 We are reading from Purification of the Heart. So I don't know how many of you have it. I hope you do at home, if not here. But the way this class is, is it's really, this is just a catalyst for discussion. We, I'll read from the section that we're talking about. But I would really love to have an interactive discussion here, feel free to jump in, ask questions, share stories, anything that speaks to you about the topic that we're covering. So this book covers, it's an English translation by Sheikham Zayusif of Imam al-Mawlud's Classical Text, Matarat al-Kulub, which is talking about the diseases of the heart, right? And it gives you the signs, the symptoms, and the cures. So it's a really comprehensive text, but we've already started it. So we're kind of in the beginning of it. Last time, last month, we talked about the first disease that was mentioned, or is mentioned in the book, which is bohol or miserliness. And what I love about, again, the book is that you are introduced to this topic and right away you might have your own understanding about that. Like, oh, okay, cheap people, people being miserly. But then there's so much more to the spiritual disease, right? So once you start reading the, you realize like Subhanallah, there's actually a lot of iterations, examples of miserliness that go beyond just money. It's the way that you react to things, right? How your attachments are to material things, whether or not you have chivalry or these beautiful qualities that we are encouraged to have as Muslims. That also is very much tied to the disease of miserliness. So it's just a lot more than what you think it is. So with that said, we are going to start the next disease, which is called wantonness in English or butter in Arabic, okay? And I'm going to read the verses and then we're going to talk about the definition and treatment. So this disease, Bismillah. As for the disease of wantonness, its definition is excessive mirth, which according to the people of knowledge is having excessive exuberance. Treat it with hunger and the remembrance of the hereafter. Reminding yourself that God says He does not love the excessively joyful, which alone is a deterrent. So the definition and treatment, those were the verses. The next disease the Imam writes about is wantonness, but along with, excuse me, along with excessiveness, an unbridled desire to need and want more. The word Bukla has several meanings. The inability to bear blessings, bewilderment, dislike of something undeserving of dislike and reckless extravagance. Imam Olud says that according to the people of knowledge, it is defined as excessive mirth and exuberance. The Quran says, obey God in his messenger and dispute not among yourselves, lest you falter and your strength departs from you and be patient for God is with the patient and do not be like those who leave their homes, Bukla filled with excessive pride about their state, showing off before people and preventing others from the way of God. And God encompasses what they do. Chapter eight verse 46 to 47. And how many cities have we destroyed that exalted in their livelihood? Here are their homes now uninhabited after them except for a few, chapter 28 verse 58. The world of ancient civilizations is full of ruins of once grand structures and communities that used to be teeming with life, inhabited by people who exalted in their wealth and accomplishments. When one visits these ruins, one notices the utter silence of these towns. Each soul that lived there is now in another state awaiting God's final judgment. So before we continue, let's talk about this a little bit. We again live in a time that this is not only normalized, but it's very much the standard that we constantly want more of everything. It's an insatiable appetite for whether it's wealth, whether it's material goods, right? And just think of the clutter in all of our homes right now. Let's just all be honest. I will be the first to admit and I'm in the process of decluttering because inshallah, we will be moving soon, still local, but the decluttering process, I'm really looking forward to it because it's overwhelming when you actually take inventory of how much we have, right? Isn't it? It is, it's not only, I feel it puts me in a state of immobility, right? Because I come into a room or like the garage is like a whole other, you come into a space and you're like, ya Allah, I don't even know where to begin, right? I don't know where to begin it so much. And then you think, how did I get to this point? That's the real question, right? That's the real question of how did we get to this point? Because I don't think anybody did it overnight, right? It's a gradual collection of things that you don't need or a holding onto things that are of no benefit to you, right? And so there's two sides to it. We want more, but then we also have a difficult time letting go. And we have to question that, like we have to analyze what is it that were, why, what is it that we want to prove? Like by collecting 50, 60 for those of us who wear hijab, all the hijabs that are, I don't know, my hijab causes some mess right now. I have like two stashes and it's just colors everywhere. It's like, I had a system, but anyway, it's a whole other story. But all those hijabs and how many of them do we actually wear, right? I know if you're like, if you're being honest with me, you probably have like five that you wear, right? For the every day of the week, like what you'll switch or recycle those. And then there's like 60 that you don't even touch. And there's fabrics that you can't stand. I have fabrics and I'm like, I hate that fabric. Well, why do I have it? Why haven't I learned to let go of it, right? Insha'Allah that's coming. And I'm telling you, it will, there will be a huge purge, but it's because sometimes you're gifted so it might not be necessarily you going out of your way. You're gifted, but SubhanAllah, when you look at, like I mentioned this when I was reflecting on my mother, Allah, Allah bless her. One of the qualities that many people in our family and people who knew her attested to was that she loved to gift. And if she received the gift, but she knew that it was nice, but she didn't, she wouldn't use it. She would accept it, but her intention was always to re-gift it. And it wasn't a matter of, she appreciated the gift, but she wanted to not hold on to things that were going to be beneficial to someone else. So she would take a new item and instead of taking it, gift receipt, return it, get the money, get your own stuff. I was like, no, it's a good thing. Maybe so and so will benefit from it, right? It's not something I would necessarily wear or use, but so and so may. And so she always had like these stashes of brand new things with tags on it that she couldn't wait to gift to someone and make their day. And she was very smart martial art because she knew everybody's style. So she knew like colors, this person would go this color or this person like shoes, this person like purses. So Spala, that type of thoughtfulness, right? Cause you know, gift giving is a love language, right? And if you are fluent in it, then you will pay attention to people and like what they, their style, like how they dress. But how many of us could do that right now? Like how many of us have clothes in our closet that we know that would look so much better on another person, right? Like maybe even a specific person. So this is the type of, like when you're reading through these descriptions of the diseases, you wanna always obviously self-reflect. You wanna bring it back to yourself. We've read the description, wanting more, being living with excess, right? Almost being insatiated with the consumption of goods. And then the treatment is coming, but part of analyzing your behavior is being honest. So that's one aspect of it, you know? And then also this excessive mirth is another definition that we have to talk about. Like when we are taking, if we're, if we're really looking at life through the lens with which the believer should look at, we should instantly be reminded of the Hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam who said, what? If you knew what I knew, you would laugh little, right? And weep much. That is giving us the world view that a believer should have. Like when we look into the world, there are moments in pockets of joy and happiness we're going to feel. It's natural life is, Allah is so generous, so generous. He's constantly giving us gifts that we don't even ask for. Or that we don't even, I mean, SubhanAllah, this past week has been so ajeeb. I've had so many experiences this week that I'm just like, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. I'll tell you just a quick example of something that happened yesterday. So two days ago, I'm thinking about my son who is, who's 13 and I'm just trying to think of classes for him Arabic specifically. So I was like, I need to follow up with, he's a relative of mine by marriage. So I was like, I have to follow up with him because he knows, he's gonna give me the plan of which course to go through, which program, whatever. He's written a book. I have this whole internal conversation of myself and SubhanAllah, I made the Nia to contact him. And this was like two days ago. Yesterday, I opened my phone and I kid you not, Allahu Akbar, his previous wife, who I as a friend of mine, this teacher's, messages me out of the blue. I haven't heard from her in like over maybe a year or two. And she's like, so I go, sister, I'm sending you a link to my son's, their shared child, his Arabic class that he's gonna be starting in two weeks. He's using the same material that his father used. And I thought of you, here's the link. And I'm like, Allahu Akbar. I didn't even have to do anything. I just had a wish to contact her ex-husband who's a teacher. And then here she's giving me the link. And I'm already intending to sign him up because it seems like a fantastic program. I'll share the details if you wanna know about it. Ask me afterwards. But I was just like, SubhanAllah, Allah, you're so amazing. You just out of the blue, gifted me. So if we realize that we're gonna have gifts like that or moments that just will make us full of joy, whether it's our children or our family, our spouses, our pets, whatever it is that brings you joy. But overall, we have to feel the weight of existence. This is a serious place. And we should be serious in our life. We should feel serious. We shouldn't be prolonging childhood well into adulthood, which is what this culture does. This culture wants to extend childhood all the way until the end. So that's why you have, look it around and you see this excessive mirth, this constant need to be entertained, this constant need for just indulging the appetites, because there is no focus on a serious worldview or that there's more to the story than just eating and drinking and having fun and vacationing or looking for opportunities to just be entertained. There's much more to life. And this is why we have to step back and see, are we partaking because we live in the West? Are we partaking in the culture around us? Maybe to the detriment of our own spiritual selves because I'm noticing it on social media, I'm sure we're all seeing it, right? That there is this sort of just lack of seriousness, I could say in our community, especially I think in the virtual spaces. Hopefully we still retain our adab when we come in gatherings and the message that I hope we don't start seeing some, some of this sort of excessive behavior in public spaces, but I think online it's almost like the walls are down and everybody's guard is down and it's like, hey, let's be silly, let's do dances and let's do skits and let's just constantly invite this type of very, just this culture of just levity that's so excessive, where it's like everything's funny, joking around about everything. That's not the state of the believer. That's not a state that we should welcome nor should we sustain it. That doesn't mean we can't laugh. It doesn't mean we can't find moments again of joy, but it's a matter of I value my time and I realize the temporality of this world and at any minute, it could be over at any minute. I'm sure within just the past month, how many of you have heard of anybody dying suddenly? Sudden death is one of the signs of the end of time. So we're gonna continue seeing that and that is a wake-up call for all of us. When we see these things, these stories, these headlines, it's a wake-up call for all of us to say, Subhanallah, I cannot squander my time. I cannot waste my time on things that are going to take me away from the remembrance of Allah and I want to really take my life seriously. Like I wanna be a person of weight and not necessarily not physical weight, but like weightiness, you know, where you command respect because you take yourself seriously. And again, we can laugh, we can find moments of levity here and there, but it's more about your view of yourself in this world and just the world in general, right? So now he goes on to say, wantonness is a disease to which the world's affluent societies are particularly vulnerable, which we belong to, right? We are part of that demographic. In societies that are extremely pleased with their standard of living, their extravagance and hubris are obvious. One sign of these conditions is the ease with which people enter into debt and live contentedly with it. People are consciously living beyond their means in order to maintain the appearance of affluence. This is a product of wantonness, willingly falling headlong into debt in order to achieve a certain material standard of living. The Imam posits that the treatment of wantonness is to intentionally experience hunger and to reflect seriously on death and the hereafter. Experiencing hunger can be achieved through voluntary fasting, some, or by simply reducing what one eats. One aspect of traditional medicine related to a spiritual cosmology, whether this tradition was Greek, Chinese, or Arab, is the belief that too much food harms the spiritual heart and in fact could kill it. It was commonly believed that people who eat in abundance become hard-hearted. Those who consume an abundance of rich foods may literally become hard-hearted with arterial sclerosis, the hardening of the arteries. Sclerotic means hard rigid or stiff. Likewise, what happens to the physical heart may parallel what occurs to the spiritual heart. This is really important because the connection, the mind, body, and soul connection is really important to think about and to reflect on every day. A lot of our spiritual malaise, like this feeling of just not being really feeling good, like just a feeling of unwellness, oftentimes can be tied to diet, it can be. It can be tied to sleep too. It can be tied to different things, right? So the practice of fasting is really important. And I've talked about this a lot because I recently, just for my own health benefits, I've been doing intermittent fasting, which is a great way to practice this. If you can fast during the day for the benefit of fasting and actually making up fast, wonderful. But even doing something like intermittent fasting periodically, what it does is it really helps you to feel that feeling of hunger, which we all know what it feels like, right? And for some people, it's gonna be obviously harder for others than for others. But the point of deprivation, which is what hunger is, is to remind you, right? To only take what you need. Because you still manage how many of us are very productive. Like I will tell you, I am so much more productive when I'm fasting. Like I feel so light. I feel like I could just do a lot, right? And so there is that benefit of withholding and depriving yourself of certain things so that you can see for yourself you don't need, right? You don't need to consume X, Y, or Z, or you don't need to have this. So when it comes to just generally, as a practice fasting is right up there with the other reminder, which is the remembrance of death, to really bring us into that state of seriousness, right? And that's why, again, if you've been around anybody who's ill or unwell, if you've nursed anyone back to health, right? Do you have time for silliness? Do you have time? There's a state of somberness, of seriousness, because obviously you're watching someone who's not doing well, but it's also a reminder of your own mortality, right? When you're treating someone who's not feeling well, you can immediately feel some sort of empathy. Like wow, you don't want to experience what they're experiencing, so that brings you into that awareness. And that's the kind of sobering experiences, or those are the types of sobering experiences that can help to prevent this disease. Because if you don't have the remembrance of death or you don't practice restraint and constraining yourself from doing certain things, this comes, we're susceptible to it because we live in a very indulgent society. Look around, right? That's what he's saying, like we live in a time and a place where we could easily fall into this. And the way to protect ourselves is by being in the practice of deprivation, hunger, and the remembrance of death so that we don't become irresponsible with our, for example, spending, right? And I know I remember being young in my 20s and 30s and it was very popular at a certain point to have name brands of everything. And these are the ways that we show our social status. So there's their status symbols, but what they do, unfortunately, is they contribute to this disease of the heart. If you feel like you have to have a certain name brand in order to meet or keep up with the Joneses or to impress people, right? That's going to, it's hard to overcome that if you feed that monster, right? Because then it'll be the next item, hot ticket item. That's what trends are. Look around and you'll see, whether it's fashion trends, beauty trends, a lot of them, they shift. Every week or month, there's something new and you have to get this new thing and that new thing. So it's kind of like, it's just never ending. Whereas when you realize that those things are just, once in a while, okay, you wanna splurge, maybe you've worked hard for something, that's different, right? But this is about habit, this is about lifestyle. And because we're in the West and this seems normal, we may buy into it, but actually it causes a lot of spiritual harm because it promotes the attachments that then lead you to have all that clutter in your house and then lead you to walk into a space and your eyes bypass all the humans in the space, but you wanna look at, oh, what kind of furniture do they have? What kind of, you know, what's their home decor like? How many people now do that? They'll walk into someone's home without really paying attention to the people but they just wanna see what, how are they living? I wanna see what they have. And that's why social media is the same. It's a very dangerous place because the most popular people on social media are the ones that open the doors, right? There are people who are very popular, not because they're talented, not because they have necessarily some unique message. It is because they give you a window into their very private life. You see their bedroom, you see their marriages, their children, you see their clothing. Some people take you to their closet. Like really, I don't need to see your closet, but why am I watching it, you know? Their pantry, their secret pantry door, you know? And we get so, ooh, I don't want that. It's just the nuts is so weak to these things. We're very weak. So when we indulge in these things, it just, it overwhelms us. And then this is how you waste time. And I remember the first time I ever heard about TikTok, which is why I came out so aggressively against it, is because I was in a halakka, and this was way, I think, before even the pandemic started in 2019, when it wasn't popular, because it boomed in 2020. It boomed in the pandemic, right? But prior to that, it wasn't as popular. But I remember being in a halakka with some teen girls, and I had never heard of anything being so addictive before in terms of like, you know, just the way they described it. But this one girl, she was like, oh, TikTok is so addictive. And she's like, I have spent, the longest I ever spent on there was four hours, because she was like, it was like incessant like scrolling. You know, you just kept going. And I didn't have it. I didn't understand it. But I remember being completely shocked. Because I looked at it, I was like, four hours, you just sat and watched TikTok for four hours. That, you know, I had a lot. I couldn't imagine that, right? And, because I didn't understand it. And then I, when I eventually downloaded it, because I wanted to see what is this app. I was like, oh my God, they know exactly what they do. And I actually, incidentally, ironically, saw a TikTok recently of this one. He's a famous TikToker, but he was just kind of describing his experience. And he said something really great. He said, it's just so unnatural to, you know, to swipe. And you see like, you know, someone's home or funny video. And then you swipe and you see someone who just is recuperating from cancer treatment. And you see someone who lost their spouse. And then you see a funny video and a cat video. He said, that is the most unnatural human experience, but we still do it, right? And so these are, we're living in a time where these mediums are just too powerful and too strong and we're susceptible and weak to them. And the way to kind of snap out of it, right? Snap out of these bad habits, these vices is to remember your time is ticking away. Your time, every minute we have where we're not doing something of benefit, we're not, whatever that is, because there's of course, the bad that we do for the sake of Allah's praises but when we serve our families and we serve our communities when we're doing our work, which is in a manner and we're trying to gain halal income so that we can do good, that's all worship, right? It's all considered worship. If we're not doing those things, but we're wasting time, then unfortunately the wake-up call is going to come and it'll hit us, because whether it's another loss of a loved one or our own potential emergent, urgent situation, the diagnosis, the phone call, the doctor's report, the blood results, that is gonna wake us all up, right? And then what? Then it's like the race for oh my God, I have limited time, I gotta make up, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, yes. It's completely taken over and I think honestly just looking, because I pay attention to trends, I do social media literacy, so I kinda look and watch at what's going on and I feel it is a major contributor to a lot of the mental health crises we're having and a lot of just the debilitating levels of depression that people are in because you're consuming and it's partly because of this disease, right? Which is we're just consuming constantly and when it comes to social media, I'm really, I feel like we have to get to a point in our lives where we have a, we're at a crossroads. Either I'm on here to consume and then whatever that means, which is see things haram and appropriate things which are gonna affect me, right? Cause that's what you do. You're just gonna be there to consume. It's kind of like going out in the middle of a minefield and just trancing all over it. You're gonna get hit, right? And you don't know with what, not to danger of social media and the internet is there are very inappropriate things on there that will come at you and you're just like, oh, I didn't wanna see that, but I did, right? So you're either gonna be a victim and it's gonna hurt you that way or you're gonna say, okay, it's here and I want to be doing something beneficial. So producing content, which is not difficult to do and that's a full other topic, but I really think everybody has to make that decision. What am I gonna do? I'm either consuming or I'm producing. And producing, by the way, can also be reproducing, which is sharing beneficial content. So if you can't make content, then your intention, part of intentionality on these spaces should be, I will absolutely look for beneficial things to share so that I'm not on here just harming myself and collecting bad deeds and sins, but rather being a person of action, being a person of calling to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and I had a class right before this and I appreciate so much. We have a brother named Sidi Usama on Clubhouse. It's an app that if you're not familiar with it, it's an audio input app. It's a good app, but we do classes on there. So he came on and he just, he gave some really great reminders, but one of the things that he said is that, we've kind of, as Muslims as a community, there's a term, I don't know how many of you are familiar. I learned it, but it's not a very common in these terms. It's called foisting. So when you foist, it's like you have a responsibility, but you put it on someone else, right? You're responsible for something, but you don't do it. So you have someone else do it for you. And so we've kind of passed the buck, I guess. The responsibility of Dawa, of teaching, to certain groups or teachers, we just think they're the ones who should be doing that. When in fact, part of our role as Muslims as believers, especially in the privilege that we have here in the West and in this age of information, where there's so much access and we don't have to deal with a lot of the barriers that other people do in even Muslim countries. Like there are Muslims in Muslim countries who cannot do active Dawa because the government will come down on them. We don't have that problem. Yes, Islamophobia exists, but for the most of us, especially here in the West and California and in the Bay Area, that's not necessarily our experience, right? So we are going to be held accountable for our lack of actively trying to teach people about our faith. And that doesn't mean getting in a town square on a microphone standing on a stage and reading verses from the Quran or debating people and putting up tables and pamphlets. That's not the only way that you could do Dawa or going knocking on people's doors, that's not our way. Dawa is being really proud of your faith, like loving it, and how do you inculcate love? I mean, if you haven't gotten to that point where you're like, oh my God, I love being Muslim, Ya Allah, thank you for this gift of Islam. I would never be anything else. I would never wish to live a thousand lifetimes if I didn't have Islam. I don't care what if I was a princess or leading this, I wouldn't want any of it if I didn't know you. Like that's the kind of degree of absolute gratitude and love we have to feel for being Muslim. Wallahi, like I am just, sometimes I break down because I'm like, I could have been anywhere. Like some of us who are immigrants, you know, I was born in Afghanistan. I know there are others much a lot here from my homeland. I could have been another statistic, and a forgotten person blown up by some mine in the middle of Kandahar where I was born. Nobody would have known I existed forgotten, like so many people, right? This is what we just read. How many towns were destroyed, they're ghost towns now, nobody exists. Nobody remembers them. But Allah didn't want that for us, right? He took us out of very difficult circumstances. Those of us whose parents even immigrated here, wherever you came from, brought us to a land where we are able to flourish. We are, I know that there's a lot of talk about, you know, this type of oppression and systemic racism. And yes, those things exist, but I believe as Muslims we are privileged in many ways. Like I feel the privilege of being Muslim. I do, I feel people automatically trust me. Like when I go into a space, don't you feel that way, especially if you wear hijab? I feel like I earn trust without saying a word. People just look at me and they feel like I could trust you with my belongings. I've had literally people go, can you watch my stuff for me? I'm like, of all the people in this Starbucks or in this, you know, coffee shop or in this supermarket, why me? Because we're wearing a symbol of dignity, of honor, of commitment, of inshallah, trustworthyness. That comes with some privilege, right? I've had, you know, I've had many experiences where I could just see that this is from Allah. It's a, you know, and this is what he promises that when we put him first, he will raise us and he will elevate us. And so we feel that, but this is the gift of Islam. So we have to, you know, really appreciate that we are just immensely, immensely blessed with our, with our deen and then want so very much to share it, right? To share that with others, yes. So 100% right. In fact, just the other day, I think a week ago or so, my son said the exact same thing. He said, mommy, he needs 13 years old. He said, mommy, I noticed like converts really seem to be very strong Muslims. Like, you know, and he just had a lot of respect. Like they really take their faith seriously. And, you know, he was contrasting it with some of, you know, the people that he knows that were born into Islam who don't practice fully. And there are times when, when they were growing up, they would really have a hard time. Like, why don't they pray? And, you know, trying to explain that to a child who is in cetera, you know, who hasn't yet learned, had the education of, you know, what dunya can really do to people is hard because in their world, it doesn't make any sense. You know, they believe, Alhamdulillah, because they're not fitra, they may well preserve their faith. But it's really, it's a struggle to explain to a child, like why doesn't, you know, Islam is such a, it's the truth, it's Haqq, and Allah said it. Why aren't they doing it? Or what's even harder is when they see outright sinfulness, you know, like drinking alcohol or doing other haram. That really is hard for them to reconcile. But, you know, you explain that, and this is why understanding the human being is so important and being able to frame those conversations in the context of, yes, we have akhal, but we also have emotions, we also have appetites. And for some people, because they're not doing this work of really spiritually cleansing themselves, what happens is the akhal takes a back seat. It's supposed to be the driver, right? Your intellect is supposed to be driving you, but it will not drive if your appetite of soul or your irascible soul is in control. Your emotions and your appetites can override and hijack you, right? It's, it can happen and it does happen. And for a lot of people, that's just the reality of it. So how do you regain control? This, face yourself, look at your diseases, confront yourself, stop wasting time, and be honest, you know, that you have work to do. So I always say, like when you're doing, you know, the skia, presume you have every single disease because you likely do. Go into this book like, oh man, I'm riddled with all of it, all 25 diseases I have. Now how can I get rid of it, right? But if you come to this like, oh, I don't think I miserly, you're gonna be proven wrong. You are, we all are, we all have it. I don't think I have about that. Oh no, you do, you're excessive. You know, as again, go into your closets and all the clutter and it'll prove to you. SubhanAllah. So then he, yeah, Allah, he says, scholars of various religions often expounded on hunger as an important sensation that feeds spiritual growth. Healing emptiness in the stomach, they said, is excellent for the body as well as the soul. According to Imam Maddik, fasting three days out of the month is the best way to maintain a regular engagement with hunger. The fasting regimen known as the fast of David or Dawud, alaihi salam, consists of fasting every other day with the exception of religious holidays. Fasting Mondays and Thursdays is also an excellent regimen. Whichever pattern of fasting one chooses, it is important to maintain it for fasting is an excellent form of worship that is beloved by God and praised by the Prophet, alaihi salam. It also is a protective shield against wantonness. The second aspect to the remedy is to remember death and the hereafter. What is meant by remember here is not the common function of memory in which one merely recalls a fact without any reflection. In fact, no spiritual remedy mentioned in this book involves a flaccid process. Each requires exertion and a true desire to achieve success in its fullest sense. Freeing the heart of diseases such as wantonness requires remembering the hereafter and its various states and tumultuous scenes. For example, one should reflect on the state of the grave which will be either a parcel of paradise or a pit of hell. Once a person dies, his journey in the hereafter begins. Meditation on the hereafter requires learning more about its various stations and passages, including the traverse, surat, over which people must cross and behold below the awesome inferno of the hellfire. Consistent reflection of this nature lessens the apparent value of extravagance and in general, all the fleeting enticements this world has to offer, whether it is wealth, prestige, fame, or the like. The Imam cites the verse, God does not love those who exalt in chapter 28, verse 76, whether it is in their wealth, status, or anything else. Images glorifying wantonness are ubiquitous in our times. Even as one drives here, she is accosted by billboard advertisements that show the faces of wantonness. People in ecstatic postures with exaggerated smiles and gaping mouths showing off their supreme happiness because they own a particular type of car or smoke a certain brand of cigarettes or a guzzle a special brand of beer, alcohol that destroys lives and minds. According to advertising theory, when people are constantly exposed to such images, they not only incline toward the product but desire the culture associated with it. Advertisers sell a lifestyle that glorifies wantonness and subtly dissuades reflection. All those smiling people on billboards and all those who aim their glances toward them will inevitably die someday and stand before their maker. This is the ultimate destiny of all human beings. It is this realization that is the slayer of wantonness. Allahu Akbar. And we have to again, bring it back to the individual, bring it back to yourself. How can you stop being excessive? What is it that you're doing that's excessive? Is it again, going back to the consumption? Is it food? Is it enjoyment and leisurely activities? Are you playing a lot of games? There are people who, I mean, I don't know if anybody has that here but there are many people in our community who are heavily addicted to video games, right? Or these alternate reality, virtual reality spaces where they just go into a world that's not reality and they want to be there. Or is it again, media of other types, music. Music can be quite addictive. There are a lot of people who spend an exorbitant amount of time listening to lyrics. And now it's interesting, because I saw a video, I think yesterday or the day before of someone saying that it's coming out now in Hollywood. There's been a lot of, I think, with TikTok and the explosion of social media influencers and also the parallel of what's happening with Hollywood and the music industry. Celebrities don't have as much clout as they once did, right? It's not as, they used to have a lot of power. Everybody were way around for the Oscar season. Everybody was just like, at the edge of their seat to see who's dressed and what couple's doing that. Nobody cares what they're doing, right? A lot of people are over it. They're like, whatever. Who cares what the Kardashians are doing, right? And so, I'm just going somewhere with that. But, oh, the video I was watching was saying that a lot of these, the music industry, it's coming out now that they actually do use or are tapping into very demonic energies intentionally. Like there's more and more people exposing. And we've all kind of, I'm sure, heard these theories about Hollywood. And I don't think they're really theories. I think they're very real. There's definitely a lot of demonic activity. But specifically with music, they were saying that the frequency, if you study like music and what the effects it has on the soul, right? Like the way that the tunes are, the levels of whatever they're, all the mechanics of how they produce those sounds, that there are certain frequencies, waves that actually can affect the soul. And so that's why you have people physically, viscerally being affected by music. And for us, we have the opposite, right? When we're listening to, for example, a beautiful restitution of the Quran or then that's also very spiritual experience because of sound, right? So these functions or these faculties that we have are gifts because they enable us to have these experiences. That's obviously a positive thing. But imagine the flip of that, that you could be channeling or listening to music that's set to a lower frequency that is actually trying to, it's like an opening or access something that could potentially be harmful to spiritual speaking. And it's no wonder, I mean, I found it very interesting because I'm like, there's just so many people addicted to their music. Like they cannot get over it. They're very, it's like this codependency that they have their headsets on all the time. They're just really attached to their music. And it could be lyric. So you have to think for yourself, is that your vice? Is it, and I said food, is it material things? You just like to shop. Window shopping is a thing, but if you're doing it to the point where every week you have new items or you always feel the need to update your wardrobe and you're not really thinking about the carbon footprint of your consumption, how much, what are you doing in terms of where you're buying your products from? Because there are definitely websites or definitely companies that have terrible practices that are actually part of a slave labor force. It's a proven thing. We have to be conscientious consumers. The foods that we eat, chocolate, coffee, if it's not fair trade, if it's not brain force compliant, if it's not organic, do you know where you're getting these things from? Do you know that there's an effect on the heart when you're consuming things that are not from, sourced from halal or proper sources? You're contributing to that. So whatever you think you're in excess of take some time, inshallah this month or today or however long you want to and think about what you can do to make a change for the sake of Allah. What are you willing to give up? What are you willing to give up? And we all are gonna have different answers but that's a good way to start and then think about death, remembrance of death and definitely practice fasting. I can't, I really speak highly of my own experience with it if you've never tried intermittent fasting just buckle up, it'll, it's a practice but it gets easier and easier and you feel like your body's just come alive. I used to have, I mean, I have other health complications but a lot of my pains, my joint pains, my just things just go away, I don't feel it. I can pray without with ease, motions just go up and down whereas when your body is fatigued and burdened by the ingredients and it's sometimes not even how much you're eating, it's the quality of the ingredients, right? And I'm sure you've read all the articles and you've seen all the videos but we do have to I think overhaul our diets and we shouldn't be introducing certain foods to our kids and getting them habits. Like I know it's like very popular Takis and Cheetos and all these terrible ingredient foods that people bring in but they actually have addictive chemicals that do impact the brain, that do affect the body and it's just what creatures have it. So the more conscientious we can be about these things and make better choices, inshallah we'll see the benefits of those things in our minds and our bodies and our spiritual hearts and in our practice and not that ultimately the objective is that we better ourselves and nothing has to happen overnight but intention is really good. Hopefully we all shine on the right intention but that was a chapter on butler. Are there any questions or comments? I know it's getting past five minutes past the hour but we can, if you want, anybody who wants to leave you free to leave, there's no, no questions here but I can stick around for a little bit longer if you wanna chat or just have some comments. Yes, that's a good question, inshallah. So one of the subjects I talk about is emotional intelligence, right? Which is really it's a framework but it's multi-faceted and it teaches you how to maintain your own practice while also being empathic and considerate of other people. This is the way of the Prophet's life system. Of course, the entire framework in my estimation is really just describing the son of the Prophet's life system and the Prophet's life system was very attuned to, he read the room, he read people, he knew people's states. And so we have to kind of how like in this culture in the corporate culture, right? You leave your personal business when you go into the office and then vice versa. When you go home, you should leave work at home, right? That's kind of how we're trained to think. In many ways, part of the believers, good adab towards his fellow, her fellow human beings is keeping things that are preoccupying you, right? Within yourself or with people that are open to those discussions. So if you're getting pushed back from anybody, just remember it and say, okay, not with that person, right? But if you have the opposite, friends who are like, yes, I'm on the same wavelength, I feel you, I wanna talk about this and they are kind of in the same page, feel very free to speak about with them. I mean, I love provide us with companions in this life that we feel free with, right? We feel we're on the same road with because it feels really good, right? To have a person who you can just turn to and be like, yeah, man, I've been thinking about this. So like me too. And you're like, oh, and now you have someone that you can really just purge and let all that out too. And it's very cathartic. And so I would just say, pay attention if someone's feeling uncomfortable. And I know because I get requests a lot from people who are, they have, and it's one of the diseases of the heart it's called antipathy toward death, that I hate to the moat. So when you have like a fear of death, it's very paralyzing for some people and they can't handle it. And that's something that they would have to work on independently, but we don't wanna ever trigger people into like a panic state or into real, you know, just some sort of a fear state that we can't get them out of. So just sensitive, bring up a topic. And if you find no reception, move on, don't personalize it. It's not personal. Maybe they're just not at that level and Allah has awakened you. Like the way I, another simple thing to also remember is like Sennadi said, right? He said, and that's when he am, they then met in Tabukhul. So what he's teaching us is two things that most people are in a deluded sleep like state, right? They're not awake yet. So it's like the matrix. If you see death in every, everywhere you go and you're not like morbid about it, you just are very hyper-vigilant. That's a huge nafana, Allah. It is a gift. The veils are lifted for you, right? He's opened the veils and you can see the reality of things because death is inevitable. A lot of people just don't have that view and they're in that, you know, slumber sleep kind of spell of Dunya. And so just be like, okay, they can't see it. And I'm not gonna, it's not personal to me. They just can't see it. And make the offer then that Allah opens the heart and mind. But I don't think we should stop thinking about death and we shouldn't stop talking about it, which would be choice and judicious with who we speak about it with. That's a very good question. That's a lot of people. You're always welcome to talk to me about death. I'm, death is a topic I will never stop talking about or I don't shy away from. I've always had that. And I think that's why, Alhamdulillah, Allah has made my losses. He's made it easy for me to hope because I understand. And it's from him. I've lost people in my life, but I'll tell you, it's actually, I got emotional during Maghrib because of the verses the Imam was reciting and just a memory hit me right afterwards during the Dua. So I lost one of my closest friends, Allah, when she was just barely 30. And for some reason I didn't, anyway, the process of her passing was very sudden. She died overnight in her sleep. She had an eating disorder and we don't know how or what happened, but she, it was inconclusive, her death. So she just, Allah took her soul in the middle of the night. And that was a very difficult process for me personally because I had to wash her, her family just couldn't do it. They were really overwhelmed. So I washed her, come to that. And though it was painful because when you are like the religious friend and in a group of people that are not as religious, they do turn to you, right? They want you to give them strength during those times. So your own morning has to be, wait, you know, it has to wait. So that was kind of the predicament I was in where I was like, I felt a lot of feelings, but her mom, her sister, her brother, everybody in her family just kind of turning to me for support, emotional support. And seeing me, if I started breaking down, they were gonna break down, right? So I had to be that pillar of like, no, I'm sure she's done that. And just all those reminders during the whole burial process, the washing, everything. And then even after, so when I got home that night, it was like finally my time, you know, to just break down. And, Alhamdulillah, Allah is so kind, Allah is so kind. He accepts God's and I've witnessed it more times than I can count, but I begged Allah because it was, I had talked to her two days before she died. We were supposed to go out to lunch. There are so many things left unsaid. And I just, I was like, y'all, I just wanna see her. So I made a doc and I felt my need and he said, I fell to my knees and I begged Allah. I said, y'all, please show me her in a dream. I just need to know she's okay. And Allah, he listens and he answers. He's Majibah Dawa, he answered my doc. I saw a beautiful dream of her. And I was overlooking a cliff and I was washing dishes. I'm in this like cute little cottage, like a cottage and it's like this beautiful idyllic scene. Just imagine like this green cliff, like the shire. I'm looking over it and there's a clothesline, white clothes hanging. And I'm just like, wow, this is such a beautiful place. I was just washing dishes and all of a sudden I see her and she's like a little child. She had beautiful blonde curls and she's like a little child weaving in and out of the clothesline. And then she goes to the end of the cliff and she's standing there. And when I saw her, I was like, oh my God, I see her. So I got so excited and I, you know, grabbed my hands, I ran outside to go look for her because she kind of disappeared. And when I went, I see her and she's standing at the cliff and I'll never forget this tune for the rest of my life. Y'all, please don't take this memory from me. It's so vivid to me. But she's standing at the end of the cliff and she's looking up and her mouth is open in ecstasy and awe. Like she's just frozen. And I'm looking at her like, I remember just looking, turning to her like, what is she doing? Because I didn't see what she was looking at. I just saw her positioning. And then I looked up into the sky and Allahu Akbar, there's a moon and in the moon is flashing, Allah Muhammad, and then around the moon is like a circulating, like a real a carousel of like verses of the Quran. And it was so vivid. And it was like, she was just gone. She was gone. She was with Allah. And that's all I just woke up after that dream. And I was like, Allah Akbar, thank you. You gave me the gift that I just wanted to see what she was. And that dream, I told it to her family the next day and they were just overwhelmed because everybody was, you know, when you have a sudden death, it's very hard. You don't know what's happening. And so I brought a lot of peace to my heart and I just feel like that and other experiences I had, Allah has shown me through my life, loss of my father, Allah, I'm with the loss of my mother just this past May, that death is real. It's all, we're all on that trajectory. No, none of us is gonna escape it. Nothing to be afraid of if you have La ilaha illallah, Muhammad As-Soulallah on your tongue and in your heart and you live every single day grateful to your Lord. You are drowning in gratitude because you see that without him, nothing, you're nothing, you're nothing. And he sustains you. He wakes you up from slumber and sleep and he gives you nourishment and food and he gives you love and he gives you da'as that are answered before you even ask them. He gives you sustenance and he's giving you abilities. Look at all of us. All of us walked here. I don't see anybody here who's not able-bodied. We have so much to be grateful for. I see people that are in wheelchairs or have other disabilities and I'm like, ya Allah, ya Allah, you did not try us with that or have lost their sight or who have lost something. They are in difficulty but here Allah gives us ease after ease after ease and we can't say, alhamdulillah wa shukrullah, thank you, ya Allah. So we have to just be in a state of total gratitude to Allah and I think I'm so grateful for my teachers because that has been the number one teaching. Be grateful, no matter what. Be grateful, right? As Mary said, masha'Allah, thank you for saying that. No matter what, you have to be grateful because every state, as the Prophet ﷺ told us, right? The state of the believer, whatever state we're in is what? Alhamdulillah al-Kuliyah, right? Whatever state we're in, whether it's tribulation, whether it's, you know, abundance, it's all good because we're believers and I think that's what we have to hold on to, that it's easy to, you know, to let shaytan, you know, come into your mind and mess with you and think, oh, I don't have this because so-and-so has that and, you know, I wish I had this and you play those mind games with you but you have to be like, no, I have that, ya Allah. I'm the wealthiest person. I'm the wealthiest person because I have a shahad on my tongue and there are people out there who have everything materially. They don't know God, they don't know Allah. Like to me, that is a nightmare situation that you're walking around this world and you don't know who the Prophet ﷺ is. You've never read the Seerah. You don't know who he is. Like how do you exist on this play in this world and not know him? But that's our job, right? That's what we're supposed to be doing. Exactly. Jazalallah. Exactly. It's the Rahmah. For loved ones, especially our parents and we have to prepare for that. If your parents are still alive, may Allah protect and preserve them but you have to get to that place of why am I holding on to them when it's at their detriment? You know, their feeling pain, their burden. There's a state of anguish that people enter into when they're older and they're suffering and they've lost a lot of their faculties and they're having tubes and it's just, it's so much suffering. So death is a cessation of that suffering and it's a most important thing. It is the step that we all have to take in order to know our Lord and to have the ultimate prize. Finally, inshallah, may Allah reward us all with Genesis of those and the beatific vision where we come and finally all the veils are removed and we can see our Lord and answer or ask all those questions that we wanna ask. And we have to go through the door of death to do that. So I agree with you 100%. And I think the more you think about death in this healthy way, preparing your heart, the more you're not afraid of it. It's the fact that we have adopted this culture's attitude which is everything death or close to death is horrible and terrible and dark and morbid and sick and twisted that we shun it. But then what does that do? It just attaches our hearts to the demon more and that's the true poison. You're taking the real poison here. That's not poison. That's reality and half, but that's the elixir. The Remembrance of Death, if you continue to read this book, it is the elixir, the panacea, the cure-all for almost every disease in this book. So, and it's the advice of the Prophet's life. At the end of the day, if he tells you to do something, you better know it's good for you. So we have to have a mind shift and that's why, again, Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, na'amat al-Islam. These are the words that we have to be internalizing and repeating often within ourselves and to our loved ones as well. We'll get through it. Allah is with you. Exactly. Right. Absolutely. And that's a very, that's a sunnah practice. We should all ask for the best death, right? We ask for that. We ask Allah SWT to give us a good ending out of this life. And so that's a daily thought we should be making. And that's another part of Remembrance of Death. So it's perfect. And you're right, because, you know, when we know that sudden death is a tribulation or one of the signs at the end of time, then we should seek its opposite, right? Which is I want to have time to, as you said, you know, tie up those loose ends, say goodbye to everybody, make Toba, most importantly, but make Toba and be in a place of preparation. Mm, Subhanallah. Real talk, Subhanallah. Right. Yeah. And that's why these, yeah, and if you remind them periodically every day or every other day about these realities, that it won't come as a shell shock type of, you know, oh, I didn't even anticipate this because they've already been prepared, but this could happen. And I'll, you know, tell you just briefly and we can, inshallah, close out, because I don't want to tire you. I know it's still a work week, but briefly, the other day, you know, it's interesting you said that because sometimes in the middle of the night, you know, it's happened to me before where I'll just wake up and it's hard to go back to sleep, right? So in those vulnerable states, everybody's asleep, like three o'clock in the morning, you know, you're kind of thinking about things and overthinking. So I have travel coming up soon and I haven't traveled in a long time. And so, of course, Iblees is right there to try to contribute to my crazy thoughts. And so I start catastrophizing. I'm like, oh man, if I get on a plane, it loads up or something happens. And then, you know, I'm taking my son with me and I'm like, oh my God, what if we both die? And then I'm leaving my other son and my husband. So I'm like, all these crazy thoughts, they're just coming to me for some reason. And I don't usually entertain them, but I started kind of having a little bit of a, oh man, do I really want to go on this trip? Kind of feeling, right? And I caught myself like, no, we can't escape it. If it's Qadr, you know, whatever it is. So I'm catching myself realizing it's waswasa. And you know, we pray, alhamdulillah, Fajr comes in and I have a practice of reading Quran at Fajr time. So I open my phone to find the verse that I'm going to read. This is why I mean, Allah communicates. Yeah, Allah communicates, don't ever, ever doubt Allah, He's always listening and He's there. We have to pay attention to sign. Well, Allah, I read this verse. Do you not see that Allah has subjected to you, whatever is on the earth and the ships which run through the sea by His command? And He restrains the sky from falling upon the earth, unless by His permission, indeed, Allah to the people is kind and merciful. I mean, you can't tell me this is a coincidence. You know, here I am in my state of like panic and fear. And He's like, don't you see the school? Who's in control? That's our Lord. And He's always unveiling His signs to us, but we have to be paying attention. So, alhamdulillah, remembrance of death, as I said, is a very big part of the spiritual practice, fasting, silence, silence, we have to welcome more silence. The noise of this dinya is overwhelmed with soul. So bringing in quietude is really important to the mind. So as women, I know a lot of times we are so giving, so giving sometimes to our own detriment, we have to have some boundaries around our mental wellbeing. And if that means timeouts or I need a break, I need to go on a walk, I need to go ride or drive around the neighborhood. I need to go into the garage. Some I know, when you have young kids, it's like for me for a while, the garage was my sanctuary. Don't come in here. I know friends of mine go into their closets. They will call me, they're like, I'm like, the kids don't know I'm here. Wherever it is, find a place that's yours, physically for yourself. And don't feel bad about it. Don't feel bad about taking a break or having a chocolate stash, chocolate is therapy for some people, whatever you need. And then also do what we did in the beginning, which is create a visualization of a refuge for you and Allah, nobody else, not your parents, your children, your spouse, whoever is your best friend, nobody. Because that's gonna be your experience in the grave. And you need to start preparing your soul for that singular, like that single or that very private experience of being in solitude with Allah. And not to be afraid of it. Insha'Allah, we are not going to be afraid of it. Inna lilahi wa inni, bi hurrahi, bi hurrahi. So Jazakumu akhirin everyone. Insha'Allah, we'll end in dua. And if there's any questions that we can ask afterwards. As-Salaamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Rahmatullahi wa Rahmatullahi. Again, Jazakumu wa khirin, insha'Allah, we will see you next month. Again, Jazakumu wa khirin. Insha'Allah, we will see you next month. I do highly encourage you to get the book if you don't have it. We'll continue with the reading. And please let others know as well. It's an open door policy. And if you're available this Saturday, join us insha'Allah for the vikid here, same place, nine o'clock to 11. We'll have insha'Allah sister Amira. By the way, Amira, I have to introduce you to those who don't know you. I have to say this because you're such an inspiration to me and you know, you didn't know I'm gonna do this, but I'm gonna put you on the spot for a moment. Amira came to us from Tampa, Florida, I don't know, maybe within a year or a few months ago. I just so much admiration for this sister, insha'Allah, coming to a brand new community. And I know many of you do that. I know there's a lot of implants from other places. But what I so admire about Amira is I came to know of her not in this way of, oh, how are you through the haqqa, but that she was seeking to do programming here at MCC to serve this community right away. You come to a new community, you don't know anybody, but you're like, I need to get my hands in it. I need to get in it. So she's coming monthly to do readings for our kids here because Mashallah blessed her with the talents to be able to reach the little hearts. I've watched her videos. I've been in programs with her. I just have so much admiration and respect for you and the spirit with which you do what you do Mashallah. May Allah bless and reward you. And I invited her to join me on Saturday because I really think that her intention of trying to create a sisterhood is what I want. I want this, I want this. I want multitude, I want more of this. I want sisters to come into these spaces and just be like, I just want to come and just, you know, breathe and be free and feel at peace and then be able to talk about experiences freely without judgment or without worry. You know, it's just a space of a real true sisterhood. So Mashallah, she'll be with us on Saturday and Allah bless you. Thank you so much.