 having more children. Bear with me. Bear with me. Again, you probably won't hear this from the member often. Why? Because it might upset the sisters. Why? Because the guy will say, how can we afford to have more children? We already have two and that's more than enough. Bear with me. Bear with me. First of all, our religious scriptures are clear as daylight that Islam wants us to have as many children as possible. I reiterate, as many children as possible, meaning that you should not set a cap on the number of kids you're going to have, which is one of the conversations that people bring up when they're getting to know each other, even before they get married, perhaps, right? Like, how many kids do you want? Putting a cap on the number of children is as stupid as putting a cap on your own salary and saying, like, imagine you go to the job interview and you're like, okay, you know, this is my resume. This is what I'm qualified for. This is my degree. This is my former, like, previous experience in similar positions and whatnot. And please, I just want to make sure that I do not get a raise or a promotion or ever get paid more than, let's say, $40,000 a year. Welcome to the company. You're hired. Or, alternatively, sure, let's get married. You only want two kids. Perfect. That's what I want. SubhanAllah, we're on the same wavelength, aren't we? How stupid is that? Putting a cap on the number of children is exactly the same and even worse, as I will explain, than putting a cap on the amount of money you wish to earn. The traditions of the Ahlul Bayt are emphatically clear. He says in the famous narration, get married, half children, as much as possible for on the day of judgment, I shall boast in front of other nations at the number of children that you have given birth to, including stillborns, including children that died as a result of a miscarriage. Rasulullah will take those children and boast in front of other nations. You see what I got here, Rasulullah will say. In other words, have more children. You make me proud, the Prophet is telling you. Make me proud. Increase the weight of this earth with people who say, there is no God but Allah. Hundreds of traditions, brothers and sisters, hundreds of instructions from the infallible imams, and yet we dare say, but how can I afford it? You think the Prophet couldn't have the foresight that Imam could not think of all the potential problems? So what are those problems? Let's talk about them. Let's dissect them. Problem number one, not very frequently heard, but maybe in the back of especially some sisters' minds. I don't want to ruin my body. I don't want to do something that it permanently damages my body. I don't want to get fat. Ultimately, when you get pregnant, you're going to have to eat. You're going to have to, now you're eating for two, right? And so there's less restrictions. I mean, unless you're like a Hollywood celebrity who somehow makes it work. But generally speaking, you need to eat and provide the right nourishment for the child that's inside of you. And so you kind of let yourself go a little bit, right? Then there is breastfeeding. Then there is, you know, the whole anxiety of having children and not, you know, being able to just focus too much on your diet and whatever. So ultimately, you might gain a few pounds, right? And I don't want to do that. I want my body, my physique to be perfectly healthy. I want to look good. So what? I want to look good so that when they put me in my grave, I have like a perfect lean body. Listen, I'm not saying that you should ruin your body, that you should destroy your own life just so you could have more kids. What I am trying to say is how is it? And this argument I'm going to keep making over and over again. How is it that religious Catholics can make it work? How is it that Orthodox Jews can make it work? How is it that so many religious traditions and cultures around the world that do not believe in contraception can make it work? And I'm the only one who can't, despite the fact that the imams instruct me to have more children. I'm the only exception to the rule. Somehow I'm going to destroy my life if I have more children. You see why this is a phobia? You can still live a healthy life. You can space out the children. You can say, all right, I'll have a child once every... I'll give you two years. How does that sound? No, that's too short. Two years and two months. I drive a good bargain. Three years, five years, once every five years, so that after 25 years of marriage, you have five children. It's not enough. It's not nearly enough. But at the very least, you have five children, masha'Allah, and because you've spaced them out, ask your doctor. If you space them out, if you eat healthy, if you have physical exercise, if you look after yourself, it doesn't necessarily have to destroy you because you're having more and more children. So number one, it's my physique. I want to keep looking good, which is a pathetic little excuse. Excuse number two, I can't afford it. And you know when it gets really absurd? It's when they say, well, in the Middle East, it's a different story over there. Here, life is tough. Really? Talk about first world problems. Life is tough in America, and it's easy in places like Iraq. A country that's been swept over by the world's most notorious maniacal terrorist threat. It's easy for them over there, and it's hard for me. Get a grip on yourself. Come on. You see why this is a phobia again? A little introspection, brothers and sisters, a little thinking. And you realize that this is an irrational fear that shaytan is making you think this way. Financially, I can't afford it when I live in America. Are you a homeless person? Look at how the Qur'an addresses this problem. Two verses, not one but two, with a very beautiful nuance difference between the two. Listen carefully. Do not kill your children. Now, whether that killing was in the form of burying them alive, which was a rampant practice, or whether it comes in the form of aborting the pregnancy, or it comes in the form of contraception, making sure that the conception doesn't even take place to begin with. Ultimately, it's the same. La taqtulu awlada kum. Allah swt says in one verse, khashyata imlaq. In another verse says, min imlaq. The difference between these two is this. Min imlaq means that you are poor right now. Your financial situation is difficult at this moment in time. You cannot make ends meet right now. And so, naturally you say to yourself, if you let those phobias set in, you say to yourself, well, I'm already poor. How can I feed another mouth? Remember what we said about getting married? It's the same thing. So, Allah swt says, la taqtulu awlada kum. Min imlaq. Na haluna rizuk kum wa iya. We will provide for them as well as for you. It's a divine prize. In the other verse, Allah swt says, la taqtulu awlada kum khashyata imlaq. Do not kill your children and your offspring out of fear of becoming poor. Meaning, again, this is the argument that we hear from most people. Well, I'm okay now, but I'm like barely making ends meet. If I have another child, if I add another member to the family, then my financial situation is going to come crumbling down on my head and we'll all starve to death overnight. Of course, it's not as dramatic as that, but basically that's what the argument boils down to. So, Allah swt says, don't do it, thinking that you're already poor right now, we'll look after you and them. And don't do it out of fear that it will happen in the future, that you won't have enough money to provide for them. I won't be able to pay for their college is another pathetic excuse that I've heard before. So, Subhanallah, like, what a visionary, right? What a visionary. He's already thinking, or she is already thinking about 20 years down the line. When it comes to providing a good upbringing for my child, I never think that far ahead. I never think about the consequences of every single action that takes place. But when it comes to having children in the first place, oh, but how am I going to afford their college? Which is why Allah swt says, Did we not feed you? Did we not look after you? Did we not provide for you? We'll do the same for your children. So, here's another critical point and we've kind of run out of time, but I want to talk about this. You need to change the way you see children. Children are manifestations of your livelihood. Children are examples of your risk. Let me explain. Again, I'll try and make this as short as possible. I once visited a Marja in the holy city of Qom. And there was another person there and the Marja asked him, he said, How many children do you have? So the guy said, I've got six kids. Not bad, right? Six children. Almost unheard of in this part of the world, except in Orthodox Jewish families and Catholic families and just not in the Muslim community because we can't afford it because there's too much. Six children. Mashallah. Mashallah. Now, I thought the Marja was going to say, God bless you. Wow, how are you managing? The Marja said to him, Well, that's not nearly enough. He said, Well, how? He said, You were child number what in your family? He looked down and he's like, I was child number seven. He said, So if your parents only had up to six children and put a cap on that, you would never have been born. He said, Well, if you put it that way, sure. He said, So your parents weren't wrong when they had as many children as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave them. He said, Well, no, I can't argue with that. They were right because I would never have been born. The Marja said, Well, let me tell you something about myself. If my parents again, we're talking about a Marja brothers and sisters. In other words, one of the most pious, highest ranking scholar of the religion of Islam, someone who services to, I mean, all Marja are like their services to Islam can't be measured in any way, shape or form. He said, If my parents had only had one child, I would never have been born because I'm not child number one. If they only had two children, I would never have been born because I'm not child number two. If they had had three children, I would never have been born four children. I would never have been born five children. I wouldn't be here six children. I wouldn't be here seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. If they had stopped at number 13, I would never have been born because I'm child number 15. He then said, He said, You know, I'm not saying I'm a blessing for my parents or anything. Not saying I'm anybody worth taking seriously. But I do have this habit now that my parents are gone and all of my other siblings are gone and they're all past. Every Thursday night, I pray two raka'at on behalf of my father and another two raka'as on behalf of my mother. Had I never been born, they wouldn't have had someone to do this for them every Thursday night. Your children are your rizq. They are your blessings, brothers and sisters, right? Keep that in mind.