 السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته و بسمة و باركة لسيدنا محمدٍ و على آله وسحبي وسلم الجمعين الله لا افتح لي لا فتوه الارفين و فيقنا توفيق صالحين يا أرحم الراهيمين لا إله الا انتو سبحانك إن كنت من الظالمين كرب الشحي صدري وصللي أمر وحل الأقتد من السان يفق القولي وسلاله وسلم و باركة لسيدنا محمدٍ و على آله وسحبي وسلم الحمد لله فهذا هو first discussion in a series of discussion over the next couple of weeks that we are going to try to do insha Allah on Sunday night, this time and the goal of this discussion, the goal of this class is really for us to examine how do we think about our faith in trying times how do we increase our faith in trying times and how do we make sure that when things get difficult that our faith does not actually decrease that our iman does not actually decrease حيث نحن لا نستطيع أن نحصل على أصدقائنا، حيث نحن نسأل أن نقوم بسؤال الله ونقوم بسؤال ماذا يحدث. ونحن كذلك، نحن نسأل نحو at the faith level. نحن نحينا في حالة صعبية، نحن نحينا في حالة صعبية، الحمد لله that some folks have adjusted and acclimated to the situation that we are in with the coronavirus outbreak, with the COVID-19 outbreak. لكن هناك لدينا أحد أحد who are struggling through this time that we are in. And who are really having a tough time navigating this specific situation. So let's understand exactly what our faith can do for us in these times that we are in. الحمد لله that we have such a wonderful faith, a faith that gives us so much and so many answers to all the problems that we are facing. And certainly solutions to the problems that we are facing today. So we are going to talk about this as an introduction at a very kind of practical level. We are going to try to get a little bit into the theory and talk a little bit about what exactly Islam says about difficulty, what exactly Islam says specifically about major difficulty that we might face. And then we are going to try to understand how does that impact our Imam very, very practically. And then we are going to dive into what are the practical solutions that we can start to implement to try and increase our faith. And at the very least try to make sure that our faith stays consistent in the times. In every situation think about, in every situation you can go in three ways. Think about it in three directions. You can face a difficulty and we can go in a kind of negative direction. We can go in a positive direction or we can remain neutral. And the goal of the believer is to try to always be ascending. The goal of the believer is to try and always be increasing. But sometimes yeah, we will have those periods where we decline a bit or we just remain neutral. What we want to try to prevent is a regular decline and a regular reduction in our works or in our faith. And how do we do that? Well, first of all, the direction that we go in is entirely dependent on a few major key points of understanding and a few major key internal pillars that we have to think about. The first is our knowledge. What is our knowledge of a certain situation? What is our knowledge of a difficulty that we might be going through? What is our knowledge about what Allah says about the wisdom behind certain situations? And knowledge has many deep components to it. But that's one of the reasons why it's so important because knowledge is a light and it's a light that will guide us. It's a light that provides us clear understanding. For example, right now with this conversation that we're having, if there was no light in this room and the sun has set and if I turned all the lights off, you and I would not even be able to see. We would not even be able to move about this video that we're trying to do. But the light provides us clarity. It provides us the ability to understand. It provides us the ability to see what's going on at the very least. That's what knowledge is. Knowledge is a light. And so how we respond when it comes to our faith and trying times has a lot to do with how much knowledge we have about a certain situation. And if we're going to go that in a kind of a declining direction, if we're going to remain neutral, or if we're going to increase. The second pillar that it depends on is our certainty. This is known in our tradition as our يقين. Our internal certainty that we have. What level of يقين or certainty? Certain complete internal resolve and belief. Do we have really in God? And in what God has promised? And in what God has warned us against? And in the glad tidings that God has given? You have levels of certainty. In the Qur'an, for example, you have in different Suras, you have the different levels of certainty that are mentioned. For example, you have what's known as علم اليقين. The knowledge of certainty. You have what's known as عين اليقين. The eye of certainty. And you have what's known as حق اليقين. The truth or the reality of certainty. And you have the first two that are mentioned in سورة حق متكاثر. And then others are mentioned. For example, إن هذا هو الحق اليقين. في سبب الربيك العديم. For example, سورة الواقع and other Suras. This reality of certainty. Different levels. So I'll give you an example. The knowledge of certainty. So let's say the example that many of the scholars that believe ماما غزالي specifically uses this in the books. Let's say somebody tells you that there's a fire going on. It is the knowledge of certainty. If somebody who you trust, you believe. They come and tell you, okay, there's a fire going on. You're like, okay, cool. Like five blocks from me, there's a fire going on. Maybe you can't see it at this point, but you believe that it's happening. Now it's even a greater level of certainty. You would believe that person because they're trustworthy, but it's even greater certainty. If you were to walk outside and walk a few blocks and you actually see the fire. It's known as. Right. The eye of certainty that you've actually witnessed. Right. So somebody could tell you. There's no fire. And you'd be like, no, I'm pretty sure there's a fire. I saw it. But my own eyes. Right. Maybe there's some illusion or something going on. But I mean. Your doubt would be like point zero one percent. And your certainty would be not. Ninety nine point, you know, nine nine percent. Let's say in that case because you're seeing it. And then let's say that you actually run inside. You know somebody in the fire and you're trying to save them. Right. And you were experiencing the heat of the fire. Now you're in what's called the reality of certainty. Doesn't matter. If somebody comes and tries to tell you there's no fire, you're going to say, dude, you're trippin. I'm in the fire. I completely feel it. There is a fire. It's there. I'm feeling it. Like nobody could convince you at all that it doesn't exist. You are experiencing the realities of حق اليقين. In that situation. Right. We apply this same metaphor. To the different levels of certainty when it comes to our faith that you have people who have the very strong knowledge that yes, this is real. Everything is real. We believe in the unseen. You love people who the veil of the unseen is lifted. Right. And you have different Sahaba. For example, that this happened to. Of course this happened to the Prophet ﷺ where he was in the reality of certainty. He was in the highest stations all the time. Right. But that the veil has been lifted for people and they're seeing the realities of what's going on. And then you have people who are experiencing these amazing realities. Right. And so nobody could come and tell them that God doesn't exist or that this is false or that something about your religion is not true. They're experiencing the benefits of it. They're experiencing the realities of it. So that's at a very, very different level. So the way we look at a situation will depend again first on our knowledge. What is our overall knowledge and understanding of a topic? Or of what Allah has described about that situation. And we hear, we're generally referring to sacred knowledge. But even, you know, an outward understanding is important. Then you get into yakin. What is our level of certainty? And then the third is it's dependent on our practice. How much do we actually put into practice? What the knowledge has taught us and what the certainty has confirmed for us. And now are we putting something into practice to help us travel this path. So an example of this. Right. You know that we all know that at some point we are going to meet Allah. If we have the knowledge of what that meeting is going to look like. We have certainty in our heart that this is going to happen. And maybe even some people have had a very, very clear experience in life which has gotten that maybe just they've tasted a portion of the I know yakin of the eye of certainty of death. Let's say. Right. Maybe they didn't, you know, of course, die and come back, but they got a very small taste of that. Right. Now does that move us into action? That's the third level. Is it doesn't move us into practice. And if it moves us into action, we will actually start to change our life. We will start to implement certain things differently. We will start to reform what we used to do. That was not something Allah would prefer. And we start to move our life in a direction that would be pleasing to Allah. So that that's now these three key pillars that will identify whether we see any situation in life, but especially these types of tests and whether they put us in the wrong direction in the right direction or they keep us neutral. If you if we have these these three, the right knowledge, the right certainty in the right type of practice will go in the right direction. That there's risks. Right. You could have somebody who has a very little knowledge, but it's confused knowledge. And then there's certainty as a result of confused knowledge will be weak. It'll be doubt. They'll have doubt in their heart. Is this really real? Does this really make any sense? Is this actually happening? You know, we're talking about levels of faith here, let's say, or they won't really be able to put the wisdom behind a certain situation or they'll only see the outward. Let's say. So we could be in a situation right now where all we're seeing with the coronavirus going on is that outward. What's happening politically? What's happening economically? What's happening from a health perspective? All of which, yes, they're important, especially the last one is very, very important. And economically, there's very real impact to people's lives. And we ask that Allah make this easy for all of those. The Muslims that are struggling and all those throughout the world who are struggling with their health and struggling economically. But we may only look at it from that perspective, but somebody who's trying to increase in their faith, they will start to learn the knowledges that will increase the certainty. And eventually they'll be able to look at this from a metaphysical point of view. Meaning, what are the wisdoms behind this whole thing? Why is this happening? Because Allah is doing this. Why is Allah doing this? What did humanity do? What are we doing that we can improve on? What am I doing in my life that I need to change? Right? But if you can watch all the news you want and get when we can get worried and we can try to make sense of the whole situation but if that's not resulting let's say we don't pray our prayers let's say we miss Fajr regularly or we miss a few prayers if that's not resulting in us changing our habits and our approach and our approach towards Allah something's wrong. It means that we're not taking this in the right way. That means that the knowledge is confused knowledge and the certainty is not actually there because we're not seeing this through the right lens. And certainly of course the practice is not going to happen. Right? So that's just something for us to keep in mind but if we have the right level of knowledge and then that increases our certainty we are certainly going to want to put things into practice and that is the framework by which our and our conversations in this class will be will be guided by that if we have this framework of having the right knowledge that's increasing our certainty and we're working on our certainty and truly believing that Allah is in control it's going to lead us to some form of practice and going to lead us to some form of change. Now the heart based on these three the heart will either be clouded or it will be clear. The clouded heart is not meaning spiritual heart in this instance the clouded heart is not going to be able to really perceive what's going on but the clear heart the heart of the people who are constantly trying to work on themselves and reflecting they're going to understand the deeper wisdoms and they're going to want to at least want to understand, right? nobody can claim to know we should not be people of claims where people try to understand what's going on and they have a focus on that rather than again only remaining at the kind of outward level of this is the situation this is tough I'm in quarantine I'm all, you know not able to kick it and do my usual things and let me just wait till this is done Okay, that's one part of it but like what about all the wisdoms and lessons and the deep realities behind this very, very significant situation right that's where the heart the more clear it is the more it's going to be able to see so our perspective should be for ourselves for our family members for our children for our loved ones for our community that we need to try to push ourselves towards understanding the metaphysical lessons behind these situations that is our goal what are the deeper lessons that we are supposed to be learning because we may take something of immense benefit from something that looks really difficult with outwardly a big tribulation and somebody else may only take the tribulation they may not take any benefit it just depends though right on the situation and so every event in life everything that happens is going to have some wisdom to it some lesson behind it but you and I might not know what that lesson is until we start to ponder and instead we start to reflect Allah mentions this in the Quran that إنة في خلق السماوات والأرض واختلا في ليلي والنحار لأياتي لأول العلباب that in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are surely signs for people who reflect and then Allah describes a few qualities about these people it's a famous verse in Surah Ali Imran this is one of the verses that's generally narrated the Prophet ﷺ would recite this verse in its entirety when he would wake up in the middle of the night for that the Hajj prayer and so this is one of the virtuous things that the scholars recommend doing but let's examine this in a little bit of detail right that in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day one of the commentaries on the night and the day in this situation right that it can be the night of tribulation and the day of ease but إنة في خلق السماوات والأرض واختلا في ليلي والنحار that in the alternation of the night and the day are signs for the people of core for the people of reflection for the people who are in this state of trying to figure out what's going on right think about this you need night and day for the world to function one of the wisdoms that Allah is teaching us is that just like you need different seasons sometimes it's going to be winter it's going to be cold it's going to be tough and sometimes it's going to be nice and beautiful spring and summer and if the flowers are coming up but the human being you need different seasons just like the earth needs different seasons to grow the human being remember we're created from dirt we also need different seasons spiritual seasons in order to really flourish but it's about the person who takes the most benefit from each season just like the farmer who plants at the appropriate time they're going to be able to harvest at the appropriate time but the one who just misses the entire season they're not going to be able to gain the benefit at the right times whoever takes the benefit of the seasons and knows this season is meant for this lesson so right now yes we are in the night the night literally the night it's dark outside but night of tribulation but there is a day of ease and Alhamdulillah for many of us we've been in the days of ease for so long but now as a global community we're facing the night of tribulation that Allah says though in both in the alternation there are signs for those who are the people of core who are people of intellect they're thinking about this so what exactly through these signs what exactly are these signs and what lesson can we take from this right it's first and foremost just to keep in mind that it is normal it's a part of life on earth and it's part of history that Allah is going to have different periods and so we should not be too alarmed out inwardly of course outwardly we take the precautions we do what we need to do but inwardly we should not be too alarmed when it becomes nighttime for example immediately right now it's 8.20 pm an hour and 20 minutes ago it was quite there was a lot of light outside I was just out for a walk maintaining my six feet of social distancing between me and other people just outside there was light outside but immediately the sun sets and it becomes dark now if somebody had never seen this before it didn't understand that this is how the earth or this is how the solar system works right that this is what's going on that at some point the sun is going to set or the earth is going to turn in a way that we believe the sun is setting essentially right they would be completely confused what's going on how did they there was just light outside how did it become dark similarly but somebody who has knowledge no this is normal right I know sunset tonight is at 7.31 pm they know that right okay they're not going to be completely confused by it the majority of people in this world know that's going to happen but Allah also says it's going to happen in terms of worldly events He says certain things are going to happen if you do certain things certain things will happen if you don't do certain things certain things will happen and regardless of your action or not Allah will also manifest certain things in each person's life in order to test them so we know the night is going to come and we know the day is going to come but for us it's about making sure that we use the days right to ease to prepare for the night to get ready for the potential times of difficulty and that's but strengthening our iman that when things are good we strengthen our iman and then that way when things get tough our iman now is assisting us in the difficulty and in the situation that we are going in and so the one of the goals right because again in this in this in this in this وقت الله في ليلة والنحر لآيات لأول العبادة these are signs and they're signs meaning people take lessons they're taking heed from they're taking some lessons from this right so ultimately what's most beneficial to the human being and this is the next point that we want to get to ultimately what's most beneficial the ultimate goal is wherever you and I learn the most that is the ultimate goal of what's going to be the most beneficial wherever situation we're in that we learn the most ultimately and actually it informs our knowledge and it informs a deep spiritual significant knowledge not like just some brief intellectual knowledge that we memorize a few things that's fine and good but some deep spiritual knowledge actually results in an awakening where we want to change this idea of an epiphany whenever those moments that result whenever situations result that cause those types of moments that's when we really want to those are the moments that we really want to see those are the treasures of this world and they're not always going to be in ease they're not always going to be in the daytime they will be different seasons that are necessary and so this is a season where yes it is a season of tribulation yes it is a season of difficulty yes it is a time of metaphorically speaking it is the metaphorical night of tribulation but the people of core they learn from all واللي إذا سجال ما وضعك ربك وما قلاء that in the with the at the duha swearing by the duha time but the the mid morning the beauty of the mid morning time and then also mentioning the night as it sets in he's and this is the famous surah which Allah goes on he's consoling the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and he's mentioning to him that don't worry your lord even though you have the day of ease and then the night of comes your lord has not forsaken you you would not need to keep that in mind for all of us and for this whole umma inshaAllah that Allah has not forsaken us no Allah is here for us inshaAllah Allah is going to help but we have to take the lessons that we need to take and we need to transform our life as we were mentioning in the friday conversation that Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what's in themselves and that change first starts with this deep awakening and this epiphany that is originated in knowledge and so Allah that in surat al-mulk تبارك اللي دي بيهدي الملك وهو على كل شيء قضي الذي خلق الموتى والحياتى ليبلوكم أيكم أحسن واملة that we created life and death we created life and death in order to test to see who would be the best indeed the most virtuous indeed again emphasizing here that Allah is trying to examine us right and who is the one who is teaching us how to pass the exam but he said in the famous hadid that I was sent as a teacher and the way that the scholars translate that is emphasizing that I was only sent as a teacher like it's such a significant emphasis on this idea that he was sent to teach that it's as though that's his primary purpose sent as a teacher he's teaching us he's giving us the map he gives us the tools the Quran was revealed to him and through him Allah gave us the tools this is what you this here's the map this book is full of all the answers all the wisdoms that you and I need and of course this paired with the beloved sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ but it's full the sunnah is the Quran in practice we have to see what does an aya mean when it's put into practice that's the Prophet ﷺ he is that it's the famous statement that he was a walking Quran his character was the Quran that his character was the Quran right who is the teacher and the lessons that he teaches us that we can find in the book of Allah we can find in the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah these are the lessons which are going to guide us in the times that we're facing in the times and the difficulties that the human being faces and in the times of ease Allah teaches us how to be in times of abundance to give out to help other people to assist people he teaches us how to be in times of ease to be patient to wonder what we did wrong to make it so far and to we should be doing all of the all of what we just mentioned in all the times but the human being we need times to nurture different parts different traits in our life just an example of this right the child as they're going through different stages they're getting trained in different ways right at some point the child has to just start drinking milk and then at some point they're weaned off of the milk and then they're taught to eventually eat food and eventually trained to use the restroom and get off diapers and then at some point they're trained to read and at some point different situations there's a different approach you have to take in different situations they have to learn the same lesson if you're learning the same lesson that you were learning at 3 years old and you're learning it at 33 years old there's an issue there right spiritually it's the same way spiritually you and I will progress and Allah knows the lessons that we need and he knows the lessons humanity needs humanity generally has digressed spiritually we generally declined spiritually we've seen the Hadith the Prophet ﷺ said as you get closer and closer to the end of times people get worse and worse morally but humanity needs wake up calls humanity needs lessons but who's going to take the lesson that's the thing we have to wonder are we first and foremost taking the lesson and then are we encouraging our families to take the lessons and then are we encouraging others around us to change their life to take the lesson but what is the lesson one of those situations is that Allah created life and death in order to test us are coming and how exactly do we respond and so then we get into what should the response be well the response generally should be one of trying to change that as we contemplate the different wisdoms that Allah is teaching us in the situation they need to motivate us towards some action they can either motivate us to just not motivate us rather than that situation they can just make us go into a situation where we just stopped caring and we're just I don't know about this whole thing I don't know why this is happening this really sucks I'm not feeling it and we just get really negative and look if we're depressed and we're struggling it's okay Allah is going to help you Insha'Allah try to just trust in him Allah says that I am in the opinion of my servant have a good opinion of your Lord but that's the situation but we don't want to go down that route we want to try to elevate ourselves uplift ourselves and try to see things then as we mentioned there is the struggle that's needed in order to ascend in order to increase in order to try and climb and the spiritual path if we want our faith to increase this idea of understanding our faith in trying times our faith can help us in trying times and our faith can increase in trying times it doesn't have to just just help us answer the situation as you use the faith quote unquote the teachings of Islam to help answer your life problems your iman is increasing why? because when you apply those teachings they become solidified they become more deeply solidified it's like the first time you learn how to ride a bike it's difficult right or the first time you learn a drive it's just kind of slowly figuring it out right being really really really really careful 10 times okay you're still 20, 50, 100 okay again used to it and then finally like the 15th or the thousandth time some excuse me somebody drives it's it's very easy for them because they've applied the same lessons over and over again and their skill in driving has increased in the same way your iman starts to increase when you apply the lesson but when you stop applying the lesson when we stop applying the lessons and when we don't even put work in it actually begins to decrease right or it begins to stay neutral and so we have decreased in the sense of we may still have a high level of belief but we're not ascending and if you and I are not ascending with the impulse and the push and the fitna and the tests and the tribulations of the modern world that we live in we are generally going to be descending there's not really a neutrality in this situation right you and I have to keep working hard to ascend you have to keep working hard to ascend right so what then is the framework that we need to keep in mind when it comes to understanding the wisdoms of the tests that we're facing as we mentioned first and foremost we have to have good strong knowledge we have to have the right level of certainty and then we have to have the right level of practice that accompanies that then we understand that tribulation is part of life and ease is part of life and they're both going to come but tribulation generally dunya will have more tribulation and jannah is all ease insha'Allah the afterworld for most insha'Allah insha'Allah it's all ease but dunya has tribulation this world has tribulation and so we have to learn that the ultimate goal of our life is whatever increases us in certainty and increases us in iman is actually something of benefit and then what should that drive us to do it should drive us to make a difference it should drive us to change and what does Allah say He says that those who strive in our way we guide them we shall surely guide them that those who put in the effort Allah guides you to where you need to go so if you see the situation that you're going what we're going through right now don't stop putting in effort put in more effort put in 10 times the effort Allah will guide you to your answer in this tribulation that you may have people who outwardly they're struggling but inwardly they're fine they're with Allah completely because Allah mentions in the that the the saints of Allah the friends of Allah they do not fear nor do they grieve they do not stress do they not have the anxiety the constant worry the trepidation of the heart nor do they trip and out of any situation they are in a state of calmness what is this who are these Oliya what are their traits their traits are that they are working to struggle that they are putting in an effort of struggling to try and change and so the way to increase faith and the answer in these times if we want to use our faith in the right way is to take the lesson and to put them into practice and to try and work on ourselves and to not let our iman decrease because keep in mind we are trying to ascend if anybody's ever for example been on a hike before or tried to climb before you know that as you start to ascend more and more and more you need more and more work you need to put you get and you need you start to exert yourself more and more as the altitude increases the work also increases right it's much easier when you're at you know the beginning of the journey at the base but as you get higher and higher it gets more and more and more work and more strength and more effort has to be exerted and what then is useful in those times sometimes you're going to need a break sometimes you're going to need to drink something sometimes that workout that you were doing you know two weeks before to prepare is going to kick in and you're going to be like dang that workout was helpful right sometimes the food that you've prepared the sandwiches that one has prepared whatever it is they're going to become common use it was the provision that you prepared that allowed you to succeed in the journey the journey otherwise would have been extremely difficult we have to prepare provision we have to prepare provision right now for this journey and for the longer journey that's coming ahead of us for the journey eventually of death and then the journey of the life in the grave the journey of the day of judgment and then ultimately after that but that journey is tough if we think this time is tough right now we have to use this time to say okay I might be worried right now I might be scared right now but who am I more scared of the virus or the lord of the virus we should be fearful of the lord of the virus so that we can prepare for the journey that is coming forward so what do I mean here what do I mean by this example of hiking and preparing and whatnot because the preparation that one does so that we can continue to continue to climb so that we can continue to work hard right so that we can go along the path that preparation has to be done in advance of us embarking on that journey but the nature of life is we're in the middle of it right and so we have to take provision the spiritual provision from wherever we can get it but it still doesn't mean that it doesn't mean we ignore the spiritual vision we have to take the spiritual vision and so what is the prayer provision in this case the first provision is knowledge the lessons that we learn in this situation one of the lessons that we take then insha'Allah that can increase our faith is Allah's immense wisdom Allah is one of His name is الحكيم the most wise right أليم الحكيم and mentions in the Quran that Allah is the all knowing the all wise or the all wise the all knowing He is the one who knows what's going on He is the one who provides situations and then knows the wisdom behind the situations He mentions in the Quran that perhaps you love a thing perhaps you hate a thing and in it is much good for you and perhaps and perhaps you love a thing and in it is much bad for you that Allah knows and you and I do not you do not know you don't know you meaning humanity right you and I don't know Allah knows though so with one of the ways one of the secrets of these times that we live in and the situation that we're going is it gives us an opportunity to know Allah in many beautiful different ways right it's one thing to know Allah الحمد لله in ease and that's we definitely we hope for that right to know Allah in ease and to know Him in the good times but it's also important to know that Allah has various traits various traits of what's called majesticness and majesty rather and beauty Allah has different types of traits He has as we know right He has many attributes but the ones we know 99 attributes of Allah right that are mentioned you have the 99 names of Allah well in order for you to know different sides let's say of a person if you only see a person in one specific situation let's say a colleague if you only see a colleague at work right you're only going to get to see one side of them you see them at home they'll probably see a different side of them maybe a side you never want to see then you see them when they're with their friends it might be a little bit of a different side of them when they're traveling usually there's statements that I believe say in the Omar said if you really want to get to know somebody travel with them because you'll get to see how they are when things are not easy you want to see somebody when they're traveling your colleague when they're traveling you'll understand different sides of them then you see them when they're having a good time you see another side of them then you see them when they're having a tough time and you see another side of them but if you only see again one aspect of them right at work same thing same situations every day you don't really get to understand the full scope of that human being of that individual now imagine in the state of our Lord that he has many beautiful traits he has many beautiful attributes and he wants us to learn about him and one of the main goals of this life is that we only created mankind and we did not create mankind and jinn except to worship except to worship me Allah is saying but what the commentator say in the famous commentary of Ibn Abbas he says that in order to know me and how does one get to know somebody to know Allah in this situation right is to try and understand the different attributes of Allah the different situations that Allah might put somebody in and what portion of the knowledge of Allah that one can take in this situation and so these types of situations right Allah is saying as we mentioned earlier that in the night in the day people are learning they're learning in all the seasons but some people they refuse to learn in the night it's too tough for me we lose the faith let's say we heard this statement that someone lost their faith because it got so tough things got so difficult Allah wanted us to learn some lesson in that difficulty he didn't want us to quit we're not quitters we have to learn the lesson in that difficulty similarly in this situation so one of the names that we take away in this situation is this name the all wise we're learning about Allah's wisdom we're learning about Allah's wisdom and that Allah is all wise and he knows what he's doing now how does that practically apply to our life okay you know get it the virus is going on there's lessons that we have to take you know you're probably thinking yeah yeah yeah you keep saying that and we understand right I totally feel you on that how does that apply practically many times in life especially as we continue to grow and grow and grow many times in life we are going to face situations where we don't understand what's happening we put in our effort it doesn't make sense or whatever situation is going on but we don't understand the wisdom behind something we don't understand why something is going on we are not satisfied with that situation we wanted a certain job and we didn't get it we wanted a certain income we didn't get it we wanted a certain car we didn't get it we wanted to get married to somebody we couldn't we wanted to have a child at this moment and we weren't able to we wanted to see somebody we couldn't see them we wanted to go somewhere we couldn't all these small significant situations that we might face in our life but if we know the name the most wise then we'll know that whoever who is controlling our life you are you controlling your life am I controlling my life I mean yes I have free choice and free will but ultimately Allah enables what's going to happen I mean for example like right now yeah like I could go and do certain things but like there are certain things literally that I can't even do right now where at two months ago maybe I could have done but part of the half of society is shut down right now like Allah is in ultimate control so if I understand the name الحكيم the most wise that Allah has all of the wisdom he has all of the knowledge right that he has the knowledge of what came before and what's going to come after Allah exists outside of time he doesn't exist within this minute time you know that we exist in this small period of few centuries that the you know last few decades maybe that folks have been around or few centuries that the modern world has been around Allah exists far above that so he is الحكيم what is that though help us it helps us understand what's going on but also helps us have trust in the future that okay he knows what he's doing he's the most wise and so he's going to eventually his wisdom will manifest whether it's in this life or in the next life it is going to manifest in the situation that we're facing another name of his is العليم all knowing all the knowledge right العليم العليم العيب that he is Allah who has knowledge of all the unseen العليم it's full knowledge of the unseen everything is going to happen right and so now okay well this first of all the virus in itself is unseen Allah can enable something like that to happen but he has knowledge of what is happening in the unseen what is happening in order to enable this to happen and unseen also the unseen of what's going to come next he knows what's going to come next now if you and I try to steer every single situation and try to control our life in every aspect then okay we can take that seat but guess not our seat to take that's God's seat to take right and that now gets into another aspect of this journey of trying to get closer to Allah and we understand that he's all wise we understand that he's all knowing and if you know that somebody's all wise and you know that they're all knowing then eventually what are we going to do we're going to trust them okay you take care of the situation why would I try to take care of the situation I don't know what's going on I don't know what's best for me I'm not going to try and rely on myself so practically what does that mean okay do we just sit back chill do nothing I mean I guess in the quarantine life you could argue that's what we're supposed to do but no no we don't just sit back chill to know we still put in the effort we still take all the protective measures all the precautions let's say in this situation we still pray we still try to plan aspects of our life but we leave the results to God we leave the results and we don't trip about the future we don't worry about what's going to happen we try to keep the faith focused on what is going on right now and what is in my control what's in your control what's in my control what I do it's not in my control what Trump does or what this governor does or what this situation does or what this country does or which border is closed or which or how many cases are going to spread I mean it's in my control to a degree that I don't do something foolish and disobey the rules and you know like you have some some people who don't understand the wisdoms behind these these rules and so they'll go out and they'll still try to engage in you know hanging out and congregating and doing all these things we're not supposed to be doing right now yeah to the degree somebody does that that's just foolishness but if you and I are not doing all those different types of things then we have to let go to a degree okay who am I putting my faith and I'm putting my trust in God not in myself not in a government not in a person not in any situation not in any economy no he is all wise he is all knowing and thus he is the one to trust thus he is the one who is going to take care of the situation he took care of you when you were in the womb he took care of me when I was in the womb nobody was telling him to do my mom was not like telling God yeah now he needs the baby needs this now the baby needs that God knew what he was doing he took care of it then he took care of us when nobody else was around but when we were young and we were in school and we got hurt at some point and nobody was there to help us out Allah was there to help us out he's always been there so you think he's going to leave now? no no no he's going to help us now but he loves it when you and I turned him and we ask him for help and so when we know he's all wise we know he's all knowing we know that he wants us to take lesson and take heed from this then what do we do we exert our effort because he appreciates when we put in effort he appreciates that when you and I strive Allah says that surely surely he is going to guide that person and so these situations one of the reasons why they come down is to incite or to instill this desire to change our life to instill this desire to work on ourselves to instill this desire to try and fix our life to try and fix our situation Allah mentioned in the Quran that we didn't create you for fun like we didn't create he mentions and I'm forgetting the exact verse that I believe it's in Surah Al-Qamar the last few verses that we did not create you just just to play games just to kind of just live and and play games and do nothing just for fun Allah says that he didn't create us for that purpose right he created us for a real purpose for a real reason what can we do then examine where are we right now and where does Allah want us to be and what are the steps then that we need to take in order to get there in order to progress because humanity generally is far far from achieving what we were created to do Allah says that he that he that he did not create for nonsense he did not create just to waste our life away he did not create to oppress other people he did not create and the children of Adam so that the rich could get richer and so that the poor could continue to get poorer he did not create so that when the rich person does a crime they don't get any punishment or they get one small little punishment and they're a nice executive mansion and house arrest and that when the poor person does the same crime they get the death penalty or when somebody a person of color does the same crime they get the death penalty and somebody who's white does that crime or a person who's not a person of color does that crime they don't get that same crime he did not create humanity to be unjust Allah says that Allah loves the just ones all of these traits that Allah loves in the Quran the people who are in love the whoever the audience the viewers the subscribers the experts the agents and the believers the people of repentance the people of tawbah the people who are trying to purify themselves the people of taqwa the people of tawakku the people who are of justice Allah also describes then the people who he doesn't love and the people who generally will create situations which incur the wrath of Allah اللعى didn't create us to be in the to do and immerse ourselves in the situations that we're immersed in didn't create us to be creating a system where again, economically you have high amounts of interest and we have those of us and all of us were immersed in it in some way or another right unnecessary situations where we'll go and we'll take out you know alone if we don't even need it just so that we can get a fan to your car أن��يا أنها قادرون فقط. ومنRecent so which is not a big deal, the whole system is doing it. اللها Africa did not create us for these reasons. لأنه لم يكن لدينا فية مجموعة إنهم لا تحددنا ل獻ك الأجزاء لما كان although our society where alcohol is completely OK yet so many people die from it every single year. لدينا كثيرا من الثقارات المساعدة. لم يكن لدينا بارجل من النبي to be abusive towards women. ونحن ليس ذلك لم يكن لدينا الخدم كلمك. والنبي صارات الأمور بالطبخ. so he did not create a family, or aND to have a family and eventually abandoned their child in pursuit of Money just more and more Money Of course we all need to work and do it the way you created all these different Things he did not create Leaders to be corrupt man kind muscle transgressed at the balance. generally. And Allah mentions in the Quran corruption has sold أن تبدأ to see بما قسبت ايديا الناس دهر الفساد في البري والبحي بما قسبت ايديا الناس and might have misquoted the ayah but that you'll see this corruption manifesting this difficulty manifesting because of the actions of mankind now what is our role to to to