 Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem So, did you guys have a good New Year's? So this is an interesting time of the year, I think, for all of us. It's interesting because there seems to be like a shift that happens, like a collective or an awakening of some type, you know, our collective conscience is waking up around the end of the year, every year it happens. And people start, I think, questioning, you know, their, maybe their lives, their choices in the previous year, what they did, what they didn't do, their goals, and maybe even their own mortality, right? You start, I mean, every year that passes, you're a year older, so I think you just start facing those questions that you're avoiding all year long. And that's why you have this thing that happens every year around this time where everybody suddenly wants to be better, they want to, they have all these resolutions, and they start planning and making all these changes. So it's a really interesting time of year. From the spiritual perspective, we should be doing that type of self-analysis, not once a year, right? Not at the end of every year. How often should that happen? Every single day, right? So every single day we should be going through this, you know, process of really thinking about what we did during the day. You know, and this is called mohasaba, right? Where you actually are taking yourself to account. You're looking back from the start of your day, how are your, first important question, the most important question, if you want to, at the end of every day, at your, you know, in bed, and you're thinking about your day, what's the most important thing that you should be thinking about first? How is your salah, right? Right? Oh, you want me to put this one on too? Okay, sorry. Sure. Okay. This one, the clip is not working here. I'm sorry. Okay. I don't know if I can figure this out, hold it. It's not even on. Oh wait, it's on now? Oh, much louder. Okay. So yeah, the clip is broken. I don't know how this will work. Actually, hold on. Yeah, okay. Got it. So, our prayers, right? The most important thing that we should be looking at every single day, from the beginning of the day, but also at the end of the day. I mean, if you're doing the evaluation process at the end, you want to look at how are your prayers, right? That's the most important thing. Why is that the most important thing? Absolutely. I mean, if your prayers aren't there, then yeah, you can't really hold on, right? But to your point, you know, the very first thing that we're all going to be asked about on the Day of Judgment is what? Is our prayer. This absolutely is the most important goal that we should have every single day, right? Beyond everything else that we're doing. If we're, and as most of us are, I'm sure we all wear different hats, right? We're wives, we're daughters, we're sisters, we're mothers, we wear many different hats and we end up doing a lot and we're juggling a lot. We have a lot of responsibilities, right? Some people are very good about keeping their responsibilities in order. They like to-do lists. How many of you have to-do lists every day? You work from a to-do list, right? Mashallah. So, you keep yourself organized, which is very good. Some people are just on autopilot, right? It's just like, I don't know what's going on, but I know I've got things to do, you know, and you're racing back and forth, you know, that's-a lot of us are like that. We're on little sleep, right? We're barely getting enough rest and nutrients, but we're just going, you know? But, you know, the dunya is always pushing us to meet, you know, all of those worldly goals that we have and they're important, nobody's denying taking care of your family, taking care of responsibilities, working, whatever it is that we're doing. Those are all important, but the goal of every single one of us here should be to make certain that whatever is happening in our lives, that it does not interfere with our prayer. Because it is the reason why we are created. None of this other stuff matters. Allah SWT created us for one reason and one reason only which is to worship Him. So if we're not, you know, doing well in our prayers, that's the first thing you want to look at if you're not finding yourself satisfied in your life. If there's things that are happening, you know, you have a lot of problems, tribulations, hardships, you want to look at your prayer. You want to evaluate from that standpoint. Like, how committed am I to my prayers? Am I kind of just not really there half-heartedly doing it? Am I not doing it at all, my missing prayers? You know, but look at that because I, you know, for sure if you're having any, as I said, issues in life, a lot of times they can be, you know, connected to the prayer. So, you know, as I said in the beginning, at this time of the year, this is what, you know, people are doing everywhere all around us, but we should be doing this every day. And that's the very first thing that we should be looking at. But I wanted to talk about this concept of, you know, of happiness because that's, you know, what so many of us are striving for, right? We're all striving to be happy one way or another our relationships, they can come from financial pursuits or career pursuits, whatever, but we all want this concept of happiness. And so we have to, you know, stop and ask ourselves whose definition of happiness are we committed to, right? Because if you look at, we talked about this yesterday, I had a session here, some of the people in the room were here yesterday too, but we looked at this, you know, idea of happiness and it's interesting because research shows that the more people, you know, strive for happiness and we're talking, you know, this is research done by by scientists, so it's not Muslims that are doing this necessarily but they found that the more people pursue or try to pursue happiness, something interesting happens. What do you think it is? They become happy. So as we are pushed in this direction of wanting to be happy researchers find that if that's your focus of this, you know, word happiness and that's all you care about and you're, you know, what happens to most people is they start isolating other people in their lives because the way that our world defines happiness is a very selfish self-centered pursuit, right? It's all about me, me, me. It's all about what I want and so what natural, naturally what happens is if you start getting in that you know, frame of mind you're going to alienate the people in your lives, you're not going to feel a lot of fulfillment from whatever it is you're pursuing and so you end up seeing that as people make that their number one pursuit they actually end up with low you know, life satisfaction. So that's interesting, right? Because it's like how can that happen? Well, it's again because what is your definition of happiness? If it's to have material wealth to gain things, to acquire things, to acquire power, to acquire relationships, you're likely going to go down that route. But that's not the purpose of our creation, right? As we said the most part that created us for one purpose and one purpose only, which is to worship him. And if you look at our entire faith, every single aspect of our faith is to actually give us the most fulfillment that we can possibly have in this dunya. Right? Everything. That's why our faith is not just a belief system, it's a way of life. If we actually commit to following our faith the way we should be, by following the example of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the by-product of that, the natural consequence of that is that we will have the true meaning of happiness, right? Which is what? Because there's happiness that's fleeting and it's just an emotion, but true happiness is what? The true meaning of happiness is to have so much peace in your heart that the whole nothing phases you in this dunya. That is actual happiness. Everything else that is sold to us on a daily basis is a lie. It's an absolute lie, right? It's a lie that money will buy you happiness. It's a lie that beauty will make you happy. It's a lie that even your relationships are going to fulfill you. That's not true. Yes? Please. Right. But you know, we're still we're sold this idea again that it's not just from the society around us, many of our cultures and our family members they tell us this from a very young age get this you'll be happy everything will be fine everything will be perfect and a lot of times we realize that's not what happens and you end up having tribulation and problems and difficulties and challenges and what happens? This is where shaitan just jumps right in because you thought I would hate someone and I did everything right it was halal Why am I so miserable? My marriage is not good. I'm not happy because they were told that if they do everything by script and if they make astaghara it's like a magic potion and everything will be fine. This is not true, right? So sometimes it can be even from our cultural concept that this dunya is not a place where we should put an expectation of happiness. It's not. Happiness is an emotion that's going to come at times, like when you have the birth of your first child or yes on your wedding night all of us hopefully are or we're happy There are times where happiness can come to your heart but if you ever believe that you're going to be happy for a few days and have this constant satisfaction in life and nothing is ever going to come and affect you negatively this is where you set yourself up for a lot of disappointment but what we're seeing is that this is what's happening so many people are not really clear on exactly what our purpose is here and what the relationship with Allah is so they end up, you know I get really close to Allah when things are going good or when I have a need like when I'm suddenly desperate you get a call from your doctor and there's a diagnosis a potential diagnosis like the blood tests are coming and it could be something terrible now all of a sudden everybody prayers go up and phone calls are being made and it's like we have this very interesting idea of what our relationship is with Allah like he's just on call when we need him and that's not how it works we're here only because it's a blessing from him and a gift from him but the real purpose and this is where we have to really come back to our understanding the real purpose of our creation SubhanAllah and this is where we have to be so grateful to Allah and so that we have an opportunity to strive for eternal happiness that is the purpose of our existence Allah created us he has no need for any of this he does not need anything from any of us so there's nothing for him in this it's entirely for us so when we think about the pursuit of happiness literally is existence and following our deen if you really want to be happy that's how you have to convince your mind the only way that I will have a true understanding or a true experience of happiness is if I commit myself to this deen and I follow it with that full intention and full heart because anything else is you're going to not have satisfaction in life fall, pray to so many traps of shaytan because that's what he does he's the greatest enemy and so his purpose is to take away our faith little by little step by step and he'll work on us every single one of us he'll find those weak spots those blind spots that we have and he'll start chipping away at us and so that's why we have to step back and say I want to protect myself from his traps and again the answer goes back to your faith the Prophet s.a.w. if you look at his entire existence he didn't leave us without a solution for really anything from the beginning of the day we have dua that we say throughout every single moment there are reminders there are remembrances there are actions that we should take that's why a rod like this is so important because there's protective daus in here there's daus in here that will protect us but he didn't leave us without some means of achieving protection and happiness and safety and security all of it was given to us he completed his message very generously no other faith is as comprehensive as Islam you will not find in any other tradition what we have we have an incredible gift in our deen an incredible gift in the example of the Prophet s.a.w. from the beginning of the day when your eyes open we know what to say we know what to do our very first movement out of bed you go to the restroom you have a dua you come out of the restroom you have a dua you put on your clothes there's dua to be said you go to prepare your breakfast you say dua you eat your breakfast you say dua it's like subhanallah every single point of your day he's given us things that we are supposed to be doing for ourselves it's not for any other reason he didn't need to do those he already had visions of his place in jannah he knew where he was going it was guaranteed to him an opportunity to leave and just go but he remained because he wanted to continue to give to us so now we have to ask ourselves here we are it's 2020 new year how much of his sunnah are we really putting into practice think about it how much of his sunnah are we really putting into practice do you know all the dua's your daily dua's isn't that sad how can we face him on the day of judgment I think about that all the time how can we face him and he did so much for us he would wake up in the middle of the night weeping for us and we didn't even bother to memorize dua's that he gave for us but I bet you all of us know lyrics to songs we have a lot of things memorized that we don't need that don't benefit us at all we committed to do those things but yet subhanallah what the world's listening has given us it's like we don't see the value of it we don't see the value of it and that's tragic right and then we wonder why we're not happy in our lives that's the paradox like isn't it obvious you're not happy because the very means of attaining happiness in this dunya that Allah designed to be a place of tribulation to be a place of difficulty to be a place of turmoil and sadness every single thing that he gave us to protect us from being harmed by the dunya we're not doing and then we wonder why we're feeling the effects of the harms of the dunya right logically there's a clear disconnect there we go back and ask ourselves well that's what it is if I'm not fulfilled in my marriage and yet there are people for example asya let's look at the women before us they were sent to us as examples she's the wife of fir'an who was her husband he was the greatest tyrant in existence fir'an he was a horrible wretched human being how is a wife of that man able to attain the status of being one of the four perfect women how if it wasn't for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and her commitment to her lord right you can be married to someone in a relationship that's toxic but still be protected from that and that's what Islam is Islam is the refuge Islam is the eye of the storm the hub when you're practicing it correctly it will shield you from all of the fitna of the dunya and help your heart so that you're not faced and that's why there are people who come from really difficult places in the world where all they saw was bloodshed they've seen the horrors of war and oppression and things that we can't even fathom but subhanallah if you meet them they have a smile on their face how is that possible if you've come from that type of a background right that you're not affected with PTSD when so many other people crumble at certain traumas right it's just the nature of dunya PTSD is real there are people who suffer from it I'm just saying that there are people who can be in situations of horror but they can come out almost like unscathed they walk through the fire and nothing's happened to them how? it's because of their ego okay okay so we're gonna go ahead and continue the discussion right before you left I was just sharing a story about my teacher but my point in sharing that was to say that there are people who have found the secret right they have been given this immunity from Allah SWT that enables them to withstand a lot of difficulty and challenges in this world that some of us have never been through the loss of a child the loss of a spouse real calamities and tribulations physical health issues how do these people do it it's because they have found again what we all have access to which is they're committed to their deen they actually are following it the way they should be they take their prayer seriously they take following the Prophet SAW Sunnah seriously they do remembrance of Allah they read their Quran they do their salawat they do their daily adhkar they try to keep a state of will do they have good relations with people they serve their parents their family they fulfill their rights and obligations they honor the elderly so this is it's all there everything is in our deen so that we can model it so that's why we have to say it is absolutely possible to find contentment in this dunya despite problems, tribulations, hardships that are inevitable we will suffer we will have loss we will have grief people will betray us it's just part of life it's going to happen but how do you again build an immunity so that it doesn't break you down where you're depressed all the time you're miserable you're taking with other things that you shouldn't be doing you just look again to our tradition so I just wanted to finish that point now what you have on the or what I've written on the board here is something I wanted to share with you because I really think lists are helpful when you have something to recall easily it can help stick it has that sticky factor and if you study life satisfaction it's very much tied to again an individual's definition of happiness so that's why when you look at people who have low self-esteem one of the first qualities that they possess is this feeling of unhappiness and so you want to think about that if you are in a place in your life where you're just not feeling good about yourself for whatever reason, is it personal your relationships are there problems you're dealing with that you don't know how to manage and cope with do you have health problems there could be a variety of reasons but if it's leading you to this conclusion where you're just not feeling good about yourself you might want to re-evaluate what your definition is or what your expectations are of this dunya because if you can accept that this is a place of difficulty and challenges but I can find a refuge and that's where I need to put my focus then inshallah you can slowly come out of that but just to, you know I wanted you to see it for comparison people who have low self-esteem they not only feel unhappy but they also have anxiety they have inferiority, superiority issues they're impatient their goals are always about other people there's no internal desire to become better it's always about making other people happy or trying to get validation from other people approval of other people it's a very external thing and then negative just in a constant state of negativity all of that all of those qualities are indicative of someone who is having a spiritual disconnect because if you are, again following your faith the way that you should and following the example of the Prophet SAW it is to protect you from all of the things on the left literally everything in Islam is to protect you from the things on the left right because if you follow your faith as we've been saying it will encourage all the other qualities and we'll talk about now the second list there people with high self-esteem look at the qualities that they possess the first one is so telling you're responsible right? if a person has high self-esteem they take things seriously they take their responsibilities seriously and this is one of the first you know, objectives of the primary objectives of our Dean is to make us responsible people we have goals every single day that we should be achieving our prayers are daily it's not that you just say them once and then you're set you have to commit you have to take your will do, your prayers seriously and make your world revolve around your prayers not the other way around where you're just like, oh yeah oh yeah I have to pray but you're doing other things you're shopping, you're going to the movies you're listening to music, you're watching Netflix and then it's like, oh yeah I have to pray no it should be I have to pray and I'm going to schedule everything else around my prayers so if I have to you know, go to this event well where am I going to pray? that's how your mind should be you know that's how it should work where it's always the forefront of your mind is your Ibadah to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so the responsibility is a characteristic of someone who is again, they have esteem they know their purpose, they know why they were created and this is what we're all striving for don't we all want to have high self esteem everybody in this room we all wish we were confident high achieving high producing high self esteem people let's look at what it takes to get there you have to be a person committed and that's why number two is connected to that goal commitment, you have to have goals right you have to look at your life and not look at it like it's a done deal, it is what it is, this is my life and you know that's all shaitan if shaitan's got you in a place where you're just complacent wherever you are and you think like I'm just destined for a housewife, I just cook and clean all day long and I clean up after the kids and my husband I have no other internal goal of my own this is unhealthy this isn't what our tradition teaches we're multifaceted we're more than just mothers and wives our first role is servants of Allah swt that's our very primary that's who we are first, all of the other things come secondary but if you don't see that as a part of who you are but the domestic and material roles that you play all define you and you don't think of how can I learn better, how can I become more a better servant of God what do I need to learn we should all know our farhain you know and many people in our community they don't know their farhain it's not because there isn't access to knowledge we're in a community center that mashallah has programs constantly we are the envy of people all across the world I'm telling you, there are people who envy this community because our center is so active and they wish they had a place like this where they have scholars coming all the time so if you don't know your farhain what are your farhain what are the primary things that every person should know every Muslim should know what are we responsible to know we're responsible to know our fiqf you should know how to clean yourself there are certain things about knowledge that everybody should know you shouldn't have that knowledge you should know how to pray you should know how to read the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala everybody in this room we should all at this age in our lives we should all know tajweed, we should have studied that right Imam al Ghazali considered studying the diseases of the heart also a farhain so if you've never studied the diseases of the heart I mean I have to make a plug now I have a class tomorrow you are welcome to come and join we're starting a six week class based on the book purification of the heart this is the book if you've never studied it or read the book this is by one of our greatest scholars of all time Imam al Ghazali considered also that you should know you should know what plagues the spiritual heart so that you protect yourself from it but again these are sciences and these are disciplines that we have to take seriously so you know wherever you are in your spiritual path you want to ask yourself I need to always be looking to grow so wherever I am if I haven't done my thick I need to do this but kind of just start putting down those goals that's the better New Year's resolution than thinking about how many pounds you want to lose or cleaning out your closets people get stuck on these ridiculous trends because it's popular and everybody's Instagram is blowing up and social media is talking about these things and it's like cool all of that means nothing if you don't have these things in order from a spiritual place yes now thank you for mentioning that I appreciate that I don't come to this group often so I appreciate you mentioning that of course and we have to pace ourselves and I'm speaking really to the people who have not even a matter of convert or not it's a matter of your mindset so you could be in this faith for 20 years or one year it doesn't matter but if your mindset tells you you're good where you are that's what I'm challenging because we all need to be looking at ourselves as works in progress and that's why setting goals is very important and again it's clear that our is pushes us constantly to be better there's no part of our deen that says once you've arrived at this level of knowledge you're good you have the masters in our history who were always even though they had achieved incredible feats memorizing the Quran when they were young or all six volumes of the Hadith or mastering this science or that science they were also, guess what mathematicians and medical physicians they studied law and they were philosophers it was never just enough they kept wanting to grow and cultivate themselves into being the best versions of themselves I think modern the message unfortunately is that once you arrive at a certain point especially in some of our cultures I think there's a hierarchy of the majority that's off it's like everything about your family first you've got to cook meals every single day and you have to vacuum the house every day all those domestic things are great but if they're hindering your spiritual growth that's not great your spirituality is very important part of you don't deny yourself those things don't deny yourself much as I just had a sister come up to me during the break she was very proud of her she was kind of excited because she said she has six children and she spent so many years dropping her kids off and not being able to participate in mischid activities because she had babies to tend to and now she's here and she attends programs and she's so enthusiastic very proud to see that because she didn't forget herself she's fulfilling her obligations but she's also prioritizing that you know what, it's my time and we should do that we should all feel that Allah is always calling on us and we have to find ways to respond like the Hadith where he says extend your hand and I'll extend my arm walk to me and I'll run it's beautiful are we extending our hand even or have we just shut down we're just busy reading books fictional fantasy books all these people caught up in stuff I'm like you have time to do that you have time they're kindles, they got all these books that they can't wait to read but then they've never bothered to study the sciences that are going to actually as we said protect you in the end if you study the diseases of the heart you will find yourself becoming a better human being I mean why would that not be a priority on your list to do you know, watching youtube videos of influencers and tutorials about how to be perfect and recondo and organizing your life it's like we waste our time with all of that and here we have our beautiful dean that's given everything that says you want to be the best human being that you can possibly be here it is it's not hard and it'll all come into place because look even like I joke about it but when you go shift to the next wine ahsan Marie Kondo has nothing on a muslim who's actually following their tradition because ahsan, doing things with ahsan is perfection so if you want to organize your life just follow the example of our tradition which teaches you to be clean and to take organizing and doing things meticulously ahsan, it's on seriously that's Islam Islam teaches us that, we don't need these gurus to teach us things we don't need to look to people in modern life as being you know that we strive for their way when our tradition already teaches us those things, that's what's sad so again going back to this, the second one sorry you want to be a person who's achieved success and has high self-esteem just look, it's all Islam genuineness truthful, honest person this was the problem I said he was the most truthful, the most trustworthy just a transparent true person doesn't have two faces doesn't lie to you and then behind your back say this about you stuff it all it's all part of modern life but Islam teaches you how to be a genuinen person fear Allah so what it is you fear Allah, you're not going to talk about people if you truly fear Allah you're not going to make ghiba about people and think bad harbor bad feelings and have ranker in your heart because you fear Allah it's genuinely like, it's there but all of that is taught by our faith forgiveness being a more forgiving person this is again so much a part of our tradition how many hadith, how many ayahs in the Quran where Allah is teaching us to be merciful and compassionate and to forgive those who've wronged us even if you have if you're in the right it's better for you because when you're more forgiving you will get what the forgiveness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you're more compassionate with people you will get the compassion of Allah and mercy of Allah all of this our tradition teaches us internal values what are we talking about this whole discussion is about having that conscience that constantly tells you to be better, to strive to be better all of those values that are coming from your own self you don't need someone else to tell you what to do because you know your purpose you know that Allah has created you for a reason all of that again is reinforced constantly in our faith you read the Quran it's constantly told to us what our purpose is why we were created and to strive for certain goals but all of that is again within our tradition positivity just being a good person smiling, meeting people with cheerfulness this is all, if you read the descriptions of the Prophets I sent them read them from the Shamayel read how he was with people he greeted people always with a cheerful disposition smiling happy to see people exuding positivity spreading the salam all of that is his sunnah so again we wonder like I said why we're not fulfilled and why we're not happy but the answers are right in front of us if only we took our faith more seriously and if only we realized its value that it actually isn't just a strict set of rules and things that we have to follow it is literally the formula of achieving satisfaction in this world and protecting yourself from harm that is Islam and the last one self improvement again constantly seeing yourself as someone who needs improvement and you know you're a work in progress so those are the qualities of someone who has a high sense of self worth we can all achieve that and it's important to again see the contrast because a lot of people are stuck on the left they're stuck on one or two or maybe all of those areas trust me like this is a problem in the world now it's not even just our community everybody is feeling these low they're just not feeling happy in life low reports of satisfaction with whatever their job, they're not happy with their relationships their children, their spouses their homes, their cars, their clothing it's like there's no happiness well we have to question why that is and how can we protect ourselves because when you look at the happiest people on the planet the research is also interesting some of them have nothing some of the happiest, most content people are people who are not materialistically wealthy they don't have a lot but subhanAllah you see them I just came from Umrah about a month or so ago you see people mashaAllah they are visibly poor you can tell their clothing on their faces and their fingernails they just they probably have a very difficult life but subhanAllah they are smiling ear to ear grinning we had people coming up to us offering us dates and bread and candy like just randomly you know but if you look at them they don't look like they have a lot but they're so subhanAllah just happy because Allah swt has given them a lot is why the only source of true happiness is from Allah swt so you can go and try to find it everywhere else if you think those are the things that are giving you happiness but they're not going to if you overlook Allah it's just not going to happen you will not find contentment so the only source is Allah everything else is just you know again a gift from him a blessing from him a means you know but it's not the source the source is him so this last list there I wanted to share our qualities that we should all be striving for because if we want true happiness we also have to realize it's on us we have to do our part we can't just expect it to fall in our laps yes that's a good question fear and hope from an Islamic perspective that's Tawakkal that's that's Taqwa Taqwa is fear and hope and that is absolutely a sign of someone who's got high self-esteem because if you have Taqwa of Allah swt you don't get too ahead of yourself where you think everything you're doing is perfect and you've got it made that's where the fear element right it keeps you humble that you know what no at any point Allah can take me and that's why we make dua for a good ending because we don't know you know you could be praying right now and believing in this moment but God forbid you do something and there's hadith that mention all of this you know that a person can be doing a lot of good but then they do one thing and that's what actually ends up leading to their demise so fear is to keep us humble and then hope is to also protect us from despair because people who are hopeless you know and in despair this is a weak state of iman because our deen is not a deen of hopelessness our deen is a deen of absolute hope and that's why we have phenomenal stories that are trying to get that message through to us like the man who killed 99 people I mean there's no other story that I can think of right now that should give anybody hope more than that story if you don't know that story look it up it's a story about a man who literally is a mass murderer he murdered 99 people but he wanted to redeem himself and basically become a better person and Allah swt gives him hope and it's a beautiful story I don't want to rid it for you but look it up because that's the kind of story that wherever you are should make you feel like things will get better and I just have to believe I could possibly I don't want to assume that everybody who is anxious has necessarily we shouldn't make assumptions but anxiety is something we should seek protection from the prophet said there's Dawaz where he's actually asking Allah to protect us from anxiety so it's something that can plague you and affect your heart and it might chip away at your quality of life there are people who have real disorders that are very serious and it definitely affects their quality of life so I think and then there's other people who can manage but I think those are all they're subjective so it's hard to really say but at the end of the day when you want to see what is ours so sweet you have something to say but at the end of the day you know if you want to see where do you want to be you want to be free from all of that right so how can I be free from all of those things well that's what that last list is for it's to tell us well let's look at the qualities that we need to inculcate in order to gain the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala right the first one is Toba so wherever you are all of us we should be making Toba constantly you know staying 100 times 70 times however many times a day we should be doing that it's a matter of practice after every Salah you should be conscious of the fact that you sin we sin every day nobody is free of sin we all sin today we all did something we shouldn't have done either with intent which may Allah really forgive us or we didn't do something we should have done and maybe there was no intent it was just negligence but either way we have to accept that you can't we're held accountable for those things you know if you're like I said watching a show and then you miss your prayer you're going to be held accountable for that this is a fact right so there's certain things you just have to keep real yes you have a question sure I'm going to translate every single one of them thank you so much the first one is Toba and Toba means repentance so repenting for the you know whatever you've done which is what we just mentioned right if you've made any mistakes today just make Toba and remember Allah swt you know He loves this is really again something you should just stick in your mind Allah loves the Tawab more than the perfect servant okay I'll say it again He loves the one who sins but keeps coming back for Toba and not to say you're making the same sin and you keep thinking like oh I'm just going to you know no you don't it's a matter of like I keep slipping and falling and I'm weak and I you know but Allah I know that you're the most forgiving you have this hope that you're constantly you know constantly by returning to Him you are more beloved to Allah in that state that if you were to just do everything perfectly we have to know these things so the to repent it might sound like it's this negative thing but it's not it's actually a beautiful thing to make Toba it's a beautiful recognition of Allah swt like your that you are a servant to Him you're recognizing His Lordship over you and that's why you make Toba right so it's a beautiful thing don't make it like this shame thing internal shame by the way is good you know nobody needs to know your sins you don't need to go around broadcasting what you've done no it's between you and Allah I'm so sorry I'm sorry I did this again but you're so forgiving please forgive me you know that's what you do and you just have hope and you inshallah work on yourself right and that's why the Prophet said every son of Adam sins and the best of those who sin or those who repent so the best of all of us are the people who make Toba and many other hadith this one actually is a really good one Allah is more pleased with the repentance of His slave than a person who has his camel in a desert carrying all of his food and drink and it is lost having lost all hope to get that back this person lies down in the shade and is disappointed and heartbroken about his camel when all of a sudden he finds out that the camel is standing before him he takes hold of its reins and then out of boundless joy blurts out oh Allah you are my slave he commits this mistake out of extreme joy right but the point of this hadith is like he's more pleased with Toba than such a person and we all have been there we've all lost something right and we've like oh my god and then you know when you find it that joy like the joy that you feel after losing something that you thought you lost like whether it's your engagement ring wedding ring or like whatever it is some valuable thing when you find it you're like oh my god you know but Allah SWT is more pleased with us when we make Toba than that feeling that we have right so just think about that it's all to encourage us tahara the next word is purification we have to keep ourselves clean and this is why going back to what I said earlier you know farra'ain which is compulsory knowledge it's what every single Muslim should know there are certain things one of them is to know how to clean yourself because it's such a big part of being a Muslim that we maintain a level of cleanliness right and not just for ourselves and our bodies but in our spaces and yes even in public spaces we should be practicing cleanliness when you go to a restaurant or anywhere even a hotel like why do you need to use five towels just because they're there like you see that's like right why do that why throw your garbage like everywhere you know sometimes they have a can by the table there's a garbage can in the bathroom we have to think about these things why am I a messy person in someone else's space just because there's people that are going to clean up after me that's not right a good person is conscious of these things right I don't want to you know I want to have a small like leave a small footprint when I go somewhere right the believers are what those who are tread lightly on the earth you shouldn't you see people all the blah blah they destroy hotel rooms like I don't get that at all be like you know minimal like you know don't make such a big giant mess for people or you see people and I've seen restaurants normally and it's just junk all over the table and they just walk out it's like horrible is that I mean how would we do that really like if someone did that to us how would we feel like they came we invited them to eat and they just thrashed the the table bones chicken bones everywhere sauce spilled and they just like they leave like who does that nobody does that yes of course absolutely this is israf I know it's heartbreaking stuff for a lot this is a it's a weddings conferences everywhere you go even we just you know we did umrah we saw it they're out of it I mean I love it forgive us there's a lot of israf is when you are you know you over indulge and then you you do that you know you're wasteful so we have to you know seek refuge from Allah because these are all things that you're following again the sunnah of the prophet you don't do those things because you have a conscience that tells you that's wrong it's wrong to throw away like if you I agree I've seen it it's like you know a sandwich and someone will have a bite of their sandwich and they just throw it away or half of the sandwich cut cut just take a knife cut off the portion right and like you said if you go step outside you might be able to you know give it to someone who's in need or you know save it for lunch the next day but like you don't need to just toss it so yes yes absolutely exactly and nobody does that at home right we're like over the faucet with you know turn on the waters too much right with our kids with everybody else we're very conscious about our own spending because we're gonna have to pay that bill you know but we do this is all a part of you know you're you have to ask yourself like Allah is watching you at all times how do you you know do that with in good conscience and it should you know but again if you're not thinking about these things and it's just like everybody else is doing it it's okay I'll do it and I'm just you know gonna go along then you know where is that you know internal values you know number five where you have your own set of rules that you live by that's what Islam should teach you so tahada is very big you know and this is also important the key the prophet said that the key to the prayer is cleanliness it's beginning and it's ending our prayer you know will do is very important it's an active worship we have to take will do seriously we and try to be as mindful as possible and if we're just you know splashing water and having showers in the sink and going through it really quickly just because we have to go rush rush rush that's a time management problem you shouldn't be rushing your will do because you're likely to rush your prayer and if you're rushing your will do and you're rushing your prayer what are you spending your time on right because not everything is getting rushed and that's where you have to sit back go hmm yeah I took you know a long time doing XYZ activity and it was you know I shopped around I went to the store in that store but then I rushed all those things like where are my priorities right maybe I didn't manage my time well enough so this is where this mohassaba this constant conversation comes back where you look at yourself and I need to be better right so the next one is tapua and this is you know piety it's it's having that balance of fear and hope in a lost planet but always remembering that he is with you at all times and that is what motivates you to be the best person that you can be the Prophet said abu hurad actually narrated that the messenger of Allah was once asked by someone which people were admitted into paradise the most and he said the people of tapua and good character they go hand in hand okay if you have tapua of Allah swt you will have good character and this is the predominance of people in jannah this is the qualities that they will have right and then he was also asked in the same hadith about people who were admitted into the fire the most and he said those who are those who sorry this is not translated properly yeah it's referring to the people who are too loose with their mouth and their private parts okay so we know that from the hadith that these are the people of jahannam those who are irresponsible with their mouth which is many things right they talk too much they make claims they shouldn't they lie about Allah swt or they make riba they lie in general there's a lot of bad things that you can do with your mouth and then private parts this is you know again being you know just not promiscuous doing lewd things this is all over our societies now right we see it everywhere but these are the people that will make up the people of jahannam and then Ibn-Umar said that whoever has taqwa of his lord and maintains ties of kinship his life will be prolonged his wealth will be abundant and his family will love him and the prophet said have taqwa of Allah wherever you are and follow an evil deed with a good one to wipe it out and treat the people with good behavior so taqwa is a concept there are so many hadiths short a few samples of them but enough to get that across that these are qualities we have to inculcate we have to have consciousness of Allah and make sure that we're acting always with good character ahsan what we talked about earlier goodness and perfection you know Allah loves those who do things and they do things well right and it's actually in the prophet said that Allah has prescribed that we do things with ahsan in everything that we do so whenever we do something that we try our best to make it the best effort possible we don't turn in things or produce things that are half hearted or done with you know very minimal effort so take your time right you know take your time doing things don't rush right adjadam in a shaitan when you're rushing through something you're likely going to make mistakes and its quality goes down so again though you know getting into practice of these things is how we we gain Allah swt's pleasure tawakal trust in Allah right Allah loves those who put their trust in Him Umar bin al-Khattab said that he heard I heard the prophet say if you all depend on Allah with due reliance he would certainly give you provision as he gives it to the birds who go forth hungry in the morning and return with full bellies at dusk so just having this absolute certainty that you know what no matter what Allah is going to take care of me like I just you just have to believe that Allah swt will will you know will either especially if you have a need you know ask for your need but know that if it's given withheld from you in this dunya there's a reason for that likely it's not good enough for you and inshallah he will replace it with something better or he's waiting for the next life to reward you but either way in every circumstance you have to have this deep conviction that Allah swt always wants the best for you and not to let dunya or circumstances make you question that ever as soon as you start questioning that it's a problem oh is this you know that you start losing your trust in him that's a serious issue but this is again something we all have to work on justice you know being a person who's just and fair you know in all of your transactions with people just in every situation you're just always looking for the to be a fair person this is a very important quality that we should all inculcate inshallah and then the last one is sabr and you know again there's different types of patients but the real patients is at the stroke at the beginning of a calamity so when something happens to you that is like like the teacher that I described that is the perfect example of sabr and jameen right his wife had just died but why was he able to show so much patience where he could actually go and give a class even though his body hasn't yet been prayed over I mean we just have to think what can you know because he had he followed his deed he realized it was her time obviously the pain and the sorrow and all the hardships are gonna come you can't escape it you know you're gonna grieve but when you realize something happens that's out of your control and that you didn't expect your response has to be patience like Allah it's your decree and I can't you know fight it or be mad and angry about it so these are all you know qualities again that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves and that we should all strive to have okay are there any questions I know you guys have to pick up your kids any questions or anything anybody wants to add number six Adil is justice yeah I'm sorry I didn't go over I did some English some Arabic but yeah okay any other questions or comments alright jazak allah we'll end in dua subhanahu wa ta'ala wa ta'ala wa ta'ala wa ta'ala bismillahir seja'ala want to scale what they're gonna thank you so much