 Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, Alhamdulillah wa-salaatu wa-salaam, wa-ala ash-shirif al-anbiya'i wa-al-mursaleen. Sayyidina wa-mawlana wa-habibina Muhammad, salallahu alaihi wa-salaam, wa-ala alaihi wa-sahbi wa-salaam, tasleeman katheeran. As-salamu alaikum wa-rahmatullahi wa-barakatu. Alhamdulillah, we are here at the final class, the seventh class we've added, an additional class so that we can make sure we complete or do our best to complete the text. Alhamdulillah, of purification of the heart. We're going to start on the disease of heedlessness for today. It's on page 101. So we're just going to jump right into it, inshallah, Bismillah. Heedlessness is being careless concerning what God has commanded one to do and has prohibited. Scholars of this science consider heedlessness to be the source of all wrongdoing. Its cure is to be found in four deeds, all of which possess rectifying qualities. Seek forgiveness from God, visit the righteous, invoke benedictions upon the Prophet, salallahu alaihi wa-salaam, and recite God's book. So heedlessness is a terrible lack of attention to what is infinitely more important in one's life than material goods. Heedlessness is a key concept often discussed in Islamic spiritual treatises and is referred to in many passages of the Quran. Imam al-Junaid, a prominent ninth century scholar argues that heedlessness is the one pathogen that breeds all the rest of the diseases of the heart. The Arabic word for a simpleton is مغفل, a person who is easily fooled. In our context, it is a person who is easily diverted from what is essential and consequential toward what is ephemeral and ultimately pointless. So, alhamdulillah, you know, this is, I'm sure we all recognize a very serious problem in today's world. People just don't have their priorities straight. They are caught up in, you know, the world and all of its many distractions. And that's what heedlessness is, is when you just don't have the right order of what should be your priority. And you ultimately, you know, stop doing the things that you should be doing in terms of taking care of your responsibilities, first and foremost, to God, your family, all of the people in your life that should have your focus because you start living for your own whims and desires, right? That's the distraction. Part of it is that you just get caught up in whatever you want to do and then you basically end up failing to fulfill the obligations that you should do. If you go on page 102, the heedlessness that Imam Molud speaks of here is that of its most menacing form, being heedless of divine purpose, accountability, the resurrection, ultimate standing and judgment in the hereafter. The full manifestation of these events is veiled to us by the thin wall of death, the timing of which is the secret that hovers above the heads of all men and women. Even though the reality of these things is hidden in the realm of the unseen, what is expected of us is to receive and accept the message of the prophecy that I'm brought. So, you know, just to be completely clueless or, you know, again oblivious to the fact that we're created with a purpose. We're here because Allah's panel created us to worship Him. That is the only reason why we're here. But when you don't think of that and you're just caught up again in your worldly affairs, then not only do you fail in your duties to Him, but you also completely start to deny everything after this life too, right? You don't even think about death and the fact that it's looming over your head at any moment, right? Nobody knows when they will die. So you become so unaware of reality, right? These are all real things that are going to happen. Nobody can escape death because the heedlessness has, you know, you again distracted by whatever whims and desires you have. So if you can scroll down further on that same page, in the Qur'an, you will find ghafla mentioned several times in different forms, but almost invariably referring to unawareness. The Qur'an uses other words to refer to unawareness. Those who laugh at the Qur'an are Samidun. This is in Qur'an chapter 53 verse 61. They are so immersed in amusement they are oblivious of reality. On the day of reckoning, the heedless will be driven to their chastisement and be told along the way, you are once heedless of this. Now we have removed your veil from you. So your sight this day is sharp. God speaks of the disbelievers impervious to the message of the prophets as having a cover, reshawa over their eyes. So again, this concept of, or this idea of being completely blinded by amusement and entertainment, right? Another description of those who are heedless is they are always looking to be distracted, you know, in that way just to be amused, entertained because, you know, not having that and actually being still and forces you to think about things seriously, right? If you actually have moments of silence and moments of contemplation where you're not being amused, you do start thinking about responsibilities, things you have to do, and maybe your purpose and why you were created. And that's exactly the type of thoughts that we should welcome. But when we're looking to be entertained and amused, we're basically, you know, looking to be distracted from those thoughts, right? From thoughts that are serious and important. The last paragraph there on page 102, the ultimate trauma of heedlessness then is not seeing reality as it truly is. It is choosing a way of living that allows divine signs to be left unnoticed. The Prophet ﷺ supplicated that God, the exalted, show him things in their reality distinguished and clear. Show me the truth as truth and give me the ability to follow it and show me falsehood as falsehood and give me the ability to avoid it. Imam Olud says, ghafla is also heedlessness of what God has commanded and what he has prohibited or seeing the difference between the two as irrelevant. So, you know, again, you just become irresponsible in every way in terms of the commandments of Allah swt. You start to blur the lines between what's haram and halal and you just don't really take those things seriously. This is the disease of heedlessness. And then, you know, that the Prophet ﷺ made it so important because part of, you know, this disease is that you're unaware but how do you become unaware? It's that you don't have, you know, clarity. You don't see things as they truly are. So, asking Allah to protect us from being fooled, tricked, right? Because the dunya has that quality that it can, you know, tempt you into things giving you this false notion of happiness, of, you know, instant gratification of all the things that people, you know, fall into. But at the end of the day, those things actually don't, you know, have lasting effects and they cause more harm. So to ask Allah swt to protect us from, you know, those being tricked, you know, and being deluded by the dunya. And that's why that da'a is so important. To let me see truth as truth and falsehood as falsehood, right? So that you can follow the truth and avoid the falsehood, inshallah. So now the treatments. There's four different practices that basically will treat or help someone with this disease of the heart if they commit to it. The first is repentance and seeking forgiveness, right? As a matter of regular worship, one should ask for forgiveness, astaghfir, at least 70 or 100 times a day, according to the prophetic practice, which was closely followed by our righteous forebearers. This practice is connected to accounting for one's deeds. At the day's end, the merchant looks at his ledger to calculate his earnings to see what the scales say, so to speak. The moral scales are no less important and each of us is a merchant with regard to what we lost or gained with respect to God's pleasure. When there is loss, which is a frequent occurrence, seeking God's forgiveness restores balance. So being in the habit of doing astaghfir is very important. And this, again, can be done anywhere. You could be doing it driving, washing your dishes, folding laundry, anything that you're doing or actually on your prayer mat. But finding the time to do that and many people say it's best to do that at night. You could be doing even lying in bed right before you go off to sleep. These are your final thoughts, like, you know, like, Allah forgive me for all of my transgressions today, what I did knowingly, unknowingly, big, small, out in the open or hidden, because we sin in many different ways, right? And sometimes we don't recognize that there's even sins that we can do internally, right? Like last session, we talked about rib with al-qalb, right? Those are thoughts that nobody is aware of. So sins aren't necessarily outward actions, right? They can be inward as well. So when you actually take the time to take account of yourself, you might be aware of things suddenly like, oh, I forgot about that, right? I need to make astaghfir for that, too. And not just look at the outward. Think about, follow the thoughts that you had that day, too. Did you think of someone in a negative way, right? Did you have those, you know, bad thoughts? And that's how you hold yourself to account. Now imagine if you did this every day, it's kind of like taking out the garbage, right? Think of it that way, because if you don't take out the garbage, it stinks up, right, and it starts to pile up. But if you have a habit every single day that I have to take out the garbage, you're avoiding all of the problems that come with letting garbage accumulate. So the same with doing astaghfir is that you're detoxifying, getting out all those, you know, the bad deeds that you've done that day as a means of purging, as a means of cleansing, as a means of ridding yourself of the harm of those things, right? And you're just, again, aligning yourself with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, doing that, you know, reflection that I, remembering your purpose, you know, I'm here for a reason. It's to worship you, Ya Allah, and I recognize that I failed, you know, that I may be today or I didn't do as well today. Forgive me. So you're reaffirming your faith, right, every time you do that process. Otherwise, you know, you fall into heedlessness, which is you're not, you're just being careless and you're not thinking. The second practice is, and again, we're on page 103, that's the last paragraph right there. The second practice is visiting the righteous people who enjoy rank with God the exalted. The ranking of humanity proceeds as follows. As evidenced in the verse of the Quran, prophets, a Nabiyeen, truthful ones, a Sidiqeen, martyrs, a Shuhada, and the righteous, a Salehain. The word Saleh conveys the notion of soundness of heart and excellent character. More specifically, it refers to one who gives God his due right by fulfilling his commandments and avoiding what he prohibited. This is Haqal ibadah, God's right to be worshipped, which includes rights of worship as well as excellent behavior towards other people. Hence, a righteous person does not cheat or lie. He or she is the kind of person whom one should seek out as company. Scholars have always encouraged visiting righteous people as part of the protocol of the spiritual ascendancy. These people include the living as well as the dead. If one goes to Medina, it is recommended to visit the graves of the great Muslims and convey salutations of peace to them. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam visited the grave sites of his fallen companions. During the early part of his message, he forbade the visiting of graves, but later on the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam encouraged it. In pre-Islamic times, visiting graves was a form of idolatry. When the young community was purged of that, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam abrogated the previous command. So again, visiting righteous people can be living or deceased, but it's important again to recognize that the qualities of what we're talking about, the righteous person isn't just outwardly necessarily religious, because sometimes we might assume things about a person because of the way they look on the outside. Their character is what you want to look at. So if someone is outwardly maybe looks like they're practicing, but then they don't have good character, they don't have good adab with people, they don't speak well and kind to people. They have other negative qualities just because outwardly they look a certain way or they might have a title. You want to really be clear on what we're talking about here. Yes. Yes. Right. No, that's a very good point. Again, we're talking about good character, people that you learn who don't cheat, who don't lie, who have a belief in God. And there are non-Muslims who have very good characters and you can learn a lot from, especially elderly family members or just family members who take their faith seriously, who are people who have moral compass and values that they live by that are shared between faiths. So absolutely, if you have people that are like that, who you trust and believe, yes, keeping their company is great and you can learn so much from them. But thank you for that question because it's a good clarification. He talks about the religious charlatans in that second to last paragraph on page 104. It is excellent to visit the righteous among us who are alive, those who are truly pious and knowledgeable. One cannot judge another person by title in many Muslim countries now. Men are presented with the title of sheikh as inherited from the father. As a result, there are people with that title who are ignorant. There are charlatans in this world and none is more dangerous than a religious charlatan. So we have to again be careful of those people who use the religion to advance themselves but they're ignorant or they don't have good character. Those are not the people that this is about. On page 105, he goes on a little bit more to talk about when you're visiting these people, how you should behave. In that middle paragraph, when visiting a righteous person, the discourse should be substantive and not of idle talk. One should seek to benefit in gaining knowledge and in the supplication of the righteous person. In fact, one should ask for being continually remembered in their prayers for their prayers might be more acceptable to God than one's own. So making sure that the conversation is of benefit and you don't also overstay that was mentioned in a previous chapter where we talked about not overstaying when it comes to people who are righteous or scholarly or who have important work to do. And then the third cure is to invoke benedictions on the Prophesal Isola. This is in fact a command from God, the Exalted Himself. O you who believe invoke benedictions upon the Prophesal Isola and salutations of peace. This is in chapter 33 verse 56. So increasing one's Salawat on the Prophesal Isola and there's many, many benefits to doing that. If you go to page 106, if you do not have a Morabbi, a spiritual mentor, they say prayers of blessings upon the Prophesal Isola then say, prayers of blessings upon the Prophesal Isola which acts as a Morabbi. Many scholars have attested to the fact that sending prayers of blessings upon the Prophesal Isola purifies the soul. Some recommend that one repeated at least 500 times a day. Some people make it their practice to repeat it 5,000 times a day. Imam Atta constantly sent prayers of blessings on the Prophesal Isola and Hadithun scholars of prophetic traditions are now known for this practice as well. So again, you can find that range, what works for you, but not to limit yourself. You don't have to be doing it always sitting down in one place. If you can, that's recommended. There's a comportment that we should have whenever we do the Qid of Allah or Salawat on the Prophesal Isola. But also if you're, again, doing something else, because we live in the Bay Area and there's so much traffic and a lot of times, the times that we're by ourselves in our cars can be great opportunities to do this type of work. Listening to the Quran, doing Salawat, doing any Qid of Allah. So that's always the first thing that comes to mind. But really any chores, anything that you're doing that you're obviously in a clean place to do, it's fine to do these things as you're doing something else. To keep you engaged, to be connected. The fourth cure, we're still on page 106 here, for heedlessness is the recitation of the Quran, reciting it with Tadab but a reflection awakens the heart. However, plain recitation is beneficial as well. Learned Muslims have recommended that a person recite one-thirtieth of the Quran every day. If this is difficult, then reciting Surat Yasin after the dawn prayer, Surat Al-Waqiyah after the sunset prayer and reciting prayer greatly benefit the soul. So again, even if you don't know the Arabic meanings, there's still incredible benefits to reading the Quran. So don't put limitations on yourself. That, oh, I don't know it well. I don't have proper tajweed because you can read for meaning and practice. That's how we become better. Listening to reciters, it would be ideal, but sometimes people, because of maybe something they were told or cultural ideas, they think you have to recite it perfectly in order to recite it, like to even do it. How are you going to get there if you don't practice with everything? Like with everything, you have to practice. So if your intention is to get better, then you actually get more reward with all of those mistakes that you're making. So Allah swt sees your efforts and he's rewarding you more than the one who recites beautifully and effortlessly and has no mistakes, right? So you want to be incentivized to recite the Quran that way, like as often as I can and try to reflect on its meanings, but not to impose sanctions on yourself that, oh, I have to get to a certain level in order to do it. That thought we should reject. So these are the four cures that Imam Olud offers for heedlessness and that of that. So it's, may Allah protect us from that inshallah. Okay, so we've got a lot to cover. We're going to move on to Ranker page 108. We'll read the verses. Ranker, oh you who seek its elucidation, is when the heart is bound to treachery betrayal or some trickery, the not binding it to the heart is resentful malice. Show kindness toward the object of your Ranker and you will cause your enemies to despair. Keep also in mind the forgiveness as mentioned in the sound tradition, promised twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. So Ghil is a malady of the heart that is closely related to Ranker, which is extreme anger and malice. It comes from the same Arabic root from which the word Arlal originates, used in the Quran to mean yokes around the neck. This is chapter 36 verse 8. As if to say that Ranker dwells in a heart bound to Ranker and treachery. Ranker is a pungent emotion that is rooted in being extremely angry at a person to the point that one wishes harm to come to him or her. But the ultimate victim of Ranker is its carrier. For this reason believers pray, oh Lord forgive us our brethren who came before us in faith and do not place onto our hearts Ranker for those who believe. For those who believe, our Lord you are kind and compassionate. One of the great blessings of Paradise is that God will completely remove any semblance of Ranker from one's heart. So again, to hate someone so much that you actually intentionally will evil to them or that harm come to them. It's more than just dislike, right? We can dislike someone, be annoyed by someone but hatred where you really wish that something terrible happens to someone, this is Ranker. Anima Moudud says that if a person feels Ranker toward a particular person, he should show that person goodwill. By nature people are naturally inclined to love those who do good. So the treatment is to really fight yourself. I mean one of there's so many examples of people who overcome feelings of anger or even justified hatred. For example, a person that comes to mind is, his name is Dr. Abdul Munim Jit Moud. He's the brother whose son died. He was a pizza delivery man. I think it was a couple of years ago. He was a Muslim, Salahuddin was his name. He was a young man. He was killed and this brother, masha'Allah, his father, I mean imagine someone killed your son in an act of robbery you know. Pizza delivery guy is not that much money but it seems so justified to be angry and to hate the murder of your son. But SubhanAllah in court he actually forgave his son's murder and hugged him embraced him. He had the judge in tears, everybody but he said it was because of his faith. He did it actually for the young man because he said in our faith if the one who's been wronged doesn't forgive then God will not forgive. So that type of magnanimity to overcome that type of hatred there are people who can do that so then how petty is it for someone to have ranker for someone for something so trivial that usually is the case right? I didn't like the way they didn't invite me to this they did this to me but it's not something like this this is murder of your child so if there are people who can justify anger like that and then be so generous and magnanimous and certainly we have a lot of work to do so think about people like that but that's the type of goodwill that you want to have for people that you really try to force your heart to make the offer them, to wish them well their families well and inshallah as you continue to do that Allah will remove that hatred from your heart and just to remember that you know whatever injustices that you may feel have been done to you to warrant that will be addressed you know nothing is forgotten so sometimes we don't you know we don't remember that Allah swt is going to take us to account for everything and that's what the day of judgment is for so if not in this dunya just think of the next world but have that faith and yakeen that everything will be addressed so you don't need to be a rankerous person, a vindictive person a vengeful person you need to let go of those feelings because they do more harm to you and they say more about your what you're lacking spiritually by even having those feelings so let go I need to stop thinking about this person move on with my life and know and trust that my lord will handle them you know at some point whether he chooses to forgive them or not that's entirely his decision okay so we can go on to boasting and arrogance on page 110 there's a big one so we'll read from the poem boasting is counted among these peculiarities it is defined as you're praising yourself for good qualities you should deem it vertiginous mountain as insignificant by which I mean of course arrogance do this if you desire it to collapse to the ground do that by knowing your lord and knowing yourself for whoever knows these two is humbled and feels insignificant the station of arrogance negates the station of gratitude such as humility by its nature in gender's gratitude avoid and beware of humiliation and lowliness in fact display pride with the affluent and arrogant one so Ma'udud speaks next about which is the loathsome practice of boasting exceptionally odious is the practice of bragging about what one has not done or exerted any effort toward like bragging about one's ancestry borrowing from some past nobility boasting is a problematic behavior that universally evokes objection and is considered a spiritual disease no one likes a boaster one who walks with a swank and swagger and one who cannot be in the company of other people without speaking about himself or drawing attention to what he has done God himself reveals his dislike of bragging God does not love the arrogant and boasting ones and again this should really for our generation and our children's generation we have to kind of you know really make this message very clear because it's everywhere now the culture that is around us is one of constant boasting and showing off and displays and we're not mindful of do we do it or do we participate in it or ourselves and what can we expect for our children and what they're going to go through if it's so rampant now it's everywhere now what's going to happen in the next 5-10 years because it's everywhere and especially with youth it's a big issue now with a lot of youth especially on social media that they're real aim is to just brag about whatever they can to try to get the attention and notoriety that they all seek it's about money right it's about fame it's about money and how do you do that you got to have some talent some skill something to show off and so they it's so normalized and that's the issue it's so normal everywhere so I feel like we really need to revisit this with our children often to never fall into this we're on page 111 Imam Oded mentions the force behind the culture of boasting namely arrogance with arrogance what is alluded to is glorification and aggrandizement of the self so it's the core reason why someone boasts is because they think themselves something right and arrogance is when you think of yourself better than other people so you boast to basically seal that right it's like here I'm going to tell you why I'm better than you I come from this family or I have this much wealth or I went to this school I completed this program you know it's and some people you know they do it subtly that it's not necessarily so outward but if it's something where you even feel the need to bring attention to any accomplishments or things that you've done in an indirect way there's still an element of boasting there right could be something you know again passively mentioned but if it's if the intention is to gain you know renown right that was the previous disease that we covered that people know something about you or think something about you or you know or that you just leave them feeling worse about themselves then clearly this is the root problem you have arrogance and you're you like to make that impact you know when you're with people you like that impact of just showing that you have you know something better than them or that you are better than them and then he goes on to describe that the most villainous beings in history were filled with arrogance and false pride, Satan Far'an the opponents of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and many nefarious tyrants since so it's like that's who you are behaving like you know that's not a deterrent I don't know what is like you know these are the things that people like you know again Far'an and all the enemies of Islam and you know against the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Satan these are their qualities to be boastful to have false pride so it should you know be that should be a deterrent as well that we don't engage in that behavior because we don't want to be associated with people like that and then the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam warned right that anybody who has even an Adam's weight of arrogance in their heart will not enter paradise it's another deterrent like arrogance boasting these are qualities that will you know turn you away from from Allah and from paradise I will divert my signs from those who show arrogance without right this is Allah has again warned us that he will turn away from us so many more ayahs and hadith that again speak of how detested this quality is and then there are different types so this is also really important because arrogance can manifest in so many different ways so it's important to be able to see it for what it is the first type is when a person deems himself superior to others Imam al-Ghazadi said people of knowledge are in great danger of arrogance than anyone else this is because the knowledge they have attained may lead them to feelings of superiority so you know the people who again turn other people away because they deem themselves you know better you know and I've seen this many times people have complained to me about feeling that way coming into the masjid space or you know attending certain events they feel that there are people who kind of you know just treat them differently they're not dressed a certain way or they don't know certain things or they're not at a certain level and that you know what happens to those people they don't want to come back right they don't you know these are people who turn you know people away so it's very dangerous but that's a delusional state to be in to think that you know that I am better because you know I've been wearing hijab longer or I have you know this and I know that so you should just listen to me and you know if you start treating people you know that way then as I said it's a delusional state because stuff for a while you're actually proving that you're far worse than them because you lack the main quality of a believer one of the main qualities which is humility right so it's you're actually getting it it's a complete opposite message of arrogance is in displaying contempt and scorn towards others once a man saw an old woman calling to the provisionalism in a boisterous manner yet the provisionalism stopped to speak with her showing no sign of annoyance when the man saw the provisionalism's calm reaction he said Muhammad the provisionalism is a man unlike the king of other lands it is a marvel how some people act arrogantly because of their perceived piety while the provisionalism the best of creation remained humble the same thing humility is what sets the believer and the best of people from others if you lack that basic quality no matter how good you think you are you're delusional the third type of arrogance relates to lineage in some cultures if one is aware of his high birth he is obliged to behave nobly the Arabs manifested this if a man was born into a clan known for generosity it was mandatory for him to be generous one of the blights of many societies is racism, people feel and act superior simply because of their race the Quran nullifies false claims of superiority and states that the only rank that matters related to one's relationship relates to one's relationship with God indeed the most honorable of you in the sight of God or the most God fearing of you surely God is all knowing all aware so if you think that your lineage, your race your background your high economic status whatever it is that you were born into give you superiority over others this is a form of clear arrogance and unfortunately it is a problem in many parts of the Muslim world we do have a caste system in parts of the Muslim world but race definitely plays a part of it the color of one's skin can play a part of it in parts of the Muslim world or considered better than others just by virtue of your skin color so this is obviously an effective colonialism but it's definitely still prevalent in many parts of the Muslim world so these are all would fall under that just thinking that you're superior for those reasons alone no none of that matters it's all about your again your relationship with Allah that's the only thing that sets people apart in terms of superiority over others and then he kind of he goes into the treatments but let's go through the rest of the the types of arrogance so if you skip a page we'll come back to the treatments on page 114th he goes into the fourth type of arrogance so the fourth type of arrogance is that which is only owing to beauty right the cure is to realize that beauty can be the most illusory of things social conditioning impacts our sense of beauty more than many would admit this is also a big problem in today's world vanity you know beauty is exploited beauty standards are you know very very narrow and if you happen to fall into those standards you're considered the elite of the elite and treated differently by popular society by everybody people just really you know ingratiate themselves towards people who they have who they think have power right and so there is a certain power that beautiful people have they have privilege they can get things done they can you know have mobility in whatever field they're in I mean there's you know all these jokes and stuff but it's true they can even get out of trouble you know like not getting you know with the law for example you know not having to be as responsible for the power that we've given whether we're aware of or not to people who have a certain standard of or who meet the standard of beauty that is socially accepted right now because obviously it changes and it changes based on where you are but here in the West we have certain standards of beauty but if you do happen to have those then this is what you're vulnerable to you're vulnerable to falling into vanity first and foremost right and then becoming abusive with that power that you have where you just start looking at people by those you know in that way where you look down at them because they're not as beautiful as you are and you're very much aware of your power and you see this happen all the time a lot of celebrities a lot of people who are again praised for their beauty and how they behave or behave towards other people is very clear that they have arrogance right I mean you can see it if you just follow some of these influencers and these fashion you know people in fashion they definitely carry themselves as if they're better and they wear certain brand names and they look down at people who don't dress a certain way it's just a clear issue the fifth type of arrogance is that which stems from having wealth the affluent are notorious for showing contempt for those of lesser means this is not to say that all wealthy people exhibit this disease there are generous men and women who recognize the source and responsibility of wealth however they tend to be the exception so again if you have wealth and you only you know socialize with people in your status and you don't really you know you're not open to going or to having relationships with people who who are not of the same status or just you know you're just the way that you you carry yourself the way that you walk around the way that you you know the places you go to a lot of it has to do with you know how you think of yourself if you refuse to eat at a certain restaurant for example because it's not to your standard right or you don't stay in certain hotels or cities or you just don't visit certain places because you think it's beneath you or below you it's likely because you come from a high privileged life and that's what you're used to so you might not outwardly or say those things but it might be something in your mind that you need to deal with in terms of do you look down on people who are better than other people right the sixth type of arrogance is based on physical strength a very strong man once approached the provisionalism and challenged him to wrestle the provisionalism agreed and the provisionalism threw him down to the ground twice the man was astounded and declared I've never been thrown to the ground his arrogance had been rooted in his personal strength which he thought none could match again when it comes to vanity you see a lot of people focusing on going to the gym, bulking up and I think more maybe among men this is an issue of physical strength and displaying their strength walking around a certain way but it is a form of arrogance if you do think that men who are not as athletic or can't do as many sit ups and push ups as you can are lesser than you right and there are some men who believe that that they look down on other men when it comes to their athletic abilities because they perceive themselves as stronger and therefore better so it's a form of arrogance and again it's something that is so pervasive in our society that people don't even wouldn't even maybe recognize it as an issue like what's the big deal he worked hard for it you know he goes to the gym he's committed but it's more the attitude that one has because any blessing that Allah has given you you have to not attribute it to yourself so when you start attributing it to yourself you increase in arrogance and then you also look at other people as though they aren't as good as you because if they were they would match you somehow right so you're forgetting that Allah distributes right and if he's giving you an advantage or something it's from him and if he's withheld that from other people that's also from him but not to you know make it a matter of you versus them because that's when your ego gets in the way and you become arrogant and then you start abusing and you know mistreating people or just looking down at them even again if this is these are thoughts you have internally you don't necessarily speak to people a certain way or treat them a certain way you could just think these things so that's the other part of arrogance that we have to be mindful of is the thoughts that you have in your own head so if you again have a vanity issue where you're beautiful or you you're strong and you see someone who's not attractive and weak and maybe out of shape do you look down on them you know do you look at them with disgust and repulsion a lot of people who who have these you know they do that's just a fact the seven type of arrogance is due to possessing an abundance of something an example of this is a teacher having many students and thus regarding himself as being better than the other teachers who have fewer students the same is true with those who boast of having many friends especially those in so called high places are pretty relevant when it comes to our again world today with social media right there are people who definitely look to themselves you know and see how many followers they have how much how much social media influence they have as a means of being better you know as a means of I'm more popular I have more friends or I have again more friends in high places I know more celebrities you know people with power therefore I'm better and again like I said these aren't things that someone has to necessarily verbalize it's just their own internal thoughts but if you have these thoughts it's a sign of kibbut it's a sign of arrogance the eighth type of arrogance is linked to having knowledge this type of arrogance is particularly insidious since knowledge is a great honorable matter however a knowledgeable person may become deluded into believing himself to be superior over others due to the veneration shown to him so again if you're someone who Allah has given knowledge to and this doesn't have to be necessarily religious knowledge but in any capacity if you just have a brilliant mind and there are much how many brilliant people amongst us in our community you know who are good in their studies and who have advanced because of their intellects but if your intellect leads you to again think of yourself as better than other people and you look down on them as being you know dumb or just you know below you and beneath your intelligence then you'll treat them a certain way you talk to certain people differently you know you don't have the same rapport with them that you would maybe someone that you deem as intellectually superior or at least at the same level so it's a very common common type of arrogance especially in our area that we live in there's high success people people who've really done a lot in terms of personal accomplishments so they can fall into this easily where they do start to look down on people of different social status or class or because I've done so much and that's the root cause of arrogance is that it's all about I and you attribute your gifts or blessings or skills or whatever to yourself and that's why it's so dangerous so these various A qualities may sow the seeds of arrogance God created humanity and has bestowed human beings with more blessings than he has given the rest of his creation however blessings are coupled with responsibility the intellectual and volitional capacities of human kind are great responsibilities so just remembering that everything Allah has given us all those blessings they also come with a certain expectation from us that we distribute for example if we have wealth we share that wealth if we have knowledge we share our knowledge and we do good with whatever Allah has given us but if it's just a matter of using those things for your own benefit and then also attributing those things to yourself then clearly you're arrogant and you need to work on this on page 115 Imam Maulud says that the key to avoiding or removing this disease is to know yourself your origins and your ultimate return the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said I am the best of the children of Adam and I am not boasting his honor was entirely based on his servitude to God the exalted not on wealth lineage power or authority whoever is humbled for the sake of God God elevates in rank haughtiness and gratitude cannot coexist in one vessel God increases in goodness those who are grateful the station of arrogance invites only humiliation and then he goes on to say Imam Maulud says humility by nature leads to gratitude for when one is humbled before God the exalted only then does one see the vast mercy God bestows upon his creation even upon liars and disbelievers so you know again just realizing that by knowing who you are knowing the origins where you came from where you're returning and that ultimately you know everything comes from Allah subhanahu maulud this is how you can get rid of this disease of the heart and invite more humility to your heart which leads to gratitude he goes on to say talk about moderation right that we should when we're being humble we should have humility but not to the point where it leads to us being humiliated and know the difference right you know humility before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is virtuous and we should have that humility before his creation but we should certainly not let ourselves be abased in front of others mistreated or humiliated before people so that's the last and final section where he talks about that alright so we are on page 117 we're going to continue with displeasure with blame I'll read from the poem displeasure with blame is a well-known disease of the heart concerned with people's opinions and desiring their praise and displeasure at their criticisms are a barrier from achieving the station of excellence in worship overcoming that barrier is through the realization that there is no benefit or harm unless it comes from God the possessor of all dominion exalted and majestic as he or what is prohibited from this disease is what leads to the prohibited just as Imam al-Razadi has elaborated the perfection of sincerity is that you do not give notice to any praise or blame that emanates from people so this disease the next disease of displeasure with blame, blame is not something that people naturally embrace it runs against human nature to love it however the problem occurs when fear of blame is coupled with the urgent desire for praise and approval by others which is often the case being concerned with creation's opinion places a barrier between a person and the station of excellence in worship so you know this is something I think I personally we see it a lot because people are no longer willing to put themselves on the line to speak up right against injustices or things that are wrong because there's going to be repercussions on them right especially maybe at work for example or socially or wherever so people are too worried about being you know looked down upon or ostracized treated differently somehow so what that does is it makes them you know not speak up when they should and it can cause you know serious harm because if we all become you know just silent observers of injustice and we're not willing to have the courage to speak up then what's going to happen to our world right we have to have people who are willing to not care about how people see them or you know about being liked by people as long as they're speaking the truth which is what the prophets did right many of the prophets they were not liked and they were not you know they were turned away they were ostracized they were you know punished by their own people because they spoke the truth but they weren't consumed by being liked that was not their priority that oh I have to have you know I have to be popular and I have to have people you know liking me or liking what I have to say I am you know a person who speaks the truth you know I'm speaking the words of God and that's all that matters so that's what we as believers also have to have we have to have that same mindset that I have to speak the truth and if that means not being liked and not being popular it's okay if I have to take a hit socially and I might not have a lot of followers or I lose friends along the way as long as I'm speaking the truth then I'm you know and again you know the way you say certain things is important you can't just you know there's etiquette and there's you know decorum and there's a way of properly speaking about issues so we have to have all of that but not to run from the truth because you don't want to be perceived as someone you know who's politically incorrect or socially you know just you know which I think is what preoccupies way too many people so if you go on to the next page on page 118 and this is where you know we're talking now about the Sahaba around the Prophet's and the companions of the Prophet's exemplified complete loyalty to the ethics of Islam many times they were confronted with having to make decisions that would evoke displeasure among the people and tribes around Medina but nevertheless the decisions they chose to make were in accordance to the teachings of the Prophet's the more that one worries about how one's decisions will be received by people the thicker the veil becomes with regard to God and his guidance so again it comes down to your priorities if your priority is the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala above everybody and everything else then this won't be an issue for you but if you're too worried about how people see you and how like you know liked you are then it's going to make you compromise your beliefs and that's the bottom line and this is what we're seeing is a lot of people have compromised their beliefs you know they don't speak up anymore there's a lot of hot topics right now you know politically that people just stay away from because it's like if I say something oh you know I'm going to hear it from so and so I'm not going to be invited to so and so's you know whatever party this year they're not going to like me you know if that's your priority then okay but if your priority is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala his pleasure then you don't care about that and so and on the second paragraph right there when people give up in joining what is right or even admitting that there are absolute and objective values which are not subject to the whims of mankind then evil spreads and this is what we're seeing all throughout our society we're seeing evil become normalized and become accepted and becoming become popularized because people are afraid to speak up they're afraid to talk about you know like to morally object to things you can't even mention morality anymore your look down as what's wrong with you you know religion God all of these things have been kind of you know taken off it take you know erased from from from the conversations right because you can't even reference them if you reference these things you're looked on as being that weird religious you know in the office or at school or whoever but again where's your priority let them think that of you if you're speaking the truth and you're objecting to something that's wrong you know for example when they had a couple of years ago the Fremont school district wanted to introduce certain topics you know to young children about blended families and different types of families which included certain families that many religious people objected objected to sharing that knowledge too early because it wasn't appropriate for the kindergarten and you know elementary school level we don't want children to be exposed to these concepts too early it's just not you know let us have those conversations in our own time with our own children when we have to why are you introducing that there were a handful of you know religious people from different backgrounds who went but I did I had a friend who was in that or she lives in Fremont and she was like really frustrated because she wanted she was like where are all the Muslims there's so many Muslims in Fremont right it's like heavily there's a big population of Muslims why aren't they showing up to these school meetings and protesting and saying hey we object to having this you know taught too early there you know there were a handful that showed up but her point was it wasn't enough and likely it's because again what we're talking about here people are too afraid of their image their reputations are afraid of socially compromising themselves with their coworkers neighbors peers so they don't speak up even in when it's warranted you know if you really think do young children need to learn certain topics too early and shouldn't those topics be had you know with their family right it's a very private issue and each family should be able to dictate how to frame that conversation but if the school is introducing it and they're kind of forcing it upon young children shouldn't we feel like we have the right to speak up so what would hold someone from even wanting to attend it's because we've lost again this you know focus of established the truth stand up for truth and be more concerned about Allah swt than what the people will say and if you do that Allah swt but if you don't and you continue to cower and you continue to be afraid and you continue to put what other people think of you or Allah swt then you will be you will see that in manifest as evil spreads and you'll also be held accountable for your part in that and that's what we're seeing too many silent observers and not a lot of people who are advocating anymore even within our own community yes it's an excellent point and you're absolutely right because that's the agenda you know blend us all together it's all about inclusivity diversity and we're all one but at the end of the day if you're not every message on their agenda aligns with your faith you have to be at least willing to call those things out instead of just capitulating out of fear like I don't want to be the odd one out or I don't want to look ungrateful for their support no you're just being an honest person that says like you said thank you for your consideration however this doesn't mean that I am 100% endorsing your way right or your lifestyle choices you know I still reserve the right to maintain my faith and my ethics and my values and I shouldn't be expected to you know give all of that up for the sake of inclusivity and for the sake of you know political advancement which is part of you know the agenda which is to blur all of that for people and finally sort of confuse you so that you feel like you're it's an almost active betrayal if you speak up no be a person of truth and conviction but still as you said you know be choice with your words be responsible on how you articulate yourself you don't have to be rude you don't have to you know do anything you know extreme but at least be principled to speak for the truth you know and that's what I think I said it's just not we're not seeing it as much anymore there was a time where I think people are much more proud and vocal of their faith and they could speak up about it and not just Muslims I'm talking everybody really people of faith have cowered now you don't see them coming out and speaking about their faith you know like I said to mention God is considered weird in society now because so many people are faithless they don't really believe anymore or they just you know they it's so private that you just don't talk about it publicly but why why is that okay is my question why is it okay to take God out of the conversation but then we can talk about all these other topics to me that's where you have to say that's you know that's their religion you know what I mean so their religion it's forced upon us and we have to not only welcome it with open arms but we have to endorse it but when it comes to our faith we have to hide it that's wrong that's wrong and we shouldn't buy into that and here like in the same paragraph towards the end of earthly time the world will be virtually without witnesses to truth and truth itself will be scarce no one will defend it God protect us from that but you know I look to what's going on now and I'm already seeing it I think about the future like what what's going to happen in 10, 15, 20 years for our children is anybody going to defend Islam at all or we're just going to quietly I don't know I don't know what's going to happen humanity has the right to have among us witnesses to the truth those who are willing to defend the truth no matter how unpopular it may be and so on the last paragraph according to Imam al-Mulud, overcoming the fear of blame is achieved through realizing that there is no benefit or harm except by God's permission and plan so stop giving people power over you to dictate what you do and what you don't do because harm and benefit only come from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala so if you're worried that oh by saying this harm is going to come to you from the people then you're moving this reality that no harm doesn't come from the people they're they're just a means but the source if that is the case would be Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala same with the benefit right so get like be more clear that only he dictates these things this should sound familiar as it is the recommended cure for many of the diseases discussed so far two of God's most excellent names are the giver of benefit and the bringer of harm these attributes are specific to God alone no one else possesses them in the least it is only God who can benefit and only he who can permit harm if a person is worried about how others receive him then he is not aligned with reality and you know this beautiful hadith is also very healing according to hadith the prophet said be mindful of God and God will protect you be mindful of God and you will find him in front of you if you ask ask of God if you seek help seek help from God know that if the whole nation were to gather together to benefit you with anything it would benefit you only with something that God had already prescribed for you and if the whole nation were to gather together to harm you only with something that God had already prescribed for you the pens have been lifted and the ink has dried so just a really good reminder that everything our source our you know first default for needs for protection for seeking anything should always be Allah swt because ultimately he's the source of all good and if any tests are for tested in any way he's also the source but to have that awareness constantly so that way the people are removed from the equation and when you remove people from the equation it makes you more real makes you more sincere makes you more authentic and you you know you're more aligned with reality but if you always are worried about you know again how you're perceived by people what the people say with regards to anything you're bound by that you see it's like an anchor or a chain around your ankle that just will always drag you down so free yourself from that you'll find that you'll make decisions more much more you know just truthfully or sincerely because it's for Allah swt and then it goes on this does not mean that one should be reckless with his or her safety nor does it mean that one should not take precautions so you know be wise there's you know when you're speaking the truth you have to do it it's a delicate matter so you have to you know be good at you know making sure that you relay your message properly you don't compromise your safety the safety of your family don't be careless and reckless but be a person who's principled and not afraid because that's really the issue with this that you're not afraid of what people will say or how they'll think of you you realize everything comes from Allah but if you are worried about the displeasure of people or being blamed then it's a disease of the heart you shouldn't and you should want to rid yourself of that and then the last paragraph there is just a warning about what happens if you don't you know remove this disease Imam Odud says that the inordinate fear of blame can lead a person to engage in prohibited matters or to neglect obligations if one worries about how people perceive him when he practices his faith this can prevent him from performing obligations perfect example you know there's I've talked to several people who come to me and say I have a problem with prayers I can't complete all of them because I work in an environment where you know people are sometimes so I ask them did you have you asked you know your supervisor for a room I'm just a little shy you know to ask them so they end up praying all their prayers why just have that strength you have we have religious rights first of all which is a great blessing right you can't be discriminated against for your faith but a lot of people are so afraid of being known as that Muslim in the company or identified as you know whatever that they won't even ask this is cowardice right put your you know if that person if you lose your job that's not you know Allah is the one who allowed that to happen but if you're thinking that by asking I'm going to lose my job you see where the disconnect is you're attributing it to the wrong source so have the courage and the bravery to say I need to pray five times a day this is a priority for me so I'm going to go ask my supervisor my manager and tell them I'll take some time off of my lunch my break I'm not asking for special privileges I just need a space that I can pray safely and to see what happens and half the time you know I've done it I've had to do it they're so happy to accommodate you they really are it's all in our own heads that we think they're gonna look down on us but you know you might run into someone who's not very nice but that's why you should know your rights and you should you know fight for your own rights and say I have the right to you know you can't stop me from doing this and use your you know time wisely but there's ways around it that my issue is when people have um that fear you know to even ask this is very serious because now you're not even performing your prayers on time all because of the fear of not being you know treated a certain way or liked or losing your job the fear of blame interferes with faith deeds that are done for the sake of God cannot share other intentions namely pleasing people or seeking their favor doing something for the sake of God is the manifestation of strong faith whether one receives praise or not from anyone should be entirely inconsequential so alhamdulillah alright we're doing pretty good on time huh um alright let's go to antipathy toward death let me just quickly pull up my notes I forgot I have some some notes here make sure I'm not forgetting anything okay so there's actually a term for people who have like a fear or a dread around the topic of death it's called Thanatophobia so you know this is actually I'm sorry I jumped ahead let's read the verses first before I get into that discussion so antipathy towards death is when one flees from it and becomes annoyed when it is even mentioned as if he is completely ignorant of God's statement that each soul shall taste death this is reckoned to be among the diseases of the heart so be content with what God the exalted has decreed but if one detests death not for its own sake nor for the loss of pleasures that it entails but rather out of fear of being cut off from preparing for the day of judgment by obeying God more than it is not blame worthy also if one completely entrusts his affair to his master whatever he wills either causing him to drop dead or giving him respite it contents him both of these attitudes towards death are commendable excuse me and praiseworthy either way disliking the reality of death in no way distances you from its proximity the one who constantly remembers death is ennobled with contentment with his heart's activities directed towards obedience and with prompt repentance when wrongs occur the one who is heedless of death is the opposite of all three so again this discussed or fear loathing of death it's called Thanatophobia it's really just anytime death is mentioned it just repels you and you want to not talk about it and I've definitely had this happen several times again we're living in a society that glorifies youth and condemns anything that has to do with aging or death it's hidden away from our society a lot any messages around one's death is considered morbid dark like why would you even talk about death you can't freely talk about it in a society without kind of looked at as weird so naturally people have developed just a repulsion to it but for the believer it's the opposite we shouldn't have that same attitude towards death because we don't look at death as an end for people who don't have faith or people whose faith doesn't really talk about death as much as ours does it's natural to think it's an end and I don't want to think about that because that's too sad or too it's just painful to even think about so let's not go there but for the believer we look at death as a transition it's just it's a closer it's a step closer to the akhada which is where we all want to be so we don't look at it as something negative or bad it's just a reality every single person will die so we kind of have a more pragmatic view of it right but let's read the discussion here and it refers to a strong aversion to death to the point that it's mere mention causes consternation such a person imam modud says is in denial of the reality right every soul shall taste death if you skim a little further down nowadays death is usually considered a morbid topic that is uncouth to discuss and when it is discussed it is often turned into some deadline before which people are supposed to squeeze in all their life's pleasures right the bucket list what the bucket list is so this is the only time where it's okay to mention it that oh before I go my bucket list is this this and this and it's all about just enjoying life getting as much as you can out of your every moment here on earth the muslims view should be completely different to speak about death is to speak about life and the urgency to live a faithful and wholesome life before death overtakes us so our view of speaking about death is not to necessarily focus on death itself but to be in such a constant state of remembrance of death that it compels us to be more mindful of God and to fulfill our obligations to take life seriously to treat the people in our lives well with love and to take ourselves into account right this is why we remember death so if people if you know people who are just like shut down they likely don't do those things and that's why the mention of death is troubling for them because they're not thinking on that deep level about their life and their own mortality and what that means in the bigger scheme of things they're focused more on the now or they're focused so much on their love of the dunya which is all about pleasure and just looking for every opportunity to gain more material wealth or experiences or travel or eat or just all fulfilling your carnal desires that's the love of dunya it's very related to that so when you think of death it's the end of that isn't it and that's why if I have a love of life because I love to you know consume why would I even want to think about the end of that right but if I am aware of my purpose that Allah swt created me for a reason and that death is looming over my head literally every minute of every day and I don't know when that moment will come then that makes me take my life more seriously which doesn't mean you can't have fun and you can't be a person who who's light and invites levity into their lives no be a person but everything has a time and a place and that certainly shouldn't be your purpose is to look for entertainment and amusement and laughter and fun fun fun fun that's not the reason why you were created but you can have moments of that right so just finding that balance so here for the believer there is comfort and death for the believer is taken from an abode of difficulty and trial to one of peace and unfathomable freedom in Islam the morning period is short and should not be prolonged the irony of extending the morning period is that doing so is rooted in excessive love of dunya the more one covets this world the greater the sense of loss when a loved one dies so that's actually pretty powerful because it's a great way of coping with loss we're going to experience loss in this world we will some of us will have to bury our parents some of us may God forbid may have to bury our children or other loved ones may Allah protect us from that but whatever the case may be if you understand that this world is temporal and we're all in the same trajectory we're all going to die and I need to let go of my attachment to the morning process or that grief and work on that in terms of just being surrendering to the will of God because I know that it's not over there's more to our purpose than just being buried six feet under and that's it we have the next chapter and that is what I'm looking forward to and that is eternal and inshallah I have hope that I will be gathered with my loved ones in eternal bliss that's faith that's iman that's having conviction in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is that you look always with those that positive eye but if you're doubtful of whether or not you're gonna see your loved one again and you're not so sure and your iman is sort of being tested then it prolongs the grief for you right so it's just something to consider may Allah protect us again death is certainly a tribulation or the loss of a loved one is many times a tribulation and here everyone experiences the loss of a loved one in the Prophet's life said he wept but also praised God the source of life and death people who have strong faith in God and in the afterlife tend to handle death well and also handle calamities and tribulations well so again it's a measure of your faith how you can cope with those things because you know that there's more you can gradually move on but that's not to say you shouldn't allow yourself to grieve allow yourself but don't let it overtake you and paralyze you from living life which unfortunately happens to a lot of people and on page 122 the second paragraph the one who remembers death is ennobled by certain characteristics which include contentment and a lack of covetousness so if you remember death instead of run from it there's all these other benefits that you actually start taking on really good qualities and virtues mainly being content and you lack covetousness you're not you know wanting all the time contentment is a treasure that is never exhausted he also prayed oh God provide for my family with what suffices them and grant them contentment with it the wealthy soul is one that is content this contentment is not the kind that originates from stupidity or not knowing any better it is contentment that is informed by knowledge and by reflection on death and its meaning second the remembrance of death gives one energy to achieve good deeds wealth and sons are the ornaments of the life of this world while enduring righteous deeds are better with your lord in reward and better in hope and again because you start to take your life more seriously you pursue good deeds more you're actually looking to how can I get closer to Allah how can I make sure that I end in a good state and that I am raised inshallah with in a good state all of that you're preparing investing in your future because you're so aware of these realities because you'll become more charitable you'll start giving you'll do more good deeds you'll read more you start taking your deeds more seriously because you're so aware that death is imminent and I need to take whatever time I have on this world seriously third the remembrance of death and gender seeking repentance when one slips or errors penance rectifies wrong action suffering death when one lives with his realization he or she becomes prompt in seeking God's forgiveness if you're aware of death just ask anybody who you know or who you may have known who was given a diagnosis of a fatal illness why do those people become so much more aware of themselves and take themselves seriously because they have that awareness of their own death that could happen 2, 3 years from now so it makes you someone who is less likely to hurt other people or to fall into wrong action but if you do, you at least may Allah forgive me please yalla forgive me so you become more habituated to seeking God's forgiveness more because again you're so aware of death our problem again in this world is because it's so distracting and we do have false sense of security in our youth in our health that we don't think about death anymore that we become heedless which is why this whole coronavirus thing is so interesting because everybody is suddenly panicking and I think people are really the first of all securing themselves clearing out all of the hand sanitizers and soaps and wipes and everything else off the shelves and stores I'm sure there's also a little bit more reflection happening about life and you know should I do this should I not do that you start taking your choices a little bit more seriously you're factoring in other people maybe more because in the absence of these things when they awaken us to our reality we fall into heedlessness and we become very self absorbed very selfish with our choices but suddenly something like this happens and all of a sudden we're waking up so there is a blessing in disguise sometimes to these things right and that's why we have to just put our trust to Allah okay alright so the heart is going to be in okay we still have time so we'll go to oh you have a question yes you know I think you want to give people hope right especially if they're grieving and so it's if they're a believer inshallah we should always have that hope for them and make that offer them we certainly don't know where anybody's going nobody has that knowledge but if your intention is to offer that as a way of you know just giving someone consolation and making them feel better with their loss it's not a bad thing to say you know inshallah may Allah give them you know you know you can always frame it that way as a dua instead of a firm statement I think that's more responsible just that that's what you wish for them as opposed to they are yeah yeah that's a very western thing yeah I think if Muslims are adopting that's a western thing because that's a you know like rest in peace that's that's more I think you know popular in this culture but like traditionally Muslims I think avoid making declarative statements because those things are only in the knowledge of God you know and we shouldn't do that about anybody we should just hope for that's a good point alright so page 123 we're now talking about obliviousness to blessings among the faults of the soul is obliviousness to blessings it's root lies in inattentiveness to the statement that whatever blessings you have are from God by simply remembering this and keeping in mind other verses of admonitions such as he does not change and if you show gratitude then this chronic disease can be excised from you so this is a lack of understanding and acknowledgement and disregard that whatever blessings you have are from God this is verse in the Quran chapter 16 verse 53 the blessings that come to us night and day are beyond numeration as the Quran reminds these blessings come in all forms what we can see and touch by way of material goods food clothing shelter wealth and the like as well as what we cannot see such as safety friendship love health and protection from harm and calamity the Quran begins with the phrase translated as in the name of God the merciful the mercy giving according to some scholars merciful refers to the giver of the major blessings while mercy giving implies the giver of subtle blessings which are not perceived until they are removed for example we link thousands of times in a day without thought there are people however who require artificial lubrication because their tear glands do not function there are countless blessings related to the eye let alone other aspects of our lives such as our ability to walk in balance without needing to consciously stimulate dozens of muscles required to take one step our thumbs permit us to do what most creatures cannot attempt God has made food delicious and flavorful instead of bland he has also given us dignity in our nutrition which is a tremendous blessing especially when one considers the way carnivores devour their prey while we cannot count our blessings we are commanded to be grateful for them so subhanallah all of those things and so much more that we unless you actually sit as an exercise of gratitude which some people do recommend doing to keep a gratitude journal because it will force you to recognize the blessings of Allah that you are given either on a daily basis or just since birth that you might not even be aware of you will become forgetful right and then if that forgetfulness continues then it leads to this where you are just totally oblivious and you are not even recognizing that anything and everything good that we have is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the source of every blessing is from God and that's why it's a disease of the heart because you either aren't aware of that at all or you falsely attribute it to yourself or other people it's like this is what it leads to when you become oblivious right that you start to think of things not as they are the fact that the Quran has been revealed to tell us to reflect on these blessings is in itself a great blessing for without guidance the human being cannot be on his own determined excuse me for without guidance the human being cannot on his own determine out how to live to deny God's blessings can lead to the right disbelief and denial of God the exalted so again that's the same point that the more you continue to be oblivious to the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you will deny God eventually and that's what happens to so many people that they they've just erased God from their lives and their minds because they don't attribute blessings to him at all they don't look at their lives their health, their wealth, their material goods as coming from God they look at it from their parents or themselves or their bosses or whoever else has somehow impacted their life and so as you keep doing that then yeah God just isn't in the equation anymore and you forget him and then eventually religion and faith become irrelevant because you don't feel like there's a need for it and that's what we have now we have a world where people are increasingly just they don't recognize his blessings and then it leads to denial and disbelief so that's the danger of this disease is that this is what it leads to on the next page on 125 the third paragraph there it says those who are ignorant see only short term relief as a blessing and disregard the benefits of patience temporary discomfort on the other hand knowledge opens the eyes to the long term benefits which last forever so again it's just talking about if you're aware of the blessings in your life and that you might not have everything that you want but be patient because patience is awareness that this world again is temporal it's short I'm not putting all my expectations here so I'm going to be patient you know with whatever God's given me or withheld from me you have a more realistic view of what's happening but if you're someone who is in denial of that then you're looking only at short like immediate gratification immediate satisfaction and so your lens becomes very myopic you're just looking at the dunya and you're stuck here so an intelligent person sees the bigger picture and they realize that there's again much more beyond this realm so there's a lot more there and then on the page 126 how to look at the blessings in your life blessings are either roots or branches roots include faith Islam health safety and well-being the branches are money clothing shelter and the like according to the Quran the children of Israel disputed with the prophet among them over the choice of Saul as their king because he was not a man of great wealth however their prophet told them that God has given Saul knowledge and strength which are blessings greater than wealth so actually seeing again what's more important a root or a branch right branches can fall and break easily roots are very deep and they hold and they have so much more function and they they're really established right they're rooted so to not to see that wealth or to not have the understanding that knowledge is above wealth right is again a problem that many people have where their priorities are off and they're deluded by the dunya so they don't see something so obvious that a person who has knowledge of God and is aware of their purpose is far better than someone who just has material wealth right but it's inverted now we're living in a world where everything is upside down because people are praised much more for wealth and status and material goods or material wealth that whatever how big their homes are if they have a plane if they have cars you see the celebrity influence right or the you know influence of fame and exorbitant wealth and living lavishly that stuff is very praised in this culture whereas people of knowledge like teachers let's look at you know our teachers are given nothing practically you know in terms of salary and compensation and they do some of the hardest work on earth like to actually help cultivate young minds and prepare them for their futures parents have hard time dealing with one two three children imagine classrooms of 30 kids or more that you're responsible for every five days out of the week eight hours or more every day it's a huge responsibility but we treat our teachers and educators as insignificant you know they're just they're not respected and that's why you have a collapse of authority right in our society they're not respected anymore and half the time they're disciplining in their classrooms so knowledge is just undervalued and then you know wealth and celebrity is overvalued and there's this imbalance right this creates this total imbalance so you have to know how to see the blessings that God's given you in their right you know like context that to have deep faith that's a root right I'd rather have that than just have something external like money, clothing and the like so the Prophet's awesome once asked a man do you know what the completion of a blessing is and the Prophet's awesome told him entering paradise the best of blessings are those connected with entering paradise that right there whatever blessing you have look at what's going to lead you to Jannah if that's the one that you want to value more not other things right faith patience, good character swiftness and doing good promptness and worship are blessings from God and they are everlasting Islam itself is the completion of God's blessings upon humanity this day I've perfected for you your religion and I've completed my blessings upon you and I've chosen Islam for you as your religion the ornaments of this life include houses furnishings, clothing and the like the more one acquires of these blessings the more he will be accountable for the Prophet's awesome said that the meat, dates and cool water that we consume are of those things we will be asked about even the sandals on our feet so all of these these are privileges right and this is why we have to look again at our the lifestyles we have and really realize we're not just blessed but we're given abundance more than most people in the world but that abundance comes with responsibility that we have to know we're going to be accountable for right we'll be asked about how we used those privileges or those you know our wealth or whatever we were given were we truly grateful for those things or did we just kind of expect it the entitlement which is a big problem sometimes we can we get very entitled and we forget and that's why we have to teach as parents we have to teach our children you know not to take things for granted if you cook them a meal and they don't want to eat it because it's not you know good enough for them you can't go okay let me go make you a brand new meal no it's like the worst thing you do but you see parents do this all the time they give in to that sense of entitlement and they have to make a special meal for that one really picky eater no no and no children will eat if they're hungry and you indulging their nefs that way is not teaching them to be appreciative of the blessing of home made food by mothers hands or fathers hands you know while where other children barely get to eat anything cooked they have frozen meals all the time or no meals at all right so you have to give that perspective to your children to say eat what's in front of you say Bismillah be grateful for it this is a fuel for your body and you know but I think this entitlement culture is so pervasive now a lot of people fall into this so and then they wonder you know why their kids aren't grateful you know did you teach them that you know you have to teach them all times say Bismillah say Alhamdulillah follow up with them whenever they get anything recognize Allah take yourself out of the equation sometimes we also you know put ourselves in it like I work so hard to make you that I bought you this well if they're gonna show you gratitude where's Allah no deflect it back to him Alhamdulillah if it wasn't for Allah we wouldn't have this Alhamdulillah Allah gave mommy and baba the means to be able to give you this Alhamdulillah I was feeling good today and I was able to cook you this meal Alhamdulillah Allah gave me that you know always direct it back to Allah so that you're not in the picture because you know what one day you're not gonna be in the picture and you want to make sure that they're equipped right with that strong faith to carry them through when you're not there for them and Allah is always gonna be there to be Zahid the last paragraph an ascetic does not always mean a lack of material possession there is asceticism of the heart in which one is not attached to the material world and is indifferent to it in other words a person's character and level of faith will not change if he loses his wealth that is the sign of a Zahid however if one falls apart and plunges into despondency when losing something valuable it shows an inordinate attachment to worldly life so just not having that attachment kind of seeing if something breaks it's dunya it's okay I'm still fine Alhamdulillah there are people like that they'll get into a car accident and they're not they don't care about the car is everybody okay? Alhamdulillah we're all good then there are other people who just can't get over the fact that their car is totaled and it's gone and they're that's what their main priority is it's like yeah okay we're good but still my car think about what just happened you just quote unquote cheated death Allah spared you death and he spared you a horrible car accident that maybe could have left someone with lifelong problems Alhamdulillah everybody's intact everybody's good let's be grateful and not worry about the car the car can be replaced right? that's the kind of perspective that we need and just the ability to detach ourselves from whatever worldly possessions we have okay so we have Alhamdulillah we're getting close oh we have one more yay look at this in the last class and we're finally on we're on we're on schedule here yeah we're on a roll Alhamdulillah so the last disease is derision as for derision tend to it with the same treatment used for arrogance and with the knowledge that one's purpose in derision is to humiliate someone yet by doing that a person actually humiliates himself with God and is recompensed with misfortune also treated by knowing the severe warning that has come in Sahih Muslim about showing contempt for any Muslim so this disease derision is ridiculing people making jest at their expense Moses alaihi salam told his people that God had commanded them to sacrifice a cow they replied are you mocking us? Moses alaihi salam then told them I seek refuge in God from being ignorant hence mocking people is a form of ignorance whether it is lampooning, caricaturing or name calling humor and levity are important in human life but levity as a way of life and spiritual heart furthermore the laughter and amusement at the expense of the dignity of others is wholly inappropriate although it is the staple of the comedians of our day this is a big problem in our culture because a lot of times comedians or people who are famous they've become famous by ridiculing and mocking other people and we're consuming it especially detrimental I do a lot of work with teens and youth talking about the dangers of this type of culture of pranks doing things that are you wait for someone who is unsuspecting to walk by and then you trip them or you do something terrible and exploit someone's vulnerability for a laugh and you get it on video and whatever platform you post it on for likes and shares it's really despicable but it's so everywhere like I just recently wrote a post last on Sunday almost a week ago I downloaded because I heard from so many teens about this app called tiktok I don't know how many of you are on it or know about it but it is horrible it's probably one of the most toxic things I've ever seen in my life but a lot of them have to do with this it's ridiculing people and sometimes unsuspecting people kids will post videos of their parents yelling at them for something and they're just laughing listen to my mom going crazy about whatever it is you put the dishes in the sink she has no idea that her private moment in her home is being uploaded for millions of people to potentially watch and laugh at or grandparents it's just unbelievable that these kids are getting away with it I don't know what kind of culture family dynamic would be okay with that type of behavior this is acceptable for example there's this terrible thing where I saw a couple of videos like this they hold up a water bottle to their parents and the parents don't know what they're doing what do they want to do and they just squeeze it and it explodes all over their face why is that okay that is not okay that's terrible and sometimes the parents are like and then they cut off the video so you don't really know what happens after that I imagine there's a lot that happens after that that's okay to do and you see all these hundreds and thousands or millions of likes because it's okay it's funny to get your parents and humiliate them that way and then put it up for everybody to watch or have this ridiculous thing with Mentos and soda grandma put this in the bottle and that's like a total chemical reaction it sort of explodes in their face it's just really horrible things these are pranks it's made to be like funny but no if it's at the expense of someone who's innocent who doesn't know it's not funny but unfortunately this is again something that is so popular in this culture I'm sure you guys remember that show on MTV that got very popular and it's kind of where it started the Jackass it was a very popular show it was the entire show was pranking innocent people on the street random people okay and by everybody because we're encouraging it if you're gonna like and follow people who do that you're saying it's okay to do that but at what point do we stand up and go no that's wrong to do that you can't prank people and Islam it's haram to actually scare people for fun and kids need to know that it's not funny to hide in a closet or under the bed and wait for your mom and then you know try to scare her but if the popular culture cartoons and film make it like oh it's funny then you think it's funny but no we have wisdoms in our faiths that don't let people ridicule other people but also you know someone's heart could stop like if you did that I mean imagine you could kill someone who had a heart condition that is not funny so I think we just have to have a conversation around this because it's such a serious problem but also you know comedians a lot of celebrities this is what they do they advance their careers by taking down other people and mocking either groups of people like races you know culture they'll do a lot of impersonations or things like that where they're mocking or they'll take down individual people so derision is a very common disease of the heart in our world today Imam al-ud says that the cure for the psychology and practice of mockery is similar to that of arrogance since a person who mocks another most likely sees himself as superior to his victim Ali ibn Abi Talib said do not belittle anyone for he may be a saint of God even if one sees a man inebriated and bellicose so drunk drunk and angry vomiting in the street one should not ridicule him for one does not know what his future holds Imam al-Qurtabi said when he was bowing down to idols in Mecca Omar ibn al-Khattab was still beloved to God only God knows the seal of people and their destinies a Moroccan proverb says never mock any creature of God for it might be beloved to he who created it so just having removing this arrogance where you think you can look down on people or mock someone or presume anything about them because you don't know someone's end you can't presume anything about anybody in the moment because in that moment they might be doing something that you don't agree with but as an individual who they are is only known to Allah swt and so just to avoid falling into that habit absolutely no there really is you have to believe that it's a good point because he's so mocked and made fun of and ridiculed and we shouldn't do that you see Muslims all the time calling him really terrible names mocking his hair things that he had no control over his face his skin color and then everybody's laughing at it but it's not right he's a human being leave him to Allah swt you can hate or dislike policies stick to the subjects you know what I mean? but when you start mocking a person's physical features and the way they speak it says more about you and that's the problem it doesn't look good because these are not things that Muslims who fear Allah and who understand these things do because they just it's not proper could you imagine you don't do that in our history you find where anybody did that openly where they would mock another person like a person of you know like a scholar or anybody that we know was held in high esteem at any point in our history did they do that do they openly mock another person based on their physical appearance never you don't see it because it's not something that a believer does did you have a question? sure they do exactly right it's an excellent reminder because you're right a lot of times we children learn from modeling us and if we're not mindful of how we speak and how we frame things and how we say things then we teach them that it's okay to do this and this is not acceptable we should again stick to issues and policies if we have issues with someone like him but not to deriding him and mocking him as a human as a person right? and he's just one example but I think in general it's just not the behavior of people who are mindful of God they don't do things like that so yeah this is there's a lot more here about just stories that are relevant to this so we'll just read the last paragraph here people can be transformed the opponents of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam were particularly vicious against Muslims hind actually bit into the liver of the Prophet's uncle Hamza when he was martyred at the battle of Ahud however she later became Muslim and hence became a companion of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam a member of that special generation of humanity in fact she even narrated hadith that could be found in the well-known compilations repentance is a recourse that the lord of the worlds has given humanity reflecting on the ethic that the Qur'an communicates to us in the aforementioned passages reveals that there is strength in dealing nobly with people it is simply a better way to live the treatment for derision is to realize that the essence of mockery is to humiliate people those who mock people in this life shall be mocked in the hereafter for it is a divine law that God recompenses people with the like of what they have done so that's the treatment for it is know that the essence of deriding people is that you're trying to humiliate people but if you want to protect yourself from this remember that whoever humiliates people in this life will humiliate you in the next life may God protect us from that because we definitely do not want to be amongst that group so we have a few minutes before the heart and our class was scheduled to end a little later because there is a couple more sections here the comprehensive treatment for the heart beneficial actions for purifying the heart and the root of all diseases of the heart did you guys were you able to read any of that so we can take some questions if anybody has any questions or comments right now break for the heart and then come back and address those other sections sounds good any questions any comments anyone's to share yes yes yes absolutely yes for all blessings our gifts everything that we have in this life whether it's material or physical the health that we have everything we should see it as a blessing and a gift from Allah that he's given to us but as was mentioned many times with all of that comes responsibility so it's not just for us to have it and possess it and hoard it and keep it but to utilize it for the greater good right to serve his creation and to draw nearer to him so it's not enough just to recognize it as a blessing you have to use it right because there's a lot of people who have let's say wealth but if you're not using your wealth for good and you're hoarding it then this could actually you know you'll be held accountable for it so you have to recognize it but then also use it for for good as well in whatever way you can knowledge if you've been given knowledge don't just keep it to yourself right speak up teach your family teach your loved ones, teach your coworkers a lot of people shy away again you know we talked about that a little bit before shy away from speaking about their faith because they feel like oh I don't want to be looked down upon but actually a lot of people are open to learning and you don't have to do it in the spirit of preaching to them or proselytizing you know where you're trying to convert people you shouldn't do it that way but you should teach them for example a big common joke that I always hear is about being caught with your foot in the sink making will do and then people try to talk their way out of that why? why talk your way out of that or not say anything why not say oh I'm performing ablution because as a Muslim I have to pray five times a day and there are certain parts of my body that we are our bodies that were required to wash and they are like teach them that will be so much better for that individual the next time they see someone with their foot in the sink or their wife or husband or daughter or child or whoever comes and says something to them right about it they can then now educate but if you're just like uh oh you know as if you did something wrong and you don't want to teach them or even talk to their co-workers about like Ramadan why not you know be open about fasting instead of just hiding it and just you know you go to the office party and everybody's offering you stuff you know it's okay I have a stomach ache why? like but there are people who will do that they'll go to lengths and lie instead of just being honest because they're too afraid of being outed as the Muslim I mean that's a whole topic but I think the point is is whatever blessings Allah has given you to recognize it first and foremost from him but then to use it to inform to educate to help to benefit other people the purpose is the same for every single person every person every jinn every human being we all have the same purpose to know our Lord and to worship him as he deserves to be worshiped that's why we're created all of the other things that manifest in terms of our individual lives right if we want to you know cultive like go down a certain field or path or whatever that is just an addition right to our main purpose the main purpose is to worship Allah swt if you want to go into medicine and go into science or go become a teacher and want to get married you want to have children you want to stay home you don't want to get married you don't want to have children whatever your personal choices are about the way you live life are secondary right but your purpose the reason why you were brought to this planet and you know given life is the same as everybody else's which is to worship him and to to know him and to worship him so yeah we all have that same purpose and that's why it's our job as Muslims to speak up and teach people because there's a lot of people who don't know their purpose who have been lied to who have been you know falsely you know led down a different way that tells them they you know have that it's all meaningless right this is what like nihilism is right this is what atheism leads to there's no purpose we're just here because we were fish and we evolved over time and now we're human beings so they have a very like you know like there's no purpose so you're just gonna die you're gonna die just okay they feel so justified in doing whatever they want to do because if there's no purpose there's no consequences right if there's no God there's no consequences to my actions so I can do whatever I want to do this is all shaitan because that's what he wants people to do he wants people to live without purpose so when you actually share your faith with people and share that you do have a purpose and that it's it's so beautiful because it's you know it offers so much and meaning to your life right and you can share that with people they might have never heard that from anybody in their life imagine being raised in a family where there's never been faith you know now we have generations of people who are like agnostic atheists we never we they just celebrate you know Christmas or for fun but they don't have a concept of faith like that there's you know they don't have that so maybe you'll be the first person to even introduce that idea to them and it'll plant a seed and inshallah maybe Allah will guide them absolutely it starts with getting knowledge but also to know like the Prophet said for example which is like teach even if it's just one ayah so he's letting us know that we can all be teachers even with limited knowledge because shaitan might want to thwart you from benefiting people just like what I said earlier about the Quran you're like oh I don't know tajrid Arabic I shouldn't even read it out loud well what happens to you you don't have no relationship with the book of Allah whereas if you say you know Allah knows my intention and I'm trying to grow in my knowledge and I'm trying to you know benefit other people then I will teach what I know and if I don't know by the way it's okay to say I don't know but I will find out for you because sometimes that barrier is it prevents you from speaking up but if you were to just say you know what I'll do my best to answer and that's why qualifiers in the beginning of conversations are important like I'm not an expert I'll answer whatever questions you have but just know if I don't know anything I will check it and then come back you know and let you know but I think you're right in the sense of this pressure that if I'm not an authority in Islam I should never speak up and I think that is really west west of from shaitan because he doesn't want you to teach anything he'd rather you stay silent and just you know let people go in and out of your life without feeling the impact of your faith by telling you that then for you to teach them you know give them little you know bits here and there that at least give them something so I say teach what you know but always that door open that lets that person know if I don't have an answer to your question I can certainly do like ask people who do know and come back and tell you so it takes the pressure off of you right that you're not expected to know everything but does that mean that your faith doesn't have the answers no right like the answers are there I just might not know them but at least I'll come back and I mean as someone who's been teaching and publicly speaking for a long time it's happened to me several times even now just recently I was at even in this class you know how many of you have asked me a question and I say I don't know but I'll ask because we can't expect to know every single thing that people ask of us but the empowerment comes from knowing inshallah there are people who have knowledge and I can seek out the answers from them right but thank you for that point because it is a valid issue that I think a lot of people just need to be empowered with don't let and I think that's kind of also a sense of a false humility or not false humility what's the blame-worthy modesty right we talked about blame-worthy modesty because it prevents you from doing good so get over that shyness of like oh I'm gonna look like I don't know and say it's okay I don't know there's imamadik was known to be very commonly say I don't know it was one of his you know so it's okay it's actually a measure of your intelligence to recognize what you know and what you don't know did you have a question was that on the ground yes absolutely of course it's aligning yourself with the prophetic model right because yes of course no ibadah is ritual actions but it's also becoming more as close to his example as possible because he was the perfect worshipper he was the perfect abd right he was thinking of Allah swt in every minute and every moment and he had that presence and he was the walking Quran so it's like just to follow his footsteps will give you that inshallah actualization so we'll stop for the heart inshallah alright bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim so we our last disease of the heart was derision and then alhamdulillah you know the book has several different sections that are very helpful just as you know to kind of summarize a lot of the points that were made so I wanted to go to comprehensive treatment for the heart and this is on page 130 so let's read those verses together a comprehensive treatment plan for the heart's diseases is to deny the self of its desires enjoying hunger keep worship vigilance in the night be silent and meditate in private also keep company with good people who possess sincerity those who are emulated in their states and statements and finally take refuge in the one unto whom all affairs return that is the most beneficial treatment for all of the previous diseases this must be to the point in which you are like a man drowning or someone lost in a barren desert and need and see no source of succor except from the guardian possessor of the greatest power he is the one who responds to the call of the distressed so imam al-ud's approach in offering the cures for these diseases is like the story of the Gordian knot of the kingdom of fragia whose king offered his dominion to whoever was was able to unravel the knot many tried and failed when alexander the great was shown the knot he pulled out his sword and cut through it diseases of the heart are like the Gordian knot and the best way to treat them is to cut through them imam al-ud completes his discussion on the various diseases and turns his attention to a comprehensive treatment plan for the heart which focuses on curbing the soul from its own excessive desires so he goes into different you know advices on how to do this the first advice he gives he says what to accomplish this he states that one must engage in hunger and then there's several different paragraphs that talk about how hunger is rooted or is oftentimes tied to developing so many of these diseases of the heart if you can't show self restraint or if you're a glutton and you indulge your base desires your carnal desires all the time which often have to do with your appetites then it leads to these diseases of the heart so being in the practice of depriving oneself through fasting and then just through general restraint will actually help curb a lot of temptations and a lot of other things that lead to developing the diseases of the heart so there's many different chapters that talk about that for example on page 132 spiritual masters traditionally have focused on hunger the goal is not to create a nation of anorexics but to cut the knot that binds self discipline we do things often out of conditioning when it comes to food many have been drilled into believing that three meals are not only normal but necessary for proper nutritional fulfillment however this is not true the caloric intake of an average American far exceeds what is needed for physiological well being as a result America is now recognized as the most obese nation on earth according to the national institutes of health and then skipping the next chapter the following one people nowadays consume much more food than ever before sorry paragraph did I say chapter again I'm constantly confusing the word paragraph in chapter people nowadays consume much more food than ever before and this is especially the case with meat in the past meat was eaten infrequently even by the affluent who had it once or twice a week the poor ate meat once or twice every year mainly around the time of eat furthermore snacking has become so common now that many do not go for more than a few hours without consuming something convenience stores and vending machines are found everywhere this abundance was unheard of not long ago all of this has virtually turned people into grazing animals which is an anathema to spiritual wellness in their study of eating habits sociologists have found that the average American has 30 food contacts a day in most traditional cultures meals were set for specific times and eating between meals was not acceptable so then you know goes on to talk further about that and if you go down to page 133 the second to last paragraph he says people who have a problem with excessive eating should start at least by lessening the portion of what they normally eat which is eating of discipline it is also advised to eat with other people for eating with guests would make a person more conscious of being a glutton also the more people who sit around a table the greater the blessings the baraka finally one should decrease the number of meals in a day it is not surprising that ima moly moly mentions hunger first among the comprehensive treatments for the heart eating is one of the most abused behaviors we are conditioned to think that hunger is sated only when we feel full one typical meal served in an average American restaurant can feed a family in West Africa so really strong points there about how to fix our relationship with food because again if we can show restraint we find that there is a correlation right the more we are able to have mastery over our nuffs and not indulge our every desire craving the more we can discipline our soul to prevent from these diseases of the hearts taking root right so the next advice he offers is the night vigil that is right at that very last sentence on page 133 if one wishes to enliven the heart then one should give it time with its lord in the stillness of the dark even if it is only two raka imam manik says to never leave the night prayer vigil even for a little time being consistent with the night prayer and all the other meritorious things is important it is better to rise at night for just 10 minutes on a regular basis than to stay up for hours one night and then sleep the next night the performance of this prayer on a patchwork basis results in little benefit so the Ahmad Zarul said it is like drilling here and there and never finding water anywhere so waking up in the middle of the night is a very important practice depending on your work schedule be wise about it if you have to get up early anyway for fajir and then from that point forward your day starts then it is wiser to schedule your awakening closer to that time so maybe 30 minutes before fajir it is still considered part of the hajjid because fajir hasn't entered it is still part of that night some people think this is like maybe a few hours after they fall asleep but that can be very disruptive to your sleep schedule and it is hard to maintain if you do that regularly you can always train yourself there are people who have done that to not be so dependent on sleep but if you want to make this a regular practice I say start always by waking up a little bit before fajir and pray with whatever you feel you can do if you are the type that as soon as you wake up you are alert and you are ready to take on the day then the habit or the Prophet said to do ten rakah he would usually do ten and then with it he would add with it as well you could do with it before and just do the ten however but trying to work your way up to that is good you could start with two rakah first and then if you feel like this isn't hard for me I can keep doing more get to that point where inshallah it becomes easy and you will see it becoming facilitated and then soon after fajir is in you pray your fajir and then you start the day and you will see the benefit of that barakah throughout your entire day it will really you will start to notice just the way that you feel you will feel the sense of serenity the sense of just safety the security that Allah swt put in your heart and inshallah those da'as that you make those intimate hours between you and your Lord when the whole world is asleep your family is asleep are very powerful and they are mustajab so it's like whatever need you have in this life that's where you take it you take it to the prayer rug in that hour and you will see inshallah either fulfill your need or replace it with something better inshallah in this life or the next life but you will feel the benefit of that so make the intention always every night before you sleep ask Allah swt to wake you up and set your alarm be proactive don't just expect it to happen without some effort set your alarm for a little bit but ask Allah to give you the strength sometimes you might want to but in that moment you get so tired it's okay tomorrow but if you keep persisting and don't give up and feel like okay I've done it a week now and I'm a loser I haven't even woken up yet I shouldn't bother don't do that keep every single morning yourself accountable and have the same need and if it takes you 2 weeks 3 weeks a month keep doing it because at some point you yourself are going to hate the fact that you keep not doing it and you will finally get up and that will be the beginning right so push yourself to it inshallah and then to make it you know really intimate obviously you know keep it private it's between you and yourself don't try to be subtle in the sounds that you make you know don't go and turn on the water and like start blowing your nose at like the loudest sound possible just you know because it's for you and Allah you know you don't wake up the whole household or the neighborhood you know and then obviously don't share it with people this is a very private thing between you and Allah so if you're someone who does it you don't share it you don't need to tell people oh yeah I'm so tired I've been up since 3 in the morning you know doing what oh you know the hadjad I was communing with my lord as I always do you don't need to brag about that it's going to take away from all of your you know barakah so keep it's a totally private thing between you and Allah and just keep it honestly if you get to that place where you do it more and more may Allah give us strength for all of us to do it regularly you will find that it becomes part of your worship that is the sweetest part of your worship because everything else is like you know you're just doing it you've got to move and there's so many distractions you know in the daytime it's like from prayer to prayer even if you're doing vikit you're always thinking about what's next but the stillness of the night right is what is sweet about that time is that there's really no rush you're not rushed you're not distracted you're not you know waiting for some phone call or meeting that's going to happen in a few minutes or your child's going to come home from school you know all those things even if we don't mean to they can distract us from being present but when you have no distractions in that moment then you can actually be present right and that's where there's so much power in that so alhamdulillah we should all inshallah strive for that on a regular basis and then the next paragraph spread peace, feed needy people and pray at night when others are asleep and you will enter paradise with ease in the quran the prophet's night prayer is associated with the elevated rank he shall be granted by God and in a portion of the night rise therein for night prayer an extra active devotion for you it may be that your Lord shall raise you to a praiseworthy station God the exalted commends those who deprive their sides from their beds resist sleep which the body loves and rise for prayer and that's quran chapter 32 verse 16 it is not our tradition for one to be excessive in spiritual practices such that one is deprived of sleep to the point of becoming psychotic or deprived of food to the point that one's health is damaged on the contrary one should learn to control the soul's desires and not be controlled by them the prophet's night said that our bodies have rights over us they are food drink and companionship so you know kind of just finding a balance this isn't about total deprivation and harm it's about the opposite it's about wanting to gain mastery over the soul so that you actually have a stronger connection to Allah swt and you actually become stronger to resist the temptations of the dunya because they're everywhere so the purpose of it is to become strong not to become weak right and so there's many different chapters that talk further about the virtues of standing for the night prayer many hadith and different stories if we go on to page 136 the next advice he gives is that last paragraph Imam Maudud mentions next the importance of silence the prophet swt said if a person is given silence he is given wisdom the tongue is a great temptation it is easy to say something that brings ruin upon its speaker learning how to control the tongue is an enormous discipline Imam Shafi said that whenever he was in a gathering and wanted to say something he would check his soul and be sure that his intentions were pure and were not to prove himself or flaunt his knowledge Imam Shafi was a man of great intelligence and encyclopedic knowledge yet he often enjoyed silence upon himself he once said I never had a debate with anyone except that I prayed to God that he make the truth appear on the tongue of my opponent so I could submit to it these are the people of Allah that kind of humility, that type of awareness so just really being in the practice of not speaking too much unless you have again something of virtue to say but you've already gone through that process of checking your intentions making sure that you're not making it for the wrong reasons all the diseases that we talked about before riyadh, wanting to be known all of those things are very dangerous to the soul and you can sometimes be tricked into thinking you're doing a good thing because oh, I'm teaching but if your intention is off it's actually bringing you harm so that's why it's so important to check the intention sometimes for example you might be in a gathering where there's other learned people there and I'm sure we've all done this we've all witnessed it but if there's a discussion happening and someone has covered a lot of the points that you would have made had you spoken first is it necessary for you to speak? right? is it necessary for you to just say oh yeah, I agree and then you reiterate every single thing they just said why did I need to do that? if it was already said in the gathering by someone else is it is it because I wanted to also say that I know that too or that I was going to say it before you but you beat me to it these are the little tricks and subtle things that the nuffs does if we become aware of ourselves we'll realize that's just a game I don't want to fall into that and it doesn't matter who said it but if it matters to me that I am associated as being the one who said it uh oh, right? I have to check myself, check my intention so these are the types of thoughts we have to have before we speak and to really try to just practice you know, and I see as well when you spend time with people who are very much you know, more experienced they have more years and more knowledge they tend not to talk very much even their answers are short you know, when they give you an answer sometimes you want more but they're giving you the minimum for a reason because they've learned this that it's just better not to keep rambling, some of us have still a problem with this because we're always looking to make sure things are clear but you know, it's a skill set that will come over time that you just start speaking a few words here, Imam Matic said about one of his students he is a good man except he speaks a month's worth of words in a day so just to know like it's not a good quality to be too verbose and you know, gregarious in some cultures it's celebrated and I think in our, in this society the more, yeah you know like you can, you know what I mean maneuver from one conversation to another it's lauded as being really a good quality but if you're over speaking and you're talking too much, you're talking over people then you have to look at it's actually not a good quality just because you're, you know, articulate and you might even have something intelligent to say, if you're doing it to that point where that's, you know what people know of you and you dominate every conversation that you speak then it's not a good quality you're center stage always so step back practice more restraint and listen, learn to listen and you might find, you know more benefit in that and he talks about spiritual isolation for the purpose of reflection so this is also part of trying to maintain more silence is that you remove yourself from opportunities and socializing a lot because idle talk is, you know unfortunately very common now so sometimes we might, you know visit friends and family or in gatherings and we're there because we feel obligated to be there but if the conversations are just, you know idle and they're not really on anything important in a value then it can harm us so it's better sometimes to retreat and not always be at every single gathering or social event and to say, you know what I'm gonna I'd rather just stay home and you'll see that some company they end up, you end up walking away feeling worse, right when you keep some people's company because even if you didn't intend to maybe they told you some Riba or something that happened to them or they're just venting and complaining about their lives and so now you feel heavy and it's like man what a waste of my time I've even gone, you know so you have to, as you get older be very select in who you spend time with and if there's people in your life that drag you down they don't remind you of a law, they don't pick you up they don't lift you up, they don't encourage you, they don't correct you in the right way, you know but they kinda just, you know are there to, again you know, talk about whatever and lead you into these things then you have to it's better to not socialize it's better to stay away and not in a rude way you don't have to, you know turn them away, it's just a matter of being more selective so opting out of attending certain things or it's okay next time gracefully doing it gracefully and then he says the next advice for the overall treatment is in that third paragraph says next in the overall treatment of the heart Imam Ulud speaks of the importance of keeping the company of good people which is God's command you who believe you're God and be among the truthful ones it is astonishing how people can influence others simply by being in each other's company Imam Al-Hadad said the company one keeps has major effects it may lead to either benefit and improvement or harm and corruption depending on whether the company is that a pure and eminent people or those who are immoral and evil this effect does not appear suddenly but is a gradual process that unfolds with time so you know we talked a lot about what constitutes good company but people who truly fear Allah who in their actions in their comportment in their character you know are following the prophetic example these are people you want to keep the company of people who remind you of Allah who don't talk about other people who mind their own business very important people are doing that stuff even if they're outwardly again practicing it's not good for you to be in that company very often right or divulging their private affairs to you a lot of times especially I think with female friendships there is this really wrong notion that it's to you if you tell me really private business you know that's a measure of our closeness and our friendship that is not that is wrong if someone is expecting you to share your relationship you know with them for example I mean your marital relationship with them or just business that's private as a measure of how close they are to you like your secrets what you've done in the past mistakes you've made those are nobody's business and so that's a big red flag to not in terms of friendships stay away from people who always want to know your business because people don't ask you private questions about your life they don't none of their business and they know that and then at the top of page 138 companionship yields two kinds of impact one that drags a person down to the compost of the world and the other that points towards God the exalted and an existence that lasts forever a companion who tries to sell the ephemeral stuff of this life and makes it the substance of conversation and pursuit is dragging the soul earthward it is better beyond compare to seek out the company of those who help one achieve contentment with God when one is content little will suffice but without contentment nothing suffices so just final point about choosing your friends wisely and then number 5 Imam Maulud says that seeking refuge with God is the most efficacious treatment for all diseases of the heart Sidi Ibn Asher says the only real cure for all these diseases is to go to God with complete unconditional imploring what is meant here is urgently seeking refuge in God's protection and guidance to seek this as if one were holding on to a thread over a canyon it is begging which before God is honorable most converts to Islam have said that before they became Muslims they reached a point in their lives in which they petitioned with all their heart and emotion that God guide them in the haze of confusion and spiritual morass they literally begged for it just show me what to do afterwards it became easy in the path very clear this is what Imam Maulud is suggesting there is nothing nonchalant in this act so once you you know recognize and we've gone over now 25 different diseases once you're being honest with yourself and you recognize what diseases you have and how severe they are the severity of each one this is it you go to Allah swt and you ask Him for the strength I don't want to be diseased please help me please remove these things from my heart show me the way give me the right friends and companions help me and really petition sincerely for Allah swt to do that for you and then follow the other advices start taking those steps because everything it's all advice from people who've lived these things they know what they're talking about so when they tell us to practice restrain have more control over our nafs, don't eat as much don't be a glutton, don't indulge your nafs all the time they know what they're talking about when they tell us to wake up for night prayer when they tell us to keep good company when they tell us to increase Sadawath and all the advices we've heard it's all because there's proven it's effective it's proven to be effective to do all those things that people come out better polished versions of themselves because they're actually taking the steps to becoming a better person but again this imploring to God with that sense of desperation and real true yearning and sincerity is very important there's a lot of great content in the next section as well beneficial actions for purifying the heart a lot of it is summarizing what we've already kind of talked about so I wanted to actually move forward to the next one because this one is really key the root of all diseases of the heart that's on page 146 because again we're still talking about how these things manifest and take hold of us so it's important to see what different scholars have attributed as the root of all diseases so the comprehensive root of the heart's diseases according to Imam Maulud is love of the temporal world so the author of this poem he believes that the root disease is hubad dunya that because we love the dunya so much that the root disease is where all these other diseases stem from it actually comes from that and then he also says that this is the opinion of Imam Al-Hilali and Imam Ibn Ashir Ibn Abbas said that it was covetousness and that's just wanting you're unable to control this desire you want everything for yourself to covet there are differences of opinion regarding the mother cause of diseases of the heart but there are differences are shades of understanding rather than alternate paradigms when Imam Ibn Hashir says that it is the love of power and authority it comes down to love of the world what is power and authority other than branches of the world Imam Ibn Al-Ta'ila in this book and mentioned by name in this passage of Imam Olud's poem was a master of the science of the heart his book of aphorisms is one of the most highly regarded masterpieces in Islamic spiritual tradition his 35th aphorism in that collection reads so this is from Imam Ibn Al-Ta'ila he says the source of every disobedience indifference and passion dissatisfaction the source of every obedience, vigilance and virtue is dissatisfaction with oneself it is better for you to keep company with an ignorant man dissatisfied with himself than to keep company with a learned man satisfied with himself for what knowledge is there in a self-satisfied scholar and what ignorance is there for a learned man dissatisfied with himself nowadays there is an urgency to root out the feeling of shame there are self-help books to show how to excise this out of the soul however dissatisfaction with oneself is the very thing that causes people to reflect and reevaluate which is requisite for spiritual success shame and dissatisfaction can be moral lifesavers shame is different from self-esteem low self-esteem in which one feels contempt for himself and so then we're going to read Insha'Allah it will continue but just a point about that it's very powerful if you think about it because as he said here if one is satisfied with oneself it doesn't really make you think you need to improve on anything does it? if you're like while I'm wearing my hijab I'm praying I'm doing the best I can do I'm working, I'm a good mother I'm a good daughter, I'm a good wife you're just patting yourself on the back for every single thing that you become complacent like I'm good enough where I am that doesn't motivate you to want to be better doesn't? in anything you could have the same attitude in work or in any relationship you have so the opposite is true that when you're not feeling satisfied with yourself and it's not good enough and you think I know I can do better then you actually start to wanting to be better and wanting to do better that's why his opinion that this is the root of all diseases is so powerful because it does start with the self as long as I'm thinking that everything's fine and I'll be fine that I have no incentive or motivation to be better if I'm not happy with myself I know I can do better I'm aware of my faults and flaws and I want to get rid of them because it makes me uncomfortable then those are the motivating thoughts that are going to make you do the work so then that there are three signs of being overly content with the soul first is being sensitive to one's own rights and indifferent to the rights of others in Islam one's responsibilities preponderate over one's rights so that itself look at how our world is now everybody's worried about themselves it's the opposite, it's not worrying about other people it's worrying about yourself so this is the first sign if you're doing this word you're just consumed by advancing your own agenda advancing what's going to benefit you and you're not really looking at the benefit to other people then you clearly have this problem you're satisfied with yourself and you're too content with your own soul so the second sign is ignoring one's own faults as if one has none while being preoccupied with the faults of others so again if you're quick to point out other people's mistakes but then you have a problem when someone points out yours you can't take criticism well it offends you easily but you have no problem constantly complaining about what everybody else is doing wrong this is another sign the third sign is giving oneself too much leniency so again if you're making exceptions to rules always for yourself this is another problem where it's like oh it's okay this time I'll just skip this or I'll do it this way this time and you're like I said change rules for yourself and you're very lenient on yourself but again critical of other people this would be the third sign so and then he goes on to say that there are three signs that someone is not content with themselves so if you're content with yourself that's what you do your rights matter other people's don't you are quick to ignore your own faults but you can point out everybody else's faults and you're very lenient with yourself but maybe rigid with other people but if you're not satisfied with yourself there's also three different qualities first is when a person checks himself is self accusing and wary of his intentions so this is a good sign if you're in a situation and you're not sure about your own intentions and you're kind of doing that whole internal thought process of like oh why did I do that or was my intention pure that self check is a good sign that you're not content with yourself because just second guessing yourself is a sign that you have the humility to know that you can make mistakes and you may have just made mistakes but if you don't even think on that level and it doesn't occur to you to ever do that type of hmm why did you say that what did you do that for that kind of internal dialogue that means you don't think you make mistakes to even do that you see so it's a good habit to have to always question yourself and he says who is known for his exceptional purity said I do not declare myself innocent but the soul often commands evil except upon whom my lord has mercy one should ask oneself am I doing this for show or for the sake of God that's usually that's the line of questioning that we should have after everything we do especially in a public setting what was my intention was it so that people could recognize me doing that so that I would have praise would be seen or was it truly because I just wanted to do it for Allah and for him to be pleased with me second is being careful of the blemishes of the soul the provost I said I'm sublocated oh God do not leave me to the soul even for a blink of an eye so always being worried about what you could potentially fall into and not thinking that you're above anything that type of reality and humility is very important because if you ever think that you're too good or that you would never do something because you were raised better or differently or you know people get into a little ahead of themselves and then they judge other people right because that statement only comes after judging someone else for doing that thing right oh my God how could they I would never do that well you made a very bold statement and you're basically saying that you're better and you know and if you do that and you're very judgmental then there is you know another hadith that says before you die you will be likely afflicted with the very same thing that you were judging someone up so you have to be very careful from doing that but always kind of thinking that you are susceptible to pretty much any disease and any sin right I mean if the way for me when I think about it and I think you know people who are with the problems I said the companions some of them fell into major sins they fell into major sins they were still considered companions you know but they faltered and if here he is performing miracles clear you know people are witness to all of you know to who he is but they're still able to fall because their souls are weak then who are we to think that we couldn't fall you know into certain things it's really just you know Allah's guidance and his protection over us that protects us from our own selves so again we give the credit back to where to do which is Allah's guidance the one who's guiding us and protecting us and yalla please don't like you know remove that from me always keep me guided because in the absence of your guidance I can fall I likely will fall but being very aware of that the third is forcing the self to do difficult things such as as we talked about eating less spending money in charity right waking up for the night prayers all of those things that we talked about that requires disciplining the soul is a sign of a person who is not content with themselves because they realize that in order to become better I have to force I have to work against my self I can always want you know me to indulge it and to not do the difficult things but I have to actually fight that impulse and and so these are the three signs okay and just a disclaimer here being vigilant about one's own faults does not amount to self loathing or depletion of confidence in fact confidence gives one the courage to find fault in oneself a poet said I never saw a fault among the faults of humanity like the sloth of people capable of human perfection I mean that's beautiful right because it's I mean it's a warning but it's also beautiful in that it's saying that you know there's we can we're capable of actually becoming the best versions of ourselves we have that especially if we put Allah swt first and learn to prioritize but it's usually our own sloth that grants us from doing that so it's you know it puts it back on on the individual that you're capable of it you know Allah will make it easy for you you just have to fight against your own self and want it and do the actions necessary but inshallah you're capable of really being you know the best version of yourself and then so there's a lot more again amazing content here talks a lot about the remembrance of Allah swt and the importance of the kid on page 150 importance of the kid the remembrance of God there's many different chapters there this is a beautiful story about Imam Ahmad ibn hambal on page 151 at the top it is said that Imam Ahmad ibn hambal had 99 dreams about God the exalted in one of them he asked the Almighty all the things that draw a worshipper near to him which of them was the greatest he was told it was the recitation of Quran with or without comprehension he asked and the reply was with or without comprehension not understanding the language of the Quran should not borrow one from receiving the blessings in this exalted practice the authority of this position is not borrowed from the dream of a great man but it is corroborated by proofs offered by many scholars throughout the ages the only time when the Quran is not the preferred the kid is when other obligations are immediately pressing so the greatest of all the kid is the recitation of the Quran and it's recommended at the top it says there to read from the Quran itself as opposed to just reciting from memory because it involves the eyes the hands and the ears so just knowing you know this is the greatest form of the kid also on the next page he talks about other forms of the kid which is to you know make astaghfir and he goes on to the virtues of saying is increased astaghfir on saying salawat on the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so the rest of the this section just expands on on the different forms of the kid and how all of those help one to again align oneself and one's heart with with Allah to protect from these diseases of the heart so there's a lot of much of great content again I'm sure if you haven't already you can read this in the remaining weeks and get to especially the section on page 174 which I'll leave for you guys to read but it's on Ramadan and purification that's a really great section because in preparing for Ramadan you know he talks about I'll just read this first section he says the month of Ramadan is a special time for purifying oneself the greatest opportunity to implement the discussions and cures with regards to the heart in fact this is the purpose, blessing and secret of the month so everything in this book that we've been talking about be in the practice of it start you know doing the things but read that section because it's kind of like a fast track you know the month of Ramadan there's so much Barakah and blessings in it but to work on really rooting out these diseases during that month and taking these practices that we talked about first of all the hunger part is taken care of right here abstaining from food and drink so that's one but increased night prayers all those things that will help to rid us inshallah of these diseases they're facilitated in the month of Ramadan so we can work towards those things now but especially in that month we should be working hard and so read that section but Alhamdulillah we were able to finish I wanted to thank all of you for coming Alhamdulillah and this has been a wonderful seven weeks in the company of all of you I'm very honored to have conducted this class and finished it Alhamdulillah we ask Allah for guidance and for Tawfiq and implementing everything that we learned together and to increase us and our bless our homes, protect our children our families inshallah and to always keep us close to him and close to his beloved Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam I ask that you please make da'a for our beloved teacher Sheikh Hamza Yusuf who took the effort to translate this beautiful poem for us the English speaking group or people who could benefit from this Alhamdulillah otherwise you know many texts there's so many texts that are in Arabic that we don't have access to Alhamdulillah for our scholars all of them who take the time to provide you know to work on making this accessible for us so let's keep them in our da'as that this is a Sadaqa Jadiyah for him inshallah in his family and that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala increases him and protects him and all of his teachers going all the way back to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala again may Allah increase our love for him and may we align ourselves with his character inshallah in every which way I mean another book that I wanted to recommend actually because when I read it recently I was just so I had read it a while ago but I read it again and in the context of this science it's beautiful it's the introduction to the prayer of the oppressed and actually if you go on to the Zaituna College website the Renovatio which is the journal that they produce they actually took the excerpt that I was going to recommend for you and it's posted on the Renovatio's current newest edition that just came out this past week it's incredible the introduction of this it really is and it just pairs so perfectly with this book I wished we had time it's a bit lengthy otherwise I would have read it but I think it'll be better if you read it on your own so if you don't have the book you can access it the introduction from the Zaituna website or also the Sandala website they also have the entire introduction posted but you'll see when you read it how it perfectly pairs with everything that we've talked about during the course of these seven weeks and this text it's just a really great compliment especially in our world today with everything that's happening politically, socially all of the changes that our world has gone through the context of it I think is really relevant so I highly encourage everybody to read it inshallah yes of course the prayer of the oppressed and this is also translation and introductions another text that he did the same he translated and it's from Imam Muhammad bin Nasser Al-Dadi so it's a wonderful book to get if you don't have it I highly recommend it but especially if you can for just kind of again bring all of the points that we've been talking about over the past few weeks together I felt like this introduction paired really well with everything that we discussed here Alhamdulillah jazaakullah khayran again we'll end in Dua inshallah subhanakullahu ma wabahamdika shahadu an la ilaha ila anthan astaghfirukum anatubu ilaik bismillahir rahmanir raheem wa la'asir inna linsayna la fi khusir inna ladina aminu wa amiru sallihaati wa tawasaw bil haqi wa tawasaw bil sabr Allahumma sallim wa sallim wa barik'a ala sayyidina wa maulana wa habibina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam wa ala li wa sahbihi wa sallam tassniman qadeena alhamdulillah jazaakullah khayran