 Assalamu Alaikum, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, Alhamdulillah wa As-salatu wa As-salamu ala Ashraf al-Anbiya'i wa al-Mursaleen, Sayyidina wa Maulana wa Habibra Muhammad, Sallallahu alayhi wa Sallam, wa Alayhi wa Sahbihi wa Sallam, Tasleeman Katera, Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. Welcome everyone, inshallah you all are doing well, you're all safe in your homes, comfortable with your families and everybody's in good spirits. We just had a holiday break so I hope you got some chance to rest and relax. I know tomorrow is back to the grind for many of us, but inshallah we've had a good time off and so I'm so happy to be spending this evening with all of you. Jazakumul al-Kharim for spending it with me. Now for those who may be tuning in for the first time I am covering a text in this session or in a series in the series called Agenda to Change Our Condition. I have the text here in front of me, it is written by Imam Zaid Shakhir and Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and this text is really as the title says about changing oneself and working with practical steps on how to do that and so we've been covering since I mean several different sections of the book but currently we are on the second chapter which is titled The Heart at Its Treatment. We didn't get a chance to finish this chapter those two weeks ago that we last met so we are going to finish the second chapter and possibly if we have time today continue into the third chapter. So with that said I'm going to go ahead and share my screen inshallah so just give me a second. Let me present. Alright so now I'm going to do a quick review because the second chapter we just started at the last session so let's just quickly go over this it'll be a summary but of course if you want to get the more in-depth reading of this text then or of this chapter please look at the previous recording from two weeks ago. So we started off with talking about first of all the title as I said was The Heart and Its Treatment. This is the beginning of the chapter and so right away we talked about the that action has two different modes the heart and the limbs and then what the concerns are of the heart which is establishing a strong belief or akhida and then purity of intention, sincerity right, ikhlas as we say in Arabic. So we described those two terms in detail here what is belief what is sincerity right and then we further expanded on this concept of purifying the heart and rectifying our intentions and then we talked about achieving sincerity and how we can be more sincere because of course this is for all of us the most important thing it's really about the quality of what we do right the quantity there's many people even the munafiqun right they can amass a lot of deeds but if there's no sincerity in the heart then that's it's all for nothing right so the most important objective for us is to have sincerity when we do anything for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so how can we achieve sincerity well first and foremost we guard our tongue we make sure that we are truthful speaking people we're honest people and then we maintain discourse and private and public gatherings right so we maintain our way of behaving publicly and privately and then we went on to talk about specifically how we can protect the tongue from falsehood dissembling right to conceal one's true motives feelings or beliefs and prevarications to deviate from the truth so how can we do this specifically and so this is all from the text again I hope you have the text in front of you but these slides are just meant to guide us in this conversation so it's sometimes you get a little delay there so here we are so after we talked about that we went into the four sources of destructive qualities of the tongue and so we talked about lying and in what situations they are permissible and what when they are not permissible and then backbiting which of course we know is Haram and the difference between Riba and Namima Kalamni right and so we talked about that distinction and then this is where we we ended on this particular slide the slide about backbiting and you know this is an important topic because unfortunately it is so common it's you know human beings are are you know prone to certain things more than others and I would say that in our time of really being able to know so much about people's private lives maybe more than ever before we have access to information about people right just with a click of a button you can know a lot about how people live you can see their family life their home life their relationship status you can see their work sometimes their vacations the events that they go to on the weekend so because we have so much access to people's private lives and their choices the way that they live their lifestyle it does give us fodder right to to speak about them and to judge them and so unfortunately this is a very common problem that that we have at our community and you know what's in the world I would say because you know there's the whole there's a whole industry right that thrives off of gossip the tabloid industry we see it from I mean when I was a kid we saw the magazines when we would go into the supermarket stores or even the television shows right shows like entertainment tonight what were they but gossip shows they were just there to you know speak about what's going on with different celebrities but really give a lot of information scandals anything that was going on and then throughout the years of course that's changed as mediums have changed and so now there's TMZ and there's different websites that people will go to just to get access to gossip so it's definitely a big part of our society to talk about people to gossip even if though we don't know you know these are people removed from us often we don't know them personally there's celebrities or politicians athletes singers but still the fact that it's such a acceptable thing and nobody really thinks twice of how grotesque it is how despicable it is to spend your time judging other people then it's normalized and when it's normalized you know so on such a large scale then of course you know in private conversations with friends and family you start to let your guard down and not become you know not be aware of yourself that what you're doing is so detestable to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so really we want to talk about why this is such an important topic of guarding the tongue from backbiting so we did distinguish though in some cases it is permissible because the harm of not mentioning certain things could be greater right so that's the wisdom of our Dean is that it helps us to discern when certain behaviors are acceptable and when they're not and so we talked at length in the last session about the situations where backbiting would be permissible so again if you wanted to get more on that check out the previous recording all of it is available on the mcc youtube page inshallah so now uh there's four right sources so we only got to number two so the third one is where we're going to talk about next i'm just going to wait for the slide to kick in here um on this delay okay and i went ahead okay here we go so argumentation for its own sake to dispute using sophistical reasoning right sophistry what is that it's people who just like to argue even though their arguments are fallacious they're all based on fallacies there's really no truth to them but they just like to argue they like to wind people up and get people angry over whatever it is whether it's politics or some other issue religious debates there are people that do this and they enjoy it they thrive on it they love it they love to you know prod people just annoy them and so uh this is definitely something that is is harmful and destructive to the tongue to engage in this type of behavior so when you know that you are arguing a point that you really there's no substance to it there's no you know nothing really serious in your heart you're not really invested in it but you just want to argue for the sake of arguing you just like to like i said rile people up this would apply to you that this is something you really have to watch contentiousness you know there are people like i said who enjoy this they may just part of their personality type they like to pick fights or pick arguments so we really want to watch our behavior if this is something that you have been told that you do that you just argue a lot and this doesn't necessarily have to be verbal we see now on social media a lot of people who use you know the the various different platforms to just incite people just to go and you know they call them trolls they'll just go and bring up things that have nothing to do with anything and then they move on they go to the next person the next person because they likely have you know something that's going on personally with them or they're not happy in their life they're not you know they're not content with their own circumstances so it gives them some relief to go and bother other people and unfortunately of course this would be a disease of the heart right to to go and harm people just because you can or because you don't you can't contain your own emotions of course is unacceptable right this is definitely a disease of the heart but again we have people who do this so now a days it's not just verbal argumentation but it can be behind a screen with a complete stranger that you don't know about so you want to think about that or here for example to defend a religious innovation intentionally so sometimes people just because they again don't want to lose an argument they may defend a position that they that they know is not true just because they don't want to look embarrassed maybe in front of a group or another person so they will you know again advocate for something or push for something defend something without while knowing that it's not the correct position to have so there are unfortunately again people whose pride and their egos get in the way and so argumentation just becomes a defense that they use to protect their own pride and ego but it is destructive it's destructive to the spiritual heart it's destructive to the tongue so here the provisionalism reminds us the disputation with the quran is disbelief so for anybody who for example will come and refute a clear position in the quran this is kufr right we cannot do that if if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says something we accept it without any question that it is haq it is true but there are again people nowadays anyway who believe unfortunately that islam needs a reform and that the quran needs a reform and so they apply their own whims desires interpretations to ayahs and they begin to you know they spread messages that completely disagree or are in opposition to everything in islam and the orthodox positions in islam and they still call themselves muslim so we have to be very careful of these people because they may claim to be muslim but if they are assuming to know better or to to think that they their interpretation of something that is clearly you know been as a consensus about uh is is correct we have to be very careful of people like that may Allah protect us from becoming people like that and may Allah protect us from being influenced by people like that we have to do our best to guard our heart and our iman which is why it's so important to make sure that we take from the correct sources from teachers who have been trained who have the son of the chain of transmission that you know that they have gone through the proper training because nowadays anybody can claim to be a teacher or scholar or a sheikh just because they um you know can read arabic or they have they just claim it and unfortunately this is very common i know people public figures who this is what they do and they are very controversial in certain community groups because they will for example say you know the hijab is not something that is far from women right and it's and then they'll interpret the verses of the of hijab in their own way and it causes a lot of problems in families and marriages because one person may take this this person as an authority and so it just causes a lot of problems but the clear sign for all of us is that when someone goes against the of our of our scholarship in islam and goes against the majority opinion on things we should definitely see that as a red flag no matter what they assume in terms of their credentials just know that right away that is a sign of some serious problem because again our dean has been protected and preserved over all these centuries because of the senate because we have respected this chain and so to break from that chain and to think that you know better and to presume that again islam needs some type of reformation all the blah is just kufr so we we stay away from that type of thinking um and we ask us father to protect us from that so that was the third um destructive quality of the tongue now the fourth is mirthful jesting on serious occasions right jesting making light of joking around of a serious matter and this is something again very problematic in our society at large in our world at large we live in a time where you know it's it's a time where people really take things that are very serious lightly and it's it's you know memes for example you see all this joking inappropriate mockery which is haram in islam all of this is very common now very normalized behavior you see it every day if you open up your email or your uh you know browser to check news likely you will see some form of this of just you know not really taking things seriously or taking a very serious matter and then as we said making a joke of it making light of it so we have to you know ask us for protection from that that there is a time and place for everything and we do not you know lose comportment lose our um our adab in in different environments or with different people in different scenarios just because we have this uh internal sort of you know this impulse to joke around and so we have to regulate and this is why it's so important to learn to regulate yourself so that you're not caught in those moments where you know you're uh being wholly inappropriate in a situation right and this is unfortunately again very very common so here um the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam reminds us right a beautiful quality in someone's practice of Islam is minding his or her own business uh minhusn islami tarqu mada yanihi right so beautiful hadith that we should all internalize to really try not to get involved in other people's business um not to ask or probe or pry into the private personal affairs of other people because it's those questions that open the door oftentimes for the gossiping the backbiting argument argumentation for the inappropriate joking teasing taunting uh mockery of other people right so sometimes it's just best to again only to take your yourself seriously and to take the discussions that you engage in seriously to take the the the gatherings that you have or the people that you're with and those times where you're you're speaking or just engaging with other people to take those moments very seriously um and to to be aware of yourself so that you don't again fall into all of these really destructive destructive behaviors so these are the four sources of destructive quality so let's go ahead and look at what's next we're still on by the way chapter two let me just look at the book here to let those who do have the text know where we are oh there are actually some other um hadith here let me mention um padi abu bakr said and this goes back to the previous slide here where we talked about mirthful justing he said i once heard imam al-turtushi say that the joker is an ignorant fool because because Allah revealed to us a dialogue between the children of israel and moses upon him be peace do you take us as the brunt of a joke ask the children of israel and musa alayhi salam replied he said this right so he said i seek refuge in Allah that i should be of the ignorant ones so he took this accusation from you know bani israel the children of israel that it was such an insult like that he was seeking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for protection from or refuge in Allah from from being amongst the ignorant ones so this was the commentary of imam al-turtushi and this was on page 23 again of the text and then qadi abu bakr also said it would seem to me that if the answer concerns a matter related to religion then it is ignorance but if it was some other concern then it is merely speech it's ruling as it's ruling and its characteristic is defined by what it contains so again just you know discussing um uh the how to distinguish right between something that is stated out of ignorance or or otherwise and then um he said or then the text continues and it says after we purified our hearts from other than Allah and our tongues from the aforementioned faults then we have established firm foundations for divine protection the next step so now again we're this is a process right so we're looking at all the different steps so the next step on the journey towards sincerity is developing concern for the rest of our responsibilities among those we should focus on ensuring the following two essentials the five foundations of religion the five pillars of Islam and avoiding mortal sins the kabah individually so again once we've done this work this deep internal spiritual work right where we're really trying to look at our behavior and change our behavior then uh this would be the next step is that we are um focusing on the five pillars and avoiding the kabahir which are the the enormities the large sins right Allah subhanatana says if you avoid what has been prohibited for you from the enormities then we will cover over any wrongs so inshallah if we are vigilant in protecting ourselves from doing any of the major haram then inshallah Allah will protect us and cover us from other wrongs and so then um the text goes on to say none truly knows the mortal sins with any certainty except Allah indeed he has concealed them among the prohibited matters however some of the masters of knowledge have gathered them and codified them for us they tally 17 in number abandoning the major sins makes it easier for one to leave lesser wrongs and that's a really important point i mean if you think about it if you're working so diligently and vigilantly to protect yourself from the 17 major sins then you will inshallah as a byproduct of that vigilance guard yourself from the lesser sins so it's really you know two for one in many cases just be vigilant about your heart protect your limbs protect your tongue protect yourself and inshallah the frivolous or the smaller deeds misdeeds mistakes sins those will kind of just go away as well right so then um he says likewise the lesser wrongs that one commits will be removed from one's record through ritual prayers washings the Hajj and a lesser pilgrimage subhanAllah and that's out of the generosity and rahmah Allah's praises just by doing some of these ritual acts that we do in order to do other acts for example we'll do right we know that when we make wudu that our sins are falling as the water drops right that is the mercy of Allah subhanAllah but how many of us really take that into account every time we make wudu that we're actually imagining that happening right um so some of these things are just given to us without us even being aware of it or having it you know in the forefront of our minds right but it's still happening so Allah out of his generosity gives us all of this mercy and you know and forgives us of so many sins just by doing these things right and then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said one daily prayer to the next and one Friday prayer to the next remit wrong actions as long as enormities are avoided subhanAllah so every single day that we are able to successfully complete our prayers one after the other after the other after the other and in between we're not engaging in any of the combat of the larger sins or the heavier weightier sins uh and again as the text says most of those things are known only to Allah subhanAllah some of them have clearly been stipulated for us but truly only Allah would know right so if we protect our hearts from doing those major major sins from prayer to prayer Allah subhanAllah is removing our sins for us and in the same vein is from juma to juma if we do the same thing right so subhanAllah again out of the generosity of Allah subhanAllah so now the next section here is on the enumeration of the enormities okay so this is where we now talk about what these major sins are that our scholars have put it put it you know codified for us and put it in this list so the very first one the most important one of course we know is shirk is associating any partners with Allah subhanAllah this is according to one narration the one sin that Allah subhanAllah will not forgive and there are other narrations of course that speak also to the to the heaviness of this sin and that it is it's at the top of the list right it's it's the greatest sin that we can make is in any way attribute a partner as well as to Allah subhanAllah so that's right away we we know this inshallah we all know it because though he is part of our creed inshallah we all understand this clearly the next is perseverance in wrongs even in lesser ones so this is important because when we commit sins habitually even when they're small they turn into enormities right so they pile up you want to think about that that smaller sins like grains of sand can eventually turn into mountains before us if we're not careful so we have to be careful of habituating to sin and to making becoming heedless and reckless and not taking ourselves into account when we do sin toba should be part of our every single day experience because we should even if we don't actively sin we should remember that we sin sometimes passively we sin when we're unaware of it so when we make toba regularly every day we are mindful of ourselves and inshallah that will prevent us from engaging in sins especially when we know that it's sinful behavior so really important to make sure that we don't habituate to sins even if they're small despair of the mercy of Allah despair is a really important one because you know again we live in a time where anxiety disorders mental health issues are on the rise and a lot of people struggle with with their circumstances and trying to you know just find peace in life a lot of problems are happening and it's because the the nature of our world I mean if you look at the world it's just it's become an increasingly difficult place for people to find some semblance of peace so all of these things are are understandable given the intensity of our world right there's a lot of evil in our world a lot of darkness in our world so with that though there is something that has happened in terms of this concept of despair and you know it's a term that is thrown around lightly but we have to understand that as Muslims we do not despair and it's actually considered a great it's a haram to have despair because we should never lose hope in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so again people who struggle with really serious mental health issues we're not speaking about that but people who kind of go through grief or stress or some problem in life and they immediately default into losing hope we would say this would be you know something that you don't want to normalize and you certainly don't want to make acceptable just because you're having a difficult time you want to challenge that and you know be bothered by it and want to remove it that I don't want to feel this way I want to always have the best opinion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not to think that my circumstance is hopeless in dunya or in afshara some people for example sin and they do major sins and then they lose hope that they will ever be saved this is from iblis was was 100% because nobody should feel that way and that's why we have so many hadith where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is reminding us over and over and over again not to put limits on his mercy you know if he can forgive a man a mass murderer you know then we should not assume anything about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and it's his and his decision alone right but to have hope because that is a better position than to lose hope right so we're going to be very careful about that and then also a false sense of security from the design of Allah this would be you know the opposite issue of people just assuming that everything is going to go in their favor just because right self-righteousness is a really serious disease of the heart arrogant self-righteousness assuming that you kind of have it and you know you haven't made and that you know it gives you this false sense of security with Allah you we always have to you know find that balance of hope with Allah but also fear and awe and maintaining that respect and that that uncertainty because we don't see our our our deeds as being good enough as worthy right it's a humility it's humility before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in recognizing that no matter what we do we could spend our entire existence worshiping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala perfectly but it will not ever be enough to show gratitude for all of the blessings he's given us when you have that understanding then you don't assume that you are special or that you have some special rank with Allah but you always you know kind of are walking between those two states right or hanging in the bounce between those two states of hope and fear so those are the four normities of the heart right this is why it's so important to have those really deep internal conversations with oneself to question and check in these don't don't have to necessarily be verbalized to anybody it's really about ourselves holding ourselves accountable and being truthful with ourselves right so the four normities of the tongue are the false testimony so this is very serious if you ever testify against someone or some you know in a situation you find yourself but you are not being truthful and you potentially ruin another person's life or livelihood or there you know many scenarios would apply to this it's this is huge it's absolutely haram we have to be people of truth and honesty we cannot anyway you know make claims about other people and this is why it's so dangerous because you know there have been several public cases right of people making allegations against someone and then later on it turns out that they were untrue and it was false report and we have to seek protection because this is something that people fall into sometimes because of greed or they have some other ulterior motive and they think that you know they can they can justify doing it because oh you know it'll serve a better purpose I'll be able to do good but you could there's you could put so many different spins on it but at the end of the day it's haram you cannot bear false testimony accusing others of adultery so this would kind of fall into the same category if you are lying but also if you're basing it on just suspicion right I mean you may see a situation and presume something but without evidence and without really following the you know the the the rules I guess of a situation like that right and aslam we know there has to be a certain number of witnesses it has to be done a certain way before you make an accusation publicly about someone doing something like that but you'll find people again making light of these things and they don't think twice they let their emotions get the best of them they'll pick up the phone call and I saw your husband I saw your wife or I saw somebody whoever it's either a gossip train that continues or it's actually getting involved and meddling in another person's relationship all based on suspicion not true facts or anything that could be verifiable by another witness or other witnesses right so we have to be very careful of ever making those accusations sinful oaths you know again if you're promising or vowing to do things that are haram making oaths you want to be very careful this is totally impermissible I mean we have to you know first of all be careful with you know what what we you know how we use our tongue in this way but also what our hearts are are aligning with right so you want to be careful that you're not being loyal to or showing some allegiance to something that you know is clearly haram so not making oaths and vows and promises that that are not that are there are simply haram and wrong right and then magic we know if you're you know seeing people who are promising to look into your future or you know they're reading cards or tea leaves this was you know this is very popular in in some cultures more than others to to go to people like that you know and and unfortunately in many of our cultures there's a presumption right away that um if something isn't going your way in life maybe you've missed some opportunities some things haven't worked out for you that it must immediately be seher magic and then that leads in some cases ironically it leads people to seek out people who do seher or who who are known to dabble in in black magic to seek revenge or to you know it's just it's it's really mind-boggling but we have to seek protection from Allah's path and forever engaging in things like that so those are the the four enormities of the heart and of the tongue so let's go to the next slide here i want to get through this list because i'll leave some time for questions but um okay so the next are the three enormities of the stomach and so again look at the sections and how they have separated each section inshallah to to get to this total of 17 right so right away of course we know intake of alcohol or intoxicants of any type if you are intentionally digesting or consuming something that you know has been spiked or is haram or is in any way uh just not permissible um because there's some you know level or of intoxicant in there you should seek refuge from Allah it's definitely haram to do that willingly knowingly and so that's the first one consuming the wealth of an orphan how many ayahs in the Quran does Allah warn people of doing this but unfortunately it happens there are many people who are caught up in this type of behavior in countries and in places where there are actual orphans and they may have something of their own but also if you think about inheritance disputes and you know other matters that get into family politics there are people who are may Allah guide them and forgive them but they let their greed get the best of them and they will you know scam sometimes their own family members in those scenarios so it can be in both ways you know actual taking the wealth in other ways just scheming and plotting to uh to take the wealth of someone who who again would be categorized as an orphan uh taking interest on wealth so this is i you know i'm not going to get into all the debates about this because um there are different opinions on on that when it comes to Muslims living you know minority Muslims living in non-Muslim lands and there's just a lot of different opinions on on interest in general but for the most part we all know that we should avoid it right i mean we have some of us have credit cards you might have take a loan here and there and that's when you have to just you know follow the positions of whichever scholars that you listen to or that you follow they may have different opinions on that but most of the scholars regardless will always advise that it's best to avoid any type of interest and because it will you know eat away at the barakah of our wealth so it's best to always try to avoid it but the specifics of it again you can defer to the scholars that you that you follow and see what their positions are the enormities of the genitals so this is again another one that we should be very mindful of because it's everywhere it's happening we live again in a time where everything's inverted in terms of what's normal uh in society as oftentimes haram you know it's it's just it's a very strange time but these things having illicit relationships outside of marriage premarital sex is so normalized in this society nobody very few people think of it even as an issue and if you are on the opposite side and you have conservative values they will look at you like you're crazy and there's something wrong with you and this isn't just with adults but you find even i work with teens and i i see what's going on in teen culture and it's even pervasive in teen culture that if you haven't had sexual relations by the time you're a senior or even a junior maybe it's changed and now it's even a freshman or a sophomore i don't know how early the pressure is to be sexually active but i i know certainly that there is a lot of pressure and that you are considered weird or you're treated as if there's something wrong with you if you choose not to you know participate and you want to be you know just protect yourself and be be chast people will look at you like there's something wrong with you so this is very common and that's why we can't have you know this attitude that oh Muslims don't do these things no Muslims are absolutely doing these things and that's why a show like Rami you know this show that got very popular and won an Emmy i think and probably other awards it's it's very open about you know young Muslim singles that are engaging in this type of behavior as far as i know i haven't seen the show but i heard enough to know that that is a very popular ongoing theme in the show and so a lot of Muslims are fans of the show by the way it's not that it's just non-Muslims watching Muslims do these things or you know depicting Muslims doing these things it's actually very popular with the younger Muslim American or Western Muslim generation because they likely identify with it or they have also adopted the same attitude about these behaviors so we have to take it seriously that these are very you know their their enormes are haram and we know just looking at Sharia and the rules and the positions about you know these matters where what's acceptable what's not we know that premarital sex is forbidden of course adultery is a whole other topic but that would also be included because it's illicit relations and so illicit is premarital or adulterous and then of course homosexual acts this is now also very common and very it's increasingly becoming normalized in society just yesterday on a group thread that i'm on someone posted that a sister was inquiring about how to navigate a situation in which a young Muslim girl has come out as gay and wants to introduce her partner to her family and you know this is we hear these stories now more and more with the younger generation because their generation has accepted the idea that gender and you know and sexuality are fluid and they don't believe that there's a binary that you know this is what unfortunately they've been conditioned to think in you know it's indoctrination it starts sometimes very young but we have to just open our eyes and accept the reality that we live in a time where this is part of the the progressive social movement the left the liberal movement to normalize these things as far as gender and sexuality is concerned and therefore um that becomes the you know resounding message to everybody that it's not a big deal you know you kind of just go with the flow do what you feel why do you have to apply some moral lens to it you're born this way you know these are the messages that our youth are hearing so what that does when you hear that throughout school and i working with teens i have had to intervene in situations where junior high school students have had a conflict with their gender or sexual identity because of these discussions happening around them with their friends or just with the celebrities they follow or the singers and the different shows and programs they're watching it's so normal and you know if you really are paying attention they had um i think it was 2015 that they call the year of the the trans right it's like the transgender year where a lot of transgender celebrities were coming out like Caitlyn Jenner and then um i think it's Laverne Fox or Cox i can't remember her name uh but there are others as well who are RuPaul we know right people who are transgender um and they became very popular during that year of 2015 so since then if you are paying attention you'll notice that there is much more representation of the LGBTQ community in popular television popular shows music cartoons now there's a you know pressure to make sure that there's representation even if it's just a character in the background you'll see sometimes you know two moms um you know pushing a stroller or something like that in it you know in the backdrop of a scene in a cartoon so the messaging is there it's quite prevalent and it's continuously increasing so you can see why people are accepting this as being normal even though it conflicts with their faith values and i have actually worked with groups including teens who have a really difficult time reconciling what the faith says and then having friends who are part of the lgbtq community or just hearing the messages that come from the the left or the social movement that says it's all fine and respect people and of course we should we should respect people regardless of their orientation regardless of their faith that's just a principle of our faith is just to treat people well and and be always civil um so that's not nobody's arguing that but i think they have a hard time trying to reconcile uh you know how the faith is very clear about these things and then society says no there's nothing wrong with it so people are having a hard time with this issue but we have to be strong as muslims and be confident to stand up for our values and our principles without you know getting um swept into or pulled into uh any types of traps that may be set up for us you know it's unfair i think in my personal opinion that someone who chooses to practice their faith whether they're muslim christian jewish or any other faith tradition that doesn't accept these acts as being permissible that they are treated as though they're bigots and that there's something you know inherently wrong with them because they don't agree with that particular lifestyle i don't accept that and i don't think we should i think we should just be people that say we reserve the right to practice our faith and to hold onto our faith values without having to compromise or capitulate to political agendas and movements and yet in the same you know um breath we can say we respect all people's rights to to live and to exist in peace and harmony and not to be harmed and and that's it leave it at let's just have mutual respect you live your way i'm not gonna bother you and don't and you do the same for me don't dictate to me how what i should believe in and don't label me as being someone who is a bigot or prejudice just because i have my beliefs no because you know as muslims we treat people inshallah based on the content of their character how you know whether or not they're good people and just basic civility we're not looking at personal choices and lifestyle choices and we should that should be extended to us as well you know just have mutual respect for people but going back to the topic of is it an enormity yes we believe that those acts are haram and that's it i mean that's just there's not really no dispute about it from the orthodox position of islam you might find other people who claim that there's other positions but orthodoxy is pretty that's it it's it is what it is so that's the two enormities of the genitals then we move on to the enormities of the hands of course these are pretty obvious right killing and theft we know our kebab are haram so that protect us from ever falling into those behaviors human beings of all stripes and backgrounds have unfortunately found themselves in these situations so we should never think that we're above it we should always ask a law for protection right from ever falling into scenarios like that or situations like that where our emotions lead us to do something so heinous as to as to kill take a life or to take property that's not ours or something that's not ours and they'll protect us from that um the remaining enormities are let's see here just give me a second uh oh went too far so the enormity of the feet is just one fleeing from battle right so we know that you know the deflectors that's what compromised the muslims and and other battles so we know that it's over time this is unfortunately it has happened where people have deflected they've gotten afraid or some other reason so this would be definitely a haram and then of the whole body this is you know a really serious one for us all to think about um the disrespect of parents uh so so important again because it's so relevant in our time when we see that uh this idea of parental authority being constantly undermined and parents being presented as you know just fools buffoons easily gullible this is what a lot of our films our cartoons even the characters and the cartoons you know the simpsons you look at the parent parent uh you know characters they're usually very dull dull you know just not very bright um and there's a lot of undermining of the authority that happens so it's very common and this is one of the signs of the end of time as well right there are the process i'm warned us about so we have to look to how we treat our own parents if they are living inshallah one or both if they're still living how do we speak to them right do we what tone of voice do we use with them and it's understandable that because i know several friends and people who are my age who are caring for elderly parents or parents with um you know just really difficult circumstances and tough personalities and you know they're not they're set in their ways you know some of our parents are just really set in their ways and they're they're not always willing to compromise with their young adult children and so i've had to in many uh many times in my life help my friends or other people i know deal with calming their themselves down when they're talking with their parents because they get so angered easily and so frustrated you know it's it's a time where the uh generational gap um really is common uh you see uh not just you know um because of the different uh circuit or times that that each uh the parent and the child were raised in but also just the age you know the with age comes a lot of challenges right you have health challenges our parents are oftentimes taking medications um or they have their own long history of trauma PTSD god knows you know and a lot of our parents if we're coming from cultures and backgrounds where they saw a lot of hardships and strife they likely do have residual emotional baggage from all of that and so we have to bear in mind that you know the to just be more as patient as we possibly can and to um to know how to deal with those situations by regulating our emotions because it's really the only thing we can control right so anyway that's like a larger discussion but the point is is just to be very mindful of how we speak to our parents and the um and also how we teach our children to respect us um always in my opinion it's very effective to always attach the you know the respect that our parents give or excuse me our children give to us as parents to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala that it's really kind of that that's the the the trajectory right it's not that we are um that all of their all their respect should just stay with us but it's more it's like a conduit right if they can respect us and treat us um well and be mindful of our rules and obey then it will make their spiritual path easier and so framing it that way I think also keeps us accountable as parents so that we make sure we don't you know go over the boundaries because there are parents who certainly um you know are excessive and and can be uh too harsh or just take advantage of the relationship with their kids and because they think that they have that right but when you look at parenting the prophetic examples what parenting in Islam is all about it really is about Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala our objective is to raise strong moral agents you know servants of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala we can't get in their way we shouldn't get in their way we're just a means to an end which is inshallah that they have uh strong ubudia to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and we can give them that tarbiyah um in our homes and as long as they're with us so that should be the objective um inshallah okay so the final comments here one should avoid all the wrongs that relate to or affect any of Allah's servants because those wrongs can be possible can be excuse me impossible to rectify as for what remains between an individual and Allah this is less harmful to others and is much easier so this is an important distinction too that any of these sins that have to do with wronging other human beings or another person are far heavier on the scale than the things that we do where we wrong ourselves we shouldn't do either as best as we can we should always guard ourselves from either but to know that when we engage in behavior that harms other people this will be likely much heavier on our scales against us so may Allah protect us from all of this inshallah i mean so i'm going to stop here we didn't we did this is the end by the way i'm pretty sure i don't think there's any more after this of chapter two so our next uh session we will yeah we'll do chapter three here which is practical steps to change our condition okay so let me go ahead and stops the screen and i will now look to the comments to see if there's any i usually don't see any so i don't know if you guys are just shy but i'm gonna look anyway masha'a allaikum salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh i see some people salamu alaikum thank you for your comments on the facebook page anyway and now i'll check youtube as i always do i try to cover both so that i don't miss anything um just give me a second here here we go see if there's any questions sorry okay so i'm doing that um let's see i see comments salamu alaikum um or they may be okay good comments here salamu alaikum very nice comments thank you i see alhamdulillah i just see um some some nice comments and salams and other things but i don't see any questions so alhamdulillah thank you thank you all for tuning in again it's always an honor that you spend your evenings sunday evenings with us here at mcc so thank you so much inshallah two weeks from now we will continue the discussion with chapter three i look forward to seeing you guys there we'll go ahead and end in dua subhanakallahu wabihamdika shadouan la ilaha ila anta nastaghfiruku wa nattubu ilayk Allahumma salam wabarak ala Sayyidina wa Maulana wa Habibina Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa salam wa ala alaihi wa sahbihi wa salam tasliman kathira bismillahi rahmanir raheem wa la'asir innal insana la fi khusr illa aladina aminu wa aminu salli hati wa tawasaw bil haqi wa tawasaw bil sabr alhamdulillah salakallahu alaihim jazakum Allahu khayran thank you so much um thank you so much i'm looking at some of the other comments that came in uh thank you i appreciate your feedback barakallahu fi ikum uh and i wish you all a beautiful rest of your evening and a great start to your week inshallah protect all of you and bless all of you and your families and loved ones jazakum Allahu khayran have a good evening as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh