No Doubt: Introducing 10 Strategies To Deal With Destructive Doubts | Hamza Tzortzis & Fahad Tasleem (2021-07-11) #

0:00:15 brothers and sisters
0:00:17 my name is hamza andres zodis and this
0:00:19 is
0:00:24 good how are you alhamdulillah so
0:00:27 alhamdulillah brothers and sisters
0:00:30 we have completed the no doubt course
0:00:33 alhamdulillah
0:00:37 and the purpose of this session
0:00:40 is to actually introduce the course
0:00:44 and to raise some questions we're both
0:00:46 going to ask
0:00:47 each other some questions concerning how
0:00:50 you may benefit
0:00:51 from the course and
0:00:54 fahad islam delivered alhamdulillah most
0:00:57 of the sessions i delivered some of the
0:00:58 sessions as well
0:01:00 and i think i'll ask the first question
0:01:02 bro which is
0:01:03 alhamdulillah we finished no doubt
0:01:06 so why is it important to attend no
0:01:08 doubt to complete the whole course
0:01:11 well well before i get there let me let
0:01:14 me throw a question back at you
0:01:15 that's okay fine like before we even get
0:01:17 to like the importance of the course
0:01:19 and the course is phenomenal it's
0:01:20 amazing we haven't gone through it and
0:01:22 you know instructed it but before i get
0:01:24 there tell us a little bit about the
0:01:26 genesis because i think that's
0:01:27 interesting
0:01:28 the genesis well from what i remember
0:01:30 one of our instructors delivered a
0:01:32 similar course it was called no doubt i
0:01:34 think
0:01:35 and it dealt with the kind of
0:01:37 intellectual foundations of islam from
0:01:39 the point of view of how to address
0:01:41 ethical doubts scientific doubts
0:01:45 philosophical doubts and stuff like that
0:01:48 and then
0:01:49 i think after a few years when we
0:01:51 established
0:01:52 sapience one of the main purposes of
0:01:56 sapience was to
0:01:58 empower muslims so our main strategic
0:02:01 focus is to
0:02:03 develop and empower muslims so they are
0:02:05 able to
0:02:06 intellectually academically articulate
0:02:08 islam right
0:02:10 to their brothers and sisters in
0:02:11 humanity what we felt was
0:02:14 that it was important to develop a
0:02:15 course to deal with people's
0:02:18 hearts which is the plural for doubt
0:02:20 shubo heart doubts right
0:02:22 and because we're all about empowerment
0:02:26 we usually talk about the adage which is
0:02:29 if i remember correctly
0:02:31 if you give a man a fish
0:02:35 he would eat for a day if you teach a
0:02:38 man to fish
0:02:40 he would eat for a lifetime yeah so we
0:02:42 want to empower we wanted to and we do
0:02:44 want to empower muslims to be able to
0:02:46 deal with their doubts and the doubts of
0:02:48 other people and from a wider strategic
0:02:51 strategic perspective we want them to be
0:02:53 able to intellectually and academically
0:02:55 share islam
0:02:57 in a robust way of course and defend
0:02:59 islam so
0:03:01 with regards to the course itself is
0:03:03 designed
0:03:04 not to answer every single one of the
0:03:07 shubuhat
0:03:08 we'll be here until god knows when until
0:03:10 the day of judgment right
0:03:11 but rather it's an empowering course
0:03:14 where we give people 10 effective
0:03:17 strategies
0:03:18 on how to deal with their doubts their
0:03:20 own doubts and the doubts of others
0:03:22 and these strategies have been
0:03:24 specifically designed to create that
0:03:25 empowerment
0:03:26 and these strategies are not what you
0:03:28 would call just a road map you don't
0:03:30 start from the beginning and the end
0:03:32 you understand all of the strategies and
0:03:34 based on the metaphysical backdrop which
0:03:36 you'll explain
0:03:38 you basically use them as a toolkit so
0:03:40 you maybe think strategy two three
0:03:42 seven and eight is what i need for
0:03:44 myself or for this person
0:03:45 or maybe all of them it depends and once
0:03:48 you understand the kind of spiritual
0:03:49 social intellectual context of that
0:03:51 person
0:03:51 then you could basically use the most
0:03:54 relevant and appropriate strategy
0:03:56 so i think it's an amazing course
0:03:58 there's nothing like it not really
0:04:00 it's very empowering and i really
0:04:03 ask every single one of
0:04:07 you watching to attend the course
0:04:10 from start to end because everything
0:04:12 will make sense right
0:04:14 so is that good enough yeah yeah
0:04:18 all right so i have a question for you
0:04:20 all right which is what about my
0:04:22 questions too man
0:04:24 what is this okay the battle of the
0:04:26 questions
0:04:27 okay so my one is so
0:04:30 what do we cover so i mean well we
0:04:32 started off with uh the metaphysical
0:04:34 backdrop
0:04:34 and i think that the fact that we
0:04:36 started off with it
0:04:38 it highlights its importance not only in
0:04:40 this course
0:04:41 but we also repeat that same information
0:04:44 uh albeit not in as much detail as we do
0:04:47 and no doubt
0:04:47 in other courses like for instance uh
0:04:50 waking the truth within
0:04:51 we do it there and the divine reality
0:04:53 has a section so why is metaphysical
0:04:55 backdrop so important
0:04:56 well metaphysical backdrop is so
0:04:58 important because like you mentioned
0:05:00 if we were to just answer every single
0:05:02 question we would be here for
0:05:04 years yes and what metaphysical what the
0:05:06 metaphysical backdrop does
0:05:08 is it empowers the person by having them
0:05:10 understand things and concepts like
0:05:12 world views
0:05:13 worldview yeah what is the lenses by
0:05:16 which people are looking at the world
0:05:18 and reality
0:05:18 how do you establish what is what is not
0:05:21 and so on so we get into some detail
0:05:22 about that related to
0:05:24 you know ontology you know epistemology
0:05:26 how do we you know what is
0:05:28 when we think about knowledge for
0:05:29 instance uh you know sources of
0:05:31 knowledge
0:05:32 yeah and so and things like that and you
0:05:34 know we do a really nice uh
0:05:35 outline based on world view which is
0:05:38 what i remember
0:05:38 when you delivered it it was empowering
0:05:41 from the point of view that
0:05:42 when someone asks you a question that
0:05:45 raises a super
0:05:46 a doubt a destructive doubt or if you
0:05:49 within yourself have a destructive doubt
0:05:53 it empowers the individual to basically
0:05:56 understand that
0:05:58 that is only a shubha if i adopt the
0:06:01 worldview of that
0:06:03 person exactly or i adopt an alien world
0:06:05 view right so what you do is that you
0:06:07 give them the kind of conceptual
0:06:09 metaphysical lenses to really understand
0:06:11 hold on a second in order for even this
0:06:14 shubha to be valid and by the way we
0:06:16 know shubahat are not valid and we
0:06:18 discuss that in the course
0:06:19 but in order for it to be valid from the
0:06:21 point of view that it would affect me i
0:06:22 have to
0:06:23 swim into the ocean of the alien world
0:06:26 view which is basis anyway
0:06:27 right so it was very empowering but how
0:06:30 does the fitra fit in this whole
0:06:32 metaphysical backdrop then because you
0:06:34 in in
0:06:35 in the in the section on metaphysical
0:06:37 backdrop you also talk about the fitra
0:06:38 so
0:06:39 yeah so what's with that so so one of
0:06:42 the things that we uh
0:06:43 we speak about is that any sort of
0:06:45 worldview a person adopts and of course
0:06:46 everyone has a worldview as we mentioned
0:06:48 in the course
0:06:49 uh you know i think i mentioned in the
0:06:50 course itself that it's kind of like
0:06:52 language
0:06:52 right everyone has a language that they
0:06:54 adopt you're born into it you you know
0:06:55 you don't even think about it and you
0:06:57 speak like it's a really important
0:06:58 point isn't it right we want to be so
0:07:01 important brothers and sisters that
0:07:03 you know if you're not married and you
0:07:05 have a marriage meeting it should be one
0:07:06 of your questions
0:07:07 what's your what's your world view do
0:07:10 you know what i mean no i i think that's
0:07:12 you know what i mean i i yes because i
0:07:14 actually taught the things so yeah i do
0:07:16 know what you mean but anyways
0:07:17 moving on to the world view and its
0:07:19 connection with the fitrah
0:07:21 uh we spoke about how everyone has a
0:07:22 world view yes and the thing is that
0:07:24 world views
0:07:25 um they are based on assumptions like
0:07:27 any world view any you know when you
0:07:29 talk about modernism postmodernism
0:07:31 assumptions or first principles yeah
0:07:32 assumptions first principles i mean we
0:07:34 get into the details yeah
0:07:35 as well right and of course for us our
0:07:38 first principle
0:07:38 our you know assumption you know we give
0:07:41 we talk about our lens right
0:07:43 our lens right uh is the fitrah and so
0:07:45 we get into some conversation we get
0:07:47 into some discussion about
0:07:48 what do we mean by the fitra why is it
0:07:50 important that that be the lens by which
0:07:52 we look at reality and how we understand
0:07:54 reality
0:07:55 um and so we get in details about that
0:07:56 and so that forms
0:07:58 the metaphysical backdrop so before we
0:08:00 get into the 10 strategies in earnest
0:08:02 we get into a very deep dive into world
0:08:05 views
0:08:06 and fitra okay and i believe and i
0:08:07 really think it's extremely empowering
0:08:09 like i can tell you that
0:08:11 when i've had conversations you know as
0:08:13 you know we have lighthouse
0:08:14 where we have one-on-one mentoring
0:08:16 services people and
0:08:17 you know i really feel a lot of times
0:08:19 when you're speaking to someone it's
0:08:21 not about the specific question they're
0:08:22 asking a lot of it has to do like wait a
0:08:24 minute where are you what lens are you
0:08:25 looking at this question
0:08:26 absolutely you know we had a sister on
0:08:28 one she had a question about you know i
0:08:30 don't really understand these ayats and
0:08:31 the quran from you know
0:08:32 and then when we started to dig down
0:08:34 deeper she had a a very clear
0:08:36 lens of feminism which has its own
0:08:38 assumptions and
0:08:40 its own worldview so she had a an alien
0:08:42 worldview an ideology whether it's
0:08:44 feminism or whatever the case may be
0:08:46 and she basically used it as a lens to
0:08:48 view islam
0:08:49 right and that's why the schubert heart
0:08:51 arose that rose yeah yeah so
0:08:53 it's not just dealing with the schwa
0:08:54 it's actually dealing with that world
0:08:55 view first
0:08:56 and that changed the way they see things
0:08:58 yeah and that's what was so beautiful is
0:08:59 that once i pointed that out
0:09:00 and i said look let's look at it from a
0:09:02 different perspe let's look at it from a
0:09:03 different world view
0:09:04 right one that you claim to have adopted
0:09:06 right which is islam
0:09:08 and let's look at it from that worldview
0:09:09 and that was very empowering for her
0:09:10 because she at the end she said you know
0:09:12 that actually makes sense now like i
0:09:13 understand it from a worldview
0:09:14 perspective brilliant so
0:09:15 it's it's an it you know i mean that
0:09:17 part of the course i think will
0:09:19 really you know people are really going
0:09:21 to find out empowering
0:09:22 so and the thing with the fitrah which i
0:09:24 think you highlighted which is very
0:09:26 important
0:09:27 is that when we understand the fitra
0:09:29 even the two main opinions in our
0:09:30 classical tradition yeah
0:09:32 the fitra gets clouded if you want to
0:09:33 use such terminology and we do use such
0:09:35 metaphor
0:09:37 and the point here is there are
0:09:39 different ways to uncloud the fitrah
0:09:42 to awaken the truth within or to allow
0:09:44 the fatal to direct itself towards the
0:09:46 truth
0:09:47 so the clouding could be one of the
0:09:50 shubuhat could be one of the doubts
0:09:53 right and our strategies could be the
0:09:54 way to uncloud the fitrah
0:09:57 to allow the fit or the innate
0:09:58 disposition to direct itself towards the
0:10:00 truth
0:10:01 and that is so important because once
0:10:02 you understand the almost the kind of
0:10:03 metaphysics or the psychology of the
0:10:05 fitrah
0:10:06 you you make sense of yourself you make
0:10:09 sense of other people exactly and you
0:10:10 become more intellectually spiritual
0:10:12 and spiritually mature to be able to
0:10:14 deal with these issues in a very
0:10:16 profound and deep way so that's
0:10:17 brilliant
0:10:18 so after metaphysical backdrop what's
0:10:20 your notes dude um
0:10:21 all right what's the next one next one
0:10:25 nature of the heart me oh the nature of
0:10:27 the heart so if we're
0:10:28 speaking about fitnah we understand you
0:10:30 know and as you know you'll see in the
0:10:32 course
0:10:32 is that we speak a lot about shubuhat we
0:10:34 speak a lot about its etymology
0:10:36 right the the the word itself where it
0:10:38 comes from this brother
0:10:39 this uh individual right here he likes
0:10:42 talking about the etymology of etymology
0:10:44 at infinitum yeah but uh but he calmed
0:10:47 me down so you you could have gotten a
0:10:49 lot more
0:10:50 and been put to sleep a lot quicker no
0:10:52 i'm kidding but
0:10:53 um but we speak about the term how it
0:10:56 resembles the truth
0:10:57 it doesn't have any sort of substance to
0:10:59 itself in reality
0:11:00 it resembles the truth it's like a wolf
0:11:02 in sheep's clothing right right and and
0:11:04 we talk about how it attacks the heart
0:11:06 and so that's why the next section that
0:11:08 we speak about is the nature of the
0:11:09 heart itself you know the fact
0:11:10 is the kalben is called because it
0:11:12 overturns
0:11:14 you know and all and so we get into that
0:11:16 we speak a little bit about iman and
0:11:18 and how to understand that and how to
0:11:19 understand it in a way that transcends
0:11:21 how sometimes just translated as belief
0:11:24 yes right because sometimes we have a
0:11:26 you know again going back to world views
0:11:27 we have a kind of a judeo-christian way
0:11:29 of looking at
0:11:30 the term because from that world view
0:11:32 the term faith
0:11:33 the term faith right belief or faith uh
0:11:35 that we just assigned to it some sort of
0:11:37 pledge that you make that i believe such
0:11:39 and such yes iman has a different
0:11:41 dynamic or
0:11:42 like a leap of faith yeah right like a
0:11:44 leap of faith blind jump
0:11:45 exactly but iman comes from the root
0:11:47 word to feel secure exactly
0:11:48 and so so before that we talked about
0:11:50 the fitting of the heart
0:11:52 no we get that a little bit like oh do
0:11:54 we oh it's like the shahawat and the
0:11:55 shubohat yes
0:11:56 yes so you know after that and i'll put
0:11:58 on my notes here
0:12:00 so yeah so we talk about the heart's
0:12:02 main fifth in that section the next
0:12:02 section yeah okay good
0:12:03 so we start with a metaphysical backdrop
0:12:05 yes right that's where we start from we
0:12:06 talk about nature of the heart yes then
0:12:08 we move into the
0:12:09 fitting of the heart look at the trials
0:12:11 and tribulations of the heart
0:12:12 which are different from the spiritual
0:12:13 diseases yes of course of course so
0:12:16 you know and these we you know we say
0:12:17 that scholars categorize them into two
0:12:19 main categories so so we speak about the
0:12:21 two main
0:12:23 fit right one is the shubahat which are
0:12:25 the destructive doubts which is what
0:12:27 we're going to be talking about in
0:12:28 detail
0:12:28 then we talk about yes desires you know
0:12:31 those things the blame
0:12:32 the blameworthy desires right and
0:12:35 you know speaking about the covering of
0:12:37 the heart as you mentioned or the
0:12:38 clouding of the heart
0:12:39 yes you know one of those is actually
0:12:41 stems from desires when a person
0:12:43 goes beyond right the the the bounds
0:12:46 you know everyone has desires and as
0:12:48 long as you don't go beyond the bounds
0:12:49 then it shouldn't really affect a person
0:12:50 but when they do
0:12:51 yes it puts a stain on the heart yes
0:12:53 right like the prophet sallam said
0:12:56 yes so there but there is a relationship
0:12:58 between shahawat
0:12:59 although we do say in abstraction yes
0:13:02 are far
0:13:02 worse than shahawat because one of the
0:13:06 distinctions that we make concerning the
0:13:07 shubu heart the destructive doubts
0:13:09 is that they are they try to undermine
0:13:12 the foundations of islam and distort the
0:13:13 religion yes
0:13:14 now shahawad blame with blame where the
0:13:16 desires on their own don't do that
0:13:18 and that's why they could yeah so by an
0:13:20 abstraction
0:13:21 shubahat are far more dangerous however
0:13:24 if you continue them right they can lead
0:13:26 to shubahat because for example if
0:13:28 someone starts drinking and they know
0:13:29 it's haram
0:13:30 then fine it's not undermining the
0:13:32 religion it's not undermining the
0:13:33 intellectual foundations of islam
0:13:35 but over time what can happen they could
0:13:37 start saying oh you know what maybe it's
0:13:38 not too bad maybe it is halal and maybe
0:13:40 this and maybe the quran was wrong
0:13:42 and everything yeah so that's the thing
0:13:43 man you know they say like i mentioned
0:13:45 this in the course as well they're just
0:13:46 saying
0:13:48 right that the intellect is a a hired
0:13:51 lawyer
0:13:51 so eventually what happens is when
0:13:52 you're kind of engaged in a sin for too
0:13:54 long
0:13:55 you have kind of this uh this
0:13:58 instability right so we talk about iman
0:13:59 meaning stability
0:14:00 so your mind like it knows it's wrong
0:14:02 but if you keep doing it then it wants
0:14:03 to give it justifications sure right
0:14:05 and it happens to all of us right when
0:14:06 you know if you think about okay you're
0:14:08 doing something and eventually like yeah
0:14:09 maybe there's a difference of opinion
0:14:10 maybe i'll ask sheik son so or so-and-so
0:14:12 and then you start getting and so
0:14:14 and so that's why you know no doubt that
0:14:17 shubahat are definitely more dangerous
0:14:18 because they're undermining the
0:14:19 foundations
0:14:20 but excessive shah waters long-term can
0:14:23 lead to
0:14:24 can lead to shubahat which can be you
0:14:26 know have the same effect
0:14:28 okay so then we moved on to then we
0:14:30 moved on to
0:14:32 my man we moved on to uh we were
0:14:35 the source of doubts okay good yeah yeah
0:14:37 so the sources of doubt
0:14:38 the sources of doubts were philosophical
0:14:41 ethical
0:14:42 and trauma yes philosophical
0:14:45 philosophical scientific
0:14:46 ethical and trauma social so basically
0:14:49 the kind of negative experiences people
0:14:52 experience in their life that that give
0:14:55 rise to should
0:14:56 heart and these could include traumatic
0:14:58 experiences right absolutely negative
0:14:59 experiences and
0:15:00 we made a distinction between big tea
0:15:02 and small tea traumas
0:15:04 we talked about them yeah and how to uh
0:15:06 address those from the point of view of
0:15:08 shubohat and after we went to
0:15:10 so then uh we spoke about um we we
0:15:13 started the course well we talked about
0:15:14 today's
0:15:15 crisis and challenges all right that was
0:15:16 a bit of a summary so it was a bit of a
0:15:18 summary and then actually we spoke about
0:15:20 the fact that if a person is
0:15:21 you know engaging with the world today
0:15:23 what are some of the modern
0:15:24 you know i say modern in terms of in
0:15:26 terms of a time period what are they
0:15:28 what are people facing and what are the
0:15:29 people
0:15:30 what are people's challenges today
0:15:31 ideologically so you have atheism you
0:15:34 have
0:15:34 modernism liberalism post modernism
0:15:36 feminism all the
0:15:37 isms and schisms that people have to
0:15:39 deal with a lot of people and it happens
0:15:41 to most of us we become
0:15:42 in the words of hijab ideologically
0:15:44 molested
0:15:45 [Laughter]
0:15:47 are you ideologically molested
0:15:48 intellectually
0:15:50 was it subservient mentally
0:16:01 unfortunately these ideologies are like
0:16:04 a tsunami trying to engulf the hearts
0:16:05 and minds of our brothers and sisters of
0:16:07 everybody
0:16:08 the hearts of humanity and this and this
0:16:10 goes back to the importance of this
0:16:11 course though
0:16:12 because remember it's not just a course
0:16:14 about you dealing with yourself
0:16:16 but you could be in a position let's say
0:16:18 you're an imam let's say you're you're a
0:16:20 parent
0:16:20 point you know and you could be in that
0:16:22 position and you might
0:16:24 you might understand it from your own
0:16:26 like your own background your education
0:16:28 like i don't deny that any sort i would
0:16:29 not i would not doubt that what we're
0:16:31 in what we're teaching in terms of
0:16:33 content per se is something new to like
0:16:35 someone who's been through islamic
0:16:36 studies yes a deepest but the reality is
0:16:38 we want to but the methodologies the
0:16:40 methodology brought it together
0:16:41 in a unique way exactly in order for the
0:16:44 imams and the meshach to be empowered
0:16:46 yes exactly and that's why this is very
0:16:47 important for teachers for parents for
0:16:49 imams for messiah
0:16:51 absolutely and remember to bring this
0:16:53 back to a
0:16:54 practical context we receive so many
0:16:57 questions
0:16:58 about people's doubts we can't address
0:17:00 everything it's like almost practically
0:17:01 impossible
0:17:02 limited resources and so on and so forth
0:17:05 right so
0:17:06 this course from a strategic point of
0:17:08 view i think it should be a game changer
0:17:10 because once they're empowered with
0:17:11 these strategies
0:17:12 insha allah by the will of allah
0:17:17 absolutely and so you know we would want
0:17:19 this in different languages as well
0:17:21 yeah turkish in urdu in malay
0:17:24 in arabic yeah in all the languages
0:17:27 whatever language we get in so
0:17:28 we so now we talk about the ten
0:17:30 strategies yeah then we outline the ten
0:17:31 strategies we get into them and you know
0:17:33 we
0:17:33 start off by speaking about be aware
0:17:35 okay so
0:17:36 before we get into that there was a
0:17:38 distinction that we made concerning
0:17:39 there are some strategies that
0:17:41 you adopt before the surprise right
0:17:44 right and
0:17:45 and some strategies after the shubha and
0:17:47 some strategies are both
0:17:48 yeah and some strategies do with both so
0:17:49 say this is the heart this is a surprise
0:17:51 like a parasite
0:17:52 who wants to latch onto the heart and
0:17:54 drain the iman yeah so there's one stage
0:17:56 where the shrub has here
0:17:57 yep and that's when you have some
0:17:59 strategies other strategies the surprise
0:18:01 is just about to get into the heart
0:18:03 yeah strategy and other strategies when
0:18:04 it's already infected in the heart okay
0:18:06 good
0:18:06 so what's be aware so be aware
0:18:09 is the strategy which actually is before
0:18:12 the
0:18:13 attacks the heart right okay and this
0:18:15 has to do with prevention
0:18:16 right so you know we speak about the
0:18:17 term prevention rather than cure
0:18:19 so this is now to be aware of the
0:18:21 shubahat that they exist that they're
0:18:23 dangerous
0:18:23 uh the fact that they're dangerous and
0:18:25 so on and so forth so and to be aware of
0:18:26 the nature of shubahat from the islamic
0:18:28 spiritual tradition that it's
0:18:30 tush bihu it tries to resemble something
0:18:32 that it's not yes
0:18:33 it's a wolf in sheep's clothing and as
0:18:35 it mean to me i said may allah have
0:18:36 based on him that a
0:18:37 the reason shubahat sometimes people can
0:18:40 accept or
0:18:41 they take seriously because they have a
0:18:43 tinge of truth
0:18:44 yeah that's but they're not truth
0:18:45 they're not and that's this thing with
0:18:47 anything right like anything that you
0:18:48 accept around you has to have some
0:18:49 element of truth
0:18:50 that's why some people also yeah that's
0:18:52 why some people fall in love with like
0:18:53 post-modernism
0:18:54 yeah or other things other things
0:18:57 right now because we'll be a bit
0:18:58 controversial do you know what i mean
0:19:00 but the point is there are some
0:19:02 ideologies or ideological constructs
0:19:03 that there are some like you know
0:19:05 justice right islam is all about justice
0:19:07 so when they see the social justice
0:19:08 movement like yeah we're about this as
0:19:10 well but
0:19:11 they're adopting a world view when they
0:19:12 do that and the set of ideological
0:19:14 presuppositions you know
0:19:16 and they become that's why ideologically
0:19:17 molested as hijab says
0:19:20 but anyway so so be aware is to be aware
0:19:22 of the sh of the shubha
0:19:24 but also be aware that they exist right
0:19:26 and be aware that they're dangerous
0:19:27 yes you know a lot of times it's like
0:19:29 what if i just go to this website what
0:19:30 if i just check this out
0:19:32 you check it out and that's that's how
0:19:33 the thing starts so you know
0:19:35 and again one of the things we mentioned
0:19:36 when we cover this section is that we're
0:19:37 not saying that you don't engage with
0:19:39 these things once
0:19:40 you have the you know the intellectual
0:19:42 emotional spiritual psycho spiritual
0:19:44 tools it's so important you said this
0:19:45 because it's not just an intellectual
0:19:46 issue because some people think hey
0:19:48 if if i'm an intellectual then i
0:19:50 couldn't address this
0:19:51 but that's the point if you're not aware
0:19:53 of what shubahat are
0:19:54 right are also spiritual matter yes i
0:19:57 know this personally bro in my
0:19:59 in my own journey yeah i'm answering
0:20:01 someone's question i think he left islam
0:20:02 i answer his question he comes back or
0:20:04 something like that
0:20:06 yeah i'm not convinced with my own
0:20:07 answer but i'm later convinced with my
0:20:10 own answer when it came from someone
0:20:11 else
0:20:11 right and i saw a correlation about with
0:20:14 my spiritual state
0:20:16 of course and where i was along that
0:20:17 journey of course so we shouldn't be
0:20:18 under the kind of
0:20:20 naive and intellectually immature
0:20:22 position that hey
0:20:23 i have the robust rational answer no it
0:20:26 doesn't work that way shubahat have a
0:20:28 spiritual
0:20:29 cognitive emotional reality to them
0:20:32 right
0:20:33 and this is line with cognitive
0:20:34 psychology you know no one is
0:20:36 an ai machine as we discuss in awakening
0:20:39 the truth within
0:20:40 and it's not just about abstract
0:20:41 rational arguments there's there's a lot
0:20:43 of
0:20:44 psychosocial emotional spiritual
0:20:46 whatever you to call it
0:20:47 elements that are going on driving
0:20:48 forces are going on and we need to be
0:20:50 mature about this
0:20:51 yeah i mean look i mentioned this in uh
0:20:53 when you speak about beauty
0:20:54 and we talked about that experiment
0:20:55 about you know how your own your
0:20:57 beautiful
0:20:58 architecture so we even spoke about how
0:21:01 even the architect
0:21:02 yeah i didn't say that i was beautiful
0:21:03 but that's fine i mean you know yeah
0:21:05 i'm joking no i'm kidding you're very
0:21:08 beautiful no no i'm already kidding man
0:21:10 so no i'm saying that um in that
0:21:12 particular uh
0:21:13 in that series that we do or that talk
0:21:15 that i did you know i mentioned that
0:21:16 even the architecture that you live in
0:21:18 can have an impact on your cognition
0:21:20 that's wrong that's an architecture
0:21:22 and you can actually your your cognition
0:21:24 can be
0:21:25 enhanced can be you know uh it can be
0:21:27 made better you can have less cognitive
0:21:28 biases by
0:21:29 having more interaction in the natural
0:21:30 world something as mundane as most
0:21:33 people might think of right now
0:21:34 it has a profound impact and so you know
0:21:37 something like that you taking a walk in
0:21:39 nature can have an impact on your
0:21:40 cognition
0:21:41 imagine what you know when it comes to
0:21:43 doubts and things like that
0:21:44 so that's why you have to be aware of it
0:21:46 and your beauty section which you
0:21:47 mentioned in this course as well
0:21:48 i believe so it reflecting and
0:21:51 experiencing natural beauty
0:21:53 gives you all and all increases
0:21:55 cognition and low
0:21:57 yeah which is very important in the
0:21:58 context of spirituality exactly
0:22:00 intellectual argument
0:22:01 because how many people do you know that
0:22:03 they won't accept your argument
0:22:05 not because they're not they're not sold
0:22:06 on your argument right
0:22:08 okay the quintessential example is when
0:22:10 people get into a fight with their
0:22:11 spouse
0:22:11 yeah that's the one and that's you know
0:22:13 you're wrong but you just keep going
0:22:15 because it's just it's just ego
0:22:16 yeah yeah yeah right for sure so yeah so
0:22:18 be away is be where they exist and that
0:22:20 helps you that empowers you from the
0:22:22 point of view that
0:22:23 you know if you're walking down the
0:22:24 street and someone says there's a really
0:22:26 there's an armed gang at the end of the
0:22:28 street you're aware of that so you're
0:22:29 not going to walk that path right you're
0:22:30 going to go somewhere else okay good so
0:22:31 what's the next one
0:22:32 uh to not pay the intention no attention
0:22:35 no attention okay
0:22:36 what did you cover from this so
0:22:38 basically in this section we spoke about
0:22:40 you know that uh and again this is
0:22:41 before the shop
0:22:43 yes this is before before and so you
0:22:45 know you're going to have the shubhad
0:22:47 you have to basically not paid any
0:22:48 attention i mean just as it as the term
0:22:50 states
0:22:50 you know don't give it any attention
0:22:52 don't give it any you know look what is
0:22:53 the shobha as we mentioned and as you'll
0:22:55 see in the course
0:22:56 it doesn't have any sort of real value
0:22:58 it's a a
0:22:59 a wolf in sheep's clothing yes so if it
0:23:01 doesn't have any value you have to
0:23:03 proactively not pay any attention to and
0:23:05 just
0:23:05 don't give it any attention yeah at the
0:23:06 stage when it hasn't infected you yet
0:23:08 right
0:23:08 exactly exactly and with the knowledge
0:23:10 that you know it doesn't have a basis
0:23:12 exactly good okay good so then after
0:23:14 that it's then we get into the
0:23:16 uh the the conversation discussion about
0:23:18 making a distinction
0:23:20 and this is one i think that uh yeah a
0:23:22 lot of people don't really
0:23:24 may not really uh may not they may
0:23:27 know it to some extent but the fact that
0:23:30 we outline it in the course where we say
0:23:32 look there are
0:23:32 you know there are certain things that
0:23:33 are like valid questions right and then
0:23:35 there's
0:23:37 and then there are there are you know
0:23:39 what's was right
0:23:40 says right and so and to be able to make
0:23:42 the distinction between those three
0:23:44 between those three is extremely
0:23:46 important because
0:23:47 a person could have a valid question and
0:23:49 that's fine
0:23:50 but a lot of it has to do with a like
0:23:53 what how are they approaching the
0:23:54 question
0:23:55 right so for instance you know you know
0:23:57 behave the difference between a shubha
0:23:59 and a valid question like what would a
0:24:01 difference be a shoba val question
0:24:03 yes so you're right we want to make a
0:24:05 distinction between those three because
0:24:07 sometimes when people have wasfasa they
0:24:08 think it's a shubha
0:24:09 yeah and then they get really confused
0:24:11 but then you may end up being a supplier
0:24:13 which is crazy so the way you've made a
0:24:15 distinction is very powerful so we make
0:24:17 a distinction between what you said was
0:24:20 and valid questions and the difference
0:24:22 between a behind a valid question a
0:24:24 valid question is
0:24:25 literally any question that you don't
0:24:27 intend to undermine
0:24:29 the foundations of islam and you don't
0:24:31 intend to distort the religion
0:24:32 yeah and by the way that attention you
0:24:35 get empowered
0:24:36 but in the duration of this course when
0:24:38 you when you have a good grounding in
0:24:39 world views and fifa
0:24:40 yes right so that empowers you when
0:24:42 you're at this stage as well good sorry
0:24:43 go ahead you know it's fine
0:24:44 uh then after so shuppah is different
0:24:46 it's like it's actually making you
0:24:49 undermine the foundations of islam and
0:24:51 it's it's driving you towards
0:24:53 distorting the religion yeah so
0:24:56 making those distinctions are very
0:24:57 powerful so you don't get confused
0:25:00 because shaytan could use that against
0:25:01 you because you can't make those
0:25:02 distinctions you think of valid
0:25:03 questions
0:25:04 you think of what you're shooting you
0:25:05 think a valid question is a wasp you get
0:25:07 all
0:25:08 yeah and it's a nightmare exactly so
0:25:10 what's the distinction between a wasp
0:25:12 and a subhan in a question then well we
0:25:14 have to take the course to see that
0:25:15 that's very get into it you know so when
0:25:18 i give them
0:25:18 clues right now just just to empower
0:25:20 people very quickly it's something that
0:25:22 you have a psychological psychological
0:25:24 aversion to yeah you don't believe in it
0:25:26 um and the sahaba had this as well and
0:25:29 the prophet said that this is a sign of
0:25:30 iman so if you have a wasp son of iman
0:25:32 but as long as you know it's not true
0:25:34 and you have a psychological aversion to
0:25:36 it and the way to deal with it is not to
0:25:38 speak about not to act upon it
0:25:40 exactly okay so then we go to then so
0:25:42 the next uh next section is one's
0:25:44 environment you're invited oh yes that's
0:25:45 what i do
0:25:46 yes yes so your environment is extremely
0:25:48 important we
0:25:50 we go into like social psychology and we
0:25:52 talk about the development of the social
0:25:54 norm we talk about normative information
0:25:56 normative social influence informational
0:25:58 social influence
0:25:59 informational social influences are
0:26:00 needed for certain normative social
0:26:02 influence i need to belong
0:26:03 and that drives us to basically
0:26:07 submit to a subgroup a dominant group
0:26:09 and if
0:26:10 the subgroup or dominant group or in
0:26:11 this context a dominant group have
0:26:13 alien values or ideas we may adopt them
0:26:15 or we may basically
0:26:19 align ourselves to them because we have
0:26:21 a need to belong we have a need to feel
0:26:22 certain and that could basically take us
0:26:24 away
0:26:24 from the tradition from islam and we
0:26:27 said just be aware of that we talked
0:26:28 about some social psychological
0:26:30 experiments
0:26:31 to show that you know society does
0:26:34 affect you this is like almost
0:26:36 this is this is like almost like an
0:26:38 absolute fact it's intuitive right
0:26:40 because if you
0:26:40 it's intuitive as well yeah if you're a
0:26:42 son or if you're a father or an uncle or
0:26:44 whether the case may be
0:26:45 and you know your your niece or nephew
0:26:47 or your daughter or your son
0:26:49 they say i want to join this group of
0:26:51 friends and you know these group of
0:26:53 friends
0:26:54 they they have drug issues yeah or
0:26:57 look even something are you gonna let
0:26:58 them go yeah you know society doesn't
0:27:00 affect anybody
0:27:01 it doesn't have to be that extreme you
0:27:02 could be like you know what uh
0:27:04 you know uh muhammad over there like
0:27:06 he's you know he's he's studying all the
0:27:08 time he's memorizing the quran
0:27:09 and you know uh you know you know you've
0:27:11 got recruits from harvard that are
0:27:13 looking into him
0:27:14 all right then you've got uh whatever
0:27:15 you know salim over there
0:27:17 and saleem like yeah he's doing well
0:27:18 he's getting bees and stuff and
0:27:20 man you know maybe he'll go to u of h
0:27:22 without reference to everyone who's
0:27:23 going to u of h
0:27:24 and uh who who are you going to have
0:27:25 your kid be like you know what maybe you
0:27:26 should make friends with muhammad over
0:27:28 there absolutely
0:27:29 it's intuitive and it's it's you
0:27:31 mentioned like cognitive psychology
0:27:32 there's a lot of studies in it that that
0:27:34 that social psychology social psychology
0:27:36 that bolster the idea that that you know
0:27:38 your environment matters yes and the
0:27:40 thing is in the quran
0:27:41 yes as well so we talk about the quran
0:27:43 we talk about the son of the prophet
0:27:44 sallallahu alaihi with some about
0:27:46 the importance of your environment and
0:27:48 your friends and
0:27:49 just coming back to the point about that
0:27:51 it's like almost an absolute fact
0:27:52 obviously there are differences of
0:27:53 opinion in academia about
0:27:55 you know how norms are developed and so
0:27:58 on and so forth and what
0:27:59 and how influence how social influence
0:28:01 actually influences you but the point is
0:28:03 the underlying theme is
0:28:05 there is an influence of your the
0:28:07 environment does influence you of course
0:28:09 and that is extremely important to be
0:28:11 aware of that and what the solutions are
0:28:12 from
0:28:13 a quranic and sonar perspective we talk
0:28:15 about that brilliant
0:28:16 the dog yeah the doctors we let them
0:28:19 we let them what yeah we let them attend
0:28:22 the course so they understand that
0:28:24 all right uh we're not going to give
0:28:25 them everything uh yanny
0:28:27 of course of course this is
0:28:30 so the next section we covered was study
0:28:33 islam
0:28:34 okay so you repeat that a few times did
0:28:37 it
0:28:38 no no yeah of course we did we did it
0:28:39 once i knocked that joint once
0:28:41 no way let's be honest this course was
0:28:43 extremely
0:28:44 i think it was very intense yeah the
0:28:46 other course both of them but they were
0:28:48 very um yes of course
0:28:49 intensive repeating certain sessions so
0:28:51 many times just to get it right yeah i
0:28:53 don't know how people do it may allah
0:28:54 bless
0:28:55 all the brothers and sisters that do
0:28:57 this type of work because it was
0:29:00 it does take a lot out of you i think
0:29:02 because you're concerned about the end
0:29:03 user isn't it so you're repeating
0:29:05 so many different you know and a lot of
0:29:07 it may have to do with just how
0:29:09 i guess how important we feel the course
0:29:11 is yeah no 100
0:29:12 this is something that because we deal
0:29:14 with so often and we deal with it on
0:29:16 lighthouse we deal with
0:29:17 people that we speak to you know and i
0:29:19 just got an email i think it was like
0:29:21 yesterday
0:29:22 um you know someone that i know back
0:29:23 home and you know was one of the islamic
0:29:25 school teachers that she emailed me and
0:29:27 she said you know i needed to speak my
0:29:28 son and
0:29:29 you can really sometimes you can really
0:29:30 tell even through email like how much
0:29:32 pain a parent might be going through
0:29:33 yeah 100
0:29:34 so that adds i guess a kind of a level
0:29:36 of pressure in a sense that you want to
0:29:38 make sure it's right so people
0:29:39 understand the concepts and
0:29:40 yes you know so so study islam so if
0:29:42 i'll be honest i did it
0:29:44 a number of times because of that yeah
0:29:47 so would you cover
0:29:48 and study islam what's the main point
0:29:50 well the main point is that you know
0:29:51 once a person studies
0:29:52 islam when they study the you know the
0:29:54 studies islamic tradition
0:29:56 it should empower the person right and
0:29:58 it annihilates doubts it
0:29:59 completely eradicates doubts you know
0:30:01 and that's and obviously we're with the
0:30:03 physical backdrop understanding world
0:30:05 views yeah and all of that
0:30:06 but once once you've kind of understood
0:30:08 that and then you start you know taking
0:30:09 a sincere
0:30:11 you know uh you know you take a sincere
0:30:13 journey in
0:30:14 in the path of seeking knowledge right
0:30:16 and i'm not talking about going out
0:30:17 somewhere abroad and studying in some
0:30:19 sort of form but just
0:30:20 having a sincere you know uh desire to
0:30:23 learn the religion yeah
0:30:24 learn learn people should stand in the
0:30:26 possibility that the more you learn
0:30:28 about islam
0:30:29 of course of course from the spiritual
0:30:31 tradition and the
0:30:32 classical tradition i think one of the
0:30:34 most beautiful aspects that we that i
0:30:35 covered in the
0:30:36 in this section was the motif of light
0:30:40 right no i don't want to start you know
0:30:42 because we're going to be here but it's
0:30:43 a beautiful motif
0:30:45 but the point i'm trying to say is that
0:30:46 people should stand in the possibility
0:30:47 that learning the
0:30:49 islamic tradition will eradicate their
0:30:51 doubts and it does so you gave two
0:30:53 examples two case studies yeah so we
0:30:54 talked about um the age of consent
0:30:56 yeah it was one of those uh that's one
0:30:57 of the the the the shabbahans that might
0:30:59 come up
0:31:00 yes and how the ulsuli tradition just
0:31:02 annihilates this yeah yeah of course and
0:31:04 it's just
0:31:04 you know a lot of times there's so many
0:31:07 you know aspects to that particular
0:31:09 section we talk about you know is the
0:31:11 concept of age the first of all
0:31:13 you know is it something that's
0:31:14 trans-historic trans-cultural et cetera
0:31:16 and the arbitrary nature
0:31:17 arbitrary nature is based on principles
0:31:20 right
0:31:20 right exactly we don't have to unpack
0:31:22 that right now so the other case study
0:31:23 was
0:31:24 on inheritance okay good yeah and so we
0:31:26 get into
0:31:27 some details about that um you know i
0:31:30 speak about the complexity of the
0:31:32 inheritance law itself yep and the
0:31:33 principles involved the principles
0:31:35 involved
0:31:35 the nuances involved you know one of the
0:31:37 things that i highlight and i don't want
0:31:38 to get into the whole course now
0:31:40 is that a lot of people when they when
0:31:43 they are faced with true behave they
0:31:44 want to have a quick short answer
0:31:47 without any sort of nuance and the
0:31:48 reality is i mean you're looking at over
0:31:50 a thousand years
0:31:51 of a civilization and you know that this
0:31:54 is a nuanced
0:31:55 area well this is legal theory it's
0:31:57 legal theory right so good reasoning
0:31:59 even in secular law if you want to find
0:32:01 out about a certain ruling you're not
0:32:03 going to basically
0:32:03 you're not going to say like well you
0:32:05 know this is how it is you go to a
0:32:06 lawyer
0:32:07 yeah i mean i can give my own example
0:32:08 when i study tax law
0:32:10 you know i mean it's complex man you
0:32:12 have the code which is like two big
0:32:14 volumes and
0:32:14 eight volumes of the of the you know irs
0:32:16 regulations
0:32:17 and you know you have opinions upon
0:32:19 opinions you have case law you have to
0:32:20 study you know you're making
0:32:21 so you know when people kind of say like
0:32:23 oh isn't it true that you know women
0:32:24 just get more than men it's such a
0:32:26 less yeah sorry that they get but the
0:32:29 funny thing is we show that in 16 cases
0:32:31 women get more maybe that
0:32:32 was a yeah so we show that the whole
0:32:35 ruling is not about
0:32:36 the so-called intrinsic value of a
0:32:38 particular gender
0:32:39 yeah yeah and we talk about the
0:32:41 principles and we show how shallow this
0:32:43 accusation is but it's based on knowing
0:32:44 the knowledge of islam yeah exactly
0:32:46 okay good so after this what do we do
0:32:49 after we get into
0:32:50 study islam we look at um oh we look at
0:32:53 your
0:32:53 section what's that it's critical
0:32:55 thinking oh yeah yeah
0:32:56 critical thing so like i think i did
0:32:58 study islam what like maybe
0:32:59 five times and you're critical thinking
0:33:01 like what 25 times
0:33:03 i think like four days you spend on
0:33:04 critical thinking no no no i spent a few
0:33:06 hours in it so
0:33:07 so critical thinking was important
0:33:09 because we believe that using
0:33:11 your critical thinking abilities your
0:33:13 rational faculties
0:33:15 your ability to ponder think et cetera
0:33:17 in essence using
0:33:18 the function of the kalib which is the
0:33:20 akal using that in a sound way and given
0:33:23 that all other variables are sound like
0:33:25 your heart
0:33:26 is you know in the right place from a
0:33:28 spiritual perspective
0:33:30 that that will be a barrier to shubu
0:33:32 heart because if you're able to
0:33:33 critically think
0:33:34 then it just annihilates the shuba heart
0:33:36 now what's
0:33:38 interesting is now what's interesting is
0:33:41 a lot of the shubahat
0:33:43 they are taken seriously because we
0:33:44 don't have the ability to critically
0:33:46 think
0:33:46 exactly so i give i think i gave a
0:33:48 scenario about someone
0:33:50 or if i didn't let me just give it out
0:33:51 very quickly someone asked a question
0:33:53 about the higgs boson
0:33:55 this was many years ago and the higgs
0:33:56 boson was a particle that they found
0:33:58 they found the empirical justification
0:34:00 for the higgs boson which is a particle
0:34:02 of the higgs field what's the higgs
0:34:04 field
0:34:04 it was something that switched that was
0:34:06 switched on the early universe that gave
0:34:08 particles mass apart from the photon of
0:34:10 course and
0:34:12 you know they called it the god particle
0:34:13 in the kind of popular articles and then
0:34:15 someone said oh bro my iman something's
0:34:17 wrong with my iman or something like
0:34:18 something like that because they found
0:34:20 the god particle and i'm like what's
0:34:22 going on here so i did a bit of an
0:34:23 investigation and then i realized
0:34:25 this had nothing to do with god it was
0:34:27 well from the point of view everything
0:34:28 is to do with allah but the point is
0:34:31 it doesn't negate his existence it just
0:34:32 found a particle yeah of a field
0:34:35 now they call it the god particle
0:34:37 because the generous journalists were
0:34:38 lazy because originally it was called
0:34:40 the god damn particle because it's so
0:34:41 hard to find
0:34:43 exactly so you see the point things like
0:34:45 this i mean
0:34:46 it's a crude example but you get you
0:34:48 have to be able to critically think
0:34:50 in actual fact that example itself
0:34:51 proves goes existence because any
0:34:52 particle
0:34:53 anything physical is contingent yeah
0:34:55 right exactly
0:34:56 it's possibly existing it's
0:34:59 and everything that is mumkin
0:35:01 necessitates wajaba
0:35:03 the necessary existing being which is
0:35:04 allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and this
0:35:06 argument is in all the schools of creed
0:35:08 right anyway the point here is
0:35:10 critically think so we talk about what
0:35:12 is critical thinking what is developing
0:35:13 good arguments generating good arguments
0:35:15 and
0:35:16 what is that you know how how do you
0:35:18 develop the ability to find out errors
0:35:20 in people's reasoning we talk about
0:35:21 formal fallacies
0:35:23 uh informal fallacies we give some
0:35:24 examples and we do that in order to
0:35:26 empower you
0:35:27 to be able to critically think and that
0:35:29 if you use your alcohol in a sound way
0:35:32 and obviously the alcohol is a function
0:35:33 of the kalb and given if all the other
0:35:35 variables are fine concerning your kalb
0:35:37 if you use the aqualinus in a sound way
0:35:40 it can be a means to put to be a barrier
0:35:42 against shubohat and we unpacked that
0:35:44 further so what was next after that well
0:35:46 let me ask question before i
0:35:47 get to the next section um you know
0:35:50 everything that you learned
0:35:51 everything that you learned up to this
0:35:52 point is that all on your own accord
0:35:55 or have you learned it from other people
0:35:58 i like what you do
0:35:58 you're connecting it to another well i
0:36:00 mean i'm just you know because a lot of
0:36:01 people think like you know
0:36:02 we are standing on the shoulders of
0:36:04 giants yes thank you very much that's
0:36:05 the thing and that's
0:36:06 in actual fact we have epistemic
0:36:08 limitations we're never going to know
0:36:09 everything it's impossible
0:36:11 even in western epistemology testimony
0:36:13 the epistemology of testimony
0:36:14 you know you have dr elizabeth fricker
0:36:16 she says given that her that her
0:36:18 limitations are parametric she has to
0:36:19 rely on the authority of others this is
0:36:21 worn on anything on anything
0:36:22 yep and that's the next section it's
0:36:24 finding especially find a specialist
0:36:25 right okay so what do you unpack here
0:36:26 so unhappy just basically what you said
0:36:28 right that we have epistemic limitations
0:36:30 and then
0:36:30 you know we can't a lot of times we feel
0:36:32 that we can let's say when it comes to
0:36:34 the realm of shubuhat
0:36:35 that we're going to basically study when
0:36:36 we study and we got it but sometimes
0:36:38 you you may need help with that you know
0:36:40 that's part of that's part of like the
0:36:41 community you live in whether it's
0:36:43 if you want to consider an online
0:36:44 community or the local community is that
0:36:46 we have
0:36:46 people we have specialists that can deal
0:36:48 with certain things that can deal with
0:36:50 your epistemic limitations right and the
0:36:52 important thing is that
0:36:54 they should stand in the possibility
0:36:56 yeah
0:36:57 if you're dealing with yourself or
0:36:58 dealing with someone else that we do
0:37:00 have specialists in the community that
0:37:02 can answer these questions
0:37:03 and just because we've had history yeah
0:37:05 just because you don't know the answer
0:37:06 doesn't mean the answer doesn't exist
0:37:07 exactly
0:37:08 right so yeah so that's what we're
0:37:09 covering and the next section after that
0:37:11 is
0:37:11 where we deal with trauma oh
0:37:14 so tell me a little bit about let's say
0:37:16 a trauma that you've been through oh
0:37:17 thanks
0:37:18 well i'm on like with your shrink now
0:37:20 yeah you're my
0:37:29 ladies and gentlemen here's the thing
0:37:31 every human being goes through trauma
0:37:32 absolutely just because he's thinking
0:37:34 about it no no
0:37:34 no no no no of course absolutely so
0:37:38 a trauma that i've gone a trauma that
0:37:41 i've experienced from
0:37:42 a kind of shoulder heart or doubts point
0:37:45 of view
0:37:49 guess so one trauma was maybe a
0:37:51 self-imposed trauma where
0:37:52 when i became a muslim i felt that i had
0:37:55 to now
0:37:55 break down my hero that was my father
0:37:58 and because he was a muslim i should
0:37:59 just basically
0:38:02 look just basically trying to
0:38:04 deconstruct his personality that he's
0:38:05 actually a bad person he's not worthy to
0:38:07 be my hero because he's not muslim
0:38:09 which is a very unknown islamic position
0:38:11 to take and i spent a lot of time
0:38:13 actually relating to my father in a very
0:38:15 negative way
0:38:16 and that was an internal trauma that i
0:38:18 created myself right
0:38:19 because of lack of knowledge lack of
0:38:21 guidance whatever the case may be not
0:38:22 understanding islam properly
0:38:24 and then that trauma was unpacked when i
0:38:27 went on this kind of psychology
0:38:28 course three-day course where they just
0:38:31 broke me down it was like
0:38:32 you're just you just they you know you
0:38:35 just say you know i'm not gonna say who
0:38:36 i am but you know you're just a piece of
0:38:38 you know excrement right and
0:38:39 your ease with ego yeah it's your you
0:38:42 know your
0:38:42 your need to be right and never be wrong
0:38:45 you need to impose and never be imposed
0:38:46 upon your
0:38:47 need to always look good and never look
0:38:49 back bad to the extent where you give up
0:38:51 the truth and to the extent
0:38:52 that you give up what is right right so
0:38:54 that ego
0:38:55 was giving up what was the right way to
0:38:58 to approach and relate to my father and
0:39:00 even the truth that
0:39:01 of course he still has those virtues of
0:39:04 course he's my hero
0:39:05 with regards to many things and there's
0:39:06 nothing wrong with that this is part of
0:39:07 the islamic tradition the person praised
0:39:10 um non-muslims you know
0:39:13 khalid bin walid or radhilahan became
0:39:15 muslim because muslims
0:39:16 called him a wise person yeah in essence
0:39:18 right so the point here is
0:39:21 it's uh that trauma was unpacked for me
0:39:24 when i went through that experience but
0:39:25 not everyone has those experiences but
0:39:27 that was a self-imposed trauma the way i
0:39:29 was relating to my father but then after
0:39:30 when i picked up the phone which was
0:39:32 part of the
0:39:32 homework once i understood that
0:39:34 self-imposed trauma
0:39:35 and understood that the meaning i'm
0:39:38 giving the situation
0:39:39 is not the meaning that the mean i was
0:39:42 given wasn't the correct meaning the
0:39:43 correct meaning was the meaning that
0:39:44 allah wants me to give it right which
0:39:46 was treat your father with respect
0:39:48 love your father appreciate his hair and
0:39:50 so on and so forth
0:39:51 which i didn't do so the reason i had
0:39:54 that self-imposed trauma because i did
0:39:55 not stand in the possibility that the
0:39:57 meaning i was giving it wasn't the right
0:39:58 meaning
0:39:59 but the minute i said well actually the
0:40:00 meaning i'm giving it is wrong and it's
0:40:02 not
0:40:03 powerful and it's not empowering it's
0:40:04 not an islamic
0:40:06 in the minute i understood that and i
0:40:08 gave allah's meaning i gave the correct
0:40:09 meaning
0:40:10 that totally transformed everything
0:40:12 right and it goes down and this is what
0:40:14 we
0:40:14 speak about in the in the section on
0:40:15 dealing with trauma is that you know
0:40:17 stand in the possibility
0:40:19 that you would give your trauma a
0:40:21 different meaning yes right and this
0:40:22 isn't just from the islamic framework we
0:40:24 talk about
0:40:25 you know um psychologists who actually
0:40:28 you know advise the same thing stand the
0:40:30 possibility that you give it a different
0:40:31 meaning yes and what was the statement
0:40:33 um
0:40:34 who was it uh wasn't nietzsche it was uh
0:40:36 our holocaust survivor
0:40:38 oh it was victor franklin victor frankel
0:40:39 yes very powerful very powerful
0:40:41 statement he said something to the
0:40:42 effect of
0:40:43 you know if if um your trauma has your
0:40:45 trauma has meaning
0:40:47 no if you're suffering as me i think you
0:40:48 should use suffering if your suffering
0:40:50 has meaning that it's not suffering at
0:40:51 all or something to this effect right
0:40:52 very powerful yeah and that's really but
0:40:54 what we do in this section we say stand
0:40:56 the possibility of the meaning that
0:40:57 allah gives it
0:40:59 is the correct meaning absolutely right
0:41:00 this is absolutely and this is very
0:41:02 empowering and very
0:41:03 uh you know it's and this is also
0:41:05 something we mentioned in the other
0:41:06 course that awakening the truth within
0:41:08 yeah
0:41:08 absolutely that is a means for doubt
0:41:10 people have trauma small
0:41:11 traumas big traumas right because we're
0:41:13 not going to judge them that they're
0:41:14 small or big everyone has their own
0:41:15 experiences
0:41:16 but the minute and i'm i'm a strong
0:41:18 believer of this the minute you stand in
0:41:19 the possibility that the meaning that
0:41:21 you're giving this trauma is not the
0:41:22 correct meaning and the meaning
0:41:23 and if you give the meaning that allah
0:41:25 and his messenger want you to give the
0:41:27 the trauma
0:41:29 then that would be a means to uncloud
0:41:30 the fitra to awaken the truth within
0:41:32 and in this case it's a barrier against
0:41:34 tribal heart exactly
0:41:36 exactly so after this what do we do we
0:41:38 focus on
0:41:39 on the heart man oh yes this is this is
0:41:41 your thing bro
0:41:42 i don't know about my thing but you know
0:41:43 yeah so we focus on the heart and
0:41:45 because you know we
0:41:46 we start in the beginning of the course
0:41:48 you know we talk about the heart itself
0:41:50 it's position it's
0:41:51 centrality when we're talking about
0:41:52 shubuhat and all of those things so
0:41:54 you know we would have to have a section
0:41:56 where we look at the heart we look at
0:41:57 it's um
0:41:58 you know basically it's it's you know
0:42:00 understanding the heart understanding
0:42:02 something about
0:42:03 in a sense the human being as well and
0:42:04 what kind of position and how to
0:42:06 strengthen the heart from a spiritual
0:42:07 point
0:42:07 and so we get into like how to
0:42:08 strengthen the heart you know what are
0:42:10 the mean strength in the heart
0:42:11 now obviously we're not going to get
0:42:12 into an entire course on the heart
0:42:14 right but again we're giving you we're
0:42:16 giving the the essential elements
0:42:18 essential elements
0:42:19 to how to do that especially in relation
0:42:21 to shubohat right
0:42:22 and why is it important yes because it's
0:42:24 imperative
0:42:25 imperative that a person has a very
0:42:27 strong heart a sound heart
0:42:29 right when dealing with shubahat you
0:42:30 know allah you know he talks about
0:42:33 you know the fact that on the day of
0:42:35 judgment the only thing that would be of
0:42:37 any sort of benefit for a person is a
0:42:38 sound heart right
0:42:43 right on a day where neither wealth or
0:42:45 children will benefit a person except a
0:42:47 person that comes with a
0:42:48 sound heart yes right and so we get into
0:42:51 a discussion about iman
0:42:52 and the heart and then we talk about you
0:42:54 know strategies where we can use in
0:42:55 strengthening the heart you know things
0:42:56 like vikkar
0:42:58 things like prayer and quran and all
0:43:01 these things that you know some many
0:43:02 many people might already know
0:43:04 but by the time they get to this stage
0:43:05 in the course i think
0:43:07 by going through you know the
0:43:09 metaphysical backdrop by going through
0:43:10 some of the other strategies and things
0:43:12 like that
0:43:12 we understand you know you get to the
0:43:14 point where okay now these things
0:43:16 have a different meaning from a certain
0:43:18 perspective right and when you make time
0:43:20 when you make vikra for instance there's
0:43:22 a thicker you can make that's just kind
0:43:23 of quick and like let me just get it
0:43:24 done
0:43:25 but then there's a viktor where it's
0:43:26 like okay so this is going to have an
0:43:27 impact on me
0:43:28 yes and my position in relation to ish
0:43:30 because i remember
0:43:32 is weak it's baseless yeah but it
0:43:35 attaches to the high try to drain your
0:43:36 iman
0:43:37 if your heart is strong then the
0:43:39 shubuhat will bounce away it will fall
0:43:41 off if you like
0:43:42 yeah and this is why it's very important
0:43:45 to strengthen the spiritual heart and
0:43:46 i've
0:43:46 said even my own experience you see that
0:43:49 i'll be infected with shubu hearts
0:43:51 based on my spiritual state so less
0:43:54 thicker
0:43:54 less connection with allah more
0:43:57 heart yes or the superheart that i was
0:44:00 even addressing and i dressed them well
0:44:01 for someone else
0:44:02 i wouldn't be convinced but when my
0:44:04 spiritual state changed
0:44:05 it was a different dimension it's a
0:44:07 different reality rather and then you
0:44:08 know the thing is that there's
0:44:10 you know you you really it's one of
0:44:12 those things that you have to understand
0:44:13 maybe experientially
0:44:14 right yes uh you know the statement i
0:44:16 think we mentioned this in the course as
0:44:17 well
0:44:18 that ibm mentions that he that he takes
0:44:20 from uh
0:44:23 mercy upon both of them i mean where he
0:44:25 says that you know and i'm just
0:44:26 paraphrasing now like don't let your
0:44:27 heart be like a sponge
0:44:28 just soaking in all of the shubahat
0:44:30 rather let it be like a glass
0:44:32 so that you know that it's hardened
0:44:33 glass so that you're able to see the
0:44:35 sugar hot but then when they come they
0:44:36 just bounce off just like rain right
0:44:38 like rain drops you're able to see the
0:44:39 rain
0:44:40 so you can see it from you're not
0:44:42 getting wet but you're not getting wet
0:44:43 nice
0:44:43 right and so and by the way we have an
0:44:45 analogy of the heart to be like glass we
0:44:47 talk about eye to nose it's uh you know
0:44:49 we wanted some details about that but so
0:44:50 the point is is that this section what
0:44:52 it's all about is strengthening the
0:44:54 heart making it strong making it you
0:44:55 know the opposite of being a sponge
0:44:57 uh and we have you know a few things and
0:44:59 that we relate
0:45:00 related to that you know we talk about
0:45:01 good so there's one more section of this
0:45:03 right
0:45:03 so that is making dua yes you know dua
0:45:06 as uh
0:45:07 is the weapon of the believer absolutely
0:45:09 and really
0:45:10 this is all about our metaphysics
0:45:12 because we realize that allah
0:45:16 we are solely dependent on him yeah none
0:45:18 of these strategies would work
0:45:19 absolutely if it wasn't for allah
0:45:20 subhanahu wa yes he is
0:45:22 he is the self-subsisting he is the
0:45:26 independent he is he is the free he is
0:45:29 the independent
0:45:30 and everything including ourselves of
0:45:33 course
0:45:34 we are solely dependent on allah even
0:45:36 our worship
0:45:37 our purpose in life is to worship allah
0:45:39 right but in surat al-fatiha the thing
0:45:41 we read what 70 at least 17 times a day
0:45:45 you alone do we worship and you alone do
0:45:47 we seek help in that worship yes
0:45:49 right so i mean worship you know we're
0:45:53 solely dependent we need that
0:45:54 from allah and so what this section does
0:45:57 it's about dua where we
0:45:58 we are now solely we're we're casting
0:46:01 ourselves before all of subhanwa
0:46:02 and you mentioned some of the of course
0:46:04 and then it's about
0:46:06 strengthening the heart the most famous
0:46:07 one yes
0:46:11 of hearts keep my heart firm upon your
0:46:12 religion yes and we look at dwa's from
0:46:14 the quran
0:46:14 that was one of the most off-repeat of
0:46:16 the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
0:46:18 correct
0:46:19 i remember no i don't know okay not sure
0:46:21 about that but yeah
0:46:22 double check that yeah yeah so brilliant
0:46:24 but uh so this last section i mean
0:46:26 really just kind of
0:46:27 it hopefully brings the person home to a
0:46:30 certain
0:46:30 brings the person to a certain state
0:46:32 where they are casting themselves before
0:46:34 allah and that's really
0:46:36 you know that's really what in essence
0:46:38 that's what it comes down to right a lot
0:46:39 of times we think
0:46:40 as long as i have the rational answer
0:46:42 you know this is what we unpack in the
0:46:44 fitra and
0:46:44 limits of rationality and things like
0:46:46 that but one of the things we have to be
0:46:48 very aware of is that you know we could
0:46:52 you know you could learn everything
0:46:53 there is to learn like how many people
0:46:55 are
0:46:56 you know very well versed in islamic
0:46:58 studies
0:46:59 in western uh you know you know in
0:47:01 western within western academia
0:47:03 they could teach most muslims islam
0:47:06 but they don't have the most valuable
0:47:09 thing that you're going to need on the
0:47:10 day
0:47:10 is iman right so you know this whole
0:47:13 concept of just learning information
0:47:15 some sort of you're getting you know
0:47:16 abstract knowledge we speak about that
0:47:18 as well yes like we're not just doing
0:47:20 this in a vacuum but it has to be
0:47:21 applicable you have to be able to
0:47:22 analyze
0:47:23 internalize and apply it and and live it
0:47:25 basically and what's important from
0:47:27 uh from the perspective of dua as a
0:47:29 strategy
0:47:30 is to make people realize that the other
0:47:32 strategies
0:47:33 are only be are only going to be
0:47:35 successful because of the will of allah
0:47:37 exactly don't give them some kind of
0:47:38 intrinsic value
0:47:39 yeah yeah
0:47:42 behind everything is the power of talent
0:47:44 so brothers and sisters those are the
0:47:46 ten strategies
0:47:47 and one last yeah sure you know with
0:47:49 these strategies one of
0:47:50 the other things we mentioned in the
0:47:51 course is that they're not they're not
0:47:53 they don't have to use in that order
0:47:54 yes we mentioned the beginning we did
0:47:56 okay you have to emphasize good
0:47:57 temperature so i mean just like you know
0:47:58 people might think like we have to do
0:47:59 one step one step two step three
0:48:01 remember somewhere before somewhere
0:48:02 after
0:48:03 uh you know and you're gonna depending
0:48:04 on your own personal context where you
0:48:06 are
0:48:07 in your journey in relation to allah
0:48:08 subhanahu wa'ta'ala and the person that
0:48:10 you're addressing and the person you're
0:48:11 addressing as well
0:48:12 i mean you might find strategy two five
0:48:14 and six to be you know the strategy that
0:48:15 you need or
0:48:16 or you know some other strategy and so
0:48:18 they're not in some sort of
0:48:20 you know uh there's no sort of hierarchy
0:48:22 when it comes it's not a road map it's
0:48:23 like a tool kit
0:48:24 yeah so you have your toolbox and you
0:48:26 could pick each of the tools that are
0:48:28 relevant to yourself
0:48:29 or the other person the person that
0:48:31 you're helping address their own their
0:48:33 doubts as well
0:48:34 so what people will find that if they're
0:48:36 talking about doubts about themselves
0:48:37 that this might be
0:48:38 and this is why it's so important to
0:48:40 stand in the possibility that these
0:48:41 strategies will work
0:48:42 that it might be a an awakening for a
0:48:45 lot of people because
0:48:46 it's um it's for if you're dealing with
0:48:48 the shuba hat yourself
0:48:50 you have to have some sort of level of
0:48:52 introspection you have to look inside
0:48:54 like peek inside of yourself right you
0:48:55 have that basila
0:48:56 right that's that insight right that
0:48:58 goes inside so or if you're
0:49:00 dealing with the shuba of another person
0:49:02 you have to kind of you know investigate
0:49:04 what is that person where are they
0:49:05 coming from what's their background
0:49:07 um and maybe have them have some levels
0:49:09 of introspection
0:49:10 something that they might not have done
0:49:12 up to this point and they're just
0:49:13 dealing with shubahat as
0:49:15 you know intellectual you know whatever
0:49:17 one thing we can say
0:49:19 alhamdulillah is that these are
0:49:20 effective strategies
0:49:22 and uh they've been designed
0:49:26 they've been designed to empower the
0:49:28 brothers and sisters the imams the
0:49:30 scholars the teachers the parents the
0:49:31 individuals
0:49:32 people that they're helping even if
0:49:33 they're helping themselves this would be
0:49:35 extremely effective for them insha'allah
0:49:37 so
0:49:38 brothers and sisters we're going to end
0:49:39 it here that's the introduction
0:49:41 please complete the whole course may
0:49:44 allah bless you
0:49:46 and please forgive us for any
0:49:47 shortcomings you know no one's perfect
0:49:49 we did try and do we
0:49:51 we did this so many times you know there
0:49:53 was one day we spent half a day and then
0:49:56 we we went through some content and then
0:49:58 the day after we repeated it
0:50:00 and some of the sessions repeated a few
0:50:02 times
0:50:03 and it was you know it was it was
0:50:05 grueling but
0:50:06 it's not going to be please please
0:50:08 overlook it yeah nothing's perfect
0:50:09 nothing's perfect
0:50:10 but i think it's there alhamdulillah we
0:50:13 believe it's there and may allah bless
0:50:14 you
0:50:15 and please you know make make dua for us
0:50:17 as well because
0:50:18 we want to repeat this course maybe in a
0:50:20 year or two years
0:50:22 because we always want to progress and
0:50:23 that's that's the kind of main ethic of
0:50:25 sapience institute
0:50:27 nothing's going to stay the same
0:50:28 inshaallah and we want to be
0:50:30 committed to your service committed to
0:50:32 your well-being and that's what loving
0:50:34 for others what love for yourself means
0:50:35 you know and this is based on our
0:50:36 tradition which is to be committed to
0:50:38 the goodness and guidance not only of
0:50:40 muslims but of
0:50:41 all human beings and and this course is
0:50:43 an expression of that and
0:50:44 yet we we're we're weak we make we're
0:50:47 not perfect
0:50:48 and if there's any mistakes or
0:50:49 shortcomings please forgive us all good
0:50:51 is from allah any mistakes from
0:50:54 ourselves shaytan but i want to thank
0:50:57 specifically because he delivered most
0:50:58 of this course
0:51:00 alhamdulillah he had to go away from his
0:51:02 family you know
0:51:03 thousands of miles you know because the
0:51:05 course was delivered in turkey in the
0:51:06 studio in turkey
0:51:08 so you know may allah bless him and his
0:51:10 family and grant the best in this life
0:51:12 and the best and hereafter and grant you
0:51:13 the best in this life
0:51:15 and the best in the hereafter as for me
0:51:18 salaam alaikum i'll leave the last words
0:51:20 with you well no i just uh
0:51:22 the course itself uh you know just to
0:51:24 reiterate what what
0:51:26 i mentioned and that is you know when
0:51:28 you're when as you start on this course
0:51:30 you know again have a level of sincerity
0:51:32 stand in the possibility that these
0:51:34 strategies
0:51:35 they'll work you know and then and cast
0:51:37 yourself before allah it's very
0:51:39 important your
0:51:40 your your disposition before you start
0:51:42 this course
0:51:43 uh other than that yeah it was a
0:51:45 grueling i haven't even lost track of
0:51:46 how long i've been here but it's been a
0:51:48 grueling
0:51:49 you know uh whatever few days or however
0:51:51 many days we've been at this
0:51:52 uh but in the end all successes from
0:51:54 allah subhanahu wa ta'ala if
0:51:56 like he said if there's any mistakes it
0:51:58 was all on on us
0:52:00 or from shaitaan or from our nufs or
0:52:02 from whatever it might be so please
0:52:04 overlook those mistakes you know we uh
0:52:06 inshallah we tried our utmost best
0:52:09 and if there was any sort of you know
0:52:11 mistakes please overlook that
0:52:13 i ask allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala to you
0:52:15 know grant you ease when dealing with
0:52:18 with shubahat if it's yourself uh if
0:52:20 it's with someone else may allah grant
0:52:21 them
0:52:21 ease and mail us except from you know
0:52:24 except from all of us
0:52:25 you know whether we're on this end you
0:52:27 know putting the course together and
0:52:28 delivering the course or on your end to
0:52:30 attend the course to go through it
0:52:32 and use it as a means to do away with
0:52:34 shubuhat and
0:52:35 and come you know and cast yourself with
0:52:37 allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala may accept
0:52:38 from all of us
0:52:41 that's it man allah
0:52:50 [Music]