 has helped people of all ages overcome issues from cancer, low desires and limiting beliefs. Welcome to the program. Mashallah, we are also fortunate to have a great online audience for this interactive session. Before we start, I just have a few housekeeping items I'd like to cover for the benefit of all watching online. For those of you who have joined us on YouTube, please post your relevant questions on the YouTube chat while the discussion is going on and I will pose that question to the panel. We will be monitoring it through and we'll be using these questions as appropriate. You can also email us at masjidalhei.org. That's I-N-F-O at masjidalhei.org. The questions do have to pertain to the topic at hand, else I will not be able to put them forward. If we do miss your questions or are unable to pose them due to time constraints, I do apologize in advance. However, we will try our best to get in as many of them as possible. We also have a few respected members joining our Zoom session. We thank you for being part of this session and for enhancing it with your comments and questions and keeping the interaction flowing. Please do allow the speakers to finish before you ask your question or add any comments. Let's get right to it. Tonight we are at the 30th night of Shaaban and tomorrow night will most probably be the first night of Ramadan. It could be possible that tonight is the first night but most probably tomorrow will be the first night. Many of us have been getting ready through this month of Ramadan and have started reciting Quran more, have been fasting and getting more in tune with our spiritual self. However, there may be a few members online and here that may be feeling that they are not ready. Firstly, so I'd like to put this question out to you, Brother Hussein. Is there anything that indicates that we have to be ready or that we are ready? Is there anything that indicates that? And secondly, if they are not feeling ready, is there still time to do something about it? Thank you. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. As-salamu alaikum, jami'an wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. It's an honor to be here and especially the fact that as we turn in our Shaaban into Ramadan and Allah SWT has blessed us with three months Rajab Shaaban Ramadan to get ready and to prepare ourselves for a spiritual journey towards Allah in a way that is unprecedented in life. So the question you're asking, brother, is, you know, should we be ready? And if we're ready, what do we do? The first question obviously is that there is never a time when you and I should not be preparing ourselves to be ready. And preparation is technically readiness because when you're preparing, that is the readiness. There is no sort of red line mark to say, ah, you're ready. You know, if you ask the Prophet, are you ready? He will tell you, I'm on a journey towards Allah. And I'm constantly struggling to be ready so that when the opportunity strikes, I will respond to it. Therefore respond, you know, to Allah's call, right? The ability to respond to Allah's call is that preparedness. So for someone to say that is there a time when, you know, we should just give up our ourselves where we say we can never be ready. And that's impossible. Up to the last moment of our lives, we should constantly be struggling to be ready, to be able to be received by Allah, so we need to constantly struggle. But how do we struggle in the most practical, pragmatic way? We need to keep away from Haram. It's extremely important for us to recognize that that which Allah has forbidden must be rejected. So if there's a bad habit we have, where we cannot avoid, which is leading us to become apathetic, leading us to become potentially evil doers, and that's something that you and I must focus on. Now, sometimes we focus on something that may not necessarily be so bad. And then what happens is Shaitan tricks us in focusing on things that are not necessarily so bad, and takes all our energy there. And then we forget that the more important things that we should be keeping away from are forgotten. So there's this Tafakkur, you know, there's this, what you call thought, reflection, meditation, introspection, and then asking Allah SWT to guide you constantly, you know, Allah show me, you know, don't let my heart go astray after you've guided me. Show me the pathway. That all leads to this preparation. JazakAllah. Brother Hussein, do you have anything on there? You know, just add on to it, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. To be ready, you know, the interesting thing about Ramadan, unlike Hajj or prayer, where prayer, you have to go do an action. Hajj, you have to go do an action. You know, for me, Ramadan, Shahr Ramadan is about the resistance, where you're resisting food, you're you're not allowed to eat, you're not allowed to do certain actions, where God isn't putting you in that motion of energy saying, resist, remove those low desires, control and be conscious. And when you're conscious, I think Shahr Ramadan gets you ready for the rest of the year to say, okay, what can I control the low desires? And when people do that, then they able to manifest certain things. Really, that's what it is for me. Just that's just preparation, just like going to the gym, or practicing basketball, or whatever it is, you know, I was watching a Michael Jordan, they did this documentary. And he second or first year, he's a rookie. He's single, he's wealthy. He can do anything. And they invited him to a hotel room. And he went in there and all 11 players were either drinking, doing drugs or doing some type of haram. He said he took one step in, and he saw his whole future in front of him. And he says, I was able to resist all that. Within one year, all the players are in the room were gone. And he was the only one left. I think that's what Shahr Ramadan is to put us in that reflection saying, what is it that I need to stop doing? Can I start being committed to my commitments? You know, if I'm going to read the whole, you know, use these 30 days to read one juzz at every day, am I going to be committed to that? What low desire do I have to start resisting just like you have to resist food or water? Is it a relationship? I have to stop with this? Is it something of the way I treat my parents who I have to stop resisting? And to be conscious and aware because you know, the ayah in the Quran, it brings you consciousness, it brings you awareness, it brings tukwa. What is tukwa is that consciousness, it's an awareness. And I think that's, that's why, you know, in Shaban, and then the months before that, it's a good recommended to fast, it's recommended. But this month, it's an obligation. So why is this an obligation? Because God is saying, well, I'm putting you because it's so important just like your five daily prayers are an obligation. We're just one day of fasting in this month equals all the other days in the last 60 days. That's how important it is. And I really think it's just like practice to go into the gym to get you ready for the next 11 months of teaching you how to resist certain things. And if we learn how to do that, then when you close those doors of things that you needed to resist, new doors will open up. So inshallah, that's the way I look at this holy month. Thank you, brother Omar. I think you have a, you have a comment. Yes. As-salamu alaykum. Thank you, brother Hussain. Actually, I wanted to add on to what you were saying, Hussain, and a little bit about what you were saying, brother Hussain, about the sins and the evil deeds that we have to avoid. I think a lot of people imagine that Islam is a religion of a bunch of do's and don'ts. But what they don't see, and this is something, an analogy that was given to me by a friend, if you think about the game of soccer, are you really playing the game of soccer? If you avoid touching the ball with your hands, you never touch it, you stay in bounds, but you never kick the ball into the goal. Are you really playing the game? And the objective of life, ultimately, is to get closer to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so all of the rules are followed in the pursuit of the goal. And I feel like one of the things that's very beneficial in this is that the idea of focusing on the problems that we avoid, the sins that we avoid, is because those things bring us harm in our lives. They don't allow us to live the best life that Allah has deemed for us. Allah, the Master and Creator of the universe, knows what's best for us. And therefore, he knows what's good for us and what's bad for us. And everything he has made a wedge, it is for our benefit. And everything he has made harm is to our detriment. You notice in society we have a lot of ribba, and you have payday loans and all of these things that are cheating people and destroying society. Every deviation from Allah's law leads to corruption on earth. So a lot of times, I see this when I was a child growing up that, oh, Allah has all these prohibitions. They're just a bunch of rules to make my life more difficult. But that's not the purpose. They're so that we live the best life. And Allah mentions in the Qur'an, فَمَنْ يَكْفَرْ بِتَّاهُوتْ وَيُؤْمِنْ بِلَّا Right? In Ayat al-Kursi, the extended part of Ayat al-Kursi, Allah says, if you reject the demigods, meaning reject everything negative, anything that takes you away from Allah, any haram, any distraction, فَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بِتَّاهُوتْ وَيُؤْمِنْ بِلَّا The Qur'an uses a beautiful analogy. فَقَدِسْ تَمْسَكَ بِالْعُرْوَةِ الْوُثْقَ لَمْ فِسَامَ لَهَ You're holding on to the rope of Allah firmly and it will not break. Right? So it's a beautiful example that for you and I to hold on to the rope of Allah, سبحانه وتعالى, we must reject the demigods. The biggest demigod is our own self, our own ego. Iblis fell and became a kafir because of his ego. There was no distraction. It's interesting, by the way, you know, we say, well, shaitan distracted me. You know, shaitan took me away from Allah. Shaitan is the one who distracts me when it comes to time for prayers. Well, then the question we have to ask is who distracted shaitan or him to have become shaitan? Because he was a good worshipping jinn. How did he get distracted? And you will notice that your greatest shaitan that we have is ourselves. Imam Ali, Allah mentions that that your greatest enemy is yourself and your greatest friend is yourself. So I think we have to look at that and say that biggest tahut within us is our own ego. And the month of Ramadan is when we subdue it. We submit, we surrender Islam to slaym. You slaym wajahu ilallah, the one who submits his face towards Allah. This is not a concept. This is not a theory. This is a reality. And if we don't, God forbid, we become narcissistic, egotistic, destructive, like the leaders we have today in some countries. And you find that they're so narcissistic that it's costing millions of lives today and tomorrow because of this narcissism. You look at Muawiyah was a narcissist. Yazid was a narcissist. Far'aun was a narcissist. All these people did not take account of their own inner evils and it led to their achieving power which led to so much destruction that the reverberations of such destructions continue until today. That there are people who actually emulate and follow those evil deeds. So month of Ramadan preparation, first and foremost is to look at yourself and say, what can I do to subdue myself? If I get angry, then probably something's wrong with me. But usually when we get angry, we say everybody else is wrong. That's why I'm angry. There is no justice in the world. That's why I'm angry. People are bad. That's why I'm angry. How about we say, well, maybe people are not that bad, or even if the people are bad, how about I become better and swallow my anger? Well, God, I mean, all gave well, I've been in us. So let's do that. And this is the preparation for this month, the month of Ramadan. And I'm going to quote a verse in verse 186 of Surat al-Baqarah. The famous verse, Shahru Ramadan, all of the ones that feel Quran and Hudan l-Nas wa bayinati min al-Hudawal for Qan, right? So this just this first sentence, Shahru Ramadan, all of the ones that feel Quran, this blessed month is the month the Quran was revealed. And our scholars tell us all the scriptures of Allah were revealed in holistic form in this month on the night of Qadr. Okay, every prophet who received revelation received it on this night. Laylat al-Qadri, khayro min al-Fisha. We're going towards that critical 19, 21st, 23rd night. Within Ramadan is preparation also, right? Then Allah says, unzila fi l-Quran, Hudan l-Nas. It's a guidance from mankind. Hudan l-Nas wa bayinati. It's an evidence proof, right? Min al-Hudawal for Qan. It is a book that gives you guidance and it's a for Qan, meaning it takes the gray, the confusing matters of life. And it clarifies it. Til kayaat al-kitab al-Hakim, khudam wa rahmatan li'l muhsineen. This is a book that has the verses of wisdom. The book of wisdom, right? These are the verses from a book of wisdom. Kitab al-Hakim, khudam wa rahmatan. It's a guide and a mercy for the good doer. So I think we should look and not only read Quran in Ramadan. I see people say, I'm going to finish the whole Quran in Ramadan. It's beautiful, but no. Reflect on it, take one verse. Walk it, talk it, live it, and die with it. And see how the Quran will just permeate. There's so much to share on this. And there was one, you know, one when a person came and asked a prophet for advice, he says, can you give me a piece of advice? The prophet asked him three times, are you sure you're going to take this advice? Because you talked about reflection, he says, whenever you're about to start something, look at it till its end. So if you're about to get angry, see where it's going to take you. If you're about to grab something or do something, where is it going to take you? And if you could just get into that state of reflection in this holy month and say the things that I'm doing right now, where's the end product? What's the end goal? And there's no greater end than paradise than being next to the prophet. So just the question of, will the prophet be pleased with me? And the prophet said, just take this advice. And he told the person three times, will you take it? If I tell you. And three times the person said yes, and then he finally gave this advice. And there's no bigger reflection than that. And if everything that we do with the prophet be, I think for us also, do we behave the same way as we do at work, at home and with our friends? And if we don't, then you're a lot, there's a lie somewhere in your life. And reflect on that and saying, how can it be consistent with all three and where I have the end product the same in all three? I think that's the key. So I mean, thinking about that, just kind of moving forward. When we're talking about ourselves right now and how we could actually potentially be the people who have to look inside ourselves to see how we can improve ourselves. Right now in the situation that we're in, we have our children with us. And with the pandemic happening, we're inside right now, our children are with us right now. So how do we heighten the consciousness of our children during this time? What do we do? Because now they're with us at the moment. And right now it's the opportunity for us to be able to do something for them. How can we do that? How can we heighten their consciousness during this month? I just really quick and inshallah hajjul answer. For me, it's watching my kids go and where they're behaving with each other. And let's say one kid gets angry at the other and turns off the TV or throws the Xbox controller or does something disruptive. And then we as parents try to go while they are in an unconscious state and angry, saying, what are you doing and trying to give them advice at that state? It's like, imagine somebody pulls you or somebody makes you angry, robs you or cuts you off. And then they come and ask you, how's your day? What's your plan tomorrow? You say, no, because you're in a state of anger, in a state of survival. So when you're like that, you don't take advice. So what I do is I wait till the end of the night and I say, hey, you remember, you got a little bit angry and they're like, oh yeah, I know. And you do that conversation two, three days and then something miraculous will happen. My son will shut off the TV and then you'll see my daughter going and she'll catch herself. And when you see that moment, that's consciousness, that's awareness. And then what happens is they start doing it to you. Like yesterday I told my daughter, I'm feeling sick, I'm tired. Said, dad, no, don't say that or else you'll get sicker because your thoughts could be infested and she's telling me this and I'm shocked. And I think that's what the Prophet of the Prophet taught us, how to be conscious, but not in the state of anger. It's a state of awareness, a state of reflection and really, Imam Khomeini told us, take the whole day and replay it at night. Say, what can you do tomorrow? And that's how you rewire consciousness because kids will never listen to what you say. They listen to what you do. Now I'll always say this, people don't care what you know until they know that you care. And that's how you're being conscious and aware. Very good point. And what Abbas you're asking, in this pandemic period, the fact that you're close to your children on a longer protracted period of time, that gives you the ability to understand them better. Yesterday I had a dialogue with our middle schoolers, today I had a dialogue with the high schoolers and as I'm asking them questions, how are you coping with this pandemic? Are you innovating new ways by which to learn in a virtual way? And how do you manage conflict, the fact that you're so confined sometimes due to your inability to leave the house? And majority of the students tell me, well, we figured out ways by which to become calmer, we take things better, we dialogue. So with my siblings, one of them said, well, when I have an issue with my sibling, instead of getting angry, I talk to my sibling and we discuss it. So these are solutions that are fantastic that you would never have figured out had you not gone through this trial of a pandemic. You know, we never know what our situation is. People like Nelson Mandela is in prison for more than two decades. How do you, in a cell that is so small, you would go insane if you thought about it, right? But you have to innovate. And when he comes out, he's full of hope. He becomes the first president of South Africa, but he doesn't have any vengeance, no hatred for the white race. So something must have happened in prison by which he took account of himself and realized that his only way to succeed is to not allow the enemy to subdue them. So today we have a pandemic and we are locked in, but let's be innovative. There are a thousand fantastic opportunities. Hussein is talking about how he's monitoring his kids, his son does something he notices, his daughter does something he notices, she notices. That exchange of noticing and communication is cathartic. It's fantastic. This is true realization of values, right? Many a times we are in a rat race, chasing shadows in the dark, as I use this example, which means that it's absurd, it's not even there because there's no shadow in the dark. Yet you find people are constantly trying to build their empires. And it takes one invisible entity that we don't even know where it lies and puts chaos into all of us. When the greatest invisible is Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, who is ever present and is telling us that I am with you, don't lose hope. So I think if we take into account that this opportunity, and I use this opportunity very carefully because I really think that whether it's a pandemic or the world is getting rain with gold, it doesn't matter. What matters is what are you doing with it? For if there was no sickness, no problems, we would be in a very difficult situation because our arrogance would be beyond conceit. We wouldn't know how to manage ourselves because we'd be so lost in our compound ignorance. So Alhamdulillah, Allah gives us some loss, some fear. That's why Allah warns us all the time with loss and fear because it's the way to reclaim yourself. So I think we should take this advantage. I'll give you a quick example at home. Many a times I would promise my mother to do things, right? My mother asked me to do things and so on, but I'm so busy running around like a chicken without a head that you don't have time. You feel guilty, oh, I should, I want to, but you know, time is of the essence, right? SubhanAllah, I have accomplished more this month than I have in the entire year. I have indulged in domestic work, construction, fixing things, helping, you know, readily jumping. Even my mother just looks at me and I'm just jumping to do things. I feel like, wow, this is the dua in another presentation. I will recite the dua of Imam Zula Abideen, where the Imam is asking Allah, that Allah take these distractions away from me so that I can worship you. And here it is. And SubhanAllah, I must say in this last month, especially from the 15th onward, because of the birth of Imam Sahib was the month 15 days before Ramadan, I don't know how to explain it, but it is the most incredible feeling that I've ever had in my entire life. And it's almost like this preparation of Ramadan is just flowing so beautifully. And knowing in the back that the enemy is trying to destroy humanity, and yet the Imam is getting ready to come. You know, the kings, the tyrant kings today are fighting within themselves. They're losing wars. The superpower nations are no longer winning. The age, the era of occupation and colonialism is dying, right? There's something amazing that's coming around the corner and I feel it. I feel that incredible energy. And where is that energy? Where is it harnessed? It's in the Quran. When Allah says Shahru Ramadan, Allah the unzilafiil Quran, Allah is not just telling me that Quran was revealed in the month. Allah is telling me that this month is so important that I even revealed the Quran in it. And the Quran is so important that I put it in the month of Ramadan. So the combination is unparalleled. And I advise us all as an audience that let's indulge in a little reflection, meditation. When you do salah, tulfajr, read one surah. Reflect on it, meditate, talk about it, go to sleep with it. You wake up for the hour, read us another short surah. You wake up, you do mahr ibn Isha, do it. After Isha salah, take the Quran and reflect on it. Reflection, not just rituals. Rituals are good, but if they don't translate into some cognitive absorption within our souls where the heart starts to pulpitate. You know, when Allah says إِنَّ مَا الْمُؤْنِنَ الَّذِينَ إِذَا ذُكِرَ اللَّهِ وَجِلَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَإِذَا تُلِيَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتُوا زَادَتْ هُمْ إِمَانَوا وَعَلَا رَبِّمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, you know when the signs of Allah are shown, your heart pulpitates. When the verses of the Quran are recited, you know your faith increases. We want to be at that level that you hear somebody make a quotation or somebody's playing Quran somewhere in the distance or in your house, or you walk in a building and the Quran is playing. It's not sound that's filling the air. You're carefully monitoring that sound. That's it. And I think that's what I really heard of us is, you know, the brother who called me, we can have for going to spare, lost his job, didn't get unemployment. And I said, well, did you do the mental rehearsal? What do you want to do? So I taught him the whole concept of mental rehearsal. I like the word that better than visualization. Gave him, you know, a special dua to recite. I said, envision, I said, where do you want to work? So I want to work for the state. I want to be a public servant. I've always envisioned that. I said, then what if maybe you had to lose this job to gain the other? He says, I can't think that way. I said, but why not envision it? You know, there are people that they took two groups of people and they had one group do piano lessons. They did functional brain scan after one week, new connections. Obviously, you learn something new, new experiences, new connections. They took another group of people. They just had a mental rehearse. Same thing happened to her brain. The body was caught up to the mind where the body didn't know the difference when it happening, what's there and actually doing. And then when they gave them a piano after a month or a week of piano lessons in their mind only the same as the other group. They even did it with biceps. One month, two hours a day, emotion of strength, visualization of lifting weights, 13% growth compared to people who actually lift weights, 15%. So if you could use your brain as a record of the future instead of a record of the past and really put yourself there, then it will manifest. Just like in heaven, you get to manifest things, you get to create. In this world, you do the same, but if it's the bad thing, it could hurt you or in heaven, it's not. So I'm giving this brother the lesson. He says, brother, you won't believe what happened. I filed for unemployment, they denied me. I'm speaking to them and they're telling me they have a job opening. Why don't I come work? And now I wanted a state job. I had to lose my other job. And he told me today, he says, this is the happiest day of my life. Well, did that happen because he waited something from outside to happen to become happy? No, he was first whole in and then it became. And I think that's what this month is for, to learn how to be coming all within, then an all moment will happen, just like Hajj. Hajj didn't have to wait for something outside to happen for him to feel all. It was within and then the all happens without. Just like love, can't find love. You learn how to love yourself and then that princess will come, the prince will come. But you have to first realize who is that person that I want and am I that person? And I think that's what the Quran is there for, is to reflect so much mental rehearsal in the Quran that the Prophet of Islam would be commanding people, servants, slaves, prisoners, people who tried to kill the Prophet said, rehearse this way. Even Imam Hussein of Islam, he would tell people, rehearse, this is where you're gonna be, envision it. Don't come and kill me. Some people changed. Some others, unfortunately, they couldn't see. They couldn't think greater than the way they felt and they lost their free will. And I think that's this month I was taking that free will back. Mashallah, thank you so much. I just wanted to tell the crowd as well that please don't forget you can send in your questions on YouTube chat or on email at info at masjidalhai.org. Please do that for us. Thank you so much, Brother Omar. I think you wanted to put something in there as well. Please go ahead. Yes, so actually such a good conversation, Mashallah. I wanted to build on a couple of things that have been mentioned so far. So Hesh Hassan, I'm really glad you mentioned Nelson Mandela because the fact that he spent so much of his time in prison really did have a great effect on his development. But for those of you who are familiar with the Nebiyyusuf series, the Iranians put together a television show depicting the life of Joseph, the son of Jacob, Nebiyusuf. And I'm not gonna give away the whole story. Of course, it's all in the Quran but there's a point at which he's in prison and there was a very striking scene that happened in that show where the prison is completely a mess. There are rats running around everywhere. It's a very disgusting place. And he starts going around and cleaning the prison. And the other prisoners ask him, what are you doing? Why are you cleaning this? We're in a prison. This is in a hotel. This isn't a cottage. This isn't a vacation. He said, listen, I'm a human. We're humans. We're stuck in this place. We shouldn't live like animals. We should clean up where we are. And he actually said something like, the whole of this world is a prison for the human being, for the believer. The only question is when do you get to leave? But you don't have to live in a terrible situation when you are choosing to be in a more positive one than that. And so I feel like in this time of pandemic, like you were describing, the high school and the middle school youths, they found a way to make the most of their environment. And that is each and every one of our options. That's an option for us. And as you mentioned, Brother Hussein, that's a mention for us to model for our children and for our family and for our community. And actually the reason I'm remembering this nebulous story so much is because at the very beginning of this pandemic, I decided that with the people that I'm sharing my residence with, I wanted to watch that series again because it's been several years since I watched it. And I said, what better time than to take a positive action? There are some people who are binge watching Game of Thrones and there are some people who are choosing to take time to watch beneficial lectures, to watch beneficial movies, to watch things that will wholesomely improve our lives. And again, that ties in with what you were saying, Hussein, about mental rehearsal. If you surround yourself with positive role models, not only in the media that you consume and the lectures that you watch, but the people that you surround yourself with, then that's the future that you're creating for yourself. And I think it was you, Hussein, who once told me the five people that you spend the most time with are that's what your life is going to become. So these are all things that we should be very conscious of. And these are things that we have to be conscious with it. If you hang out with 10 broke people or nine broke people, you're the 10th. And I think the comparison of Prophet Yusuf, Elislam, Nelson Mandela was forgiveness. Imagine somebody who's thrown you in prison or in a well and you're able to forgive them. Nelson Mandela was blackmail, not blackmail, but was thrown in prison unjustly. And they asked him, how do you feel? Do you hold any resentment? You want to get revenge? That's why this is the month of forgiveness. And imagine somebody throwing you in prison. Would you be able to say such a line, just like the prophets of God, saying if I were to resent anyone, it's like drinking poison expecting the other person to die. I've already forgiven all of them, but I have a vision. They did a lot of mental rehearsal in prison of freeing my people. That's what prophets of God taught all of us. And that's what we need this month for. Who can we forgive? What resentment do I have to let go? Because that's in the state of stress. You want prayers to answer, maybe it's that prayer stopping because you're holding onto something you can't let go. Even in the business world, they say that if you ever start a business, always first start with the exit plan. Find out, in other words, have the exit plan before you launch your business. In other words, know the end of it. Yes. So that you know how to start it. So if we know the end of our lives and we know the end is, wa inna ilayhi raji'un, then everything that we do will be properly aligned. You know, if we could just, there's a sister who called and said, you know, I keep having this dream. My sister who passed away keeps coming to me and chains. And she's asking for forgiveness. And the reason why she's asking, because 30 years ago, she said a rumor about her daughter and because of that, she didn't get to marry this person that she wanted to. And eventually the daughter was in a toxic relationship, ended up getting cancer and passing away. And she held on to this resentment. She said, every time I've had this dream about eight times, I cannot forgive my sister. She says, I don't know what to do. I said, well, actually in your dream, it's all about you. It's got nothing to do with your sister. I said, actually, you forgiving her, God has given you an answer for you to let that go. And you need to forgive. The next day she came and she was able to forgive her. And she said it was the most freeing feeling. We don't realize that when we do that. And that's preparation, by the way. When we ask preparation for Ramadan spirituality, how do we revive the spirit of Ramadan? It's proactivity, taking action and forgiving people, getting into dialogue to solve problems, removing misconceptions and misunderstandings, opening up our pocketbook to be more charitable, to give to those who I need, especially now with the COVID problem and Ramadan coming up tomorrow, day after tomorrow. It's very important for us to practice charity. The willingness, every time we give money, we should ask, how willing am I really to give? And when we give, let's not give to say, oh, God promised me he'll double this money if I give it. Don't say that. Allah is merciful in telling us that. But don't give for that reason. When someone says, Masha'Allah, you're giving, don't say, insha'Allah Allah will double it for me. We can say that to the person that may Allah double it for you, triple it for you, make it 10 times more. But the person giving should always say, Allah has given me too much, shame on me if I don't give it. That's better. JazakAllah. I have a question from the audience, Ramadan Mubarak. Because of the plague COVID-19, Muslims will be challenged like no other time in reference to our belief and faith. This Ramadan is more than a ritual, but rather it is about our inner spirit of our truth and religion. What are your thoughts on that? Well, so I think the whole human race is challenged under the COVID problem. It's even Christians are challenged, Jews are challenged, Hindus are challenged because the miniature of a lockdown and you're not able to socially engage in a gregarious way. It's a challenge. Now, in fact, I find the fact that the distancing reduces the pressure of people asking the question about shaking hands and hugging and so on. And the bars being shut down, the casinos being shut down. I think it's less of a challenge, Alhamdulillah. I know people- Hook allowances. Yeah, hook allowances are shut down. So at least people are indulging in less of that in a communal way. And people socialize with alcohol and so on. I know they do it in their homes, but it's a lot less, Alhamdulillah. Even our environment is getting cleaner. You know, as I say in Venice, you can see the bottom of the water. You know, they saw a video for jellyfish, you know, swimming right through the canals. It was amazing. Never seen a jellyfish swim through that. So there is that environmental factor that's positive. So yes, we are being challenged, but we're being challenged more by the fact that there is a concerted effort to attack Islam, to vilify, to demonize it in a political perspective. That has always been a challenge and will continue to be the challenge because shaitan knows where the truth lies and he's not gonna let go. Right? He said, by your authority, I'm going to beguile them all. So why not attack it? The question is more for us to consider how do we defend ourselves? How do we build fortresses within ourselves that we're so strong that we're indomitable? You know, Ramadan, the hadith says that in Ramadan, the shayateen are locked up. People think they're physically captured and put in prison and, you know, the door is locked and the chain is put. That's not true. There's no such physical reality of shayateen. Shayateen are actively, and shayateen are not only the jinn, by the way, humans are shayateen too, they're actively distracting people. But when you and I fast in the month of Ramadan, especially, but anytime, especially in the month of Ramadan, you find Iblis has a very tough time confusing us because we are in heightened alertness. We're focused. We know that my fasting has to count. We know we are blessed. We're indulged in positive things. We don't indulge in gossiping and fault-finding and backbiting. These are all very positive characteristics and hence the hands, or to use the metaphor, the hands of shayateen and Iblis are tied. So I think that's beautiful. So we are challenged, but I look at challenges as a positive thing. So like you go to the gymnasium and you want to get fit and you really want to build muscle mass and you're very well endowed. You're not going to lift lightweights. You'll find that that's a joke. You're wasting your time, they will say. You're going to keep going higher and higher. You want more and more resistance. You want more challenges. So we are being challenged, but more than us fearing the challenge, how about we fear ourselves and strengthen ourselves so that no matter what the challenge is, we'll be able to achieve it. And Allah says in the Quran, لا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسَنْ إِلَّا وُصَعَهُ We don't put a burden more on you than you can handle. That is a promise of Allah, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. So I know my Lord is not going to test me the way he tested the Holy Prophet. Impossible. Because my capacity is nowhere near his. My capacity is nowhere near the Ahlul Bayt. But I have the potential of being very close to the Prophet. I have the potential of being very close to Ahlul Bayt. All of us, every one of us. So why not take it there and say, how do I strengthen myself? And the enemy is always going to come. We live in a world where we're constantly having, whether it's COVID or no COVID. If COVID wasn't taking place right now, we were not in lockdown. We were having this Thursday night program. Would the conversation not be the same? But yes, we have challenges. Our communities are getting lost. Our kids are indulging in drugs. The Haram is becoming very prevalent, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So how can we use this Ramadan though? Now we're coming to Ramadan. How can we use this Ramadan to elevate ourselves? In the lockdown, Subhanallah, what an opportunity. You and I cannot complain in this month of Ramadan. We were busy, we had to go to work. It's very tiring. Okay, you have more time. And look at, even for me as a public speaker, I used to spend hundreds of hours traveling around the world on a plane, right? I would put 150, 200,000 miles a year just traveling, just traveling. You're talking about sometimes 24 hours on a plane. One time I flew from Sydney to Singapore, Singapore to Germany, Germany to Manchester. And then I spoke there for two hours, got back on the plane and flew 24 hours back. I mean, do the math to speak for two hours. You travel almost 48 hours plus all the time lost, plus the cost, et cetera, et cetera. Now we're rapidly reaching the world. What an opportunity. None of us have this excuse anymore to see how it's very difficult to go to the masjid. You got technologies not only on a big TV, on your phone, on your watches. We've got it everywhere. There's no excuse. So let's use it. We've got electronic Quran. We've got reciters. In the morning, when I recite Quran, after reading, then I will put Mishad el-Fassi, or I'll put Babakashatari, one of these great reciters. And I'll follow. And I'll keep looking, because now I'm taking another dimension of the same surah. And I want to see, did I make a mistake in my pronunciation? Where should I do the math? Am I making this? So I would recite with it over and over and over. And each time I hear it, I see this Quran talking to me from a different lens. This is a great opportunity. So when we say, how do we use it? Oh my God, never in my life did I ever go through Ramadan under these conditions where we are in a lockdown. For the first time, we're lecturing online. We can't even go to the places of worship anymore, right? People are at home. This is unprecedented. And I think let's take advantage of that. But while we're in our houses, sitting on the couch and listening, take a room, going to a corner where you're not distracted when you're watching these lectures, when you're reading the Quran. Find the niche. Look at what Zakaria said. Zakaria prayed in the Mehrab. Yes. You see? Right? And he prayed, Yerithuni wa Yerithu minal Yaqub. Give me an inheritance in the Mehrab. Why Mehrab? That's the place where you're not distracted. You see? Quran even mentions minal Mehrab, right? So you find that Yaqub, I mean not Yaqub, Zakaria, Zakaria goes into this Mehrab and he's praying. Then Allah says, Ya Zakaria, Inna nubashshirukum bi Ghulami nisbu yahya. We're going to give you this good news that you will have a son whose name is Yahya. But what happened there is that he worshipped, he asked Allah and he didn't find that distraction. So when you're at home, you're listening to a lecture, you're reading Quran, no distractions. You don't have any expectations to leave the house. You know? We're complaining, oh, I'm homesick. Homesick? Seriously? Imam Musa Najaf al-Qadim was in prison for a very long period of time. And every time, you know, would go in there, you would find that he's in Zikr. Yes. Now, would he have gone mad? Some of us would have gone mad, claustrophobic. Would have said, oh my God, we can't handle this. This is driving me crazy. Well, you know what? If he's driving us crazy, then there's something wrong with us. Look in them and he says, hold on, calm down. Today, one of the students in high school told me, ever since the COVID, I am less stressed, I take things slowly, and I feel much more in control of life. Wow, a 14 year old telling me that, that's profound. Beautiful. So I'm actually getting a, just because you're talking about a child, I'm getting a question right now about that. So maybe you can help me. What can we do in order to engage teens more during Ramadan? Especially at the age where they don't seem to be interested in religious activities. I mean, teachers always ask me, the kids don't focus, they're not interested. And I say, they're not, they can't focus. I said, what's, because they always think the opposite of distraction is, they always say focus. I said, well, if they can't focus, then why is it they could play Fortnite for eight hours? My kids right now are playing Minecraft and they just love it. And if I let them play for 24 hours, they would. Disney. Yeah. They watch a movie. Exactly. So the opposite of distraction isn't focus. The opposite of distraction is attraction. I said, because teachers are not doing their job to get their kids to be attracted to the subject that they're giving. So they have to change their personality to have a different reality. Parents have to do the same. Figure out what your kids love to do and make sure they're doing it all the time. For my daughter, she loves doing slime. So I'm buying her all different types of slime because she makes it with her hands every day. My other daughter is right now in a reading bid with Harry Potter. So she's going through the whole series. And then at night, I would go through, okay, what did you learn today? What did you go do? Because if you find a reason thinking that you cannot do it, then you're gonna be right. You know, I did, because I've been getting a lot of people calling me. I don't know what to do. All I wake up and I'm with my husband all day. So for the last 10 years, I haven't had to deal with this. And it's going crazy. I went and did research in China. And China's divorce rate has gone up dramatically like 40, 50% increase compared to the normal numbers of divorce. Because they're looking at each other instead of changing, they're pointing at the other person says, you've always been the problem. You've been the problem. We can't handle it and they're breaking. And I think like Hajj says all the time, this is an opportunity. So parents, they have to look at their kids and say, just like the spouse has to communicate better, do you communicate? What are you doing through the whole day? Are you trying to understand their language to get them to be attracted? So they can focus. I don't believe in laziness. My kids are lazy, they're just sitting home. Laziness means they're just not attracted to what you're giving them. And you have to change your personality and really research. Just like you said the Quran in the morning, how about just research on YouTube, becoming a better parent, watch what's out there. But let's imagine for a moment, research. I'm a child. I have no interest in research, right? It's not exciting. Well, the parent would have to do the research. So what brother was saying is that attraction, meaning take an eye. Like my daughter today, she texted me. She said, Baba, I'm playing this game. Can I charge some money to buy some stuff on this game? I said, yeah, no problem, but there's a condition. Because I've given her before and I let her have it. I said, this time, no. I said, I'm sending you this Dua, which I sent to her. I sent all the Dua's and I said, okay, tomorrow you're going to memorize this Dua. So I'm giving you two Monday and I want to see you finish this Dua. If you finish it, I may give you some more. What happens now is you're giving them a goal. That's one. This is sort of giving them incentive. But if you make it attractive where you play a game, like many times I would teach her to memorize words, for example, right? Very difficult vocabulary. So when we're driving and it's an hour drive, kids get bored. So all the kids are in the car. I said, okay, we're going to play a game and I'm going to say a word and you're going to have to tell me a meaning, the meaning of this word. And I'm going to give you three options, three tries, but I'll give you hints. And the kids one hour goes by like five minutes. They, it's almost like they don't want to, the car to get to the destination because they're having so much fun, memorizing difficult words in the dictionary. So it's not about the difficulty. It's not about the boringness. It's not about the boringness of the Quran. It's not about any of the above. Walt Disney figured it out. Make it attractive, wrap it up with right. You take a duck and make him walk and talk. You take a mouse, you know, and you become an iconic figure. It's the emotion behind it. It's how you build that character and the child is so intrigued by it. Now imagine if you tell the child, you know, you tell an adult, I'm going to take a mouse and I'm going to animate it and the kids are going to love it. I say, what, that's such a boring thing. So it's not boring. It's how you make it. And I think like when we teach Saturday school, how do we get a kid to memorize the last juzat where they've never been in Islamic school. Exactly. They're very attractive where every week they have looked forward to somebody, they're a prize. Like my daughter, a week ago on at a slime kit, I said, well, do these two suras and within 20 minutes. But if you, if I didn't give her that, so incentives work, especially when it comes to things that you don't have to be too creative, like memorization incentives, obviously outside of incentives, like my incentive is to make money. That's why the nose don't work and science has shown that, but those self incentives that, you know, parents could use them. They really, really do work. Let's make religion attractive. Let's not make it mundane. Many a times our practices are mundane. And you know, the way the mundaneness comes when the child says, why do I need to do this? Because you go to hell. You know, or Habibi, you must do it. Cause you know, God loves us. Okay, that's nice. But you know, if you don't do it, you're going to go to hell. This poor child is looking at you like, what wrong have I done to go to hell? But Habibi, you need to do this. And then the child says, why do I need to do this? There's no meaning. And when the kids question, don't question, just do. You know, you reference Prophet Zechariah. God says you're going to have a child who's barren. You're going to have a wife that's, and he goes, my wife's barren. We're old. I have white hair. And what did he say? He didn't say, oh God, I accept. He questioned, said, God, how? He said, just like I created you, it's going to come. My name is Al-Islam. She questioned. Even angels. Angels question, why are you creating this? Right. Why do you want us to bow to Adam, right? Angels, angels, they just obey. I love when people question. That's what opens doors to belief, to knowledge. And reply with wisdom. Yes. When a child asks a question, don't belittle them. Take the question, nourish it. The best way to take a child's question is first, paraphrase. Very important. When a child speaks and he asks you a question, don't just answer, paraphrase. Oh, what you mean is, or what you're asking me is, you say the same thing again or you paraphrase it. The child now is engaged because it shows you care and it shows you processed it and it shows that you made a sentence to match his thought or her thought. That is one of the most powerful ways of communicating. Even when you have conflict, by the way, and you meet an adversary, or even when you're doing customer relations and you're doing customer service and you have an irate customer, the way you diffuse the anger is paraphrase what they just said. The minute you do that, the other side says, oh, you care. You heard me and you repeated it. Yes. Oh, okay. Now, by the way, no matter what you tell this person. Yes. It doesn't matter anymore. That's how you build a report. You know, if a person comes in, this is not gonna work. There's no solution to this problem. How do you build a report? You bring that same energy. There is a solution to this problem. It's going to work. Person comes in slow. I'm just, I can't do it. I'm gonna die. This cancer's, I think you can do it. I think you, and if you learn how to build that report, but when kids come on with one energy and you bring a different, and then you, you know, it's like when a parent came in a few months ago, my son, can you speak to him? And I took away his phone. He got rid of his girlfriend. I could see this fear that the son had of the father. Because whenever your kid comes to you about a mistake and you make them feel worse, they're gonna hide things from you. You haven't built that report. So I'm looking at this boy. I said, there's no way he's removed this girl. There's no desires can control me. You can see it. It's all over. So I asked him, I said, you know, when's the last time he spoke to this girl? He says, you know, since my dad took my phone away, how long ago? It's been over a month. I said, okay, if you tell your father that you probably have another phone right now, and you're probably still communicating with her, I'll talk to him about you keeping your phone and we're gonna figure this out. He says, you promise. He says, yeah. So what does he do? He takes out his bike and he puts it out. The father goes, where'd you get that from? So what did the father do? Instead of taking that opportunity to make the kid more conscious in himself, he got anger to come in. He took the phone and he got angry. I said, man, that was a test for you, not for your son. The reason why your son is hiding and having this relationship is because of you and you don't see it. And parents gotta take this an opportunity to reflect on themselves for their kids to change, not waiting for their kids to change and for them to change, not waiting for the reality to change for their personality. They change. I really believe in that. There's so much, brother. There's so much, brother, Bas, in terms of making things attractive for our children. You know, the camp, when we started the camp, why was the camp? People were saying to me, you're building a camp. What's gonna happen at the camp? Or is it like a jungle where Tarzan is gonna jump tree to tree, you know? I said, no. It's a place where we socialize, where we become real. A week ago, I got an email from a brother. We used to send his son from Toronto and his son was sort of borderline. He didn't really care about religion. You know, it was traditional. And his father said, I want my son to become more spiritual. So he sent him to our camp and his son came home and told his dad, this is cool. Islam is cool. Yes. I like it. It's cool. Listen to the word, it's cool. A week ago, he sent me an email. My son is his second year of medical school in Kansas City and I attribute the success of my son, partially because of this camp, where my son felt cool with Islam and he has maintained his deen that now he's becoming a doctor, but he is a moral doctor. He's an ethical doctor and I want to appreciate that. So if we make things attractive, Mashallah. You know, people will just flow in. And nobody made him more attractive than the Prophet. Somebody made him more cooler. People love to be next to the Prophet. Ask yourself, if you're a parent, do your kids wake up looking excited to see you? It's like teachers. Do they look excited? Do your students look excited to see you every day? The answer is no. Say, what can you do to change about yourself? People look forward to seeing the Prophet every day. Imagine you being the same way. Mashallah. Brother Omar, I know you have a comment. Please go ahead. If you want, brother Abbas, you could just ask the next question if there's any more. No, no. Sure. Oh, I'm sorry. My brother Omar was going to say. Oh, no, I was just going to say that I was thinking about what we were talking about earlier about spiritually strengthening and what can we do in this time of quarantine? You've given some really good examples for families, for individuals in terms of actually changing our own personality if we can and if once we realize that we need to. And of course, one of the biggest keys is awareness. But I wanted to ask you guys a question. And I guess before I, or I'll ask it and then answer from my perspective and then get some feedback from one or two things from both of you. One of my question is what are some daily practices or weekly practices that we can incorporate into our daily lives to make these transitions? Because the number one thing that people are looking for is a how they need to know what to do, how to do it and how, and like maybe you can even describe how to implement it. So the one that I wanted to share was something that I actually shared with your group brother Hussein, your book club is I have found that writing is a transforming process. And I actually wrote a book about it. It's available for free online. If you'd like brother Abbas, I can send you the link and maybe you can post it on the YouTube or wherever. But writing is such a powerful behavior. And I was on a conference earlier about the sermon of Shahban from the Prophet Muhammad Rasulullah Sallam. And in it, he quoted that three of the pieces of advice that the Prophet gave were, be careful or watchful of your tongue, of your eyes and of your ears. And interestingly enough, not only by writing daily or as often as you can, in order to purify the thoughts that you think and the words that you write, but also the words that you speak. And like you were talking about Hussein, there are some people who say, oh man, I'm always down on myself. I'm no good at this. I'm never gonna get better at this. And if you keep saying those words, that's going to continue to be your reality. So if you become vigilant and listen to what you're saying and consciously shift and say something instead of, I've always been bad at sports. Say, I used to be bad at sports, but I'm getting better every day. That shift of language by what you speak and what you write can make tremendous differences in people's lives. In spirituality, in religious memorization, in Akhlaq, in honesty, in everything. But the words you say and the words you write dramatically change your life. And so my suggestion is taking that into consideration. What would you guys suggest for people to do? I'll just take a quick minute and then Hajj would answer. It would be for me, you know, there's five pillars of faith. And what I do is I write it down. Okay, there's Sabbath. Where am I at in terms of my patience with Allah? Then there's obedience. How obedient do I pray on time? Do I, am I, you know, am I doing my wajabat on time? The other one, this charity, have I been charitable? Where am I? And I would scale it. And then there's prayer, there's other things as well. But there's about eight million people who filed unemployment in the last two weeks. It's back to the levels of the depressions of the 20s and 30s. And they've done a study where just by writing down what type of job you want and they did two groups of people. The group that wrote down had a 60% job within two weeks likelihood then compared to the 20% who didn't write down. They did even a study in Ivy Leagues. They asked them, how many of you, these are Yale and Harvard. So there's not ignorant people who are not at the upper echelon. These are the upper echelon people. They asked them one question. How many of you wrote a mission statement? Only 3%. Then 20 years later, they go ahead and they asked them one question. How much money is in your bank account? And the 3% had more money than the 97% combined. Because why? There was paper written down mental rehearsal. The mind and body became coherent. They went after it. And I think that's the level of writing. You know, people who have gone through rejection, people who have that despair just by writing down the emotions of that negative relationship. And you can't because that rejection is very toxic. You can't let it go. It's like a cloud over your head. Sometimes it takes six months. They found just by writing down your emotions onto a piece of paper and burning it. You do that two, three times your recovery rate goes. You know, people say, well, how does that work? So imagine when your daughter draws something and I go and ask her, what's the value? To you, it's nothing. But to me, it's like prices. I wouldn't be able to sell it. Even though it looks like nothing anybody would buy because of the energy that my daughter put into that, the same with the energy you do with other things. So I'm writing this huge. It's a big thing within, especially within the Dean, especially when it comes to creating a future that you want and making sure you're writing it down. Correct. And just to tell you guys, I think we're in the last five minutes of the conversation. So I'd like to end with this final question. You know, people, all of them are asking as brother Omar succinctly asked, what are the practicalities? How, how can we take this opportunity now that we have that's coming up in the month of Ramadan and elevate ourselves and our kids? What are the practical, how, what are some practical examples that you can give us so that we can elevate ourselves and get our children also to be focused during the month of Ramadan? Well, besides all that we've been saying, because these are all foundations of what we've been discussing, reflecting on Tawheed. If there is one surah in the Quran when people ask me what is your, what is your favorite most powerful surah in the Quran? I tell them, you know, you know, this is the surah of the weed. We as a Muslim population should focus on Tawheed. Understand Allah. Know who is a lot try to reflect on that question read Even if you're confused even if I if we're misconceived even if we think Allah does one way and actually it's another way I've had conversations with some of our Muslim youth who Anthropomorphize Allah they really think that on judgment day. They will actually see Allah on a throne You know, they feel that Allah can make mistakes They say if Allah wants to throw me in hell because it makes him happy then then God may throw me in hell I said no, that's not true. Allah Allah is Authority of everything. He's nature. He's Essential nature is so positive that such thoughts should not cross this under Tawheed These are things we haven't spent much time reflecting And if our usul at Dean is weak and we don't understand the role of God and the purpose of creation The role of prophets and the purpose of their existence The role of the guidance systems of imams in the Quran for example and the role of the day of judgment and the hereafter in the eternity of Paradise these questions if you don't spend time to reflect on discuss them then our rituals in our prayers will be Half-hearted will be very difficult. And if we do get into it, it can easily be Broken with shaitan shaitan can fool us very easily But if our iman is firmly rooted when Allah says only al-baab Only al-baab are firmly rooted people who are convinced at the level of the heart Where they know Allah at the heart level where there's nothing in the universe that stops their conviction So from a practical perspective read some books Discuss now somebody will look at some brother. I have no time to read. Okay, then don't read a brother I have no time to give me give me a pill I can drink so that you know, I'll wake up in the morning And I'll be a muttaqi There's no such thing Prophet suffered so the practical measures are maintain your Salah Keep away from Haram if you backbite stop it if you gossip Stop it if you're arrogant or if you if you and I make Incendiary comments or what we call comments against others or we belittle somebody stop immediately stops a wait Why did I do that stop that? Consciousness is the most practical approach to reaching Allah There's no other reason somebody who said when you go up to the mountain of two Sinai and open up the Quran facing the qibla and read this eye and a light will come from the sky Stop people are asking me this kind of question. What can I do that? Why? Why do you want magic? You know, you want something outlandish outrageous? Why the religion of Allah is in us. It's in our homes. It's with us You'll find the greatest companions of the Prophet Prophets and the Imams were not people who are you know, super high-tech people They were simple people Salman Farsi was simple about that was a simple man. What made them so close? McDahad you look at all these great companions. What made them so great simple, but in what sense? practical But if we don't have that God consciousness, I know people who don't pray they come to me said brother I've stopped praying why oh, it doesn't work Pray doesn't work. I Don't think it's being accepted or when I pray I can't focus Yeah, it's great just to throw it, you know into the trash But tell them there's a ticker symbol in in Wall Street that if you understand it you'll make a million dollars. Oh Right there. Nobody asked me practical ways on how to get rich right away. You will read up You will right be right at it. You'll know all the the the nuances of investments Right well, how about that practicality? Well, that practicality is that I'm attracted to and I want it Well, how about this if we don't want it? We will never get it But many a times we say well, I don't want it, but I want you to give it to me Well, guess what you'll never get it if you don't want it. That's the way life works So the most practical measure we have a Quran In the heart of or Anna. Yeah, do you let you go? Uh-huh. Masha'Allah Subhan Allah salawat. Yeah, very nice. Now. What did you do with it? Well, Masha'Allah, it's beautiful. No, no You go home You said Masha'Allah What do you say that which you don't do go home practical read a surah? People's but I read it. It doesn't help me. No keep reading and ask Allah I'll give you a simple example and this to me is very profound. I want you to pay attention to this I was watching the biography of Allah matabata by rahmatullahi ar-reeh and Honestly, I cried and until now if I remember him just in just his face I want to cry because I I see this man connected to Allah. I see his resonance with God I can he has left this world Right is to me a Shahid But his presence is here. I feel it And there was something that his son was explaining That touched me so much. I said why it's there. It's it's real But I keep asking for these grandiose, you know miracles of Jibrail to come down and change me That's my foolishness What was the reality? Alama was, you know, most of his life was an orphan His mother and father died at very early age and he was raised by his uncle And he was put in the house early on And you know, he's a child comes from a good family very reputable family very pious family, but it's a child He says my teacher was teaching me for over a year and I wasn't paying attention. I was not Intrigued by it. I wasn't into my lesson Now I want you to pay attention to this. It's not magic It's very simple And I'm being emotional because It's so simple that I'm wondering why we haven't taken it Allah says Where how which mountain do I need to go? No No, and if you did suju that didn't work do it again Something wrong with the suju, maybe maybe Allah has accepted that right away, but it takes time Allah is sitting there and his teacher is teaching him and his teacher gets frustrated the young boy and His teacher says to Allah about the boy home He says if you don't focus in my class to learn what I'm giving you I will stop teaching you but this was a great teacher You know, I'm a car. They was his great teacher and he was related to him Allah ma goes into the corner of his room and Does to look a salah? And you know it hit me so hard. You might think oh, it's just a sentence. No, no, it's it's it's beyond real If you think somebody can walk on water is great. I think this is greater Walking on water is not great. This what I'm saying is greater and I I say it with my heart I'm being emotional about it because I feel it. It's real He went into a corner And he did to raka Salah and he went into sujood and he said to God Make me love to gain knowledge In other words, Rabbi Sidney Ilman Fahman, you know, make me also to have Ma'rifah Let me have desire to learn. I have no desire to learn. This teacher is teaching me I have no desire to learn and I'm going to lose out if I don't learn Many times. What would you and I do with pack up and leave? He goes and does to raka Salah And he does sujood And his son is saying my father told me When he rose from that sujood Just that same moment. He felt something He said I could not stop reading and learning up to his death He wrote al-mizan fitasir al-Quran, which was the most one of the most profound miracles of our time Quran bil Quran tafsiri didn't exist Think about it a scholar Who is so revolutionary in his time in the hausa between najaf and qum that this man changed the dynamics of hausa He says I could 16 hours a day. He was reading writing reading right for 30 years plus He spent 20 years. I think 24 years. He mentioned 24 years writing al-mizan fitasir al-Quran 24 years, you know when you read al-mizan And the exegesis of the Quran and the description of each ayah And the way he's presenting it with such lucidness And you're scratching you're like, how did you do this? How did you come up with this idea? How did you connect these two verses? And subhanAllah is talking to you Because he did this to raka That's the solution Get into sujood beg him Allah will never refuse us. You want to change? You and I must want to change if we don't let's not look for excuses Brother Abbas, I'll just add because he used the name al-alama taba taba. I use his mental rehearsal He actually wrote about how to do mental rehearsal meditation And just thinking and grading how you feel that you know the modern people like joe dispens and other people Also now tapping into the science So my wife came to me She says, you know, I was supposed to go to miami because she's you know She's into powerlifting and weightlifting and the trip cost was for free But the person said I need two hundred and seventy dollars for spending money So I said, well, I was about to give it to her. I said, why don't you rehearse? Pray du du'a And make sure it's going to come unexpected But somebody's going to give you the money or somehow the money is going to appear. Let's just try it for a few days So honestly, it's a lot of taba taba teaching stew that I use in terms of mental rehearsal And she didn't three days go by and her mom who's a non-muslim bought her an instant ticket That's a raffle ticket and they thought it was a loser So the next day I go I look in the floor and there's a ticket and I say That's I said, whoop whoop where this ticket come from that holds my mom. It's a loser. I look There's a 300-dollar winner And how much did the ticket cost 30? So she gave it back to her mom. The mom took the 30 dollars says here's two hundred and seventy dollars And what's the application is when you just have this happen one time when you pray And your prayers are rejected never of the soul and you pray from the soul that says I don't reject that Most of our prayers are rejected because it's prayer of the ego We allow that happen to that Happen one time just like it happened to adama taba tabai That you can never live you can never go back to that old self. It doesn't exist anymore That's what haja said in is crying for saying just do that once have that madam at all moment one time You can never go back And that's the key This is one practical means thank you so much guys. I'm so sorry. I know I'm interrupting But I think at this point we have to kind of cut off Yeah, yeah, that's fine. So are we ending with a du'a or Yeah, before we ended there's just one quick question Somebody was asking about your camp camp taha If there's just a website you can tell them that they can go to and understand if you're having it this year or not I'm not sure if you could Just say a quick website address So heat camp ctawhedcamp.org Depending on how the covid situation will happen We're hoping that by that time in july august You know inshallah will be able to do something maybe limited numbers. We'll see a limited number. We'll see though We would love to do it a lot of people are asking that they're longing for it So I'll be doing ramadan lectures from tomorrow and they will be actually We're going to send out the ad and it's going to be an end like media So, uh, it'll be a live broadcasted and we'll have a panel with you know, uh, discussions and so on but It'll be a 30 minute lecture on quranic sciences reference to the to Ramadan and and of course quranic sciences in general And then there'll be a q&a session with the panel every day for every night inshallah for those of you are interested InshaAllah brother, you wanted do you wanted did you want to finish with a du'a and then I'll just wrap up Yeah, so the du'a that I gave last time. I know that some of you've received it, but inshallah. We'll share it again It's about the memorization of the quran and this is in by imam ali alaihi salam in saifah alawiyah Imam ali alaihi salam has given us this du'a. It's very beautiful and I'd like to end with it Just Allahumma. Rahm me bismillah rahmanir raheem. Allahumma salli ala Muhammad wa ala Muhammad Allahumma. Rahm me betarakil ma'asi Aba damma khaytani Farhamni min taqallu fi ma la yunini Wa rzukni husna al-mandir Fima yurziqa anni Wa alzam qalbi. Hifstah kitabik. Kama al-lamtani Wa rzukni an athluhuhu Al-nawhi yurziqa anni Allahumma nawir basari Wa shrah bihi s-sadri Wa farrij bihi qalbi Wa atliq bihi lisani Wa sta'milni bihi badani Wa qawini ala thalik Wa anni alaihi innahu La mu'in alaih Illa an't la ilaha illa an't O Allah have mercy on me so that I may give up sinning forever till I am alive What a beautiful verse right stop sinning 40 days stop sinning You want the most practical thing in life? Stop sinning for 40 days and you will find sinning will become much harder Then another 40 days will become almost very difficult In other words you won't sin as easy Have mercy on me so that I may never have to face anything difficult or troublesome which I cannot endure Make me an object of exalted appearance which pleases you and let my heart Memorize your book as if both are inseparable from each other Just as you have given me the faculty to understand it And let my recitation of it be most agreeable to you O Allah with it enlighten my insight Increase my power of understanding give joy to my heart Make my speech fluent cause my body to work And for this make me strong assist me because to make it possible There is no one to help me accept you. There is no god except you You know when you get a letter from your beloved you'll take time and read it You know a lot of times we take things and like the Quran will dismiss it But how that du'a is basically telling you it's a letter from your beloved Well zam qalbi hafza kitabik My lord make my heart memorize your book keep asking this you will be amazed How your heart will just if you want it it'll come look brother was saying give some Material examples right of money right people people like jody spent materially. It works. Can you imagine spiritually not work much higher Just think about it Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for that. I really appreciate. Thank you brother has remain and brother saying And brother Omar as well for joining in. Thank you brother. Thank you for joining us I'm sure you can continue this to keep discussing this but uh, I know that the time is short So, uh, thank you for everything that you guys have done inshallah We'll have these more of these sessions coming up soon InshaAllah Um, we're definitely indebted to both of you for coming in. So I just wanted to end In this tradition narrated by both sunni and shia scholars where the holy prophet has said Fasting is form. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has said fasting is for me And I am the one who rewards for it When prophet usuf met the person who advised zulaykah's father on his innocence years after the incident He showered him with rewards and status Angel jibrael at that time told him you as a human have rewarded a man for doing something for you You imagine what your lord will do for you when you go back to him and that is what the shahmadan is all about Going back to him beautiful way The wise academy and mit mubim would like to thank you our audience for tuning in And we look forward to seeing you in future programs as well inshallah May Allah accepts all eduars and prayers in the coming holy month And we request you to keep us in your prayers as well La malekum malekum