 Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Alhamdulillahir Rabbi Al Alameen Wa Sal Allah wa Salam Wa Barak Allah Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala Aalihi wa Sahbihi wa Salam Al Ma'in Abushahi Sadri wa Salil Amri Wahlil Ukfat al-Aminasani Wa Qawli Wa Sal Allah Wa Salam Wa Barak Al Ha Sayyidina Muhammadin Wa Ala Aalihi wa Sahbihi wa Salam Alhamdulillah. Bismillah. Apologies for beginning late. A lot of technical issues trying to get set up today. Insha'Allah we will try to be a bit more prompt moving forward. So we've been chatting about the traits of the righteous, and specifically focusing on traits that help to inculcate good character inside of oneself. And the context here really is that in the time that we live in, it's full of vice, it's full of anger, it's full of a lack of patience, it's full of corruption, it's full of rudeness. There's so many different negative traits and negative qualities that manifest in the time that we live in. However, at the same time, even if those are traits that manifest in the society that we live in, there are an abundance of good traits to be seen in the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and in our tradition. And that really is one of the exemplary aspects of this beautiful tradition of Islam, that it helps us inculcate good character traits, it helps us develop good character traits, it helps us become more righteous individuals. So the first class we discussed, the importance first and foremost of learning and then from there, the importance of implementing, that's really the basic format here, right? You learn about the good character traits of knowledge and then you go about implementing the character trait. From there, in the last class we talked, we spoke about the first character trait that is a critical part of developing good character and that's one of the exemplary traits of the righteous and that is love of knowledge, love of sacred knowledge to be exact. The people of Allah, they love learning knowledge, they love spreading knowledge, they love learning about how to actually implement the knowledge, anything related to sacred knowledge is a critical part of their journey towards Allah. And that is found in the tradition when we hear that the first surah that was revealed to the Prophet ﷺ, the first ayah is about knowledge, it's about learning, right? Iqra, that the Prophet ﷺ is commanded to recite and commanded to read and then from there, Allah speaks about how he taught the human being. He taught the human being what the human being did not know and so knowledge becomes a very, very important aspect of our tradition and you see Allah gives it this very primary place in this tradition. So that's the trait that we spoke about last time. Today we want to talk about something that's hopefully very, very relatable and the goal here is for us to just spend some moments discussing a relatable characteristic, a relatable trait and then from there talk about how can we go about implementing it and hopefully it's we find it beneficial in our lives. And that trait is the controlling one's anger that it is a hallmark trait of the righteous and in fact a hallmark trait of the messengers, may peace be upon all of them to control their anger. And we find in the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, he said that the one who is forbearing and forbearance here meaning the one who is able to control their anger is almost like a prophet because it's very difficult, especially in the time that we live in, it's very difficult to control our anger. We see so many situations, so much negativity, so many people who might rile us up, who might kind of make us, bother us deep down inside. They might really get under our nerves and so the idea of controlling anger becomes so relevant in the time that we live in and society right now it's full of angry people. You don't have to go any farther than these presidential debates last night just to see how much anger there was. Anger, pettiness, I mean what has happened to a society when the people running for the highest possible post in the election to run supposedly the most powerful country in the free world and yet they get down to such petty levels, to such basic levels, to levels of such low vile character traits, right, name calling and anger and interruption and all of these different problematic traits and we find that in the traditions that the Prophet's Islam did indicate that towards the end of time the worst people will be the leaders and we see that that is definitely the case at least here in the United States of America and so anger is very prevalent all throughout society today. People, we get angry at a lot of things and we take out our anger on a lot of people, right? So you might get angry at a certain situation, you might take out your anger on your children, we might take out our anger on our spouses, we might take out our anger on our siblings or other members of our family, we might take the anger from one situation and take it out on a different group of people or we might take an anger from the, you know, one of our kids says something that upsets us and then we take our anger out on them but the hallmark traits of, one of the hallmark traits of the righteous is to be able to say, no, no, no, no. Allah is watching me, I'm gonna control myself, I'm gonna control my anger because what is anger? Anger is a fire that boils inside of you and our religion is trying to protect us from the fire. We don't wanna go to the fire. Anger is a trait that is a hot trait deep down inside that makes you literally get up, right? That if somebody gets angry, you see two people, they're sitting down and then someone says something and someone says, what are you saying? Then you see the person get up, right? And then they get closer to the person and that is a trait or that is a symptom, a manifestation of somebody who's not able to control their anger and the fire it literally rises, right? Versus the human being, we are made of what? We're not made of fire. That's what shaitan and the jinn are made of. We are made of clay and clay's natural disposition is to be calm and to fall. That we are supposed to be grounded individuals. We are supposed to, our primordial nature is earthly. We are supposed to be grounded, right? And that has many manifestations. There's many deep hidden meanings in that. One of which is we're supposed to be humble, grounded human beings. We're not supposed to puff ourselves up, right? Because that is not the nature of what we are made of. But another of the meanings that the scholars mentioned is it's supposed to keep us cool and collected, right? To keep making us down to earth. Generally, people who are down to earth, people who are grounded, people who are humble, they're much less likely to get angry than somebody who's puffed up with pride, who's angry, who thinks that they're all that, who thinks they're the ones that should be in charge, they're the ones who should call all the shots, right? And that's why you see a lot of anger manifest in kind of the upper echelons of any structure, or any situation, or any society. You do see a lot of anger manifesting there. What helps us, though, keep our cool, and we'll talk about this in more detail, is dhikr. Dhikr is supposed to be calming, right? Remembering Allah is supposed to help us keep us calm. And Allah says in the Quran, Alabi dhikr illa tath ma'innu l-kulub. But verily, in the remembrance of Allah, two hearts find rest. And so dhikr keeps us calm and extinguishes the fire of anger. And there's a lot of different types of adhqar that we can do. We'll talk about that to help keep us angry. But why is anger so dangerous? Let's speak about that, and then we're gonna speak a little bit about some of the hadith around anger, and then some of the stories of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam being able to not show his anger, but rather forgive people. Well, then we'll talk about some practical steps to control anger, and then inshallah we'll end. If anybody has questions, please feel free to type them into the comment boxes, and we will do our best to get to them, inshallah, afterwards. So why is anger so dangerous? Because one word can literally ruin your life, literally one word. People get angry at their spouse, and then they'll say, right, they'll split from them. They'll divorce them. People get angry with their children. I've seen this with my own eyes, where people literally say, like, I don't want anything due to you, get out of this house, right? Like people will literally cut family ties. And there are people who haven't spoken to each other, family members, for years, sometimes decades go by, sometimes their entire life will go by, and they won't speak to somebody because of a few words that were exchanged. So anger starts at something small, but just as we see, and may Allah put out these very, very troublesome fires that have spread throughout California, but just as we see, it just takes one small fire, one small spark, and then the fire has spread, right? And you have tens of thousands of acres being burned, unfortunately. Anger is similar. That is, somebody who can't control themselves, it takes a few words. And the next thing you know, one relationship is damaged, then all their relationships slowly start to get damaged because they're not able to control their tongue, and they're not able to control their state. It starts with the state, and then it manifests on the tongue. Then Muhammad Ghazali, he mentions in his revival of the religious sciences that character traits, they began from a disposition deep down inside of the heart, and that is the state that you have. And then they manifest as actual actions on your tongue, or on your hands, right? So you'll see people, if they can't control their state, it starts with saying a few words, you, this, this, that, and then next thing you know, boom, people are going to blows, they're punching each other, knocking each other out, God forbid, people might actually shoot each other, or whatever it is, because of results of anger. So there are various manifestations of anger, but our main thing, and I think all of us know this because we've all probably had moments in life where we've gotten angry, it's bad, it's dangerous, it starts off as something small, and then it manifests into something much larger. And it manifests in every way. Everybody will have their own situations in which they get angry. People who have kids will get situations in which they lose their cool with their kids. And it's difference between saying, raising your voice, and then saying hurtful, mean things to somebody because one can't control their anger, right? Or the same goes for your spouse or for other family members. Usually, it's surprisingly, those are the people we get the most angry with, and then of course it can continue on and on to our coworkers and other people in our societies. But forbearance, forbearance is the way of the prophets, alayhum salam, that they are, and the prophets are not known to be angry people. They can get angry for the sake of Allah, and that is when the law that Allah has sent is violated, but that's different. We'll talk about that. But the prophets in most situations, they don't let their anger get the best of them, right? And so forbearance is when you, what, control your anger. That is the goal for this discussion, to realize that it is a major trait of the righteous to control their anger. So a man came to the Prophet, alayhum salam, and he said, advise me. He tells the Prophet, he comes to his front, and he says, advise me. And the Prophet says, do not get angry. And then the man comes to him on the other side, and he says, advise me. And he says, do not get angry. And then the man comes to him from a different side, and he says, advise me. He says, do not get angry. And the Prophet tells him, and one of the things that we have to know when the Prophet, alayhum salam, is speaking, he is not always, like somebody could ask a question, and he can give a different response based on the state that they have, because Allah has blessed the Prophet, alayhum salam. First of all, Allah says in the Quran that the words of the Prophet, alayhum salam are revelation. So Allah will inspire the beloved, alayhum salam, and to say what needs to be said to that person. And the Prophet, alayhum salam, has a deep inner state and an inner reality where he can read and understand what's going on with an individual. And so this individual clearly needed to hear this advice, and the Prophet, alayhum salam, is telling him, do not get angry. What do the scholars say? They say this means do not act upon your anger. When it comes, first, control yourself. Second, do not act upon it. And third, channel your anger in accordance with the sharia of the Prophet, alayhum salam. So in accordance with the Islamic law. So if somebody does something like, someone steals something that doesn't belong to them, and you're walking by and you see it, you can manifest your anger and drive to action to help the person who was being oppressed and was stolen from. That's a good manifestation of it, right? But somebody like cuts you off on the road, there's no need to go on along Hong Kong, Hong Kong, go up to them, drive them, flip them off and do all of the things that one can do just because we were angered by somebody. You can just say, okay, I'm gonna forgive them. Because what does forgiveness do? Allah says that if a person forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due directly from Allah. So it's very, very important to see anger on one side and then being able to control our anger. And one of the best manifestations of that is forgiving people. Because people are gonna make us mad, they're gonna get us upset, they're going to get under our skin. But that's life, right? We just gotta get through this place for a couple of decades and then we will be out of here. We don't wanna let us be known, right? In our yulijis when we're passing away that like, Alhamdulillah, that guy's gone, he was so angry all the time. And there are people who, people think that, they might not say it, but they think it, that like, okay, thank God this person's no longer here, such an angry individual, right? And so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said, this strong person is not one who can outwrestle others, AKA it's not about how jacked you are, how big you are, how many muscles you have, how much you can lift, right? The strong one, though, is the one who controls themselves when they're angry. And this is very tough. In the society that we're living in strength, when people see strength as either literally your physical strength or your financial strength, like how much I got in the bank, how much, how many investments I have, or you're like street cred, your credibility amongst other people, your reputation might be a source of your strength, your, the number of followers and fame or whatever it is that you have might be a source of your strength. But the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is telling us here that that's, none of that stuff has anything to do with strength. And physical strength, right, the Arabs, they would like, that their physical strength was a point of pride for them. But the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam here is indicating that that's not what it's about. It's about controlling your anger. It's about keeping your cool. It's about keeping your calm. And when you keep your calm and when you keep your cool, that is the strong person in the sight of Allah. And so this is minor situations, it begins in minor situations. One who cannot control their anger in minor situations will find it tough to control their anger in major situations. So, you know, the driving is a very minor situation, but it's one that can make a lot of us angry because of the actions that people have. The way somebody speaks to us, someone is rude, somebody speaks to us rudely and then we go off on them. Or someone says something they shouldn't have said and we go off on them, right? That we have to know where to control, how to control it, right? And if it's, of course, gets to the point of like abuse or something, that's a different category of things. One takes the appropriate actions. When we talk about controlling anger and being patient and whatnot, it doesn't mean when somebody is being harmed at a mental level or emotional level, that that's allowed. That's not what we're speaking about. We're speaking about general things when they happen to us, we're able to control ourselves. So, you see this manifested in an amazing way in a story of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam where he stopped to rest in a valley after a battle with the Sahaba. And there was a big tree, a big tree in this area, and there are multiple trees. And so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam goes to sleep under one tree. He takes a sword, he hangs it on the branch of the tree and then he goes to sleep under the shade of the tree. Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And the Sahaba go to sleep kind of in other areas and other trees. Now, a Bedouin, a man comes who is not Muslim, right? And keep in mind, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has like a bounty on his head, right? And people want him out. Like there are people who multiple, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had multiple assassination attempts. Multiple assassination attempts were made on the life of our beloved Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He wasn't just like an easy life. He had to run from his first hometown, migrate to Medina. People were trying to kill him, assassinate him and that regularly continued throughout his life if it was one of the tests that he had to bear. So this man comes and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is asleep and the man, he takes his sword. He sees the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam asleep. He takes his sword and he comes in front of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam like this. So he comes in front of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he says, who will protect you from me? Oh, Muhammad. He's saying, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And he's saying his, by his first name, he's got a rude way also to speak to the greatest of creation. You never address the greatest of creation. Even Allah in the Quran never addresses the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam by his first name. He says, Ya ayyuha al-Muzammal, ya ayyuha al-Mudathir. It gives him these names, Ya ayyuha al-Rusul. Right? There are different names that Allah gives the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. But anyways, this rude man comes and he's taking a sword above him. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam awakes and he hears this man and he just says Allah. Right? So who will protect you from me? The sword is over him. He says Allah. And the man just completely, right? He trembles, his heart trembles because he's seeing a very Jalal-i experience. He's experiencing a very Jalal-i type of situation, a very mighty experience where he begins to tremble because the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says Allah. And the sword falls from this man's hand. And now who better to pick up his own sword than the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam? So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam picks up his sword and he says to the man, now the man trembles and he's there, right? And he says who will protect you from me? And the man says no one and nobody's about to protect me, right? But, and you can do as you wish, but just treat me well, right? So the man is probably implying here that like, okay, if you're gonna, you know, take me out because I just tried to do that and I dropped the sword, I couldn't handle it. Do it, treat me well, like, you know, handle it nicely. Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says I forgive you. Right, I forgive you. Don't worry about it, I forgive you. The man returns to his people and he says this behavior by Allah, this behavior could only be that of a Prophet and he converts to Islam and then he calls other people to Islam. Why? Because of the character of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. That's why he called people to Islam. That's what made him convert and that's what helped him call other people. It actually wasn't some intellectual framework that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was teaching. There was not some, I mean, of course, he was teaching all of these things, right? It wasn't necessarily that he heard revelation. All of these are, can be means and ways where people can enter into the religion. But the character of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is one of the most amazing ways. Allah says that he is on a, Wa-innaka ala, Wa-innaka ala ala ala khuluq al-adheem, that you are on a vast and noble character that he is addressing the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is an vast character. He's so magnanimous. He's so open. He's so forbearing. He's so patient. He's so forgiving, right? These are traits that he has. And he is the master of all of these traits. He is the one that if we connect to him and we love him and we try to follow him, we can inshallah get a portion of these traits. But these stations that he experienced and the way in which he forgave people, we might not be able to achieve that and that's all good. But look at the result that that had on people. And this is just one story. There are countless numbers of stories of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam just forgiving people, letting it go. And they become Muslim or closer to Allah as a result of that. So anger is a very dangerous trait and controlling it is a very amazing thing. But if you and I, we've seen people, we've seen people that like, you think they're about to get upset but they just keep it cool and doesn't your respect level for them just shoot up? For me, when I meet someone, I'm just, wow, I have a lot of respect for this person. Because they've mastered a part of themselves that most of humanity has not mastered. I don't care how much money you got, I don't care how much power you have, I don't care if you're president of this, CEO of this, head of this, that none of that stuff is going to help you in the grave. But if you or somebody who controlled your anger in this life, oh yes, that's going to help you. And what's the proof of that? Allah says in the Quran in Surah Ali Imran, Al-Tanjim, and he says about a specific group of people. And I'm just quoting the end of the verse here. Wa qadi min al-qaith, wa aafina anan naas, wa Allahu yuhib al-mahsinin. That those who restrain their anger when they're made angry, they hold it back and they forgive people and they pardon people. And verily Allah loves the people who are the people of excellence. I mean, look at that. Allah is elevating these people. If Allah elevates you, if Allah gives you a label, if Allah gives you a station, it doesn't matter. None of the other stations matter. It doesn't matter if you're at this position or you get promoted or whatever. None of that stuff is going to matter. If in the eyes of Allah, you are getting promoted and you're getting closer. And sometimes we see and we spoke about this before, progress in this world as like dunya progress. If I'm in this position and I have this much money and I'm making this salary or I have this much control and I have this many people that are reporting to me or I have this much, I can accomplish a society or I have this much power on all of these different things that we see as or I have this much wealth or this much land or whatever. All these things that as human beings, Allah mentioned in the Quran actually, right? People specifically are, they're shahawat that attract them, right? And he mentions like cattle and land and these types of things. For us in our time, land, cars, all of these different types of dunya we things that we think, oh, if we have more of them, we're somehow like, you know, doing great and we're the best. That's not how the righteous think about it. The many people of Allah, some of the best people I've ever met, they're so calm and humble and they don't have much but they just make you feel so warm and so comforted and they just have such good ahlak, such good character. And that's what's going to benefit them in the next world. So there's one thing that we can take away from today, focus your life on acquiring virtue. Focus your life on acquiring virtue. That should be our main goal, to increase in virtue. That somebody who increases in knowledge and virtue every day or every week, they are the ones who've succeeded. And somebody who increases in wealth and money and stations and power and fame and followers and this many people on Instagram like their stuff and this many people on TikTok follow them, this and that but they're getting, they're straying from virtue and acquiring more negative traits they have failed in this life because none of that stuff is going to matter. Nobody's going to remember. And then your grave is not going to say so and so who had this many people watch these YouTube videos and this many people watch their TikTok video. Nobody's going to remember that but certainly when they come to visit your grave or when they think about you, inshallah people do come to visit our graves and make prayers for us, they're going to remember them. That was like a good person. She was great. He was great. I hope that my kids or my grandkids, et cetera can be like them. That is what helps us remember the great ones. And that's what makes one of the amazing things that makes the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam our role model is his good character. A prophet has to have good character. And Allah is the one who taught, who teaches them directly. Allah teaches them, right? Or through let's say an intermediary like through Angel Jibril alayhi sallam. So how do we go about controlling our anger? Let's talk about this. So first, Allah, the first thing is to just recognize that like God wants you to control your anger. He doesn't want you to just be a loose cannon. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Just completely unleashing on everybody. Somebody says this. And we've all been around those people that like we all have to tiptoe around. You feel like you're walking on like egg shells that are sitting on top of, you know, ice that's going to melt into a, like you're going to break in and fall into some like deep river. If you say one thing around them and then they're going to unleash, right? We all know those type of individuals. Nobody likes being around that person, right? So the first thing to remember is the reward and the station Allah has given for those who control their anger and for those who restrained their anger. And it comes in a hadith that the Prophet said, there is no gulp, gulp greater in reward in Allah's sight than the gulp of swallowing one's anger for the sake of Allah. Like you can have, you know, imagine swallowing, like we say you have to swallow anger because it's going to come out, right? Most of the time it comes out on the tongue like, ah, I'm going to unleash, but there's no gulp greater in reward in Allah's sight than the gulp of the one who swallows their anger for the sake of God. You swallow it to say, I'm going to do this because God, this will make God happy. God will be pleased with me if I just control myself right now, right? And then the Prophet says, and this is an amazing hadith, that if someone contains their anger when they can vent it, when they can unleash, Allah fills their heart with peace and with faith. This is an amazing way. And the translation of this hadith, when I was reading it, it said, vent it, right? So like, now let's talk about venting. When we're in a situation where we get upset or angry, we might like start venting. We might, you know, call our best friend or call our sister or our brother or our wife or our husband or our parents or something and just our kids, whatever it is and just vent, this happened and then this happened. And can you believe this happened? And then this, and then 99% of the time, that thing is still on our mind when we vent all of it and unleash all of it. But what we're saying here is, if somebody just controls them, so okay, this is all good, I'm not going to complain about this, right? That from the degrees of patience is to not complain about what things are going on in one's life. And that is also a manifestation of controlling your anger. And so Allah will fill your heart with peace and with faith. And the next time we're about to like, let's say something difficult happens, I don't know at work or in a situation we're in, before we go and start telling everybody about it and start kind of unleashing on people, one of the things we can do is, okay, one was last time we just went and prayed to Raka and asked Allah, ya Allah, I'm feeling upset, I'm feeling troubled, can you help me calm down? And he will unleash or he will fill your heart with peace and with faith. And these are Allah's hidden armies. Allah has hidden armies that he can unleash, he is the controller of the seen and the unseen. So don't think it's difficult for him to make you feel calm and make you feel peaceful. It's not difficult for him, but he can certainly make the difficulty go away. But one has to, Allah says in the Quran, surely we will guide those who strive in our ways. What better manifestation of this ayah is, other than this hadith, right? What other manifestation of this ayah can we think of other than this hadith? Where one says you control their anger, Allah will guide you by what? Giving you peace, sakina, tranquility and just making you feel calm and cool. Like, it's all good, I'll get through this. And again, we met people like this and we hope to be like them. So the first thing is recognizing the reward and the level Allah has given it and that he's gonna help you with it. Don't think you're doing this by yourself. No virtue can be acquired on my own or on your own, but God can help you acquire it. If you focus and you work hard at it, he will assist you, inshallah. The second thing to do practically is to inculcate a state of patience inside of oneself and realize that like most things in life aren't about to go my way or your way, right? That's just not how it works. They go in God's way. If everything was gonna go in anger, what is anger? Anger usually happens. There's anger from individuals and then there's anger from situations that happen in life. And the latter, that usually comes about when things don't go our way, right? When we're upset about something, like, ah man, I want it like for example, this pandemic is a very good example. There were a lot of events that were canceled. A lot of weddings that were canceled, graduations that were canceled and so many other events in one's life, right? And other major difficulties, right? That's more of a fun type of thing, but other major things that could happen. And that situation is not in my control or in your control. We can take steps, precautionary measures, wear masks, do social distancing, all these types of things, which we should do. But it's not in our control. But to like recognize that if we get unnecessarily upset about this, like, oh God, this sucks. When is this gonna end? I hate this, right? These level of like just not being able to accept that God has a divine wisdom and a divine plan. That is not the side of the spectrum we wanna be at. Because what are we showing there? We're showing that we think we could run this story better than God. And that's a very, very dangerous state to be in. You and me are trying to be servants and slaves of God. We are not the Lord, right? But when we try to, when we get angry at things that happen to us and we're not able to just like control it, we are saying deep down inside that like, yo God, you messed up. I should be the one in charge. I could have done it better. And we are trying to put ourselves in the place of Lordship. Lordship is not yours, it's not mine. But slavehood is yours and slavehood is mine to acquire and to earn. So that is one of the main goals of our life. So that's the next thing is to inculcate a state of patience. And inshallah one of the sessions will focus just on patience and talk about, speak about how much of an important virtue it is. But just recognize and one of the ways we can do this is to do a lot of the dikr, la ilaha illallah. Because what is one saying when we say la ilaha illallah? The first level of the meaning is that there is no God but God. But as you go deeper and deeper in the meanings it means that nothing happens except that God wills it. That there is no situation happening in life but that is a manifestation from Allah. And so if things aren't happening on our timeline that's because it's not our timeline anyways. It's his timeline. So we gotta just be, try to be. This is very difficult, very, very difficult. Nobody's making any claims. I struggle with this immensely. I just accept God's timeline, okay? He has a timeline. If you're sick he has a timeline of when you're gonna get better. If you're trying to do something in life or in society or in something he has a timeline for when that thing will manifest. If you're trying to start an organization or a business he has a timeline for when that will go. If you're trying to help out your family in some way or shape or another he has a timeline for when the success will eventually come. That is not in our control. It is in his control. He says in the Quran in Surah Al-Rakia that when you plant the seed is it you that makes it grow or is it us that makes it grow? And you and I don't make the seeds grow. We can plant them, water them, the sun can, all that stuff but God is the one who's making the seed grow and there are many seeds that don't grow that they're not able to actually results in anything because somebody thinks it's in their control and not in God's control. That's the next thing. The third is to do a lot of dhikr as it'll cool one down and in the difficult moments the dhikr comes in handy. So the more is don't think the dhikr that you do on a daily basis. The prayers you do on a daily basis. The extra dhikr one does on a daily basis hopefully or Quran or whatever one is trying to do. That that is like for the moment. Sometimes we think that okay I'm gonna like do some dhikr and I'm gonna feel calm and I'm gonna feel good and it's gonna be great and my whole day will be great. Yes, inshallah that happens but not all the time and what you're doing is you're building up like an internal arsenal of light that will manifest itself when you need it most. What does that mean? It means that the more dhikr you do the more the state of the heart begins to change the more the state of the heart and it's starting to be molded because you and I are made of what? We're made of clay and clay can be molded and the more dhikr one does the more it's molded in the way that Allah wants it to be molded in the best way and so that dhikr is molding you molding you and then when the difficulty happens is when the worth and the value of the dhikr it comes out so in some ways you and I have to have a level of routine of dhikr that we know that some of this is gonna manifest is kind of like a rain day fund when I need it most and other of it is just gonna improve my daily temperament and my daily approach to life. It's just gonna improve my daily state but it doesn't mean that it always has to result in something right away that's something we have to keep in mind so we should all have a level of dhikr we're doing basic basic we have to do our best to pray the five daily prayers on time and if you're in jamat ideally and if you're a man in jamat in the masjid especially when the masjid is open in child that's the aspirational goal there's major reward in all of that but then in addition we cannot stop there especially in the time that we're living in we cannot stop there we need extra force fields of protection and that's where one has to have a regular routine of doing the sunnah dhikr of the Prophet ﷺ the sunnah adhqar of the Prophet ﷺ the morning at least and the evening adhqar and then one adds in the recitation of the surahs that are recommended to read every day surah yasin for whatever intention you have surah al wakya and surah al mulq those are the three sunnah surahs one should be reading every day if you can and then you add in more Quran and whatnot from there right so there's that these are force fields and the more we want to attain if you want to attain a state of tranquility and calmness and controlling anger and all of these things there's two sides of this one is the effort you put in practically practically in this situation it means I'm going to control myself I'm not going to let this get mad at I'm not going to let myself get mad right I'm going to map out situations in this person that person if they get me mad I'm going to know how to control myself and then there's spiritually and spiritually in this situation the more thicker one does the more calm one will be able to be when somebody really irks them or when a situation comes that really is absolutely difficult and then the last kind of a step that we can take here is to practice forgiving people and to see the feelings that come from it you feel great when you just like forgive and you let go and we know deep down inside when we're holding onto something somebody upset us and we're just holding onto it we're just angry and upset and it's just bothering us for like let's say days or God forbid weeks or months or years nobody likes that feeling nobody likes the feeling and in fact it comes in the hadith that the one who actually has a grudge against somebody that their deeds are presented on Mondays and Thursdays and the one who has a grudge their deeds are not accepted on the first time it's presented and then they're presented again and they're not accepted and the one who has a grudge their Ramadan is not accepted and their fasts are not accepted and that their forgiveness in Ramadan doesn't come because of the one who holds grudges or actually in this case it might mean specifically grudges with regards to cutting off kinship ties so once grudge gets so extreme in this situation that I'm mentioning that one stops talking to somebody it's like I'm done with you I'm not gonna speak to you again right that is a you have to if you have a grudge and you stop speaking to somebody there's only a certain number of days that I can go by before we resolve it that's how serious Allah takes the controlling of anger so it doesn't turn into a place where you cut someone off completely and then there's the specific steps that the Prophet's of Islam told us in the sunnah to practice controlling anger so the first is to sit while standing so if I'm standing up to then sit down and then the Prophet's of Islam said if you're sitting down and you're still angry then to lie down because again it's fire and you want to calm yourself down and then if that still doesn't help then to go and make wudu with cold water because again cold water will put out that fire of anger inside of you so these are the steps first is to recognize the reward the second is to inculcate a state of patience inside of yourself remind yourself that you and me we're not running this place we're not running the world God is so He knows what He's doing third is to do a lot of tikka especially do a lot of la ilaha illallah to help us realize He is in charge fourth is to practically spend time forgiving people and see what that results in and then last is to if you're standing to sit sitting to lie down and then to do wudu with cold water and lastly there are valid types of anger um... so like we shouldn't get angry because we lose some money or because the food is late or because the food uh... has like some ingredient in it that you don't want I wanted to have, I remember one time I was getting so upset because the I'm lactose intolerant and I could order this burrito and the burrito had cheese and sour cream in it and I was just like I was not able to hold it in and then after I was like dang I was that I can't believe I like got upset about something that trivial right and my wife is here laughing at me right now because it was trivial and I stuck with Allah I should not have gotten upset about something like that right but like the people who are trying to be people of Allah definitely food this all the food doesn't taste good it has too much salt and that that that that shouldn't make you angry that should not upset you right like traffic should not upset us that shouldn't make us angry we might be late that's probably because of our poor planning not because of the traffic right or whatever it is we shouldn't be angry and frustrated because we have to work from when is this pandemic gonna end this is God's plan he knows what he's doing and we are in a much better state than we deserve alhamdulillah we have shelter we have running water we have food alhamdulillah we're able to most of us have good health we're able to you know eat food the digestive system works things break down inside of us are our neurons are firing and working our nervous system is working our excretory process is working all of these things are working and so we have nothing to complain about and get to get angry about but we have to just know how to control all of this so uh... but that's how the anger is not not not valid but the anger that is valid is that if we miss a prayer or if someone in our house misses a prayer that is something that one should get controllably angry about like how could you do this Allah is watching us how could we miss a prayer right that is that they're they're valid types in the sharia or if someone uh... says something like is is cussing all the time right and like just says some words that god doesn't like but okay that's a valid situation not over the top but to be able to calmly first address the situation but the anger should make you address the situation or again any type of haram takes place one is doing something haram wearing something haram approaching something in that way do it in a good way the anger doesn't mean the way conventionally you and i think about anger like why did you do that's not what it means it means like you get a little bit upset and it drives you to action but even the manifestation for the righteous of the action when they're angry and upset for the sake of a lot is to to resist to fix it in a beautiful manner not to take their anger out on somebody right that a lot of people who are quote-unquote trying to be religious sometimes use religion as a means to like unleash their anger and that's not either also the way with angry by everything how why'd you do this why'd you do that why'd you do this and just kind of angry in a controlling fashion that is uh... a trick that shaitan might use to try to stifle us on the spiritual path so there are valid situations though if allah's lies being violated that there should be a sense of anger inside of somebody to try to fix it in the best way possible not to get angry about it right so hopefully that that difference is is very clear that distinction is clear so just as a review inshallah this trait of controlling one's anger is such a hallmark trait of the righteous we should try to get it uh... as some we should try to acquire this trade inculcate the straight inside of us to do abundant thicker to make the odd that a lot gives us this trade and uh... to remember that our profits a lot of some this is one of his most amazing trades how forbearing he always was so we should try to have that as as something uh... inside of us and to know that there are people to this day who literally will forgive people who have done major wrongs to them or to their families uh... because they just have such a big heart we should have a goal of trying to be have have the state of of generosity with our hearts in a state of being forgiving and for bearing inshallah uh... and may Allah make this path easy for us and so lastly the steps we said to control anger recognize the reward inculcate patients inside of us doing a lot of thicker practice forgiving people and then sit if we're if we're if we're standing to sit for sitting to lie down and to make with the cold water uh... inshallah may Allah make this easy for us the more good traits you have the more good traits i have the more good traits we acquire the higher stations will be in paradise the prophet sallallahu sallam he said as we said at the beginning in the first class that the one that there is no deed way to your in the day of judgment and good character good character can fill the scales in a way extra naufil fasts and prayers and whatnot cannot good characters an amazing thing so set your life out inshallah and focus your energies and my energy inshallah focus our energies i'm trying to acquire virtue i'm trying to acquire good character and i'm trying to bring some light to a world right now that is filled with darkness islam has so much to offer the world the united states right now is in a state of so much confusion just after watching the political landscape and everything going on there's so much anger and violence and corruption and rudeness and racism islam can resolve all these problems but first will you and me have to start practicing it and implementing it and then inshallah allow rectifier states such that he allows us to spread this being and to spread the light of this thing to our families communities societies and inshallah to the world and let us all of you may he make this time very very easy for us and may he allow us to acquire this trait of controlling our anger and restraining our anger was a lot of a lot of a lot of a lot of a lot of a lot of me and if there are any questions inshallah we will not take them now uh... although i don't know if uh... any popped up on the comments is that what i hear salamu alaikum rahmatullahi wabarakatuhu we'll see you again next week laka laka salam alaikum