwise not have right we can connect with a lot of amazing people online and there are spaces for that right now what we are doing is a proof of that right um the rahmah foundation has opened up an opportunity for us to come together on their platform using you know their platform to learn from one another and we're reading this incredible text that was translated to us by um our you know modern scholars who have who had access to the original Arabic um and so we're we're doing this together we're all students of knowledge but this is the way that the believer you know they operate is that they're always um as they say where there's a will there's a way so you seek knowledge you seek out company and you look for those resources and you don't let shaytan um getting your head and you know dissuade you you know dissuade you from your path um and you also other uh you know things that we need to be mindful of is not also seeking out um those dispensations and shortcuts in order to prevent what's necessary um to be on the path which is discipline right disciplining uh the nefs getting mastery of the nefs requires hardship and if you're always looking for the easy way out of everything then you're really not going to um not going to excel it's kind of like a student right if a student um is you know seeking uh for example they're they're looking to classmates for um you know it's uh you know cheat sheets and things that will prevent them from actually studying the text right sometimes teachers will give very long assignments that are required of the student in order to prepare them right for for the test or the exam but a student who's not disciplined will forego right looking at the reading the actual text even getting the book in some cases i remember when i was in college there were students who never paid for textbooks because they didn't want to spend their money and they would much rather just attend maybe um any groups study groups or just borrow and ask other people who are taking notes to to take their notes from them and some people are so nice that they would share those things but that student is not going to learn discipline they're not going to learn um they may get by because they're taking those shortcuts but if the purpose is to gain mastery and gain real knowledge then how are those shortcuts serving you so in the same way if you're on the path and you're immediately trying to make everything easy and cushion yourself you know from difficulty then that means you're you're setting yourself up to uh to not do very well because there is um that that especially in the beginning you know you need to to show up you need to put your best effort forward um and then inshallah al-as-partha of course will will bless you and things will naturally become easier but if you're just going to start off with this attitude of wanting everything handed to you um it's not going to you're not going to do very well so that's the third um requirement for proper conduct and then organizing one's time so making sure that we are really mindful of where we spend our time what we're doing who we spend our time with and being unapologetic about boundaries it's very important that we get to a point where we are comfortable um saying no thank you you know I know that there's you know social um considerations because sometimes we may be invited by certain people to participate you know in in certain events or activities but if it's a matter of obstructing something that you set out to do like if you're on a path to really for example let's say you want to memorize something or you you want to complete a text or you want to take a class and it's very rigorous um and then in the midst of your beautiful intention you are being invited to um to participate in certain activities with friends and maybe they're fun and they're exciting but you know that it would really pull you away from your studies right then you you have to be willing to you know respectfully decline those types of invitations and just make a priority that right now you're in a phase of your life where you're really doing something serious and as much as you would love to you know clone yourself and make it make it make it possible for you to be everywhere all at once you simply can't do that and so drawing those boundaries is really important and sometimes I think we let the fear which goes back to that first foundation right the fear of being ostracized or not liked proceed our own goals and you see many people giving up you know their their own goals because of these types of factors so you have to take this really seriously then when it comes to your dean and your path you should be very very selective and it's okay to do that it's not it's it's not something you should guilt yourself over so organizing one's time and then the last part that he mentions here about proper conduct is suspecting the nuffs which is really important because you know what he's saying is that pay attention to that inner voice because the inner voice is usually dictating to us but if we're not suspicious of the motivations of that inner voice the source of the inner voice then we're susceptible to falling for its tricks right because it can definitely trick us and so suspecting the nuffs is you know it's a daily process but it's really about the choices you make and the resolves that you have and where is it coming from right if you for example I mean I know because I'm seeing already questions online from various different people who are posting these things that post Ramadan right we're now in the post Ramadan phase we feel the dip right some of us may be feeling that sudden because we reached a high we all got really excited especially in the last 10 nights but then you you kind of freefall immediately after because aid comes and you know I was just speaking to someone yesterday just about food food intake she was saying like my god what happened like we're all doing so well all of a sudden it comes and it's like suddenly all the food that you've been avoiding it's like you're permitted to once again indulge and it just it doesn't feel good you feel you start to feel sick and you know she was just saying that it's too much too soon and I think a lot of us who've had maybe some eat celebrations can acknowledge that that's true right we really likely did see too much all of a sudden all at once and so similarly you know spiritually speaking all those goals that we achieved during Ramadan maybe we were doing so much more than we have been in the past few days and so you start to feel like you know what's going on now the nefs right now is vulnerable it's very vulnerable to spiritual attack because you could you know want to go back you want to jump back you know you fell off the wagon as they say you want to jump back on but then the nefs may start to tell you certain things like oh you know it was Ramadan and Allah made it so easy and you had the support of the masjid and the jama and now you know things are different and then it's then there's all these justifications that come from that right like oh your work schedule is more intense now if you have children you know it's the end of the school year summer vacation so all of a sudden you're getting like all these ideas that are basically justifying you slowing down right now really going back to that Ramadan spirit that you had this is all from the nefs because the nefs is and it's going to sound legitimate and if you're really being honest maybe some of those things are quite reasonable and fair and true right it's true that in Ramadan we have facilitation it's true that in Ramadan you have you feel more supported because everybody's kind of doing things together and there's more events and there's just that vibe right that's all true but when we say to suspect the nefs that's part of examining like you know is it true that I that the person that I was in Ramadan I have to completely hit pause and then move you know in a completely different direction or can I maintain certain things in Ramadan that maybe maybe I can't maintain it all but is it kind of like this all or none narrative that I have to accept right that that it was possible in Ramadan but now that it's not Ramadan anymore I just have to kind of you know move on and um maybe revisit that next Ramadan if Allah gives us the gift of doing that so the nefs like I said will really encourage us to to to not hit those goals and those objectives by by flooding us with a lot of justifications but we have to be like no this is this is not right I had so much hemma I had so much hope I had so many aspirations in Ramadan because I was feeling it Allah was showing it to me I need to reclaim that somehow even if it's a part of it even if it's a fraction of it but not certainly not allow all these justifications and excuses to make me feel like I don't need to you know I just need to kind of move on because it was just the Ramadan high and now that it's not Ramadan it's all good that's just that's 100% nefs shaitan working to sabotage and they do that quite frequently they do it on a daily basis but they also do it when we have just had this incredible month right of really seeing our own potential and so right now we're vulnerable but every day actually we're vulnerable so this is you know something to keep in mind now last week if you remember we also touched upon the sicknesses of the soul and what the cures are right because according to the document right so let me hear for those of you who are on the zoom call you may recall we went through sorry let me let me just expand this a little bit so you can see it better but we went through right the five foundations of right conduct and then then he brought us to this point the foundations of what will cure the sicknesses of the soul so this is a new now chapter in a way right where he's now articulating or elucidating for us what are the ways to cure ourselves of sick of spiritual sickness in order to again avoid falling into these pitfalls so the first thing he mentions and I'll go back to this here is the moderation of food intake which brings us back to you know Ramadan and the significance of Ramadan because it is a very big part of why we have so much to fear the nefs is you know it's it's like it's a beast that resides within us and it is emboldened and empowered by food food is a very big part of why the nefs can bog us down because it's you know there's it's connected right the the mind-body connection is very real and it's true like if you really think about what happens after we consume food right what happens is are the the the digestive process is such an intense process that it takes so much energy from us that you start to feel very sluggish especially if you've had a heavy meal you know if you're eating good healthy foods it's different but if you're eating the typical foods that most people eat which are convenient quick you know and a lot of our foods from our different respective cultures usually are quite heavy right so what happens is when we eat those all that energy is focused on breaking you know those that food down and then there's also the hormonal impact right because we know that there's also a huge connection between our mental well-being and the gut flora the microbiomas as they say and I know there's many experts who speak on those issues and you can look more into that but there is a connection of mood of just general feeling of even other mental health issues being affected directly by the stomach so this is incredible that our scholars you know Imam al-Ghazali in particular and others made these connections for us you know over a millennia ago hundreds and hundreds of years ago that the food that you eat will actually really impact your output and so when you look at your spiritual output and how much you're doing you have to link it to the food you're eating I mean number one criteria is are you eating halal food if your food is not halal this is a problem right if you're eating food that's sourced from haram income or if in and of itself it's haram then you likely will have spiritual affliction or other problems because you know we are commanded by Allah swt to eat from the pure so there's definitely a connection there so that's one thing and then the moderation aspect of it if you're overeating right eating things that you shouldn't be eating consuming to the point of just disgust you know and you know it's a joke it's a running joke but for example the you know what happens to people after Thanksgiving right the food coma that everybody falls into and it's not just the the trip to fan that's in the turkey it's usually because you're eating a lot of heavy foods all at once and then there's desserts so what happens to a lot of people is it just feels sick and then they just you know lay around because it can't even move so moderation in our dean everything is you know the middle way it's it's we are the the the dean of balance and the middle path requires that you know and the process of you know in the hadith reminds us that the stomach should be divided into three right three parts which are a third for air right so that you can breathe comfortably and if you've ever eaten to your fill that's one of the things that you have a difficulty with you can't breathe properly because your stomach is expanded and you're actually pushing on your lungs like what you know that we can we can do that and if you've I mean for those of us who've been pregnant before right you know how that feels it's very difficult to sleep to be comfortable in certain positions because you feel like you're suffocating right you have this mashallah the baby is pressing on you so you have to eat very very small especially towards the last trimester of your pregnancy most women right so that's a third for for air and then a third for food and a third for drink and you know it's so not also to to delay the the drink part until after you've eaten so there's all these considerations that are so beautiful because they're teaching us the importance of not giving into the nuffs because ultimately that's what we're doing we're not only potentially harming our physical bodies with too much food intake but also we are indulging the very lowest part of us that will make it difficult for us to spiritually act right it will be it will obstruct our our spiritual aspirations because we just simply don't have the energy i've you're just too exhausted or tired from all that food so moderation is really important the second is the seeking refuge in Allah at the onset of difficulties and challenges right this is how we gain that mastery over the nuffs but also purify ourselves from spiritual weakness and sickness right if we look to the material world we look to people whenever things you know go wrong but we don't even think that the only one and this is just the simple truth who can change our circumstances is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we don't think to turn to him that means that there's a misunderstanding there's there's a misalignment there's something off about one's understanding of the way the world works right because Allah is the source of all blessings a hundred percent without a doubt he's also the source of our tests so you have to know and this is why going back to the original five foundations it is very explicitly stated that we turn to him right in both situations um in hardship and in ease like we have to have that reliance on Allah so seeking refuge this is training yourself this is getting into a habit where immediately when something you hear difficult news um you immediately just turn to Allah you know Hasbun Allah wa re'a ma l-awkil la hawla wa l-awkut al-abillah inna lillahi wa inna irengi radyun all of these are taught to us to know how to process um difficult news whether it's directly impacting us or other news that we may hear of loved ones and people that we care about but it's just immediately seeking that strength that support in Allah and not falling apart you know because some some people who don't think to turn into Allah can let you know their emotions get the best of them and then you know there's a lot of uh further problems that come from that so this is just training yourself that no I immediately need to know what to say how to say it some people mashaAllah immediately will fall in you know in sajda um asking Allah whether you know it's it's just seeking strength from him or um protection seeking refuge in him from whatever it is but they know to do that because they've been taught that that's how you respond to to difficulties and challenges so this will help one to to cure those those illnesses of the soul and then avoiding haram places so we talked a lot about this last week as well that in order to um you know really prevent yourself from relapsing or falling into sinfulness you have to cut yourself from the source and so cutting from the source is examining who and where is it that I start to fall short is it certain people that are too overpowering and if your temperament is you are you know a more mild mannered quiet person you're you're kind of you know a little bit you know you're you're you're you're less likely to maybe speak up because you don't you know want to disrupt things and some people this is just temperamental very agreeable person then you might need to examine your circle of influence and friends because maybe they are so overpowering in terms of the way they are there's a lot of pushovers you know people who are easily pushed over um and it's not and you know that's that's a beautiful and in some cases it's a beautiful quality because you know the the the alternative in some cases is the you know to be overbearing and and and difficult right and so if you're a mild mannered it's a beautiful quality but you also have to know the the the limit right because part of the spiritual diseases is something that we call blame worthy modesty right that when you're you're shy to speak up even when something is really clearly wrong for yourself or other people this would be considered a spiritual disease so you have to know that if someone is pulling you into different directions or maybe they're company you just find that every single time you're around them the energy is really negative maybe they gossip a lot they talk about people they're just they don't really have a lot of good to say they curse a lot they use foul language they speak about things that are just not very beneficial then you have to have the emotional intelligence to be able to slowly remove yourself from their influence in a very considerate way because we are not um uh encouraged to you know we don't need to be dramatic about things like this you know if you if you need to create a boundary with someone there's no need to be dramatic and cause a scene and hurt people and then make it this huge very it is because it's quite enough see to do that right to to kind of center yourself as though um you're you're so above other people and that you can't I can't be around you anymore you're on a good influence this is this is not wise we shouldn't do that but you can certainly explain very you know carefully to people that you're on a different trajectory you know like I'm just working on myself I need some time away I appreciate the invitation thank you so much but for right now I'm really busy I have some other projects in the pipeline or something that indicates to your these people that right now and maybe you know it's open-ended um you're just not able to participate in whatever it is that they're inviting you to and that slow withdrawal really will help you to avoid again the people and the places that are causing or potentially causing you to continue to sin be in a state of sinfulness so that that's a very like you know direct way of dealing with external negative influences but you also have to be mindful of your own habits right your own um tendencies because we can't blame everything on everybody else so if you yourself have weaknesses to being in certain environments um you know FOMO is a very real thing and there are people who are afflicted with this feeling of I have to go because I don't want to be the only one that's not going and then I won't you know have it's that's what it is if you're missing out so if you um if that's coming from you right maybe you're invited to something and all your friends are going and this is you know during a time where you had intended to to do something else like let's say for example I mean I'm just going to try to give you a practical example let's say for example there is a weekend retreat coming up and it's going to be a really great spiritual weekend there's some teachers coming to your area they're going to put a program together you buy your tickets you register you're ready to go but then on one of those nights some of your friends um decide that they want to go to the city whatever major city is in your area and they want to have dinner and maybe you know have have some other social um there could be some other social thing they want to do but they're inviting you to that and all of your other friends and maybe even really close people are going to go and now you're getting phone calls and text messages let's go together let's hang out let's all carpool and you now are in a bind because you it's coming from you there's no real pressure necessarily but you yourself are now like ah I'm torn I really wanted to go to this I bought my tickets but then at the same time everybody's going to this big shindig or whatever it is you know everybody's going to be there and then I'm getting the only one left out um and you have to make a decision and it is it's kind of one of those dunia versus dean decisions that you might find yourself in but if you are really thinking with your rational mind not your emotions not your appetites with your rational mind you're weighing between the two and this is why it's so important to like again suspect the nefs because the nefs is going to give you all the justifications for why you should go you know all your friends will be there your siblings your cousins whoever you're going to have an awesome time you can't be the only one left out it doesn't look good it doesn't reflect well blah blah blah all right it's going to fill you with all these justifications but you have to activate the rational mind and say I had a really beautiful intention a lot inspired me to go and do this spiritual weekend retreat with amazing scholars who I don't know if they're ever gonna you know like when when when it would be possible for me to have this opportunity again and um there's going to be obviously more more baraka there because if I'm in this environment I'm going to be remembering Allah I'm going to be doing my prayers I'm going to be listening to quranat I'm going to be listening to dhikr I'm going to be around people who are beneficial to me inshallah and as much as I would love to be in this social place where I can get dressed up and kind of have fun and do whatever I do with my friends if I'm being honest that environment I'm going to be forgetful of Allah I'm probably not going to do all my prayers because you know how it goes once you're out and about and you're not in an environment where those things are easy to do then it's just becomes qada or oh oh well I guess um I just won't pray this time and these are the kinds of options that eventually what happens right that's the real way of examining your choices which is what are which one is better for me rational mind has to be operating here the mind not the heart not the emotions and not the appetites and that level of just I mean that level of awareness of your of your um your your you know these choices that are being presented with and your own mind and suspecting the mind will help you hopefully make the real decision so you have to do that though so when we say avoiding her on places it's it's very much the onus is on the individual to do that and then continuous toba and keeping company of the rightly guided so those are all part those are all regular actions that we should be constantly doing in order to prevent the illnesses of the soul from increasing exacerbating because we need to constantly be working on cleansing the heart and soul but if we're doing you know these things and not mindful of them then it's when will we ever get to the place of like some level of peace right how how will we arrive at that place of soul tranquility if we're constantly um you know in this position of of disease taking over and we're not really working on cleansing so all of this is to help and this is what we talked about last week now um the next if you look at underneath here right you'll see because he he mentions this actually you know what let me let me go to the next slide because at the end of last week if you remember right before we ended here he says I say um it's this last paragraph on page 10 I say that being content with the self persisting in disobedient acts and abandoning awareness of Allah are the foundations of all illnesses tribulations and pitfalls so this is you know Sidi Ahmet Zoro he's basically giving us the answers in this small little chapter I mean out of paragraph where he's telling us that everything that we want to rid ourselves all these spiritual illnesses and also the hardships that we want to prevent right the tribulations that we want to prevent nobody wants to be tested and tried in dunya and the pitfalls that we keep falling into can be sourced back to these three things the first is being content with the self which is why he mentions right before this you have to be suspicious of the self you can't be content with the self if you let that inner voice dictate to you all the time without challenging it with the rational mind without um you know questioning its presumptions or its intentions or whatever it is and you just allow yourself to always do whatever you're you're you know whatever you're compelled to do without first examining the motivation behind it it's it's it's going to cause you problems because many people fall into a lot of problems in their life because they didn't take the time to first suspect the intentions of their their own inner voice right um and they just they're too confident basically in their own judgment they're too confident in their own assessments of things right many many of us will make um assessments and judgments of people of situations without even all the evidence like it's snap judgments how many of us fall into snap judgments all the time and then we act upon those snap judgments right uh we let the emotions dictate so this is where it's so important that you are not content with the self that you actually look at yourself as being a source of a lot of your problems and i mean our scholars they didn't mince words they were very clear that the greatest of the four evils of this dunya is the nefs so if you're not suspicious of your own nefs you know because it's very easy for us to look outwardly and be suspicious of other people and we're all like mind readers amazingly you know when we when we presume to know a person's intentions you know i bet you i know why she did that or why he said that we all seem like we've got everybody figured out but we are clueless about the machinations of our own nefs right which is why um a really great book that um hamdallah our teachers you know she comes and others have recommended for decades like i remember decades ago he he encouraged people to read it and i love this book um he recently did a reading of it on the first command book club which is the screw tape letters so if you have never read the screw tape letters by c.s. lewis i really recommend reading that it's a it's a i mean it's not my recommendation but it's the recommendation of many teachers but i have also read it and i find that it is a really great insight or provides a lot of insight into these um internal dialogues that we have that are actually sourced from uh you know these the external evil of iblis's wassa with our own nefs working you know together because they are they're like co-conspirators against us uh so it's it's a dialogue between iblis and one of his minions and how they basically um trick us as human beings so but but it's just it's very insightful and then there's also um i think it's ibn al jose's book the devil's dupery which is um forgetting the name in the arabic it's it's a text as well on the the way that shaytan tricks the human being and it's amazing amazing text um so there are books within our own tradition that i think once you read it you're just going to be like subhanallah i have been fooled for so long thinking that you know i was applying logic or i was you know being fair when i really wasn't when it was really very self-serving right because a lot of our our thoughts are actually very self-serving thoughts um and we will convince ourselves because there's a lot there's well well it seems like logic but it's not really it's just enough see uh justifications so um and this is actually why it's also important i mean this is a total different topic but i actually did want to share this with you because just to make this point so let me um let me add this image i hope i can add it you know what i think i need to um yeah i won't go into a tab but let me uh quickly stop this screen share and share this image with you because i think this is one of the best images i've seen on cognitive distortions um miss mudah so look at this image this is this is just enough i think if you if you took time to study this and this is you know um from from modern psychology but a lot of these things what what it does is it helps you understand how your own mind can mess with you which from a metaphysical lens from our perspective this is a very material scientific approach to understanding the distortions of the mind but from our lens the distortions of the mind can be attributed to the nefs in sheikhan right um so for those who are on instagram let me see how can i get you to see the same image because i wish i could i don't know how to do these things like while i'm on the call with you if there's a uh see they don't have an image share which which is unfortunate but the zoom call is through rama foundation if you want to jump on but otherwise you can go to um you know what do this go to google and do a search for cognitive distortions examples um and the website is called mind my feelings it's it's uh i don't know what anyway it's it's not feelings it's feelings with a p p e l i n g s but it should come up it's an image that i i just found on google but i think it's a great image because everybody should know these things what's polarized thinking what's mental filtering uh over generalization jumping to conclusions right mind reading fortune telling which i mentioned catastrophizing um magnification minimization personalization blaming i mean if you just took some time and you're honest with yourself right and you really ask yourself how often do i do these things you're gonna hopefully have a total different understanding of the mind and how um how you're how you should not trust your mind so quickly which is why it's so important to have good sahba because if you have teachers you have good people then when you get like a solid firm you know um idea about something it's really good to to check that with someone who can be honest with you who'll tell you objectively i don't know if that's if i would do that or i don't know if i agree with that you know i think i think you're you might be getting ahead of yourself um you know you might be over generalizing or you might be doing this or that but being suspicious of the nefs that's what it looks like it's not believing everything that your mind tells you and you know there's a fine line we also don't want to become paranoid of every single thought and idea we have that's not the point of this the point of this is to just be really clear about the the way that our stream of consciousness is influenced right because there are multiple things that influence our thoughts um so we have the the four khawater in our tradition that explain you know the sources of inspiration for the human being like what what inspires the human being um it's your nefs your own self your own ideas your own desires your whims your um iblis because he is that's one of the characteristics and qualities major ones that he has is he can't directly force us to do anything we are responsible for our own actions however he can suggest right he can suggest um so i'm sorry someone's asking on the instagram yes mind my peelings with an s.com and then do a search for cognitive distortions examples sorry it's very wordy but cognitive distortions i'm going to just quickly try to type this cognitive distortions um examples that's the name of the image it's got yellow little um pictures on it that and then there's seven qualities that they um teach you really great and i think you should look this over and examine it really well um so yeah that you know that once you once you do this then you'll just be more suspicious of of what's going on why am i thinking this way and um then you check you know you you contrast those ideas that you have with your conscience which should hopefully be rooted in your taqwa right that i have to answer to allah so even if i'm thinking this way or i want to do this what would be more pleasing to allah that is the the constant state of the believer that you know you have an impulse you have a desire you have a thought but then you you weigh it with that scale of is this going to be um is this going to yield the ridah of allah or his displeasure and that's then you act right so the other two sources are the khatar malakani which is from you know the angelic presence that we have angels all around us that are assigned to us to protect us i think um there's 10 of them if i'm not mistaken that that are assigned to us and they're on either side in front of us behind us above us there's a two on our shoulders so we have angels that allah that has given us and they will sometimes inspire us to act inshallah always in khair and then we have the khatar malakani which is the you know the direct um communication or inspiration from allah which allahu adam exactly how uh or what context that can come but i think i've heard some for example uh explain that our answers to our istikhara which are directly we're asking allah subhanallah for you know for guidance on a certain matter um then he will guide us it could also be dreams because dreams are part of revelation right so there's certain ways that allah that can it will communicate things to us as well but these are the four sources so what this does is it helps you to just suspect is which source is a certain thought or idea coming from and and that's why it's so helpful so this is a really great and i hope you those of you who are on the zoom call i hope you got the um screenshot or at least you know size i'm going to stop sharing this and then we can go back to and i'll stop soon so we can take some q and a inshallah so this is what he ended on um or what we ended on last week which was the sources of all illnesses so being content with the self persistent disobedience so if you are persistently being disobedient to allah subhanallah yeah you're going to have spiritual illness you're going to have tribulations you're going to continue to fall i mean it's kind of a no-brainer right because why would you expect facilitation and ease and guidance and benefit and blessings although allah is so generous because he's by the fact that we breathe by the fact that we eat by the fact that we have a roof over our heads we have sustenance coming to us we're still in blessing we're so it's not like we're completely cut off when we turn from him i mean even those who deny him and reject him are still being sustained by him and that's out of his generosity but if you want ease and you want to be protected against these types of things then you have to have again the mindset or the just the the conscience to know and the logical mind to know that um sinfulness is going to uh it has to stop you have to stop your sinfulness in order to be protected so that's the second thing and then the last the third thing that he mentions is abandoning awareness of Allah so when we are in rafla which all of these things lead to if you're content with yourself you're persistently disobedient and doing sinfulness knowingly like you know what you're doing is haram but you continue to do it anyway then it will lead you to a state of rafla which is abandoning awareness of Allah where you're not thinking of Allah so you're not remembering Allah so you will again have a lot of problems it's just that's the recipe for disaster so he says all of our illnesses our tribulations and pitfalls can be rooted to one of these three or all of these three it's a really important mashallah wisdom here and then for just in a few couple of minutes actually wow subhanAllah today's session went so quickly I apologize but um this is what was the next section which are the other afflictions and pitfalls of the soul so he's giving you the three that are he believes the root of a lot of the evil and the hardships that we experienced but now he's also mentioning that there are other pitfalls that usually people who are spiritually ill will fall into first is that they prefer ignorance over knowledge so there is this idea and tendency for some people right ignorance is bliss where they don't want to know they are willfully ignorant they don't want you to teach them about right and wrong they don't want you to correct them when they make mistakes these are the type of people that shun um you know anasiha so and you might know people like this like they'll be doing something wrong and you want to advise them but when you advise them they're just like oh no I don't want to hear that right now yeah yeah yeah I know I know I know I know and they kind of play it off because they're they'd rather not know um and if you think about the day and age that we live in a lot of them but I don't think many of us are going to be able to get away with the whole I was ignorant card you know just think about the level of access to information that we have it's unprecedented if you just rewind 50 60 years ago you a person in order to really learn their dean they would have to travel they would have to go out of their home make a trek sometimes to find qualified teachers it was a much more involved process whereas now knowledge within a split second you could access major databases and sources of information and so it really comes back to the individual volition and desire of all of us if you are you know a student and you're or you're working and you're constantly um you know reading for your work or your studies because of your you know you're you're still in school and you're or you're just online and you're watching videos and looking at news articles and following blogs and whatever you're doing that's all you actively pursuing knowledge but it's just not the knowledge that will lead you to the knowledge of God right in most cases because it's material knowledge so how then can a person who has the access who has the means who has the ability because you are you know you you're obviously you're you're able to read you know you're you're educated enough to do that so you have all of these things how then can you act as though you didn't know other than the only explanation being you chose not to know you chose instead of um learning your deen to go and memorize song lyrics and you know there there are people who will do this they will not know Quran they will not prioritize the their knowledge of deen but they can memorize many other things and they will be very proud whether it's a person who's like a sports um buff and they know all the stats of their favorite athletes or they will I mean I know people who love movies to the point that they will memorize dialogue of like a the whole movie they'll know it back and forth so okay so you can clearly uh you know you have the time and you have the the ability but you're what is dictating because if it was your rational mind you go back to that equation right if your rational mind is dictating to you then you see your brain cells your memory your your your mind basically like real estate right because once you're you know you choose to make those connections right in your brain and you choose to to distribute your your your brain cells to certain skills or whatever it is um it's it's like real estate that you've you've built upon so if you're really mindful of that then you would say I can either spend a lot of my brain energy and you know time and money maybe doing this which will maybe maybe feel good or feel some you know nefcy kind of impulse in me or i can think about the long-term benefit and investment of learning something for the sake of a lot and this doesn't mean that we can't also learn other things outside of dean that's not the point here the point is having the discernment to know what is in your best interest in your in your soul's best interest versus what indulges your nefs and if you can do that then you will be able to make the right choices when you're presented with options but if you're not even thinking on that higher level right you're not pushing yourself to higher goals and standards then what will happen is your emotions and your appetites will dictate for you which is why we have to be what suspicious of the nefs of the thoughts of the nefs so this first point preference over ignorance over knowledge is really important a lot of people will present with this being diluted by spiritual imposters this is also another sign of spiritual you know sickness and also susceptibility to pitfalls is that you because you don't have discernment you're not aware of what what is true and what isn't and you're kind of in that you know you're just letting your emotions get the best of you then you may very easily fall for people who come you know with all the right things to say right the same way for example you know a hopeless romantic can be easily swept off their feet because they're not thinking with their logical rational mind they're thinking they're allowing their emotions to get the best of them so if you have the ability or if you've studied your dean and you see or you're around really God fearing people then you can look past the performativity that usually comes with spiritual imposters because a lot of them are just performance artists I mean I would even call them artists they're just performers they come they look the part but they're not you know they're not sincere because there's there's a there's a lot of odious behavior that they present you know being overly almost to a point of you know just repulsion being too what's the word like you know there's too much performance you know it's like I'm I'm this very very humble person and I lower myself to everyone and I speak in a way that's just you I think we've all been around people like that right where it's just it doesn't feel right and if you look at the problem so I said I mean he's our exemplar you show one hadith where he or any of the great Sahaba or any of the great scholars of our time ever humiliated themselves or made themselves look to in a way that was just not befitting you know there's a there's a very fine line between humility and and looking and humiliating yourself we don't we as Muslims don't do that you're supposed to hold yourself up with dignity and with honor not because you think of yourself as anything but it's rather the the way that you know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has instructed us to be right that's why we're upright right we're not like animals on the floor so when you see that kind of there's a specific term for it and I can't remember it right now but anyway it's to describe people who are just very very affected I think is is one of the ways to describe them but it looks like basically they're just acting and it's not real so you would be able to see that but if you're you know easily deluded because you're and there are there these gurus for example like I remember I went to an Oprah Winfrey event here like I don't know it was 2014 so it was a while ago almost 10 years ago and oh my gosh this is what I'm I've seen it I've seen these people they come on stage and they just act like they're these highly you know spiritual like they've reached nirvana the way that they act and the way that they carry themselves and you should just see past it a lot of them are just they're grifters they make money off of making claims a lot of them are just not real you know they a lot of them steal like it's known you know some of the people that she's platformed have been proven later to be just people who take from the tradition the great the great traditions they'll actually say it like they they basically borrow from all of the great world religions and then they write their little books and it's next you know it's on the book club or it's all over the bookstores and they're you know lauded as being these spiritually enlightened mystical individuals but it's like please so you can see people like that as for what they are whereas mashaAllah some of the greatest scholars of our time were so humble that you know people didn't even know that they were talking to them sometimes like Imam al-Razadi has you know many great stories about when he was sweeping you know I don't know if it was Baghdad or Syria but he was sweeping the mosques of you know the great mosques and because he had reached the height of scholarship there were circles of scholars and students of knowledge talking about him but you know this was before pictures were available so they didn't even know what he looked like but he's just so humble he didn't say a word he just was because he had his own journey with Allah so our tradition is full of stories like of people like that saint saintly people who are not interested in trying to impress people they didn't do the whole sick of fans kind of weird like I said performativity that you'll see from a lot of these people and they didn't center themselves it was never about that it's always about the dean about Allah about the provisionalism so that's how you can protect yourself from being deluded by those types of imposters and then the inability to prioritize important matters again if you're not spiritually right and following the tradition and following the example of the prophecy said then your whole life will be kind of all over the place you won't make good decisions you don't have that wisdom and discernment so you may just prioritize the wrong things and you end up foregoing really important things like your prayers for other things that are of no benefit to you something as so obvious as what could be more important than praying because that is the reason why you were created there's nothing more important in your life that you do as a human being as a muslim nothing more important than your prayer but if you have to be told that and you have to be convinced of that and there's something you need to examine within yourself because your priorities are off like if you think your work is more important than your prayers that's a huge problem because who is the one who's sustaining you who's the one who got you that job who's the one that is allowing that income to come to you it's your Lord so you think that by bypassing the worship of your Lord to get to your job on time or to you know to do your work that that is a wise thing to do I don't know I just think again activate the rational mind you'll see that that just doesn't logically follow and then usually using spiritual path to inflate the nefs this is also another problem that for a person who's afflicted with diseases they would start to see you know getting into you know these types of spiritual endeavors as being a means to to benefit themselves like I said grifting or just you know benefiting profiting off of off of spirituality is a is horrible and it's it's the lowest thing to do and then wanting to expedite spiritual openings without the prerequisite effort so this is also another pitfall that a person who is not on the right path who as afflicted would want to experience things really quickly and I've heard from many people some people for example who have a difficult time sustaining their worship because they're waiting for I don't know like the sky to open up and the angels to descend but they're waiting for like these signs and it's almost like in their mind until they feel like you know these openings that they just don't really feel like it's working like I've actually had people say that like I don't know I don't really feel very motivated in my prayers I'm I don't feel anything I'm like okay so in order for you to continue to pray you have to feel something first how about seeing it as the opposite that maybe if you continue to put that effort in to whatever active worship you're supposed to be doing that eventually because of your sincerity and your effort that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would reward you with with with things you know like if you if you're not seeing dreams like some people for example they may want to do zikr or salawath on the Prophet's life said them because they want to see him in their dreams so is that um is that now the only motivation that you have to do salawath on the Prophet's life to them is that oh I want to see him in a dream that you have to you know really again suspect your intentions and be like wait a second you know I should be doing salawath on the Prophet's life and just because Allah commanded us to do it he does it the angels do it we do it right um why am I making these conditionals right if I'm making conditionals and that's clearly an issue but this is how the nafs can really um trick us and delude us is by putting all these ideas in our minds and unless we're suspicious of it then we're susceptible to it so much a lot I know that I'm really over and I apologize for that let me go ahead and stop screen share see if there's any comments um or questions I see one question in the q&a box but I don't think there's anything in the chat going on and um I said if I do I had a prior commitment so she's not here to to moderate but let me go ahead and read this could you recommend some books that you think reading would improve our being or enlighten us toward our being looking at things to head while I'm working cleaning driving mashallah jazakal al-khiddin for this question I mean I think um you know some of the books that uh you know what I would really recommend actually because uh to you know populate a list right now offhand uh is difficult but I do think that mashallah if you're not familiar with um the first command book club that she comes is doing with zaituna college I would really recommend people to look at that uh program because he has hand selected very specific texts to really open our minds up and to um enhance our understanding and they're they're all over the place I mean I mean in terms of genre so it's not like uh one specific genre he has a lot of non-muslim authors um a lot of novels non-fiction but everything that he's curated is actually and if you follow the recordings that he's put together um they are really quite spiritually insightful I mean there's not a single book that he's picked that hasn't left the you know the the group anyway because you can you know we have q and a and there's a lot of discussion in the chat everybody's like wow wow wow because it's it's done with a lot of depth and insight into what we the modern muslim need to do in order to really elevate our understanding increase our understanding and hopefully inshallah um you know just spiritually uh grow and benefit from so I would say definitely look at that um that it's called the first command book club just go to zaytunacollege.edu you'll see the the link for it and you can they actually have a list of the the titles uh for for last year and this year just look at it there's a lot of great selections and I mentioned you know the screwtape letters but I would say purification of the heart for sure because tesquia is a lifelong process it's something we should all be doing and if you're not even aware of your own spiritual illnesses it's kind of like um getting a blood work analysis right before you get on a path of like a total new lifestyle change most people that's what they do if you want to have a total um you know and like you want to renew your your health or revitalize your health this is what it may be encouraged of you right go to your doctor get some blood work see what's going on and then you start to plan ahead right once you look at your numbers so in a way when you look at your the purification of the heart when you're examining your spiritual diseases it's the same thing I need to know what I'm working with like which diseases um you know do I need to to work on more than others and that's why there it's it covers the signs the symptoms and then the cures and so I would definitely do that I think also connecting with I mean there's there's things that we do like prayer reading the Quran um Syaira and Dikyad that are kind of like just givens every single day I have a portion of it the same way you would like taking really potent spiritual vitamins or like you know to basically inoculate yourself or you know from diseases and from problems outside prayer is part of that reading the book of Allah doing our daily awrad or du'as that's all to protect the heart and our shield ourselves from the external you know world and the problems here so that we do those no matter what and then there's additional things where it's like you're really trying to grow your understanding and that's where looking at your Al-Qaeda looking at you know the ski at the nafs um uh you know looking at um you know I mean obviously we should be we should know our our farbain so if you're if you haven't studied like the fiqh of you know the heart of the fiqh of prayer just the basic fiqh that you would need your you know your daily life fiqh those are important but I think that's a good place to start in terms of you know what to read uh so sorry long answer to the question but alhamdulillah I hope that's helpful to and then um let me see I don't I don't see any other questions in the chat so unless there are any questions I think we can go ahead and end for today inshallah I will look quickly over at Instagram because I see a lot of people are coming in and out and I don't know if there are any questions so let me just check um yes sister Fatima I was speaking about the book club that is on azituna college's website in mubarak I'll thank you ma'sha'Allah thank you jazakumul akhirin for some of the comments here I don't see any questions yet so I think we can go ahead and end today's session inshallah next week we will um we will continue the text so for those who are on the instagram live I'm actually doing a class with the rahmah foundation we started it in the month of Ramadan but we're continuing it until we finish this text it's called foundations of the spiritual path it's open it's free there's no commitment other than just a registration but it is an incredible text that is um written by Sidi Ahmad Zarrukh translated by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and it's really a roadmap for the believer on how to build your your spiritual path in a very smart way mindful of all of the pitfalls and the dangers within and externally so it's a beautiful document and we've been going over it for four or five weeks now we'll continue inshallah next week I want to thank everyone for being part of the session today oh wait is there another question yes jazakumul akhirin sister the recordings will be available I believe the rahmah foundation it will send a link to the recordings after the class is over so just check your email they usually upload it to the cloud and then send the recording so inshallah you can check it out there and then we'll continue next week same time Monday five to six p.m. or five to six twenty p.m. today but hopefully I'll try to keep it under an hour next week and I invite you to read the document ahead of time and prepare any questions in advance I want to thank all of you jazakumul akhirin inshallah I'll go ahead and end in dua we'll see you next Monday please keep again Sidi Mu'ad and Nas and his entire family in your du'as inshallah and the community worldwide these things are really hard sometimes for for many people but inshallah Allah give us strength that we just had blessed month of Ramadan and even though it's very difficult to bear such losses we have to keep in mind that alhamdulillah this is dunya inshallah we'll all come out on the other side in a much better state reunited with our loved ones inshallah I mean yeah I mean I love that again jazakumul akhirin wassalaamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh before I begin before I formally begin I just wanted to remind everyone that I have been asked by some people how much longer these sessions are going to go and I'm not quite sure because mashallah as you've seen this text is so dynamic and we end up sometimes on certain topics for longer than maybe I even intend when I start these so there is time to still register and I do encourage everyone to share it inshallah because as I've mentioned before this is such an important text and I really want to expose as many people as possible to it so please do let others know that they can still register and then there's the recordings of course available I also have people joining on Instagram live so I'm going to welcome everyone I am with the rahmah foundation I will put the link to the zoom class right now but if you go to the rahmah foundation you will see a link for the foundations of the spiritual path which is of course that I've been doing throughout Ramadan and we're going to continue until we finish this document so please feel free to join the zoom currently happening live if you want to see the video and some of the slides that I'm sharing but you're also welcome to watch here on Instagram so we will begin with the dua of um of seeking knowledge first so Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad excuse me Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad al-Fatiha lima ogliq al-khatimi lima sabaq nasil al-haqi bil-haq al-hadi ila suratik al al-hadi ila suratik al-mustaqim wa ala ali haqqa qadrihi wa meqdali al-a'zim Allahumma iftaha lina futuh al-a'rafin wa fiqnat al-fiqq al-sualiheen Allahumma excuse me I apologize one second let me just grab some water I feel like a a tickle in my throat we'll begin again I'll do that section Allahumma iftaha lina futuh al-a'rafin wa fiqnat al-fiqq al-sualiheen Allahumma iftaha lina futuh al-a'rafin wa fiqnat al-fiqq al-sualiheen Allahumma iftaha lina futuh al-sualiheen Allahumma iftaha lina futuh al-sualiheen Allahumma iftaha lina futuh al-sualiheen I mentioned that I've been trying to memorize this thought and I am clearly not doing that. Well, memorizing it. So Alhamdulillah, may Allah give us Tawfiq. But again, welcome everyone. So the texts that we are reading, I'll go ahead and screen share for those again who are joining for the first time is called the Foundations of the Spiritual Path. And we've gone through several sections of it, but recordings are available. We can kind of pick up because it's really organized in a way that even if you're joining for the first time, you can follow along hopefully. But let me go ahead and screen share so that you can see what I'm seeing each other. Bismillah. So last week we left off on this section. Bismillah here, which is right in the middle of page 11. Let me zoom in so you can see it more clearly hopefully. But we this is basically describing spiritual illnesses and what results when we become too comfortable with ourselves, right? And if you remember, I also have some slides that I've created just to visually give you a picture of the structure of how he's organized this document. So if you recall last week, we were here on this section. So these are afflictions and pitfalls of the soul and he identified that, you know, when you let yourself go, you stop remembering Allah, you habitually sin, you become very comfortable with yourself, you're opening yourself up to even more spiritual problems, all of which are connected to those three things that he mentioned, right? Again, this was from previous sessions. But I think it's important to bring it up here. He says that he believes the sources of all of our illnesses, spiritual illnesses, our tribulations, the difficulties that we have in life, and the pitfalls that we perpetually fall into spiritually speaking, can be deduced to these three, like they're these are this is a cause which is being content with the self, persistent disobedience. So we continuously are sitting. And then we're just not thinking of Allah. And again, it seems so simple. But if you think about people who are in states of sinfulness, they're likely doing all three of these things, right? Because once you habituate to sin, you're not, you don't really feel guilty, you don't feel that there's anything that you need to correct, because the enough will delude you to think that you're okay. And a lot of times, I mean, I know I've heard in my lifetime, many people will say things like, you know, God is the most merciful, my heart is clean. You know, I I know I'm a sinner, but one day I'll correct myself. So they kind of, you know, these are all rationalizations and justifications that the mess will make in order to justify sinfulness. But the so so when you think of people who have problems in their life, again, according to, you know, see, Ahmed Zaruk, these are the reasons is that they are falling into all of these, or some of these are mostly, I think, he would say all three. So, and then from that, you get these different types of, you know, things that present, right, that the individual present with, for example, he mentions, we talked about this last week, that they will prefer ignorance over knowledge. And there are many people who would rather not know, because it absolves them of accountability and responsibility, right? If you if you know that something is flat out haram, and there's clear repercussions for it, it may be your, you know, you would think twice, but if you remain ignorant of certain rules, or try to kind of skirt around, you know, your obligations, then you can use that excuse. Well, I didn't know, right? So this is also part of the tricks of the enough so that it will encourage people to remain ignorant, because it's a lot more easier to absolve oneself again of the guilt that would come and the internal shame that would come when you are clearly aware of your sinfulness. So that's one and then being deluded by spiritual imposters. This is another important thing, because you know, in our day and age, what I found, and I'm sure many of us will agree, which is a problem, is that you will find many Muslims who are not impressed by scholarship, they're not impressed by religious or pious people, right? They won't even give them much importance. And they'll be in some cases, they will be very dismissive of these types of people, you know, they'll even have labels for them, right? So instead of someone being a sheikh, or a scholar, they'll use these terms or labels that are usually, you know, just veiled epithets, right? Like, like, Maulana, or Mulvi, or, you know, they'll use, again, these terms that are supposed to have religious significance in a way that is intended to be more demeaning. So we have to be very careful of obviously anything like that. But I think the point here is that they will not give credibility to religious people, but then there, they will be impressed by other people who maybe sound like they know what they're talking about, they seem to have some spiritual, you know, enlightenment. And, you know, and this is again, I'm talking about like new age kind of gurus or self appointed authorities on matters of spirituality, just maybe they even have, for example, a scientific background, right? So it may not be that they're, they have any religious credibility, but they have other things that that make them seem to be popular or like they know what they're talking about. And they'll give them more importance. So this is very dangerous, because if you're going to dismiss actual grounded real scholars who know what they're talking about, because they've gone through the proper channels of knowledge, you know, learning knowledge and getting that credibility. But then you don't give them, you know, their due, but then you are quick to speak very highly of other people who may have more secular views, less, you know, strict religious views, but they espouse spirituality and humanism and a lot of very, they seem to be very good things, you know, and this is where we have to differentiate between what is an actual real good or benefit and what apparently seems right, apparent good versus real goods. Because there's a lot of things that apparently seem good. But they end up being major sources of misguidance. You know, when I was younger, I remember a lot of people would go to people who would, for example, read their their tea leaves or somehow, you know, dabble into the occult. And they would really believe that these people knew what they were talking about. Because Oh, no, no, no, they knew things about me. And you know, you see mediums, for example, there's a lot of documentaries on people that have like these abilities to speak to, you know, the dead and whatever. And a lot of people will believe in that stuff. But they will totally be dismissive of religious actual credible people. So this is another sign of spiritual sickness, because what it indicates is that the individual is not really thinking about, you know, what is the correct course, but they're actually it's their desires that are dictating, because it's very, you know, it's it feeds enough to go to people who tell you what you want to hear. And so you'd rather go to someone who again, presents himself as being some spiritual authority, and who tells you, Oh, you don't have to pray, you don't have to do these things, you know, God is good, God will forgive you. And they'll say all these things to fluff you up. But you don't really have to do anything to earn those things, right? And that's where we in Islam draw the line. Because yes, you know, Allah's prophet is absolutely, you know, the most merciful of the merciful that goes without saying, and those are his attributes that he describes himself as, but that does not mean that we do not have to earn right our place in his grace, and to try to strive. So we have to work for it basically. But this is a sign of spiritual illness is that when you're too impressed by the imposter is out there, the inability to prioritize important matters, again, just summarizing last week, so that we're all on the same page. But this is another important thing. If you are putting certain things before things that are more essential or more important, especially when it comes to your spiritual life, right? If your bodily, worldly, physical needs are coming before your spiritual needs, this would be an indication that you don't have your priorities straight. A very simple example of this is your schedule, right? If you are factoring in, you know, things that relate to your, you know, your interests, or maybe your responsibilities in terms of work or school and your schedule, you're always prioritizing those things first, and then you're not making time for your spiritual, ritual obligations. You know, you don't, you don't really think much about your prayers or the book of Allah or anything else that you should be doing on a regular basis, because those are kind of optional when you have time. But they're, you know, they're not essential. They're not, they're not major priorities, because you will see many people, you know, and I know even people that are that I love and care for, unfortunately, they will make a lot of time for, you know, their work. They will wake up very early. They will be always ahead when it comes to their worldly pursuits. And there's nothing that could stand in their way because they have high ambition, right? So they're very ambitious. But then when it comes to their spiritual matters, those are not really on their radar at all. And they tend to follow, unfortunately, these ideas or these notions that, you know, there's a, there will, there will come a time and a place when I will get more spiritual, you know, and that'll come later. And that's why it's so important to study diseases of the heart, because once you read the diseases of the heart, you'll see that one of the diseases is actually the false belief that you have more time than you have, because nobody knows how much time we have. The only thing we have is the present, right? So that's why you're supposed to live in the present. If you're living so far ahead and you're procrastinating really important things that you should be doing, thinking that you will somehow have time that nobody's promised you, this is also an indication of spiritual illness and disease and delusion. So prioritizing what's important isn't is really, you know, again, important when you're trying to remove spiritual diseases to say most the most important thing that I can do every single day is worship my Lord. And that's why I was created and I need to assure that those things can be done every day without excuse. And then I can, you know, do the other things that serve my other needs or interests or what have you. So that's very important. And then he mentions using the spiritual path to inflate the enough. So this would be, and I love, you know, we can see, I mean, I can appreciate, right, that the range of the different levels of illness, because sometimes when we think of spiritual illness, we may think that it only inflicts those people who are weak or very, you know, far behind on their spiritual path. But in fact, every single human being, every single one of us, even those who've reached the height of their spiritual aspirations, has to guard themselves against spiritual disease. Because in this case, are using the spiritual path to inflate the enough would be something that a person who is already on the path and maybe even, you know, it's become a very big part of their identity, that they would really need to watch out for, right? So public figures, people who are, you know, positions of authority, teachers, spiritual guides, if you're in a position to use whatever knowledge you have as leverage or as a means to again, get maybe prominence or status or power or certain things, you have to be very careful because your path is between you and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And any time you are put in a position of authority, it should weigh very heavily on you. And that's why, you know, a very important Islamic principle is that anybody who wants leadership, they discredit themselves by virtue of wanting leadership. And so in the same vein, when you are put in a position of spiritual authority and you want it, let's say, like you're seeking it, you know, and this is now, unfortunately, common now where people who are not qualified, who haven't put in much effort in terms of, you know, knowledge and rigor or really working with teachers, they get a taste of, you know, what is now becoming very unfortunately common, which is popularity because of some association with the Dean, right? So being a charismatic speaker, being a person who has a following and you see this all over social media on TikTok, it's very prevalent that you have a lot of young people who are very, very fresh on the path who are giving, you know, in some cases, making their own judgments on very important matters, giving very poor advice, because, you know, we're in an era now of unfortunately, like I said, using the Dean as a way of marketing oneself. So this is a very serious grave, you know, sign of spiritual illness. And the fact that Zed Ahmad Zurich was mentioning this centuries ago is also really powerful for us to, it's a good reminder, right, that the human condition is the same. And we've these diseases have been there from from the beginning, but they just come in different forms based on the time. So this is really important. And I would caution myself as someone who's, you know, in a position of teaching publicly, and anyone else who's also on this path of being kind of public in terms of their spiritual work, to be very careful that they do not use their position in terms of, you know, for ulterior motives. And that's why purification of the nest is so important. I'm sorry, purification of the intention is so important, that you are really careful before you do something to ask Allah to purify your Nia, right? Like, why am I doing this? What is it for? What am I seeking? You know, and and then, you know, it brings you back, if you remember, all the way to the very first foundation, right? What's the what's the third foundation? Maybe I can test some of you here in the chat if you want to participate. I'd like to know who's been paying attention without looking at your notes or the document, who remembers what the third foundation is of the spiritual path from the first five that he teaches. So I'm going to see if maybe if there's someone who is in the chat here on Instagram or on Zoom. If you guys want to participate, I'd like to see if anybody remembers. So don't look at your notes. Let's see if you remember what the original five foundations are and specifically what the third one is because it relates to what I'm talking about here. I'll give you a couple of or 30 seconds. Let's see. There we go. Mashallah. Excellent. Very good. Indifference to being accepted or rejected. Right. And this is so important because if you are working on your Nia, right, with Allah, you will realize how futile it is to expect or want or desire validation from human beings. You'll realize how empty it is because people will flatter you. People will ingratiate themselves to you. People will say a lot of things that are not true or sincere when they're seeking something from you. And so it becomes this exchange where, you know, if you become dependent on that kind of attention, where you're both using each other for a different reason. And what I mean by that is when you're in a position of authority or, you know, in a public position, people may gravitate toward you because you have something to offer and, you know, there's a sort of there's this pull, right, the people who are in those types of positions have. So they may be just leaning toward you. But then you're also gravitating toward them because they give you a sense of validation or purpose. But it's just a very unhealthy and codependency or whatever, you know, relationship that can come out of that. So what you do is when you really think deeply about how those words don't mean anything because if your Nia isn't for the sake of Allah, then you could have every human being on the planet praising you and singing your, you know, giving you all the accolades in the world and and applauding and all of that. But it's empty because if Allah doesn't approve of it or he doesn't accept it, then what it actually can even harm you further, right? It can be your undoing. So you don't put much weight into that. But this is a very deep, you know, introspective process that one has to undertake when you are trying to really purify your intention. And it is necessary. That's why we we start everything with Bismillah, right? The whole point of that is for us to remember that we're doing it for the sake of Allah, not for for other people. So he mentions that and then wanting to expedite spiritual openings without the prerequisite effort. This is also another major sign of spiritual disease, which seems kind of counter intuitive or or maybe that doesn't, you know, because you would think that if a person wants, you know, spiritual openings that they are, you know, manifesting pure intention, desire, they want to be close to God. They want to, you know, they want to get closer that that's why they have this yearning. But the point here is that if you're trying to over or bypass the the Mujahidah, right, of the nafs or the jihad of the nafs, and then expect all of those, you know, fruits that you may have heard other people have, right? Like, you hear stories of saints and obviously prophets and other exceptional human beings all the time that inspire us, even as recently as, you know, I mean, just I mean, in modern times, we may even hear people having these amazing dreams or other experiences where it's like, Subhanallah, clearly these people are special. And so it can excite the nafs, right? But if you're not even doing your bare minimum, you're not putting any effort in, but then you're yearning for those things, that is also part of the delusions of the nafs because we don't worship Allah's Panathana to gain those experiences. That shouldn't be the purpose, right? We worship Allah's Panathana because he's most deserving of worship. So when you're immediately thinking of, as I said, the rewards, not even willing to do the work for it, but you want it anyway, then maybe you need to step back and say, wait a second, what effort am I even putting in to be deserving of those things? Because those people clearly, inshallah, they're doing something right to be having these incredible experiences. But if I'm if I'm not even doing, like I said, the bare minimum, then why would I expect that? And what kind of entitlement is that? And maybe I need to really go back and, you know, do some digging. So those are, you know, the first five that he mentions after he talks about, right, some of the spiritual diseases that presents. And then we're going to just go back to the document here, because I want to kind of go back and forth. But he says that after he goes through these five, then he says this has resulted in five other afflictions. So once you have the five that we just mentioned, then again, you're opening yourself up for even more problems spiritually speaking because it's kind of like, you know, slippery slope, you're now full. You're, you know, you've the floodgates of kind of open upon you. And unless you're really reversing course and making cova and really trying to work on yourself, this will just grow. It'll metastasize, right, as they say, like the diseases will just keep growing. So the next things he mentions here are preferring innovations instead of Sunnah. Now, this is huge, right? Because there are established Sunnah. We know, Alhamdulillah, our Dean is complete. We have, you know, the Sunnah, the Prophetic Sunnah is preserved. And so when you know that the Prophetic Sunnah did certain things in a certain order, but yet you're not inclined to follow his way. And rather, you may be inclined to take either your own opinions on certain matters or the opinions of other people who are who speak to your preferences, who speak to your nefs, clear indication that that's a problem because on the surface, it looks like you're just, you know, you're still trying to be intentional, you're trying to implement certain things. But what you're implementing matters, right? You can't just justify implementing anything and everything. Is it and that's why it's so important to study with the proper teachers because they will help you determine whether or not what you're doing or learning is sound, right? And if it's just, you know, someone else's ideas that are completely in contradiction to the Sunnah, then obviously that would that should hopefully raise some red flags. But you would be surprised because some people would rather take, again, opinions of other people who are who speak to their own, you know, desires or their own personal nefcy inclinations as opposed to established facts, you know, that are that have been there for centuries. And so it's so important, again, to look at who you're learning from and whether or not it is from the Sunnah or not. And I will just mention like an example, you know, for example, there are some people who they may take issues with certain, you know, messages within Islam just because of their own personal opinions. And so they'll find ways to discredit a hadith, for example, like, oh, you know, this particular narrator of a hadith was this that or the other. And I'm not going to listen to that person because, you know, it's it doesn't gel with my view on this particular topic. And then they'll find a modern, you know, quote unquote, academic or some speaker or someone who maybe has very, very progressive or different, you know, ideas reform Islam ideas. And they will say that this speaks more to my opinion on this particular issue. So this is clearly a problem because again, our Dean has been preserved and we have our scholars are spent such a great deal of time in codifying and preserving our tradition. And so for now, Western or modern Muslims just suddenly want to do away with all of that and try to find answers elsewhere is clearly a problem, right? So that's just a simple example. Then the next thing he points here is following people of claims and conceit. So similar to being diluted by spiritual imposters, right? What happens is your criteria for who you follow or who you presume to be a religious authority may speak more about the claims that they make, right, and the way that they carry themselves. And this is very true in many ways. You see, I mean, I think if we step back and look at the power and influence that, for example, many celebrities have many very popular people have over humanity, it shouldn't surprise us that some people are very drawn to that, right? These are showboats in most cases. Many people who are popular and famous are quite braggadocious, right? They hold themselves a certain way and that pompous those pompous like, you know, heirs about them attract certain people. They won't even look at their character. They won't look at their, you know, credibility, whether or not they have ethics, whether or not they speak from a place of again, truth, sincerity, but they just look at the show around them. They seem to be people of influence and power and wealth and all of these things. So that's it. We're going to listen to them, you know, and politicians similar and people of who, you know, position themselves again as authorities of certain, you know, fields or areas just because of maybe their background or the family they came from or the schooling that they had, they can amass a lot of influence because human beings are drawn to them. So this is the issue is that you start to again, your criteria for who you hold as being a person of importance is inverted because, you know, in our tradition, we don't look at the superficial. We don't look at the outward reality of a person or the way that they, you know, necessarily carry themselves. It really comes down to their character. That is the the criteria for which we should, you know, treat one another, but also establish authority is that are they sound good, God fearing people? Are they people who truly want the best for others? Or are they just in it for themselves? Whereas when you don't have that filter or that, you know, that standard, then you're going to be influenced by a lot of other people. So you'll be susceptible to following people again, of claims and conceit. And then the third affliction that you're, you know, you open yourself up to when you have all of these other diseases is that you will act on your own capricious desires, even when it comes to your spiritual matters. So basically, you know, your nafs, your how well, which is, you know, there's four sources of evil that the world has, right? There's four sources. And so they are nafs, shaitan, how well, and dunya. Three of them are external, right? The nafs is the internal voice, but your how well, which are your desires that fluctuate, right? We go through different stages in life where maybe our desires change, right, based on our circumstances. So those can fluctuate. But if you are a person who is driven by your desires or your impulses, your, your lower self, then even when it comes to spiritual matters, those things will dictate to you. And so, you know, it's something that again, can can play out in many different ways. But the bottom line is, is that you're not thinking of right and wrong and, you know, consequences and really trying to practice restraint and make sure that you, you know, you don't cross boundaries because you have your functions is, is, you know, is, is leading you. But rather that your desires are so, you're so weak to your desires that even when it comes to, you know, your spiritual matters, you will be susceptible. So a good example is people, for example, who may pray when things are like easy, right? Like let's say you're home, you don't have a lot of obligation. So now it's like I suddenly become very spiritually motivated and driven and I'm doing my prayers. But then the next day comes along and you have now maybe some commitments or some social things have opened up for you where you get to go, you know, out with your friends or, you know, in a social setting. And now it's like, oh, you know, all those things that you just did the day before, religiously speaking, suddenly don't seem to be of any importance anymore. What happened between one day and the other? What happened between Monday through Thursday and then Friday, Saturday, Sunday, right? Because you have the weekend experience where a lot of people kind of throw out their, their, their principles, right? It's like the play hard, work hard model of living. And there are people who do that, they'll be very responsible through the week. But then suddenly the weekend comes around and you're like, what happened, right? So if you're dick, if you're, uh, how what is dictating to you? And that's what it's going to be like, you're going to justify, you know, kind of being all over the map in a way when it comes to your spiritual practice, because it's not your conscience because you're once you adopt a principle stance, for example, on your worship, like when you come to a point that you say, I really want to be to live the the life of a, of a practicing, sincere Muslim. I want to live that life and I'm not going to make excuses. I'm going to strive. And you take a principled stance, then your life, there's an overhaul that should happen, right? Of your life. You should start to look at what is has impeded me spiritually speaking. What do I need to change about my, the way I'm living? And you start to look, is it my friends? Is it, um, you know, the place I'm working at? Is it my income? Because that's a very legitimate point. Like if your source of income is around, um, it will absolutely affect your entire life, because, uh, you know, the, the food, the drink, the clothes, everything that you're wearing, or I mean, uh, consuming from the source of income, that's Haram will absolutely be an obstacle for you spiritually. So that is certain. I mean, that's definitely a place to start is to say, I need to remove all sources of Haram, which we already talked about, right? When we talked earlier, um, in previous sessions about avoiding places where Haram will take place. So the overhaul process has to happen. Um, when you make that firm, you have conviction and you want to really change course. Now, if the overhaul process isn't happening, and you're kind of doing this, you know, back and forth, right? Um, then you need to determine what is it? You know, is it that I'm trying to, I want my cake and eat it too, as they say, uh, or, or am I, there's some spiritual delusion happening because, you know, it's, this is where duplicity is, is a very real problem, right? If you're duplicitous and your nature being too faced, nobody, uh, wants to be accused of being too faced, right? Um, and you know, there's many, many warnings, all the beloved being too faced. Um, uh, there's a particular hadith that says that the one who is too faced in this world, uh, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will raise them on the day of judgment with two, uh, you know, is it, sorry, is it, it's either too faced or too tongueed, like, you know, if you have two tongues, but they, it's, the punishment will be on the day of judgment that you will actually have, uh, physically to, um, two, uh, tongues or two faces, all the beloved, but the point is, is that, uh, is such a odious, you know, quality to have, to not be, uh, a person that is consistent in character. Um, but what happens is, uh, when we're not, again, mindful of our states and our nefs is dictating our hawwa, our desires are dictating, then yeah, we end up being, even when it comes to our spiritual practice, where we're all over the place. So this is something really important to think about. And then, preferring fantasies to realities, I, um, you know, there isn't much commentary on what is meant by this, but from what I've heard and, uh, what I kind of, um, extrapolated from, from this particular point, was that people who are, um, not, you know, grounded in reality, they, they escape, right? And how do we escape? Oftentimes we get, we escape into these alternate realities or worlds, whether it's through film, through television, through literature, but we kind of find more comfort, um, forgetting, uh, poetry, why, why are these things so, uh, potentially spiritually dangerous music, right? Think of like all the distractions that human beings are susceptible to and how they can absolutely affect a person's spiritual growth. Because a lot of people, this is what it is. They're, they're, they're caught up in trying to escape their reality. Uh, and so how do they do that? They can do it in many different ways, right? Like I said, uh, they can do it through all of those ways, right? Through entertainment, through trying to find ways to basically, you know, not confront their, their circumstances or even worse than that would be to, um, fall into addictive behaviors, right? Drugs, alcohol, all of those ways are really pathways where, where the individuals are just not, they don't want to deal with reality. So they would rather escape into another, um, place, whether it's virtual, uh, whether it's through again, mediums or through chemical altered states. So this could, I think, present in many ways, but this is one of the dangers again, um, of not being spiritually aware of oneself and how all of these things start to, uh, you know, affect, um, and they're all connected. They, it all ties in. And you see this, they're quite prevalent in, in, uh, in our world today, all of these things that we're talking about. And then, um, the last point is manifesting claims without sincerity. This is also another really important point is that once you've habituated negatively in the, all of these ways, right? Then, um, and you're not really, uh, thinking about Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, you're not doing things with a clear conscience. Your conscience is not driving you, but you are so, you know, you're, you're, you're one of those people who again is more about, um, you know, the, uh, the way that you present because image, image, highly image focused people, right? Um, who are more worried about pleasing other people or impressing other people will start to behave in all of these ways. And then they also will start to make claims, right? So, um, you know, I, I know I've heard it in my, in my lifetime from people who are not religiously practicing, but they will definitely lead on certain things like lineage, right? So let's say you're not, um, you know, someone who is actively practicing yourself, but you will make a lot of claims or use your family history. Maybe there's other, you know, factors in your, in your personal life that you will try to use in order to establish yourself as someone who is a pious person, who is, uh, you know, a spiritually, um, you know, like a spiritually aspiring person, although the, the, the evidence isn't there in terms of your character or your practice, it's just claims, it's just word set, right? Um, or people, which is, you know, I remember learning this when I first began practicing and it was interesting because I was trying to understand why, but like of all of the ways of deception, among the greatest lies that the human being will tell, um, is lying about dreams. Um, and I thought that was so interesting because how can you, uh, prove otherwise? Right? If you lie about dreams, it's considered a Ka'bat or a grave, grave sin because dreams are one, I think it's 46th of prophecy, right? So, uh, Allah can reveal certain messages and dreams. So the individual who, who lies, if you're telling people that you are, you know, dreaming of the Prophet's life, or you're having these incredible things, but they are not true. Um, and you're just doing it because you want people to see you in a certain light, you know, that you want to impress certain people. This is what we're, you know, what, what he's cautioning is that you are susceptible to doing those things because your priorities are all over the place. You're not thinking of God. You're not thinking of what's right or wrong. You're more interested in, again, maybe the social, um, uh, benefits of, of presenting yourself as someone who is spiritually inclined. And so that becomes, uh, your drive. And if, in order to, to do that, you, you want to, you know, uh, as they say, uh, hobnob or rub elbows with people who are, you know, you think of importance. And so you need to kind of keep up, right? Because if you're going to be in certain circles, you need to have, um, some reason to be there. So you may suddenly, uh, you know, puff yourself up over again, like I said, family background lineage, or I've had this experience or I've had that experience or I've, you know, I've had dreams or, you know, blah, blah, blah, whatever people will create. But all of these go back to the core issue, which is they are signs of spiritual disease that we as human beings become more and more susceptible to when we're not doing what? And we go back to that initial slide, the first, uh, these three. If we're not, uh, suspicious of our nuffs and really what, like listening to the thoughts that we have, the vo- the internal voice, all the things that, um, the nuffs will, will tell us about ourselves. We're continuously doing haram and not, um, stopping. You know, if you're going to justify haram and you don't make it a point to really, uh, correct, you know, yourself or, or at least show, you know, some, uh, level of, of, um, of, uh, guilt and shame before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and you just, you know, keep because, you know, and the thing is we, I want to just qualify this for a moment. We're sinful, right? All of us, we all sin in different ways. Um, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is of course so merciful and he reminds us over and over again that even if we keep slipping to return to him, but this is a different type of, you know, um, disobedience. This is when you are aware fully of, you know, whatever it is that you're doing, but you're not, um, the guilt has kind of been removed. And especially if we're talking about open sinfulness, right? Which is very different. A sin, someone who openly sins versus someone who is, um, shamed, shameful of their sinning and is really having a difficulty overcoming a weakness are not the same. Right? So when you're persistent and you're very, um, brazen, I think is the best word. When you're brazenly disobedient, uh, and you're not really, um, your conscience isn't there. You're not, you don't come back with the level of remorse and, um, and real, uh, you know, seeking contrition for what you're doing. That is a huge problem. Right? So this is what I just wanted to make sure that that's clarified because, you know, none of us are perfect. We're all sinners, but it's really the way with which we, um, feel in our sinfulness that we're talking about here and then completely abandoning awareness of Allah. You're not thinking of Allah. You're, you're often your own world. And it's, it's interesting that that is even like a reality because, you know, SubhanAllah, once you adopt a life of, of, you know, religious practice, the idea of not thinking of God is so like foreign and impossible. Like how do you go, um, without thinking of God? But when you look at today in this atheist, nihilistic, very toxic culture that, um, we've produced here in the West and then forced upon the world through globalization and the internet and all of our exports, then you can realize or you have to stop at things. There are people who not only go days without thinking of God, but they go months and years. And I don't know. That's just unfathomable to be male. I never test any of us with that, um, level of, of misguidance and heedlessness and hearts that are completely locked, right? Because that's what it is. It's like your heart is locked. It's locked. There's nothing there, uh, blind, right? As Allah says, it's not the eyes that are blind, but the hearts. So may Allah never test us, but that is actually a reality that people can fall into states of such, um, heedlessness that they don't even think of Allah. So these are the sources. And this is what happens or when we do this, that's what these, these, uh, subsequent sections are about. We open ourselves to, uh, these other diseases of the heart, right? And which we just covered. So there is more, but I think this is a good point to stop in case there are any questions because I know last week I went over and I don't want to, uh, start the next section because that will likely happen again. Um, and I know Mashallah people are busy and, uh, we have people tuning in from different time zones. So I want to be respectful, but if there are any questions of Sadah Fadua, please let me know. Um, I don't see any Q and A, uh, notifications, but maybe, maybe people will like to come on the mic and I would be happy to hear you if you'd like to come on the mic in shalom. And I'll also look at Instagram because I know Mashallah there are people coming in and out. Uh, but if there are any questions here, I'll I'll see what's going on here. There was a question on the Q and A and I just went ahead and shared the title of the book, which was what somebody asked, but other than that, we haven't seen any questions today. You're being too clear, Sadah Hussai. Well, I'm trying to, uh, make sure that I do not go over, you know, my time because I, I, I kept everybody here for 20 minutes any last time. I do see a question here. If you continue to sit and justify by saying it's not easy to leave, uh, I'm not sure if that's a comment or a question, but I'm assuming it's a question. Like what would be the response to that? I'm assuming. So yeah, if you're, uh, someone who. Oh, how to stay on track and control the notes. Okay, I'm sorry. That's a separate question. I thought it was just a follow up. So yeah, there are, the thing is, is the Nafs is, is very, um, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's it's, it's, it's it's, it's, it's, it's it's, it's, it's, it's it's, it's, it's, it's it's, it's, it's, it's it's, it's, it's, it's it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a problem. But at the end of the month, the Nafs is, is very good at. Tricking us. And so that's why part of the advice that street. Okay. In the very beginning is you have to be sus. Suspective than us. You have to. Question ideas and thoughts that come to you. So even the question like that. Like if you're going to, um, you know, justify sinning because many, many years ago this issue came up about, you know, getting like beautification, right? Publicly, like if a person and I speak mostly to women. So this idea that a lot of people in our community, in and outside of our community sometimes perpetuate in defense of the permissibility of a woman overly beautifying herself, right? So there's this idea, well, you know, I do it because it's for myself, you know? I don't have a, I'm not trying to seek attention. I don't want people to look at me. I love to do my makeup. I love to dress a certain way. So it's all for myself, right? Now the nuts will convince you. And people, I've been in debates and discussions with people who hold these positions. But yeah, like, you know, we shouldn't be policed as women because we're not doing it for the male gaze, right? We're not seeking male attention. We just love to get dressed up. We love to beautify ourselves. And I mean, this could apply to both men and women because vanity is a disease of the heart, bottom line. If you're a person stricken with vanity, you like to look good, you just do. And you like to get yourself, you know, in a certain state because you appreciate maybe your own beauty. Allah gives beauty to some and He withholds it from others. So you like it and maybe you want that attention, but you will convince yourself in order to continue to do it without, you know, drawing this type of condemnation that it's for your own self, but the challenge, and this is where you logically can challenge yourself, is has anybody, and I mean, I would just say, anybody who takes that position, my challenge to them would be if you, have you ever gotten dressed up? Like, have you ever woken up in the morning, gotten dressed up, done your makeup? Like, you know, the way that some Mashallah people nowadays do makeup, it's a process. It is like two to three hours and I'm not exaggerating because you've got so many steps now and then you do your hair and curl your hair and then you go and you wear maybe the nicest outfit you have, has anybody ever done that and not either invited people over to, you know, to see them in that state or gone out or somehow made sure that their efforts were not completely lost. I don't know, I find it very hard to believe that that would be like an average Sunday, you know how Sunday is kind of like the chill day at home, that a person who really holds to this argument would think that that would be like, that that's just the normal Sunday for them, that they just wake up and they get themselves all beautified for nobody else, not a single soul because they do it for themselves, right? If you were truly doing it for yourself, you would think that that would be a likelihood at least. So I feel like this is a way that we can kind of, you know, talk to ourselves in real talk, like come on, you know, that's just, you're just making excuses and you got to really at a certain point face yourself and say, okay, that's just an excuse, that's ridiculous, you're just trying to save face, you're trying to justify something but that's not what's really happening and this is, I forgot which verse it is in the Qur'an but there is a verse in the Qur'an where Allah swt mentions and I'm paraphrasing that we know our own selves, like there's a lot of, you know, things that we try to mask for the sake of, you know, other people but at the end of the day, you know your own self and as someone who people, you know will turn to for advice, I've said this before but I think like 99% of the people who seek advice from someone like me, they know the answer, they just want to hear someone else, someone else's perspective but it's not that they're lost and they're completely like we don't know what to do, everybody I think at a certain point we just have to kind of keep things real so that's what, you know, the process of really being in touch or in tune with your, enough is being able to call your own self out, like I'm just, nope, that's not gonna fly within me, right? You can protect your honor in front of other people because, you know, people can be cruel and these are very spiritual matters between you and God but when it comes to you and your Lord you have to be like totally open to vulnerability and transparency, right? Look in the mirror that is the most uncomfortable, not the mirror that makes you look amazing. What's the point of that? Because it's not your reality. So anyway, mashallah, any more questions? Is that a fedlaw? We have something in the Q&A box real quick. Will you share the slides with us? So I'm assuming they're talking about not the text but these slides that you're showing here. Yeah, I can definitely share these with you. That's actually, thank you for asking. I'm kind of, they're like work in progress every session because I want to add on to them per our text, like what we're reading but if you'd like, I can send the ones we've already covered through with Sadda Fadwa or if you want to wait till the end I can send them all together, whatever you like. I can do that, that's fine. And then another question. How do we deal with the notion of accept me for who I am when living in a hyper individualistic society? How do we recognize within ourselves that this is a personal nefs issue instead of expecting people to accept us? Excellent. I find this way of thinking a type of fantasy. Excellent questions, Jazakalakha. I mean, you really are opening up a big discussion for me because a lot of this comes down to the era that we're living in, this hyper, nefcy, narcissistic and very individualized time that we're in, it's by design, right? These are all things that come out of how we're conditioned to think about the world, our place in the world and everyone else. And a lot of this is fueled by post-modernity, right? This idea that, you know, everybody can have their own subjective truth and subjective reality and I have my truth and you have your truth and, you know, like you said, accept me for who I am because this is my individual, you know? And all of this is very much politically reinforced because of the time that we live in, but we as Muslims, we have a different, again, criteria. We don't, you know, these are not our terms. These are not our, this is not our framework. This is not our worldview. We, first and foremost, hold ourselves up to the standard with which, you know, I mean, we hold ourselves up to the image that God wants of us, right? And so we, that's the most important thing. If we're not, if our behavior, our words, our actions are not pleasing to Allah's path, and then it doesn't matter what any human being, even the most beloved people to us because like there are times where your parents, you know, you're gonna have to go against your parents. You're gonna have to go against maybe certain people when they obstruct you to, you know, from your path to God. So human beings, we don't give them that power over us to dictate to us. So if we strip, you know, people outside of us, so what about people? I mean, what about our own selves? Of course, when we've already, you know, mentioned that the nefs is your biggest enemy, then you would not empower your nefs to say, well, this is, you know, I'm just gonna do what I wanna do. The eye is your biggest threat between you and God. So why would you, like the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in his, you know, famous Dua mentions, like do not leave me even for a blink of an eye to myself. So this eye, this concept of eye being, you know, the sort of, you know, like I'm the captain of my own ship is very dangerous because we are, we pose the biggest threat to ourselves. So we shouldn't trust ourselves to that point where we think that speaking in those terms are somehow empowering. It's actually not. It's the very opposite, it's very disempowering because it puts us in a very, as I said, nefcy state and then we're susceptible to all the things that we just talked about. So the eye should not be a fed, you know, we have to actually counter it with social responsibility, right? Making sure that we are, for example, like if you, if you want to drive down the street in your neighborhood at midnight and you're jamming to your favorite song and you're like, well, I love this and I just really want to hear it. And, you know, I'm going to do it anyway. You are a completely selfish, narcissistic, careless person who is trampling on the rights of your fellow neighbors or citizens. You are not empowered because, oh, well, I just wanted to do this and I'm not necessarily harming anybody because we have, you know, social contracts or social obligations to be considered of other people, especially when we're sharing, you know, spaces with people. So you can't just, that's very entitled, right? To operate from this place of, well, as long as I want it, I can do it. We don't do that. So our, you know, first and foremost, again, our standard is, is it pleasing to God, yes or no? And then, you know, does it in any way infringe upon or impose upon the rights of other people? And you operate from this very considerate, respectful place and, inshallah, at that point, it's fine. But other than that, you can't just force yourself on other people and, you know, act as though you're somehow in a position of power or entitlement. So a lot more to say on that, but thank you for the questioner and I'm sorry. I know I still went over by a couple of minutes, but I don't know, any last questions or comments or anything like that? So if I go, please let me know before we close out. And I'm also just checking Instagram for those who are here. I'm, we posted it, I'm sorry if you're just joining and you're not sure or you don't know what's going on. Basically, the Rahmah Foundation, which is an incredible organization, is hosting a class through, from Ramadan through hopefully maybe another few weeks of looking at this text called The Foundations of the Spiritual Path. You can find more information through their page or through my previous posts, but it's still open, free registration. You can tune in anytime. And there are recordings available for previous sessions. So please feel free to inquire if you are interested, but we would love to have you join. And as far as the attendees who are already with us, Jazakumul al-Khidin. I don't know if there are any other, oh, is this a question? Let's see, Bismillah. It's hard to separate your own desires and the expectations of the society. The need for validation is also another struggle. Yeah, masha'Allah, that's a, it's a good point. And it's interesting that you brought this up because I was speaking to someone earlier today about detaching and having less attachments. So I shared it with her, let me pull it up. But I wrote an article back in 2018 on this topic of being more self-reliant and finding contentment without having expectations of people. And I really think, and it's, by the way, this is Sunnah. Like these are all recommended things from the Sunnah as the article that I wrote, you'll see. I just shared it with people in the Zoom chat here. But in the article, I present, you know, hadith and anecdotes that indicate, from the prophecy I said them, that the less attachments we have here in this earthly realm, the better overall spiritually. So learning how to disconnect from these dependencies, right? From, like I said, validation from other people is so important. And it is, it's a lot of work, but I think when you start to, this is where that concept of apparent goods and real goods really comes into play, right? And I think this is from Aristotle, right? That he taught us how to differentiate between the two. Like what is a real good? And what does that mean to you? Like what is a real, what is a real value? And what looks like it's a value? And having the discernment to know how to differentiate between the two, because there's a lot of blurring of the lines or there's a lot of confusion and conflation. So what happens is people presume that certain things are to their benefit when it's actually to their harm. So for example, you know, as I said, amassing a large, you know, following or seeking, you know, the validation of people on a large scale wanting to be popular, wanting to be socially connected. That seems like it's a good, right? Oh, we're networking, I'm socializing, I'm hobnobbing, I'm social butterfly, I'm invited everywhere, I'm this and that and this and that, right? I'm like, and you think like that's beneficial because what could be the harm? But the harm is that you start to do all of these things that, you know, see what I mean, Zaroq was talking about is that you're giving so much power to other people. You're starting to let the desire to impress people or the fear of not being accepted by people dictate to you and then your principles get thrown out. Your religion, you know, your actual values and your creed starts to become diluted or you start to play with it. And this is where a lot of people we see it now, you know, with a lack of moral stance on things that are so outwardly, obviously detrimental and harmful, but people are too worried about the implications of, you know, speaking openly about these things. And so that's where these dependencies can be very dangerous. And that doesn't mean that we don't have, again, there are social rules when we're, you know, living in communities and societies that we should be respectful of, but it's more about where is your priority? Do you really seek to just, again, people please and be accepted or do you want to please God first and foremost? Cause guess what? The formula is very easy. If you put Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala first, always you will be successful. It's just a fact. If you put God first, he will make you successful. But if you choose to try to please other people and not think of, you know, him first, then you risk not only having his displeasure, which is obviously what's worse than that, but also being, you know, somehow turned from, or having people turn away from you too. It doesn't pan out. So that's a perfect example of where, how we can be so deluded, right, by things. So, Alhamdulillah, I'm sorry. Okay, I'm gonna stop because I feel like I'm gonna keep going and I'm sure you need to go and I apologize for everyone first staying on too long. Where can I find the link to the article you mentioned? Oh, you don't see the link? Subhanallah. Oh, you know what? I'm so sorry. I posted it to the panelists only. There we go. Here is the article that I mentioned. It's from El Medina Institute and it's called How Self-Reliance Foster's Spiritual Contentment. So you can look more into that. And so that's a short article, not too long, but Alhamdulillah, anything else instead of further before I can, or keep going? Did it, is that a further leave? Perhaps she- I'm still here. I do have another meeting in just a few minutes, but I'm still here. I'm so sorry. I haven't seen anything else besides what's in the chat. We're just commenting on the link. Okay, Alhamdulillah. Jazakillah. I'm gonna let you go to your other meeting and everyone else as well. We'll go ahead and end in Dua. Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Wa-la'asir inna l-insana la fi khusr illa ladina aamana wa aamir as-saqihaati wa-tawassu bi-haqi wa-tawassu bi-sabir. SubhanakAllah. Wa bihamdika shadu an-la ilahe ila anta al-saqfirq wa-la tubu ilayk. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa bariq ala Sayyidina wa Maulana wa Habibina Muhammad Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam wa alaihi wa sallam wa sallim wa sallim wa sallim wa sallim an-kathir wa as-subhanah rabbika rabbil aizati ama yusyikun. Wa-salaamun aal al-mursalin wa-hamdullillahi rabbil aalamin. Wa-mumdullah. JazakAllah khirin. InshaAllah, we will see you next week for the continuation. And please do read along. And I'll try, if you do want those slides, let us know inshaAllah and I'll try to get them to you all soon. All right, take care, everyone. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. JazakAllah al-hamdulillah. Thank you. As-salamu alaikum, everyone. Welcome. We'll begin in just a moment. Thank you for your patience. I know we're a few minutes behind. But inshaAllah, we will begin. I also wanna welcome everyone on Instagram Live. As-salamu alaikum. We are on the Rahmah Foundation's Zoom class. If you are not familiar with it, please check out Rahmah Foundation. But we're doing a class called Foundations of the Spiritual Path. So, al-hamdulillah, I'm on Zoom and the Rahmah Foundation. I'm on Instagram Live with all of you. Thank you for being here. We'll go ahead and begin, inshaAllah. Bismillah, al-hamdulillah. Al-hamdulillah, wa-salatu wa-salamu ala As-shifat, al-anbiya'i, wa-al-mursaleen. Sayyidina, wa-mawlana, wa-habib, al-hamd. As-salallahu alayhi wa-salaam, wa-alaihi wa-sahb, wa-salaam, as-salaam, tassim, and kathira. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad, al-Fatiha, lima oglik, wal-khatim, lima sabak, nasul al-haqi bil-haq, al-hadi, ila siratik, al-mustaqim, wa'alaihi, haqqa qadrihi, wa-maqdarihi, al-awzim. Allahumma, fattah alayna, futuh al-a'rifin, wa-fikna, tawfiq al-sualiheen, wa-anfa'na, Allahumma, bil-Qur'an, wa-dikr al-haqeem. Allahumma, al-ibna, ma-anfa'na, wa-anfa'na, bima al-lamtina, wa-zidna, al-man, yuqarribuna, minka, Allahumma, al-sahlah, ila ma-jahlana, wa-anfa'na, wa-anfa'na, yuqayyuna, wa-dajahluna, wa-anfa'na, al-sahlah, al-sahlah. Allahumma, ayatina, min shulubian, fusina, wa min sayyati, a'madina, wa-as-lahlana, as-shatna, al-kulla, la ilaha illa anatina, as-taqirak, wal-atubu'irayk, wa-sallallahu ala Sayyidina Muhammad, wa-alaihi wa-sahb, wa-sallam, tassim, al-kathira. Again, welcome everyone to Foundations of the Spiritual Path, Alhamdulillah. We are going on, I've lost complete track in eight weeks now. I know this was only supposed to be a four week course, but Alhamdulillah, the Atma Foundation has extended us or given us more time to be able to really give this text its proper due. And so we are still at it. And I'm hoping I really am that we might be able to finish by next week or the following week, if it takes too long next week. And I would actually love to have a Q&A session. So maybe we'll aim for that. But with that said, I just wanted to bring everyone up to speed who may be new to the class about what we've been talking about. So this document is a wonderful, I call it a roadmap, that Sidi Ahmad Zarruq laid out for us in terms of what to look out for on the spiritual path. Once you decide, right, every one of us has to make a decision at some point in our life that we are going to start taking our faith practice seriously. But it could be very overwhelming, right? Like, where do you begin? What do you do first? And of course we know the five pillars of Islam. We know the six articles of faith. And we learn those things at a very elementary level. But when it comes to being an adult practitioner of the faith, it may be overwhelming in terms of like knowledge. Like what do you study first with subject? And then from who, you know, who do we seek our tradition from? And how do we know if a teacher is sound or not? I had someone very close to me who came from the Shia tradition. You know, she converted to the Sunni tradition. And so she didn't have really much foundation when it came to her family background. And, you know, she didn't have guidance from her parents. She wasn't exposed to any of that until she made that conversion. And so then it became very overwhelming. And to this day, sometimes she will express, you know, how it's overwhelming for her, even though she's been practicing for a while now, that because she's not familiar, like who are the sound scholars? And, you know, even in terms of like hadith, right? There's a lot of confusion. In fact, I think it was earlier today I saw from the Mefta Institute, I believe, they put together a really nice Instagram post on what is a Sahih hadith? And this is really important knowledge that every adult Muslim should have. Like how do you determine what is, you know, if a hadith is Sahih or if it's given a different grade? What does that whole process look like, right? Because it's a very rich science and there's so much effort for centuries put into collecting hadith, you know, and then grading them and putting it, you know, giving them their, you know, I mean, putting them in collections. So all of these things have to be understood. So this text, though, what it does is it gives you some really key points, first and foremost, for yourself. Like to know what your objectives are as a Muslim. You know, yes, it's to get close to God but there are other objectives as well. So he starts off with those five foundational ones which really are about quality of practice, right? It's not just doing your ritual worship but it's about the way that you do it. And then from there, he gives you those, the building blocks necessary to get to that point. So we've been, you know, at this course or doing this for several weeks now, I would invite all of you to please check out the Dhamma Foundation and sign up with them. They'll send you links to previous recordings if you want to watch them, just to kind of again familiarize yourself more with the text. But we're almost toward the end of it. And so today I'm going to pick up from where we left off and I'll go ahead and screen share for those on the Zoom call right now so that you can see what I'm seeing. Oh, I would like to please request that my screen sharing be activated, please. What's that if I do it? If you can do that for me. And then I will share so that we can see what I'm seeing. And I did, if you recall, I have a visual, you know, these diagrams, I guess, that I created to help us kind of visualize what these building blocks are. He uses bulleted points to identify certain qualities. So let's first look at the text. And then, you know, I'm sorry, let me, can I, yeah, I think I can. I wanted to add these onto the same window so that way I don't have to keep going back and forth. So I apologize, one second. Let me just put them, there we go. All right, so now I can screen share and thank you for activating that for me. And so here we go. So let me also zoom in a little bit here because I know it's small, I apologize, let me zoom. So where we left off last week was where Sidney Ahmed Zaruk is now helping us to identify people who make claims, right? There's a lot of people who claim to have some station with God or, you know, that they are, that they have certain abilities maybe or, you know, things that are superior to maybe other people. And so he says, anyone who claims to have a station with Allah while any of the following five emanate from him is either a liar or deluded. So visually, and I'll read them and then we can go, actually, you know, it might be, it might be helpful, more helpful to just see them in this order here. So what are they? What are these qualities that or claims and actions that a false or a deluded teacher would make? First and foremost, he says, allowing any member or student of his or her, we can certainly add that into sinful disobedience. So if someone is claiming to be a religious authority or having knowledge or having to study or, you know, they have e-jazzes and certain things that they've been given permission to teach other people. But yet the people that they are teaching, they overlook outright sinful disobedience. This is clearly a sign that there's some problem here because a true guide, a true teacher is obviously very concerned with the wellbeing of their students. So if they wouldn't allow that, certainly, they wouldn't overlook it, they would try to correct it. And of course, we don't compel people, we don't do anything by force, but to allow outright disobedience to take place or to manifest in a gathering, for example, you know, I mean, I think all of us would agree, right, that if someone is claiming to be a spiritual teacher, but then they have, you know, very out of character and poor character, low character behavior around them, that would be very, very odd. And, you know, again, in recent times, these types of examples may not be as obvious, but throughout history and in many parts of the world, there are absolutely these types of charlatans that exist. For example, I know, I forget his name now, but, you know, there was a character that came out of Turkey, I think in the 90s, he became very, very popular for some of his writings, but then we learned that he had these harem-like environments where he had these women who I think he called dolls or he referenced some really, he called them very, I don't know, bizarre terms, but he made so much money off of whatever he was selling that he would just collect these women and then give them plastic surgery and the environment was just obviously for practicing Muslim. If you see a man surrounded by hordes of women who are wearing very revealing clothing, they've obviously had procedures done to modify their bodies, that that should immediately be a huge red flag that whatever claims this person is making about his knowledge or his area of expertise or his spirituality would be something to question, especially if you fall under these types of, you know, cultish kind of people. So that would be a first sign to look out for that they allow disobedience to happen around them. And then affectations in his devotional practice. So this is also when we are, there's sort of like these theatrics that sometimes people bring to their devotional practice. So you see some people and it's because they are trying to be noticed. You know, if you're looking at, let's just imagine areas where there are maybe, you know, there's a competition, I guess you could say of leadership and you want to be seen or regarded as more spiritual than other people. And we're looking at again, maybe in places where there isn't a lot of religious literacy and people are very downtrodden. And so they look to spiritual leaders for support and they want to, you know, feel that they're coming to people who can really help them in their own circumstances. So when someone who is in a position of authority is bringing on those types of, you know, theatrics, they're performing their practice, spiritual practice in a way that seems very convincing, right? And you certainly see this in different, again, groups where people will chant very loudly or they'll call on Allah in ways that are just jarring. You know, I saw a video recently of someone who was, I think he was doing the adhan. I mean, this is not, we don't want to make assumptions about individuals, but it's just an example of how there are people who can sometimes forget, you know, that in social settings, we need to have the utmost adab and composure. And so sometimes people just enter these states, but in other times it is very affected. It's very, it seems like it's very performative or perfunctory. So anyway, but the video I saw was someone who was making adhan and then, you know, people, someone reacted to him and he spoke to him. He's got so scared, but those types of, you know, overly dramatic, you know, ways of showing that you are in some state or hal is definitely a red flag. Because again, if you've been in the company of righteous scholars, of people who have their acumen, their history, their, you know, reputation proceeds that people know who they are because they have toiled and sacrificed and given so much for the oma and they've produced a lot of amazing things. You will not find these people who doing things like that, even if they may reach certain spiritual states in a gathering, they tend to be very subdued and inward. It's an inward reality that may be manifesting within them, but they don't really try to show that outwardly. So that's always a concern when there's more concern of trying to display, right? So that's definitely something to look out for. And again, we wanna be careful because we're giving, you know, qualities to look out for, but we also have to have the humility to know that we don't know what's in people's hearts. So use this information just generally, but not to start to presume that someone who may do something, you know, similar to this is suddenly false. That's not fair because these are collective qualities, right? So you wanna kind of see all of these in a person together to just kind of isolate them or maybe you interpret someone that you already have a bias against in a negative way would not be right. So we always have to second guess our own assumptions about people, but it's good to be at least, you know, versed in certain qualities to look out for them. And then the third quality that he mentions are, so this is what he's defining for us are qualities, claims and actions that people who are either false teachers or deluded teachers may make. And that's an important distinction because false is like you are, you know, purposefully misrepresenting yourself. Deluded is something that I think would be, you know, it's not as bad, right? Because if you're a false teacher, you're a liar, you're just flat out deceiving people. If you're deluded, it may be that you're just under the spell of your own nefs or shaitan. So you might have other problems, but I wouldn't say that they're morally equivalent. So he makes that distinction here because sometimes they have these shared types of qualities, right? So the third one is the expectations from the creation. So what does this mean? It means that a person who is truly, you know, has really sound and strong conviction and faith in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala relies on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And in their actions, in their words, you don't see a type of desperation that is turned to the creation, right? If they're in that state, it's all to Allah. They completely surrender to Allah. So if they have any needs, personal needs, financial needs, health issues, whatever their personal circumstances are, they seek first and foremost assistance from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then that doesn't mean that they're obviously not allowed to seek other means, but you will notice that they don't have this reliance on the creation. They rely on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that's very clear in their words, in their sabrun jamil, right? This is why we even have that concept of sabrun jamil is because we should be able to identify that when we see that in people and certainly in our teachers, right? If they are going through personal challenges, then they are modeling for us, or they should be anyway, modeling for us how to persevere, how to receive those challenges in the proper way. But if they are falling apart and they show a weakness of faith and then they turn to the creation before they turn to God, then obviously that would be a mid-flight. So that's the third quality he mentions. And the fourth one, backfinding against the people of Allah. And this is really important. And I would say in this day and age when there are so many social media campaigns where self-proclaimed teachers start to attack one another, this is definitely a red flag. It's called punching up. This is the term for it when someone, for example, let's say they're a student of knowledge, maybe that's too generous of a term for them, but maybe they know a little bit about the faith and then they create these online accounts where they suddenly amass all these followers and now they're critical. Now they see themselves as being on the same level, right? As a proper scholar who has the again credentials, they went through the path of knowledge, it's clear everybody knows who their teachers are, they know where they studied, all of that is made clear and transparent, there's no hiding. That scholar is leagues ahead of someone who doesn't even barely know their faith, but they just have popularity, right? So this is often the case nowadays where you will see these people who unfortunately are perceived as religious guides and teachers and authorities, who they because of their fame and the fact that their videos get the most likes and they're quite popular, they will start to create these critical response videos. So someone said something and I'm gonna now respond to this teacher, how dare he or she say this and who do they think they are? And then you can see, we have what we call adab al-istiraf, which is the etiquettes of disagreement. And in our tradition, scholars historically, plenty of them, many of them disagreed with each other, but they never departed from prophetic character. They disagreed on ideas, so they would challenge the positions of other scholars, they would challenge their thoughts, but they didn't do it from a low place, which is to backbite against them, ad hominem attacks, slander them, bring back things that were irrelevant. It has nothing to do with the argument, but you just want to take them down, right? So it's called punching up and unfortunately, we definitely see a lot of this in the social media space. So if you follow someone, whether it's on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, wherever you're following them, Twitter, and you see post after post where they're actually attacking other scholars, especially if they're young and they're attacking senior scholars, I would say be very cautious of those types of people. They tend to be very charismatic, they use logical arguments, they sound so convincing, and they'll weave together these very, these videos where they have all these references and so they'll try to create a story, right? A narrative. And so it seems very convincing, but this is why it's so important that we heed the warnings that were given in our tradition, which is to verify information, not to fall for a story that is woven for you, right? Because people, they have their own biases and they will cherry pick in order to create the image that they want others to have of whoever they're attacking. And so you have to have the discernment to say, first of all, anybody who does that, that's definitely a red flag. When do you see real scholars or people of all law wasting their time on things like that? Now, if a person is really misguiding people and they are causing a lot of fit and harm, that's a different scenario. This is just a matter of difference of opinion, right? Like when we have due process to, on how to deal with those types of characters, but we're talking about just someone who doesn't like another person or another person's position and instead of debating the idea or providing counter arguments and proofs against whatever is being said, they take it to the low level of backbiting and spreading false lies. So we really wanna be careful about that. And that's the fourth quality. And then he mentions the last one, which is lacking the proper respect in accordance with the commands of Allah. So this is very important too. And I think actually lacking the proper respect, I think this should be towards Muslims. Let me check, I may have mistyped here. I apologize, one second. Yeah, so lacking the proper respect for Muslims in accordance with the commands of Allah. So when a person again, is in a position of leadership or knowledge and then they are speaking about other believers, it might not be a scholar, but maybe they're speaking of groups, collectivizing and just disparagingly describing other Muslims. This is also an absolute red flag because the people of Allah, people of Taqwa do not, they're very cautious with their own state with Allah. They don't want to take chances. So how would you defend someone who is, they're a little too loose-lipped and they start to speak about groups or ethnicities, it could be racially charged, it could be charged from other perspectives, but it's wrong because anytime you collectivize or stereotype or use these types of foul ways of speaking about groups or individuals, that's just showing your own diseases, right? It doesn't say anything about the groups you're describing, you're at fault. And so that would be unbecoming, unfitting of someone who's apparently or supposedly a scholar. So these are the five qualities that he's outlined for false and deluded teachers. Now he does something interesting because if you look at the document, which I'll go back to here on the Zoom call, you see that he jumps from these five qualities, right? To the qualifications of the spiritual guide. So now he's told you what to avoid. Like if you see people like this, they're either liars or delusional. Now he switches gears and gives you the qualifications of the spiritual guide with whom the seeker may safely entrust his self. So now we're gonna pivot to what qualities you should look for, right? So those are the ones you don't want. So it's interesting and I'll explain what I mean, but here are the qualifications that he outlines for real teachers. He says, first, unadulterated spiritual experience. So it's the opposite, right? In the beginning, he was talking about these affectations sort of performative displays during spiritual devotion. Now he's saying, no, none of that. You just see pure ritual, if it's their prayer, if it's their restitution of the Quran, they're the vikin, whatever they're doing, it's, there's no, nothing that makes you feel like, icky, I guess. There's sometimes you're in a gathering or you might be with groups that there's something just doesn't feel right, right? When you're with people of Taqwa and real sound scholarship, everything is clear because it's from the tradition. It's not innovated. It's not introduced from themselves. It's something that you could easily read in the Seerah or you know that there's textual proof and evidence for it. It's unadulterated, it's pure, right? And that experience you have just being in their company is very clear. And so you'll never feel odd being in their presence. And then sound outward knowledge. So again, a person who makes a claim or claims to be a spiritual guide or a teacher would have the knowledge to back that up. They would be able to cite certain proofs and evidences. They should certainly know portions of the Quran, the Hadith, they should be able to speak in a language that is clearly distinguishable from the average person because the way that they speak is informed, right? Knowledge is something you acquire. So their knowledge is something you can test and prove just by asking certain questions. And you don't have, it's not double speak. It's not a way of presenting that's just very full of ornamentation and eloquence because this is one of the qualities that we're also warned about, right? During the end of time that there will be many people who are very well-spoken, but they are devoid of knowledge. But they actually do reference and they cite. And I know our teachers always remind us to provide sources, right? When you're teaching, when you're speaking, writing, whatever you're doing, cite your sources because you want to, first of all, show that you know what you're talking about. It helps your credibility in general, but also because it's an amana, the transmission of knowledge is very serious, right? To be in a position where you are teaching other people, you have to be so careful because your words, right? Or everything is being recorded and a teacher is not absolved of the responsibility that all of us are responsible for, which is what emanates from our tongue. In fact, they have to take themselves even more to task because of the reach that they have, right? If I'm myself and I'm not really impacting other people, then the only harm that I could produce would be for myself, right? But if I'm in a position where I have nowadays, it's not even just 10, 15, 20 students, we're looking at by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, by the hundreds of thousands. And some people, if you're looking at global reach, some scholars have students that are in every corner of the world, whether they know about them or not, they're watching their material religiously unintended. They're looking at all of their socials, they're following them everywhere they go. So these are devoted people and therefore all of these people could make claims against these people on the day of judgment. Well, I heard this from so-and-so. So if you're not citing your sources and just speaking from your own self, it's very dangerous. And that's why a real teacher cites sources, they show and demonstrate knowledge clearly. So that's the second quality. The third is celestial aspirations. And if you go back to the beginning of the document, you'll remember that this is also one of the prerequisite qualities of the foundations, the original foundations, is that you actually have to aspire beyond this worldly realm, right? If you're dunya-oriented, your goals in life are dunya-oriented. You're just looking constantly at whatever you can get here and you're not thinking of the next world and not trying to push yourself to have the highest aspirations, then that's a problem just for the average Muslim. So what about then a teacher? So they should also be speaking about the akhira and really directing themselves and their students to think of the next world, right? And how everything we do should have Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala's pleasure in mind before we give in to our own nafus, our own lower selves, because that's where the delusion of the self manifests from. It's the desire to just give in to your own self, whereas when you have celestial aspirations, you're willing to go against yourself, right? Mujjahad jihad of the nafs is to go against yourself because your goals are that great. You want Allah's pleasure, so you'll wake up in the middle of the night because your sleep, although you love to sleep and sleep is great and we all want more of it, you realize that that time that has been allotted for the du'amas, the jab and that beautiful connection with Allah is much greater. So you will go against yourself and other ways too whenever there's choices to be made between something of the dunya giving in to some nafsi impulse or something that's better that you will fight, you'll at least resist it, you'll think about it and with practice and time eventually, inshallah we can overcome these things, right? If you, for example, have time in the middle of your day and you are driving, let's just say, this is just a very simple example for the average person to think about. You're driving and you have extra time and you have not done any reading of the Quran, you have not done any dhikr that day because you got up early, you did your prayers maybe, but then you were off to work or off to school and now you have like a half an hour break or an hour break. We sometimes get in our vehicles or get in a private space and instantly the phone comes out and we either start scrolling social media or maybe we pick up the phone to call someone and just start chatting, idle talk, gossiping, whatever or maybe we like to watch or listen to certain music or watch certain, I mean, people have, they're very committed to certain programs and series that they watch and they'll, I know some people who watch on repeat, they have collections of past episodes of certain shows or whatever and they'll watch it, law and order, I remember, what's that? Medical show, Grey's Anatomy, oh my God. I think they're still, they have like so many fans who will continuously watch these things. Like they'll just repeat, I've watched it five times and I'm just like, how, how? Subhanallah. But there are people who are very, very obsessed, you could call them fans of certain genres or types of cult classic shows or films. So if you have time, Allah's giving you an extra time and you have, those things are on your periphery and your periphery, you're kind of thinking about them, then you realize it hits you, right? That I haven't done any Quran today, haven't, and I likely I'm going to get busy, I'm going to go home, I've got this student of that to do. Maybe right now I should listen to some Quran, do some dhikr, do some salawat and you actually start thinking on that level. Eventually, if you keep listening to that voice inside of your heart that's reminding you, right? And sometimes this could be also the angelic realm because we do have protective angels who will nudge us along to do better, right? So when you get those types of thoughts, don't ignore them. You know, if you ever wake up in the middle of the night and it's like two, three in the morning and it's just random, it happens to all of us, but you realize like this was, you didn't set your alarm, maybe there's wisdom, what happened, why did you just suddenly wake up from your deep sleep? And a thought comes to you that says, maybe you should get up, maybe you should get up and pray at the Hajj. But then there's another thought that says, nah, go back to sleep, you're too tired, you got to wake up in the morning. That's the internal struggle between the forces of good and evil within us. And so eventually though, if you keep entertaining that thought of maybe I should, you will, inshallah you'll gain mastery over your nafs, but you have to be willing to entertain that, right? And so that's an important thing to do. They're just generally speaking for the, back to the document for a teacher, a real teacher, these types of things are obvious, right? That they are always guiding us to the best course, the best course, the course of the prophesied set of a course, because he's the best of examples. So they're always reminding us of these things, inshallah. And then he mentioned, so I'm just going over the foundations of the spiritual path where Sidi Hamid Zaruk is talking to us about the qualifications of real teachers and what to look out for when you're seeking a guide or a teacher. So he mentions five qualities. So the fourth quality here is a pleasing state. And this is really beautiful because it's so true. Like, I know I can speak on behalf of other people that I know very close as well, who've had this experience where when you meet people who are true, truly people who are rooted in the tradition and they, it's evident. It's evident because you can't help but be drawn to them. It's like this magnetic force and you're just like, subhanallah, I don't know what, how to define this feeling, but I feel this spiritual magnetic draw to this individual. And it's because they have beauty, they have nur, they have light because of the knowledge that they're possessing. And that is transmitting. It's transmitting in their words. It's transmitting in their gaze. It's transmitting in their state. They look beautiful. They speak beautifully. They're everything, they just, and we're not talking about, you know, physical beauty in this, in the worldly sense. We're talking about spiritual beauty that's manifesting through them, right? Through their physical form. And so these, and I remember, and I've had this experience several times with different teachers, male and female. One of the first times I ever, no, the first time, excuse me, the first time I ever met with a very well-known sheikh teacher. I remember myself and my friend, we went to go and listen to her for the first time and she wears neqar. She's very shy, masha'Allah, male, I protect and preserve her. But her state is, it's like honey. It's just so, it's so sweet that you can't like help about falling in love with her. So imagine meeting someone, learning from them for the first time and just loving them for the sake of Allah swt. Like you can't even help it. But I, like I said, first time I ever met her, first time I ever saw her, many years ago, she removed her neqab because it was all women. And we saw her beautiful face, her smiling face, just like the son of the prophet, so I said, and that was instantly what I was reminded of. That this woman is displaying prophetic qualities because she cannot speak without smiling and her smile is just so beautiful that you're just drawn to her. You know, she just has this magnetic ability. And then of course her words, I mean, they're like pearls just dangling, you know, and you wanna hold on to each one of them. And I just found myself getting so emotional because she had such an effect on me. And I thought I was the only one, you know, sometimes you're already maybe going through something in life that's difficult and then you hear a speaker or hear a teacher or hear someone and because you're already vulnerable in that state, maybe they're tapping into something, right? This is a very real thing that happens to people. But when I, you know, left with my friend, we both were like in a car ride like, oh my God, oh my God, that was so amazing. So I knew it wasn't just me. And that's the experience that I, because other friends were there as well, that we all started to talk and it was like this, we all had the same experience. Like there's something about her. And to this day, you know, there's people that you can listen to her times, but they always managed to have that effect on you. I'll say it like Sheva Isha Prime, I love her, and I love Protect and Preserve her. I think we all who've heard her and who've met her feel that way about her. She absolutely has a beautiful way of just connecting to the heart directly, especially if you're with her in like in physical proximity. Nasha all at the bottom. It's just a gift for me, I love Protect and Preserve her. But those are the types of realities that Allah will show upon His servants who are really pure hearted and they're rooted in the tradition and they're not the ones that we're talking about before, right? So they have that pleasing state. And as I said, this is agreed upon by those who are in their company. So that's the fourth quality. And then the fifth quality is the penetrating inner perception or simply basira, right? That a real teacher has a knowledge, a sixth sense, something that is beyond that, you know, that they have this perceptivity that makes them very obviously different. Like it distinguishes them apart from others, right? The way that they speak sometimes they may even speak about things that have yet to materialize, you know because they have a foresight that the average person doesn't have. They'll be able to, you know, just because of their knowledge and their experience and when you're speaking to them or listening to them they're able to again, offer insights into things that just are obviously different, right? And again, if you've ever had the honor of being in the company of these types of teachers you'll know what I'm talking about. But sometimes, you know, you could be speaking to them or they're just speaking and all of a sudden they'll have some type of elham like this, you know, this knowledge that just will come to them in the moment and then they'll say something and you're just like, subhanallah. Wow, how did you come up with that? You know, like how did you come up with that? And I recently had this experience with our teacher, Sheikh Hamza where he said something and I just was like my jaw dropped because it was such an incredible insight but these, you know, these are, you know signs that mashallah Allah gives to whoever he wills and so it's happened before with him but in this particular case I just remember kind of being stunned like Allahu Akbar, that's just incredible like that you came up with that idea and he said, oh yeah, it just came right now. I'm just like, y'allah. So this type of perception, this basiyah, this alham these are things that Allah gives to sincere people but these are ways that you can recognize the people that are truly again rooted in the tradition and I would also say, I mean it's not explicitly stated here but I think it's so important in this day and age to look at credentials. Credentials do matter and real teachers should be very forthright about their teachers and about whatever knowledge they have if they have completed certain paths of study that they make it very clear if they've received de-jazzes that you would not need to dig or ask multiple people because it's known knowledge but if someone is again reporting to be a spiritual guide or a teacher and you have no clue where they studied with who did they study and you don't really have a lot of insight into who they are personally. Red flag, red flag. Actually just recently I was with some family and I made mention of something just jokingly and someone responded that, oh you remind me of this, you know this he called her I think a scholar. Yeah, he said, you remind me of the scholar this scholar of this video I saw and have you seen her and he starts talking about her and as he's describing her I instantly knew who he was talking about because she stirred some controversy recently and he was saying that what I said reminded him of something that she had said. So as soon as he identified her as a scholar and then went on to describe who she was I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second because I was like, no, no, no she's not a scholar, so for a while I mean she's someone who like I said stirred a lot of controversy on TikTok and like maybe a month or so ago and I don't wanna get into the details but she is definitely not a scholar but she started to make these viral videos very controversial topics making a lot of statements that she knew people were gonna react to and that's exactly what happened people started sharing her, reacting to her I can't believe this, have you seen this video? It caused actually a lot of fitna but unfortunately this person that I was talking to he was not aware that she was actually perpetuating a lot of harmful things and positing herself as I mean I don't think she ever said that she was a scholar but the way that she was speaking telling people how to conduct their lives was in a way the same and so anyway I had to kind of warn him so this is the danger of not knowing people's backgrounds is that there's some people who can come on and sound very convincing but you need to, it's on you you have to do the due diligence to find out more about them and seek out, well wait a second what institutions do they learn from? Which teachers do they learn? Do they complete any of their studies? Is there anything of concern that we should know about them? And usually people do know there will be, if there's any words of concern or anything of concern you will get wind of it if you ask but if you're just going to take it for face value that's very dangerous so these are the qualities now I said earlier that what he did what Siddharth Mazudal did was interesting is because he jumps from the claims and actions made by false diluted teachers to the qualifications of real teachers and then he goes back to the qualities of false teachers so I thought that was interesting because he starts by I think kind of warning us about these delusional people that again, they could be liars they could be diluted we don't know but at least like look out for these red flags then he helps us to discern between those people and the real teachers so now we have a clearer picture and now he jumps full into the qualities of a false teacher like this is it this is what you absolutely need to stay away from so someone might have certain red flags that were mentioned before but if they have any of these things forget it, these are the qualities that you absolutely have to warn against and so again on the Zoom call I paired them together because I think it makes for me anyway, logically just to be able to be able to connect the false teachers with the diluted teachers in a way so that you can kind of see the similarities and qualities ignorance of the religion and again, this is the opposite of what we just covered to have sound outward knowledge is not the same as to be ignorant of the religion so they just don't know you ask them certain questions and they don't know and it's okay by the way to say Adri or I don't know you're my medic that was his position that's a sign of actually someone's intelligence that they don't know certain things so we're not talking about not having all of the knowledge on hand at the moment but because there's sometimes people have a difficult time retaining but they've studied it they know it maybe they don't have the exact source or they can't give you verbatim a particular answer and so in that case that's very different than being completely ignorant you know that they are giving you false guidance they're giving you the wrong message they're misguiding you right so ignorance is different than not knowing something I want to just make that clear distinction and then the disregard for the reverence of other Muslims so very similar to right the lacking of the proper respect to this last category of deluded teachers if you don't believe that Muslims deserve your respect right like if you walk in and you know you're apparently this amazing teacher and there are people you know wanting to say salam to or greet you or somehow you know they want to be in your in your orbit but you see yourself as too important and you're just walking past people you're kind of you know dismissing them you don't want to talk to others I mean there is there's definitely a danger right that when you become when you rise to fame and popularity that you start to look at down at people and this is absolutely something that happens to many people whether they're celebrities or people of authority or in this case religious authority it can happen to them so that's why we have to constantly guard our heart from you know looking down at people but just not even having any respect or appreciation for Muslims and again falling into the same behavior we talked about earlier it's definitely be a huge sign of a false teacher engaging in matters of no concern to him this is also very important because again this is a foundational principle in Islam right that part of the beauty of one's Islam right in Hussn-e-Islami Tarki-e-malayya-nihi yeah the part of the beauty of one's Islam is to leave that which does not concern you or to my your business so if you are a busy body you want to know people's you know you like gossip you want to know what's going on with other people you're always asking and you know trying to try and get information from other people or just in general you're not focused on your own you know whatever you can you know your own projects your own life but you're more concerned with other people that's definitely a red flag because just again as a principle as a foundational principle for the believer we're supposed to really stay away from you know injecting ourselves into the business and lives of other people and so that should be a clear red flag and again if you're around people of real serious scholarship they don't want to know private matters of other people they're not in it for they're if you're in a gathering with them even if it's a social like you know experience they're not asking these trivial questions to try to you know figure out what's going on in other people's lives they're actually very deliberate about what they talk about and you'll hear inshallah I mean you'll hear a constant reference to Allah swt you'll hear talking about important things and reminders and they'll try to draw stories and you know whatever it is but they're always in that mode of of teaching and being very very deliberate and intentional about the time that they have with other people so they're not going to waste it and squander it on talking about nonsense right so that's a very important quality and then following his caprice in his affair so again a real teacher is not someone that's directed by their their shahwa or their desire or their caprice they are directed by right and wrong they have taqwa so they're looking at you know what is the right course of action what is the best course of action not that fulfills my needs or my wants and my desires but that is the best in the sight of Allah swt the best in following the best of creation sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the best in the mutual benefit to other people so they really take their decisions seriously and what they do seriously and then the last quality he says unashamed displays of bad manners followed by lack of remorse this is key because to have bad manners is so antithetical to being a Muslim right we, adab is so important in Islam and if you don't have the right comportment the right way to conduct yourself you don't even know what that looks like then you cannot be in a position of teaching right if you're we could say that all of these qualities that we've talked about would fall under the general description of just lack of adab because adab is the when you have adab you are constantly in a state of again what is the proper protocol because your taqwa is what is guiding you right adab is knowing the protocols of situations so if you don't even know the basic protocols of how to talk to people how to be in the company of other people when you're displaying bad adab right you speak again lowly you're not polite you don't thank people you don't show grace you don't show those prophetic beautiful virtues and when you slight people or you do something that would be a clear breach of adab you don't even display remorse certainly these are huge huge neon sign red flags but those are not people that we should take as true teachers but rather maybe again they've fallen into popularity and fame and people just like what they say but that doesn't make them qualified as a real teacher so again on the Zoom for those of you who are on Instagram I'm also on Zoom with the Rahmah Foundation and we have these visuals that I think help sorry I think I jumped ahead what did I do? I don't know what I did I apologize so but yeah so he mentions those Bismillah here it is so this is the text that goes with what I just shared so he mentions these qualities as they cannot be a true spiritual guide if you see people like this flee don't even go near them because they're very dangerous and in this day and age again where there's so much confusion and unfortunately a lack of real we have a crisis of knowledge in our Dean it's very easy to be deluded by these types of people right and so we wanna know these signs so well so I'm sorry I think we have a few minutes left on Zoom anyway I'm gonna stop to allow for any Q&A and we'll try to finish Alhamdulillah we got to three sections today which is good this is gonna help us move along I know Sadda Fadwa and others I'm sure you have your summer plans I do not want to in any way impede or affect your plan so hopefully we'll try to wrap this up maybe in one or two more sessions inshallah ta'ala but Sadda Fadwa are there any questions for today? we don't see any in the Q&A if anybody in the audience has a question please put it in the Q&A inshallah we can start taking some of the questions but we do have somebody who has their hand raised do you mind putting the question in the Q&A or depending on your preference? I don't mind inshallah if she'd like to come on the mic sister I can hear you and I'm sorry I'm on the let's see here sorry I'm looking at Instagram to see if there's any questions that I missed here so go ahead sister Sopya Assalamu alaikum JazakAllah Khair so much I really enjoyed the session and I appreciate all the insight and you know I loved how you were able to put this in perspective for a lot of us who are starting our journeys as well and how we're trying to equate the information the slew of information the flood of information the overload of information that is out there and especially when it comes to you know and how you kind of have to put it in perspective and Subhanallah alaihi s-salam gives us all those guidelines and the adab of it as well you know so for me I've been struggling with this for quite a bit and I've been blessed and now if I'm going to say this is one of the blessings of Allah in my life that I've been able to found around my own city and found you and found all of the you know everything that comes with that and anybody who feels you know that this is a journey that's really heavy and then it discourages you I think you just have to look inward and reassess your intention and you know it goes back to that hadid where you're supposed to assess your intention at the beginning, middle and end and this formula works so well it works amazingly well so I really wanted to just voice my gratitude towards you know the effort and the insight and I really appreciate it and you know I'm always sending you my love from the from the eating and from the eats comes all the time so I really do appreciate it it's a lot so much and it's really lovely to hear you always does a lot so much it's a lot and I want to have much more beautiful and generous and kind to testimony thank you so much it's always lovely to hear from people on the other side sometimes when we're talking into these cameras it feels very isolating but I appreciate the feedback so much and your support I know for myself individually as well as the institution Rahmah Foundation it means so much and I'm so glad you mentioned this because I feel like for a lot of people who are on the beginning of their journey this is why it's so important that we support our organizations because an organization like Rahmah Foundation I know there are a lot of them out there now but if you look at their origins if you look at their teachers if you look at who their teachers teachers are all the things that we talked about in today's session will be immediately resolved because everything is transparent the people are known and they have enough you know mashallah you know credentials and also their reputations as I mentioned precedes them just by virtue of what people have to say about them that you feel like you're in a safe space with your spiritual you know heart I mean the most important thing that we have is our heart and so alhamdulillah that's why I love this organization and they didn't ask me to make this pitch but I just really appreciate that they gave us the opportunity to come together as they always do especially as women to learn from one another and so alhamdulillah but thank you for your continued support and your kind words really really appreciate that mashallah alhamdulillah such a blessing we do have a question from online what is the proper adab as women in approaching the sheyuf to ask them questions when we're in their presence mashallah that's an excellent question alhamdulillah Jazakallah sister you know there's a lot of difference not difference of opinion but there's different things that you hear depending on who you ask you know we know that the people of Medina were praised for being people who did not let their shyness right prevent them from asking and so this was something that say that Aisha definitely mentioned so that we as women know that we should not feel shy to ask me they would ask her to ask the process and very specific questions what what what what regards to demonstration and other very private matters so you can imagine that that's definitely a position and we we can certainly take that position but then there are other people who would say that it really depends on the teacher you know there are some you know the relationship between the student teacher has to also be maintained so I would say for example if it's a question that you can that's very private to you and maybe even know something that's that's personal that that you would want to you know seek advice on I always advise people to speak about things in the third person it's actually better if you let's say you're having a marital issue let's say there's something that's going on it's when you're dealing with the male teacher especially if it's like you don't have access you're not sure if you're going to be able to get the answer from anyone else then don't make it personal to you okay and there's several reasons why but I just feel like sometimes in the moment we forget that you know people are that if we reveal too much right let's say you're someone in the community and you need to get a question clear question and you know it's about your personal life you know your family life that these could be things that somehow you know come back from telling too much in those types of impromptu Q&A settings when you can opt to just ask on behalf of someone else or if there's a written Q&A form to just write your question anonymously because preserving reputation preserving the honor of your family your husband, your children whoever's involved your in-laws even if you're really upset with your in-law right we get so angry we want someone to root for us we want them to advocate for us so we're just gonna go and tell them everything right but in the moment because you're emotional you might feel that way but maybe five years down the line you've forgiven all is forgiven everything's fine and now this teacher is there and they may remember these things and so I've always feel like we have to be really wise when we're in these types of situations to cautiously ask questions and know the boundaries right and so part of that would be to protect one's reputation at all costs certainly ask the question but if there's an opportunity to do anonymously do it that way first if there isn't then I would say be wise and say you're asking on behalf of someone you know that you know someone who's going through this and you wanna be a good help to them and you can give all the details that you would normally give but just that simple framing what it does is it takes out the emotionality that would otherwise compromise you that emotionality is what I fear because I feel like sometimes we let our emotions get the best of us and we want vindication we want someone to make us feel good but we then may feel the repercussions of that later so you can still get all of that validation anonymously and I would say that would be the best way I'm sorry it's a very long answer but I hope inshallah that helps you Was that a fun one? Yeah thank you Alright the next question says As-Salamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullah I was really rejuvenated by a particular teacher and that an individual offered a retreat in conjunction with an individual teacher that I did not know I looked that individual up and the credentials were not really sufficient when I inquired about these issues I was told the other one was on was famous on Instagram I did not go to the retreat but many in the community did is there anything else I should do to caution others about lack of credentials so checking credentials Sure, no JazakAllah Khedain This is a great example of someone mashallah who used sound judgment and I want to applaud you because you know when you put your time towards seeking spiritual knowledge you're going to leave your family or you take a break from work or whatever it is you really want to make sure that what you're investing in is going to yield something positive and if you had gone knowing certain things then it may have really caused a conflict in your heart but you made a choice mashallah based on your own conscience and inshallah that there will be immense reward for you Now as far as the people who are organizing if you brought it to their attention that this is a concern and they are still more maybe invested in you know trying to garner because sometimes if you are an organizer you're looking at what's going to attract right the headline speaker the more popular speaker will maybe attract people to the program that sometimes unfortunately some people put that before the quality of the teacher or these types of very serious considerations like credentials so unfortunately if the organizers fail to act upon your recommendation or at least advice or concerns and they're just kind of giving you their position then you know at that point it's on them you've done your part you could personally still advise your close friends but I would caution against being you know the one who's now going to warn everybody because that's also another dangerous element that I think is creeped in where sometimes people want to take on these big issues but then they end up being hurt the most you know when you raise concerns about organizations especially in a public way and people aren't ready to receive that or they have more supporters you're one individual this is a group people quickly turn and it can be horrible to the person who actually was just trying to sound the alarm because out of deep love and concern for their fellow community members they end up bearing the brunt of an immature community who doesn't realize maybe that it was in their best interest so I would say don't take that on your responsibility is to let the organizers know what your concerns are they are the ones who are held accountable for putting up these types of people but you personally can absolutely in your own circle of again trusted people, warned people and just keep it minimal because one of the models that I really appreciate from our teachers who taught us that I think is so effective and you can apply this to any area of your life is learning about what we call the sphere of influence and the sphere of concern okay so just imagine like concentric circles right concentric circles are like circles within a circle all of us have to know what our sphere of influence is which means what can we really impact in our own way like what has Allah given us to be able to do right and then we have a different sphere which is the sphere of concern so the sphere of influence is what you can really impact in your own circles, in your own way the sphere of concern is where you can redirect your doha because it's something that concerns you so impact is like direct action and then concern would be doha so I would say your direct action is to warn your loved ones that you trust who are not going to turn on you and draw unnecessarily attention to you and your sphere of concern is Allah please protect my community from the harms of these types of people or individuals or if this person is good make that veil them or make it apparent to people maybe they are not known for their goodness yet but always have a good opinion first and ask for the quiet of people instead of wanting them to just disappear or whatever we always should want good for one another and just make your doha for the protection of the people and the benefit of the people and leave the rest to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la so the sphere of concern and I'm sorry the sphere of, what is it? I forgot the sphere of, what was it too? I'm totally blanking the sphere of impact no, I don't know what I said I don't know, the Sadaf other, do you remember? I'm completely blank right now I don't know what happened to me anyway, I was reading questions I'm sorry, no, it's okay influences, I like, wait, what's the word? Human moments you guys, we have them Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la Okay, I'm sorry, go ahead I hope that was a clear answer Sadaf, are there other questions? Yes, sorry, I was just waiting for a quiet moment in the room Can you talk about the celebrity culture when it comes to the current scholars? How not to step over boundaries following them literally virtually and how close can we get to them? What's the safe distance? That's a very, another very great question Jazakul al-Kharan I think, you know, one of the things that we wanna be very cautious about is falling into this unfortunate thing that can happen where we become obsessed or obsessive or just too emotionally attached to people even if they have an impact on us we feel a spiritual connection to them we always wanna make sure that we see them as a means, as a door, right? That they're just a subhub if we get too fixated on the personality worship or the individual and their celebrity their awe, their whatever draw that Allah's given them it's very dangerous spiritually and I've seen this over the years happen to people unfortunately where they've become, you know, it becomes a problem it becomes a problem especially if it's a female to male or male to female sort of dynamic that can be very dangerous you can start to have a natural and inappropriate thoughts Shaitan likes to play on our vulnerability so when we have an attachment or a draw to someone we wanna keep a safe distance, right? And I think the most important thing is to have a hayba Hayba is a really beautiful word I don't know if there's even an English equivalent but it's just to see the teacher with this reverence and respect not for them per se themselves but rather for the signs that they're manifesting that emanate from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la the gifts that Allah's given them so it always goes back to Allah so if you hear a beautiful speaker even like reciters let's say there's a beautiful reciter, right? Someone who just moves your heart if you can just see them as being that Allah has given them those talents that Allah's given them those abilities and look beyond them and you give the praise and awe that's really due to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la then you won't get fixated on the individuals to just see them as means, right? And this is where also like the Hadith that the scholars or the warath al-Ambiyah, right? That there are the inheritors of the prophets is also another beautiful way to kind of see them as part of a general category of people, right? We have the awliya we have the prophets who are the elite of the elite and then we have the saints, right? The people who are their inheritors but if you just start to see them that these aren't just a special group and category of people that Allah has gifted with these gifts and these attributes then you don't individualize you don't fixate on the individual. Shaitan wants us to kind of hone in on the person themselves, right? So that we forget that they're just manifestations of God's power and whether they're not to be worshiped and to be awed and to be revered for their own individual traits because nobody self-made, nobody self-produced none of us, none of us no matter what we've accomplished no matter what we've done no matter what we will do none of us can make a claim that this was all us, right? So we shouldn't see people in that same light we should just see them that Allah just gave them those gifts and I love Allah and I'm doing that we're Muslim and that creates a natural healthy boundary so that you catch yourself like you shouldn't be up three o'clock in the morning watching videos of someone you would know that that's just weird that's a little too much but if you're I mean unless you're like writing a paper you're doing something very serious but I mean to say like you're just staying up at night and kind of consuming and consuming and consuming this would be certainly an indication of something else going on so inshallah, inshallah that was clear. Thank you, thank you so much. All right, now questions are coming so I live in a small town and we don't have learned scholars here for example, they disparage Imam Huzadi how can we not despair when we don't have reliable people to ask and we have questions and we can't and we have to sort of resort to shift Google. Yeah, subhan Allah, second, I love making it easy it's very difficult when you don't have community and I feel like there's so many answers I would love to give you obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is make hijrah, ask Allah to give you an opening out of that environment into a place where you feel more supported and inshallah of course he can change our circumstances instantly so you should always ask brachayin in that way and if you feel like it's really becoming difficult or to practice your faith openly or in a way that you feel really supported then just rely on Allah and he can make a pathway open for you and that is absolutely an answer. The other thing would be to again and I'll remind us all as we mentioned before to really lean on organizations that you do find trust in like the Rahmah Foundation or any other organization where you feel like this is a place where there is sound knowledge being transmitted I trust the people because they are displaying trustworthiness, they're showing me clear signs that they have nothing to hide they're very transparent, their credentials are all known so rely on those people and then as far as your community I know it's difficult because you see these things but you just have to remember that this is a very confusing time there are a lot of people who are unfortunately ignorant and that's not necessarily their fault we have people who have been heavily influenced by certain groups they have power, they have money, they have wealth they know how to expand their empire I guess you could say and perpetuate their misinformation and ignorance upon our Ummah and so we have to just realize this is just a time where with the internet especially that we have a lot of confusion but when you see those lighthouses in the vast darkness that are standing tall that those are from Allah to help us not to fall into despair and darkness we should never fall into despair just hold on to the lighthouse know them, see them where they are and at all times know instead of necessarily shift Google I wouldn't recommend freely kind of just open source kind of ways of getting Islam because you don't know where that information is being generated from look to organizations again especially on very specific questions there are things that we need to vet and make sure that you're getting the soundest answer for you and so you can turn to those same organizations and hopefully they have a portal or some means of being able to ask questions there are other more reliable sources like for example one of the common platforms that I use for general fiqh questions and I always think people should use them is seekers guidance they have a Q&A and they have opinions that are from the Hanafi the Madiki and the Shafi school I think they may have some occasionally some hunbili positions but they have teachers that are trained they have their Ijazas in these different respective schools of thought and so when they're looking at general Q&A like every day to day kind of stuff like the fiqh of transactions the fiqh of just day to day stuff they will present the opinions of the schools of thought and you will get sound knowledge and there's so much there they have like words of answers so you can use their search function seekers guidance and then I'm sure there are others but that's what comes to mind now and I would just again say trust the organizations that you trust to also be able to help you and make a da'a that Allah opens the means for you insha'Allah to be more supported or to either for you to make hijrah to a better community or for Allah ﷻ to bring good people to your community insha'Allah I mean the Arab anatomy Last question Asalaamu alaikum How can I learn to tame my nets? I've become aware to the fact that I sometimes do things and don't know if my intentions are pure or comments will get to me and when I was doing well the comments clad my mind and I don't want to do the acts I was doing I'd always stop letting my nefs overpower me and stay true to the right path Mashallah, this is a very good question because it allows us to first of all, all of us should, you know, find some some, I guess, consolation or comfort because these are very shared experiences I think of the self-doubt that many of us are riddled with when we're kind of second guessing our question is such a commonly shared experience but humbly, our scholars have given us guidance on that if you at the onset of an action are pure, have pure intention and then along the way, a thought enters your mind and you start to now wonder what was my intention these are all the machinations of Shaitan this is how he works, right? He tries to confuse us but you have to go back to your preliminary intention, right? So there's even I think in purification of the heart this example is given like if you're going to the masjid and you make a sincere niyah you want to go pray in the masjid you just want to make your niyah pure and you start walking and then along the way this thought comes to your mind that, ooh, maybe people will see me, right? But you're rejecting that thought, right? It bothers you this is a good sign of your iman and you would not, you shouldn't worry that oh, now was my prayer really for the sake of Allah or was it for being seen, right? Ascentation those are all thoughts that you have to reject because your original niyah is what counts and we cannot control the stream of consciousness our thoughts, right? This is why it's important to also study the four khawatir, the streams of thoughts that we have as human beings because it helps you to know I can't control all the thoughts that I have, right? So I'm not going to sit here and let the self doubt riddle or I mean, you know become an obstacle for me because if you let that thought process play out it ends up being so distracting and then at some points it can be immobilizing like you didn't want to do anything because you're just like, well what's the point? My intentions are so bad, you know and that's exactly what shaitan wants so, but the four khawatir are probably the khatir nafsani, khatir rabani khatir shaitani and khatir melikani now the nafsani and shaitani are obviously the two sources of evil thoughts, right? Evil inspirations and then melikani and rabani are from the angels and Allah directly so those are the four sources of where we get our thoughts from now when it comes to shaitan and nafs they work together so shaitan wants us to prevent us from doing better actions, right? So he will want to cast doubt in us so that we don't want to aspire and nafs will just perpetually, you know get us to do the same repeated terrible things or bad things that we've been doing is we're habituated to them so they're a little different in the way that they operate but anything that prevents you or thwarts you from a path of good and then directs you to something worse would be considered a demonic thought so if you get those types of thoughts demoralize you and now you don't even wanna do that then you would certainly say that that's from shaitan but the way to control it in actual shahamsa give a beautiful answer recently about this where someone was asking a similar question like how can you overcome the nafs and he just kind of said, you know like he was referencing his experience with his teachers and Mauritania and the people that he learned from and he said, just ignore it like the nafs is, you know that the people that he studied with they didn't pay that much attention to it and I thought that was such an amazing perspective because what he's saying is that the more you spotlight the nafs the more control you give it so it's better to basically ignore it just realizing that it's gonna constantly try these different tricks to get you but don't empower it with attention because if you suddenly become aware of it and it's like, oh, now did I do this? Did I do that? Did I do this? All of that is kind of giving it too much attention and then it starts to take over you but whereas if you just see it like a nagging little fly it's just buzzing around and it's trying to get you to basically turn your focus away from Allah by getting you consumed with all this self-doubt then you learn to swat it away and this is where all the Bid'an al-Shaytan al-Jinn comes to mind and you just constantly rely that Allah's so kareem I mean, when I for example, think of you know, the plethora of hadith where he's constantly giving us hope you know, hope after hope that not to worry so much I mean, it's a very delicate balance because we have to have taqwa you know, raja or hope and we also have to have fear, right? Khawth, these are the two wings, right? We have to be balanced in our approach but when you read those hadith it's kind of just to give you peace of mind that don't overthink and overanalyze and let your mind become so consumed that now you feel like nothing is purely done because it's something for the rest of our lives every single person no matter what level of knowledge or spiritual height they reach they will always have to purify their aniyah we all have to do it so insha'Allah may Allah make it easy just remember your original aniyah to do something if it's with conviction if it's for the sake of Allah then don't worry about any thoughts that start to cascade along the way just be convinced that Allah knows what your original aniyah was and insha'Allah be pure in that regard may Allah make it easy, I mean we'll take that as well Yes, someone is asking too about the Arabic terms for the four streams of consciousness what I'll do is they're the khawater, rabbani, malikani, nafsi and shaitani but what we can do is maybe if you can remind me next class I can write them out for you and give you more on that so Jazakumul akhiren Saddafadwa I know we went over today insha'Allah I tried to stop before so we can have more time for Q&A but alhamdulillah we have a lot of good questions so thank you for staying on longer thank you to everyone else for also being here may Allah increase and reward all of you please do support the Rahmah Foundation those of you who are on Instagram join us next time on Zoom but look into this class through the Rahmah Foundation Jazakumul akhiren everyone, thank you so much insha'Allah we will see you next week and tomorrow by the way for those who are on Instagram I'll be back for the six points of belief insha'Allah alright, wa salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu wa yakum Bismillah Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim Alhamdulillah, wa salatu wa salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa salatu wa salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi اللهم علمنا ما ينفعنا ونفعنا بما علمتنا وزدنا علما يقربنا منك برحمتك يا رحم الراحمين اللهم لا سحل إلا ما جعته سحلا وانت يحيوا يقيوم وتجع المحزن إذا شدت السحلا سحلا اللهم عايدنا من شهر بأنفسنا ومن سيئاتي عمالنا وأسلح لنا شأننا كلها لا إله إلا أنت نستقفرك ونتصبوا إليك وصلى الله عليه وسلم على سيدنا محمد وعلى رساله وسلم تستيب كثيرة السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته everyone thank you for being here again i apologize for the late start for those who are on instagram live i am on the rama foundations zoom session for the foundations of the spiritual path which is a class we've been doing since the beginning of Ramadan and inshallah we're still in it there are recordings for previous sessions but i'm also able to broadcast on instagram so if you want to see the actual class just join the foundations of the spiritual path you can go to the foundation and find the link there so for those who are in the class and have been here let me go ahead and screen share inshallah so that we can go ahead and jump into today's session so alhamdulillah we're almost done with this document as i've said every week now it's an incredible document it really does help to give you some ground work or some lays the foundation for you literally it's called the foundations on how to be on the spiritual path and to avoid the common pitfalls that many of us will likely experience if we don't have guidance right because trying to practice the faith first and foremost without teachers without guides is quite dangerous and this is why you see many people today misguided because it's very confusing there's too much information there's too much false misinformation and trying to navigate all of that without help is very difficult so then the nefs just doesn't want to put in that work and a lot of times people just give up it becomes too hard and that's why it's so important that we have the jama'at and that we stick to the grounded qualified teachers because they will help us just as you would imagine if you were to embark on anything new for the first time it's very overwhelming when you do it on your own but if you had somebody holding your hand you know through it through any you know new subject or or or endeavor but you know if you were to travel somewhere you were to take on a new practice you would benefit greatly from someone who's already been there and done that and had the experience and likewise with our Dean and we are highly encouraged to seek out qualified teachers and so this document what it does is it helps us to really organize ourselves to have structure to know what we're doing how we're doing it and who we should gain our knowledge from and then as well to avoid you know the dangers and so last week we talked about the qualifications I'm sorry hold on I think I apologize I'm trying to recall if we even got to that one yet I think so so let me actually go it's easier for me to switch to this presentation of slides that I put together if you recall to see if yes so we talked about the qualities of a false teacher last week and so in the document if you go to page 11 there are there he goes in this interesting order I pointed this out last week too so page 11 and 12 where he talks about those who make claims about having like you know certain spiritual qualifications and how to know if they're really lying or delusional and then he goes into the qualifications of what would you know be appropriate for a spiritual guide and then he goes to how to distinguish from someone who you should absolutely stay away from and so we got to the end of that list last week so you can the recordings are all available by the way through the foundation if you want to go back and hear that commentary but here is the sorry I thought I had an inside show but maybe not let me exit full screen there we go so here is the visual slides that I prepared that went over the qualities of the false teacher and then the claims that such teachers make right why do they're false or they're deluded because some people they mean well they have good intentions maybe their heart is in the right place but their own ego their own delusion is is causing them you know to to misrepresent themselves or maybe aspects of the Dean and so you need to know how to distinguish between the two there's false teachers who have they're just you know they have ulterior motives they're not qualified at all not they don't have good intentions and they are charlatans that's that's why they're false and they you know would definitely be ones that we should stay clear from but those who are delusional you know they could just be again misguided themselves and then they are contributing to them's guidance so there are there's a difference there in both cases you should know how to distinguish between the two so to the Ahmad Zoroqi mentions here that you know ignorance of the religion if you're going to take some something from anyone or who claims to be an expert but they don't even know what they're talking about then clearly that disqualifies them immediately so if they're ignorant of the Dean they don't really know things that you ask them questions and they're just not sure or they don't seem to really have solid understanding then that's a red flag if they have disregard or irreverence for other Muslims this is also a problem because a believer and someone who really has studied the Quranic worldview the prophetic worldview will understand that adab is at the heart of our tradition and so if you start to disparage disparagingly speak about other people this is obviously a big problem so especially other Muslims and then engaging in matters of no concern so if this person who claims to be again a teacher is not minding their own business and meddlesome you know some people are quite meddlesome and portalsome they like argumentation they like to know other people's business they're you know curious about other things that really don't have anything to do with them it displays definitely a weakness in character because these are very basic foundational principles in Islam that you as part of trying to maintain boundaries and adab that you do not delve into matters that are of no concern to you and that's why it's a hadith right the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam literally said that part of the beauty of one's Islam is to mind your own business so that is something that a teacher should certainly do right and also practice engaging in matters I'm sorry following his caprice so this is also a dangerous sign a red flag that if a person claims to be a teacher but then they seem to be just their desires are dictating to them as opposed to actual rational thoughts or proofs evidence from the Dean but they kind of speak about things as though they're just a lot of opinions personal opinions being infused into what they're saying they don't cite you know so citation is really important for a teacher really any subject they should have sources they should be able to direct you to solid sources so if a teacher is teaching you things and they don't have sources or they're not speaking from the perspective of other teachers right like right now what we're doing is we are sharing the the the ideas and the the teachings of our scholar you know see Ahmed Zarruq translated by Shem Hamza Youssef and so we are relying on senior more qualified teachers their perspective their commentary and all we're doing is we're talking about it this is a discussion if anything but if I came on here and I just started making a bunch of claims and giving fatwa left and right and I don't think people should do this and I don't think people should do that and this is wrong I'm not ever citing sources I'm not referring to teachers who know better I'm not maybe paraphrasing or somehow at least mentioning that what I'm sharing is from the tradition then it's fair to presume I'm speaking from my myself I'm speaking from my own opinion and that's something that we should be very wary of in this day and age because a lot of people have opinions I think it's definitely a concern just how how often people are willing to share their opinions even on matters that we don't have the prerequisite qualifications to have an opinion on right which just speaks to the day and age we live in you know social media I think has definitely complicated this spiritual test because it is a spiritual test if you speak on things that you're not qualified to speak on and you misrepresent your knowledge that's a spiritual test because you you know you we have to be very afraid of that our tongues actually the problems are warned in a hadith that you know the two things that will land most people in the hellfire are what emanate from their tongue and their private parts and so and these this amongst many other hadith that have a similar message warns us about being too loose-lipped you know talking too freely sharing our opinions just about on everything we should be very cautious because wisdom should dictate or wisdom should you know inform us that sometimes what you're saying could very well be sound and it could be you know Huck but is the timing the right timing right and if you're too as I said loose-lipped then you might not have wisdom to know that in a certain setting maybe it's better not to say something right maybe it's better to refrain from saying something even if it's Huck and there's there's no dispute about it because the timing or the environment or there's maybe people in attendance who could who could misconstrue what you're saying so it's very very dangerous to not have again that element of of restraint you know to be able to not feel like you compelled to constantly share everything it's it's very important to have that and to be mindful that even if you have more knowledge in a gathering than other people that you have to assess the situation read the room as they say make sure that you know if someone is a for example a senior scholar or more learned than you they know more than you and they're in the same room and a topic comes up but you find that they are not as talkative or they're kind of you know maybe not participating on that particular topic if you feel like you want to say something that should be something that you should really think about like why if someone has more knowledge of me and is more qualified than me is choosing to remain silent in this gathering then maybe I should take my cues from them this is why it's so important to have access to to people who are who are learned because you'll learn a lot of things without direct instruction just observing just observing teachers and the way that they are with each other the way that they behave what they say how much they say what they don't say will teach you a lot about you know how to maintain a certain level of again restraint in public settings and later you know and I've been in many of these situations and you know as I said in the moment you're feeling like compelled but then in hindsight or later out on you realize oh that's why this particular topic wasn't discussed or this teacher didn't say anything even though it everything seemed like you know like the timing was right but maybe they chose not to there was there's always a wisdom there's always something that they know that perhaps not everyone is privy to but this is these are very subtle things and so you know being a person who's aware of themselves to that degree you're not going to be shifty you know you won't see teachers who are very grounded and really practicing all of these things that help them accountable behave in a way that as I said would be shifty you know like which is what he's describing someone who's following his desires seems to you know waffle a lot seems to be led by something other than wisdom that's very a stabilizing force right wisdom is something that is stabilizing whereas people who are led by their desires they're inconsistent they're not they don't seem reliable there's something off so that's definitely something to be concerned about and then the last thing that he mentions about teachers who are false and qualities that we should know about is that they're they have unashamed displays of bad manners followed by lack of remorse right so they don't make they don't seem to feel bad when they act out of line or they say something or do something that is unbecoming or unfitting for someone who claims to be a teacher this could be using you know being like rude maybe someone loses their cool and temper you know and this can certainly happen people of of all different faith practices can can lose comportment they can lose their you know their temper quickly and maybe lash out at someone maybe say something harsh everybody and anybody is capable of that but it's the way that you hold yourself to account when you do something like that and you kind of wake up from what you've done that says a lot about your character right because we should not expect people to be perfect all the time but we can certainly expect that when they come back into a rational state of state of taqwa state of awareness of themselves that they would have no reluctance at all to hold themselves accountable to apologize to try to make amends to fix the situation to seek you know some sort of redemption for themselves and for anybody that they may have impacted to try to remove that harm so if they're just going to behave poorly be rude slight people be dismissive use foul language as I said lose their temper but then you don't even see any acknowledgement of it after the fact or any redress you know then that's clearly a red flag so that those are the qualities he mentions of a false teachers and false teacher and then he goes into previously right because it's the order is interesting but anyway he he says he also outlines the claims and actions of people who are false and deluded and those are similar in a way but he says that allowing any member or student to fall into sinful disobedience so this is definitely a red flag and if you're claiming to be a teacher but then the students around you are clearly doing Haram they may have let's just say an ethical business practices or their tyrant tyrannical you know in their homes they're known to be doing things that are really scandalous and you're just like oh that's fine no that's inconsistent because it's very important for teachers to maintain order within the within you know with their students and to hold them accountable that's kind of the purpose right of the teacher student relationship is that the teacher is mindful of whatever character defects or problems that their students are displaying and they would be the first to correct them it's like a parent child relationship in a way right there's a spiritual parenting that happens with the teacher and a student so clearly it would be an issue if a teacher were to knowingly allow their students to do things that were outright sins and disobedience acts of disobedience so that's one red flag there's something off about anybody who claims to be a teacher and they allow that affectations in his devotional practice so overly performative just seemingly off it doesn't seem genuine it seems like it's all an act definitely look out for that expectations from the creation so anybody who claims to be strong in their faith but then relies more on people than they do on Allah and seems to have a dependence on people or others and not as much so with Allah even in the way that they speak or the way that they behave would certainly be a red flag backbiting against the people of Allah that's a pretty obvious one who's a teacher should never be engaged in things that are unequivocally wrong backbiting is amongst those things it's clearly there's no way of really justifying that and backbiting we have to qualify these things because sometimes people misinterpret it but like if you're speaking or warning people of others that are harmful or people are asking you direct questions let's say for the purpose of marriage and you have to disclose certain information that's actually correct right because there are certain conditions marriage business there's certain things that may come up for people and they need to vet others and so they may turn to someone even in a leadership position or a teaching position and ask them you know what do you think of so and so and so in that capacity we have to be we have to tell the truth especially people are asking us and that's not the same as backbiting because backbiting is just a very low thing it's speaking ill of people you know behind their back whether it's true or not it doesn't matter you're using you know you're speaking about their private life you're referring to them in a way that would hurt them even subhandle I mean the definition of backbiting can extend beyond just the person themselves like it even extends to their possessions right so if you if you said something rude about a person's car about a person's clothing right it's not their actual personhood but it's part of them because it you know it's by extension right it's something they own this would be considered backbiting right and so we have to be even describing someone in a way that is that you know may hurt their feelings we have to be very careful like if you know if you're trying to describe a person's physical appearance and you're using words that are you know that if they heard you say them it would likely hurt their feelings this would be backbiting we have to be so careful and so delicate when we're describing people so there's you know there's a lot to say about that but the point is is people who are in a capacity of guiding others should know these things and they should certainly not ever openly backbite or openly say things harmful about people and then the last one is lacking the proper respect in accordance with the commands of Allah so this is again just goes down to basic adab all of these things are signs for us to look out for so that we are not deluded or tricked you know by these types of teachers okay so alhamdulillah now back to the document so that was kind of just a quick summary of what we talked about last week but now he shifts gears again and he says you know the last list that he has here is the spiritual courtesies of a student with his or her spiritual guide as well as the fellow wayfarers on the path right so with your fellow students on the path there is an expectation right that we maintain a certain level of adab with the way that we deal with our teachers as well as other students so this is now bringing it all kind of full circle right because we started off laying the foundations of what you need to be on a spiritual path in terms of objectives and goals right and you know we can quickly repeat those for those who again who are on Instagram maybe and joining us for the first time but those very first five foundations are very important to know because everything that we've just studied and over the course of all of these weeks actually go back to these five which are having taqwa and that you know and that is consistent right having taqwa of Allah and then practicing the sunnah which is you know again there's a theme that when you study the five you'll see this theme of consistency so he mentions first turning to Allah's path in prosperity and adversity which is taqwa and then excuse me mindfulness of Allah privately and publicly which is taqwa and then adherence to the sunnah in word and deed which is you know again consistency in terms of practicing the knowing the sunnah you know knowing it reading it studying it but also acting in line with it so that's the second objective of someone who should be on the official path that they want to always be mindful of Allah privately and publicly they want to be practicing the sunnah in word and deed and then they also are free from the bondage of you know wanting to be accepted by people or or free from the fear of being rejected by people which is again if you think about how many decisions people make every single day of their life that has to do with things right fear of being rejected or a desire to be accepted a lot of people are are compelled to action for those two reasons right you're either trying to be in the in group or you're afraid of being kicked out to the out group and now with cancel culture for example you see this on such a wide scale because there are many people who don't want to share openly their beliefs they don't want to speak about certain values they have or you know principles they live by because they're too afraid to be cancelled to be judged themselves and so that you know puts us in a very compromised position right because when you look at our faith our faith teaches us that as believers anyway we have to be doing amr bismaruf wa nahi anan moqa you know reading that Quranic message that you're part of your task as a Muslim is to be the one who is establishing the good and joining the good and forbidding the bad then how do you reconcile that with this fear that you have of not being accepted and wanting so much to be accepted and wanting to be accepted how do you reconcile that with amr bismaruf wa nahi anan moqa and it's a very delicate balance and this is where again wisdom comes into place because there are ways to do these things delicately sometimes you can do them overtly and other times you have to be more subtle but it's something that it's easier to learn than people who have that life experience if you let your own emotions and your own reactivity like we're very this is why it's so important to learn about your temperament because if you don't know your own temperament then you may get yourself in a lot of trouble right some people are very temperamentally reactive emotionally they're not really using sound judgment they're just when they act but as you practice your more and more and you learn these things then you learn the importance of really maintaining that prophetic ability to just be in a state of equilibria where you're not easily pushed this way or that way so this concept of indifference is a very broad topic but it's really about being so firmly rooted in your dean knowing very well that not everything has to be rushed that's something that's lost on a lot of us because we're used to instant satisfaction or instant gratification we're used to things being done so quickly and haphazardly that we forget that there is an alternate path which is take your time with things you don't have to react to every single example scandal that comes about like how many people how many times have we seen this in our own community especially online there's some scandal that happens and within seconds it's like a fire storm because people are posting about it and sharing and now it's all these reactions and it just becomes this huge gossip fest where people are rush snap judgments you rush to judgment speak ill of people without all the facts even coming out yet and that's why if you're again around teachers who practice all of these things you will not find them amongst those who are right at the onset of something they're broadcasting things right away they'll actually reserve judgment until either more facts come about or they feel themselves that they have given the situation enough time to assess all sides so patience right these are all hallmarked qualities of the believer is something that you just naturally learn when you forego the pressure of having to again appeal to anyone because you're more concerned about your state with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so that's a very important body the indifference to to or acceptance sorry the indifference to the acceptance or rejection of others and then the fourth body mentions is the satisfaction with Allah and hardship and ease again consistency so whether you're going through hardships or ease you're still you have to go with Allah you don't complain you're just like Allah knows best if he put me in this situation even though it's not what I want he knows best and I just have to see it through and you hold your tongue and you try not to say things that you know would reveal some conflict that you have internally right and the thing is we can't control our thoughts but we can certainly control our words and this is why you know it's a beautiful practice but it's actually I can't remember it in Arabic but you know when for example someone you love passes away one of the beautiful responses is that you know your heart is saddened but you fear God and you do not wish to say anything that would displease him and so that is the state of the believer is that you really are mindful to not have bad adab with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala even though internally there is pain and sorrow and grief you would rather remain in a state of complete satisfaction with God's decree to such an extent that you hold your tongue and you are very choice with your words and how you grieve you know and it takes a lot of discipline to do that because I mean I think anybody who's ever lost someone especially if it's an unexpected death I think they would be lying if they said that they didn't feel like it was unfair or that they wished it could be undone most people when you lose a loved one regardless of the circumstance it's so difficult to bear that you you are really practicing restraint you're trying so hard not to say something wrong but that comes from taqwa that comes from all of these beautiful qualities of trying to maintain the best adab with Allah and then the last quality is the turning to Allah in prosperity and adversity so that you have the right understanding of what to do in these circumstances in both when things are going well and Allah's generosity is shown on you because you know maybe opportunities are coming to wealth health a lot of things that we take for granted that you recognize that these are all gifts from Allah and you can't help but to maintain a state of constant gratitude to him right so that's the turning to Allah and then in adversity as well when things are very difficult for you you know the same that nobody can bring you relief other than Allah so you turn to him but knowing that that's the protocol regardless of my situation again consistency I know what to do so he lays these five foundations right these are the actual foundations that the document starts off with and then as we said he goes into wrong screen here he goes into the adab that a student should have so now it's back to holding ourselves accountable to whether or not if we are on a spiritual path if we have a teacher or maybe we're in a jama'a we're part of a group or learning with other people whatever the circumstances is these are the things that we should be mindful of so he says first following the directions of the guide even if it is contrary to one's own preference now you know we can obviously hang on the circumstance right we can certainly take that with a grain of salt I guess they say which is you know if your guide is connected to you and they're giving you counsel especially when it comes to your spiritual practice you know that's definitely something that you should defer to them because if they're telling you focus on this area of study first don't go out of order and then do this and then this and if you're entrusting yourself with them then you should just follow their advice but if it's matters that they don't really have any area of expertise in or you know sometimes people get when you're put in this position of being like an advisor to someone else if you aren't mindful you can just start to do that on a range of matters you know it's like you're giving now dispensing relationship advice, financial advice so it's not even just you know religious counsel but it's like oh let me just tell you about everything that you should be doing because this is how what I think some people may have that issue because they maybe are leaders they have natural leadership qualities and sometimes if you have that you just feel like you're responsible for people so you feel the need to tell them what to do on every area of their life so if you find that the one that you're entrusting your spiritual guidance to is also giving you now other advice but you're not quite sure about whether or not their judgment is sound on certain things and I would certainly use your own judgment this is why we have to have some you know degree of wisdom and even what we or the amount of dependency that we have on certain people in our lives right we're all I mean when you reach the age of adulthood and you're an independent person and you've for the most part lived your life independently or you're in that stage then you should be able to make your own choices and of course we have we have we can see counsel from many people when it comes to different areas of our life so we don't have to give you know complete our autonomy or our ability to you know to make decisions over we don't have to hand that over to someone else this is not what having a spiritual guide is about and unfortunately there are people who have done that you know there are many people who whose relationship with their teacher or guide turned into something that was very different it was codependency and unhealthy in meshed sort of situation where now this teacher is completely overbearingly involved in that person's life and I've heard really sad stories about marriages being affected divorces being enacted you know because all the teacher said so and so I would be very cautious of anybody who is telling you what to do like directly because I've been around many great teachers who they give nasiha in a very subtle way if you ask questions you know they will give you present to answers but I have rarely met teachers who are willingly telling people how to live their life they don't dictate you know they'll just say well this is an opinion it's very general the way that they approach these things whereas someone who's on a bit of a power trip you know as they say may feel that they have the right to tell you what to do about everything in your life and that's beyond giving nasiha that's telling someone how to live and that's definitely concerning I would say especially if it's not with religious counsel but it's just like financially as I said or in your relationship they're meddling in your personal life or getting involved with the decisions that you need to make in a very direct way without being solicited oftentimes it's unsolicited advice so nobody even asked but then you know these people will want to tell you or warn you for whatever reason and sometimes there's other things going on so anyway red flag but generally speaking when it comes to religious practice yes follow their guidance especially if you think like logically oh wouldn't it make more sense for me to do this subject first or shouldn't I focus on this first don't rely on your own logic and assessments when it comes to these things and I feel like a lot of this comes from like the western tradition because in western academia there is this notion of students kind of seeing themselves almost on equal footing with their teachers yeah it's like yeah yeah yeah I know that they're the teacher or the professor and they have the credentials but we can challenge them it's you know it becomes this exercise of will and you know it's like a it's very competitive in the way that students are seen are taught to see their teachers whereas Islamically the deference to the teacher is demanded right that we show our teachers deference and that means that we acknowledge that they may have simply don't know and that as he says here even if it's contrary to one's preference that we think about it from the perspective of oh well I might think this makes sense but they know maybe from experience maybe they've had other students go through similar things and they have an insight on the matter that I don't have so it's just really showing that level of humility to stay in your own lane I guess you could say there's a debt that a student would have with their guide and then he says avoiding what the guide forbids even if it would appear to be highly adverse to the student so in the first case it's following their directions in the second case it's you know avoiding what they have forbidden and it's the same idea right which is there may be considerations that they have that you simply aren't attuned to and if you're entrusting them and they have experience and they know you and you feel that you maybe even know others who are their students and you feel really confident that they know what they're doing that you basically allow or show display that humility where you defer to them so that's the second point of a debt and then maintaining utmost reverence for them in their presence and absence during their lives and after their death so if you have a teacher as we just mentioned deference respect is so important so when you are in their company and we don't have to go over the top you know some groups take it to a level where it's uncomfortable you know and we have to be very again cautious really look at the best examples in our tradition are the Sahaba and how they were with the Prophet's license because he is all of our teacher right he is the greatest teacher so if we want to see how the students around the teacher are then we look to the students and see how did they speak to the Prophet's license how did they address him how did they welcome him how did they serve him and their beautiful hadith you know I think it was said in Abu Bakr for example I think it was him he said that you know when they were in a Majlis or a Dars with the Prophet's license that they would be sitting as though birds were perched on their head which is you know a level of stillness a level of mindfulness and respect that I'm sure we can all visualize just by those words right to sit still because birds are pretty sensitive right I mean I don't know if you've ever handled a bird before played with a bird or had one on your finger maybe a parakeet you know to have birds perched on your head I think it's a pretty it's obvious what he's saying that there was a stillness in their presence the way that they were sitting so for example like when we had lessons many many years ago with Sheikh Muhammad Ali Aqibi one of the great Syrian contemporary scholars masha'Allah he was very big on this on the way that students sat in the Majlis you know he he really expected the students to not move very much to not ever stretch your legs out because this would be considered bad adab right if you're if you're sitting in many of these classes in a masjid setting are usually on the ground right so the students are sitting on the ground and so if you're sitting in a traditional classical setting it would be considered a breach of adab for students to extend their feet toward the teacher to keep moving a lot being distracting and now I mean how many of us see it even during the where you cannot get through a 20-30 minute talk without cell phones going off some people are brazen enough to take a phone call in the middle of a khutbah subhanAllah or people are on their phone browsing so this is completely unacceptable because it shows such a lack of respect to the teachers or to the scholars or to whoever is in that position who are so easily distractible and then we let our bodies and our physical presence become they're almost revealing their agitation right because if you're moving around a lot maybe if you have a health issue that's totally different but if it's just like you're yawning you're making noises or stretching or chewing gum or eating or doing things or like you have no consideration for the setting I mean this is a heavy weighty thing to come together in a circle of the kid or knowledge and to praise Allah subhanAllah to study a sacred text or to read from the Qur'an or hadith you want to really think about what is your body doing what are you communicating, how are you holding yourself even in our prayers I mean the whole reason why we have to be so mindful of the prayer even the movements of the prayer is because it's a very momentous event to come before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you have to be well presentable first of all we'll do because we should be in a state of purity but then we also should be dressed well and we should be very mindful of our movements and the prayer because I believe it's three or more if you start to excessively move around and do things your prayer is invalid because you've broken that protocol of just behave you know it's not a very long process and we all do it may Allah forgive us we may not know anything about other things we may not be aware of just how much we are moving excessively so if you're constantly touching your clothes or pulling on this and that or your nose and you're just moving around a lot or some people are playing with jewelry imagine you're supposed to be focused on Allah and praising him and really in this state you're appealing to him, praising him, asking him, seeking his forgiveness but then you're cracking knuckles playing with your jewelry touching your hands and kind of doing little movements these are, this is not acceptable and we have to be very careful so then in a setting again with teachers and students where you're supposed to come together and it's the same concept right that you are it's a momentous event it's something very weighty and heavy so you should show that in your decorum in your way that you hold your body the way that you hold yourself you shouldn't be getting up without you know I'm a teacher so I see this happen all the time in classroom settings where students will just get up and go through something away I've had this several times this is totally unacceptable you have to seek permission if there is a reason you know that you need to move maybe you have to leave sorry you know if there was a reason that you had to leave that you would do it but you would do it with that respect right I apologize I have to just quickly charge the iPad here but we have my charger here okay so let's see here it's going to get tricky because I can't put it on the charger how am I going to do this alright you guys I'm clearly not ready for all this technology here okay inshallah you guys can still see me I know it's a little slanted but it's going to have to do alright so he was sorry we were on the point about maintaining utmost reverence for our teachers in their presence and in their absence so this is also another really important point that if someone says something about your teacher in their absence that you show respect and you defend their honor let's say that it was a negative remark or just something that you know wasn't maybe said in the best context or maybe there was a misrepresentation that you if you know the accurate position that they hold or you can somehow defend them you should defend them and then the other part of it is in their lifetime and after if Allah takes them earlier or from while you're alive then you should always speak well of them and veil them because sometimes as I said earlier humans so they may you know have lost you know comportment at some point or said something or did something that maybe wasn't you know it's something that you should veil you should veil them you shouldn't speak ill of them you shouldn't unveil them and tell people their business or their private maybe you saw things about their private life that who don't know those details would never know so certainly you should never share those things just because you had access to them that's one of the great it's unfortunate right that sometimes when you know people open up their homes or they start to be a little bit more relaxed around people that one of the risks is that you know that becomes information that's supposed to be private but becomes shared openly with other people oh yeah I saw their home situation oh I saw the way he or she talks to their siblings or I mean their spouses or their children and you just start to unveil people this is not right because the teacher is clearly inviting you to their private space to teach you to give you their time and so veil them if you see something that you even if it's questionable or unpleasant then you should have that taqwa to just none of my business not saying anything but you know that that deference and reverence is really important to have and then giving them their due according to one's ability without stint so if you know they um I mean this could be you know interpreted in different ways but you know to compensate them for their time with you if if you're able to you know some teachers will and they will not ever ask but if you um if they're giving you their time they're sharing their knowledge with you they are making accommodations for you that other people uh they they they don't make then you should have it within your own conscience to to know that they deserve to be compensated and to not expect people to do things for you as they say free sabidah that you know someone is going to teach you something um just because they're a teacher and that's what they do doesn't mean that you think it's a free ride and unfortunately that still exists uh in our community where some people just expect like the imam or the teacher who's at the mess shit um because they're there anyway that they always do things free without any monetary um you know compensation or that they expect these discounts these exceptions and oh can you please you know do this favor for me and this and we just start to get really um entitled and and have too many expectations of our teachers and our and our religious you know and our scholars so if you're able to afford something you give them their do you're not stingy you don't expect them to do things freely for you and the least you can gift them because there are some teachers who will not take money and they make it very clear that they don't want to have a salary of any type or um like an expected salary but you could always gift and that's something that you should consider you know if you meet someone who's like no no no no it's okay I want to do this for the sake of Allah some people much are very generous and they really genuinely mean it because they may also be in a position where they just want to do good and give back to the community so they feel like okay I have time I can teach this person but if they don't want to accept a monetary um consistent sort of payment or fee from you then you could at least um out of the goodness of your heart gift them uh especially if you like conclude a class or you conclude an area of study with them just give them a nice gift and it could be for all of the time that they spent with you but you're at least acknowledging and showing your attitude and of course and all of those things are certainly included but to give them a nice gift would be beautiful and then relinquishing one's own understanding knowledge and leadership to that of the teacher unless these are already in accordance with one's teacher so really just not having this smug attitude that you know that one is at the same level right um because sometimes this is you know again it comes from I think um the Western tradition but we can get ahead of ourselves and just start to see ourselves on equal footing with teachers and uh you know you see a lot of Muslims who haven't even put in one one hundredth of the amount of time and energy and study um as a teacher but then they will have these hot takes on this position and it's like oh I don't agree with them because you know they didn't think about this or that and they just start to act as though that they're on the same footing but it's like wait a second where did you study how long have you studied oh you're just a student of knowledge why do you have an opinion on this matter in the first place um and the student of always is very cognizant of their limitations so they never even go there and if they hear an interpretation um that they don't agree with they'll always presume that they have a weak understanding that they don't have the full picture they won't rush to judgment and um end out the teacher and assume that they just are wrong um but they'll say oh maybe I am not clear on this or I have the wrong understanding of this or there's you know I'm limited because of I don't have the language or the knowledge in this particular area so all of these qualities are really important when you are a student of knowledge and it's really about maintaining humility right I mean if you can see all five of them what it really comes down to is once you are on a spiritual path and you see yourself in that capacity that you hold your tongue and you check your enough and you are very clear about who you are um and that you need guidance right from your teacher and you're in a way beholden to them not as you know not not necessarily because of who they are but the place that Allah has put them above you right that you feel this indebtedness to them like Allah you have placed me with this teacher which is such a gift because to even have access to a teacher is such a gift and I feel a great indebtedness to to them for their service to me so out of that comes this desire to serve to obey to take their warnings and advice seriously to not question every single thing but as I said in the beginning the caveat is that the teacher is displaying all of those beautiful qualities that we talked about if they're not displaying those qualities those prophetic qualities then these things would not apply this would apply if the teacher is a qualified sound teacher who knows what they're talking about and also doesn't delve into areas that they're not qualified to talk about so that's the caveat right that if they are really true teachers and they understand that they're on the path of reputation and you trust that because alhamdulillah their reputation precedes them they have prophetic like qualities you haven't seen anything that would cause you concern then yes you should maintain this level of respect for the teacher so then he ends this section and says should the seeker not find a guiding teacher of these five conditions he should depend on him only in those conditions the teacher fulfills as for areas he is wanting in he should treat him like a brother regarding them and so that's kind of just what I was saying so you take from what the teacher excels in and in other cases you just see them as another human being who's got opinions maybe but not necessarily ones that you have to follow worldly matters if they can have their opinions but you're not obliged to obey them in those matters whereas when it comes to spiritual matters inshallah it's best to defer to them because that's why they're in that capacity right so then alhamdulillah he says thus ends the five foundations with the praise help and the perfect success of Allah so alhamdulillah this is the conclusion of this incredible document and then he goes it is necessary to read this every day once or twice I mean just imagine reading this document every single day alhamdulillah why is he saying it and if it's not possible then at least once a week until what its meanings are imprinted so it's not that you have to do it for life but that you get it that you grasp what he is telling you right that it's imprinted on one's soul and one's behavior indeed it contains that which enables one to dispense with many books and much advice and it is said surely they have been denied a rival by their neglect of the foundations whoever reflects deeply on what we have said will acknowledge its truth and he will continue to have recourse to it using it as a reminder for him success is ultimately by Allah so alhamdulillah this is the end of this particular section of the foundations of the spiritual path for those of you who've been a part of the class it's not that it's necessarily over because he also includes the council of imam an-nawi as well as more council from which we will get to next week which will likely be our last official class inshallah and then maybe we might extend it to include a Q&A in case there are any outstanding questions or things that haven't been covered but alhamdulillah I know this is a very content heavy document and there's a lot of commentary that we add on to it but I think as he says if you just read if an individual takes this PDF and reads it over and over a couple of times and if you want to you're more than welcome to go back and listen to the recordings for added commentary I think it will provide so much clarity to anybody who is embarking on the path about all the necessary things that they should be focused on and all the things that they should be wary of you know those pitfalls and dangers and then heeding the advice right and I think for me when I think of this document if you go back to page 10 at the very bottom of the document where he says I say that being content with the self persisting in disobedient acts and abandoning awareness of Allah are the foundations of all illnesses, tribulations and pitfalls that to me is what I think of when I think of this document because that's it you know he lays the foundations of the path but then he also lays the foundations of what is the reason why we suffer as human beings we suffer because of illness right spiritual and physical tribulations which could be in the world and in the other life right and I think it was Ibn Abbas who said you know with tribulations that we always have to be grateful because A it could always be worse right B it could be in your dunya and not in your ahra and the see it could be in your in this life and not the it could be in this life and not the next and so he's giving us perspective on how to be grateful even when we have tribulations when we think of these things right we could always be worse and that's true our tribulations could always be worse so you know the fact that we have tribulations which again could be in dunya and in our deen is something to be very mindful of and and fear that we're susceptible to those things when we don't have these things clear right for us we're susceptible to tribulations in our deen and so and then the pitfalls which he outlines beautifully so he says all of these things that we are as human beings wanting to run away from nobody wants to suffer through these things nobody wants illnesses spiritual or otherwise nobody wants tribulations nobody wants pitfalls right how do we avoid them well he gives us the formula don't be content with yourself right don't continue to persist in disobedient acts and don't forget your lord because if you do those three things you're in trouble so the document obviously has much more to offer but that's just a summary and inshallah next week we'll we'll go into the remaining parts of this document but if there are any questions we can go ahead and take those questions I don't know if Sadafada will ever join because she said she would join as soon as she got home but it's likely just me today so that's fine we're still live and I can take questions so let me see here I do see ever a question if there's any more please feel free to type them up this one says would wearing a hijab and being modest apply to adhering to the sunnah does that mean our foundation is lacking if we do not wear the hijab that's a very good question well we have to be clear here the hijab is farot there's no difference of opinion on that it is a farot action of a Muslim girl and woman once she becomes of age however if a sister is struggling in that capacity but she has good intentions and she's working towards it then she's okay but if you are not wearing hijab and you have a position about the hijab that is against the normative position which is that it's farot then that is definitely an issue yes that would indicate that there's a lack of understanding of some things going on so in terms of the practice I would say anyone who doesn't wear hijab just constantly be mindful that you need to be in a state of Toba that you have to be in a state of Toba so you seek Allah that is forgiveness and recognize that you don't wear hijab for whatever reasons and you might have many reasons why you're not there yet but you should be open with Allah enough to acknowledge that you're not fulfilling a requirement that he has made farot an obligatory upon you and so that should put you in a state of humility and in a state of asking Allah for forgiveness to a state of Toba and inshallah and then just keep asking him to guide you to it you know I met someone actually over the weekend we had a sister's retreat here in the Bay Area and so a sister came up to me Mashallah and she said that this was something that months ago I think during one of our classes we talked about a couple of things with to wearing the hijab as well as prayer and we were giving council and advice and so she said that she started to wear the hijab here and there which I really recommend I really want any sister who does not identify as a hijabi to not fall into the all or none mindset because I feel like that makes it more difficult here I think anybody who doesn't wear the hijab you should have the open attitude that I can wear the hijab whenever I want just like I can pray whenever I want and if you feel inclined to wear the hijab to the masjid to certain events to go to the store you just feel like doing it do it but this idea that you have to be a hijabi in order to wear the hijab is just ridiculous and I don't think that's something we should encourage you know that we put sisters in that very difficult position because the transition has to happen and sometimes the transition happens with practice you know you're practicing wearing the hijab every day and once you start to do it more and more what happens is it becomes infused as part of your personality I know many people who did that one of my very close friends actually did that for a year she did not wear the hijab and everybody presumed like she did not wear the hijab full time she wore it let's say like 80% of the time but then there were some situations where she just didn't feel comfortable wearing it around because many people who met her just presumed that she was a hijabi because she wore it so much more than and they didn't see her when she didn't wear it and I think that's a perfectly balanced perspective why not why do we have to put sisters in this awkward position and they have to commit or no don't even touch it you're a hypocrite that's horrible let her get her practice if she needs a few years of wearing it to venues and settings before she's fully comfortable let her do it let her do it without any shaming without any blaming or putting her on the spot and then you'll see because the sister who came up to me she said that's what she did she just started she took that advice she started wearing it and she never thought of it before and then now alhamdulillah it's been two months and she's been wearing it full time and her spouse is supportive I hear these things all the time alhamdulillah so I think that's the way we should approach these things so that's the only question that I see here I don't know if there are any more I'm looking again in the chat no I think that was it and then let me see here on Instagram and I apologize for those of you on Instagram for the slanted thing let me actually see if I can take off the charge now okay alhamdulillah so I don't know if there are any questions but let me read through here so okay so the sister is asking to the three things okay sorry sister in the document says that he believes that the reasons why we have illnesses tribulations and pitfalls is due to three things which he said is number one being too content with the self right so that we are we're just more comfortable we don't really see ourselves as being that we need development or betterment or we're just resigned to wherever we are and we're satisfied so self satisfaction is very dangerous spiritually speaking number one that's and then number two is that you're persistently doing haram like you know that something is forbidden but you keep doing it and that is going to be you know it's going to lead you to your peril people who expect to be to receive any type of lasting satisfaction or comfort or so anybody who expects that their life is just going to go well and that they'll have a fear well being or you know that things will good things will come to them but they're directly into obedience to a law knowingly you can see how that's there's a disconnect there why would you expect your life to go well which is for example one of the things that I always ask sisters who you know I've met with sisters who come to me and they'll want to take off their hijab you know they're wearing hijab and they're trying to struggle with it and I'm very direct so I'll just start asking a bunch of questions like what's going on and sometimes you know in the past anyway people have revealed that they're afraid that they they're not going to get a job or that they're not going to get married if they continue to wear the hijab and so I try to point out to them how that is such false logic right it sounds logical but it's actually deception because Iblis comes up with all these ideas that sound like convincing but if you actually you know dissect them a little bit you realize like how preposterous it is right to think that disobeying Allah to stop doing an act that is a fob is going to somehow open up the doors of khayr upon you who do you think is going to bless you with ahlal good income who do you think is going to bring to you a righteous good spouse who will take care of you and love you Allah is the source of all good so if you've logically convinced yourself that acting in direct disobedience to him would somehow open up khayr for you you can I hope see that that's illogical there's no logic to that and it's just a deception of Iblis so you know that's the second thing and then the third thing is that you are not thinking about Allah you know if you're if you can go a full day half a day a quarter of a day and Allah is not on your mind or on your tongue his praise his remembrance his thicket you don't read the Quran your not your prayers are barely there this is a huge danger for you in many ways spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally because we seek refuge in Allah with Allah away from the evils and the dangers of this world so what are you going to who are you where's your safe haven if it's not Allah who is your safe haven like think about it we need Allah so you have to be consistently or as often as possible trying to be in his remembrance and if you're not it's really really dangerous so I have another question here I'm just looking at both the zoom and Instagram so someone is saying Allah I really love the hijab advice because some sisters take it off because of a divorce but they make their daughters wear it or there are lots of arguments about the clothes those teens choose how can one help the ex-husband's input pushes pressure on the on children the most I think even if their deeds seem to be the reasons all of them are really struggling with Islam but even more with the hijab you know first of all we should never make our daughters our wives or women whoever wear the hijab it should never come to that and as soon as you think that that's to strong arm your sister into wearing hijab that you've somehow pat yourself on the back I think you've done good you're just it's delusion we do not force people to do things because it will blow back or it will it won't go well anybody who's forced into something may do it for a period of time just because they are pressured and they just don't want to hear it anymore especially if someone's nagging you or it's held over your head it's a power card sometimes ultimatums are given and threats are issued so a person may just give in because it's like enough is enough I can't deal with something anymore fine I'll do it but if you're delusional enough to think that that's somehow a win for you you're prioritizing your own conscience or whatever false idea you have about your responsibility over them over their spiritual well-being because if you're more concerned about their spiritual well-being then you would take the time to actually explain to them the incredible wisdom of the hijab and you know you can do that if you're just analyzing the world you're looking out into the world and you can start to connect all the dots with why did Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'a put both men and women the responsibility of being modest in their dress and for women a little bit more let's unpack it in a way that is informed that's not emotional it's not fueled by personal jealousy as we say but it's actually information which is look at the exploitation of not just women young girls you know I was reading earlier this article about this girl who was a she was in pageants and she it was I don't know where I read it but anyway she was in those toddlers in tiara I don't know if you guys remember that show stuff well anyway and she's now a high school graduate and she was the valedictorian of her class and so in the article she said that someone asked her or the reporter I think asked the question like what do you say about people who make a claim that you know pageantry for young girls is sexually exploitative and you know she of course because she's in the world of pageantry she starts to defend it and she's like it's it was it really helped my confidence and anybody who thinks that it's they're sick or perverse or she's made some statement like that and unfortunately that's just really being blind to the reality if you don't think that little girls are exploited in this culture this time through these means right then you're just not awake you're you're this just you're in your own world because the reality is we have a crisis everybody knows this is real there are groomers there are pedophiles there are sick and twisted demonic forces that target children nowadays we see this topic it's very prevalent unfortunately with people you know consumed with indoctrinating children sexualizing children teaching them really disgusting things way too early so just look around see it for what it is the world has always exploited the vulnerable and amongst those are women and children and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants to protect us and he literally the you know some of the translations anyway say that the reason why we wear the hijab is so that they were known right so that we were very clearly manifest that we are Muslim women and to protect us from the molestation of people and the molestation of people isn't just a physical molestation it's a visual molestation so there's incredible wisdom to why our Lord has protected us by giving us the obligation of hijab and if you just start to logically explain these things to young girls while at the same time being very patient and understanding and empathic and loving and compassionate to know that it takes time for some people to commit then a sister will eventually see it inshallah especially you're making da'a you're teaching with wisdom just be patient Allah will open their heart but if you think no I'm just going to force them and guilt them and shame them until they do it you will create a horrible situation of hypocrisy likely where a person loses their faith because they just don't believe in something and then they may never because they were forced ever want to live that life again it's too triggering it's too traumatic so that's why we just follow the book of Allah that could happen so may Allah guide them inshallah but I think we have to stop being so emotional and this is part of when I teach parents or I do parenting sessions I really try to emphasize trying to be as logical in our discourse as possible and intellectually inviting our children to conversations instead of using our position as authorities becoming emotional and personalizing things because if we really want to save their souls then we have to reach them we have to reach them and that can only come through effective communication inshallah so alright I think those were the final questions I started about almost 10 minutes late and we went on for an extra 20 minutes for Q&A so the father was going to be like what are you doing Alhamdulillah forgive me I know and thank you for everybody who's on the zoom call all our so patient waiting for the session to end but Alhamdulillah I think we've finished today's session we're going to hopefully finish up this document next week inshallah when we come together for our final session so I'm looking forward to doing that I hope you've all enjoyed this class so far I'm really looking forward to maybe go back to the beginning of the document and review again as he says keep reviewing it until it sticks and it's imprinted on your soul inshallah so with that said inshallah inshallah we'll see you next week and those of you on Instagram live I know there's a couple more questions I'll I'll be back with you in just a second I think it was another question right at the end in our community that's a difficult one alright to the sister who came in and slid in at the very end for the final question I will answer it quickly she said in our community the new thing is to protect their teenage girls 14 and up and marry them into older cousins back home imams don't say anything and keep talking about modesty the main focus of spiritual development what should we do to try to stop this trend you know it's it's unfortunate but I think you know I don't know it's if it's something that you can necessarily stop because especially if it's impacting an entire community something sometimes these trends take a life of their own and it would be a very tall order to try to stop it but you can at least if you hear of people close to you who are considering these options that you advise them and say you know is there better is there another alternative plan you know I know that there's fear there's just a lot of fear right now fear of you know daughters being taken advantage of an abused fear of faith being lost so people are in panic mode and they sometimes jump on these ideas because other people are doing them so we have to be very careful but if it's someone that's close to you and you think that they may not be considering an alternative option that you think they should consider you can always suggest other things but for the most part I think we should really try to be careful from meddling too much in other people's lives because you know what if you dissuade someone from doing something they want to do and you convince them and you think oh I know the right I know I have a strong feeling about this and you give advice to someone and then things don't work out you'll be at fault they'll come back at you and go it's all your fault I was going to send my daughter I was going to do this but you told me not to so the relationship matters approaching people in this way directly matters and I would just say if you're asked always give sound advice the way that you would want to be advised but don't go out of your way to start to dictate to people and warn people and now there's a whole you know movement just be be wary of that because people are never satisfied and they'll always look for a scapegoat so you might bring unwanted harm to yourself anyway we can talk more about that next week with Jazakim El-Khiddin everyone inshallah take care and see you on Monday next week Assalamu Alaikum Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim Al-Hamd Allah Allahumma fattah alayna fathuh al-A'rafin wa fiqna tawfiq al-salihin wa nfa'na Allahumma bi-Qur'an wa dhikr al-Hakim Allahumma alimna ma yanfa'na wa nfa'na bi ma'allamtana wa zidna al-man yukarribuna minke bi-rahmadika ya'a Al-Rahman Al-Rahimin Allahumma la sahla illa ma ja'atuhu sahlan wa anta ya hayyu ya qayyumat ja'a wa n'hazna illa shatna sahlan sahla Allahumma a'itna min shuluri anfusina wa misi'atia ma alina wa aslahlana nasha'nana kullah La ilaha illa anta nastaqirakuna tawbarik Wa sallallahu ala Sayyidina Muhammad Wa ala alayhi wa sahri wa sahri wa as-salam tasliman katira As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh and welcome everyone to the final class of foundations of the spiritual path. I want to once again thank Asada Fadwa and everybody who's part of the Rahmah Foundation for facilitating this session. It was only supposed to be four weeks and we are way past that. Alhamdulillah because this text is just so incredible. There's so much to cover. Alhamdulillah they gave us ample time to do that and here we are at the very final class. Alhamdulillah it's been an honor. So with that said I'm going to go ahead and for those who are on Instagram because I'm also broadcasting there you're welcome to join the foundations zoom session through Rahmah Foundation so please contact Rahmah Foundation. I'm not able to multitask right now and give you links but if you just go to the Rahmah Foundation page you should be able to get all that information and it's a very simple registration process but let me go ahead and screen share so that we can all inshallah read along. Alhamdulillah as I mentioned two weeks ago because last week of course we had our break for Memorial Day weekend so we did not have a session last week but the week before right when we came to the end of the council from we ended on this note here where he mentions that this document is so essential that we should be actually reading it every single day right everything we covered for the past how many eight nine weeks ten weeks that we've been talking about this document he felt so relevant that we should be actually reading it every day and I you know obviously there's a lot of masha'Allah things that we do we pray inshallah we all pray our prayers we read Quran with your awrad so yes it might seem like oh we're adding more but if you really think about I think what he's saying by just even giving that advice that the guidance that you find in a document like foundations is something that should be renewed right because it's very easy to lose your way once you start to practice for some time we become stagnant and if you recall that was one of the diseases of the heart that's one of the things that he actually mentions leads to spiritual disease a stagnation spiritual stagnation so I think what he's really saying is review renew make sure that you're constantly revisiting your intentions make sure that you're aware of maybe patterns of behavior whether you're doing things or not doing things and also be mindful of the company that you keep because I can't tell you how many times I have been approached by individuals who are you know going through the ups and downs the ebbs and flows as we say of what we would say is the experience of the vast majority of believers right if you you know refer to the Quran Allah's Prana describes the three different type of nufus which today's Prana Allah was my last session with some seventh graders that I teach at a local private school here and we had a review so they were able to remember the three nufus that are mentioned in the Quran the nafs al-amara bisu the nafs al-awama is the blaming self it's the self-approaching nafs it's the most of us would fall because we inshallah our believers inshallah we pray we fast we give our zakat we try to help people we try to maintain good character but because of the lives that we live the lifestyles that we have it really does come down to the company that we keep we may find ourselves slipping into sinfulness and forgetfulness and heedlessness so there's a big emphasis on really watching the company that you keep so he's mentioning that here but let's now proceed because there's not that much left but what is left is of course also it's worthy of review worthy of real deep contemplation so the first little box here it's small in the sense of the number of characters and words in terms of the depth of what is written here there's just so much to cover so this is the Council of Imam An-Nauwi and so just for again those who are on Instagram the foundations of the spiritual path which is this document that is in the agenda to change our condition it was translated by Sheikh Hamza is primarily the advice of the Ahmad Zarrukh but within the document there's also a short little segment that provides counsel from Imam An-Nauwi, Al-Rahim Allah this is from Sheikh Hamza he says, in addition to the above work there is a large portion about the path to Allah that appears in the great Imam An-Nauwi's Al-Maqasid which Sidi Ahmad Zarrukh did not mention in his work it is a wonderfully succinct summation of the path to Allah so Imam An-Nauwi may Allah sanctify his secret says this is now Imam An-Nauwi's advice and so what is he say? he says one reaches Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala most high by repenting from all things unlawful or offensive so if you want to be close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you have to first of all know that you can't continue or carry on sinning and allowing for what is haram to be a part of your life you have to be willing to get rid of those elements whether they are things that are actual haram objects materials things that are preventing you from being close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or there are other things maybe as we mentioned you are maintaining a certain lifestyle where you are allowing the haram to affect you so the point here is first of all remove those things and then to repent from everything you have ever done that has been unlawful or offensive and to really take toba seriously so what does that look like? it looks like facing yourself it looks like what you would do if you wanted to heal or cleanse yourself maybe even from a physical perspective if you go to clean yourself or to remove your filth off of your face let's say you went somewhere and you got dirty with mud there is a lot of places we can go where we can get physically very dirty so if you went somewhere and you got physically dirty and then you wanted to clean yourself part of that process would likely be looking at yourself in the mirror confronting where the dirt may have gotten into and taking those steps to really try to cleanse away wherever there is impurities so in a similar way when you're doing a spiritual cleanse you have to think about your life you have to think about the mistakes you've made the things you've done and this can be over the span of your life just looking at what have you done that you would consider to be a grave sin and this goes back to again you know the area of knowledge we have to have again an agenda by the way if you don't have the book it all has it for you so in the agenda to change our condition is outline the 17 Qaba'il or enormities what is considered a grave sin in Islam and if you don't know what those things are which again I think if you have even a rudimentary understanding of Sharia and Islam maybe your parents, your grandparents your Sunday school teachers hopefully taught you enough to know what is considered haram but you might need to look into a list like the one in agenda to get a more comprehensive understanding because some of the things that we don't really think about you know I did a class yesterday Saturday on diseases of the heart and we did an entire two hours just talking about the difference between the difference and Namima right so there's saying about someone something that would hurt them that you know would hurt them and our scholars went into such great detail to give a specific example so that we realize we are prone to excusing our bad behavior by you know kind of as they say you know remaining in the like when you are willfully ignorant right you're not choosing to actually know the specific details or boundaries there is a complicitness there right you're complicit in your own sinfulness because you know that there are very specific parameters but you're just choosing not to even delve into that so Reba is actually very broad and our scholars more so I took the time to tell us for example let me see if I can bring up the document that I worked with hold on give me a moment here I think I might have it already up but this document is so rich it's so comprehensive because it goes into things like I mentioned for example saying something about someone's height saying something about someone's even possessions right and you know Masha'Allah again bless our teachers but it was very eye-opening when we're learning this you know years ago we did purification of the heart and he talked about how it is considered Reba to talk about the possessions of a person in a negative light right so if you were to describe someone's car and you were like yeah you know the the one with the paint that's chipped and it's pretty old and it's it's just not you know it's like a lemon and that's the description you gave to someone's vehicle it would be considered Reba by Sharia because if the person heard you say that they would take great offense right because it's like there is you know some insult there you're trying to say something about the possession that they have which is often an extension of what you think of them so if you think a person has an ugly car or doesn't dress nice or maybe their shoes aren't very they wear you know shabby clothes or shoes that are dirty if you're pointing these things out in that way you are hurting the individual indirectly because you're insulting them right and just think about it for a moment it makes perfect sense because otherwise you could use more neutral language you could just say you know they're the sister of the brother who if you're trying to describe someone to someone maybe they don't know them they don't know their name you could use descriptors that are favorable that are pleasant that are nice that are kind but when you choose to hone in on the qualities or possessions of an individual your team are worthy and you use very you know specific language to let a person know what you think of them that is essentially Reba so here this is the text they mention here the mention of Reba is to mention your brother who is absent in a way which he would not like if informed this is whether it is in regards to a bodily deficiency such as having blurry eyes being one-eyed being cross-eyed not having hair excessively tall or excessively short and the likes so the words we use to describe people are actually they do imply certain things right we're making implications when we say certain words in a way so anyhow this is one topic right barely scratching the surface of one of the acts of the enormities that we would consider sinful and we should stay away from now if you know there's 17 enormities in total but you know that according to again our scholars they've counted 17 and then you know the order of what is the gravest of sins right associating partners with Allah obviously murder you know anything that's deserving of capital punishment these types of things are sinful but then there's other things as well so when we say to make toba right which is sorry let me go back to the other document I was at when it says here to repent from all things unlawful or offensive right and it says very clearly you know sorry that that first section and what it's telling us is that we have to be willing to look at the blemishes of our own character and be willing to face it not make excuses call a spade a spade as they say yeah all the bit I have committed a lot of offensive and sinful things I've done a lot and may Allah forgive me I have lied I have cheated I have you know done things that are unethical whatever it is you just keep going through the list and this is a very internal inward spiritual process but the point of it is that you are facing another reality you're humbling yourself before Allah you're beseeching him asking him to forgive you and you are hyper aware of his grace because ultimately when we are in the doing the exercise of toba that's really what it's about it's that you come to that realization of how much grace Allah continues to give you despite how sinful you are right so then and then that turns into what this overwhelming desire to please him you know gratitude this feeling of indebtedness this feeling of I want to be better I want to better myself because I am undeserving right but I think that's why it's so it's very telling that you know he starts off the list of things that will take us to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala proximity if I have that knowledge of him with toba like do the cleanse first purge do it all get yourself in the right state of mind which is humility and now it's being proactive in a different direction which is seeking sacred knowledge right so after you do the toba and it's sincere and you know the steps of toba right you admit that you know you acknowledge what you're doing is sinful you seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then inshallah you vow to never repeat those things again and you don't you know those are the conditions of a sincere toba so when you do that then you move on to the next topic here which he says is seeking sacred knowledge in accordance with one's needs so wherever you are on the path you need to know what is the next step right because we are all students of knowledge just because you attain a certain level of mastery in one area or understanding doesn't mean that your job is done and that you're suddenly graduated from learning we are lifelong learners so from the cradle to the grave we're supposed to be learning so you then start to figure out do you need to work on akhida do you have fiqh areas of fiqh where you are negligent or just not aware of how you learned how to read the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala these are all farva'een these are the obligatory among what the obligatory knowledge is that every Muslim will be accountable for so you have to know these things and Anima Ghazali also believed that purification of the heart was part of also the farva'een you had to be doing this work constantly because again the whole objective is that we are being worked on ourselves so all of this is to say that each person is going to have to figure out what area of knowledge they need to gain for themselves so then sorry one second so then the next thing he mentions here is maintaining ritual purity this is incredibly important if it's not obvious to all of us yet I don't know when it will be you know we know what month it is this is the month of one of the diseases of the heart something that we should never be celebrating but subhanallah ironically it is being it is a month of celebration and they are celebrating something that we believe to be a disease and not something not a virtue whatsoever but a vice pride but what comes with pride in today's world is also a degree of depravity that is really hard to even imagine that these things are done in public spaces I mean just today I was accosted my eyeballs were accosted on twitter looking at my newsfeed because people are outraged by some of these quote-unquote family friendly pride parades that are happening all over the country in major cities in Los Angeles there was a horrific truly horrific display despicable on every level of sex acts being performed in front of you know children why am I mentioning this because there is a demonic realm and if you're not aware that these demons are very real they exist they're in plain sight now there was a time where these are the years that lurked in the darkness because socially it was not acceptable to be engaged in this type of depravity but we've come unfortunately so far in the worst way possible from that that now people are very open very proud of their debauchery and their depravity and they don't care if it offends you if it's disgusting to you because they are very proud of what they do and so the demonic realm we believe in the unseen it's part of our akhida to believe that these things are real the angelic and the demonic and in order to protect ourselves in order to shield ourselves from the effects and the proximity of the demonic realm we have been given the gift the absolute gift of Wulu prepares you for spiritual ritual worship but it also is like a barrier a shield it's a protective bubble you could say a spiritual protective bubble that when you maintain it it invites the light it invites the angelic well the angels are actually drawn to us when we are in a state of Wulu so to maintain your Wulu there's great hikma in that and just to prove how these things are all connected right the mind, the body, the soul are maintaining our Wulu actively one of the ways that we have to do that is control the stomach right so your food intake and your drink intake actually is impacted by the knee to maintain ritual purity you can't go on drinking abundantly or eating all the time if you want to maintain your Wulu you have to actually start to structure your day according to you know where first of all where you are how much you know what type of access you have to a restroom so it involves much more than just being in a state of Wulu and that's why it's so amazing because you think like oh okay it's just a matter of splashing water on different limbs and that's all it is no Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us these gifts in our worship Wulu's worship in order for us to benefit in all of the ways it's there's many ways that we benefit so Wulu helps us in that way as well when we maintain ritual purity we so let's let's go over some of these first we are protected from the evil right the demonic realm both the shaltin and incense inshallah the the jinn so that just the negative energy we inshallah will create foster a more positive shielded force field you could say around us for that be it'll help us to control our appetites right so you get the benefit of being more control of yourself so that you're not drinking everything and eating everything in sight three you are prepared for any active worship if the time comes and you wanted to immediately fall into prostration and make a sajj as shukr for example mashallah you can do that if you needed to read Quran read dua open the Quran to read something you can do that if you wanted to do many things in a state of Wulu because you're already facilitated do extra nafila whatever it is do zikr the fact that you're already in a state of Wulu this pre prerequisite to our much of our worship but you're already in it becomes a means of facilitating it right because if you think about a lot of people who have because I have worked with individuals who have a difficulty maintaining prayer a lot of the times it's not the prayer itself it's the Wulu that becomes the source that causes some difficulty or challenge because they're at work they're at school they have issues with the whole Wulu process or there's not enough time in their 15 minute lunch break or whatever it is so the constraints that affect a person's prayer are usually tied to Wulu so again if you take this as a Nia that I'm going to try my best to maintain ritual purity as often as I possibly can inshallah you will reap the benefits in all of these ways and much more as we know the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam will recognize the believers on the day of judgment on the basis of how much Wulu we do our limbs will be illuminated according to the amount of Wulu that we do and the effort that we put in in that so the more Wulu the better and I always I've taught my kids and I'm very intentional about it myself especially for those of us who have the luxury and the privilege to work from home that if you use the restroom make Wulu immediately after don't fall into this habit of just leaving the restroom without Wulu just do it and you'll become so habituated to it that you don't even think twice there's no thought that comes to your mind about it because you've habituated to it and if you teach your children from a young age to do these things inshallah they won't be so resistant to prayer but when they're not habituated to Wulu and then you want them to suddenly be praying five times a day it becomes this tug of war every time get up and pray why are we doing that we're working against our own we're working counter to to our nature we're lazy by nature the naps is very lazy so we have to we have to know how to go around the naps and that's why this is important so he says maintaining ritual purity and then so these are all intentions you want to get close to al-as-pram then make toba start to seek knowledge maintain your Wulu then the next thing he says is perform the obligatory prayers in the first of their time and if it's possible in congregation right if you're able to do it in jama if your family is with you do it in jama because it's always best right the family the praise together stays together these are the the you know words that we hear to incentivize family prayer very important that we do that and then to try to get it in at the very onset when it comes in so you know I was gifted may Allah bless Dr. Sada one of our wonderful community members locally she gifted me with this awesome clock what is it called oh gosh I forgot the name of it but it's an clock and I love it and I told her I love you for this gift because the then goes on every day all five days and it's beautiful and then there's the doa right afterwards my children have learned the doa everything is just so we're able to do our prayers right away because of it so and then clocks that are easy and affordable to get you put them in the house it takes a lot of the guesswork out of when does prayer come in that's why they make them obviously you can use your apps too for the same function whatever is easy for you just figure it out but be that person who's like oh prayer came in I want to do it now I'm not going to constantly procrastinate the prayer because how many of us have missed prayers right you have any yet to do it but then you get engrossed into your project you know you got to work assignment you got to if you're a teacher you're grading papers you're reading you're doing something you're cooking you go to make lunch thinking I'm going to be able to you know finish this quickly but then guess what lunch gets takes two hours and then there's cleanup and then the kids sit and now you're cleaning up a mess and then oh oops there's some package at the door and now I got to check this and we are the most distract of all creatures we're so distract of all it's part of our nature part of the dunia so what have you done because you had an opportunity at a window to pray but your nefs shaitan sometimes maybe likely it's your nefs convinced you to wait you know to do it later now you're in that horrible predicament where you realize it's six o'clock the other for us goes off and you're like oh my god I didn't pray the holy Allah forgive me astaghfirullah and that guilt just eats you away ruins your day that's how it should be anyway which is a good just to mention this because you know we talked about this today in my class with the seventh graders when you miss a prayer the guilt isn't eating you there's a problem when you miss a prayer there should be the immediate remorse self loathing that comes with it especially if it's negligence right we're forgetful we're negligent whatever the case is it doesn't matter actually it shouldn't matter why you miss the prayer the fact that you missed it should still put you in a state of almost like a state where you want to rush to do your qada you seek forgiveness from Allah and you truly show remorse but there are because I know I've worked with people where shaitan can get us to the point of apathy so you missed your prayer you fudger alarm clock goes off and I've you know with people who are close to me they know you know my positions on these things but if there's like even four minutes three minutes left for fudger and you've just woken up you better jump out of that bed you better run to the bathroom and make the fastest will do that you possibly can and get on that prayer mat in total a sense of desperation before Allah but for some people the idea that you look at the clock and you're like ah man I got three minutes left to fudger I can't make will do in that time it's okay I'll just a well and then you carry on and you start going to your social media and checking emails this is fully like this is not acceptable and that is dangerous spiritually because what you're showing is you know this is a this is why we're created we're created to worship Allah but you're showing you're demonstrating a lack of remorse a lack of guilt and there's just no accountability there's no and just think of it on a human level like if someone crossed you someone betrayed you if someone hurt you if someone didn't fulfill something that they were supposed to fulfill for you it's very interesting how we are unforgiving when people do wrong do us wrong you know we get mad and we are expecting some at least some you know me a culpa you know some guilt come to me and show me that you feel bad show me and an iota of remorse of regret of sorrow of guilt and maybe I'll feel better because you know what at least you feel bad about it and I'll deal with forgiving you but if you are if someone hurts you and wrongs you and does all that but then they just are carrying on they don't have any show of remorse trust me none of us will accept it will be will flip our lid will just will be even more angry or so the idea that we miss a prayer and then don't show remorse is really reprehensible we should absolutely feel the guilt right away and then seek the path of penance whatever we can do immediately offset a wrong right this is what the problem is I said if you do a wrong action offset it with the right action get up and do it even if you're late even if it's just do it and beg a lot and you'll be fine it's much better to do that but in order to avoid that whole scene from unfolding when we're being encouraged by our teachers of course and our great scholars because they know and of course it's a son of the process that I'm to do the prayer at its earliest time it's because we are circumventing the nuffs we're going around the nuffs the nuffs is lazy it's forgetful so just do it make it your you know rule for yourself inshallah you'll seek you know you'll prevent these other scenarios from happening then he says adhering to the 8 raka of the mid-morning prayer doha and the 6 raka after the sunset prayer and before the night prayer between Asan and Maghrib performing the night prayers right so these are all the extra nawafila that we can do during the day also from the sunnah and each mother have different formulas of when to do when but the point is to be people that once you establish your 5 daily prayers that you now want to elevate to the next level you know it's interesting right because life is obviously not a game but you know if you play video games for example it's all about getting to the next level you don't just stay at the same level once you do really well right you go to the next level so you understand it when we are in these you know every day to day scenarios but in our spiritual life we have to be reminded that yeah good for you you're doing your baseline you know worship alhamdulillah but you need to seek to do more so now that you've gotten your 5 daily prayers done and you're reading your Quran you have your daily thicket of time you're doing all those good check all of them on your you know checklist now let's level up how do you level up you do the extra prayers you do these extra sunnah prayers nafila prayers and then you know he mentions yes the so I kind of blended them all together but he separates these extra nafila prayers as one section and then he mentions performing the night prayers after waking from one sleep so again this is the way that you level up you do your your your farahid you do your sunnah you do your nafila and then inshallah once you get really into a routine with these extra acts of worship now it's about sacrifice right the hadjud it comes from the same root as what a mujahada right or jihad struggle you are struggling why because you're leaving the bed it's very comfortable to sleep to be resting warm cold whatever you know climate you're in to feel the comfort of your bed and to just lay there dreaming all sorts of wonderful dreams hopefully it's very nice and most people love sleep a lot of people love sleep but when you get to the level of spiritual the path of as we say there's a path of salvation right teachers remind us the path of salvation which is basically baseline I just want to do whatever it takes to the door of jannah to get into the jannah like let me get in that's one path but inshallah we should graduate from that path to the path of sanctification which is I want to be close to Allah I don't want to just get into the door of jannah I want to get to the highest level of jannah and in order to get to the highest level of jannah you have to know this the specific acts that the provost I said taught us to do that will bring us closeness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and tahajjud is absolutely amongst the greatest acts of worship the provost of course did it every night it was obligatory for him you know it was his son to do it every night but he did not make it obligatory for us however if we do it the benefits that even just praying to raka it's untold there's really no way to quantify or al-afi or express the rewards because they're only known to Allah but one thing that we know is that it is the time for du'a mustajab so if you think about all the needs that you have all the pain that you're carrying all the grief that you're carrying all the sorrow that you feel all of these this weight on your heart and soul that you are dealing with on a day-to-day basis uncertainty right a lot of people are feeling so heavy spiritually because of anxiety or depression or sadness whatever the case is when you and understand the power of tahajjud tahajjud is taking all of your problems taking all that burden that's on your soul and just bringing your soul before Allah and asking him to bring you light and to remove your burdens that's the power of tahajjud and there's again so many benefits I remember reading one scholar who said that one of the gifts of tahajjud is actually protection from illness like you know disease you know like real serious diseases so it actually can also be physical you know material body even though it's a great spiritual effort and act and just you know to be up in that hour that very special time of the morning where everyone else is asleep and you have that intimate time with Allah again we can't really express but we know from the hadith and descriptions that tahajjud is a very special time when you're dealing with a lot in your life where you have worries about your children and I spoke to a mother today who's just riddled with constant anxiety over her children I got another message earlier which I haven't yet responded to the same thing about a mother panicking that her daughter has a horrible she's now you know with the wrong friends group she's smoking weed, she's doing a lot of haram that she couldn't she can't believe that her daughter is doing these things and you know our babies grow up and all of a sudden you're just shocked right how many of you who have children have had that experience these little pure beings of light that brighten up your day that you think could never disappoint you because they're so sweet and so loving but then they enter the adolescence age which is a very complicated age very difficult age and then in this day and age especially trying to forge an identity for our poor youth they're going to go through some rough patches but you know parents are dealing with this fear and this crippling sense of doom and gloom that just like oh my god something's going to happen I'm going to get news something that I don't want to hear and that could really affect you well if that's your reality and you're not sacrificing your sleep to ask Allah to change your circumstances to ease to guide your children to protect your children to protect your family from harm then there's a disconnect there because who else is going to change your condition who else you can knock on every therapist's door on the planet you can go to every sheikh shaykh shaykh shaykh whoever you can go to every single person on the planet for help but if you don't knock on the door of Allah professionally with conviction that only he will change your circumstances there is a disconnect there and likely what will happen unfortunately is you will not see the change because you're not going to the right source so we have to really train retrain our brain to know the protocol of when you're in a state of desperation and panic go to your Lord and wake up the alarm who cares even if you have to go to work with one eye open and cranky on coffee it's okay if you do that periodically because guess what your body will adjust I just have to mention this because I feel like the science that has convinced so many people that things are fixed has also conditioned us to think that oh my God don't drink eyeglasses of water for example a day or if I don't get 8 to 10 hours of sleep a day I'm going to collapse and die that's just ridiculous and I think a lot of these things these are campaigns there's reasons why these things have been perpetuated or spread through the different mediums that we're exposed to but I think we just have to look at the precedent and many of our great scholars were known to be people who were up at night that one third of the night was for worship and what they did is they they certainly compensated so if they needed rest they would sleep during the day which is the nap the prophesies that I took during the midday is something that you can certainly do and it's a reset it's a power nap that can reset you it can really refresh you but your body can also adapt I mentioned this before but it really is important to mention look into sleep training we talk about sleep training children you can also sleep train adults if you understand the REM cycles of sleep I went into this deep research because I really wanted to understand and I have benefited from it one and a half hours if you can get those hours cycles of sleep which are how we enter the REM that really deep important state of sleep you can train yourself to not rely on a lot of sleep because you're getting quality sleep so it's really more about quality not necessarily quantity but anyway do your own independent research don't take my word for it talk to your doctors but don't be convinced that you have to it's really difficult to implement this but if you can readjust your understanding and say you know what Allah first of all is the one who gives rest and repose so if I'm waking up to worship him and I also work full time and I have children to take care of but I ask him to fortify me to give me rest to give me strength to be able to continue to worship him as best as I can and continue to manage my responsibilities of course he'll do it he'll give you full rest and you know again I've had experiences where Alhamdulillah I've gone days sometimes on very little sleep because of different objectives and things that you're trying to do you pull those all-nighters and then SubhanAllah Allah will give you this incredible sleep that is so refreshing it's like you enter a different realm and you do you know that sleep is the little brother of death for a reason because it's a very soul full experience and so Allah can restore you in ways that you just don't know but my point is is the Hajjid is a very important part of getting close to Allah SubhanAllah so if you want that if you want to feel more spiritually strong like you feel like there's something missing don't neglect the Hajjid do it so then he says after the Hajjid and encouraging and he says specifically after waking from one sleep so he's trying to nudge that point a little bit that you're going to have to abandon your sleep then he says to fill the Wittar prayer which is obviously also a sunnah in the Hanafi madhab it's wajib to do the Wittar prayer and I'm sure it is and some of the others as well but it is something that you should never abandon and then fasting on Mondays and Thursdays and on the three days of the full moon so this is an important spiritual practice for those who are able to do it you know if you're able to fast regularly to do it and I know I do a lot of intermittent fasting I'm trying to get myself to this level of being able to fast monthly I know people who are close to me who mashallah they do it every week and they you know it's just it's a practice so once you get good at it it becomes second nature it's not difficult to do but even with intermittent fasting it's sort of so incredible like you feel it, you feel much more clear of mind much more lighter everything just kind of falls into place so a lot to say about fasting we just finish shamala so you all know it is real, it's true and then also the days of the year in which fasting is recommended so we'll be inshallah for the day of Arafah for example and other days that are coming in the year that we know those are always announced to fast during those times reciting the Quran with the heart's presence coupled with reflection upon its meanings so he's giving us all the ways that we can get close to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala if we're doing all of these things right and I'm just going to run down the list for those who are joining so we repent first you start off with Tovah make Tovah be sincere, ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala forgive you for all of your sinfulness then start to seek knowledge move forward if you don't even know which direction to go to so knowledge is really about laying out the plan ahead and following it and then maintaining ritual purity so maintaining your will do for all the reasons we mentioned protection from the demonic realm and the ability to just be able to jump into acts of worship with ease you attract the light of the angelic realm inshallah the marks of our will do will be the reason why the Prophets of Sunnah is able to recognize us we can go on and on and on we'll do literally cleanses your sins so much to say about will do but maintaining ritual purity is really important performing the obligatory prayers in the first time so as soon as the prayer comes in you do it, you don't procrastinate and if you're able to do it in congregation also doing your Sunnah prayers whatever month have you followed the formulas will slightly vary then also doing the Hajj which we spent some time talking about you can go back if you just joined us but the importance and weight of the Hajj and then the wither prayer fasting all of the days that are recommended where the Sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and now he gets to the point of the Book of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala which is what we all really need to understand if we want to make sense of the insanity of the world, our place in the world how to obligate all the rapid changes that are happening and all the things that we talked about the anxieties, the depression, the sadness the dysfunctions, the feelings of betrayal, whatever it is you're going through your answer is in the Quran because it's all there and this is again our teachers, if you've followed any of the series that many of our teachers have done on the Quran where they go into deep dive into tafsir and they really do highlight that the stories of the prophets the Quran of course has the best stories but the stories of the prophets many of them align and they reflect real human problems so even though they were alive thousands of years ago in many cases more Allah knows it doesn't mean that human problems have evolved to such a different degree that they're unrelatable, that's actually not true you will see all sorts of things in the Quranic stories things that we're experiencing right now today and so when you read the Quran and as he mentions here, right, so first of all reciting the Quran, you need to learn how to recite, so this is now also one of the thoughts that we mentioned learning to read is very important you have to know how to recite the book of Allah, you can't just pick it up and apply your own articulation to it without studying the maharaj of the huruf, the way that the letters are recited or the actual rules of Tajweed, it doesn't work you have to learn and you can't learn that on your own, Tajweed requires a teacher because many of the rules need to be modeled for you, it's an oral science, you have to hear it and then you have to repeat and replicate and then learn according to to how your teacher is teaching you, so learning how to recite the Quran and then he says the qualifiers matter because our teachers didn't leave they weren't ambiguous with their words they're very specific in choice so he's telling us to recite the Quran with the heart's presence so you have to be paying attention with your heart, you have to really feel it, so when you read the book of Allah with your heart's presence you know insha'Allah you find first of all and this is what I would recommend, I think it's really important that you learn how to recite but also find a reciter whose recitation appeals to you there's plenty of amazing reciters both male and female if you're not familiar with the Qariah app, I highly recommend that you get it, this is from Sheikh Ahmadiyyam Amir who created the Qariah app she's on there herself but she has mash'Allah the barqala gathered reciters female reciters from all over the world to provide their voice in order to connect us with the book of Allah and then of course many male popular reciters which we know of from the past as well as the present so the point is to find someone who when you hear them recite the hairs on the back of your neck or your arms are raised that's the kind of reciter you want you want someone who is like a punch to the heart and Allah has given his servant's disability because we've all been there I mean it's even been recorded non-Muslims who don't even know the words that are being said they don't have any connection to the language you will see plenty of YouTube pages and people here put out for the first time bawling in tears they're moved because it is undeniably it's the words of Allah what do we expect but then because the words of Allah beautify the voices right there's a different interpretation of how that particular verse in the Quran is understood are we supposed to beautify our voices with the Quran or are our voices beautified by the Quran both cases are true we should give our best performance when we recite the book of Allah and of course we can't do that without a proper teacher telling us to recite with proper recitation with hearts presence and you can do that if you connect yourself to someone who you just enjoy the recitation when you hear them you feel something so now you're on the right track the Quran is transformed from what could be a very dry subject that isn't really affecting your heart to something that's bringing your heart to life in this way you reflect upon its meanings so now you have to have tafsir you have to have a source whether it's online or a book that you can look up meanings so it's beyond the translation even because sometimes translations are limited you know there's plenty of them but tafsir is more it gives you the back end of it there's stories like for this class on Saturday that I was doing on Ghiba I was reading the tafsir of Surah Al-Hujarat and it's incredible just the first if you read I think it's Surah verse number 12 that talks about the prohibition against eating the dead flesh of your brother of Ghiba but just reading the tafsir and the meanings of the very first 11 verses and why they were revealed and the context because this was Medin and Surah it was revealed to the Muslims who had the Ansar and the Muhajirin who are now cohabiting and a lot of the Ansar needed guidance on rules because they had embraced Islam but they didn't they were rough around the edges so they needed guidance on things for example like not raising their voice above the Prophet SAW, speaking to the Prophet SAW with decorum and then even I believe there was an exchange between Abu Bakr and Sina Amr who they became very ruckus having this disputation and it upset the Prophet SAW and so there was a lot of correction that was being made but just all of that you get reading the tafsir of Surah Al-Hujarat so it gives you a much deeper appreciation for the context of the verse that now it's like now seeing a movie come to life right because when you see these conversations that are happening I'll give you an example let me read to you because I want you to really understand the power of the tafsir so let me see if I can pull the very verses that I was reading from because I was just amazed I said SubhanAllah you know the thing is my problem is I have a memory problem so I've read some of this before but you know it's not always to retain it I have a hard time retaining so when I read something it almost is like I'm reading it for the first time although I know I've read these things before but here this is verse number two of Surah Al-Hujarat is oh you who believe do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet SAW nor address him in the manner that you address one another lest your deeds come to naught while you are unaware so that's the translation of the verse now let's look at the tafsir why was this verse revealed what's the significance of this verse this verse was reportedly revealed in response to an argument between Sayyidina Abu Bakr and Allah each favored a different individual for the honor of receiving a delegation from an outlying tribe their quarreling in the presence of the Prophet SAW was so loud that his voice was drowned out at which God revealed this verse nor address him in the manner that you address one another so imagine to me when I was reading this I was imagining the scene these are the two best friends of the Prophet SAW and sometimes we get heated so they're human so they're disputing over which man should receive this delegation that's coming from another tribe and they're starting to argue voices are raised to the point that what the Prophet SAW's voice is drowned out that means he's talking so I was imagining they became so involved in this heated discussion that they were actually speaking over the Prophet SAW who was trying to speak so he was probably giving his advice or somehow trying to calm them down they didn't hear him and so then I was just imagining how they must have felt when this verse was revealed and the tafsir was told to them can you imagine you start to humanize the Sahaba who are of course human beings but we tend to not we have so much formality with them which we should but I mean to say we forget that they have these moments of humanity as well and so then it says here that you address one another speaks primarily to new members of the Muslim who had taken an attitude of excessive familiarity with the Prophet SAW they should not call him by name Muhammad but by his title messenger of God or Prophet of God so imagine some of the new Muslims who had come into the Ummah right this is in the Medinah period were so relaxed with the Prophet SAW but they were just calling him Muhammad like out of the blood again you know this is it's something that you you want to just kind of imagine you know at that time and place it's understandable you know they're not they don't have all this adab they haven't been taught how to maintain adab so the protocols they're learning through these verses right and then there's another story here as well oh so look I am number four Subhanallah so I am number four of Surah al-Hujrat is truly those who call the from behind the apartments most of them understand not so it's like what does that mean right there's a story to it here it is a group of Bedouin reportedly came to the Prophet while he was sleeping and shouted for him to come out from his apartment they they didn't know so they're disrupting his sleep he's asleep Subhanallah it's just shocking right they did not know in which of his wife's apartments he was sleeping so they went behind each apartment so not only do they disrupt his sleep they're disrupting all of their wife the wife's sleep Ya Allah so they went behind each apartment and called to the Prophet in a crude manner one of them Aqarah ibn Habis reported that he had called out so it's his report he said just imagine this O Muhammad verily my praise is sweet and my curse is bitter to which the Prophet so I said I'm responded only God is like that and then this verse was revealed so this is the power of Nafsid it gives you a context and you're just like wow so this man had audacity I was going to have to speak to the Prophet so I said on that way it's a threat it's a veil threat isn't it if I tell you that my praise is sweet but my curse is bitter that is a veil threat but this is the degree that these may Allah forgive them we have to keep in mind these are new Muslims or not you know casting any judgment on them it's just the idea of this happening should be like wow you know it's kind of shocking right that the Prophet was spoken like this or to to him like this but also look at how beautifully he responded you know he didn't get mad he didn't how dare you speak to be in this way he is exhibiting constantly beautiful character even when he's being treated this way when he's being mistreated and misspoken to in this way he's teaching so what did he teach them only God is like that you don't have the right to speak about yourself in this way that is God's domain right but this is what when we say when you know I'm always reminding us to recite the Quran with the heart's presence coupled with reflection upon its meanings it's this depth and you have to want to do it you can't you have to seek it you have to see the benefit of it because you know if you have to be this is not this is a matter of your own you know betterment like you know your own understanding will be improved if you do this nobody else is benefiting from reading the Quran with depth other than you so you have to see the the worth of that and then seek it inshallah and then he goes on to say frequently asking Allah's praises for forgiveness istaghfar so you read the Quran with presence and then you also make sure that when you're doing all this because it's normal as we said if you start to do all of these things on this list and it's a very lofty list you know it seems like it's a tall order but over time it's not as difficult as it sounds if you do it all at once obviously it's going to seem difficult but you kind of have to look at this incrementally and gradually but if you do this you don't want to fall into a state of stagnation or which he already addressed itself where you start to be riddled with spiritual disease like arrogance or just self-righteousness that can come from you know being so you know on top of everything like if you're really on top of your worship you can fall into a state of self-righteousness so how do you prevent that or protect yourself from that you seek forgiveness you constantly see yourself as a sinner as a person who's making mistakes all the time whether it's out actively doing haram or being negligent in areas that you should be better at making you know we all make mistakes so Istaghfar is just a process that everybody should be doing regardless of their their age or their experience maintaining prayers and blessings upon the prophesies that he mentions peace be upon him and finally adhering to the meritorious invocations of the morning and the evening that have come to us from the sunnah al al masaf so this is you know in the most simplest terms in a nutshell what Imam Annowi advises for those who seek to be close to Allah SWT and for those again who are on the Zoom call I do have on Instagram if you go to my second post you will see how to reach Allah SWT from Imam Annowi it's the second post on my feed you'll see it this is it that I took from this specific list and I put it together so that we can see it as you know I like visual lists I feel like sometimes it makes it easier to follow so feel free to use these but this is all from this particular segment of the foundations of the spiritual path Alhamdulillah so let's see here I just want to check the time I'm sorry sometimes I forget where I am wow I've completely lost my page oh there I am okay so Alhamdulillah now I was ambitious I think Ossada Fadwa are you going to be upset with me because this next section is long and I just realized today's our last class it's supposed to be our last class the next section is the council of I don't know if I can do this in 30 minutes but I think we were supposed to do it one and a half hour class I can read through it and try to limit my commentary what do you think do if you're here do you think we should just jump into it and try to get through this and those of you who are on instagram do you want to go it's up to you you feel like you want to take another session of course you're more than welcome to if you feel like you want to stop here or you want to rush through whatever you're in charge you're so sweet I just feel bad I keep telling all of you that we're going to have a last class and then I realize like wow that one little section took so long let me just see what I can do in like maybe 10 minutes if I can get through a good chunk of this and maybe we can get to the finish line if not that I'm sorry we're going to have to do one more class I hope you guys are okay with that inshallah but let's look at this next section so what I just read for those of you who are on instagram is a small excerpt from imam al-nawi's of maqasid where he advises on how to get close to Allah and it's done that section is finished now in the foundations document is another council so we already the entire document was the council from now it's more and so it's just additional information that will help us so let's jump into this and this is from sheikh he says finally we add an extraordinary council ma'allah taken from his two books the poor man's book of assistance and the principles of so it is as follows excuse me now this is also speaking no ma'allah may Allah give you and a success rectify our worldly and other lives and grant us adherence to the way of truth in our journeys and our sojourns that repentance is a key and uprightness is the source of rectification so know these things he's telling us we have to know taqwa and being upright having uprightness and righteousness all of these things are ways to rectify our souls furthermore a servant is never free of blunders shortcomings or lassitude lassitude is like taking things way too easy right so we're always going to struggle with these things because we have new foods we talked about this right the nasolawama is inherently within all of us this this you know ability to fall right we fall short we do good and then we fall short so we struggle against ourselves for that reason therefore now is the advice because of that because of all these things what we have to be watch out for therefore never be neglectful of repentance never turn away from the act of returning to Allah and never neglect acts that bring you closer to Allah so we already talked about the hadjad we talked about fasting we talked about zikr, salawat on the pravahs as-salamu alaykum all those things bring us proximity to Allah so he's saying do not avoid those things right I have someone asking what document are we reading from we're reading from foundations of the spiritual path if you go to sandala.org go to media you will see the document there it's a long link unfortunately I can't cut and paste it but it is available through sandala.org sandal with an a.org so we are at the end of this document but basically again he's mentioning don't be neglectful of repentance and don't turn away from whatever brings you closer to Allah so all the things we mentioned do them indeed any time you fail to do one of these three things repent and return if you are falling short all the time keep coming back keep returning to Allah do not for a moment think that the door of khilb is close to you because that thought emanates from iblis iblis is the one who puts us in despair iblis is the one who comes and tells us you're a lost cause you're broken you're damaged you are horrible you're inherently evil there's no hope for you no matter what you've made so many mistakes nobody will forgive you this is all iblis because he wants us to destroy he wants us to destroy ourselves and so the way he does that is to basically fill us with hopelessness and despair this is why Allah tells us very directly do not despair ever so any time you make a mistake listen and obey if you're being corrected by someone who cares about you and the nafs is intercepting it's going to rub you the wrong way but if what they're saying is true and truthful and you are in the wrong just listen and obey especially if they are spiritually on the path ahead of you take their counsel and this could be your spouse it could be your sibling it could be your friend it could be your parent it could be your teacher your coworker but if someone Allah has placed in your life that dispenses good counsel to you and helps you to see your own shortcomings just listen and obey because inshallah they're teaching you the right course right any time you display shortcomings or show lack of enthusiasm don't desist in your efforts you always have to be on some high this is not about that at all we talked about that right lofty spiritual aspirations where you're looking for experiences and emotions before you've even done the work and I've talked to people unfortunately they almost believe which is again one of the trappings of shaytan because he distorts our understanding we believe that in order to pray consistently I have to feel something to be inspired to the prayer right and you know some of our brothers in faith of other traditions kind of created that I think understanding right like I have to feel the spirit within me and then I can act but the spirit I have to feel it well that is not our faith and we talked about that extensively you do what you're obligated to do because you're obedient and you're dutiful and you understand that it's a command of God and he deserves to be worshipped and obeyed and that's it whether or not he fills your soul with light and you start to see the heavens open up and the angels are speaking to you is a gift that he may choose to give some of his creation or not but that's not the motivation or the incentives to worship you do it because you have to do it so if you start to fall short or you just start not feeling as inspired as you did maybe a year ago because like you know many times for example new converts or people who've come from Jahaliah you know from the darkness into the light they always reminisce about like oh when I first started praying when I first started doing this oh my gosh I was on such a high I love that feeling I wish I could recapture that feeling if it's not that level it's not even worth doing 100% in Iblisi thought that's just Iblis discouraging you from doing what you should be doing because he's set up the expectation that there has to be this high of some sort in order for it to be worthwhile and that is just a lie you do it because you're created to do that that's it Halas and as I said if Allah chooses to give you that Alhamdulillah if he doesn't you still do it let your main concern be to remove your outward state from your outward state anything displeasing and then continue to work on your outward state through continuous council so just think of your life as a process of you know of basically like we are I mean I'm just trying to think of an analogy that kind of makes sense if you see a sculptor right the sculptor who's really meticulous takes their time working through every little inch of the sculpture because they don't want to rush it because once it solidifies and hardens it's over you got to start over so they will take their time and work well with this malleable substance right and we are made of clay so there is some something there that hopefully it connects but basically that's how you have to look at it like you are your own sculptor and your job or your objective should be in this earthly realm to produce the best version of you so that's going to require you to be what malleable you cannot harden if your heart hardens if you become hard-hearted then it's like the clay that has gone into the oven or baked or been out in the sun and dried up you have to start over it's too difficult but if you remain malleable how do you stay malleable in a spiritual sense you always see yourself as a work in progress you always welcome constructive criticism you always are open to these things and this is very relevant today because if you look at our culture you know and read the coddling of the American mind read what has happened to our culture where people have become so fragile that you cannot even give them counsel anymore without people falling apart because everything is a personal attack everything is perceived as personalized and this is a cognitive distortion if someone is giving you objective criticism on how to become a better individual how to be better at something you do or enhance your performance in a certain area they're objectively trying to guide you because maybe they have experience maybe they've been down the same path but if you perceive that as some attack on your personhood you have a cognitive distortion your brain is receiving information the wrong way and if we because we're in a culture where these things are reinforced so much that everybody is triggered and offended by everybody you can't say anything without people literally thinking you're out to kill them now it's insane we've become very very fragile that people no longer are becoming better versions of themselves they're actually regressing because if you don't have if you don't have good counsel and good people who are looking out for you then you become self deluded the delusions of the nefs where you start to think you're much better than you are that you're smarter, that you're more successful that you're whatever it is that people put value in because you don't have the counter narrative or something to counter whatever your mind is telling you it's so important to have healthy social interactions and relationships where you can get that type of feedback but the point here is that's how you stay what, malleable spiritually speaking is you're open to advice you're open to criticism and if you go back right, I mean for those of you who are on the zoom call go back to the first foundation I'm going to review this because it's all connected we're doing a full circle here right takwa, mindfulness of Allah that's the first foundation in private and in public you can't be a performer this isn't about performance, this is about sincerity so if you're a mataki it's going to show wherever you are, whether you're alone or whether you're with people adherence to the sunnah in word and deed you're consistent, you say what's true and you follow it with action you're not just again a lip service, it's not a lip service the third point is indifference to whether others accept or reject you that's a foundation that's a spiritual path you have to get to the point of not being affected if people like you or not because your moral compass your standard is completely aligned with pleasing Allah and he is the only one that you're concerned with if people don't like you oh well, as long as you're on the hook of course and you need to all of it has to fall in place you have to have proper guidance you have to have good teachers you have to have good people around you what revealing the reflection that you need to see the true accurate reflection you can't be around people who delude you but you get to this point where you're indifferent if they like you or not because you're more concerned with what pleasing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so being open to all of these things will get you to that place of what going back to the sculpture the analysis of seeing yourself as a constant work in progress and there's always areas to refine and there's always areas to improve constant like you're never done until you take your last breath you should believe with 100% certainty that you will have areas and flaws that you need to correct it doesn't matter how much you learn how much you've memorized how many Omra you've done how many fasts you've done none of that matters because we are flawed and that's it will be that way until we die so anyway sorry the two remaining foundations again for those who are just joining is contentment with Allah in times of hardship and ease and then turning to Allah and prosperity and adversity so those are what you start off with in order to build your spiritual path and then the rest of the document goes backwards so go and contact the Rahmah Foundation if you want to follow these recordings to get more but going back to this advice of Sidi Ahmad Zuraq as far as being really focused on removing these blemishes from anything that's displeasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then continuing to work on yourself that's how you do it be open to advice and be willing to see yourself as flawed no matter what you think of yourself fleeing from anything outwardly displeasing a second nature to you and that your avoidance of the boundaries of prohibited things is as if it has resulted from a protective net that was placed before you so that you are so cautious Taqwa is really vigilance it's vigilance of the boundaries of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that's how if you do this enough it's almost as if you're seeing this net that's cast in order to protect you from the boundaries at this point it is time to turn inward so once you've removed all of these outward flaws and bad habits and things that are displeasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala now we move to the inward so he says at this point it is time to turn inward toward your heart's presence and to its reality with both reflection and remembrance so the khushua that all of us seek it can't come if you're outwardly still engaged in haram your income is haram you're not eating from the halal you're engaging in things like gossip and mingling and free mixing and you're flirting and you're playing all these games that people play if you're not vigilant about the boundaries that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has put in terms of social interaction and just your presence with his creation inwardly how are you going to possibly reach that level of proximity and intimacy with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala it doesn't make sense because the inward that is sacred and it's the reward of all the hard work that we do to get to that level of intimacy so sometimes as I said people jump the gun and they think well that's what I should feel first and then I'll start to follow everything well that's ideal but that's not how how faith works faith has to be established and then you act on it so he says don't hasten the end result before you have completed the beginning exactly but likewise don't begin without looking toward the end result you know Stephen Covey's highly seven halves of highly successful people right begin with the end in mind these are all things our tradition has but you know we have to follow all these new people who come with their ideas and suddenly were impressed no this is it this was he said this how many centuries ago look with you know know the your objective be clear about where you want to go but also don't jump the gun basically this is so because the one who seeks the outset at the end loses providential security and the one who seeks the end at the outset loses providential guidance right so let's look at that this is so because the one who seeks the outset if you want all of those rewards before right at the end at the end loses providential security so if you want these things at the outset you're losing that you know security that comes from from a loss of kind of data and the one who seeks the end if you just want to get to the end results at the outset you lose providential guidance so act in accordance with principles and the appropriate legal rulings and not in accordance with stories and fantasies so much a lot of these things are really summarized points from the foundations because we talked about this too right being in reality not falling into fictional ideas fictional concepts like we're in an age right now where people because they do not believe in God they don't believe in an akhara they don't believe in anything outside of this earthly realm they are literally driven by their emotions by their no matter how depraved and how despicable their desires are they're driven by them because they believe this is it and so they get caught up in fulfilling their fantasies their fetishes and that's really what we're seeing unfold in front of us is a world where people are catering constantly to their appetites their emotions because they are in the realm of this false fictional idea that we can create our own utopian realities our own subjective truths in this world and we can all be happy no you can't it doesn't work that way because this a wasp out that is the this is his mark he owns this domain and he created it to actually be a place of difficulty and strike and pain and that's why they're miserable people most of these people are miserable you know when you see them out there prideful and celebratory they don't fall for it it is a lie it's a lie and they they're projecting what they want people to believe but if you really read the the research and follow what actually happens to many of these people they have the highest rates of suicide that many of them are on antidepressants they're in therapy they are not because you're going against fitra your fitra is real a lot created you so you're violating the laws of you know they're established by your creator and you're trying to be harmonized you're never going to be harmonized I don't care how many surgeries you get how many partners you you have masked how many people you sleep with you will never find this utopian blissful state that you think you're going to get by giving into your desires it is all a lie perpetuated by cheyton he knows we're weak the flesh he knows we have weaknesses and he exploits those weaknesses but we have been given guidance we have and the mind is very powerful if you are using it so don't be pushed and don't believe in these false stories and fantasies don't even consider stories of how things went with others except as a tonic to strengthen your resolve certainly not as a reference based upon their outward forms or what they seem to be revealing so I gave a very general commentary on the stories but he's specifically talking about even other people's spiritual experiences sometimes we seek you know because someone had this amazing experience so we now also want to seek what others have spiritually speaking but we have to be very mindful that we're all on our own journeys to Allah and our experiences are going to be individuated we will not have the same experiences with prayer with fasting with Hajj that others have so if you hear stories you're like oh my god that sounds amazing and then you act on something because you're hoping to replicate that you might be disappointed but if it's your drive is just the pleasure of Allah I just need to go close to my Lord and I'm not going to get caught up in these details and let those be the catalyst for why I do what I do right that's why stories can be sometimes official and that they can inspire but they can also derail a person from their own path because they're too preoccupied on trying to get something simulating something that someone else has had in all of this depend upon a clear path to which you can refer and a foundation upon which you can rely no matter what your state that is it I have to strengthen my my heart because I could find myself in a situation that I will have no helpers there will be nobody else to call upon so if I'm not doing this to fortify my own self I think of for example what was in the 50s and 60s I don't remember which era in particular but there was an era where in the United States there was a real threat of maybe it was the Cold War or either alien invasion or something but there was this idea of imminent danger and people started creating bunkers they actually built shelters right from like nuclear war or whatever it was because they took it so seriously like I need to be in survival mode I can't rely on the government I can't rely on mom dad so you found a lot of people they put the time in creating these types of safe shelters or whatever spaces for them and their family so that in the event something happens they can go down they have food they have water they have a place to use a restroom they built a lot of this stuff because they were thinking of all those possibilities spiritually speaking we have to kind of be in that mindset of the same survival mode I got to be you know looking out for myself spiritually speaking because I came into this world alone and I will be I will be I will leave this world alone so I have to really think of these things on a deep level so then he says the best of these is the path of Ibn Allah because it gives clear direction to Allah do not take from these words unless it is in accordance with your own path but submit to their implications if you desire realization avoid all forms of vain and foul speech to your absolute utmost so now we're getting into other things that are also practical things that we have to be mindful of if you speak idly you speak like you know always you know praise you're speaking in terms that are just not becoming that you're not in line with the prophetic character the prophet never did these things he was not boastful he was not a braggart he was not pompous and he also never used foul speech you know I spoke to someone recently who said they knew of this individual who used to be very mindful of their words and then they moved away and they met with them again and all of a sudden using a lot of curse words why if you you know what happened someone came around and all of a sudden now you're following the trends of the modern era where it's just like I want to be what popular I want to fall into the same culture as everyone else we have lines as Muslims so we don't use foul speech put aside anything if unable to discern it's benefit immediately it's good to advise don't waste your time if you're not sure about something it's a great area why do it don't waste your time beware of being extremely hard on your enough your selfish soul before you have obtained a mastery over it so this is really good advice because sometimes we go way too you know we dive head first we're not even thinking about like long-term effects so when you go you know go big right or you it's like a pendulum if you go too hard too fast it's something and you become you overwhelm yourself you can really go the opposite direction and I've seen people do this unfortunately even spiritually they try to be super Muslim overnight it doesn't work so be gentle with yourself and don't also punish yourself when you slip remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the most merciful of the merciful and then but also beware of being too lax with it regarding any of the sacred rulings so you got to find that happy medium of I'm not going to push myself too hard and I'm also not going to give myself a pat on the back or you know a card I'm going to push to do whatever I want to do and then make excuses when I slip I have to be willing to be count accountable to Allah and muhassabah is part of that process taking account of what you've done what you need to do where you've fallen short and then fixing things this is so because it is constantly fleeing from moderation and everything and it inclines towards extremism in both matters of deviance and guidance very important point the nafs does not like balance the nafs loves extremes so don't whenever you're going extreme in either direction know that it's taken the wheel as they say you got to bring it back to the akal the mind has to be this is a rational process right we are rational human beings but if your nafs your appetites your emotions are dictating you're going to get yourself in trouble seek out a companion to help you out in your affair and take his counsel concerning matters that occur from both your inward states and your outward affairs so try to find people who match where you are and that um you know who are who are um who have a similar you know they're on the path with you because sometimes people are on very different wavelengths they're on different levels and it can become difficult to feel like you really have a companion that's on the path with you but if you are somewhat at least aligned it'll be much easier and you can benefit each other with good counsel support and all of that right and then if you do indeed take his companionship with his state and give him of yourself based upon his inabilities and abilities because the perfected companion can no longer be found so yeah don't be too um hard on on you know or don't have too many high expectations from even your companions just kind of and I think this is why is advice to in general about like for example you know some people become very codependent in their relationships they start to rely too much on one another they get disappointed easily then they personalize things as we talked about this is not good we need to have a very safe healthy distance in all relationships even between husband and wife even to between parent and child there should be a healthy distance and that's going to look different based on the relationship but we really do have to see ourselves as being truly spiritually speaking on a path alone to God and there are others that Allah has gifted us with on the journey but our path is really our own right and so having some safe distance will help with that then he says furthermore um sorry indeed in these times even a suitable companion who is agreeable rarely last so that's just you know real talk about the nature of dunya right furthermore beware of the majority of people concerning both your religious and worldly affairs unless you have ascertained they have a sound relationship with their Lord rooted in knowledge which is free of caprice and love of leadership and they are in possession of possession of sound intellect free of the pitfalls of hidden agendas so basically don't get too close with people unless you've vetted them unless you can see true prophetic character or desire of wanting the same things spiritually speaking that you do don't let them in your heart your heart is you have to protect it like a fortress you know imagine it's you're in a fort and you are a fortress and you have a moat and there's a drawbridge anybody who wants to get close to you has to go through a lot before you suddenly trust them with your secrets you see people telling people their business what are you doing we live in the age where people can weaponize information so be smart be wise do not tell people your business um and be cautious because not everybody has good intentions and if they if they're worthy of your love and trust and loyalty and fidelity a love will show them to you you will have that and time will tell and I truly believe in that um and then he says do not be heedless of the machinations of others or their hidden states there you go consider these two from both their origins and their actions people of high character and family distinction are almost always beneficial on the other hand excruciating circumstances compel a person of low character and origin to forsake others in need so he's making excuses that yes it's always better to have people who come from good family backgrounds where they had this moral right upbringing um and that would be ideal but we also have to excuse that those who have not had those circumstances they're compelled by other things right it's not necessarily um there's a sense of you know survival and maybe because they have had to fend for themselves they haven't felt support that they may forsake people easily but it's not necessarily always mal intent or other reasons so it's you know just a nice balanced way of looking at different groups of people that you may encounter in life the extremely vigilant of the dominant qualities of a given people in any given land and don't be heedless of the divine wisdom in the creation notice gathering and separation so this is actually really wise to in terms of just becoming emotionally intelligent part of emotional intelligence is being able to read the room understand the nuances of different groups and individuals you know that come together based on culture based on background upbringing all the things we talked about if you're a person with strong social skills you will take the time to learn about people to learn about what are the predominant qualities of their culture or their background what things that really distinguish them from others and this is why the corner analyst panel tells us it's with the Haja right and I've created your donations and try that you may come to know one another we have to be doing the knowing part and so this is where really taking the time to pay attention and seeing those different changes and then treating people according to their specific way and culture some cultures for example are very particular about let's just say like gender mixing okay there's some cultures where you have a little bit more flexibility and they're not as rigid other cultures they're very particular about you know men and women for example speaking even if it's in a halal you know environment if you go to a person's home who has a particular who's raised in a certain culture where there was more separation even if everybody's nice and there's families and it's a very beautiful safe Mahram or everywhere everybody's observing hijab some people have much more strict rules around co-mailing than others other people are more relaxed you know so you might need someone whose spouse is very you know talkative and just very sanguine you know in their nature and they're they just like to keep conversation going if that person meets someone whose husband for example does not like that then they should have you know not personalize it like what's up with that guy why is he so uptight I didn't mean anything by asking his wife how he is no maybe that's his culture and you should just be respectful that he comes from a different background than you do and he's not used to random men coming and making small talk with his wife you know so these are the kinds of sensitivities that we learn when we are paying attention some of this now I'm going back to the reading some of this we've already covered in the book on Hawaii so stay the subject further there organize your hours in a manner appropriate to each time specific needs using a gentle and tolerant approach all the while being very wary of the extremes of rigidity and laxity so now everyone is giving us counsel on how to organize our time we need it every one of us needs time management with laxity this is especially necessary given that too much latitude in permitted matters sets the heart back on its journey to such a degree that even a man of resolve ends up looking like a foolish child so if you start to allow yourself too much there's a lot of permission you know permission to listen to music to watch TV to start eating you know randomly and not really caring for yourself in the right way then you may end up regressing and that's really what he's trying to say so find the balance of remembering your nuffs you have to master it and it is like this strong-willed disobedient rebellious child that knows how to manipulate you so don't be manipulated right know that you have to govern the nuffs and then he says work for this world as if you will live forever but work for your next life as if tomorrow you die in other words do not neglect the externals of your worldly needs all the while keeping in mind your end and final resting place be extremely vigilant with about avoiding positions of leadership this is so important if you want to be a leader in anything check yourself that desire for leadership the desire for power is being overshadowed or is overshadowing the responsibility that comes with it because you're seeking something you're seeking power or reputation sumat and riyadh or diseases of the heart wanting people to hear of your accomplishments wanting people to know that oh you got this position you won this whatever role or whatever it was you went and finished your degree and now you have been offered this blah blah blah whatever it is if you like people to know these things about you and then you seek out those opportunities and you really believe that you're the best qualified person for the job I would say take a moment and rectify yourself a little bit because you're forgetting that any role of responsibility comes with immense immense pressure I was actually speaking to someone just yesterday and actually yeah well she was a principal of a local Islamic school and it was speaking to her yesterday and I just told her I could never do what she does because the weight that they carry they're responsible for children they're responsible for parents and teachers and community it is a lot of work to be in community service especially those who are in the field of education and have the top role of any school right it's very very difficult so the point is not to seek those things out if people appoint you if they beg you and plead and try to twist your arm because now this is something from Allah inshallah maybe that you are being called to that point of duty but not something you should come from you and then he says so I'm sorry be extremely visual about avoiding positions of leadership but you should you be tried with such matters know your own limitations so look how he phrases it if you're tried and tested with the role of leadership like Allah puts you in that it's a test so know your limitations know that he will hold you to account be absolutely sincere to Allah with the sincerity of one who knows full well the one who is placing demands upon him so when you are in that leadership role know that the one who has put you in that role also has demands of you right surrender completely to his decree with the submission of one who knows he can never overcome him we will never overcome what Allah has planned for us never we will never if Allah wishes something for us we can try to work it every which way possible bring all the humanity together to try to concoct some plan he has his plan we have our plans he's the best of planners we'll never be able to overcome anything he wills for us know that and then stay in your lane humble yourself be disobedient inshallah Allah will give you to have a firm foundation in all of your affairs and you will be safe from their pitfalls organize your devotional practices and you will find your time is extended the grace that pervades it if you spend time organizing your worship with what Allah pleases Allah will put barakah in your time time dilation is real it is a very real phenomenon that happens Ramadan is a perfect proof of that and there are other people who have experienced this in very real ways they have gone to either the sacred cities of Medina or other places on the spiritual expeditions or trips and they have seen and witnessed time being stretched for them they have been able to accomplish things that they could never accomplish in regular normal circumstances time dilation is real and it is a gift from Allah s.w.t to the one who prioritizes him when we prioritize Allah s.wt then he will give us ease and that dilation of time so that we can give other things inshallah and that is what I was saying about pageant if you give up your bed for the sake of Allah s.wt you think he is going to leave you to suffer not when you do it with full trust that he will take care of me if I need rest he will give me rest if I miss something he will help me I have to have that trust that I am in the best hands when I do anything for the sake of Allah s.wt and never let my mind convince me otherwise because those are always ways to deter us from good if you are not a fanatic about anything whether it is the truth or not and your heart will remain in a state of soundness towards others so if you are not a fanatic if you are a person of balance you don't go to extremes we talked about that then other people will also gravitate towards you never claim anything to which you are entitled not to mention that to which you are not entitled and you will be safe from treachery I just want to mention this when a man came to him it was in a video I saw yesterday I was reminded of this story it's a famous story of when a man came and he was cursing at Sina Abu Bakr and accusing him of the most heinous things, horrible things and the Prophet ﷺ stood there smiling and Abu Bakr was silent and then Sina Abu Bakr then he spoke up and he started to defend himself and so the Prophet ﷺ left and then later he asked the Prophet ﷺ what happened you were there smiling and then you left and now the Prophet ﷺ is teaching him and he said what when the man was saying all those terrible things about you I saw the angels defending you but the moment you went into defense of yourself Iblis came into the picture and I don't stay in the room with Iblis or I don't share the same space with Iblis so this power of the story but the rest like the full context of what happened next or that was just the story that she had come to say but I think more importantly is what the Prophet ﷺ was trying to convey for us which is people will violate your rights and this way this man was accusing Sina Abu Bakr who come on everybody who knows him who knows who he is he is the most beloved companion to the Prophet ﷺ it's without a doubt his character there's no dispute about who he is obviously false there's no need for him to defend himself but it's an example for all of us that we will experience these things where people will take our rights from us they will do these things, violate our trust and yes we have the right, we have recourse by Sharia to go through different ways in order to protect ourselves but sometimes in this case you have to weigh every situation the Prophet ﷺ is teaching him you didn't need to defend yourself the angels were doing it for you so in this same vein we are getting to which you are entitled if someone is taking something that you have you want your rights just let it go if you are able to and everybody is different and I'm just giving you general advice so don't take this as a letter like something that is in concrete that you have to follow but it's more like assess the situation as they say, pick your battles and if you can forgo something for the greater good you want it Allah is a witness and he will compensate for whatever it was I don't need to make a big deal out of every single situation and then indeed anyone claiming a rank above his own will fall scandalized and humiliated may Allah protect us from ever thinking we are better than we are and always keep us humble to see our flaws before any good and to recognize that our good is always right and he can take it away at any time moreover those who claim a rank they warrant will have it stripped from them so we don't make claims just let things be and speak always humbly conversely those who claim a lesser rank than their own will be elevated to an even higher one than they deserve so when you see the people of other the people of Akhlaq the people of true prophetic compartment they always deem themselves less than what they are they are not ones that are showboats I deserve this I worked hard for this I am more knowledgeable they just leave it to Allah they never feel the need to ever self promote or advocate it's just not the way of people of Allah Allah will take care of them and I truly believe that never reveal to your companion anything of your state other than what his own state warrants the reason is that if you go down to his level he will have contempt for you whereas if you attempt to raise him up to your level he will forsake you so this is really just about keeping a very balanced healthy distance even just with what we share with our companions because human nature it's true there are relationships that are tested in this way there are relationships that outwardly look like they are strong but internally hasad and other things that are happening so you just want to be very careful not to get ahead and to give too much trust to anybody really especially in this day and age and then never demand a right from anyone whether an intimate or a stranger the reason is simple a stranger owes you nothing and one close to you is too important to direct or blame toward never assume that anyone in this world can really understand your circumstances other than from the perspective of his own circumstances because in reality people see things only in accordance with their frames or of reference and their personal path I might just love how you see the Ahmad Zidro because it's true you want to talk about psychology you want to talk about interpersonal like real like the dimensions of human the mind and and all these things our scholars had all of it what you're seeing now I really believe a lot of them copy and they just go back and try to repackage what they're reading but this is such incredible insight right it's true if you're constantly seeking human validation thinking that you're going to meet someone who really understands you you're going to be disappointed every time because nobody understands you nobody Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the only one who sees you in your totality in your entirety and so people will try because we're empathic we want to reach out we want to connect we want to be able to see you know to show you that validation but we'll always fall short because we're not able to see things holistically and so and as he said our vantage point is based on what we you know we see I'm on this side of the situation you're on that side of the situation I can we're likely not looking at things from the exact perspective I might see some things that you see but I don't see it exactly the way you see it so lower your expectation and I would say this especially for married couples because I think a lot of people and I'll speak to my sisters here I think a lot of sisters we forget that as much as we want our husbands to sympathize with us to understand us to really have our backs to be able to you know listen to us with a sympathetic ear and give us you know the right understanding and perspective it hurts a lot when we put them when we set them up to fail because at the end of the day gender differences are real men and women are you know we create I mean we see things differently right we do and our perspectives are and one necessarily isn't better than the other it's just a matter of what is you know what is what is being asked of the individual so if you need empathy and you want validation I always advise wives to look more towards female companionship for that because you will likely put your husband in a difficult spot if you're thinking that he's going to be able to really heal you in the same way that maybe another woman who totally relates to your challenges whether it's with children or with your in-laws or with other things external things that are affecting you another woman is probably is most likely going to better you know understand you than your spouse even though the expectation is my spouse should because they live with me they love me they claim to love me why can't they get it why don't they ever see things the way I want them to see it well there's a lot of reasons why but lower the expectation a little bit you know bring it down to a human level and just to heed this warning that again never assume that anyone I mean his words are very clear never assume that anyone in this world can really understand your circumstances other than from the perspective of his or her own circumstances because in reality people see things only in accordance with their frames of reference and their personal path we do a lot of projection we do a lot of you know insertion of our own opinions and personalities and temperaments and all the things that make us individual so it's hard right to assess things the same way as another person unless you're very empathic but it's rare to meet people like that however when aims purposes and aspirations are similar people tend to work together toward a common goal so that's yes we can find commonality when things align but again it's not always easy never belittle any talk that concerns absent people even if there is no harm in it due to the likelihood of harm entering into it this is important we talked about this on Saturday in the class that I was referencing earlier that bringing up the people when they're not there is dangerous and you should avoid it because it opens the door for harm because you know she comes I used to say one of the most dangerous questions you can ask people today nowadays is how so and so because you're just asking a general question like how is this person but it usually opens the floodgates for Riba like oh let me tell you you hear they got divorced and then this happened and this happened so the better advice is to avoid bringing up people in their absence guard your secrets even if you feel safe with someone because the one to whom you divulge your secret to is not a safer vessel than your own heart before you revealed it mind blowing wisdom mind blowing and I'm very big on this please please please please don't tell people your sins don't tell people your sinfulness don't share it ever don't think oh I can confide in this person they can you know they're my vault I'm just going to tell them all my secrets and no because as he points out which is very wise upon Allah that the person that you divulged it to are going to divulge it to is not safer than your own heart which which it came out of right you're you're you're supposed to guard your secrets and you can't even guard your secrets because that's why you're telling someone else so how do you expect them to keep your secrets and I have seen lives destroyed by this by the way all the beloved from people are evil enough to weaponize things shared with them in confidence but there are people who do it they will take things you've shared with them and they will turn around blackmailing you hold it over your head ruin your existence because you gave them information and so we just have to be very careful not to do that and then we're almost towards the end here you guys forgive me I'm trying to get through this but I want to be true to my statement of last class never leave an atom's weight of your regular devotional practice never be lenient with yourself in either relaxed times or those of high resolve indeed should you miss some of your practice at a given time redress it later if you are not able to do your usual practice at least occupy yourself with some other similar practice so if you can't pray ladies when you're on your menstrual cycle do something right do something to compensate for what you're not doing read more Quran read more hadith memorize a text watch talks learn pursue knowledge but don't be like oh vacation that's a really horrible framing if you think about it what are you vacationing from you usually vacation from something that you don't want to do regularly work right school things that you see as chores worship should never be framed that way worship should be it is what gives your soul life it's a blessing to be guided and it's a blessing to be able to worship us so to frame it that way is dangerous but the way that you kind of again bring that balance is to say okay I'm not praying because I'm menstruating I'm going to do this instead or whatever it is if you're traveling you're doing something where you're off your routine you find other ways to compensate if you are never obey your selfish soul even for a moment nor believe any of its claims no matter what it says nuffs is the greatest enemy of the human being there's four of them dinya how shape on nuffs nothing is worse than nuffs do not obey your nuffs go against your nuffs and I've given this example before but one of the things that you'll if it's happened to you I have been in this predicament many times where I have to go somewhere and then I am praying so I pray the hook but I'm on my way to go somewhere because you know you make your will do you get ready and then I usually say I'm going to pray my the hook right before I go so sometimes and this is just to show you an example of the power of nuffs I'm praying and you know there's Sunna's to prayer the order has to four before if you want or for the hundred piece and then two after so sometimes you know I jump into the prayer and then there's this dialogue that happens almost every time I'm in this situation where it's like you know what you're going to be late you just get up and go right just you know it's okay you can do your duas your simple to spend the car so there's always this kind of negotiation right and I it's funny it's not comical to me because I recognize it as nuffs right that the nuffs will still do this to me and Alhamdulillah I got to I've gotten to a point where I don't care it can I can have these ideas whatever they are but I will absolutely immediately after I turn my salams and I say my prayer I shoot myself right up and I enter my prayer for my son why because there's no discussion I know the thoughts are coming I can't control my mind it's at least because I really like to be punctual I don't like to be late to things so that's where it comes from right this desire to be punctual he's exploiting that he's I mean not he I guess she might have she is she's telling me all these ideas trying to freak me out about being late but you have to get so in tune with yourself to know like oh my god here's the same lame strategy used every time I don't fall for it and the way that I shut you down is I immediately disobey everything you're saying and I shoot right up I do my prayer and guess what I'm not late I have peace of mind and I actually feel quite satisfied when I come out of my sunnah prayer feeling like alhamdulillah I dominated again alhamdulillah thank you Allah for Tawfeeq thank you for giving me the presence of mind to know my nefs is trying to derail me thwart me from receiving the blessing out of blessing of doing my sunnah by convincing me with all these ridiculous arguments where it's irrational thoughts this is how you do it so when we say never obey yourself for even a moment that's what we're talking about that level of awareness of the nefs will always try to take away opportunities of head for you right don't obey it go against it and that's the way you do disobey it do exactly what it's telling you not to do to the utmost guard your resolve in all affairs and should you resolve to do something do it immediately before it abates or dissipates we talked about that don't procrastinate procrastination is one of the spiritual diseases that can really afflict people but be a person of action and and resolve examine your soul constantly it matters your obliged to do or those that you should do always do this muhassabah this examination is very important leave off anything you don't need to do even the recommended in short do not involve yourself in anything other than the absolute necessary or that in which a real discernible need exists so this is where you know learning what is far what is wajib what is you know what is mandoob what is makroo what is haram you have to know the different levels of actions and then do you know extra things as they appear but be more vigilant on what is you know demanded of you what are your far behind treat others just as you would want to be treated and fulfill what is due all of this is epitomized in the words of the poet when he said if you desire to live such that your religion is safe and your portion is full and your honor is sound guard your tongue never mentioned in others faults for you too have faults and others too have tongues take care of the eye when it reveals another's faults saying oh my eyes remember the eyes of others live treating well all others and avoid aggression and should they oppress repel it but with kindness the source of these words is in fact the traditions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam when he said be vigilant of Allah wherever you are and follow a misdeed with a good deed and it will remove it and treat others with the most excellent excellence of character in another he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said every child of Adam makes mistakes and the best of you excuse me the best of those who make mistakes are those who seek to redress them he also said the Holy Spirit inspired my heart's core that no soul will die until it fulfills its decreed portion of this world and it's appointed time here so be conscious of Allah and make your request with dignity so that's just important we all have you know numbered days here in this earthly realm and just you know to make the most of it in summation and we're almost at the end here in summation repentance awareness of Allah and uprightness are the foundations of all benefits the truth is manifest and its details are weighty and significant the affair belongs to Allah success is in his hands peace and then from Al Qawaiid briefly oh wow there's even more I thought I was done are you ready to go are you just done with me right now I'm here I'm here for as long as you need me to be here I love you you're so sweet I just want to finish this okay ladies and gentlemen please bear with me I'm going to be a super speed reader right now we're going to just get through the text I'm not even going to comment I'm just going to read it I've done so much commentary unless I really have to okay I'll just give myself that ability if I have to I'll comment other than I'm just going to miss my name this is from Al Qawaiid our chef Abu Abbas Al-Hadrabi said spiritual training was elevated to a science due to the development of a technical vocabulary but benefit from it is derived only as a result of aspiration in spiritual states so adhere to the book and the prophetic practice without omitting or adding anything this applies to all of your transactions with your creator the creation and yourself as for what is between you and God three matters are concerned fulfilling obligations avoiding prohibitions and submitting completely to his decree as for dealing with the self so I'm sorry let me review that fulfill your your fard stay away from the haram and then be in submission that's it these are what we are what we should give to Allah as for dealing with the self this also involves three necessities an unbiased approach to the truth as we said I want the truth no matter where it comes from who it comes from right abandoning defense mechanisms such as self justification and guarding against the dangers of the self in respect to its attractions and aversions its acceptances and rejections and its comings and goings we have to do more study on the nature of the nefs what it pulls us to the distractions or the distractibility all of those things in order to know how to avoid it the self justification is a huge part also getting mastery over the nefs as for dealing with people this concern three this concerns three requirements also ensuring their rights are fulfilled give rights to people a virtuous lack of desire for their possessions don't be a a person who is you know once what other people have an absolute avoidance of anything that adversely affects their hearts unless it concerns an obligation to the truth that cannot be ignored so one of our dear friends Dr. Osman she always used to tell me that her grandmother taught her never break anyone's heart no matter what you do in this life be a person who that is your mantra your rule you will never break anybody's heart and I think it's beautiful simple advice you could teach children teach anybody just don't do it don't hurt people that's it any aspirant of this path will influence toward the feeling toward the following preoccupations will perish okay horseback riding general self-interest occupation with changing social wrongs or with fighting in military jihads while neglecting the acquisition of personal merit and virtue believing that he has a no need of rectifying his soul or that he can obtain all the virtues so yes this is basically hobbies right getting into really fun stuff that you like self-interest and and engaging in things that are socially unacceptable because you're because basically you're not really rectifying your own self you're just too preoccupied you're too distracted by all these other ventures other interests that to work on yourself so that's why they're mentioning these things right that if you do this you'll perish and then he says seeking out the faults of his brothers and others so if you're a fault seeker you're looking for flaws in other people you'll perish excusing himself by claiming abandonment of the world so if you're like this oh I'm this ascetic and I'm just going to you know I'm giving up the dunya and you go to this extreme where you are forgoing the rights that others have over you in order to you know fulfill your own whatever spiritual desires but you're not fulfilling him according to the prophetic path which is balanced right the process in he was a father he was a husband he fulfilled his obligations he didn't just go off into the mountains so you can't be like oh I'm just going to give up the world and then you know forget that you have obligations and responsibilities spending all of his time in religious devotion again this is a lack of balance if you're and I know people who've done this they would let their families completely fall apart while they're off because they have to be in the message at a certain time or the sheikh is coming so and so is coming and they have to attend these things while their children are falling apart home is falling apart so that's just total delusion we have people have rights over us and if we're not fulfilling those rights then for us to seek Allah it's just again a total disconnect that way you have to be doing things in the right order spending a good deal of time in public gatherings or seeking company not for teaching or learning but simply for human companionship so we have to be clear Allah knows our intentions if you're going to the kids you're going to classes because you want to socialize you're not there to learn it'll be very clear to Allah and Allah will call you into account for misrepresenting yourself you know as a student of knowledge when you're not even really there for the right intentions inclining toward the people of wealth claiming he is doing so for religious reasons preoccupying himself with spiritual matters of the hard before learning the basis of sound transactions or the rectification for his of his faults all of these are things again showing imbalanced lack of prioritization lack of truly understanding the correct order of what you should be doing as a believer thrusting himself for the spiritual teacher without being appointed by a true spiritual master scholar or a man so if you're out there positing as a leader a teacher an influencer and nobody has endorsed you nobody have sound sound reputation as endorsed you you are a liar you're misleading people you're charlatan you're likely misguiding people because if you had a proper teacher then they would either endorse you openly or at least give you the credentials to do so but in the absence of those things for you to be positing as one is very dangerous mindlessly following anyone who says follow me whether his words to be true or false so basically being a sheep without ascertaining the details of his state belittling someone who is among the people of a lot even if you should deem that person insincere based upon some proof he has so basically you know judging people dismissing people showing you know that you think you know better or you know someone just because maybe the one little thing you did or didn't do that rubbed you the wrong way now you're just going to throw them out and speak ill of them these are all reprehensible poor you know character flaws that a person of God does not possess and if they possess them they certainly don't show them outwardly they try to work on removing them no inclining toward dispensations and interpretation so if you're always looking for shortcuts you want resources for every little thing it's likely that you're going to get yourself and you're not really working on disciplining the soul putting the inward before the outward yeah like if you're you know because there are people who are all about spirituality right new age spirituality I'm spiritual and spiritual I do a lot of things spiritually but they're engaged in every fiscal facade what there has to be you know that can be so disconnected disjointed being satisfied from what contradicts the other being content with knowledge, devoid of action or with action devoid of an inward state or knowledge believing that an inward state suffices without the other two so all of that kind of is similar to what I just said or having no principle to which he has recourse in his actions, knowledge, states or religious practices from the accepted principles in the books of the imams such as the books of ibn al-Pahila concerning inward matters especially at Tanweer so this is his recommendation and concerning outward matters the book of ibn al-Hajj and those of his sheikh ibn al-Jamrah as well as of others who follow the same path from among the realized masters so these are all the the recommendations of how to again have the proper understanding may Allah have mercy on all of them any aspirant any person who's really a seeker who is of the above mentioned types is in fact ruined it has no salvation on this path but whoever holds to the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the prophetic practice will be safe and Godspeed arrived protection is from him alone and successes by him the messenger of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala if someone was once asked about Allah's words tend to your own souls and he replied if you see covetousness obeyed passions and whims followed and every opinionated person marveling at his opinion own opinions then tend to your own soul this is the day and age we live it look at social media we're seeing all of this people are completely driven by passions whims there it's all envy and coveting and then a lot of self promotion and you know I'm so I have so many wonderful things to say let me advise you on everything in life then what should we do tend to our own soul he may Allah grant him peace and blessings also said something to this effect in the tablets of Ibrahim so have it is written an intelligent person should know the age in which he lives he should hold his tongue and mind his own business an intelligent person should have four portions of his day for the following a portion to take his soul to account a portion to converse with his Lord a portion to spend time with his brothers meaning those who help him to see clearly his faults his Lord and a portion to indulge in his own personal recreation from the permissible appetites of man incredible wisdom just imagine if we lived by that every person we had this simple formula four portions of your day 24 hour period you do the math six hours right what's up with the math my teacher my child so that's it you know divine your time may Allah provide us with that and help us to fulfill may he always maintain us in a state of grace for we cannot survive without his the soul of grace and prosperity Allah is enough for us and God is the best of protectors may prayers and peace be upon our master Muhammad and his family and his companions Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah we have gotten to the end of the text Allahu Akbar thank you Asala Fadwa for your patience with me thank you to all of you on Instagram and those on Zoom who are tuned in we did it I'm very happy I know it took much longer than I intended but inshallah we did it if there are any questions I think I can stay if Asala Fadwa you have to go I totally understand I actually we still have time Alhamdulillah it's only 7.15 so we have time for Asala Fadwa but I'm happy to take questions because this is the final session and I did want to leave some time for Q&A so let me see if there is anything Asala Fadwa do you have anything I know I got questions here on Instagram so I got to go all the way back go ahead and take the questions from Instagram we don't have any questions here okay Alhamdulillah let me see here see I mean so sisters are making Daw here okay so people are asking about the text okay let me see I'm so sorry guys this is very difficult for me to do which on my iPad my iPad is turned sideways my keyboard is like parallel or perpendicular to the iPad I cannot I can't type the link in here that's why I can't do it but if someone can please I will share the link I will share the link on Instagram thank you so Asala Fadwa is going to share the link for this document it's called the Foundations of the Spiritual Path by Sidi Ahmed Zarrouq translated by Shahumza Yusuf it is an incredible text please take time I get you came in if you're listening to for the first time you're coming in to the end of it we literally finished it today right now in this moment but it is such an incredible rich text that everybody can benefit from it so please take your time to read through it there's a lot of great advice so this is one of the questions that I have here on Instagram how can I counsel my sister who got diagnosed with an autoimmune condition that is a degenerative condition lifelong she's not able to accept it I don't know how to help her first and foremost Allah may Allah grant her she fat it's very difficult when your loved ones are tested with their health because they're hurting they're in discomfort they're in pain and you feel helpless but we believe that Allah tests everybody differently and health you know tests are certainly real and if a person bears those tests with patients and with surrender they are being purified with every wince of pain every moment of pain their sins are being purified they're being elevated spiritually and I think the most important thing to remind you know anyone who's going through something like this in this case your sister is that it's from Allah you know we're going to be tested we all have tests and there is a beautiful story of Ibn it's a different one I'm so sorry my mind everything is frozen right now I think it is Ibn al-Thaydah but there's a wonderful story about and it's in my if I can maybe if you don't mind messaging me but there is anyway it's a story about you know the four different ways that Allah tests us and part of it is through tribulation and you know but that doesn't mean that others aren't being tested to so if you're going through something with your health other people might have you know they're not going through a lot of tests and their wealth and their mental health there could be a plethora of different ways that were tested but we're all being tested sometimes what happens when you're going through a health problem is because the symptoms are so strong and you feel very immobilized or suddenly you're not able to do a lot that you did before you feel like you're the only one being tested so a good perspective is to just share you know these things these realities are not all but it's from Allah for a reason and there is I can point you to this it's called the 17 benefits of tribulation looking up on YouTube Shahramza did a beautiful talk it's been around for a really long time but that talk has brought much healing to many people who've suffered who are suffering through medical or physical ailments because it really brings things into perspective that there are actually benefits to being tested in this way if you're a male caregiver she thought you can of course continue to find means to help her I would definitely look into functional medicine or healers or hekems Dr. Mezan Atassi is great he has what's his page called let me see if I can find it real quickly oh gosh I should know it sorry Mezan yeah here he is what is his page called forward to health forward.toHealth is his he's a homeopath holistic medical practitioner I would definitely look to these types of means in order to you know find healing because medical like just allopathic medicine is very black and white sometimes and they kind of give people these harsh horrible sentences of like doom and death and it's just terrible but you'll find a lot of people of other practices who are much more optimistic and actually try to really work to find underlying reasons for especially with autoimmune how to heal so find those types of resources continue to make the offer she thought and then have that talk have her listen to that talk I think it'll really shape help her with her understanding of her tribulation some of us work full-time we have to cook her exercise and do other obligations after work hours so most of the day is gone how do we stop feeling guilty not doing the hedging and reading more Quran so it's a good question and I think you know as we mentioned you want to take it easy don't try to do everything all at once so I would say for the time being if the Hajj is difficult for you because of time constraints and you have other obligations then then read Quran because Quran you can do any of every time of the day any time of the day it's not relegated to a specific hour or time frame but just to mention it the Quran that is best or that is often said is witness it's in the Quran that it's witnesses in the Quran at Fajr so there is a mental reward in reciting Quran at Fajr and if you can add that as part of your Fajr routine where you wake up for Fajr and immediately you know have a page half a page even some of these apps have these really great reminders where they come up pop up but it's your point of reflecting you can be a verse every day where you just take a moment to reflect start with that and the goal is always to habituate things for 40 days this is what our scholars have traditionally said try that for 40 days and then move on to the next thing and inshallah that should assuage your guilt you know because if you're doing something and you start to see progress inshallah shaitan and your nafs can't try to play those guilt games with you right so alhamdulillah let's see any other questions I think was that that was Juan Wayakam thank you so much for all of your kind words and duwaz and your hearts your love I really appreciate it and we have to share some of that with Asada Fadda because she's the one who's putting help us put all this together is a just a better word than lower sure I don't know what I said in that context but I like a just go for it thank you for helping me if I oh I think it might have been because I kept saying lower standards maybe that what you're talking about yeah adjust your standards does sound a lot nicer thank you I appreciate those types of gentle subtle ways to be more tactful let's see anything else here yeah documents a lot of questions that I'm seeing or comments are about the document I think which is my favorite potty that's a very nice question I have a few like of course is amazing I love from study for the jweed he's really good but I'm sure there are others okay so I'm just quickly scanning make sure I don't forget anything we don't want to hold ourselves accountable always complain that we do not feel connected to our prayer that's a very good question I mean very good point right I'm sure even our laziness is tied to what we put on our body absolutely there is a total connection between the foods that we eat food is supposed to be nourishing that's why we eat from the best I was found that literally tells us to eat from the best right we're supposed to actually take effort to try to find the best ingredients the best food but most of the time we we just fall into what shortcuts because we're moving about life so quickly so then we we're going to suffer the consequences right so it's really important to just take accountability and say you know what it's not that I'm tired and I'm exhausted and or or sorry it's not that prayer is so difficult to do because that is a total again cop out it's not prayer is difficult to do prayer actually is very easy to do but if your body is heavy because you're not eating good food you're not resting you're staying up all night watching you know YouTube or or Netflix and you're not getting enough sleep so that your body feels really heavy then you are the reason why prayer is difficult don't blame the prayer that is a cop out accountability is how we reset ourselves but when we're always passing the buck as they say or you know just absolving ourselves from any accountability we then will continue to slip because you're not there's nothing motivating you to change but once you start to face yourself and go I am the reason why I'm making all these excuses it's all in my control stop making excuses just do it and then it's very beneficial to have good sohbah because they hold you accountable so alhamdulillah alright brothers and sisters I want to thank all of you I don't know how many people came in this room but I saw a lot of people in and out it's like a revolving door on Instagram so it's hard to gauge I hope you found this beneficial if you did I'm going to ask you she did not ask me to do this but the rahmah foundation is one of my favorite organizations on the planet because masha'Allah they're very very committed to providing platforms like this for women first of all to learn from other women you know I'm open with my content I don't mind it being coed if brothers want to share but most of their programming is for women providing women teachers classes with women teachers masha'Allah we know of course Dr. Rani Awad may Allah bless her she is the founder co-founder along with Usada Fadwa and others half of the Suzanne Derani Usada Shamira Chothia we have sister Ruhi Ahmed they're a beautiful incredible team of women for more than 10 years to try to provide these types of classes so if you enjoy this, this is free nobody is charging you anything the content is all available but support goes a long way and it really means a lot when female lead initiatives are supported we are the first homes I mean the first mother says of our children so if you want to see our umma thrive please support female teachers just support female lead initiatives because we are going to hopefully be impactful with future generations and if you look at all of our great scholars many of them if you read their biographies they themselves will say it was their mother their grandmother their you know someone a female who was instrumental in putting them on the path of knowledge so if we want our societies to flourish in our communities to flourish we have to support women doing amazing things and Ahmad Foundation does that by providing these types of programs but support them inshallah support them by liking their page by sharing their content making da'a for them and if you are financially able to why not also donate to them but I want to thank again Fadwa and everybody else I know it's been a very long session today but it's the last one inshallah for this class we might we'll probably hopefully do something else soon but keep us in your da'a I'm going to go ahead and end in da'a unless Sadafad did you have any announcements or anything that you want to make before we end the call final announcements I just want to take some time on behalf of the Ahmad Foundation upon myself to just thank you Sadafad for your patience your insistence in completing the text the blessing I don't know if everybody realizes the blessing of completing a text and it's an honor and a pleasure to have to have completed this text with you having you took this knowledge from our sheikh and so to have you deliver this to others it's just a blessing to witness and an honor to be a part of so of course please for those of you who are listening stay connected to Sadafad and the Ahmad Foundation if you can because we are planning a next course with Sadafad we do not want to let her go without inshallah continuing the benefit that she provides for everybody so please stay connected both to her on social media if you're able to and as well the Ahmad Foundation so that we can keep you in tune with what we're doing I have made some requests I don't want to name them but we have put them in the universe for our last Qantana to accept so that we can continue working together inshallah she's probably one of the biggest blessings in my life so I appreciate the time that she gives us thank you again Sadafad and with that inshallah a closing da'a likewise you know how much you mean to me I love you for the sake of Allah and Alhamdulillah for beautiful company if there's a da'a that you want to make every day ask Allah to preserve the friendships that you have that really remind you of him and if you don't have that Allah gives you beautiful company because it's invaluable really to have people like Sadafad in your life and others who inspire you who uplift you Alhamdulillah for beautiful company Alhamdulillah I'm seeing I'm sorry someone Sadafad someone's asking is there a link for those who are watching through the Ahmad Foundation I think if you just contact the Ahmad Foundation's Instagram page they can probably send you that and I don't know someone else said that their battery died they had a question I don't know sister if you've already answered your question or asked your question and answered it and then someone else said please make do for those of us struggling to improve and stay on track I mean we're all struggling honestly sister this is life life is struggle but there's beauty in struggling for the sake of Allah it's never a burden when it's for Allah it's always beautiful it's always meaningful and Alhamdulillah for having purpose and direction in life because there are a lot of people who have no idea what they're doing and they were never given the gift of guidance so Alhamdulillah even if it's difficult it's still much better than floating in the abyss of dunya with no direction and no guidance Alhamdulillah may Allah protect us all Insha'Allah I hope the live will be saved if not the recording will be available on the Ahmad Foundation so with that said I'm going to go ahead and stop so we can pray Asr insha'Allah and make our final dua Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Alhamdulillah Thank you so much formator of your Monday evening, inshaAllah. Please keep us in your Dua and until next time. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.