 It's important to have goals and ambitions. As a matter of fact, success in life requires them. But life isn't always about getting to the next checkpoint. The demands of our daily schedules leave us preoccupied with demands, deadlines, situations, goals and fears. We always want to get to work on time, getting the promotion we seek, making and creating new businesses and making ends meet. Now trust me when I say that life is hectic and complicated at times. But we need to take our time just a little bit and slow it down a little bit so we can have a much less stressful life. Now you don't need to bend the laws of physics to do that. What's more interesting about this and what's more important or equally important according to your mentality is how to attain spirituality in this materialistic world. Now spirituality and materialism have one thing in common is that both of them seek happiness. Yet in spirituality happiness comes from within whereas materialism happiness comes without. Spirituality teaches how to desire and to have a better life whereas materialism teaches us and teaches us to desire to have a more materialistic life. Spirituality teaches us how to become selfless whereas materialism teaches us how to become selfish. Now what's the solution in overcoming this materialistic world at the same time attaining spirituality? The only solution to that is to deal with it, respect to viewers, brothers and sisters in Islam. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Welcome to deal with it with me your host Ahmed Ali. Now this show is dedicated towards discussing and analyzing some of the most controversial topics that affect our lives on a daily basis whether in a negative or in a positive way throughout the show. You will be getting the chance to call to comment because we are live on Facebook so you can leave your comment or your question below for Sayyid Hussain Qazmini is joining us tonight to discuss how to attain spirituality in this materialistic life and to answer whatever question you have. Sayyidina. Assalamu alaikum. How you doing? Alhamdulillah. You good? Very well. Thank you for joining us on these nights especially the beginning I like the beginning when we send our salams to our Hussain and to Bufal al-A'abah so the blessings and honor and pleasures are all mine. Alhamdulillah. Let's kick it off. Absolutely. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. Assalamu alaikum. Aba abdillah wa ala al-arwaha al-lati halat bifanaik. Alaykum minni jami'an. Assalamu alaikum wa baqit wa baqiyal lail wa al-nahar. Wa laaj aloh Allah. Akhir al-ahdi minni li ziyaratikum. Assalamu ala al-Hussain. Wa ala alay ibn al-Hussain. Wa ala ulad al-Hussain. Wa ala as-Hab al-Hussain. Wa as-salamu ala akhihi ab al-Fadl al-Abbas. Qamar al-Ashirah. Wa ba' bil-Hawaj. Assalamu alaikum jami'an. Wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Roshan hame'a khuaq az-zinnu al-jadiz. Ey shee'e be khunbe ma'l al-Abqan beza. Ey shee'e be khunbe ma'l al-Abqan beza. Ilad ehumayun hussainat na'li. Engab etul al-jelveel am-yazadiz. Engab etul al-jelveel am-yazadiz. Roshan hame'a khuaq az-zinnu al-jadiz. Roshan hame'a khuaq az-zinnu al-jadiz. Ey shee'e be khunbe ma'l al-Abqan beza. Ey shee'e be khunbe ma'l al-Abqan beza. Ilad ehumayun hussainat na'li. Ilad ehumayun hussainat na'li. Ilad ehumayun hussainat na'li. Respected viewers, one second. As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. We do welcome you to another episode of Deal With It with me or host Ahmed Ali now for the dear viewers who are just tuning in for the first time. Deal With It is a show dedicated towards analyzing and discussing some of the most controversial topics that affect our life on a daily basis, whether in a positive or in a negative way. In the previous episodes, in the first episode, we talked about dangers of social media. Then, in the second episode, we talked about early marriage. In yesterday's episode, we talked about how to deal with Islamophobia. And today, Sayyed Hassan Al-Qazmeen, who has joined us once again, decided to talk about how to attain spirituality in this materialistic world. As-salamu alaikum Sayyedna. Alaykum As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Alaykum As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. It's good to have you once again. It's good to be back. Alaykum As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Now, this topic is very controversial because a lot of people see various ways into attaining spirituality through either training or their own habits, the own ways that they came up with or people previous came up with to attaining spirituality. Now, according to you, if you think that you have something in mind, for the dear viewers, if you have something in mind that you might have felt like your spirituality was enlightened, do leave that in the comment box below and we'll mention that throughout the show as well. Sayyedna. Now, we see a lot of people, as I mentioned, use various methods in achieving and or attaining spirituality. Do we human beings need spirituality? I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May Allah's peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon our master, Muhammad and his family, the righteous and the righteous. May Allah's peace and blessings be upon him. In the West, I think the demand for spirituality is growing day by day. It's ironic because Western countries are the most advanced countries. Yes. They're the most powerful countries. They have technology, they have electricity, they have the best universities, they have the best homes. You know, they're not a third world country, like Iraq or countries where people have to worry about the most mundane, simple things, like electricity. Water. I'm sorry? Water. Clean water. Good schools. When you're a parent here, one of the things that you worry about the most is going to a good school, finding a good school for your kids. In the West, when it comes to technology, when it comes to materialism, things are perfect. But still, people have to find a gap in their life. There's still a problem. There's still a problem. Proof of that is the rates of suicide. Look at the rates of suicide. The biggest rates of suicide are in Europe, in the Scandinavian countries, like Denmark, and the United States, even Russia. Russia is not a third world country. It's an advanced country. The United States is a advanced country. Well, the most developed countries, yeah. It's a developed country. But why is it that suicide is skyrocketing in these countries? This is one. Surprising. Two, depression. Yeah. Depression is the leading illness in the United States of America. The number one medicine on demand at most pharmacies, the medicine that is produced the most by pharmaceutical companies in the West, and specifically in the United States of America. Anti-depressants. Or anti-depressants. Well, what's going on? You have a nice car. You have a nice house. It's the land of opportunity. You could be whatever you want to be. You could be an athlete. You could be an astronaut. You could be a scientist. What's stopping you? Why would you want to commit suicide? Why would you go through depression? Why would you want to take medicine like Zantax and other anti-depressants? There's something wrong with the equation. This is one, or this is two, rather. Three, the most books on demand now are self-help books and books of spirituality. Go to famous booksellers in America, Canada. Barnes and Noble. I don't know, do you have that in Canada? In America, it's very well-known. Barnes and Noble. Or Borders. Yeah. That's a well-known bookseller. Yeah. You know, it's a general bookstore, not the specialized bookstore. Like, if you want to book on advanced biology, you wouldn't go there. It's a... For me, I just go to the university's library. Yeah. I don't really go to bookstores. Or you buy from Amazon. But if you just want to see regular books, you go to Barnes and Noble and Borders, you see the books that are most on demand are spirituality, books on spirituality. How to enhance your spirituality. Yoga is on demand. Meditation. Some people, you know, they resort to meditation. What's interesting is one of the books that is most on demand is Jalal al-Din's... Jalal al-Din Rumi's Al-Mathnawi. Or Al-Mathnawi. Translated into English. Poetry. Mystic poetry. I'm talking about Americans, non-Muslims, reading Rumi's books on mysticism and... Tasawwuf and all that. Now, I'm not trying to... I'm not saying that that's a good thing. I'm not trying to support Jalal al-Din Rumi's books or anything. No. But this is a phenomenon that in the West there's a growing need for spirituality. Yeah. What's... What's the problem? Why do we see this? Number one, going back to your question, do you need spirituality? Absolutely. Spirituality comes from spirit. Spirituality. We human beings are bodies and spirit. Our bodies are one of our components. The other component is our spirit, is our nefs. Allah, S.A.W., says regarding Adam that after He created him, فَنَفَخْتُ فِيهِ مِنْ رُوحِهِ making Adam with clay, that was his physical side. That was his physical dimension. He had a spiritual dimension as well. When Allah blew into Adam from his spirit. Of course, this is a metaphorical. Yes. It's not literal. It's not supposed to be taken literally that Allah blows. Allah doesn't blow. Allah is not a human to blow. But basically, Allah is saying that Adam had a physical component and he has a spiritual component. We human beings, we usually take care of our physical component. We eat the best food. We drink the best drink. We wear the nicest clothing. We sleep. We relax. We take care of our bodies. But what about the spirit? Just like the body needs nourishment. It needs pampering, so to speak. It needs to be pampered and taken care of and spoiled. The spirit too. You can't feed your body and keep your spirit starving. And that's why we need spirituality. Spirituality is soul food. It's food for the spirit. Yes. Now, can you mix them together? I mean, for example, can you have materialism and spirituality together? Like, for example, since you brought Prophet Adam, we have Dawud, alaihi salam, who is known for being rich. And they were kings, yet they were prophets. So they somehow stabilized the materialistic and their spiritual life and put them together. Right. I would not call them materialistic. Spiritual, they were spiritual. They were rich. They were kings. They owned. What is materialism? Materialism is not to own. It doesn't mean to own things. Or to love materialism. Well, to love materialistic things. Materialism is to be owned by things. It's to be rich. You possess a car, a house, wealth. And you allow those things to own you. That is materialism. Someone who's materialistic is a person who only cares about making money. Who wants to be filthy rich and, you know, spend so much money on him and he's overprotective of his wealth. This person is actually letting his wealth own him. He doesn't own his wealth. All he cares about is his investments. He wants to make the $10 million. He wants to make it $15 million. The $15 million, he wants to make it $20 million. But that's ambition. This is materialism. That's ambition. You have to have ambition in life. That's fine. Own money. In fact, Islam doesn't say don't own money. Islam says good. A man came to maybe Imam Assad. One of the Imams. He came to him. He told him, I have a desire to make money. Is that a bad thing? Imam told him, why do you want to make money? He said, because I want to spend on my wife. I want to spend on my children. I don't want my children to be poor. I want to spend on my parents. I want to spend on my neighbors. I want to build a mosque. I want to do good deeds. He said, then you don't want him. He said, Imam Sadik told him that then you want money for Akhara. Not for dunya. You have nothing to worry about. This is not materialism. This is a good thing. Wanting money to spend it on your family, on your relatives, on the poor, building a mosque, opening a satellite channel, helping out a hospital, opening a clinic and orphanage. This is Akhara. These are good things for Akhara. This is not for dunya. Materialism is building up an empire of cash, stacking up money, not helping anyone. So greed. Greed. You only think of yourself and yourself only. So anyone, by homes, palaces, food of all kind, that's materialism. That doesn't go along with spirituality. That's the materialism that doesn't go along with spirituality. You could own things, but don't let them own you. For example, when you say don't let them own you, can you give us an example? A person has a car, a very expensive car. I'll talk. How is that supposed to... I'll give you an example. I'll show you or a house. I'll give you an example. You own a very expensive car. You own the car. The car takes you to places. It takes you to work. It takes you to school. You go to the beach for relaxation. You own the car because it's serving you. But if it gets a scratch, if there's a scratch on the car and you blow up and you get in a fight with the one who got a scratch on your car. Here, the car owns you. Because it's the purpose of the car to serve you or you serve the car. Here, you're serving the car. It means the car owns you. If you blow up and get upset over a minor crash or a dent or a scratch on the car and you're willing to cause a fight and throw out a fit, that means the car is owning you. You're serving the car while it should be owning you. While you should be owning it. Owning it. Now, when we're talking expensive, we talk about cars, the high-end cars. You know, 40 grand up. Those are considered high-end. Some don't consider it high-end. But for me, I think high-end cars, not Lamborghinis and stuff, but high-end cars, where each part, if there's a small dent, if you want to change the part, it's expensive. Right. So I'm going to waste money for a person's mistake. No, you're not wasting money. It's about a mentality. It's about not a big deal. Or I'll give you another example. You're willing to give that car to someone else. You're willing to give that car to someone else, someone who's in need. I'm not talking about a Lamborghini. Yeah. But your car that you own and you like, right? But if someone was in need and needed a car, you'll give them that car. That means you don't have an emotional attachment with that car, with that house, with the money. You have $1,000 in your pocket. You're walking in a mosque. There's a fundraising. There's fundraising going on. You take out the money and you throw it. You own that money. That money doesn't own you. But if you say, no, no, no, no. I worked hard for this money. There's no way I'm giving it to these crooks. And I don't even know how they're going to... That's Shaytan telling you. That's that money owning you. You're serving that money. That is why Imam Ali, peace be upon him, he tells Kumail. He says, Yeah. Yeah. Because knowledge is better than wealth. Knowledge protects you, gives you insight. It protects you. But you protect wealth. Indeed, all we care about investments, where's the best bank, where my money is protected? Should I put it here? Should I put it in Switzerland? Where's my money protected? While it should be the other way around. This is materialism. So going back to spirituality, you could be spiritual even if you own the world. But you don't let the world own you. You could own 50 homes, but they don't own you. You'll give them up in a second. That means there's no emotional attachment. You're willing to leave this life and go without difficulty? You're a spiritual person. You're saying something impossible. No. To many. Why? For example, if you own a company, and once someone came and told you if you want spirituality, leave it. Unless that individual has some kind of... I've seen people. Some kind of strong will. I've seen people. For a person to leave his work, the only source of him getting money and to go somewhere on a spiritual journey. I've seen people in America, in Canada, other places. Allah SWT has given them from Allah. He's bestowed upon them from his riches. And they give. They give as if they don't fear tomorrow. As if there's no tomorrow. They give to orphans, they give to charities, projects. If you look at the amount that they give, you say this person thinks he's dying tomorrow. This is the amount of faith that they have. Money means nothing to them. They own the money. This person is spiritual. This person is not controlled by money or by business or by wealth. He's letting his business serve him. He's not serving his business. He's building for his Akhirah. He's making an investment for his Akhirah. This person is spiritual to me. Spirituality. This is how I see spirituality. Spirituality is a form of connection with Allah. It's a form of relationship with Allah that doesn't let anything interfere. You could call it romance. Religious romance. A romantic relationship with Allah. That nothing can come in between. Not your car, not your business, not Shaytan, nothing. You could be living in Paris. You could be living in London. You could be living in the nicest cities in America, in the nicest mansions. But at midnight, you'll get up for Salat al-Layl and nothing could distract you. And you'll get up and pray Salat al-Layl. You go to work. You're a CEO of a major company. But during the day, your mind is with Allah. Your tongue does not forget Allah. This person is spiritual. You know, a lot of people, they say you're so lucky. You're living in Karbala, next to Imam Hussein, next to Abu Al-Fadr Al-Abbas and this beautiful place. You're so lucky to be in such a spiritual place. We're here in America so far. If you wanted to come, we'll take us two days to get here. You can only come once a year or maybe once every two years. You're so lucky. Tell them, listen, I'm lucky for what? For spirituality? You could be spiritual. It's not about the place. Some people assume that spirituality is restricted to Karbala, Najaf, Caldomein, Mecca, Medina, Mashhad Qom, the religious sites. Where there's a religious site, where there's a shrine, they're connected with Allah. They're spiritually connected. But as soon as they go back, they can no longer be connected. Why? Is Allah only in Karbala? He's not in... It's different, Sayyidina. I know our family that live in Las Vegas. The atmosphere motivates you. Absolutely, the atmosphere motivates you. I'll tell you. Maybe we'll talk about that in the second portion of our show when we talk about how to become spiritual. Right now we're just defining spirituality. The next segment is how to reach spirituality. I know a family in Las Vegas, an Iraqi family that live in Las Vegas, Sin City. It doesn't get worse than that, worse than Sin City. This Iraqi family started a mosque, started a community. They got together with other Shi'i families. They became five, six, ten, twenty. They started their own mosque in the heart of Las Vegas. Maybe some might think, well, what are they doing living in Las Vegas? Las Vegas is a huge city. It's not just about casinos and drinks and all that. No, it's a huge city. There's a lot that you could do as a means of living. This family lives there and they're so pious. The mother, the wife and the family, she was diagnosed with cancer. But she didn't show any sign of, you know, there's some people when bad things happen to them, they say, why me? God is unjust. Why couldn't you have chosen someone else? Why does this have to... This lady surrendered completely to Allah. Allah wants me to go, I'll go. Come on. And prior to her death, they called and they asked, is there a female that can... Can you contact a female when the time comes for her to come and wash my body and for proper burial? Imagine, there's some people that don't want to talk about these things. They don't want to think about being washed and shrouded and buried. No, this lady with complete faith in Allah. Is there any lady that can fly to Las Vegas to wash? Subhan Allah. Does it get... Does it get more severe than that? You're sitting in Las Vegas? Physically. But your mind and your heart... Spiritually connected. Spiritually, you're with Allah. These things don't fool you. The casinos, the drinking, the parties, the nice hotels, none of them. Because you're with Allah here inside. This is spirituality. That you're connected with Allah. That you're not fooled with this dunya. This dunya is temporary. It's like, you know, you go to a city for a conference for two, three days and they put you in a nice hotel. You're like, wow. This is an amazing hotel. The best furniture and nice green TV. The bed is so comfortable. But you don't form an attachment, right? Because you know that within two, three days you're going to have to leave this hotel room. It's not yours. Someone else is going to come into that room. And after two days, that person has to leave and someone else has to come into that. You don't form an attachment with the hotel room. You don't make investments. You don't go and buy furniture for that hotel room because you're going to be leaving it for someone else and be ridiculous. Some people live in this dunya like that. They consider this dunya as a hotel room. People come and go, come and go. What you work for and you look forward to is your real home. Home sweet home. It's the real home. This is fake. This is temporary. It's like a hotel, it's like a rental car. Do you really enjoy a rental car? Sometimes you do if you're driving. You enjoy a rental car but you don't form an attachment. When you give it back, you don't start crying. Say, let us continue that because examples are piling up. Let's continue that after the show. Break inshallah. Perspective viewers, do stay tuned for after the break for inshallah. Continue to touch upon how we can abstain from materialism and attach ourselves to spirituality that's after the break. So stay tuned. Thank you. Thank you. Perspective viewers, brothers and sisters, one second. As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Welcome to the second part of today's episode. Now before the break, we did talk about how to abstain from materialistic goods and to attach ourselves. Not abstain. Not abstain. Okay, then? I didn't say, you know, abstain from materialistic goods. Buy whatever you want, eat whatever you want, live in whatever you want. But don't form an attachment. Don't form an attachment. Live in the nicest house that you want. But don't form an attachment so that when you're told you have to go, you'll say, you know, I'm willing to go. That, no, no, no. You don't have to abstain from anything. But don't form an attachment. This is the exact definition of zuhd. You have zuhd in Arabic. This is what that means. But Sayyidina, we did tell the dear viewers to message us or to send us their comments. We are now, we are live on Facebook. Earlier there was a technical problem, live on Facebook was down. But now we are live on Facebook. Now, some people are saying they mentioned their type of ways on how they can achieve spirituality or attain spirituality. Some said meditation and fasting. Their way of attaining spirituality. Good question. Good question. So how do we attain spirituality? This is a common question. And I get this all the time. Sayyid, I want to feel spiritual. Teach me something. Teach me what should I do? Is there a special dua? Is there a special surah that I have to read? Is there a special exercise that I have to read? Do I have to go walking in the woods? Should I go walk in a cemetery, graveyard? Some people would go and sleep in a grave to feel spiritual. What is it that I need to do? A lot of scholars have been asked this question. And their answer is simple. Do what you have to do. Don't do the things that you can't do. It's not more than that. Don't think of spirituality as a special exercise that you have to do to get closer to Allah Azawajah. No. Let me ask you. The ones that say this, that want a special exercise or a special supplication, I don't even know if they pray or not. Or how seriously do they take their salah? Yes. Start with your salah. Start with your hijab. Start with your fasting. Start with your khums. Do the things that you have to do. And then think of, do I have to do a special exercise? No, you don't. Don't do that what is haram. Don't listen to ghiba. Even if you're tempted, don't say ghiba. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't look at that which is haram. Don't listen to that which is haram. It's the basic things. There are some people, they delay their hours three hours late. They delay their salah three hours late. Their hijab is a convertible hijab. Makeup. They don't pay khums. The convertible hijab, the one that comes on and off, depends on the weather. Rainy comes off. If it's rainy, it comes back on. It's kind of like an umbrella. It's convertible. These people have no knowledge of religion, but they want spirituality. Sayyid, teach me something about spirituality. How can I come closer to Allah? Start with the basics. Come to your salah. Pray your salah on time. Don't rush into your salah. Take your time with salah, with food. How long does dinner take to enjoy your dinner with family? Some people take an hour. Start with an appetizer and then food and then dessert. You said a good hour on a dinner table. Would you take five minutes? No. But with salah, they don't mind rushing for two minutes. Take your time and salah. This is a conversation between you and Allah. Make use of it. Go have a special place for salah. You were saying, when we were talking about Vegas that the place matters. The environment, the spiritual environment matters. Create that environment. Create the spiritual environment for yourself. Let me give an example. I like giving examples. It's like romance. Married couple, when they're engaged, romance is at its best. You give it a ten. They get married, honeymoon ten. After the wedding, after the honeymoon, nine and a half. After a couple months, nine, eight, seven. Kind of like Donald Trump's approval ratings. Right? It starts going down, going down, going down. Then there's pregnancy. Then there's having children. Then there's fights. Then there's the mother-in-law getting involved. All of that reduces what? The romance. What do you have to do? You have to create romance. You have three children. Four children. They kill romance. They don't let you sleep. The mother's always tired. She's always cleaning. But they have to create romance. You put a Friday night. There's a romance lesson. Friday night, you put the kids to sleep early. Kind of like dinner. You bring Italian or French. Right? Not cello kebab or anything like that. It's not romantic. I like that. You create the environment. Romantic tips from Seyit Qazouni. You have to create a spiritual environment as well. Start by cutting off music. You can't feel spiritual if there's music playing. Romantic music. You can't feel spiritual if there's women at your house not wearing hijab and there's men and women mixing and they're joking and they're chatting. That kills spirituality. Just like there are things that kill romance. Like all of a sudden one of them snaps and they get angry. That kills a romantic moment. There are things that kill spirituality. Like music. Or men and women mixing. Or terrible hijab. That kills. You have to create a spiritual environment. Keep a special place for you to pray at home. There's no music. Fasting helps. If you don't want to go outside to see bad scenes on the street don't go out. You create that environment. You read a little bit of Quran. You go into Dua. Now we're in... We just finished the month of Rajab. We're in the month of Shaaban. Ramadan is coming up. These are perfect times to create spirituality. And today we're celebrating the birthday of whom? The Master of Spirituality. The Master of Spirituality. The Master of Spirituality. The Master of Spirituality. The Master of Spirituality. The Master of Spirituality. Some guys if they want to pick up on a lady they use pickup lines. Allah give us some Sayyidina. That is for another time. You got some. That's for another time. We can probably keep it for tomorrow. Just one or two. There is Islamic pickup lines. One or two. Quick. So we can increase spirituality. Yeah. He said the first time I saw you I said Masha'Allah. Cool. And then I said insha'Allah. It works. They say it works. There is pickup lines. There is things to say to create that romantic situation. Imam Zina Abedin has Muna Jat. His Muna Jat they create that spiritual environment. So beautiful. Masha'Allah Muna Jat or not? Okay. Good. There are other things. Right. You have to create the spiritual environment. You don't necessarily need to be in Karbala. You don't necessarily need to be in these places. Definitely there is spirituality. If you come here and you don't find spirituality there is something wrong with you. Yeah. It's like going to a restaurant and you are still not full. You go to a restaurant and you come out and you are still hungry. There is something wrong with you. And you have eaten. And you are still hungry. That means there is something wrong with you. If you come here to Karbala and you are still not spiritually satisfied that means there is something wrong with you. The challenge is not to be in Karbala not to be in Najaf not to be in Mecca or Medina not to be in Ambala and Hajj yet still feel spiritual. You are walking in the streets of London or Los Angeles or New York City in the middle of Manhattan where there is businesses huge corporations but your mind is with Allah and you are not fooled. You are making a living. You are a CEO but you know this is temporary. This is a bridge. When do you leave it? Whether you like it or not. This is exactly what Hussein Adif from Australia said it says do I have to come for Ziyara every year as we are told by scholars or can I be spiritually enlightened from home? You could be spiritually enlightened. So there you go. If you would like to come for Ziyara you are more than welcome and you will be rewarded. And that is good for you. But is spirituality only in Karbala and nowhere else? No. That would not even be fair because these cities are limited and Allah is everywhere. Allah wants people to be connected with Him all around the globe. He didn't create spirituality only for the people in trying cities. No. For everywhere. Right? You could be living anywhere but you are spiritually connected to Allah Azawajal. That's all it takes. That's all it takes to know that you are here temporarily and that you will leave one day and you will leave everything behind. That's spiritual. Now Zain Al Farah says prayer, yoga and martial arts help me a lot when I feel spiritually down. Good. So these... If that works for you, that's good. If that works... Perfect. It's not haram. In fact, meditation what is meditation? Meditation is to sit... Clearing up your mind. Clearing up your mind and to think. Islam promotes this. To think is meditation. Think about Allah. Think about why He created you. What is our purpose in this life? Where am I headed in life? Where am I going? Am I going in the right path? Is Allah pleased with me? Should I continue doing what I'm doing? Should I change my life? Think for one hour. Believe me, it's better than standing up for salah. One salah after the other. Like a robot. But it's a... It's a spiritless salah. It's a physical act but your mind is somewhere else. Yes. You don't enjoy it. Islam is not a guest meditation. In fact, that's one of the ways of spirituality. Is to sit and think. To think for one hour. Those who remember Allah, and stand up and sit on their side. Those who remember Allah, standing and sitting and even lying down. And they think about the creation of the heavens and the earth. Our Lord, Those who sit. They look at the stars. They look at the moon. They look at the sun. And they say, my Lord, you didn't create these things out of vain. And without a purpose. And without a reason. I'm only a small part of your plan. And you have a huge plan. A bigger plan. Much bigger than me. Yes. I'm a small player in that plan. That's meditation. That's spirituality. That's connecting to Allah. Great. Now, we have a comment from Canada. From David. He says, before I converted to Islam, I was an atheist. And the reason behind why I converted was because I had a near-death experience which made me realize that there is a being out there who's watching over and protecting me. From that point on, I felt spiritually uplifted and began to search for the being that saved me. And after a year of looking and visiting different religious centers, such as churches, synagogues and mosques, I came across a Muslim family who really showed me how I can become a spiritual being. And from that point on, my heart was finally at ease. Sorry for taking too long. Beautiful. I mean, it's beautiful. Near-death experiences really do lift up. They change, yeah. Near-death experiences where you feel this is it. I was about to leave. I saw the tunnel and the white light and the light at the end of the tunnel. That's how they imagine it. But all of a sudden, I came back. Have you been through that, Sayidina? No. I've been through that. Really? In Canada, I was in a car accident. And honestly, I was out for a good five minutes. I don't know what happened. When they woke me up, I was in a car crash. It's a panel. But, you know, the car flipped three times. It was crazy. It's a panel. And, you know, I woke up nothing wrong. Then I realized that, you know, something did change. A lot changed in my life. And, you know, things do happen. I know what he's talking about. And then I mean... In addition to the Medicare and all that, is that what changed or spiritually? No, no, no, no. Spiritually. Spiritually changed. I'm joking with you. I know. I know. But, you know what I mean? Like, what he's saying, for us, as Muslims, I think, if we are spiritually uplifted, then it's because we're Muslim. But for this individual who really converts after, you know, that's a spiritual jump. That's a huge hop. That's beautiful. For someone to come out of that. So someone saved him and he wanted to discover who the savior is. Yes. And why did he save him? Yeah. It's definitely for a purpose. Yeah. He could have gone. He could have left. But God put him back into this life for a purpose and he wanted to discover that purpose. That's beautiful. And, you know, he should thank Allah for giving him that opportunity and for allowing him to benefit from that opportunity. Yeah. There's so many people that have near-death experiences. They don't care. And they don't care. They go back to... Yeah. Go back to their old ways of getting drunk and, you know, the regular life. This person should thank Allah for giving him this opportunity and for giving him the... for giving him, you know, the Tawfiq, the opportunities to make... to, you know, seize the opportunity because not everyone seizes. A lot of people have the opportunity but they don't see it. But not everyone has a near-death experience, right? You don't necessarily need to have a near-death experience to feel spiritual. To wake up, yeah. But sometimes people need that wake-up call and that wake-up call is, you know, insha'Allah, no one needs that. But for some people, they're so deep into this, you know, into the mess-up of this world. Ahmed, we do have wake-up calls. We do have wake-up calls. Every day we hear of this person has cancer. Yes. That person got in a car accident. Yeah. The car flipped on this. These are wake-up calls. Yeah. These are wake-up calls. When I hear of someone who is diagnosed with cancer, immediately, I say, Astaghfirullah, my God, forgive me. Because it could be me. Just like that person was diagnosed with cancer. It could be me. I'm not immune. It could be anyone. When I hear of someone got in a car accident, immediately I seek forgiveness from myself because I don't know when's my time. Yeah. That's a wake-up call. It's a daily reminder. Here in Karbala, you know, one of the things that we see in the Haram are dead bodies. Yeah. They bring them for funeral, for burial. We see them every day and it's a reminder. Some people don't see that. But they do hear of a person diagnosed with cancer, a person who got in a car accident. Either they came close to death or they're dying. This is a wake-up call. Yeah. A wake-up call, that we're not going to be here forever. And life is a greater goal. We should be working for that greater goal. For another life. We have a greater purpose. It's not just about me and satisfying my desires and my needs and my materialistic needs. It's about being good to others, leaving marks, positive marks on people's lives. Yeah. That when we leave, they say they'll actually miss us. Unfortunately, there's some people here. If they leave, no one will miss them. They will not be missed. Hopefully, we'll be among those who will be missed. Hopefully, insha'Allah, insha'Allah. Sayyidina, this is one of the final questions there's too. It's somewhat unnecessary but he wants us to clear something up. He says my friend gets high and then acts like he is spiritually uplifted because he thinks that his mind is elevated. Is that a type? You said whatever works for you. Is that some sort of way? No. Just to clear it up. This is like stealing money and giving it to the poor. Robinhood. Trying to justify the means with the ends. Because I get a spiritual upliftment I want to do drugs. I want to get intoxicated. This is not right. This is not right. We have a principle. There's a hadith. لا يطاع الله من حيث يأصى You cannot obey Allah by disobeying Him. Obey Him the way He wants. Allah says come connect with me through Salah. الصلاة مع راج المؤمن I don't know why we take our Salah lightly. Some say, Sayyid, teach me something more than Salah. I already prayed. Do you know what prayer means? The hadith says الصلاة مع راج المؤمن You're not doing it right. That's why it's not doing anything for you. If you do it right with full concentration and you think about it and you block out everything else. And Salah, why do we do this? Why do we put our hands behind our backs or behind our heads when we say Allah Akbar? Meaning that everything is behind me. And now all I see all I face is Allah Azawajal. We're not doing our Salah properly. That's why we're looking for other means to become for other options. Islam has given us everything. I go back to what I said in the beginning. Spirituality comes by following the Rasala of our Maraja. Do the things that they've said to do. Avoid doing the things that they said not to do. They have spirituality by doing them, by implementing them. By concentration as well. Not just physically. We'll get to that stage. We don't need to look for anything else. This is ridiculous. To say that I can attain spirituality through getting higher. Maybe you can. But Allah doesn't want that. This person is saying just to clear up this because my friend is convinced with it. He wants to clear that up. Asking for a friend. Basically. The last question is that my brother wants to buy a very expensive car and I tell him instead of doing that why don't you donate the money to orphans? So there's probably a conflict between the two. The brother wants to buy an expensive car. The sister says no or the brother I don't know who says donate to the orphans and buy a regular car. Is that okay or can you just buy whatever? There is it's not haram to buy an expensive car. Person you could do whatever you want with your money. Of course in a halal way. You can't spend it on alcohol or public. That's what I mean. You could buy anything that you want. No but in this case it's a car. Yeah. He could legally, I mean islamically he could buy something expensive and not give it to the poor. But does that make him feel good buying something that he doesn't really need? If he needs a $30,000 car for example a good car with a good engine a good AC four wheel drive I don't know it does the job. Yeah. Why spend $60,000 why spend $100,000? That's basically I'll be going to waste. You could if you want. I don't think he's going to waste but You could if you want but won't you be forming an attachment with that car? Definitely. If it gets a scratch Oh. Aren't you going to flip? The more you spend on that car the more you create an attachment. Yeah. But if you buy a regular car a $30,000 a $40,000 car you don't form that attachment. The world doesn't go upside down if you got in a car accident or it got a dent or the paint wasn't that perfect or it gets scratched there. Just to end our discussion today it was amazing to talk about this speaking of expensive cars one time we were in downtown Toronto and there was a car pulling up pulling out of a parking lot an underground parking lot and there was a Ferrari exotic cars they're low. So the person legit had to stop the whole lane to put small ramps going up out of the garage stopped everyone so you can do that. It was around like 30 minutes we were stopped in the traffic just this person can get out of the parking lot so the car doesn't get scraped on on the sidewalk. So you know what I mean? I know what you mean but sometimes life does require to buy expensive stuff. Thank you very much Seida for joining us tonight hopefully we can continue the discussion on a different topic tomorrow. Thank you very much. Respect the viewers. Thank you very much for tuning in. You know hopefully we ask Allah to aid us to attain spirituality through the right means of course and to obey him at all times. Thank you very much for tuning in. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you.