 Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salam, wa ala Ashraf al-Anbiya'i wa al-Mursaleen Sayyidina wa Maulana wa Habib al-Ahmad Salallahu alaihi wa salam, wa ala alaihi wa sahbihi wa salam, thasliman kathira Welcome again everyone, thank you for being here I know these are very difficult times and I was asked even before I came here if I was going to address the current crisis in beloved Phytoslean and honestly I feel so ill equipped to do that I don't know where to begin, I think we're all kind of for lack of a better word or phrase shell-shocked you know by what we're witnessing it's traumatic to keep turning on your phone last night I received a phone call a little late and I mentioned that I was watching videos because I couldn't keep my eyes off of it but I know that I need to sleep but I can't and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's struggling with balance right now right we're probably you know so distracted at work with our kids wherever we are because our heart is over there wondering what's going on our mind is obviously we have to live with to exist we have to continue life and then the guilt you know of what we refer to often as like survivor's guilt or just being so far removed from a place where you see people who are suffering beyond words we definitely are juggling a lot of emotions and so I really felt so like I don't know what I would say other than you know saying the best of words which is making God and just calling upon a lot for our brothers and sisters and that really is the best thing that we can do we can't obviously be there no matter how much we wish we could right we can't physically be there but the best thing that we can do is is to offer our God's and so that's you know what I'm hoping to do in the form of you know our vicar that we just did, may Allah's path and accept it I apologize I'm just trying to get all this situated here and it's not working for me yes sure it should be foundations of the spiritual path but I can also send it to you once I get all of this I'm sorry I'm distracted here but what I was saying is that inshallah the best thing I think we can do is to make a da'a for continuous da'a I mean that's not obviously the only thing we can do we can do much more than that but in this space my hope is that everything we do here that Allah's path that here's our pleas here's our calls our hearts are broken and that he accepts our plea to bring relief and to prevent catastrophic events from unfolding because every day it seems like we're just at the edge of our seat waiting for what's next so may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bring peace to the to our brothers and sisters and inshallah and like I said that's what we can do and that's what we hope to do here but we're going to discuss a text and that's really what I wanted to share with with you all here did you send it to me I think I got it okay so for those who have iPhones Mary is going to air drop a PDF and that PDF is the text that we started last month when we officially started our house here and it's a incredible text that I've been very blessed to read multiple times and each time I feel like I get so much from it but it's called the foundations of the spiritual path and you can certainly find it if you if you do Google but I'll take a little bit of time you just have to put in foundations of the spiritual path and then the word sandala that's the website that it is currently on its a PDF it's free for everybody everybody can read it but we started this last month and the you know the reason why we started this text is because we're all seekers right every one of us is here here or in the virtual space inshallah we're believers and we want to be close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but the path is sometimes confusing or there's so many paths so you're like where do I go where do I start so I explained last time that what I love about this text is it quite literally as the title suggests is giving us the roadmap of how a person who's really sincere about being a practitioner of their faith a believer a Muslim should you know how they should do this what are the preliminary steps how does one begin to even embark on this journey and so the way that it's structured is a really wonderful text because city of the rule he's a I mean a master of so many sciences but he's a deep psychologist he understands the human being and he knows that we you know we work well when we have the goal in mind so he actually starts his treaties here with the five foundations first like this is what you need to even be on the spiritual path so he lays that out and then the rest mashallah salamu alaykum such an honor under that my sister is coming from Sacramento which always is just so so humbling to me mashallah subhanallah so he lays these five of the foundations first and then the rest of the text is the building block or the build are the building blocks to get to the five so I find it just fascinating how he did it so we covered and I'm just going to summarize because mashallah there's a lot of new people here and then we'll continue the reading but he says here if anyone is asked about the foundation of his path he should reply the foundation of our path are five first taqwa mindfulness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala privately and publicly and I'm going to go quickly over each of them and then we'll come back and review the second is adherence to the sunnah in word and deed then indifference to whether others accept or reject one contentment with Allah in times of both hardship and ease and turning to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in prosperity and adversity so essentially if you even want to be on the spiritual path these are the five goals to be on the path and then of course it's the building of that that is you know the the objective of every believer is that we continue to grow we continue to enhance our understanding our knowledge our practice but this is the this is it so taqwa mindfulness of Allah privately and publicly this is again really important to think about because taqwa we hear this word a lot it's a it's often obviously it's an important term it's essential to our faith but the disclaimer that he puts here is also very interesting because it's suggesting again that we are prone to maybe either or that we may be privately we have taqwa right and then publicly we may have cowardice and there are Muslims who don't want to show that they're Muslim outside you know so they're they're devoted inside but then when they are in public maybe they have other issues going on maybe there is a fear or something else you know that's at play so they may behave differently completely differently and there are people unfortunately who that is true they will have different you know masks or just they behave differently outwardly and inwardly that could be or the opposite where and this would be even worse right that publicly you put on this self-righteousness and you act very you know as though you are very devoted and you're very you know you're very righteous in your actions but then privately you're a total different person you don't pray you may be even eat and drink hot on your speak you know a foul things you're looking at foul things but then in public spaces you're just an angel right so the fact that he put both is dealing with both groups right that Allah sees you you can't hide from him so you better make sure that you're consistently someone who has this quality of Taqwa that it doesn't work with either or or one or the other but both have to be maintained so that's the first one and then adherence to the sunnah and word indeed is also important because it goes to the same idea of people who may understand or read you know the the practices of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam I mean we have people whose entire you know childhood or upbringing may have been surrounded by grandparents or or aunts and uncles or teachers you know in the Sunday school so they were always learning right and they may know they're I know people who have a lot of things memorized because they were in those environments but they don't act on it right and so the consistency of if you are going to really be a person who follows the path of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that it's not lip service right but you're actually it's manifesting in your actions you actually show in your actions that you really because we can of course admire him he is the praised one his name he's he's pray so we can certainly be in awe of him his character all of his virtues all of his traits but if we're not if that's not translating to actions that we you know we do ourselves and there's something missing right so it has to be both and then he says indifference to whether others accept or reject one of this is a really big one because we're in the midst of I mean I don't know if I saw reports from care earlier that the volume of calls they're getting you know from people who've experienced some really terrible things you know we're seeing a rise in sentiments that are all too familiar right for those of us who were alive after nine eleven and have seen the trajectory of just the landscape politically for Muslims in this country and in the west it has not been very good and unfortunately just when you think maybe we're growing as a country in a world favorably and maybe we're making some inroads with more and more elected officials and more political activism we actually find that nope it took one you know this this unfortunate tragedy to unfold to see again we're going over the five foundations of the spiritual path by city of medzaruq so he mentions taqwa mindfulness of a lost partner privately and publicly adherence to the sunnah in word indeed and then the third point in difference to whether others accept or reject one so this is really a big one because we live in a time where we are worried we are concerned either individually or collectively about the image right of of how people see us and so when you are a person who is on the haqq on the right then the consideration is always a loss of hand out that that is the only one or he is the only one that we are concerned about in terms of being accepted or you know rejected and and we don't worry other than that because if you if you think about it it's you know again if you make your life's mission to gain that of a loss of hand that then there's nothing to worry about but when you're trying to please this group or that group you find and I'm sure we've all experienced this in our own little you know worlds that there's no way that you can make everybody happy you will always find people who will have something to say who will you know complain and and so human beings that's just it's futile it's futile to try to please people but redirecting your heart and your your mission to seeking the pleasure of a lost partner is is really important and then you know also not being worried if you're left out you know there's a lot of people who are very concerned about not just being accepted but also worried about being left out of certain circles and these are all things that we as believers have to really again think about at the end of the day it doesn't matter as long as we are with all of us and the proof of that is look at the profits right how many of them were completely ostracized and so they their stories are meant for us to see that even if you're up against hundreds or thousands or a few handful because hundred twenty four thousand profits right we don't have all of their stories but we can kind of imagine that a lot of them likely faced you know a backlash were pushed out you know most of them if not all of them experience that to a certain degree so but what were they where was their focus their focus was entirely on Allah Allah and then in all of their cases they had to fear to some degree right to some degree they had to I mean they have to fear with Allah but even with on their mission so it's just feudal to worry about being accepted or rejected and then contendment with Allah in times of both hard Japanese this is a big one because it's relatable again to everything we're going through right now they're and I know and I know other you know friends of mine who are also in these roles you know they teach or they have some connection with the community they're dealing with people who are struggling in their fate because of everything that's happening right it's like how how can this happen and these are questions that have been posed from the beginning of time human beings have grappled with evil and the problem of evil and so these are nothing new but when we're witnessing at such in such volume and it's relentless it can take a toll right on the on the heart and this is where of course the bliss you know comes into the picture as well because we're vulnerable right we're trying to make sense of things that don't make any sense to us and it's too much it's overwhelming you know our fitra is we're repelled by things like this you know to see evil that even the most you know secular atheist person who is no concept of you know objective morality or God or these things that we hold true in our faith they can objectively look at what's going on and say this is sadistic this is pure evil like this is something that's non inhumane on every level so it's because we're created in fitra to be repelled by such things so when we're seeing it at such a high level it's going to really be means by which Iblees will come and try to distort our understanding right and this is what he does very well he starts to make us question things you know and and even then that's why we have to be very careful that even if things are hard which they will be dunya is not easy and that's that to me that's all honestly one of them one of the points of our faith that I feel like is such a proof of its truth is that a loss of power that has there's no sugar coating at all it's all very clear you're going to be tested all of us you're going to see pain you're going to see suffering you're going to see evil you're going to see oppression you're going to lose things lose people that you love and care about and it's not going to make any sense to you but do you believe that God in his wisdom and knowledge that that that he that it all it does make sense we just don't have you know the like the the story of roomie which is the aunt in the carpet you know the aunt is moving about the carpet has no idea because it's these colors and patterns it cannot perceive the intricacy of the carpet is just looks all you know scattered but the birds I viewer but a view above can see that this is a beautiful pattern laid out and that's really essential you know formula of of understanding dunya is that at all in the knowledge of God makes perfect sense even if it doesn't make sense to you and me and if you're patient and if you have trust in your Lord then you will know that there will come a day where the debts will fall do justice will be given all the questions that you have that are puzzling you will be answered all that's required of you is patience. Can you be patient this is what I was putting before the human being and in that patients can you also maintain your good opinion of God right because you have to I mean if you're patient but then you still allow your heart to waiver you have to deal with that what's going on do I do not know who your Lord is right all the stories that he's revealed to you in the Quran all the hadith all the stories that are meant to give you a concrete right understanding of your creator do you waiver now just because something disturbs you just because something doesn't go your way or do you understand that ridah contentment with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala whether you're going through ease or hardship is required of you as a believer because you are you're in submission you understand who he is and you you know and the thing is I again I find it interesting that we can have this mentality for people in our lives I guarantee if we did a survey you know however you know big the survey was but if we did a survey and we asked a lot of people if they had someone in their life that they trusted a thousand percent you know many people would say yes right how about you guys do you have someone in your life that you feel you're so convinced that they would take a bullet for you that they would do anything for you no questions even ask like a said novel bucket to the process right we know how beautiful their relationship was do you have someone in your life that you feel like yeah I think they would take a hit for me without even any explanation do anybody yeah yeah there you go right siblings spouses parents mothers right how many of us believe wholeheartedly that our mother because inshallah she's a good she is or if she's passed on Allah my mother for example that she would have done anything for us inshallah we all have parents or family members or loved ones or friends even their friends who are like against a novel bucket in the process of them so we can conceive a loyalty with human beings you know like that like this strong unshakable bond but when it comes to Allah we allow those thoughts to sometimes get in and that's where you have to take your own enough to task like what am I talking about this is my creator he literally brought me into existence out of nothing I didn't have to be here and then he gave me this this and this and this and you start going through that process and you realize that those were just its shape on he's he's the one who plants those seeds but this is important that we we have to really just the same way that you would when things are going easy for you that you have contempt with Allah it's the same when something goes hard which is the the the brother that I mentioned in the beginning I mean I was moved to tears because you see him like he's so he loves Allah no matter what his children were just taken two of them I can't even imagine I have two sons I cannot imagine may Allah protect all of us from ever having to suffer such a tremendous loss but to see this man speak with so much confidence in Allah was like yes that's so beautiful what he meant does he have but guess what all of us are capable of that if we have an intimate knowledge of Allah subhanahu if we really are doing exactly what we're prescribed to do you know read his words call on him he will what as he says right walk toward me I will run toward you reach your hand out to me I'll reach my arm out to you this is Allah's words so we all have access upon love but it's on us to challenge those negative thoughts and to make sure that our loyalty to him is pure it's real so that's a fourth foundation the fifth one is where it's now action right that the fourth is like your state that you're you have this perpetual state of the 5th one is that when you whether you're in prosperity or adversity that you are consistently turning to Allah that you don't forget him because things when the you know things get good for some people they just they move on it's like God is only there needed all the blood when I'm falling apart that's only time I turn to God but as soon as I get everything I want I'm just coasting I'm loving life and then oh yeah I forgot to pray oh well it's okay stop for a while so we can't justify that we have to be constantly turning to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala no matter what and never never getting too safe right because that's the delusion of dunya is that and I think that's probably why those in the West are having more of a difficulty than people in Raza right now there are people on Raza of course they're overwhelmed it's horrible it's it's logistically a nightmare no food no drink but their Eman is not been destabilized that's why they can still call in Allah why is it that we're here in the West so far removed from all of that but we are suffering these faith crises and asking all these odd questions about Allah and why this why that why because this last point we get we got too safe right or we fell into this false sense of security because we're over here in our cushioned lives and this is the delusion of dunya so what happens is you just stop thinking about your own inevitable mortality right death becomes this distant thing but when you're living in conflict areas you're living you know where you don't your your water is rationed like I traveled you know to to parts of the Muslim world where the first time I ever went to a Muslim country the water was rationed and I was shocked because I didn't understand that concept obviously we just turned on the tap and we get whatever we want but they every week I was staying with the family masha'Allah and they had these tanks of water that they were they had to preserve for the whole week until the government you know restored their water and so showers showers were like drops it was it was drops of water and it was painful for a Westerners like what is this but upon Allah had to do it and I trust me appreciate showers so much more because experiencing that in the summer was life changing so we're just too comfortable in our security and what happens when you're too comfortable you forget right that the hadith where the Prophet said a person will wake up in the morning and and they can you know lose their faith by the evening or be in the evening and they could lose their faith in the morning this is a very real reality that's how we that's how much awareness acute awareness and mindfulness we have to have every day you know about the potential of what could happen to us at any given moment whether it's a spiritual you know calamity which is the worst of all like dunya material calamities are nothing you lose your you know car your phone these are nothing the material things but the greatest calamities to lose your faith so this is where that constant sense of like gratitude will kick in if you're practicing exactly you know all five of these but especially this last one which is you're in you're turning to Allah always you're just in constant remembrance constant they could constant gratitude and you're aware that he could at any given moment pluck you out of this dunya and not one of us have a guarantee and that that again hyper vigilance about your about these things is what makes you continuously again turn so these are the five and it's so powerful I mean again you could just spend so much time talking about these five but he goes on to say and now he's kind of breaking it down he get he says the realization of mindfulness of Allah is through scrupulousness and uprightness so if you want to practice true mindfulness of Allah Spana Taqwa then you have to hold yourself accountable not to you know break the rules or bend the rules or kind of get sloppy you know with your practice of faith scrupulousness is being attentive you know to what you do and it's interesting again because in the worldly sense for work none of us even for school whether you're a student or you work we don't turn in sloppy work because we know there's consequences right we're going to get reprimanded we're going to you know have a something's going to happen that we don't we want to avoid so mentally we know that we have to do a good job but interesting again when it comes to our faith practice we can get sloppy and this is where you have to be mindful of yourself so what does that look like practically and I'll give you an example it's happening several times upon a lot we get up to pray and then you forget what Raqqah you're on right and I know I'm not the only one brain is distracted constantly ADHD everything we have it so I'm like yalla what Raqqah am I on and then of course we can do such just so which is the prayer of forgetfulness you can do all of that but sometimes I get so upset with myself and I'm just sharing like my own way of trying to implement this I get so frustrated with myself and I'm ashamed that almost by that asks me so of such little time right that I don't even remember what Raqqah I was on or what surah I just read where was my brain what happened what memory came in because you get a random thought that I feel disgusted and then I say I'm gonna do my whole prayer all over again so that's like just one example of trying to hold yourself to a higher standard because it's not good enough to just submit you know the bar so low here's my bare minimum first draft you know if you have time right let's say your home and you're in your pajamas and you're comfortable what is preventing you from saying that prayer was so poorly done it requires a do-over it's your nefs because the nefs is like well I just put in all that energy and and again like I like to have like conversations where I'm challenging my own nefs because it is a polarized kind of you know conflict internal conflict we all go through so the nefs will pose all of these arguments right that justify its justifications but we have to be well versed enough within ourselves to counter those arguments so you know if you if you give in to the idea that I'm so tired you know my body so tired then I like to challenge and say you know what that's such a lie because right now if like my sisters or close friends came to the door you know they knocked on the door and said hey let's go out you know let's go to the mall right well let's go for a walk we'd be all out the door so where did the fatigue go right it's the nefs because in the moment that he you know that you're about to do something good he it'll interject with this ridiculous idea and then we fall for it and then we just move on and we carry on and we don't think twice so being scrupulous is saying no it's not good enough I have to do better and this can be applied to everything the food that we eat when we're you know interacting with the opposite sex is really important all of us have to take ourselves to account you know you you have to know yourself that there's requirements of you know gender interactions how am I interacting am I trying to you know look a certain way you know am I trying to be perceived a certain way and everybody has to figure that out you know for themselves from the men and the women because these are you know issues that we all deal with but like all of this is just being very very again having talk of God right and then the other point here he says the realization of adherence to the Sunnah is through caution and excellent character so again just being careful practicing you know the adab of the Prophet's wife said I'm like the Prophet's wife had certain you know ways that that he would treat people like today we read a hadith in another class I did where it said that if two people are sitting don't go and sit between them it's a beautiful and simple you know social etiquette that a lot of people don't even do you know because if you see for example I was talking about this in the class and I think women tend to I think have this issue more because we are physically more inclined to like you know we don't mind kind of you know that proximity whereas men are a little bit more guarded around physical you know closeness so anyway but think about you know why that hadith was relayed to us because the process is teaching us that when you see people in a private conversation to people the hadith specifically was don't go sit between them unless they invite you why because they could be having a very private intimate conversation about something very important and just because you're overly excitable and you're like happy to see them you should know that you know what the way they're sitting this is where just read the room that could be a private conversation and I'll wait to respectfully be invited and until then I'm going to practice some restraint and just keep myself busy simple etiquette right but why did he teach us that is because these are the ways that we preserve the bonds you know of in our communities in our families in our relationships so just being cautious and always having excellent character we don't always have to say what we what we think I mean I know it's hard for some people because we live in a culture that celebrates this poor rightness and if you think it flaunted and all this nonsense that's not our way there's many times where you should actually do the very opposite because what you are thinking is foul what you are thinking is inappropriate what you are thinking could potentially cause issues for other people so it's actually better to not say it right but this is where looking at the you know reading the theater of the Prophet ﷺ but also reading you know the Shama'il for example right the Shama'il is the physical descriptions of the Prophet ﷺ but also many of his character traits Qadi Iyad's Ashifah is another extraordinary text that we have in English that gives you insight into how the Prophet ﷺ did everything from the way he walked the way he sat the way he ate the way he drank the way he moved and talked to people of all backgrounds so just learning those etiquettes will make you a better more refined human being and that's how you then stay consistent and what you do is you adopt a new way of being because all of us from our respective cultures our families we were raised right a certain way and we carry you know those things forward into adulthood however our parents were we model that behavior the culture that we were raised in but at a certain point when you accept that you are a practicing Muslim you have to discard your cultural identities right the bad of the other I shouldn't say fully but I mean to say that discard this identity that is informed primarily by culture and by everything else and say I'm going to be the best version of me which is adopting prophetic character and then the good that you have of your character near your family or that is that which aligns with the prophesies of character right and anything else you discard it right for example like in this culture cursing is very common right I was speaking to some young kids I mean I teach martial arts I teach different ages but I'm speaking to some high school and middle middle school kids who recently met up with some other students and they were just kind of talking but they were shocked at how cursing is very common now in the Muslim community like you know sisters with hijab dropping F bombs brothers you know with beards and these youth who a law again has given them that fitra they themselves are like it's really weird and that's exactly what one of them said he said it's really weird I don't know why they curse so much it's not our way that is completely antithetical to everything of our tradition so if you're doing anything that counters the provisional items character it's a defect in you and if you don't see it as a defect that you want to correct then there's a problem right because it has this perfect character and we're all defective of course in many ways but the point is to become better and so that's how we do it and the realization of indifference to others acceptance or rejection is through patience and trust in Allah so we don't you know wait around to be invited or worry about being rejected we just say Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will take care of that he'll take care of me I don't need to be and I don't need to people please because as long as I he's pleased with me then I'll just be patient through all of that the realization of contentment is through acceptance of what one is given and turning over the management of ones of affairs to Allah so again that's one of the cures also for envy like if you have hasad you're supposed to sit there and think about wait a second who is the one who distributes to his creation everything right I was found to distribute he's the one who gives everybody wealth he gives you know different qualities different traits not all of us have you know we're not all we're not all the same right but he's the one who's determined how much our portions are of this dunya so when you are expressing you know you're dissatisfaction with what you have there's an allegation there against Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that somehow he has shorted you somehow he has slighted you all the blood right it's so this is where you have to again go against your own nubs and say no I am satisfied with whatever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given me and if this is what he has determined for me in this world I'll take it I will take it because he knows best I don't know what's good for me right and so whatever your tribulation is that's how we we we we are satisfied and we turn over everything to Allah swt and the realization of turning back to Allah constantly is through praise and gratitude in times of prosperity and taking refuge in him in times of affliction so Subran Jamil is what at the strike of a calamity you turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then gratitude is a constant practice like every moment as much as you can to be in awe of Allah swt to bear witness to his you know gifts to you never minimize the gifts that Allah swt that reveals to you when you see things that are like wow like that's that's shocking or that there's no coincidence you know if you follow me on social media you know I talk about this a lot but never minimizing things that are even what we would call coincidental or serendipitous as being oh that's just fun it's just like oh can you believe this happened no there's a gift from Allah for you it's a really momentous thing hold on to it and you know advice I give to people I actually have it right here on my phone I have a notes folder of all these moments where there's no way you can tell me that's a coincidence from God no way I'll never believe it I'll never believe it because the odds of all of these things aligning are just too too low for for for it to be just a coincidence it's by design so you know just constantly being witnessed to Allah swt that as gifts and praising him as he so deserves so now these are the as I mentioned and I want to leave some time for Q&A but I wanted to also introduce the next section here so that was a review from our first session and the reason why I also want to do a review is because our recording unfortunately got cut off last time so we didn't even get a lot of this but now so what he's done is he laid that those five right and now he's giving us the the five foundations that precede those five so it's basic or he's sorry the foundations of the preceding five or the following so it's basically how do we get to those five well this is what we need and so he starts us off with first exalted aspirations so if you want to achieve what we just set out right this beautiful roadmap for a path to Allah swt you the believer the secret me we have to have high aspirations which means we have to move our focus from dunya we concerns to the after right and we have to align our goals in life with that the investing in our other world because this world is is is temporal and it's just a means to get to the other side so if you're stuck here in the dunya world realm everything is going to be dunya focused my job marriage kids and that's what people end up squandering so much of their life away fixated on getting things that we just accumulate and we want to accumulate we want to get you know whatever it is everybody else has I want my peace right it's kind of like when they you know when the when the wars would happen and all the soldiers come to collect the booty of the war right and everybody's kind of scrambling and running to get their peace we're just like but subhanAllah again that's your your eyes on the wrong prize because there's a fortune on the other side that you're not even thinking about and that's where exalted aspirations will lead you so instead of wasting your time you know I mean subhanAllah you know people are free to do whatever they want but you know you I know people who've spent thousands of dollars on self-help like books or you know they go on these I don't know what what you would even call them but it's like very indulging kind of experiences and it's all gimmicky and it sounds really great but a lot of it is just you know it's like I said gimmicky right so you're gonna spend thousands of dollars to go get spa treatment to go to this vacation place and go tan yourself or whatever beautification things that people do whatever or other adventures that people will spend a lot of money on but when it comes to taking a class learning akhida or Quran suddenly they're complaining about the price subhanAllah like really so you would rather spend you know $500 a thousand dollars on these packages to go and you know eat food or go to these resort kind of places you spend so much of your earned money on that because to fill your stomach but then the moment you have an opportunity to learn something or even like for Omra or Hajj or do something spiritual the price becomes a factor your aspirations are low you're stuck in the world you're not thinking about maybe if I go take this class it's gonna be you know a means for me to get my prayers right or start to learn more about how to read the book of Allah or just feel more connected you know maybe it's going to be the means to something even greater and greater and greater and then that will be mountains and mountains and mountains of reward for me on the day of judgment nobody's where's that thought process right so we're quick to indulge enough but then we let these barriers come between us and greater goals which which are meant to draw us closer to Allah's father so that's the first thing if you want all of this you have to have exalted aspirations the next thing he mentions is maintaining Allah's reverence this is very essential other faiths I mean I cringe I cringe at the way that you know may Allah forgive them because they it's all learned but when I hear people of other faith traditions the way they speak of God it's so wrong it's you know they they first of all anthropomorphize they give very human like qualities to Allah's panorata which is an offense to you know to our sense senses as Muslims because we hold Allah's partner with the highest I mean he is he's the most praised and we we would never speak of him the way that other people speak of God so it's but we should also add to that so this is where not just praising Allah's partner but also as I mentioned having the best opinion right he says an idea than the adibi I am in the opinion of my servant so what does that mean well when you have a high opinion of a lot of panorata he will literally confirm that opinion for you so when you put Allah's partner as he is he's perfect there's another he does not make mistakes so what's happening to our brothers and sisters all the way across the world is not a mistake of God all the but and this is how some people who have no idea of who Allah's partner is and they speak of of you know horrors and you know evils in the world with this acute you know accusatory sort of tone or just this it's just very it's disgusting honestly I gave to me it's very repulsive but they don't know Allah they're talking about something else right we don't do that Allah doesn't make mistakes children dying is not a mistake of God there and we don't you know we we don't ask Allah's partner questions that's the bottom line who are we to ask Allah the creator of the universe questions about what he does with his own property we all belong to him right in a little when a day Rajoon so who are we to question what he does with his own creation we're nothing we're insignificant and again I'll bring it back on a human level any one of us would be offended if a person called us into question over how we dress over what we do with our property right or even God forbid you give me parenting advice that I don't agree with who do you think you are these are my children but really so you know we get very touchy when when it's turned back on us but then the creator of the universe we think we have the audacity to ask questions so we do is we have a good opinion of a long we say you know what all of it at a certain point will be made clear and I'm not going to sit here and judge the events that are unfolding as though they in any way project anything negative on my creator but rather look to me and humanity as a whole and how look at our species I mean what are the largest industries right now the most profitable industries in the world you know what they are it's sickening sickening pornography drugs of every kind right we have epidemic of human trafficking the it's I mean the list goes on and on about the evils that our species has put into the world and so when we're seeing when we see all of this unfold in front of us these are the signs of the latter days it's because we've forgotten our Lord we forgot our Creator and when we go distant and we start to you know just spend all of our time and energy you know filling our nuffs and and that's all we're consumed with then what do you expect so having a laws reverence maintaining that is so essential to just constantly praise the last one no I'm not going to entertain a single negative thought of my creator because I know that he has made all of this manifest none of this should be a surprise to any of us and if it's a surprise or we're shocked by it all it's because we don't read we're not reading history history repeats itself we're not reading the hadith literature that has foretold all of the signs all of the lesser signs of the day of judgment are here in the world right now all of it the Prophet said him gave us incredible gifts by telling us what to look out for so he told us all this stuff that happened including mass killings and angry people like just taking over the world he told us so maintaining a laws reference then expending oneself in excellent service of others this is really also essential if you want to get close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala just like all the prophets and many of the saints and the righteous there is a path of service you have to be on so you can't just be like self-absorbed right service Khidmah is paying it forward giving back to your family your community something that teaches you all of those beautiful characteristics and qualities of patience all those virtues that we seek it comes to the path of service that's why all the prophets had what in common they were shepherds right they had some shepherding influence because taking care of a creation right having to feed look after you know I should end the great hadith that you know alakul kumarain the providence said all of you are shepherds shepherding is part of the believer's path being in service in other words right so this is very important and then I love that he the language because none of this is again you know it's it's purposeful what he says expending oneself in excellent service of others so you do it with a smile you willingly serve other people so what does this look like in a practical sense when you come to the musket okay and you see shoes all over the place and you see people you know struggling carrying things you don't just walk by and go I want to go get my spot and sit in the cozy and wait for my friends no that's not that's not service what you say is there's a need in front of me and I'm a believer and allows witness and this is his house and I will keep the sacred sanctity of this house so as much as I'm here to enjoy a program I'm here to see friends and loved ones Allah is watching me and he put me where I can see something I'm witnessing something that's out of place right which by the way the meaning of adab right is to put things back in their place so when we see something out of place we fix it and this is missing and the proof of that is go into any muslim or musket go into the bathroom and look at the havoc that's been wreaked and in our bathrooms that nobody wants to touch and we wait for the cleaning to person to come but if you yourself aren't even mindful over yourself and you're just gonna splash water everywhere and leave slippers turned over and just throw your paper towel and boom you're out because you got to go run back to the event where is that awareness that Allah is watching me I'm here maybe I have a little bit more time than someone else does and I can quickly do something do something you don't have to clean the whole bathroom nobody's asking you to go get a brush and start cleaning toilets but being in the service of others is being mindful and present that Allah is giving you opportunities for reward and the best deeds are done when no one is watching those are the best deeds so when you you know are walking in a space and you see something again out of place you don't need people to tell you to do that just do it right and I mean there's many ways that service of others can be done but doing it with excellence is really important and then fulfilling one's uh resolves again if you're a person that takes your word seriously then when you say you're going to do something do it don't be a person of lip service of empty promises of you know just these far-fetched ideas that never culminate into anything because you're so uh worried about trying to keep up with people and you throw out all this oh yeah i'm gonna do some of this just do it set out to do it and make the niyah and of course if you're if you want to do it you have to tie that intention with asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for help because you're never going to do anything on your own and that's why in the Quran right in surah al-kaaf what are we told that when you set out to do something on the the next day on tomorrow or tomorrow always say what inshallah because if you think that you can do anything even whatever plan you have without the permission of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala without his facilitation or without him in any capacity you are deluded because only through him that you do anything that you're breathing right now it is only by the grace and permission of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that we are able to congregate and speak and breathe on all of these functions are happening without any effort on our part like just think about that right these automatic like body responses i forgot what are they called there there's i forgot there's a branch of it i've studied in biology but now i forgot you know like our breathing apparatus like the ability to do things without any thought right we're not thinking i'm not thinking about breathing right what is it called involuntary thank you involuntary right there's no will there's no thought i'm not telling heartbeat pump heart lungs taken nothing it's happening but why isn't happening because Allah is a sustainer he's the one who's maintaining us sustaining us so have the humility to what plan have your plans and when you make those plans be a person of execution fulfill ones resolves that's the fourth quality that you need in order to get to the first five do you get how this works it's really amazing and then the final one magnifying ones blessings this is such an important practice i cannot tell you if you want to see real transformation in your life like wherever you are if you feel like you're in a rut you're stuck things aren't moving for you in any direction if you want to see transformation in your life practice gratitude start to force yourself to see the good and to really sit with what an immense blessing it is that i whatever it is you know you fill in the blanks you know but do that and there's so much research that shows the transformative power of gratitude journaling of being a person who's just in that mindset of witnessing good that it's like a gift that keeps on giving right and so unfortunately you know we live in a time where although that you know should be um should be something that we we can do what's happened is because of social media and the effect of seeing so much abundance right we have a distorted view of the world so when you're opening up especially if you're on like the more visual platforms right have a big part of your day is spent opening you know up to instagram or tiktok or reels where it's just videos and it's all perfectly curated and tailored and you know filtered and these messages that are coming from people of authority you know there's a lot of nowadays gurus and people with the sage wisdom and everybody just seems to have it all figured out so you're going through this and you're just like wow i'm a total loser i have like absolutely nothing going on all these people have perfect lives their their homes are immaculate their children are perfect they're going on these amazing vacations and then they're like all sages like they have a little wisdom and they can speak like it's just like you know stuff falling out of them and then you just think of yourself and you're always going to feel like you don't have what they have and so then it makes you feel like you do the opposite of this you start to minimize yourself because everybody else is magnified you get it this is why it's very dangerous to be on those platforms because it's distorted when you look at your reality and you actually start to dissect all the blessings all the things that you have been given and then contrast them to 99% of the world and i'll throw that out there even though that's probably doesn't i don't know if there's any science to back that up but i really think that a vast majority of people on this planet are suffering in ways that we cannot comprehend because those stories don't make it to the highlight to the reals right into the tiktoks i mean very rarely although earlier today i saw like a horrible story all the blava of a man it was on twitter just came up but i i mean these things are a true they're real he one of his body parts who had a growth that was uncontrollable like it just was growing out of control 80 pounds it had grown into so he was walking and he could he can't leave the house he's like i'm a prisoner of my own body you know people have tumors and they have all these horrible health problems so it's like those things unless you're watching some rare documentary you might not see that but i think a lot of people suffer you know they suffer with drug addiction with alcohol addiction abuse trauma um health problems so then then when you start to see wow how did i have health i have you know wealth in the bank i have food i have clothes that keep me warm i have a home i have a bed that i love i know a lot of us we invested bedding good bedding right just think about how many people right now like if we're really being honest that was one of the first things i thought of for these poor you know children especially like where are they possibly sleeping like i don't know if you've thought about that but like homes have been decimated it's dust it's rubble where are they sleeping i don't know is it concrete slabs is it just because in the hospitals can't contain thousands and thousands of people and i don't know if people are on the floor and see i don't know how the i'm sorry yeah disease exactly yeah exactly where are they using a restroom and then um so restroom you know bedding what's happening right and then like today subhanAllah i mean just randomly i am reminded of it because it disturbed me i was driving in union city and there was a construction site and i saw a man on the ground he was half of his body was hanging over the the street he was wearing an orange uh parka or a jacket so i thought he was initially a construction worker taking a nap and then as i drove closer i was like oh my god that's just a man like he he looks like he's all the but i wasn't sure if he was alive there were so many cars so i had i called the union city police department i was like there's a man and i told him exactly where the location was and then she was like yeah thank you man someone else has also called about him basically what we're going to go on the scene it was so disturbing to see that so now multiply that look at the scale we're talking about thousands upon thousands about thousands and then by the way i had a statistic the other day there's thousands of pregnant women that they're in a vessel like i i don't know but it's like imagine you're in your third term and you're about to have a baby and you don't know like you have there's like you said disease spreading no sanitation no bedding like what the discomfort of pregnancy on top of all that like y'all ruby so the point is whatever you think you're not happy about your life wallahi if you started to look at the circumstances the majority of people are under you would be so grateful to a lot you would feel like you're living like a king or a queen or like you know a person of immense privilege and so magnifying your blessings is a daily practice hamdallah nothing to complain about actually saying those words vocalizing that when someone's complaining hamdallah we shouldn't complain we're so grateful Allah so so generous Allah so generous and watch what happens to you when you make that your existence if if the the you know if you don't start feeling flooded with with really good feelings and emotions but also just your reality your circumstances may change very very quickly because gratitude is rewarded right so subhanAllah sisters i'm sorry i wanted to leave at least 15 minutes for q and a but those are the five actually let me just read one small section and then we'll stop for today it says here he says here he whose aspirations are exalted is raised in rank so he's going through these five and now just giving commentary Allah maintains the respect of he who preserves his reverence so your respect in the sight of people will be maintained when you show that reverence to Allah subhanAllah it's in this is called the law of reciprocity we see this theme a lot where Allah you know do unto others as you would want done unto you but Allah in his generosity will reward us with what we put out into the world so you're a generous person he'll be generous with you you're a kind person he'll be kind with you compassionate merciful all of those virtues it will be repaid to us he who does that which he resolves to do is assured continual guidance so just as you're a person of commitment then that is your reward Allah subhanAllah will give you hidayah because the hidayah is only through him he who deems blessings to be great by his own eye has shown gratitude right so when you're magnifying your blessings that's what you're doing right you're you're witnessing and so you're showing gratitude and he who is grateful ensures an increase in blessings from the giver of gifts according to the promise of the truthful one so that's what it is you will you're insured more blessings in your life if you continue to be grateful right if you are grateful i will increase you Allah subhanAllah promises us so alhamdulillah these are the first um sections of this incredible document we will continue next month but any questions about anything or any comments anything anybody wants to share i will just give a little bit of advice for the sisters who are watching and those who are here right now as i mentioned we're in very difficult times and i know that there's kind of a heightened sense of you know awareness and we should be on alert especially those who wear hijab so please sisters take precautions i think it's necessary and i don't want to be an alarmist but i also don't want to hear any tragic news the bay area as progressive and liberal as people are there's a lot of sick people here as well there was a sister in berlin game i watched today she was spat on i didn't see the full interview but she was her identity was concealed she was i think a Jordanian sister spoke in arabic and she had a translator but she said some men approached her in the berlin game area and he was he spat on her so this is right here in california so i think we should really practice caution and what that means is you know just making sure that you're you have you're you're with people you're not alone especially in areas so that are kind of like sketchy or you're not sure about please be careful and then also like in the car i need to do this as well for those of you who wear hijab like you should have like a hat or something you know you wear your hijab but if you're driving especially at night just kind of you know disguise yourself a little bit i think it's good practice at least now to just put on a little hat or a visor or something because we don't want to draw or if you have tinted windows you're fine but you know there are things that we can be proactive about and there that doesn't compromise your faith you're not a weak muslim no you're a person who's practicing khikmah and remember that you know the aim of sharia the five maqasid is the preservation of life so we are fully in our right to try to preserve our safety in our life by taking these precautions yes sure absolutely no it's a very good question so the question was like any event that someone costs you like this sister who is spat on what is the position like what in our sharia or what what what can we do in order to defend ourselves can we should we you know respond in any way and in what way i think every situation is going to call for a response right because you have to also be aware of your you know have that situational awareness like can you do something that would not make it worse right because you don't know if that person has a weapon you know you have no idea so i would say always err on the side of caution and say you know if there are people around you and you feel like you're supported and maybe there's you know it's like a more public space and you would be protected then you can certainly you know say something if you feel the need to we don't have this idea of just letting people attack us and not defending ourselves you have the right to defend yourself but if you want to take it to a point of saying something to correct that person or just to feel like this is wrong and i need to you know do i'm going to be a model for something you know i need to set the then i think it's very situational the one answer won't fit because every situation is going to require an assessment and so make the assessment based on your feeling of safety and not every personality is up for something like that right there's some temperaments where they fight flight freeze they wouldn't know what to do but you know like i'm prashtan haploded i will admit it you're likely going to get something from me you know and that's just my personality i've had enough experience in life where i don't tend to just let things like that go but not everybody i think is that comfortable you know being outspoken and that's okay because there's no right or wrong in this it's a matter of what you have assessed so i would say assess the situation but i don't think you should in any way try to provoke people like that because we're living in a time where there's a lot of mental health problems a lot of violence people are i mean i've seen enough videos where i'm shocked at how disproportionate the reactions are you know someone gets the wrong order and a person is like ready to kill them i mean what is this so we're not living in times where people are rational or civil and you could expect that oh they would have a sudden change of heart and oh now you're doing that you're probably gonna have you know it's going to turn into something bigger so i would say even for myself there are many times where i have just chosen to not say anything not because of a weakness but rather of i have children and i don't want to you know compromise my safety or other people's safety i don't want to incite someone to even further violence who clearly may have a mental health problem so that's hekma you know but if you feel like you know it's a different circumstance maybe it's like a more controlled environment someone that you know a coworker and you don't feel that threat there may be a different response yeah but i think you know our you know we have to again look at the the time that we're in and just be very careful and as women we already have targets you know on us so we just i think i have to be even more careful inshallah thank you good question juzak muwaqq and sisters i don't want to keep you longer we'll inshallah end in dua inshallah wala asr inna linsan lafee khusr illa lazeena a manu wa aminu al-salihaati wa tawasub al-haqi wa tawasub al-sabr subhanak Allahumma wa bi hamdika as-shadu an-na ilaha illa an-tan al-saghfiruq wa natu wileik Allahumma sali wa salamu barik ala sayidina wa maulana wa habibna Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa salam wa ala alaihi wa sahbihi wa salam al-salaam al-kathira subhanurabbika rabbala izati amma yusifoon wa salamuna alal morsaleen walhamdulillahi rabbala wa hamdulillahi wazakum wal hamdan thank you very much everyone inshallah and uh I don't know about next month's dates yet I think they're we're doing them the third Thursday of every of every month so I inshallah should be up on the newsletter but the Saturday session if you don't know about it we do a Saturday dhikr as well that for next month won't happen but we do have one this Saturday so this Saturday at 10 o'clock we'll be here for dhikr inshallah and you're all welcome anytime jazakum wal hamdan as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu