 everyone. How many of you have had a chance to look at this PDF or have ever perused it or looked through it before? So okay, masha'Allah. So the previous sessions, this is I think session five if I'm not mistaken, that we've done, we've started reading this document and it's eight pages, you know, I printed it today front and back, but I mean I've spent months on this document in other classes because it is so rich with opportunity to really have fruitful discussions. So we're taking our time with it, but I do recommend that everybody read it or at least review it, insha'Allah. So it's called The Foundations of the Spiritual Path by Sidi Ahmed Zarruq, and it was translated by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf. This is actually one of the first, if not the first, I think texts that he translated into English, but it's really resourceful, especially for all of us, regardless of age, background, doesn't matter. It's great review for those who are ahead on the spiritual path, for those who are new to the spiritual path, that actually gives you structure, you know, for like converts or people who are just newly kind of coming into the practice of their faith, it gives a really wonderful road map and structured way of organizing yourself and making sure your intentions are properly aligned. So in those first four sessions, we've went over about the, I think, page one and page two, but I'll just quickly summarize. So he starts off by just describing what an individual needs who wants to be on the spiritual path, like what they need to aspire to, just to be on the path. So he starts us off laying out the foundations. And as we know, the foundation, what is a foundation? A foundation is the base of a structure, right? So what he's saying is, in order for you to build upon with your faith practice, you need a solid structure first. And that solid structure, he defines as five qualities. And if you have these five or you work towards these five, then inshallah, the rest will be facilitated. The first he says is taqwa, mindfulness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, privately and publicly. So in both, whether you're by yourself or you're in a public setting, there's this consistent awareness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala wherever you go. It doesn't matter what you're doing in any given situation. You're acutely aware that Allah is watching you, that He is holding you accountable, and that you need to make sure that you are in obedience and in submission to Him. So it's something that we have to strive for. Many people, you know, it's natural because we have, you know, social rules around, you know, when we're in the company of other people. So it's natural that we're more aware of ourselves when we're with people, right, about how we're behaving, what we're saying, whether, you know, we don't obviously want to be misjudged or treated differently. So we're very polished, maybe more so than we are when we're alone or when we're in our private spaces. But what we should strive for, all of us, is that consistency. Like until we become the same, relatively speaking, right, because obviously we still have some degree of privacy in our personal spaces. But in terms of your, you know, your character, like, is your character consistent? You know, or do you have, do you switch into a different person with people and then privately or a total different person? That Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde just doesn't work. It's obviously a sign of spiritual disease. If you have multiple, you know, personas or faces or masks that you wear. So we want to be consistent because that is obviously prophetic. The Prophet, so I said among many of his virtues is that he was the same with people regardless of who he was with. And people had very similar experiences of him. He was beautiful. He was compassionate. He was kind. He was generous. He preferred others over himself. All of those virtues that we read about in the Sira, that was consistent. Whether he was with children, whether he was with the poor or the wealthy or the aristocratic, you know, elite, it didn't matter. He was consistent. So that was really important. Then the next foundation is adherence to the sunnah in a word and deed. So this is really making sure that we have a solid understanding of Allah, what cause pray Asia and we'll come back, inshallah, after Asia. Jazakum Allah khair. maghdoobi alayhim wal ad-dhoorin. Qaloo Ya Salih, qadakun tafeena marjuwaan qabl haadhaa taanhaa, taanhaa naa annaa abud maa yaabud aaba'una wa innanaa wa innanaa naa fi shakkin mim maa tadaoona ilayy murib qaalaya qawmi araytum inn kuntu ala bayinatin mir rabbi wa ataani minhu rahmah fa main yansurli min Allahi in'asaytuh fa maa tazidunani waaira tahseer wa yaa qawmi aadhi naaqatu Allahinakum aayah fadarua taakul fi ard illa wa laa tamassua bisu'in fa yaa khudakum azaabun kareeb fa aqarua fa qaalatum attaaw fi darikum thalathat aayyam dalika wa'adun ghayru makdhoob fa lammaa jaa'a amruna najjaynaa salihaa wa aladheena amaloo maaw bi rahmatin minna wa minkhizi yawmi idd inna rabbaka hua qawiyul azeez wa aqadal ladin azalamu ssayhatu fa asbahu fi diyari imjathiminakum alam yaghnau fi haan na thamooda kafarua rabbahum ala abuaadalli thamood Alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin ar-Rahman ar-Rahim maaliki yawm iddin iyaa ka na'bud wa iyaa ka nasta'een ihdina s-sirata al-mustaqeen s-sirata al-nadina an'amta aley dhoob aleyhim wa laddoo laqad jaa'a at-rusuluna ibraheem bil-bushraa qaloo salam fa maalabitha an jaa'a bi'ijilin hanid yawm laa taasilu inayinakirahum wa awjasa minhum khifah qaloo laa tahaf inna al-naa ila qawminu t'u wa amraatu qaa'imatun fadhaikat fabasharna bi'ishaq wa mi'u wa raq yaqoob qalat yaa wa ila taa alid wa an'ajuz wa hada ba'mi shaykhah inna hada la shay'un aajeeb qaloo at-ajabin min amr rahmatullahi wa barakatuh aleykum ahla al-bayt inna hu hamidun majeed fa laa maa daa ba'an ibraheem al-waw'a jaa'athu al-bushraa jaadiluna fi qawminu t'u inna ibraheem al-halim awwahum muneeb ya ibraheem an yaa daa inna hu qad jaa al-rabbiq wa inna hu maa tihim aadabun gairo mardood hamidah samyaal hamidah How much are you sleeping? So you have to calculate waking up in because if you're breaking your REM sleep which is like the deep sleep that we dream in you're going to feel very heavy to come out of that so you might have to set your alarm clock earlier so you're not in a REM state of sleep because it's so you've tried to do one and a half hour blocks so this is like we have to actually do math the math so you have to do one and a half hour one and a half hour one and a half hour find the time that fadr comes in where you're within a one and a half hour where you're outside of the one and a half hour cycle because then you get one and a half hour ya i mean your enough sleep is that calls a little brother of death because we're in a really heavy state of ya it's like it's hard to come out of sometimes but you can work with you know but i would say you need to calculate and try to figure out when to set your alarm because if you're in a deep sleep it's going to be much harder and then you have to make a lot of noise ask Allah every single night please help me to get up help me to get up if you have a phone buddy or someone that can hold you accountable and you need to have someone who can call you in you have to act further and just say we've got to get up i'm with this with you we're doing this together and well we have to see some of the Muslims and they should just put out a notice there what i do you like to have like a fadr phone buddy and especially as we're preparing for Ramadan really good to do it now so you get that good habit nice so there is something like that oh great i know about minna like i think it's called the hajj of tigers i've heard of it oh that's wonderful mashaAllah you came right at the perfect timing alhamdulillah Assalamu alaikum everyone we're going to be getting inshallah we had isha prayer so thank you for sticking around if you're still here and if you're new you're welcome to stay what was your name what's this your daughter and what's zaynem mashaAllah thank you zaynem so good to see you how are you doing she looks like a mashaAllah prince so sweet mashaAllah how are you doing great to see you i miss you too i'm so happy to see you i need to catch up with you no mashaAllah your presence is barakah all of you mashaAllah mashaAllah so i was just summarizing that what we've covered so far from the foundations of the spiritual path he has quite a few different sections but i'm just summarizing at least the first five just to kind of give you something to work with so he starts off with the base foundation which is mindfulness of Allah swt privately and publicly and then adherence to the sunnah which is making sure that we don't just read about the provah as-salam which we should of course we should learn about his life every moment of his life that we can we should know it intimately but also in our actions it should reflect that we're taking on his sunnah as our own inshallah as much as we can so everything that you learn try to find a way to implement it while we were at ishah about fajr prayer and i'll give you an example when we were studying washahamsa many years ago i think it was purification of the heart or it may have been seerah actually of the provah as-salam he was describing how the provah as-salam would wake up for fajr and he said that he would wake up like a lion like jumping on their prey in the sense that he was coming out of his bed forcefully and prior to hearing that description i mean obviously he did a much better job of describing it but the way it just made an impact on me because prior to that i had a very difficult time with fajr and many of us struggle right fajr and isha the provah as-salam said you know many people struggle with those two prayers in particular because obviously they have to do with our sleep during the day it's worldly distractions that keep us from prayer but in the morning and at night it's our own sleep slumber we're overcome by our bodies and so it's a harder struggle but there are ways around it which we've talked about but i remember when he said that that description made so much sense to me because when you're in that state if you're going to think about it and you're going to lay there and kind of negotiate your body's going to win your nafs, that lower part of you is loving the sleep loving the bed, the warmth of the bed to wake up and get out into the cold and then put water on you doesn't sound appealing so the negotiation can't happen basically and that's where just forcing yourself ejecting yourself out of bed makes actually a lot of sense because i'm not going to even try to negotiate if i do i'll lose whenever i said i'm going to do that and alhamdulillah wa shukrillah i remember that night or the next morning i literally jumped out of bed at fadr time ever since then i never struggled with fadr so when we take the actions of the prophet seriously and realize it's not just an option that he's giving us but he's teaching us in every way he will overwhelm you at times but you have to find ways to overwhelm it and so that was the way that he taught us how to again come out of that sleep state and it worked it worked for me alhamdulillah so i think i would try that don't negotiate with your nafs don't have time to sit there and go should i get up now or 5 minutes because we've all seen the memes or the jokes about you hit the alarm and it's day and you've completely missed it because that is a trap it's a trap of iblis, it's a trap of your nafs so knowing that you have to be like how can i avoid falling in the trap go against what your nafs tells you to do and that's a general advice whenever there's an opportunity for you to worship Allah and do something that you know he will be pleased with you and there's this conversation happening in your head and you kind of have a resolve about something especially if it involves procrastinating that action literally go against it don't say i'm going to pray like if the heart comes in and you're working on something and you could pray you have will do and you could pray and then the mind comes suddenly you know what let me finish this email then i'm going to quickly go into prayer how many times have we fooled ourselves thinking of this idealistic way of doing something and we're thwarted from doing it at all because we go and we get so distracted and then 10 more emails come and then a text message and then oh my god i forgot to make lunch and then now we're in crisis mode and then all of a sudden it's asr and you're like oh my god so this is the trap of iblis and nafs they work sometimes together sometimes it's just bad habits so you break it by saying oh no no no no i know how this story ends i'm not going to delay it i'm going to get up and do it right now because the inspiration came to me to do it and where is that inspiration coming from we should question when you're super distracted just think about how powerful that is when you're distracted in dunia like i said it's work it's kids, it's your spouse, it's your in-laws, whoever it is but then the reminder comes before the adhan clock goes off that oh it's adohar i should pray where did that come from we have the angelic realm around us and our angels do protect us by sending us these messages sometimes so you want to receive the message and be like subhanallah thank you for sending me a messenger for sending me because i'm so distractible life is overwhelming but i got this whisperer that said go pray the hodazin i should listen to that not shut it down, trust myself and then suffer the failure the consequence of that failure so adherence to the sunnah in word indeed is really about implementing the sunnah of the prophet whenever you learn something if he did something a certain way make it part of your practice and this is general, everyday things not just with worship obviously his worship is the perfect worship and we should emulate him in every way but even adapting those general everyday qualities of his sunnah is very important for our character development and our spiritual development in general so that's the second foundation so we haven't even yet built the structure he's just telling us what we need to just build upon this foundation so this is the second foundation the third he says in difference to whether others accept and reject one this is also very important we live in a time where people are too driven by people pleasing or the fear of being excluded there's levels of fomo like oh they're not going to include me i'm not going to be in this group i won't have friends or i need to be a part of this because i'm lonely, i'm isolated so i need to compromise i need to not maybe do what i know is right that is most human beings we suffer from these at different parts and different phases of our life children certainly do as they're trying to forge friendships and identity but once you get to a certain point in your adult life you have to realize that is irrelevant to you when it comes to your path with Allah swt whether or not people like you or they don't like you should never be factored because you cannot please everybody and it really is futile to try you will always have people who have something to say about why you're doing it this way or that way so if you just cut out the noise and say i only really, i only want Allah swt as pleasure and i'm not interested in anything else then you start to really have focus and inshallah your intentions become purified because when you're studying spiritual diseases and i think this is again why it's so important that we study these things early and we really have understanding is that a lot of people may fall into habits and practice but then way down the line they realize that their deeds may not be even accepted like the man who used to pray for 40 years or 70 years a very long time he used to pray always in the front of the row right that was he never missed a prayer in the masjid always in the front of the row one day he said he came he was late and he had to pray in the back of the row and he was so embarrassed and he realized in that moment that all of his prayers were null and void and so he spent the rest of his life trying to make up all those prayers because imagine he came to this awareness that all those years i was trying to basically maintain my status as the man who prayed in the front of the row so you can be deluded by your enough to have really wrong intentions without being aware of them but once you start to strip yourself of any ulterior motive or any desire from the like from people and just be like i don't care if they like me if they don't like me if Allah has commanded it i'm going to do it and i'm going to be an obedience to him and if people don't like that that's their problem right and i'm not going to worry about that and then just see what happens because i remember when i first started practicing that was a really i don't know if it was a hadith i read or if it was you know just a commentary from a great scholar could have been one or either but it was something to the effect that the one who puts Allah subhanaw first will be pleased with them and he will make other people pleased with them but the one who puts people first they will never be pleased with them and Allah subhanaw will not be pleased with them so if you really think about it how foolish we are as human beings to put anybody before Allah right but we fall into these traps so indifference to whether others accept or reject this is foundational like you want to be on a spiritual path stop worrying about what people think only think of Allah subhanaw then the last two are very interlinked they're pretty close in meaning the first is content or the fourth is contentment with Allah subhanaw times of both hardship and ease so you have ridah with Allah regardless of your circumstance right if you're in difficulty and challenge you're going through a tribulation your health your relationships there's some problem that you still are pleased with Allah you know that this is just dunya and he tests those he loves he tests the prophets he tests the odia I'm not making this conditional you know this conditional relationship with God we're only I only love him when things are going great I love him regardless right that's just your agreement so that's the fourth level and then the fifth is that when you are in adversity a challenge presents itself or prosperity when things are going really good for you suddenly you know your work is looking good you've got a promotion wealth has come to you there's opportunities for you that in those circumstance that your natural disposition is to turn to Allah subhanaw that ingratitude right in those times of prosperity and in sabr and dua and calling upon him and things in times of difficulty and adversity so it's similar in that the first is that your content regardless of your circumstance and then the last one here being the fourth excuse me is that your content and then the last one is that you know what to do in all circumstances that you're always turning to Allah subhanaw so he lays these out as the five foundations from here everything that we read is how to get to those so it's working backwards now and it's just a wonderful text so I have done a lot of review but I'm going to fast forward a little bit to the section that we were going to do today because each of the four previous sessions you can go back and watch them to get the rest but where we left off last time was on the second page 10 on the pdf but it's the second page where he talks about the foundations of what will cure the sickness of the soul so he identifies here at the bottom of page 10 you'll see it's in bold the foundations of what will cure the sickness of the soul so he, prior to this he tells us that the nefs right is something that we should be suspicious of this lower part of us, this nefs we should recognize that it is our greatest enemy the voice inside your head it is your greatest enemy because it has default settings things that pull you away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala it loves, you know, it's carnal desires, it's comforts there are certain things that the nefs really inclines towards and because it's within you you can be oblivious to its tricks and how it traps you so he talked about that and now he's telling us how can we recognize or I'm sorry how can we cure so if we want to overcome this which we can there's mashallah so much in our tradition that teaches us how to overcome the nefs so he says there are five ways to do that first he says moderation achieved by lightening the stomach's intake of food and drink and this is timely because mashallah we're in shaban many of us may be fasting or starting to try to finish up our fast because we don't have that much time left but we're also in preparation for Ramadan and we've all experienced alhamdulillah inshallah we've all experienced the blessing of Ramadan and the I mean obviously the entire month is blessed but the experience of fasting in our spiritual work the fact that we're fasting and not giving into this lower self which gets physically we feel heavy right when you eat a meal or you're drinking even the drinks that are supposed to wake us up and be a stimulants right like coffee and tea I know myself included like sometimes I can have chai and coffee and start to doze off and so you're like what's going on I thought these are supposed to wake me up but they're comfort drinks you know or they become drinks that we take comfort so whatever we think about food and drink the bottom line is when we're consuming them especially if we're consuming too much then we end up feeling the weight of that food and that drink and it makes it difficult for us to then get up for fajr to get up for tahajjud to read Quran because if you're reading but you're you know you're feeling drowsy from the effects of food your eyes start to blur you're dozing off you don't even know what you're reading brain fog right that happens as a result of some of the heavy foods that are in a lot of our cuisine too then we end up not having the focus and the presence in our worship so Ramadan is really an opportunity and fasting in general for us to see what beautiful worship means when you're not burdened by food and drink because you're lighter you're like I said the brain fog is gone, you're more present your bones aren't cracking when you're going into ruku and sajda where your back isn't aching and all that stuff that comes from the inflammation of the foods that we're eating we can get into the science of it but there are all those very real symptoms right of overeating so this is you know Imam al-Ghazadi many of our great scholars have written books I actually have these little chapter books from Imam al-Ghazadi this one is on the treatment of the desires of the stomach so he goes on and he talks about many different stories and hadith of the Prophet al-Salam incentivizing us from not filling our stomachs that we eat little and then when you think about the fact that the Prophet al-Salam never ate to his fill, like there are hadith where the Sahaba say he never ate even like a full piece like his stomach never became full with even bread made from barley right so think of all the foods that we, decadent foods that we eat and we over stuff ourselves meats and you know all of these very rich rich foods in our cuisine, greasy foods oily foods right, saucy foods he ate very plain food and even the plain food he never indulged in because he you know he's teaching us that and there's many hadith that where he talks about it's the worst thing to fill is your stomach right so it's a good reminder for all of us to know when to to stop ourselves and you know I'll share personally many years ago because of our you know sitting with the scholars one of the things the blessing of being in the company of scholars is that you get to see them live these realities you know when teachers are talking about you know fasting often not eating very much I've seen it I've seen many of our teachers they fast almost every other day when food is presented to them there's buffet you know a food because you know people invite them to gatherings everybody's plate is full and they eat like birds they really do they eat very little they have little portions and it's the desserts and so I remember when I was in my 20s you know watching a lot of them I was shocked because it was like the self control right you're like you have biryani you have kabab you have like desserts you have all this stuff and they don't participate they don't think you I'm good I'm good I'm like wow so when I when I made hedge in 2004 God seems it's 20 years a long time ago actually on Arafa as we know right the duas are mustajab and it was one of my I wrote it down I wanted to experience the ability to have that much restraint right I was like I want to know what it feels like to go without food and not want the decadent food like to not have any desire for it because I was I don't know I just felt like it was such a goal to get to that level of spiritual strength for me and it was included in one of my duas so I had always struggled as a child with my weight and I think there was also a more personal reason why I made that dua so when I came back from Hajj Alhamdulillah soon after I started to really look at my health and my eating habits and I started clean eating taking out a lot of the bad foods that we all know the whites you know the rice and the sugar and the salts and all of that stuff the pastas the breads I eliminated a lot of the high carb food and I lost a lot of weight in a very short amount of time and it was like shocking to friends and family because they're like what happened to you what would you do but I was like Subhanallah this is the answer to my dua because I experienced what the dua was I would literally go and friends who saw me and worked with me they were shocked too because I lost all my appetite like it was you become when you and I think now it's research and we understand why sugar is very toxic it's toxic to the brain but it's very addictive when you eliminate sugar a lot of your appetite goes with it in a way it's interesting because I've done I do intermittent fasting I've done a lot of this stuff so I know I felt it before but you really genuinely don't want the stuff that you normally would have loved to eat I would attend parties with girlfriends and you know they would have the bore you know we've all seen the spreads when women get together and I would just have zero desire there would be brownies cookies cake all of this rich food that you know prior to this I would want and I'd be like no I'm good I actually have zero desire for I don't want it at all I could go days I mean I went one week I remember I think the most I eat in that week because I was documenting my food I would forget to eat I would eat like some cucumbers and then like half an avocado and then I'd be like oh yeah I didn't I don't think I ate anything else all week like I'm not joking when I say I had very little food consumption in that time and I drank water but other than that I had no desire for food and I was just kind of in this mode of working so I think my point is is when you read these you know words and especially Imam al-Zadi and others who really emphasize taking a break from the food and drink and trying to practice you know restraint and breaking your enoughs in a way it is very real I've lived it I've seen people who live it and there are people that I know to this day who eat very minimum because the human body doesn't really need much food as we've been taught right we're taught to like eat three meals a day and everything has to have this portion and that portion but you've you know if you've ever seen people who've survived like you know very difficult circumstances where they don't have food it's the water that they absolutely need but food you can go without for a long time and I'm not encouraging people to starve themselves but I just think that we need to kind of have this shift in our brain about not accepting this sort of modern idea that we just have to be stuffing ourselves all the time and eating you know to our full and otherwise we're going to faint and we're going to have low blood sugar and people just come up with all these narratives like if you don't eat breakfast you're going to pass out no that's not going to happen to you and I think if you have a hard time with your prayers especially then I would say look into this look into this option of trying intermittent fasting like you stop eating at a certain point you know like you know when I do it I'll usually around 5 or 6 p.m. I don't eat anything until the next morning by 11, 10, 11 then you introduce something into your food I mean into your you know you can eat something but it's amazing how much lighter you feel when you just stop eating as much food you just feel better and then walking you know I have goals you know again I'm pretty competitive so once I set my mind to something I'll do it but I have goals now I like to share tips it works for me so there's an app called pedometer alright this is a pedometer app I don't know how many have you seen this so you can track your miles so I mean your steps we should be doing these things you know keeping ourselves light and trying to get our health in check but how did I try to do between you know 5,000, 6, 7,000 steps a day I know 10,000 is an ideal goal if you can do more than that great but we got to start somewhere right so for me this is what I'm doing now and I'm pretty consistent with that so we do these things why because these are sunnas of the prophesies that he walked and we know the description of how he walked right how did he walk how did he walk who knows how did he walk very good like he had a purpose the prophesies that I'm walked with intent so when he walked the descriptions are beautiful it's like he was almost as if he was leaning forward and if you try to imagine that I mean we had a HMDA again our teachers demonstrate these things it's pretty amazing to see it because you're like wow that person has somewhere to go and you don't want to get in their way so pace is there intention is there drive is there and that's how we should be we should be walking and just moving about in the world with that level of purpose and so when he walked briskly it's also to remind us that we can't just dilly-dally you know the laziness and the kind of and it's okay to walk take a nice stroll once in a while but it's more about the general way that we move we should be moving from point A to point B having purpose in our every moment so all of these practices will help you to overcome the beast nature of the nefs because the nefs is like a beast it needs to be tamed and that's why again our scholars give us the analogy of like a wild horse or a wild beast you have to take command of it if you let it dictate to you it's going to drive your behavior it's going to tell you to just sit around all day it's going to tell you to eat whatever you want it's going to tell you to you know just basically indulge it because it wants to be indulged so when you have to go somewhere it's going to be like you know what go tomorrow and then you don't go tomorrow you don't go the next day you have errands to run but we need to gain mastery or eat so those are just some general tips and again because Ramadan is inshallah we all are able to witness Ramadan we'll see this for ourselves but even outside of Ramadan we should be maintaining these practices so that's the first thing he mentions in terms of curing the sickness of the soul then he says taking refuge in Allah from harm when it actually occurs so when we're seeing whether it's personal harm whether it's harm that's happening to others if we don't realize that it's only from Allah that we're going to have that harm removed and he's the only one that can change our circumstance or the circumstance of others but we kind of you know bypass him and we start to fall apart or we go and complain to this person or that person or we vent and we become kind of emotional about these things we're forgetting that again this is dunya it's a place of trial and tribulation and difficulty and challenge but we have to seek refuge in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we have to turn to him even in those hardships because it's natural to just fall into some sort of panic or shock or angered state when you're seeing especially oppression like what we're all witnessing happening is it 151 days now or is it 130 it's I think either 151 or 131 but it's unbelievable right what we've witnessed over the past few months but we have to remember that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he told us these are things that will happen in this world and with him is wisdom of why we don't have to ask why all we have to know is we have to turn to him and if we want the circumstances to change then obviously you know making sure that we're part of any efforts to bring to a leave the circumstances of our brothers and sisters so using our wealth using our voices using our time to help people this is how we remain proactive and still have a good opinion of Allah otherwise people fall into states of despair and completely turn on God these types of things and that's exactly what Iblis wants because you don't have answers to these questions you're frustrated you're angry so he wants you to close the door on your creator and we have to never close that door no matter how painful something is trust that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala justice will be served nothing is lost in the knowledge of God so having that very clear understanding and turning to him and then for personal harm as well you know as soon as happens that upsets you that you ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help and you turn to him he's our strength he's our source of of comfort he's all of those things so that's the second way to again command that nefs because the nefs will want you to go away from God that's why so you have to force yourself no I'm going to go toward God and then the third thing he mentions is vigilantly avoiding places where one fears misdeeds will occur so again if you use the analogy of a beast that you're supposed to ride on and have control over that means you prevent yourself from going places that are haram and this is serious because going places it may be just even 15-20 years ago meant physically walking physically going somewhere but in today's age going places you don't have to move even an inch and you can go places you can go places virtually people now have headsets on and they're in alternate universes and worlds what does that mean well where are you going what kind of environment are you going to are you going somewhere that is foul it's haram and there's plenty of ways that can happen or virtual spaces that's a different type of technology but even on the internet there's a lot of places that we should avoid going or entertainment in general there are people I was watching someone had a video the other day it was so disturbing we know the Super Bowl was on Sunday right you guys know that and this video people were asking attendees from the Super Bowl how much they paid for a ticket does anyone know the cost of even like the nosebleeds which are all the way up in the high you know part of the arena how much the cost of a ticket is to the Super Bowl how much $8,000 $8,000 there were people who spent $10,000 $15,000 for a ticket to a game that lasts how many how much time maybe 2-3 hours that most people who are in that industry have attested to and there's a lot of different theories online is a completely rigged game in the first place because gambling, Vegas is calling the shots there's online gambling there's a lot of people who make millions and millions of dollars and the profits are spread throughout the whole you know there are these theories and they seem pretty convincing but $10,000 like our the bill imagine how many people you could feed how much good work you could do and for what what a waste of your life so going places that are where misdeeds could occur is very broad but we could apply it today to multiple different scenarios right going to actually physically hold on places like websites there's and I've shared this before but I really think as a community we have to draw the line with even certain platforms where streaming services where they are the majority of their content is haram and I'll put it out there like Netflix I just think we should all walk away from it most of their content is filth inappropriate for any age for any level they have cursing they have really inappropriate themes why why are we on these places why are we there right so we have to kind of call ourselves into question here about why we're okay with with having these services and having access to these places so vigilantly vigilantly avoiding places where one fears misdeeds will occur in the minds of your beast you know if you're going to sit on a wild horse it's going to take you wherever it wants to go and then you just have to deal with that but if you have command of that beast then you should tell it where to go and so you hold yourself back and you say no I'm not going to come and participate in this that or the other restaurants we could go on and on parties how many people attend company corporate conferences where they know that there's alcohol being served there's inappropriate things happening we have to be able to draw a line somewhere and be principled enough where we know our rights right legally we know our rights and that's why we should be grateful for organizations like care and other organizations that we can ask if you're in a corporate setting you should know what are my legal rights can I say I don't want to attend a particular lunch on the grounds that I'm not comfortable with the venue especially in today's day and age with Muslims really trying to be mindful of BDS and making sure that we're not supporting certain companies and organizations I think we have more grounds to be principled but we just have to be able to do these things and not shy away or cower or be afraid and Allah SWT will give us Tawfiq so that's the third and then he says what is continuously excuse me continually asking forgiveness of Allah SWT for like your past sins right coupled with devotional prayers upon the Prophet SAW in both solitude and gatherings of people I think this is beautiful I was actually trying to think about you know because this is one point these are two tasks it needs done it together in unison so to ask for Tawba continually but also coupling it with Salawat on the Prophet SAW so I was thinking it's so beautiful because if you think about it you know most people who are regretful over their sins the shame that they're under the weight of the shame makes them feel unworthy to have any proximity to the Prophet SAW but here there's this deliberate you know no even though you're recalling your sinful state right you're feeling guilty over your past sins also draw the Prophet SAW close to you like bring him into your heart do the Salawat and I think it's beautiful because it's so counterintuitive like I said most people don't want to do that but then I remembered a hadith and I thought this is why this is one of the Sahaba his name is Ubey ibn Qab this is one of my favorite stories from the Seerah but he came to the Prophet SAW and he said Ya Rasulullah I send blessings upon you often but how many of my prayers my actual Duas should be for you like blessings upon you and so he's asking in other words how much of my Duas should I dedicate to Salawat on you and the Prophet SAW says as you wish he says whatever you want but Ubey ibn Qab wasn't settled he wanted to know like specifically so he actually asks him should I dedicate one fourth of all of my Duas to you like Salawat on you one fourth so just do the math and the Prophet SAW says now he says as you wish but more is better for you so Ubey is like oh ok so I can do more than that so then he says what about half so 50% of all his Duas he's saying should I make Salawat on you and the Prophet SAW says as you wish but more is better for you so then he says two thirds he's incrementally going up and the Prophet SAW says as you wish but more is better for you finally he says should I say all of my Duas as Salawat on you in other words like no other Duas I'm just going to do Salawat on you all of them always and the Prophet SAW says if you do so your worries will be resolved and your sins will be forgiven so SubhanAllah when you're doing Tawba and Salawat on the Prophet SAW continuously that's the promise all of those fears anxieties, those insecurities I'm such a terrible person I did this and that Allah will not forgive me Allah will take that away from your heart and the promise is that you'll be forgiven so there is a beauty in doing them together and I'm sure there's there are many more Hadith that talk about the importance of Salawat on the Prophet SAW and the blessing of how especially on tonight tonight is the night of Jomah and we know that the Prophet SAW is presented with our deeds on Jomah so he tells us to do as much Salawat on the night of Jomah and the day of Jomah as possible so tonight we should be doing it tomorrow we should be doing it and having that peace of mind that the Prophet SAW said who does the most Salawat on me will be closest to me on the day of judgment so if we want that physical proximity with him we increase our Salawat on him SAW and then the fifth cure for the sickness of the soul that Sidi Ahmed Zaruk offers is keeping company with one who guides to Allah SWT but then he says and remember this isn't the 9th century he is writing this right he says unfortunately such a one no longer exists so what he is saying is in his time he noticed that people were just rife with spiritual diseases and so this idea of latching on to one person which many of us may want to do and it sounds nice to have your own personal spiritual guide really nice if we all had someone assigned to us to tell us what to do what not to do to help us in our times right but we have to realize that that's not realistic and if he is saying that in the 9th century imagine our situation nowadays where we really do have to hold on to the rope of Allah SWT and know that yes we may have teachers we may have people in our midst that can help us generally speaking but at the end of the day to have that sort of dependent or dependency on one person will be difficult so this really comes back to all of us taking responsibility for ourselves and we are really working on trying to foster prophetic character cultivating prophetic character all of those things that we know that we should be doing regularly let me see the time here time is in so we have just a few more minutes he says so he gives us a little bit more advice I'll just read the rest and then we can stop for questions but he says and now he's quoting another great scholar so he's quoting that scholar after saying these five things that will cure the sickness and he says I love it counseled me not to put my feet anywhere except where I hoped for Allah's reward not to sit anywhere except where I was safe from disobedience to Allah not to accompany anyone except someone in whom I could find support in obedience to Allah and not to select anyone for myself other than those who increased certainty and how rare they are to find he also said may Allah be pleased with him whoever directs you to this world the dunya, the material world has cheated you whoever directs you to deeds has exhausted you but whoever directs you to Allah has truly counseled you so you may find people directing you to the material world people who hyper fixate on doing a lot of deeds without maybe that spiritual inner component some of our culture some of our teachers they mean well but they may have overemphasized the outward, the form and so people get really preoccupied with doing a lot but why you're doing it matters for what reason are you doing it those are the things that are directed toward Allah will you really start to enjoy the process but also you know you're protecting the integrity and the soundness of your deeds when you're directed to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so you know that's where he says the one who again directs you to Allah has truly counseled you and he also said may Allah be pleased with him make piyati taqwa and what's in a boat it's a place that you reside in that you live in right and the delight of your selfish soul so your nefs the lower nefs will do you no harm if you reside in taqwa if you're always mindful of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then this beast that you're trying to control will not harm you if you make taqwa your residence so long as it is content with its faults and does not persist in acts of disobedience nor abandons the awareness of Allah in solitude so you know if you want to again have mastery over this beast this nefs then practice taqwa be constantly thinking of Allah trying to draw him into your mind looking at his signs just you know being in a state of solitude if we can do that every day as often as possible we will be able to control our impulses right be able to control our appetites not given to every thought and whim that we have and we also are reminding ourselves right that we have faults and we need to work on those faults so we just start to take ourselves more seriously right we will protect ourselves again from falling into disobedience inshaAllah and he says and to also make sure going back to the very first point that taqwa pure taqwa is when it is consistent that you are in public and in private you are the same it is not just so you come in the company of people and you are suddenly the model Muslim and everything is perfect on point and you don't say anything offbeat no if you were in your own home with not a soul watching you your behavior would manifest that you truly are aware of Allah subhanahu ta'ala and that you see him as or you act as though you see him though he though you can't see him but knowing that he sees you which is ihsan inshaAllah so alhamdulillah there is more to cover but we will stop here for this evening and if there are any questions I'm happy to take those inshaAllah I know it's almost I think it is over time but inshaAllah I won't keep you any longer any questions or comments or anything to share just like you you are so sweet thank you so much alhamdulillah thank you yes sure okay oh nice okay yes okay okay sure absolutely so I have entire workshops on that so mashallah for those who are online you may not have heard our sister's question but she's asking about a topic that I talk about often which is emotional intelligence and the work that I yes there's actually five five qualities because there's now a lot of different people kind of contributing to that topic but the pioneer his name is Daniel Goldman I should say the pioneer in modern times because I have a whole backstory about that but the pioneer in modern times would be Daniel Goldman and he identifies five qualities I do have a specific talks on that but if you're available on Tuesday I'm sorry I'm thinking out loud to myself but I'm going to be back at WVMA for those who know oh you watched it mashallah oh thank you thank you we're going to do a part two on Tuesday again and I likely will go over that again but I have I did a whole three-day workshop with them last year I don't know if those recordings are available I have to check with them but I have done quite a few different programs so maybe I can message you offline about how to find out that content that I created where I take the five qualities and I basically you know show the parallel within the tradition within Islam and how it really to me it's just describing prophetic character so that's why I use it but I'll send that to you inshallah Mashallah better questions sister ma'aikum salam sure yes yeah yeah it's like on your wish list where you're like I'm just so tired yeah sure it's just such a on the go society there's so many distractions not just up dead on insurance oh I have to do this and I have to get too much with my car it's just so many things that you have to get worried about and so so if I want but if I want to go back to how I separate him while going Of course. And it's also true about burnout, everything. And then you also want to, of course, you put in your worship book a lot and then you find your day around it. But there's just so much of that that you can do. Right. Yeah. I mean, and you're in the same society we live in, so how have you dealt with that? Mashallah. It's just like your head. No, no. It was a great question. We're all nodding along because it's so relevant and relatable. So thank you for asking the question because I think especially those of us, and I mean, you're right in this area. It is a very fast-paced culture, but even just the West in general, I think the effects of the lack of Barakah and a lot of our time is real, you know, and that's why, you know, asking Allah, Allah SWT for increase in Barakah is a starting point because we believe our tradition. There is the idea that Allah SWT can time, he can dilate time, you know. So a typical, you know, a person's experience of a day may move very quickly because there's a lack of Barakah. Right. But once you start to ask specifically like, please give me more Barakah in my time, you will feel, and that's why Ramadan is so powerful because it happens in Ramadan. Right. Why is it? It's just a month out of the year, but everybody who's really, you know, participating in it will attest that, yeah, I'm suddenly able to do so much more. Right. I'm reading more Quran than I ever did. I'm listening to lectures. I'm doing my Salaat. I'm waking up for all my prayers. I'm not missing a single prayer. What is that? There is a component, a metaphysical sort of component there in terms of, you know, the Barakah. So that's one thing that I think is really important. The other thing that we should also remember is that it's easy to fall into this idea that my ritual worship, right, is independent of, or I'm sorry, my, all the work that I do are independent actions and then I have to, you know, the only access or the way that I access Allah SWT is through ritual worship. Right. And that's, you know, true to a certain point because we have ritual worship that we're supposed to be doing, but we can also transform the mundane that we do like the work and those, you know, moving from one thing to another into an act of worship by Nia. Right. So that if you're actually thinking about all those responsibilities that you've listed, right, taking care of your home, taking care of going to school, going to work, filling out insurance papers, you know, forms, documents, mail, all the stuff that logistically is very time consuming, if you're, have this mindset that Allah SWT is so generous that he accepts, because I'm doing those things, they're good deeds, I'm doing it for the protection of my loved ones, myself, my family. Right. That that's actually being added to my good deeds the same way my worship would. Right. So yes, there's, you know, extra things that we do because it makes us feel good if we had more time, you know, to do the prayers, to read the Quran, all of that with extra time whenever we can we should do, but that doesn't mean that when we're out toiling away, doing the burdensome work of just living in this world, that we're also not drawing close to Allah SWT, because we could be doing other things into disobedience, right, but you're still in a state of obedience and submission and selflessness, which is highly rewarded when you're working towards like, I mean, employment in general, especially if you have dependence, right, where's your intention? If you have children, if you have parents that you're taking care of, inshallah purify your intention that Allah accepts these actions that you're doing and even if you're just trying to make money to survive for yourself, that you're doing it as a means of continually being able to worship Him, because if you don't have money and you don't have a home and you don't have health and you're not taking care of yourself, then it inhibits your worship of Allah SWT, right? So it's just a way of kind of reframing things where you start to feel more positive that even when you're writing reports, Alhamdulillah, Allah, you're watching, you're seeing that this is just my life right now, where my heart is, I yearn for proximity to you, I yearn for the opportunities to just go into a corner and have my little halwa, but I can't right now because this is the phase of life I'm in, but the fact that you're so generous and you still reward me for it just makes me even more grateful to you and more that I love you and that I yearn for you more, right? So you have to have the positive framing instead of thinking like, because I'm working and caught up with all this stuff, I'm missing out, right? I'm disconnected. That's something that your Iblis wants you to think because then it's like there's a sudden division in your heart, right? It's like, oh, until I have this spiritual experience or until I'm in a retirement age, this is the kind of thoughts that Iblis will bring into our mind. Like, oh, once I, you know, my kids get older and then I can, I'll have more free time, then I'm suddenly going to become Super Muslim. Why? No, I can induce that or I can create and cultivate a sense of closeness to Allah, even working, even driving, even doing chores, even serving my children, right? Because I'm mindful that he is watchful over me and he is pleased with me that I'm in submission, that I'm out there. I mean, Mashallah, it seems like you wear your hijab, right? Your Mahajjaba. You're in submission in an area that's hostile to Muslims. You're out there literally identifying yourself, putting yourself out there. That, you know, that's so much sacrifice that you're getting rewarded for. So Allah is pleased with you and even though you might not be able to do those things that bring a delight to your heart, you have to still find consolation that my work is being accepted as worship because I'm doing it for his sake and also make sure that you're very intentional that you're doing dawah, you know, to convert these, you know, everyday things as a way of dawah, right? So that when you're working with like customer service representatives on the phone, you're meeting people, that it's all a way of, I'm showing people the beauty of my faith and Allah is going to reward me for that as an act of worship, right? And that way it's just, it's like converting everything into something meaningful so that you don't feel like you're so distant from God because you're distant from the worship that you want to do. But no, you're close to Allah because you're toiling away in a hostile environment still as a believer, still seeking him, still wishing and yearning for him. Mashallah, you have nothing to worry about. And may Allah increase you and just make a lot of dawah also for that barakah because you'll be amazed once you start to see and experience like you have more time than you think you have, you know, that rush, rush feeling when Allah starts to put barakah in your time and for tahajjud, for example, just a tip, adding five, ten minutes incrementally right before fajr is tahajjud. You know, you don't have to wake up three in the morning, go back to sleep, wake up five in the morning, that's, you don't have to do that. So just have a plan that says, I'm going to wake up ten to fifteen minutes before fajr and I'm going to pray tahajjud. And you will feel like you're drawing like you're carving out time for Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala special and you're tapping into it and feeling if I'm missing out spiritually I'm not doing enough, it's not, it's going to dissipate because it's motivational right, it's like you're waking up every day and start slow to consistent rakah right before fajr, it is not hard to do and then as you really develop that turn it to four, turn it to six and just keep doing that and then your sadawat, like on your commute you know, I don't know if you have a little ring the counter, get one because it's a good reminder for you when you're on a commute that I'm putting my ring finger on for dhikr and I'm just going to make use of this time instead of longing for some solitary zen garden that I can just sit and do dhikr in this is the time that I have to go to work and I'm going to make it my sadawat time right, or your lunch break any time where you're in motion is a very easy time to convert that into a time of dhikr. And then replace all of your playlists in your phone of music, really like and I know it sounds kind of drastic but I really think like we need to kind of have those messages sometimes that in this month as we're preparing for Ramadan get rid of your music, all of it stop, stop listening to music not to say you do, I'm just saying generally don't listen to music, have a rule I'm done with music for shaaban and Ramadan, what am I going to replace it with? Oh, wow, Quran. So now I'm going to download some playlists Apple Music, whatever you listen to and I'm going to start to make Quran, my companion whenever I am by myself it will preoccupy me and then I don't have time to sit there and do gossip in my head and think about this problem and revisit the past or have anxiety about the future because in all of the word of Allah and find that reciter to your heart, the one that just every time you listen to him or her there's a Qariah app if you like for the sisters who want a female reciter Mashallah half of the medium Amir she created the Qariah app, listen to that listen to male reciters, whoever listen to yourself, if you like your own voice but like find a way to connect with the Quran but convert all of that time into something more meaningful and you won't feel like you're missing out and Allah will fill your heart yeah please go ahead one more Alhamdulillah so personally Alhamdulillah I'm very grateful and all of it is from Allah but I think a long time ago I kind of had that mental shift where I was like that's it, this is my commitment inshallah may Allah make me consistent upon it prayer is my number one priority I don't do anything unless I know where I'm praying, how I'm going to pray where am I going to have my wudu if any of those are not like easy for me to figure out, I'm not going to do it halas, that's my rule I live to pray and so prayer becomes my number one focus so whatever it takes to make sure I'm doing all five prayers and if I miss a prayer, may Allah forgive me or I don't know, I think I would Alhamdulillah we're human we may have moments like that but generally speaking I am very hard on myself if that were to happen I do not take it lightly so that's just for me personally a very rigid thing and I try to be very consistent about that so that means planning vacations, planning trips planning outings with friends family, I have to know where are we going where am I going to be able to pray I've always scheduled things around that so that's very important and I think it helps in just in general in every area of my life I feel that facilitation when we do that as Muslims we prioritize our prayer and then the other thing is sleep, I mean Alhamdulillah I'm not a I think it's just hereditary because my siblings are the same we're not all big sleepers but I do try to pay attention for health reasons obviously to get adequate sleep but alarms I have a practice of how I'm going to wake up for a fudger so you have to have the right alarm setting and whether you use your phone or something else use something that gets you up it can't be like this soft lullaby you're not going to get up to a lullaby you have to get there's some of these iPhone ringers that are terrifying as a rah, rah, rah do it if that's what it takes get yourself up do not be gentle on your body and in your nefs when it comes to your prayer I really believe that firmly in my heart of hearts and even with I'll tell you with my children you know as we have adapted them to Mashallah doing their five prayers when they were younger my husband who was like oh you know they slept really late it's okay I was like no fudger is in they chose to sleep late we have to teach them that there's consequences so when we start to make excuses for ourselves I feel like it's a very slippery slope because you're literally handing yourself to yourself the nefs is ready to destroy you so don't do that basically have consequences so if you're going to stay up until midnight watching movies or one o'clock in the morning or going out with your friends that is not reason justifiable reason for you to be like I'm going to sleep in and bypass fudger I don't think so that's not how it works prayer is a commandment from Allah there's nothing even death if a person is on their death bed right if you've ever seen someone on their death bed if they're alert they have to pray they can do the ammum right they don't have to get up and do will do but prayer is incumbent upon them so we cannot justify these reasons of like oh you know I'm tired no get up so make really strict rules for yourself like I will not compromise on that so sleep I get enough sleep but I'm waking up even if I've gotten one hour of sleep if fudger is in I've forced myself to stay awake because I chose to not sleep at the right time and I'm not going to risk missing fudger so I will force myself to stay awake and deal with the consequences if I'm a zombie that day then maybe I'll think twice the next time when I decide to have an all nighter with my sisters or my girlfriends if that's what I did then I have to pay for it so there's certain I think agreements you have to have with yourself and for me prayer is just not negotiable it's not negotiable to ever miss your prayer and may Allah forgive us when we slip as human beings but if I'm responsible for the missing of the prayer I will be very hard on myself and I don't take that lightly so I feel like these are the things that we why do I have that? It's not because I'm just making it up it's because it's literally the reason why we were created the only thing that the first thing that we'll be asked about on the day of judgment so to me that's, I don't want to face Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala knowing that that I was careless with that and I'll give you, sorry and I know we're going over but I'll just give you one more thing about to try to discipline yourself so two weeks ago I think I was subbing for Dr. Aranya and we were talking about prayer and the importance of making sure that we're not only doing our prayers on time which is absolutely a must but also that we have real presence in our prayer and that we hold ourselves accountable when we're distracted we're human and there are so many distractions and we're all susceptible to them kids are talking there's stuff happening everywhere so your mind wanders so I was just stating talking to the class about what do you do in that case that you it's happening to me several times where I finish the prayer and then I cannot recall for the life of me what surahs I read and I'm sitting there going how did I just finish a four cycle prayer and I cannot remember the surahs that I read, the shorter surahs so I said what do you do in that scenario to the audience and they were like one of the sisters said you make toba and I said yes, absolutely you make toba but what's another way you can hold yourself accountable so what's another way good, that's how you can do it to discipline yourself before the prayer but after you have a situation like that where you cannot recall the surahs, you don't know how many aya you even did you're just completely, you were blank because your mind was in a different place what do you think is a healthy consequence to redo the prayer, right so I said this to the audience and these are things that conversations you have with yourself, so I was just saying we should redo the prayer, that's it now I've said it I've said it to the universe so, I mean I hold myself to a standard, if I'm going to say it and teach it I better do it, believe it or not that night at Isha, I made up my prayer okay same thing happened, I was very tired and I finished prayer and I was like wait did I do the surah or that surah I can't remember what order I did it redid Isha the next morning I had a very I've had a very busy schedule for very busy where I'm moving a lot so that's where my mind's just going all over the place and I started laughing at a certain point because I said Allah is so amazing he's teaching me, right but through my own words he's teaching me so I ended up maybe three or four days in a row literally making up two or three prayers every day because I would do the same thing I would pray and then I'd be like oh my God I can't recall the prayer and then I would obviously know what the second time around and then I did it so much I was like yeah Allah all these extra prayers I'm doing please accept them as nafila even though because I'm doing so many extra prayers but it's to this degree of trying to really take yourself seriously and making sure that it's not lip service and that you're holding yourself accountable so Alhamdulillah now as Zaynab said that is how you prepare for your prayer before you stand for prayer you say what am I going to recite which surahs am I going to recite intentional so this is just it's more about just being in the right state of mind because when you get into the habit of prayer it becomes habitual so you're just like Allah Akbar but you have to be like wait a second I need to elevate the prayer and be mindful so this is all you know we're in this together everybody's you know working towards these goals but I think these ways of disciplining for me have worked to really hold myself accountable and to try to set some sort of consequence whenever I slip I'm not perfect obviously we all fall short but it helps to have good company it helps to have good friends that hold you and uplift you and remind you and people who are ahead of you on the spiritual path because you're like I want that you know and that's we should we should have company that inspires us so inshallah I hope that was helpful Alhamdulillah okay ladies I'm sorry I feel like we have gone really far tonight we did okay so we're now almost at 9.30 but inshallah we'll close up with a dua and and then we'll continue with the document next next time inshallah so juzakum Allah khayran again for the questions thank you everyone