Sapient Voices #3: Dr. Osman Latiff - New Book, Successes & Failures, Self-Amazement & Gratitude (2022-07-24) #

0:00:00 [Music]
0:00:13 and sisters and friends and welcome to
0:00:16 sapient voices the sapience institute
0:00:19 podcast that aims to give
0:00:22 platform to
0:00:24 voices of wisdom and to facilitate
0:00:27 debate and discussion in order for
0:00:30 reason to prevail
0:00:32 i am delighted alhamdulillah
0:00:35 to have with us dr utman latif i'm going
0:00:37 to quickly introduce him that we're
0:00:39 going to go straight into insha allah
0:00:41 dr uthman latif is a senior researcher
0:00:43 and instructor at sapiens institute
0:00:46 he has a ba in history an m.a in
0:00:48 crusader studies and he completed his
0:00:50 phd
0:00:52 and he also has engaged in postdoctoral
0:00:55 work concerning othering and
0:00:57 dehumanization he has published
0:01:00 in at springer in brielle academic
0:01:03 publishing publishing he has written
0:01:05 books for sapiens institute on being
0:01:07 human and also divine perfection
0:01:11 and
0:01:12 so much more i think what we need to get
0:01:15 into right now is because of the amazing
0:01:18 writing that has done for say pence
0:01:20 institute is to ask doctor
0:01:22 how do you write
0:01:24 and how and what is the process and
0:01:27 first and foremost
0:01:28 allah says
0:01:31 so doctor you know i'm always fascinated
0:01:33 at your ability to write on kind of
0:01:35 different topics that are not really
0:01:38 related and become an expert in that
0:01:40 topic and also be able to write in that
0:01:42 topic so for example obviously you wrote
0:01:44 on being human for us and on being human
0:01:46 it was part of your postdoctoral work as
0:01:48 well othering dehumanization but then
0:01:50 after you went all the way to the other
0:01:53 side of the intellectual world if you
0:01:54 like in a different landscape and you
0:01:56 had to deal with your philosophical
0:01:58 issues divine perfection sociology
0:02:00 hematology you know salvation theory the
0:02:03 concept of sin in islamic christianity
0:02:06 divine love and then now
0:02:08 you're working on something else
0:02:10 concerning how we must be as
0:02:13 preachers of islam as dua as those who
0:02:15 want to go out in the world and
0:02:17 articulate a positive positive message
0:02:19 of islam now you're talking about
0:02:22 psychology you're talking about way of
0:02:24 being how we must relate to people in
0:02:26 the most positive way and in a way
0:02:28 that's in line with the prophetic
0:02:30 tradition how do you do that i mean
0:02:32 what's the process
0:02:34 is
0:02:42 all goodness comes from him and we begin
0:02:44 of course by reminding ourselves that we
0:02:46 are we are where really where we should
0:02:48 be in terms of that dua of uh musa
0:02:50 alayhi islam when he gets to madyan
0:02:52 and there is a process of um realization
0:02:56 because there's an actualizing and
0:02:59 verbalizing so he of course sees these
0:03:01 two these two young girls and they they
0:03:03 can't watch their sheep and they held
0:03:05 back
0:03:06 and so we asked them what's up with you
0:03:08 guys and they said this is a situation
0:03:10 old man and allah says
0:03:12 that he watered the sheep for them so
0:03:13 therefore there is a sense of service
0:03:15 there a duty there is fulfilling an
0:03:17 obligation there is doing a good deed a
0:03:19 good work
0:03:21 and then of course allah says
0:03:24 then it turns towards the shade and
0:03:26 somalia they say kind of it represents
0:03:27 his sense of ikhlas and because he's
0:03:29 he's not hanging around long enough for
0:03:31 them to say thank you very much if we'll
0:03:33 eat it for us and then he says beautiful
0:03:38 whatever goodness you send to me oh
0:03:40 allah i'm desperately in need of and all
0:03:42 of us are fukara all of us are poor
0:03:44 impoverished before allah subhanahu
0:03:45 wa'ta'ala desperate in need of things
0:03:48 while we can do them and i think that
0:03:49 that's a perspective i think that like
0:03:52 you mentioned um i don't see myself as a
0:03:54 very prolific writer or anything um i
0:03:57 don't see myself as that but i think
0:03:58 that what we can do to help us uh
0:04:01 develop some some sense of confidence in
0:04:04 wanting at least to write or share the
0:04:06 message of islam
0:04:07 is it begins with having a sincere i
0:04:10 think having a sincere
0:04:12 concern uh i began writing divine
0:04:15 perfection end of 2020 if you remember
0:04:17 and i really i i really felt as if this
0:04:21 individual needs a response because
0:04:24 because there's such wrong information
0:04:26 about islam and i think that i think
0:04:29 that's a strong stimulus for a person uh
0:04:32 if he notices something that's said so
0:04:35 wrong about something he holds so there
0:04:36 which is of course islam itself and then
0:04:38 he would feel a drive at least to try
0:04:40 and i and of course i had so many
0:04:42 hiccups on the way of writing that book
0:04:43 you know yourself so many hiccups so
0:04:46 many things i got wrong and i needed to
0:04:47 add this and there were so many edits
0:04:49 and reviews and this and that
0:04:51 but that didn't i mean it didn't upset
0:04:53 me in fact it helped me i think
0:04:54 alhamdulillah because um because i'm
0:04:57 we're all only human we're only we're
0:04:59 not perfect and and no book is perfect
0:05:00 except the book of allah subhanallah
0:05:02 it's a reminder that when i give talks
0:05:04 for example usually sometimes uh i might
0:05:07 prepare a talk like i have a football
0:05:09 today inshallah soon i prepared my nose
0:05:11 right over here over here right and so
0:05:13 usually i want to hit home a strong
0:05:15 message but i might sometimes do the
0:05:17 talk and i forget the main main message
0:05:19 i wanted to deliver to the people and
0:05:20 what happened to you also and then i
0:05:22 just remind myself that no speech is
0:05:24 perfect except the speech of allah so
0:05:26 i'm bound therefore to have an
0:05:28 imperfection in my speech and my
0:05:29 preparation for it and in my delivery of
0:05:31 it and that's fine because i'm just
0:05:33 assuming we're all as humans but i think
0:05:35 that alhamdulillah if i was to say like
0:05:37 what i what i try and do and i think
0:05:38 it's an advisor for myself and for
0:05:40 others
0:05:42 is uh currently i'm teaching a book by
0:05:44 ibn rajab hanbali called uh
0:05:49 and it's translated as journey to allah
0:05:52 like
0:05:53 has translated into the text
0:05:55 but it's not called journey to allah
0:05:57 it's called
0:05:59 which means
0:06:01 means like the way the qibla
0:06:03 and said means in traveling and a dulja
0:06:06 is a dulja is the last portion of the
0:06:09 night that's the that's what the book is
0:06:11 so it's like the clear way in traveling
0:06:14 to the last portion of the night and his
0:06:16 whole book subhanallah had i known
0:06:18 before i would have used it a lot in my
0:06:19 book don't forget because the whole book
0:06:21 is about one single hadith and this
0:06:24 hadith is when the prophet says that
0:06:26 none of you will enter heaven but none
0:06:28 of you will be saved because of his
0:06:30 deeds right and it's not even you it's
0:06:32 not even
0:06:35 and then he said in different narrations
0:06:40 and then be firm be balanced and journey
0:06:43 to allah in the beginning of the day and
0:06:46 the end of the day and washing and
0:06:48 something have something from the last
0:06:50 portion of the night and the whole book
0:06:53 is explaining this one hadith in
0:06:55 different kind of ways and different
0:06:57 kind of look it's very interesting but
0:06:59 one thing that's emphasized that we try
0:07:00 and practice in in our course is what
0:07:03 are the practical steps we take to
0:07:04 ensure that the the beginning of the day
0:07:07 becomes so essential and consequential
0:07:10 that it has leaves an imprint on the
0:07:12 remaining part of the day so that by the
0:07:14 end of the day you're somewhere good
0:07:17 because of how you began your morning
0:07:20 and so aside from therefore praying fajr
0:07:22 and then try praying the mess and
0:07:23 everything else but we say for example
0:07:25 we have like this we try and practice
0:07:27 this that we wake up in the morning and
0:07:30 i say look i said you're going to brush
0:07:31 your teeth you're going to wash your
0:07:32 face anyway but turn that into a wudhu
0:07:33 make a wudhu you know when you're a kid
0:07:35 in the morning and now it's like you're
0:07:37 you're free sailing once you've made
0:07:39 your wudu and it's a very powerful very
0:07:41 powerful thing and i say let's all try
0:07:43 and practice our boha if you pray your
0:07:45 boha prayer because remember aloha
0:07:48 it's like it's not obligatory but it's
0:07:50 encouraged and the prophet prayed it and
0:07:52 this is like the prophet says for every
0:07:54 the join in your human body it's a
0:07:57 sadaka it's a church for every joy in
0:07:59 your body it's a way of saying thank you
0:08:01 to allah for you being you and the fact
0:08:04 that your limbs can move and he also
0:08:06 does the prayer of the wabin the awa
0:08:08 being are the ones who are returning
0:08:10 always back to allah
0:08:12 like for example look in the quran in uh
0:08:15 certain uh i think surah
0:08:17 no no
0:08:18 yeah
0:08:19 no no no maybe surah al-anbiya maybe but
0:08:23 it concerns
0:08:24 the
0:08:25 the the description of
0:08:27 um
0:08:28 when allah says to uh sorry it's an
0:08:31 early it said
0:08:33 and allah says
0:08:35 be patient with what they say against
0:08:36 you giving away
0:08:38 and then he says with quran
0:08:43 and remember our servant that would
0:08:46 and he had power but it was power of
0:08:48 obedience to allah and he was awab so
0:08:50 awab is one that's
0:08:52 returning back to allah then allah says
0:08:54 we cause the the mountains to remember
0:08:57 allah with him and the birds above him
0:08:59 to do the same and allah says all of
0:09:01 them were allah allah goes on to say
0:09:03 allah blessing with a child
0:09:06 a beautiful child in sullivan and he
0:09:08 also was allah everything became moving
0:09:11 in his landscape because he began the
0:09:13 process of remembering allah that i mean
0:09:15 if you begin allah makes the world move
0:09:17 with you right in the remembrance of
0:09:19 allah and i say i think that's a
0:09:20 powerful thing so how you begin your
0:09:23 morning that's the advice if not gives
0:09:24 in his book uh is it has a big impact
0:09:27 and i think then there's baraka's
0:09:29 blessing so for example i try and
0:09:32 because i'm married i have children
0:09:34 i do other stuff as well uh you don't
0:09:36 get all the time to sit down for lengthy
0:09:39 periods and simply write i mean that's a
0:09:42 that's a blessing i wishing show i had
0:09:44 uh but it's it's small portions
0:09:47 throughout the day so i'll begin to
0:09:48 write in the morning early in the
0:09:50 morning and then in the afternoon and
0:09:51 the evening sometimes late in the
0:09:53 evening and i try and therefore make
0:09:54 sure that i've i've done
0:09:56 i've done work in the day
0:09:58 and uh and sometimes it's not even it's
0:10:01 not always easy because you have other
0:10:03 things to do in whatever traveling but
0:10:05 something's always better than nothing
0:10:06 alhamdulillah so and i think that
0:10:08 consistency even if it's small is what's
0:10:11 beloved to allah the hadith it says
0:10:14 beloved actions to allah
0:10:18 the continuous ones even if they're
0:10:20 small some days for example i intend to
0:10:22 write like a thousand words today that's
0:10:25 kind of a target i have uh but i get to
0:10:27 around four five hundred and uh but it's
0:10:30 okay because at least i've written
0:10:32 whatever i could you know in in the
0:10:33 space of the time in light of other
0:10:35 commitments and stuff alhamdulillah so i
0:10:37 think uh
0:10:38 and i think the sense of discipline
0:10:40 discipline yourself you know reading i
0:10:42 think is really important because the
0:10:44 more you read then the more kind of you
0:10:46 learn about what you should be writing
0:10:47 about
0:10:48 and
0:10:49 all these things are really helpful
0:10:51 so the two main things i got from this
0:10:53 is you know attribute
0:10:55 all of this goodness to allah subhanahu
0:10:57 wa ta'ala and you thank him for even
0:10:59 having the ability to do this stuff
0:11:01 as per the muslim referred to
0:11:05 and also and this sounds quite
0:11:07 significant is
0:11:08 make sure you get your morning right you
0:11:10 know yeah it's a big thing there's a lot
0:11:12 of barakah in the morning
0:11:14 and
0:11:15 so you'd be praying your fajr and you'd
0:11:17 be you know hopefully staying awake
0:11:20 after fajr as best as possible depending
0:11:22 sometimes the winter and the nights
0:11:23 uh so the winter and the summer nights
0:11:25 obviously there's fluctuation but you
0:11:27 have
0:11:28 your morning dedicated to
0:11:30 to to allah obviously the whole day is
0:11:32 that dedicated to allah but there's
0:11:34 something special about the morning your
0:11:35 father then after fajr you have your to
0:11:37 have prayer and there's benefits in that
0:11:40 and so on and so forth and and even as
0:11:42 you mentioned the doha prayer is
0:11:44 actually related to gratitude in itself
0:11:45 because it's basically like a sadaqa for
0:11:47 all of our limbs
0:11:49 and you know and obviously
0:11:51 also talk about that is important for
0:11:53 health
0:11:54 the benefits of of the ham so
0:11:57 okay that's great so
0:11:59 that's the kind of
0:12:01 spiritual aspect and i'm not using the
0:12:03 word spiritual here just to secularize
0:12:04 the discussion and try to make a
0:12:05 distinction because it's all spiritual
0:12:07 for us isn't it yeah everything
0:12:08 is ta'ala
0:12:10 but when you when when you face certain
0:12:13 intellectual obstacles or like a
0:12:15 writer's block
0:12:17 what what are the kind of strategies
0:12:19 that you adopt or maybe it's just become
0:12:20 natural to you because not only did you
0:12:22 do a phd you did post doctoral work
0:12:24 maybe it's just natural you don't know
0:12:25 how to unpack it uh some people are like
0:12:27 that but you know could you tell us if
0:12:30 you could reflect on when you get a
0:12:32 writer's block or you have research
0:12:34 issues you have to read this book that
0:12:36 book and and try to you know work out an
0:12:38 argument
0:12:39 if when there is an obstacle what do you
0:12:41 do
0:12:43 yeah so i think i think the obvious
0:12:44 thing is to have someone to have
0:12:46 patience uh this is not a race you know
0:12:49 and allah doesn't burden the soul what
0:12:50 it can bear and we're only human and i
0:12:53 think that there is uh
0:12:56 we have expectations on ourselves that
0:12:57 we want to achieve so much but then
0:12:59 there's a realization about the
0:13:02 vulnerability and fragility of all human
0:13:04 affairs
0:13:05 and just like yourself you won't live
0:13:08 forever uh nor can your body function
0:13:12 continuously repetitively all the time
0:13:14 your eyes need rest and your ears and
0:13:16 everything is dressed and your body is
0:13:17 right over you and then it's an
0:13:18 important thing to realize today for it
0:13:20 could be for example sometimes i could
0:13:21 be writing something and honestly
0:13:24 you know i'd struggle to finish a
0:13:26 sentence because i just couldn't think
0:13:27 of the right word you know and it could
0:13:29 take like minutes minutes minutes
0:13:31 minutes five minutes ten minutes i mean
0:13:33 long time uh and i just put my leg up
0:13:35 put my legs up and let's kind of just uh
0:13:38 sit back on it sit back on it and until
0:13:40 i can think of something to do other
0:13:42 times for example uh you know it's
0:13:44 important not to be
0:13:46 uh so soaked into your work because then
0:13:49 you could for example not realize uh
0:13:51 that there could be a bigger thing that
0:13:53 you're missing or smaller things that
0:13:55 you're overlooking i just simply go for
0:13:57 a walk i go for i have a park very close
0:13:59 to where i live and let's go for a walk
0:14:00 in the park uh i think a big thing by
0:14:02 the way is your your morning and evening
0:14:04 at car i think it connects back to the
0:14:06 first question
0:14:09 his students said that i would see
0:14:11 ibrahimiya uh
0:14:13 recite like a car from like the morning
0:14:16 till lower time sometimes
0:14:18 and he would say things like if i don't
0:14:20 do it i have no strength energy in the
0:14:22 day it's like my breakfast for the day
0:14:25 so i think that never overlook your car
0:14:28 meaning your connection with allah
0:14:30 because it's really a big sense of
0:14:31 baraka for you and i think that every
0:14:33 all that you mentioned has a writer's
0:14:34 block um but it's something you have to
0:14:36 kind of overcome you know with patience
0:14:38 with sabar um and uh and with dua
0:14:42 and and just try and uh see how you can
0:14:44 move forward with it sometimes for
0:14:46 example
0:14:47 and this again i think it's just a
0:14:49 reflection of baraka i could have i
0:14:50 could be
0:14:51 writing something and and don't know
0:14:54 where where this should go
0:14:56 and there could be a book in my library
0:14:58 i haven't touched like in 10 15 years
0:15:01 and all of a sudden yeah honestly and
0:15:03 then you know it will kind of the the
0:15:05 corner of my eye will kind of look upon
0:15:07 this book and i'll just pick it up and
0:15:08 then and i'll find something that's so
0:15:10 relevant and so useful you know from
0:15:12 that book and i think that in when i was
0:15:13 doing my phd there was a rule that we
0:15:15 had as a student which is that you have
0:15:17 to follow the footnotes and that's
0:15:18 that's the rule you follow the footnotes
0:15:20 and if you do that then you realize
0:15:22 where you know where your argument is
0:15:24 stemming from and that's a big thing i
0:15:26 think it requires discipline so if
0:15:28 you're reading something look at the
0:15:30 footnote and then follow that footnote
0:15:32 through to try and go as far back as you
0:15:34 can
0:15:35 and then you'll just find so many so
0:15:37 many things to read so many things to
0:15:39 research so many things to try and amend
0:15:41 and correct and edit and take benefit
0:15:43 from and so on and so forth and i think
0:15:44 that then this is an endless process uh
0:15:47 you wouldn't have you wouldn't get uh
0:15:50 you wouldn't have a lot to do yeah no
0:15:51 it's after here that was quite powerful
0:15:53 so you know writer's block do you ask me
0:15:55 in the morning in the evening has it
0:15:57 been tamiya said this is it's his
0:15:58 strengths in actual fact i believe when
0:16:00 ibm had a problem of to see a problem of
0:16:03 exegesis understanding an ayah he would
0:16:05 go into sajdah and make dua yeah
0:16:08 so it's very very powerful so you know
0:16:10 obviously linking it to allah is the
0:16:12 most important thing but your other
0:16:14 strategies are quite powerful so okay
0:16:16 good so that's the writing stuff by the
0:16:18 way i i don't know i feel sorry for you
0:16:21 not in a bad way but it is tough because
0:16:23 our writing is very very tough
0:16:26 um again in getting it right it's easy
0:16:28 to write but
0:16:29 generally speaking but writing well is
0:16:32 hard and i think hemingway the famous uh
0:16:35 writer he said yeah writing is uh easy
0:16:37 you just go to your typewriter and you
0:16:39 bleed
0:16:40 yeah yeah you're describing as a very
0:16:42 hard process yeah i think one i think
0:16:44 one of the things bro i think that you
0:16:46 know you have to see
0:16:48 a kind of a purpose and usefulness in
0:16:51 whatever you're writing because if you
0:16:53 don't you will simply not have enough
0:16:55 steam to get you through yeah and it's
0:16:57 like a phd for example
0:17:00 and because you end up doing over three
0:17:01 or four years you have to have enough uh
0:17:05 believe in that in that idea or that
0:17:07 project or that that theme uh that can
0:17:09 take you through those three or four
0:17:11 years of writing otherwise you simply
0:17:12 you'll burn out you wouldn't have you
0:17:14 just bought event and i think that's a
0:17:15 very powerful so ever you're writing
0:17:17 there for make sure you you believe in
0:17:19 what you're writing you make sure you
0:17:21 you hold it there to your heart what
0:17:22 you're writing and then realize that it
0:17:24 might be that what you've written it may
0:17:27 not
0:17:28 uh you know you may not see the full
0:17:31 fruits of what you've written
0:17:33 uh
0:17:34 any in any time soon you might not i
0:17:36 mean you know in islamic history in fact
0:17:38 it's testimony to that on my phd i did
0:17:40 the i did i did the translations of the
0:17:42 poetry of assulami as sulaimi was ali
0:17:46 he was the uh the first chef if
0:17:48 he wrote as a response to the first
0:17:50 crusade he was the first person
0:17:52 and uh and his text kitab jihad was so
0:17:56 we have uh surviving what's called samad
0:17:58 which are like
0:17:59 manuscripts of public readings
0:18:03 and even found find them in in in in
0:18:05 books in in swast library and we know
0:18:08 therefore from a suleiman's text uh that
0:18:11 he read in the grand umaid mosque in
0:18:13 damascus we know who was present how
0:18:16 many were present how many women
0:18:18 how many were
0:18:19 women and who the scribe was and we we
0:18:23 have and the numbers were very small
0:18:25 very small numbers attended his his
0:18:28 gatherings for his grand text as a first
0:18:30 response to the crusade and it was a big
0:18:33 text it was gonna it was ready in small
0:18:35 portions but all together it wasn't that
0:18:37 many but the amazing thing is that 1187
0:18:41 the battle of hittin
0:18:42 uh it was his text and he had died 1105s
0:18:46 a long time before but his text was
0:18:48 brought out and his text was brought
0:18:50 even before even the mubarak's kitab
0:18:52 jihad texts they rejoiced this is a more
0:18:54 prominent one but it was a tsunami's
0:18:56 text so it was that grand text that was
0:18:58 used to motivate the the the muslims to
0:19:00 fight against christians
0:19:02 and then reconcile jerusalem
0:19:06 i mean this goes to show that
0:19:09 your class your intention will always
0:19:11 surpass your actions
0:19:13 yeah because yeah allah allah will bring
0:19:15 the fruits out of the text when allah
0:19:18 chooses to
0:19:20 when they're most needed it could be for
0:19:22 example you could write something and
0:19:24 you might think this is so needed now
0:19:27 but maybe allah just wants to wants you
0:19:30 to hold on to another time where it's
0:19:32 even more needed and then i'll bring it
0:19:34 out alone is best i mean but your job is
0:19:36 you simply convey and allah deals with
0:19:39 the
0:19:39 the uh you know the the effects of
0:19:42 whatever you're conveying later on well
0:19:43 that was a very profound point very
0:19:45 profound point that's why i advise
0:19:46 people to actually write because a
0:19:49 book's battery never dies you see no for
0:19:51 sure like you know when you do a lecture
0:19:52 a lecture is like not even a chapter of
0:19:54 a book maybe it's half a chapter
0:19:56 and you know who's gonna go and sit at a
0:19:58 computer screen and go through like 12
0:20:01 16 20 hours of content it's not always
0:20:04 the case but when you have a book you
0:20:06 know
0:20:07 people are carrying books it's with them
0:20:09 it's part of their lifestyle and they're
0:20:12 engaging with the book and i think it's
0:20:13 important for pete for a lot of the art
0:20:16 to write because
0:20:17 books would kind of transcend the kind
0:20:19 of social media work in my view because
0:20:21 sometimes
0:20:23 it's very context-based you're reacting
0:20:24 to something or it's based on the
0:20:26 particular context books could be like
0:20:28 that too but a very good book just like
0:20:31 in the case that you've just spoken
0:20:32 about just like the books that you have
0:20:34 written on being human uh divine
0:20:36 perfection you know those books are
0:20:39 timeless because you're dealing with
0:20:40 timeless issues about who god is god's
0:20:43 love forgiveness him arthriology
0:20:45 saturology and that would you know
0:20:48 imagine gets translated in the future in
0:20:49 20 languages you you now
0:20:52 open the door to you know engaging with
0:20:55 so many different people all around the
0:20:56 world so and we've seen this we've seen
0:20:58 this even look look at malcolm x's
0:21:00 autobiography like many of our brothers
0:21:02 they read the book today or malcolm x's
0:21:05 b had died what uh in 64
0:21:08 or 63 54 64 i think yes it's about what
0:21:13 nearly 40 years ago right or something
0:21:15 no more than 40 years ago subhanallah
0:21:18 it's like
0:21:19 60 years ago right no
0:21:21 my mouth is dirty
0:21:24 50 or 60 years ago and yet people are
0:21:26 still reading his autobiography and is
0:21:29 changing their life right i remember
0:21:31 when i read that book it changed my life
0:21:33 i took it with work to finish the book i
0:21:35 was so fascinated
0:21:38 in his story and so that's just one
0:21:41 example there are many many other
0:21:42 examples right so i think it is very you
0:21:44 know there this is my kind of input to
0:21:46 this podcast please brothers don't
0:21:49 underestimate writing you may
0:21:52 don't give up
0:21:53 uh long-term success for short-term
0:21:56 glory yeah because the final outcome is
0:22:00 for the righteous as allah says so focus
0:22:02 on the long-term vision yes we have to
0:22:04 do online work we have to do videos we
0:22:06 have to react we have to do these things
0:22:08 but in the long term you know where are
0:22:10 we where's the chest playing for the
0:22:12 long term and i see a key action is
0:22:14 actually doing more writing right and
0:22:16 it's very important to do that because
0:22:18 look at your book divine perfection
0:22:20 there was not one book in the english
0:22:22 speaking world by a muslim on this topic
0:22:25 dealing with dr craig's argument dealing
0:22:28 with you know the christian attack on
0:22:30 god's love on allah's love and so on and
0:22:32 so forth
0:22:33 and we fill the gap and i truly yeah
0:22:36 bro sorry for this you know when i was
0:22:38 speaking to one of the brothers i was
0:22:39 like because you know one of the muk
0:22:41 said one of the the makkah said one of
0:22:43 the objectives of dawah if allah's word
0:22:45 to be the highest
0:22:47 and this is like an expression of
0:22:49 um
0:22:50 us realizing that allah is worthy of
0:22:52 worship
0:22:53 and this is sometimes forgotten we chase
0:22:55 the results but we don't chase the other
0:22:57 muk said what i mean by results is
0:22:58 shahadas and so on and so forth but what
0:23:00 about the one of the greatest
0:23:03 maksa the greatest objective which is
0:23:04 making allah's word the highest and i
0:23:06 said to one brother even if no one reads
0:23:08 this book i'm gonna be happy
0:23:10 the very fact that we
0:23:13 that we i said something like that the
0:23:15 very fact that we that you wrote this
0:23:16 book and we're showing who allah is he
0:23:19 is the one who is maximally loving and
0:23:21 maximally forgiving and any other
0:23:23 theological conceptual attack has been
0:23:25 annihilated and obliterated we have made
0:23:27 allah's word the highest right because
0:23:30 that that's who allah is he is worthy of
0:23:32 worship worthy of extensive praise and
0:23:34 the very fact we did that you know in in
0:23:36 in that sense me being involved in a
0:23:38 small way
0:23:39 i was like you know what a beautiful
0:23:41 thing what a beautiful thing to to show
0:23:43 allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
0:23:46 you say i made your word the highest
0:23:49 they were attacking you and i made you
0:23:51 your word the highest and for me
0:23:53 that's right i wasn't even i'd even
0:23:54 really well i cared but i wasn't that
0:23:57 concerned about the readership because
0:23:59 just by doing i know they'll be barakah
0:24:01 so
0:24:02 in that context you've you've you've
0:24:04 contacted dr william lane craig because
0:24:06 the book is a is about addressing his
0:24:08 key arguments against islam and allah
0:24:10 which echoes his predecessors as well
0:24:13 uh you said you wrote to him recently
0:24:14 what did you say
0:24:16 no i haven't received replies yet from
0:24:17 him but i kind of uh you know i wrote a
0:24:20 nice thing to him
0:24:22 uh again saying that this is a book in
0:24:24 response to his
0:24:25 uh
0:24:26 his comments
0:24:27 arguments about islam from his website
0:24:29 and from his speeches and debates and
0:24:32 each of my chapters in fact deals with
0:24:33 one of his arguments
0:24:35 i think the other thing is you mentioned
0:24:36 about see people have responded to
0:24:39 william lane craig in debates he's
0:24:41 debated with famous muslim you know
0:24:43 scholars and speakers and but i think
0:24:45 that that's
0:24:47 maybe
0:24:48 why people didn't feel the need to write
0:24:49 something but i think that's a mistake
0:24:52 because
0:24:53 they weren't very good just be honest i
0:24:54 mean they weren't optimal in my view
0:24:56 that's why we thought there was a gap in
0:24:57 the market yeah maybe because there
0:24:59 isn't that much of a time to convey a
0:25:01 full islamic response to a person's in a
0:25:03 few minutes you have in a debate format
0:25:05 there isn't enough time to do that uh
0:25:07 whereas if you if you take your time and
0:25:09 you begin to unpack like for example you
0:25:11 know that when i began to write the book
0:25:13 it wasn't just william named craig
0:25:15 making these points it goes all the way
0:25:17 back to you know this individual
0:25:19 you know
0:25:20 thomas aquinas and john of damascus
0:25:23 right john damascus
0:25:25 before it goes back to him so and i fin
0:25:28 and i found it
0:25:30 and this is a good thing about reading
0:25:31 because when you research you uncover
0:25:33 unpack so much more like it wasn't just
0:25:35 william named craig it was samuel
0:25:38 zwiemer it was bilisiko and it was
0:25:40 john the mosque because it was thomas it
0:25:42 was so many other people that are also
0:25:44 misquoting the quran just like the later
0:25:47 ones both the the salaf and the khalifa
0:25:49 are doing the same thing
0:25:52 when i read your essay and it's in the
0:25:54 book as well there's an ex expanded
0:25:56 version of it in your book on amazon
0:25:59 and general damascus i was like what
0:26:01 liars
0:26:02 yeah yeah like honestly like they're
0:26:04 praised in in western culture to certain
0:26:07 degree don't get me wrong we don't
0:26:08 reduce people to their mistakes and
0:26:10 there's nothing we take from anyone even
0:26:12 from shaytan himself right because we
0:26:14 learned that we look the virtues of uh
0:26:16 of uh
0:26:18 from right but the point here is
0:26:21 are you just thinking how could they
0:26:23 blatantly lie like this about
0:26:25 you know the prophet sallallahu alaihi
0:26:28 wasallam about islam it was just it's
0:26:30 terrifying yeah it's terrific yeah
0:26:34 you know they haven't been held to
0:26:35 account intellectually and your peace is
0:26:37 just phenomenal so
0:26:38 okay um
0:26:39 the point i wanted to mention was now is
0:26:42 right so we've talked about writing
0:26:43 we've talked about how you deal with
0:26:45 obstacles we've talked a little bit
0:26:46 about you know the kind of routine that
0:26:48 you should have in place making dua to
0:26:50 allah
0:26:56 now
0:26:58 i just want to focus a little bit on
0:27:00 what you're writing at the moment for
0:27:01 sapience right and then after i want to
0:27:02 ask you a question about you know how do
0:27:04 we respond to successes in the tower and
0:27:07 we want to connect it to gratitude and
0:27:09 humility and istighfard and so on and so
0:27:11 forth which is very important
0:27:13 but
0:27:14 now what are you writing talk to me
0:27:16 so right now i'm writing alhamdulillah a
0:27:18 piece on
0:27:26 and i think it's a big thing a very
0:27:27 important thing because all of us in
0:27:29 fact aspire to be dua we want to be of
0:27:31 those who call to allah subhanahu wa
0:27:32 ta'ala
0:27:33 yesterday i had a lighthouse mentoring
0:27:35 session with a brother from kiel
0:27:37 university studying medicine final year
0:27:39 and he said i want to just give dao
0:27:41 and uh so the long conversation about
0:27:43 kind of what to do and and different
0:27:45 courses that we have and this and that
0:27:46 but i think that's kind of a big
0:27:47 aspiration for muslims but then what are
0:27:50 the characteristics of the duart you
0:27:52 know what are the things that they
0:27:54 should have embodied in their spirit in
0:27:56 their character in their mannerism in
0:27:58 their approach
0:28:00 towards those that are calling to and in
0:28:02 fact so i'm using there for the quran
0:28:04 as the main as the main thing because
0:28:05 the quran of course gives us examples of
0:28:07 many uh of the prophets of allah each of
0:28:10 whom was adai to allah subhanahu wa
0:28:12 but these beautiful things in the quran
0:28:14 this beautiful psychology of the of the
0:28:16 tawa in the quran there's things that
0:28:18 they say that they don't say the things
0:28:20 that they do and they don't do and i
0:28:22 think that there's so much for us here
0:28:23 to learn lessons from so we can for
0:28:25 example if you look at for example
0:28:27 the
0:28:27 importance of sabbath of patience
0:28:30 you have many examples in the quran
0:28:32 about those who were patient in dawah
0:28:35 and again like the point you mentioned
0:28:37 before you could be expecting quick
0:28:39 results like you might say but this
0:28:40 person didn't accept islam or this
0:28:42 person didn't kind of agree with the
0:28:44 point uh but you remember when allah
0:28:47 says
0:28:49 it's not you who guides people but allah
0:28:52 guides whomever he pleases and this was
0:28:53 revealed concerning the prophet's uncle
0:28:55 abu talib who he of course wished he
0:28:57 would become a muslim because he was a
0:28:58 porter of of the prophet and his cause
0:29:00 you know during his uh
0:29:02 time in makkah um but allah but he
0:29:04 didn't find guidance so therefore uh it
0:29:06 was a way of showing
0:29:08 that it's not you for you to feel
0:29:11 uh a sense of uh you know like
0:29:14 don't feel um what's the word like don't
0:29:16 feel despondent don't feel despondent
0:29:19 that people didn't embrace islam because
0:29:21 your job is to convey that's your job
0:29:23 your bashir wanna you convey
0:29:30 but your job is to convey the message as
0:29:32 best as you can in in clear
0:29:34 communication using strong arguments and
0:29:37 showing compassion that's a very key
0:29:39 thing so i could therefore take back
0:29:41 from what i've written in on being human
0:29:43 and use some of the stuff because the
0:29:45 book in fact talks about human empathy
0:29:47 and the prophets had empathy with their
0:29:49 people even the expression
0:29:52 so if you think about yakomi like oh my
0:29:54 people that shows that there is a
0:29:57 connection between them and their people
0:30:00 meaning it's something that they've
0:30:01 shared together in history in memory and
0:30:05 experiences in culture in ethnicity in
0:30:08 language in food all of these things
0:30:10 meaning they're my peoples they're being
0:30:13 i share all these things with you
0:30:15 and i think that that's important
0:30:16 because that's showing empathic
0:30:17 connection like we have from on the book
0:30:19 on being other things as well like
0:30:21 courage uh you know a discipline uh
0:30:25 again dua is quite key as well you know
0:30:26 for this case about the same kind of
0:30:28 stuff like always asking allah for help
0:30:29 and assistance isn't that um
0:30:31 alhamdulillah i'm kind of uh i'm about
0:30:34 20 just over 20 000 words
0:30:36 oh my god
0:30:38 the thing with this book is not only
0:30:40 it's going to be a book but it's going
0:30:41 to be a course yeah yeah that's right
0:30:43 that's right we have a learning platform
0:30:45 and we have free courses on there and
0:30:47 it's aimed to basically
0:30:49 ensure that people who go through the
0:30:51 courses they're able to share some
0:30:53 academically and intellectually so this
0:30:55 sounds quite fascinating
0:30:57 what's different about the book is i
0:30:58 don't just simply focus on what are the
0:31:01 attributes of the day but i have a i
0:31:03 have done a subsection that goes with
0:31:05 everyone which is how do you achieve how
0:31:07 do we get in these attributes we had
0:31:09 this discussion because
0:31:12 it's so important that
0:31:15 you know there are so many books that
0:31:16 say do this do that the quran says
0:31:19 that
0:31:20 but you know our job and i've been
0:31:23 focusing on this you know past
0:31:25 week or so not a massive focus but i had
0:31:28 a meeting with someone who deals with
0:31:29 ontological training and kind of
0:31:32 transformational learning
0:31:34 and what's what i've realized is that
0:31:36 there is a massive gap
0:31:38 in the daoa in learning in our pedagogy
0:31:42 because we focus on
0:31:44 informational type of learning
0:31:46 but we need to focus on transformational
0:31:49 type of learning and i've mentioned
0:31:50 before
0:31:52 we could know all of the ayat on zika
0:31:55 all of the ahadith on vikkar but we will
0:31:57 never become a person of zikr so there
0:32:00 is a gap between what we know from an
0:32:02 informational point of view and who we
0:32:05 become how we are transformed we need to
0:32:07 try and close that gap and this book is
0:32:10 fantastic because you're helping people
0:32:13 transforming into what they should
0:32:15 become
0:32:17 calling people to allah and it's so
0:32:20 significant you know for example i know
0:32:22 what good food is in actual fact i could
0:32:24 probably write a book on how to
0:32:26 you know
0:32:27 train well how to eat well how to have
0:32:29 like seven percent body fat how to gain
0:32:31 muscle how to be a good boxer i could
0:32:33 put all of that down in a book i
0:32:34 probably could just from experience
0:32:37 but do i eat well
0:32:39 like what did i have this morning like
0:32:41 it wasn't healthy so the thing is just
0:32:44 because i may know something in
0:32:45 abstraction in an informational sense it
0:32:47 doesn't now mean it's going to transform
0:32:49 me
0:32:50 and this is so critical in the next
0:32:53 stage of the dawah especially in the
0:32:55 western world is that we get people to
0:32:58 engage in transformational learning yeah
0:33:01 and so this is called this is called
0:33:04 kefir this is called the howness of the
0:33:06 action you know so
0:33:08 when he says that allah you know allah
0:33:10 gave you power so we could see
0:33:13 how would you behave
0:33:16 not simply what you would do but how
0:33:18 would you do what you do so for example
0:33:20 if you take anything in life for example
0:33:22 allah says for example uh you know speak
0:33:25 good to people speak good to people but
0:33:27 there's something i used to do for
0:33:28 example marriage counseling before i i
0:33:30 do like much less of it now uh and i had
0:33:33 one example so this is a true story so
0:33:35 one one one sister came and she she was
0:33:38 saying that i have a problem with my
0:33:39 husband and uh and i said she said she
0:33:42 said to me she said my husband lacks
0:33:43 empathy that was her thing yeah he lacks
0:33:46 yeah that's what she said
0:33:48 so and then again we had a meeting
0:33:50 together i mean with both of them there
0:33:52 and i said brother this is kind of a
0:33:53 complaint you know permissive wife and
0:33:55 uh he said it's true brother it's true
0:33:57 brother yeah he said because my family
0:34:00 don't have empathy my parents never
0:34:02 raised me like that so i can't i can't
0:34:04 understand what that is all about and
0:34:06 everything
0:34:07 and then i had to do a separate session
0:34:09 with him subhanallah where i would i
0:34:11 would guide him words that he could use
0:34:14 teach him stuff's words it was so simple
0:34:18 like you know words he could use that
0:34:20 could kind of uh help like things he
0:34:22 could say and how he's how he should say
0:34:24 them you know and i think that's so
0:34:26 that's so key because sometimes you
0:34:27 might say do something but without
0:34:30 telling the people how it is that that
0:34:33 should be done uh it's like it's like
0:34:36 doing half the job it's like you've done
0:34:38 half the thing which is telling i need
0:34:40 to do that thing without telling me how
0:34:41 it should be done because the whole
0:34:43 element is so key it's like for example
0:34:45 the prophet said after
0:34:48 now you could have two people
0:34:50 and one person and i remember this from
0:34:51 years ago this i brought it from the
0:34:53 mosque whenever he would give salaam he
0:34:55 would always smile and give salam
0:34:57 always like he wouldn't just give
0:34:58 assalaamu alaikum like you know it was
0:35:01 it was it was it was
0:35:03 with a smile and it made such a
0:35:05 difference because you think wow this
0:35:06 person means like peace be on you my
0:35:09 dear brother
0:35:10 or embracing someone hugging someone and
0:35:13 smiling and salam all these things are
0:35:15 like furnishing features you know of of
0:35:17 the act of giving the salam and so i
0:35:19 think therefore focusing in something so
0:35:21 important like dawa
0:35:23 and knowing how to say or or giving
0:35:25 examples what's that for example have a
0:35:27 small section on
0:35:29 you know you could you could meet people
0:35:31 uh for the first time so they they might
0:35:33 not you know they might not be uh
0:35:36 they might come to a double table or
0:35:37 stall for example you know but then how
0:35:40 do you break the ice how do you begin a
0:35:42 conversation with them and you might not
0:35:44 say for example yakomi oh my people you
0:35:47 see you might not say like the prophet
0:35:48 but there is something you could
0:35:49 extrapolate from that because you call
0:35:51 me like i mentioned it kind of connotes
0:35:53 all these things of of similarity like
0:35:56 we call these human codes of
0:35:57 recognizability i write about that in
0:35:59 another book and so therefore by saying
0:36:01 you have called me in in the context of
0:36:02 today you could say for example uh you
0:36:05 know the the petrol costs are rising for
0:36:07 example you know but i i i'm facing them
0:36:10 you're facing them and we're in the same
0:36:12 boat like you know energy costs are
0:36:13 rising we're in the same situation so
0:36:15 what's what's kind of similar is very
0:36:18 key at the same because it creates a
0:36:19 sense of human connection between you
0:36:21 and the person you're speaking to and
0:36:23 then if you then bring in the message of
0:36:25 islam it can have more of an effect in
0:36:26 terms of uh people reciprocating in
0:36:29 different ways and so absolutely
0:36:31 absolutely that's extremely fascinating
0:36:32 it's important it's really interesting
0:36:34 you mentioned language
0:36:35 because in
0:36:37 transformational learning there are
0:36:38 three key components i forgot the third
0:36:40 one but two of them are the language
0:36:42 that you you use
0:36:44 and your behavior
0:36:45 your
0:36:46 your weight your your physic your
0:36:48 physicality how you engage physics in
0:36:50 the world
0:36:52 and that's why language is so
0:36:53 significant how you frame things changes
0:36:56 everything yeah yeah for example if you
0:36:58 want someone to be positive you change
0:37:00 their language and you get them to
0:37:01 change their body
0:37:03 the way they behave in their body
0:37:04 structure and when you link those two
0:37:06 things together and there's a third
0:37:07 component i forgot it now but basically
0:37:09 that creates transformation wow so
0:37:11 that's awesome i'm really really i'm
0:37:13 looking forward to doing a
0:37:15 review of the book
0:37:22 what did you say it was worse than your
0:37:23 phd vibe
0:37:25 terrible terrible
0:37:28 yeah but you are such a joy to work with
0:37:31 i've never heard a complaint from you
0:37:33 i've never
0:37:34 you know people sometimes when they own
0:37:36 they they have emotional and spiritual
0:37:39 intellectual ownership of something and
0:37:40 then it gets poked many times
0:37:43 like they get like oh you know what
0:37:44 you're doing you're frustrating me i
0:37:45 mean with you is this a ease and may
0:37:47 allah bless you and guide you and you
0:37:49 find me the best
0:37:52 looking forward to that work that's
0:37:53 fantastic and obviously the course that
0:37:55 will come from it as well
0:37:56 um so now i want to talk about successes
0:38:00 in the tower so
0:38:01 you know alhamdulillah
0:38:06 you know people get
0:38:08 shahada's people become muslim and you
0:38:11 know there's there's great efforts
0:38:12 happening online and offline people are
0:38:14 writing books they're delivering videos
0:38:17 they're doing
0:38:18 um
0:38:19 so many so many amazing things at
0:38:21 different levels as well even on the
0:38:22 academic level like i was having a a
0:38:24 private meeting with university of
0:38:26 birmingham they're doing some research
0:38:27 on science and islam from a kind of
0:38:29 sociological perspective so they asked
0:38:31 me to be one of the the interviewees
0:38:34 and i and we were we were they were
0:38:36 asking stuff about evolution and
0:38:38 darwinism and we were making a contrast
0:38:40 between what's happening now what
0:38:41 happened 15 or 20 years ago
0:38:42 alhamdulillah alhamdulillah we have so
0:38:45 many people now like doctor sri malek we
0:38:48 have subur ahmed doing his phd and
0:38:50 people engage in this area in a nuanced
0:38:52 way and and we're not basically
0:38:54 articulating ourselves in a way that
0:38:56 would be described as sub-optimal it's
0:38:58 it's changed it's improving from an
0:39:00 academic level and even looking when you
0:39:02 look at organizations like aira
0:39:04 you know
0:39:05 50 000 shahadas from june to july or
0:39:08 something alhamdulillah
0:39:09 you know
0:39:10 great work
0:39:12 all around the world now
0:39:14 how do we respond to these successes
0:39:17 what and the reason i feel this is so
0:39:18 important because
0:39:21 we
0:39:22 i'm afraid that we will not have the
0:39:25 next generation there'll be no barakah
0:39:27 the next generation
0:39:28 if we don't respond adequately to to our
0:39:31 successes because sometimes
0:39:33 we attribute success just to ourselves
0:39:35 that we have the intrinsic power we have
0:39:37 the sense of urgent which is you know
0:39:40 vanity or this delusional understanding
0:39:42 that it was because of me because of us
0:39:45 and this is one of the key spiritual
0:39:47 diseases of the heart so
0:39:49 how must we respond to successes what
0:39:51 should be the way of being the spiritual
0:39:53 response of the muslim when they receive
0:39:56 successes in the tower let me give you
0:39:58 an example yeah like you know because we
0:40:00 just had the finishing of the first ten
0:40:01 days of the hija and of course you have
0:40:03 may allah accept from the hajjaj you
0:40:04 being
0:40:05 in during the hajj and it's a big thing
0:40:07 it's a big effort and but there's
0:40:09 something so interesting in the quran
0:40:10 about this
0:40:12 [Music]
0:40:19 says now when the rituals have come to
0:40:20 an end remember allah
0:40:25 even more than that now if you think
0:40:27 about you think how old
0:40:28 everything in the hajj in the rituals is
0:40:31 full of remembrance of allah the tawaf
0:40:36 everything is all all remnants of allah
0:40:38 but allah is saying now you finish your
0:40:39 rituals now remember allah like you
0:40:42 remember your fathers of the father and
0:40:43 and also for example allah says
0:40:47 come to an end fed could allah remember
0:40:49 allah standing sitting lying down if you
0:40:51 think hold on i just spent the whole you
0:40:53 know time remembering allah and salah
0:40:54 and allah says
0:40:56 remember
0:40:57 it's allah for my remembrance so you
0:40:58 have been allah and salah but allah is
0:41:00 saying now you remember allah or for
0:41:02 example arafa allah says when you're
0:41:04 coming down from arafah into like muslim
0:41:07 allah says
0:41:08 remember allah so you think yourself
0:41:11 what is allah saying here because that
0:41:12 means
0:41:14 you know we we can't
0:41:16 it's like for example if you think about
0:41:18 the
0:41:19 the modes of a human existence you know
0:41:22 and allah is saying remember allah
0:41:24 standing sitting lying down every time
0:41:26 you think you've remembered allah allah
0:41:28 says remember allah now you begin your
0:41:31 islam for example the line from muhammad
0:41:33 ali when he says i heard it from uh
0:41:36 some he said that uh when do you uh
0:41:39 when when do you start when do you what
0:41:41 is
0:41:42 he says you might know because you he
0:41:44 says um when do you start count when do
0:41:46 you stop counting or something and he
0:41:48 says uh i started out starts hurting
0:41:50 yeah
0:41:53 i start counting when it starts hurting
0:41:54 so it's like never think therefore that
0:41:57 you've done something and number one
0:41:59 you've exhausted everything because
0:42:01 there's always things to do uh other
0:42:04 thing look for example in surah nasir in
0:42:06 the quran
0:42:09 when the victory in success from allah
0:42:11 comes and opening comes from allah and
0:42:13 you see people embracing islam in crowds
0:42:16 allah says
0:42:19 now remember allah
0:42:21 it's the same thing glorify and
0:42:22 celebrate praise of your lord in the
0:42:24 morning and evening hours and and ask
0:42:26 allah for forgiveness so allah is saying
0:42:28 therefore you are
0:42:30 a servant of allah your spiritual
0:42:33 nourishment energy is in his remembrance
0:42:36 your remembrance of him is indicative of
0:42:38 your love of him and your devotion to
0:42:40 him so therefore don't lose sight of the
0:42:42 you might say for example if we're
0:42:44 chasing after like only numbers numbers
0:42:46 and this and that you'll forget the
0:42:47 bigger point of i need to you know look
0:42:50 for example look allah sent muslim and i
0:42:52 write about this at length in my book
0:42:53 yeah allah sent musa to
0:42:55 go to firaoun he is
0:43:07 which means you know
0:43:08 make wide my church may give me that
0:43:10 sense of confidence bearing in this and
0:43:12 make easy for me my task and and loose
0:43:14 and not from my tongue because he would
0:43:16 speak with a lisp and because i want
0:43:18 people to understand what i'm saying so
0:43:19 he's asking allah for you know for
0:43:21 helping all of this and allah gave him a
0:43:23 special stick of course a stick to
0:43:24 transform into a serpent him and he had
0:43:26 powers that stick but still he asked
0:43:29 allah still he asked allah was
0:43:33 he sent me a supporter from my family my
0:43:36 brother haroon because he would
0:43:38 strengthen me with him but look at the
0:43:39 reason he provides look at the reasoning
0:43:41 provides he says
0:43:46 so we could glorify you much and
0:43:48 remember you much
0:43:49 i mean that's
0:43:50 he says to allah i only need that
0:43:52 support because you should be remembered
0:43:54 more and with me and my brother you'll
0:43:57 be around more with me and my brother as
0:43:59 opposed to only me so it's a completely
0:44:02 mindset change because that means that
0:44:04 your whole purpose is to ensure allah is
0:44:06 remembered and if i remember allah more
0:44:09 with you rather than without you then i
0:44:10 should remember allah with you rather
0:44:12 without you you know and i think that's
0:44:14 a that's an important thing for us to
0:44:15 bear in mind therefore if you make that
0:44:17 a focus that you know allah allah is to
0:44:20 be remembered subhanallah uh that's a
0:44:22 big thing so i think that like you
0:44:24 mentioned there is a danger of a job
0:44:26 is like you know vanity it's like
0:44:28 self-praise it's like self being
0:44:31 absorbed with your own
0:44:33 selfness and it's like allah gives
0:44:34 examples in the quran like for example
0:44:36 today is jummah we're sort of
0:44:37 and suzuka is a good example because you
0:44:39 have the man who had the two gardens and
0:44:41 allah says we gave him
0:44:44 allah we gave him the two gardens allah
0:44:46 allah gifted the man to adam but he was
0:44:49 so happy
0:44:50 with his gardens and all of the the
0:44:52 fruits and the trees and the lake that
0:44:54 would kind of the river that would kind
0:44:55 of stream between the the two gardens
0:44:58 and uh and then because of this he says
0:45:00 you know uh this is my own doing this is
0:45:02 my own doing and i and he felt so proud
0:45:04 in this
0:45:06 and and the believer who was his friend
0:45:08 he says to him uh why didn't you you
0:45:11 know when you had the god and simply say
0:45:13 masha allah
0:45:16 this is all from allah and all from
0:45:19 allah what is because he said it could
0:45:21 be it's what he said he said it could be
0:45:23 that you lose your guidance
0:45:26 it could be that the heavy rain comes
0:45:28 and the storm comes and destroys all of
0:45:30 your trees and everything else so why
0:45:31 don't you simply say masha'allah it's a
0:45:33 big lesson for us because it could be
0:45:35 something that you might devote your end
0:45:38 effort attention to life too
0:45:41 without realizing that i need to
0:45:43 attribute all of this that i'm doing
0:45:45 only to allah alone subhanallah
0:45:48 otherwise that wind and storm could come
0:45:51 and demolish everything and more than
0:45:53 that more than that the effect it would
0:45:56 have on my heart
0:45:57 on your heart
0:45:58 because all you present to allah is
0:46:01 salim is
0:46:03 musa came to
0:46:04 allah came to allah with a sound heart
0:46:07 and that is the heart that is free of
0:46:09 vanities pride shirk and all these
0:46:12 things so remember that whatever you're
0:46:14 doing in life you're doing because you
0:46:16 want your heart to be in a good state
0:46:19 nothing else i mean you will take
0:46:21 nothing to allah i mean you will have
0:46:24 nothing no no merchandise no pens
0:46:26 nothing nothing will mean anything
0:46:28 except the fact you're going to come to
0:46:30 allah with a heart that is in a good
0:46:32 state so everything you do
0:46:34 is is having an effect on your heart one
0:46:37 way or or the other way you know and
0:46:39 this is why diker of
0:46:41 is so key because it kind of cleanses
0:46:43 the heart
0:46:44 you know from from things kind of this
0:46:46 is amazing so i i'm thinking as well
0:46:49 from an organizational perspective
0:46:50 sometimes we can have a sense of
0:46:52 collective order
0:46:53 like we think that we've developed a
0:46:55 vision you know a world that receives
0:46:57 the message of islam and we have a
0:46:59 strategic focus which is that we share
0:47:02 islam academically and intellectually
0:47:03 and we develop others to do so the same
0:47:05 and we give that kind of strategy and
0:47:07 the vision and our modus operandi our
0:47:11 way of being in our learning platform we
0:47:13 give you some kind of intrinsic power
0:47:15 and sometimes we can we can move
0:47:19 ourselves away from
0:47:21 the true reality which is that
0:47:22 everything happens because of allah
0:47:24 subhanahu wa ta'ala
0:47:26 right
0:47:28 now there is no true power from the
0:47:30 power of subhanallah
0:47:31 and these are just gifts that allah has
0:47:33 given us and and this is just
0:47:36 a manifestation of allah's names and
0:47:38 attributes and allah has favored us has
0:47:40 given us a gift rather than there's
0:47:43 anything intrinsically special about my
0:47:46 own abilities right because it was
0:47:47 really allah and we have to remind
0:47:50 ourselves and i've seen this
0:47:51 organizationally bro with organizations
0:47:54 that have been i've been involved with
0:47:55 and you know even in sapience
0:47:58 when we start to give intrinsic power to
0:48:00 strategy don't get me wrong we have to
0:48:02 plan we have to strategize but if
0:48:04 spiritually intellectually we're giving
0:48:06 intrinsic power we think we've got it
0:48:09 right we've we've we've we've
0:48:12 we've broken the code or we've we've uh
0:48:14 we decrypted the code the divine code on
0:48:17 how to achieve success and then we did
0:48:19 it and we put it into place
0:48:21 what happens is there's a diminishing of
0:48:23 barakah
0:48:25 i noticed that there is a diminishing of
0:48:27 barakah and it's so important for aldo
0:48:30 art and i speak to myself of obviously
0:48:33 first and foremost to deal with the
0:48:34 urgent because audrey was one of the
0:48:36 four major spiritual diseases of the
0:48:38 heart where all the other spiritual
0:48:39 diseases emanate from you have kibar
0:48:41 which is arrogance you have arjuna which
0:48:43 is self-amazement you have hasad blame
0:48:45 worthy jealousy and you have raya
0:48:46 ostentation but and we need to be really
0:48:49 really careful with you but it's very
0:48:51 powerful what you mentioned concerning
0:48:53 the 10 10th chapter of the quran you
0:48:55 know when the victory of allah has come
0:48:57 and the conquest and you see the people
0:48:59 entering into the religion of allah in
0:49:01 multitudes then exalt him with praise of
0:49:04 your lord and ask forgiveness of him
0:49:06 indeed he is ever accepting of
0:49:08 repentance
0:49:10 so you you you hit the nail on the head
0:49:13 allah is
0:49:15 talking about the success that's coming
0:49:18 and our response should be humility
0:49:20 right because it wasn't it wasn't us it
0:49:24 was allah we should respond with
0:49:26 gratitude because we know it was allah
0:49:28 and we should praise him turn back to
0:49:30 him and repent so i think here we have a
0:49:34 the 11th 10th chapter of the quran gives
0:49:36 us a kind of criteria or a
0:49:38 self-assessment check that every time we
0:49:41 have successes even if we write an essay
0:49:43 or we post a video are we responding in
0:49:46 this way
0:49:47 is it increasing our humility is it
0:49:49 increasing our gratitude is it
0:49:52 increasing our praise of allah are we
0:49:54 turning back to him and repenting
0:49:56 this is extremely significant this is
0:49:59 extremely significant and i think
0:50:01 everyone must have this in place and
0:50:03 just to repeat so we just really you
0:50:05 know you know have this in our hearts
0:50:07 every type of success that we have in
0:50:09 the tower are we responding with
0:50:11 humility with gratitude are we praising
0:50:14 allah are we turning back to allah and
0:50:16 are we repenting to him and this is so
0:50:19 significant if we're not we don't have
0:50:21 these things in place
0:50:22 then there could be a diminishing
0:50:24 barakah just like the man with the two
0:50:26 gardens it could be all taken away and
0:50:29 i've seen this and you see on different
0:50:31 levels it depends depending on how uh
0:50:34 how big the eardrum is individually or
0:50:36 collectively and i think it's a reminder
0:50:38 for ourselves and everybody that
0:50:40 all successes
0:50:42 we have to respond with humility
0:50:43 gratitude praising allah turning back to
0:50:45 him and repenting
0:50:47 isn't that right
0:50:50 it's a wonderful thing you've just said
0:50:51 and really reality is
0:50:53 it's it's for all things dawah and
0:50:55 everything else as well it's for all
0:50:57 successes it's for the fact that allah
0:50:59 allowed you eyes to see and as to air
0:51:02 and the tongue to speak and limbs to
0:51:04 move allah gave you a heart that breeds
0:51:06 all of these things are indicative of
0:51:08 allah's divine favor upon you and time
0:51:11 and time in fact you know in my book i
0:51:12 have a i have a section on on divine
0:51:15 grace it's kind of it's not it's not um
0:51:17 title but i have the the verses because
0:51:19 our christian friends they oftentimes
0:51:21 make and by the way this is such a big
0:51:23 thing yeah it's such a big thing
0:51:25 it's such a big thing because you'll
0:51:26 find that you'll find almost every
0:51:28 christian missionary saying exactly the
0:51:31 same thing muslims rely on their deeds
0:51:33 we rely on on the blood sacrifice of
0:51:35 jesus christ so they might see for
0:51:37 example we do good deeds like five
0:51:39 pillars praying and fasting as a god and
0:51:41 everything they're saying these people
0:51:42 look at them they're doing so many good
0:51:43 deeds they think they're relying on the
0:51:45 good deeds and i was in i was in the
0:51:48 island i said the same thing to dr
0:51:50 william dr michael nesseri i said you
0:51:52 guys always say this i said how can you
0:51:54 say this when allah the quran says not
0:51:55 once not twice not three times not for
0:51:57 them multiple times
0:52:02 if it was not for the grace and mercy of
0:52:04 allah you wouldn't have attained
0:52:05 purification it was not for again again
0:52:07 allah keeps saying the same if it was
0:52:09 not for allah's grace and mercy and
0:52:11 allah and hakeem and allah keep saying
0:52:13 the same thing meaning everything is
0:52:15 bound by the grace and the mercy of
0:52:17 allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
0:52:19 nothing can happen
0:52:21 no good can be achieved if it wasn't for
0:52:23 that divine grace and mercy of allah you
0:52:25 know sufyan authority he says
0:52:27 he says
0:52:42 is another blessing that requires
0:52:43 another
0:52:44 that means you can't fully thank allah
0:52:47 because every time you do allah has
0:52:49 inspired you to thank him
0:52:51 so do you have to be this is why i think
0:52:53 it was him or husband that when he would
0:52:56 be in the night prayers
0:52:58 he would recite
0:53:11 that if you try to enumerate allah's
0:53:13 favors you wouldn't be able to and
0:53:14 almana is unjust and ungrateful and
0:53:17 every time he would read the verse he
0:53:19 would remember a favor and then repeat
0:53:21 the verse and the whole night was spent
0:53:23 reading the one verse of the quran
0:53:25 because he would have to remind himself
0:53:26 of the blessing again and again and
0:53:28 again and again and allah has blessed us
0:53:30 with so much so much so much subhanallah
0:53:33 i mean just the fact that you're alive
0:53:35 your your being alive
0:53:37 is a divine gift and blessing of allah
0:53:40 because that means in life
0:53:42 these are there's a reward of uh
0:53:44 from israel that even collects in this
0:53:47 text and it says that uh allah asked
0:53:49 allah says to nada says to allah
0:53:53 uh
0:53:54 told me what is the adnan what is the
0:53:56 least of your favorites to me
0:53:58 and allah says to that would
0:54:00 enough breathe
0:54:02 and then that would breathe and allah
0:54:03 this is the least of my favors to you
0:54:05 the fact that you're alive and there's
0:54:07 another one from israel that says that
0:54:09 uh allah says to that
0:54:14 thank me the way i deserve to be thanked
0:54:16 and says that the wood says the arabian
0:54:18 my lord how could i thank you that way
0:54:21 when thanking you is a blessing from you
0:54:23 and allah then says
0:54:25 now that would you thank me do i deserve
0:54:27 to be thanked because
0:54:30 it means
0:54:33 meaning to recognize allah's faith as a
0:54:35 person
0:54:36 what what's very interesting is about
0:54:39 the paradigm as well sometimes although
0:54:41 the frame how do we frame this sometimes
0:54:43 we frame it yes i'm going to be grateful
0:54:45 for my wife my children my car
0:54:47 but i like to go to the very kind of
0:54:49 fundamental aspects of our existence
0:54:51 because it would show if you can't be
0:54:53 fully grateful for the fundamental
0:54:54 aspects of your of your existence then
0:54:57 everything else is just a bonus right
0:55:00 so you know and this in a double context
0:55:02 you know what does allah say in chapter
0:55:04 49 verse 17 right
0:55:07 allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about
0:55:10 he talks about that the people thought
0:55:13 that iman was a favor to the prophet
0:55:17 and allah says
0:55:18 no tell them that this is not a favor
0:55:21 unto you that we basically gave this is
0:55:23 a favor unto them we have blessed them
0:55:26 with a gift
0:55:27 and that's iman so from a dawah context
0:55:30 imagine the gift of calling other people
0:55:33 to iman
0:55:34 so if your own iman is a gift
0:55:37 and you're engaged in work that you're
0:55:39 calling others to iman others to faith
0:55:41 to islam then that's a compounded gift
0:55:44 right
0:55:45 which is
0:55:46 fascinating so in terms of the frame
0:55:48 when i talk about existence like for
0:55:50 example i'd like to talk about maybe the
0:55:51 heartbeat or every conscious moment of
0:55:53 your existence yeah and so if i said to
0:55:56 someone oh i said i said to you you've
0:55:58 got 10 minutes left to live but to get
0:55:59 another 10 years or 10 days you have to
0:56:01 give me all of your wealth
0:56:03 you know many of you and you would throw
0:56:05 all your wealth at me which shows the
0:56:06 priceless nature of every conscious
0:56:08 moment
0:56:09 but we don't earn these conscious
0:56:11 moments we don't own them or necessarily
0:56:13 deserve them and we can't even create a
0:56:14 fly yeah they're given to us freely at
0:56:17 every conscious moment so if someone
0:56:19 gives you a priceless gift you don't
0:56:21 earn own or deserve how should it make
0:56:23 you feel
0:56:24 grateful and that's just life
0:56:27 that's his life every conscious moment
0:56:28 we're not even saying what you
0:56:29 experience in that moment we're seeing
0:56:32 the conscious moment itself so imagine
0:56:34 now those conscious moments are now full
0:56:36 of dawah
0:56:39 i mean
0:56:40 this is why
0:56:42 you know i've said this publicly and i
0:56:44 try and say this properly as well
0:56:48 i i will lie you know i don't know i
0:56:50 don't know
0:56:51 should i say this i don't i believe i
0:56:53 don't deserve anything you know
0:56:59 that's how i feel
0:57:01 because if you on and this is not like
0:57:03 some kind of you know look i'm coming
0:57:05 righteous you know
0:57:07 i truly believe that i'm the
0:57:09 the westerner amongst everybody but this
0:57:12 is the key is this once you understand
0:57:14 who allah is and how he manifests his
0:57:16 names and attributes in your life and in
0:57:18 the world in the cosmos then there is no
0:57:21 other way intellectually irrationally
0:57:22 spiritually just to conclude that you
0:57:24 don't deserve anything
0:57:27 and and and yeah it's just a phenomenal
0:57:30 phenomenal phenomenal understanding and
0:57:32 all of this links back to who allah is
0:57:34 and his his reality you know
0:57:36 so
0:57:38 yeah so in terms of gratitude in terms
0:57:40 of life hope though because this is
0:57:42 trying to shift it now so we know when
0:57:44 god to have successes
0:57:46 you know we should be praising allah it
0:57:48 should increase on our humility increase
0:57:50 in our gratitude we don't attribute
0:57:51 intrinsically to ourselves as sure islam
0:57:54 says my success comes from from allah
0:57:57 alone and also we respond with humility
0:58:00 gratitude is the father praising allah
0:58:03 and turning back to allah that's fine
0:58:05 but let's shift it now
0:58:07 sometimes in the tower you could just
0:58:10 hit rock bottom
0:58:11 you could say oh i'm not worthy of
0:58:13 you're engaging in this work or i don't
0:58:15 engage with this work anymore i'm facing
0:58:17 lots of struggles
0:58:19 how does now gratitude fit into that as
0:58:22 a way of being as a psychology how does
0:58:24 gratitude take you out of that state or
0:58:27 what else should they be reflecting upon
0:58:29 in to get themselves out of that state
0:58:31 because it's good talking about
0:58:33 successes but what if people hit rock
0:58:35 bottom what if they faced extreme
0:58:36 humiliation or they've they've lost uh a
0:58:39 debate or they've basically lost
0:58:42 motivation in engaging with dao
0:58:44 what then
0:58:45 yeah it's it's a beautiful thing by the
0:58:47 way you said a beautiful thing for one
0:58:48 of our repel
0:58:50 the fact that you know we we don't feel
0:58:52 ourselves deserving
0:58:54 and it's a it's a great state to be in
0:58:56 in fact because the servant of allah is
0:58:59 simply and perpetually fakir he's always
0:59:02 in a state of uh complete dependence
0:59:05 reliance and feeling of impoverishment
0:59:07 for allah
0:59:09 and i think that that's a that's
0:59:10 something that i think that should be
0:59:12 emphasized and stressed because that's a
0:59:14 beautiful state to be in
0:59:15 i think in life your question we know
0:59:17 there are many examples in the quran
0:59:19 that can help us look at the example of
0:59:21 eunis al-istan for example he was since
0:59:23 people of nineveh nineveh
0:59:25 and his people people of nineveh they uh
0:59:29 was slow in accepting they were
0:59:31 not not liking what he's saying and they
0:59:34 became seven and arrogant and because of
0:59:36 that and by the way when he goes off he
0:59:39 goes off angry but it was a good sense
0:59:41 of anger it was anger for the sake of
0:59:42 allah he's angry with the people maybe
0:59:45 thinking i could find a better people
0:59:46 than these chaps over here and he goes
0:59:48 off and as you know there was uh he's he
0:59:51 seeks safety in a ship but the ship was
0:59:53 full
0:59:54 and they had to cast lots and he was
0:59:56 thrown overboard and allah says
0:59:59 and he was the one that was to blame
1:00:01 meaning he should have remained patient
1:00:03 with his people um and patience is not
1:00:05 something that we can say for example
1:00:07 i've tried hard and they didn't listen
1:00:09 so therefore i got to stop because what
1:00:11 about nu al islam example in the quran
1:00:13 and new islam is dealing with them for
1:00:15 centuries calling them back to allah and
1:00:18 and by the way new al islam he says okay
1:00:20 so i call my people layla and one aha on
1:00:22 night and day and publicly privately but
1:00:24 what is known as i'm telling people he
1:00:25 said to them i'm saying to them ask
1:00:28 allah for forgiveness
1:00:30 and you'll find allah is forgiving and
1:00:32 if that happens you're the citizen of
1:00:35 allah will send you the reign and allah
1:00:36 will give you good children and and
1:00:38 wealth and everything else meaning allah
1:00:40 give you your blessings in this life and
1:00:42 the next life but that was his message
1:00:44 it was ask ask allah to forgive your
1:00:46 sins also forgive your sins but the
1:00:48 point is this it was a long campaign you
1:00:50 know with those people in eunice's
1:00:52 example
1:00:54 he loses hope with them and so therefore
1:00:56 it goes on the ship but allah says in
1:00:58 the quran
1:00:59 don't be like the companion of the fish
1:01:01 meaning like yunus allah says don't be
1:01:03 like eunice that islam city for although
1:01:05 he's like an amazing paradigm it's not
1:01:08 through his action of running from his
1:01:10 people that's not where he serves as an
1:01:12 example for us what comes after is
1:01:14 paradigmatic because now he's in the
1:01:16 belly of a whale swallows him whole he's
1:01:19 in the belly of the fish so what happens
1:01:20 allah says and by the way it's a
1:01:22 beautiful thing here yeah because
1:01:24 there's two different places where this
1:01:25 is made maybe even more one of them is
1:01:27 when allah says eunice was from the
1:01:29 messengers and it's
1:01:31 on when he goes and abakka by the way is
1:01:33 like the arabic the arabic is like the
1:01:35 runaway slave
1:01:36 so allah says he's like the runaway
1:01:38 slave and running away and the world
1:01:40 swallows him whole and uh and then if
1:01:43 anada feels almighty cries out in the
1:01:45 darkness this is very powerful because
1:01:46 nada feels
1:01:48 cries out in the darknesses and the
1:01:50 mufastrin they say darkness of the whale
1:01:52 darkness of the sea ducks of the night
1:01:54 three like sometimes you feel in your
1:01:56 life
1:01:57 layers and layers of difficulty one on
1:01:59 top of the other one there's this but
1:02:00 it's also there there's also that one as
1:02:02 well and uh and it's his prayer allah
1:02:08 that number one there's three layers
1:02:09 there's three there's three parts of his
1:02:11 prayer as well the scholars they say
1:02:13 because the first is to heed the second
1:02:15 is tasbee that is this take far or blame
1:02:18 and stick far he says
1:02:20 none deserves worship except you oh
1:02:22 allah subhanak all perfection belongs to
1:02:26 you and no imperfection belongs to your
1:02:27 word of all praise and then i was the
1:02:30 one that wronged my own soul and then
1:02:31 allah says
1:02:33 we responded to him and we removed his
1:02:36 grief from him
1:02:38 what meaning and just like that we
1:02:40 respond to the believers that means it
1:02:42 becomes an example for us but the
1:02:44 prophet says that and even tamiya even
1:02:46 though he has a shortly sadda on just
1:02:48 this dua just the dua yeah
1:02:50 and the in light of the hadith when the
1:02:52 prophet says that when anyone any one of
1:02:55 you makes dua let him pray with the
1:02:57 prayer of you and salisa because no
1:02:59 muslim prays with that prayer except
1:03:01 allah answers allah responds to him
1:03:03 because that that key that third part is
1:03:06 key just like that we respond to
1:03:08 believers now the other verse in the
1:03:09 quran concerning his
1:03:10 islam allah says
1:03:15 if he was not this is very clear if he
1:03:18 was not
1:03:19 of the muslim
1:03:20 of those who always were for allah he
1:03:22 would have remained in the belly of the
1:03:24 will until yamako yama until the end of
1:03:26 time
1:03:27 so that means that means
1:03:29 you know something was
1:03:31 very helpful for eunice al-islam at a
1:03:34 time where he needed the most
1:03:36 his liquor his test be his remembrance
1:03:39 of allah is take far and as if he was
1:03:41 not like that before even it would
1:03:44 remain in the valley of the fish until
1:03:45 the end of time therefore never
1:03:47 undermine the good you do today because
1:03:49 it could come a time tomorrow where you
1:03:52 would need that the most the prophet
1:03:53 hadith says
1:03:55 no allah
1:04:00 so if you're with allah when things are
1:04:02 easy for you in life you have some money
1:04:03 in your pockets you have some clothes
1:04:05 the weather is good everything's fine
1:04:07 remember allah more remember allah more
1:04:09 pray to allah more do try and do more
1:04:12 give sadaqa more because when
1:04:14 you have a difficult day you'd find
1:04:16 allah allah is closer to you and allah
1:04:17 will aid you so i think that on the one
1:04:20 hand you don't want to fall victim to
1:04:22 shaytaan because shaytan encourages
1:04:24 hopelessness and you could find for
1:04:25 example i could give dawah and no
1:04:28 results and shiitake would say you know
1:04:30 what forget it it's a it's an end game
1:04:32 ain't gonna happen let somebody else do
1:04:34 it let him you know and then this is
1:04:36 shaytanic because this is this is a way
1:04:37 of discouraging you from doing a good
1:04:39 deed you should do with by the way you
1:04:41 know when the prophet says in the hadith
1:04:43 your actions won't save you he says
1:04:49 means be
1:04:50 mudra i mean be
1:04:52 you know like
1:04:53 pace yourself in in an easy way like
1:04:56 don't be
1:04:58 don't over burden yourself and and even
1:05:00 the raja mentions variation of the
1:05:01 hadith what he says one of them is in
1:05:03 the hadith this deen is easy and nobody
1:05:07 makes it hard on himself except that it
1:05:08 overcomes him it overtakes him because
1:05:10 he's made it too excessively hard upon
1:05:12 himself so first give yourself realistic
1:05:15 targets and goals if for example you're
1:05:17 going to say
1:05:19 maybe i was doing dawah in x y and z way
1:05:23 maybe i can kind of change my strategy a
1:05:25 bit ask allah for aids and assistance
1:05:27 and do it in a way that because the
1:05:29 prophet says allah loves what is
1:05:30 continuous even if it's small so if
1:05:33 you're doing something continuous even
1:05:35 if it's a small thing is better than
1:05:36 doing a big thing only once and then
1:05:39 that's the end of the affair so maybe
1:05:40 sometimes we do it the wrong way maybe
1:05:42 we do the big thing run out of steam
1:05:45 burn out and uh we think there's nothing
1:05:47 going to happen whereas the one who is
1:05:49 patiently persevering in his dawah even
1:05:52 if it's slow will have better results at
1:05:55 the end of it and then he will always
1:05:56 feel better in himself as well
1:05:59 so this is this is consistency and is
1:06:02 the karma and now but to summarize what
1:06:04 you said which is very moving and
1:06:06 beautiful so
1:06:07 if when we hit rock bottom in the tower
1:06:09 so one important thing to do is to
1:06:12 basically just
1:06:14 obviously with a heartfelt supplication
1:06:17 the supplication
1:06:18 of yunus alaihissalam there is no deity
1:06:21 except you exalted are you indeed i have
1:06:24 been of the wrongdoers
1:06:27 but also in making this dua we must
1:06:29 become this dua
1:06:31 and what's really fascinating when you
1:06:33 were talking about this what came to
1:06:34 mind is when we do hit rock bottom or we
1:06:37 do basically
1:06:39 we face hurdles and obstacles and and
1:06:41 self-inflicted errors if you like
1:06:44 go back to tawheed remember this is all
1:06:47 about allah subhanahu wa tower
1:06:49 my tower is basically an expression of a
1:06:53 timeless
1:06:54 fact that allah is worthy of extensive
1:06:57 praise ultimate gratitude he's worthy of
1:07:00 all worship he's the only deity worthy
1:07:01 of worship so go back to allah subhanahu
1:07:04 wa remember why you're doing it in the
1:07:05 first place this is just an expression
1:07:08 of why allah is worthy of worship which
1:07:10 is the the the the
1:07:14 truest truth if you like yeah
1:07:16 and then praise allah as a result
1:07:18 because remember the
1:07:20 dua is uh there is no date except you
1:07:22 exalted or you so then praise allah
1:07:25 subhanahu wa ta'ala you know you know
1:07:28 subhan allah he is he is transcendent he
1:07:32 is beyond anything uh in in our
1:07:34 imagination uh praise allah extensively
1:07:38 praise allah because praise as we know
1:07:39 in um kitab surah
1:07:42 is actually one of the keys of worship
1:07:43 praise and gratitude we say
1:07:45 alhamdulillah
1:07:47 all perfect praise and gratitude belong
1:07:49 to the lord of everything that exists
1:07:51 and um kitab is a summary of the whole
1:07:53 of the quran and the summary of the
1:07:54 whole of the quran is tawheed itself so
1:07:57 that so once you remember this is about
1:07:59 worshipping allah remembering who allah
1:08:01 is then praise him and then
1:08:04 we we we ask allah for forgiveness that
1:08:07 we have transgressed it's because of our
1:08:09 transgressions but that should also mean
1:08:11 that you realize what those
1:08:12 transgressions are because humiliation
1:08:15 in the tower or hitting rock bottom or
1:08:17 basically moving away from the taoist
1:08:19 scene or feeling disenhartened it could
1:08:22 be as a result of some things that you
1:08:24 have missed out in your own life it
1:08:26 could be
1:08:27 it could be the fact that you have a job
1:08:29 it could be it could be a whole range of
1:08:31 things so the very fact you're admitting
1:08:34 that you're the wrong doer means that
1:08:35 you understand that wrong some
1:08:36 wrongdoing has been done so you should
1:08:38 do some kind of self-reflection to find
1:08:40 out what on earth has happened what did
1:08:42 i do what was going on and you know i
1:08:45 see this so this in my life i went
1:08:46 through crazy humiliation in the dawah
1:08:48 which now i remember one shaykh said to
1:08:50 me on the day of judgement you're gonna
1:08:52 wish that this happened to you a
1:08:53 thousand times
1:08:56 if it wasn't for that
1:08:59 i don't think i've ever spoken too much
1:09:01 publicly about it but
1:09:03 i was like almost suicidal
1:09:07 [Music]
1:09:10 and that created uh a sense of awareness
1:09:13 that there's some stuff inside me that
1:09:16 needs to be fixed and it was one of the
1:09:17 greatest gifts allah has given
1:09:20 after that i finished my book then i
1:09:23 became ceo of
1:09:25 so many different things
1:09:26 and if i was in the same state before
1:09:29 that humiliation
1:09:30 all of this would have been a calamity
1:09:32 for me
1:09:33 and the way and the way it happened i'm
1:09:35 telling you it was it was transformative
1:09:37 beyond anything and you know for the art
1:09:40 and for someone like me who's maybe you
1:09:42 know arrogant and stuff you know no one
1:09:44 else could deal with me apart from allah
1:09:46 only allah could teach me this yet
1:09:48 because in other human beings maybe it
1:09:49 wasn't enough allah had to give me that
1:09:51 shake
1:09:52 um and it was profound it was absolutely
1:09:55 profound so it helped me recognize
1:09:57 within myself what has been missing
1:10:04 what is this all about this is not about
1:10:05 you this is about yours
1:10:07 you know if says that
1:10:09 whenever you find a loss in your affairs
1:10:12 he says
1:10:14 begin to make sugar because
1:10:18 if you think allah allah would increase
1:10:20 you now allah doesn't say what is going
1:10:22 to increase you in by the way yeah
1:10:24 but there's going to be increase in you
1:10:27 from shukra of allah so more gratitude
1:10:29 to him subhanallah and it could be for
1:10:32 example sometimes
1:10:34 and it's like you know it's been a it's
1:10:36 a
1:10:36 i don't know that even we you know may
1:10:38 allah have mercy on sheikh muhammad who
1:10:41 passed away just yesterday
1:10:46 i mean growing up of course he was a big
1:10:47 inspiration for all of us because he was
1:10:50 you know we had all of his talks and
1:10:51 everything else subhanallah but you know
1:10:53 the day before
1:10:55 he
1:10:55 therefore yesterday my wife's mother
1:10:58 passed away the day before
1:11:01 the way my friend's father passed away
1:11:03 you know and so and then there's
1:11:05 there's been so many deaths around us
1:11:08 subhanallah and it's a reminder of
1:11:10 course but one of the things that i've
1:11:12 really taken
1:11:14 i mean i think that we've really
1:11:15 benefited as a community in fact from
1:11:17 this is the fact that
1:11:19 so my father my friend's father passed
1:11:21 away
1:11:22 uh you know he had a stroke he was
1:11:24 paralyzed he couldn't talk he couldn't
1:11:26 talk
1:11:27 but when he and the and my friend was in
1:11:30 the room when he passed away uh
1:11:33 he'd start
1:11:34 shouting the shahadah
1:11:38 for half an hour he's reading the kalima
1:11:41 you know when he couldn't talk he
1:11:42 couldn't even talk before and so
1:11:45 yeah on the day he dies
1:11:46 you know so my friend you know is like
1:11:48 his his
1:11:50 face is beaming he's like smiling from
1:11:52 there to there you know and i went to
1:11:54 give condolences and he was just so
1:11:56 happy he says
1:11:58 i'm so happy because my dad died on he
1:12:01 iman until he then and he said that and
1:12:04 it was like a sense of uh you know his
1:12:07 gratitude even through loss
1:12:10 like you know our friend from
1:12:12 previously omar sorry my very close
1:12:14 friend whose whose son was stabbed to
1:12:15 death of the aziz uh
1:12:18 likewise i mean it was a similar thing
1:12:19 because when he when he when he died
1:12:21 when he was when they heard when he
1:12:22 heard the news that he'd been stabbed to
1:12:24 death
1:12:24 uh his mom who didn't know anything
1:12:27 because she thought maybe were involved
1:12:29 in an accident or something and when her
1:12:31 brother went to break the news to her in
1:12:33 the night at the home
1:12:35 and had to kind of break that news to
1:12:36 her imagine that the feeling of her
1:12:38 mother he said the first thing she did
1:12:40 is she made she made sajdah
1:12:43 she made such a to allah and even omar
1:12:46 who was in hospital said that you know
1:12:48 the first that they did that they went
1:12:49 to make wudu in the in the bathroom
1:12:52 and they prayed salah and it's like the
1:12:55 the the allah mentions that you know
1:12:57 with iman comes anor becomes a light you
1:12:59 see comes a light and that light
1:13:02 it's something that know you can't find
1:13:04 anywhere else because the way that you
1:13:06 conceptualize shukra now isn't just
1:13:08 shukra as in shakir it's in shakur so
1:13:12 you have the shakira and shakur when
1:13:13 wasallam was praying the whole night and
1:13:15 aye she said ya rasulallah why do you do
1:13:16 that when allah has just forgiven
1:13:18 everything and he said to affleck
1:13:21 and should i not be then a truly
1:13:23 grateful son of allah meaning in all
1:13:25 situations being grateful to him this is
1:13:27 why ibrahim says that the
1:13:34 for the things are like uh present for
1:13:36 him in his life and things and stuff and
1:13:38 the shakur thanks allah for what's just
1:13:40 missing in his life you know at shaku
1:13:42 and shaky thanks allah for blessings and
1:13:44 shakur thanks allah for the calamities
1:13:46 because like you mentioned that calamity
1:13:48 the nicoma became enigma the calamity
1:13:51 becomes a blessing so that's the way
1:13:54 because the person on their faith when
1:13:56 he was
1:13:57 you know underwent so much difficulty
1:13:58 the hardship of his life and
1:14:00 because of the expectation maybe they
1:14:02 would listen to him like the mecca to
1:14:03 listen to him they said
1:14:07 this is humility oh allah i complain to
1:14:09 you for the weakness of my strength you
1:14:11 know
1:14:13 the
1:14:14 minimum nature of my resources and and
1:14:17 i'm not important in the eyes of the
1:14:18 people
1:14:20 they don't think i'm important but then
1:14:22 he says well i can if you don't if
1:14:23 you're not angry with me then i don't
1:14:25 mind what's going to happen to me or
1:14:26 allah i mean that's that's the key thing
1:14:28 and so uh the beautiful thing is as i i
1:14:31 mentioned
1:14:32 to umar i said look at the example of
1:14:34 aurora because otherwise the example is
1:14:37 he had four kids you know and the khalif
1:14:40 invites him to damascus he goes to
1:14:41 damascus
1:14:42 one of his kids was playing in the in
1:14:44 the stable with the horses and the horse
1:14:46 kicks his son and the son dies
1:14:48 and so orwell now has to prepare the
1:14:49 funeral for his son and he washed the
1:14:52 body and prepared the funeral and while
1:14:54 he's doing that i think digging the
1:14:55 grave he he injures himself and then his
1:14:58 leg becomes infected
1:15:00 and the doctors say you have to have it
1:15:02 amputated and so he had to have his leg
1:15:04 cut off and then the people said the
1:15:06 aura they said after a few days they
1:15:08 said you know we're so sad because first
1:15:09 you must use your son then you lose your
1:15:11 limb
1:15:12 and then he said he's very beautiful
1:15:13 words he says look allah gave me
1:15:16 baby allah gave me four sons and allah
1:15:19 took one but allah left three for that i
1:15:20 praise allah
1:15:22 and allah gave me four limbs two arms
1:15:24 two legs allah took one and i left three
1:15:26 for that i praise allah whenever allah
1:15:27 took something from allah left a lot
1:15:29 back for me you know and it's just as a
1:15:31 perspective so you have allah gives even
1:15:34 opportunities for people to really show
1:15:37 the most remarkable sugar uh in the most
1:15:40 difficult situation subhanallah and
1:15:42 that's that's just that's something that
1:15:44 we we uh you know i i i witnessed that
1:15:47 myself and what i saw locally in my
1:15:49 community you know
1:15:51 and it just goes to show that
1:15:53 you know if
1:15:55 we could get consumed by negative events
1:15:57 and trauma but what islam teaches us
1:15:59 that we need to understand that the
1:16:00 meaning that we're giving this trauma is
1:16:02 not the only meaning that we should give
1:16:04 the meaning that allah and his messenger
1:16:06 want us to give and wallahi brothers and
1:16:08 sisters even especially in our context
1:16:11 if you give the meaning that allah and
1:16:13 his messenger want you to have for this
1:16:15 particular event
1:16:16 then you're going to transcend that
1:16:17 calamity insha allah and we see this
1:16:20 with
1:16:20 in in
1:16:22 and we see this with musa alaihis isn't
1:16:24 that right the way allah talks to the
1:16:26 prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam to
1:16:28 gain to
1:16:29 to attribute a different perspective a
1:16:31 different meaning to his life and to
1:16:33 certain issues in order for him to
1:16:34 transcend those issues correct
1:16:36 subhanallah yesterday one of the because
1:16:39 i do thursday three hours of mentoring
1:16:41 and one of the guys
1:16:43 who said brother i feel so low in my
1:16:45 life i don't know what to do with
1:16:46 anything he was just so depressed with
1:16:48 everything and so i mentioned
1:16:50 to him and i said look when allah means
1:16:53 it was at a time in the prophet's life
1:16:56 when the muslim began to insult him make
1:16:58 fun because the first verses were
1:17:00 revealed and it was a gap in revelation
1:17:01 that we can say like what
1:17:03 is lord is abandoned what is abandoned
1:17:04 him and allah reveals
1:17:06 begins by saying well doha by the early
1:17:09 morning brightness
1:17:11 meaning there's always like it connotes
1:17:13 has imagery of newness freshness new
1:17:16 beginning new chance new opportunity new
1:17:18 beginning new things could happen no two
1:17:20 days are the same in the life of any son
1:17:22 of adam every day is a unique day when
1:17:24 laylee either
1:17:25 which means you're the kenneth sakin and
1:17:26 when the night is still
1:17:28 like that like the stillness of the sea
1:17:31 that to the still dark night silent
1:17:34 night and the early morning brightness
1:17:36 your lord hasn't abandoned you nor does
1:17:37 he scorn you and what is yet to come for
1:17:40 tomorrow's story for you will outstrip
1:17:43 is better for you than we have today and
1:17:45 you'll be pleased with that then allah
1:17:47 says i let me dedicate a team and
1:17:49 so i said to brother i said look i said
1:17:51 you you can't fix it only on today you
1:17:54 have to think about your yesterdays
1:17:56 that's the lesson in
1:17:57 allah says didn't we find you an orphan
1:17:59 and sheltered you and found you poor and
1:18:02 enriched you and found you wandering and
1:18:04 guided you meaning
1:18:05 you know who was looking after you when
1:18:08 things were good for you in your life
1:18:09 when things were you know when you were
1:18:11 in difficulty but allah aid and assisted
1:18:13 you and then comes kind of a social
1:18:15 responsibility like empathy building
1:18:18 because there's going to be people you
1:18:20 encounter in life who will be in like in
1:18:22 your situation before
1:18:24 foreign
1:18:28 as for the orphan don't be cruel as for
1:18:31 the one that comes to ask you don't push
1:18:32 him back and even kathir says it means
1:18:36 what could you
1:18:37 remember when you were an orphan
1:18:39 what could the remember when you
1:18:41 were poor meaning have that sense of
1:18:42 empathy for other people and i think
1:18:44 that that's a powerful thing so
1:18:45 therefore you know we gain a lot of ins
1:18:47 we can you should gain a little
1:18:48 inspiration from the quran i mean from
1:18:50 all these prophetic examples and stories
1:18:53 and the seerah and the sunnah because
1:18:55 that's really what gives us life as
1:18:57 muslims and how else do we navigate the
1:18:59 trudges and sludges of life sometimes of
1:19:01 course things happen in life
1:19:02 unpredictable we weren't expecting them
1:19:05 they can be difficult
1:19:06 but but if we if we navigate through
1:19:09 life you know with these kind of uh uh
1:19:11 you know positive
1:19:13 reinforcements then they will kind of
1:19:15 build us i think inshallah in in good
1:19:17 ways and i said that's uh something i
1:19:19 think for the da i mean for all of us in
1:19:21 charlotte hoping to be duart
1:19:23 remember therefore the importance of our
1:19:26 connection with allah subhanahu wa
1:19:27 ta'ala is of the this of the prime is a
1:19:30 primary thing you know the way that you
1:19:32 are with allah will detect everything
1:19:35 and and you're not looking for successes
1:19:38 only in this life you want the success
1:19:41 in the next life i mean that's the big
1:19:42 thing and it could be even if you have
1:19:45 delayed successes in this life all
1:19:48 prophets went through that so that's
1:19:49 what i mean the prophets were bigger
1:19:50 than us bad at us chosen by allah and
1:19:53 they had they had these delays and stuff
1:19:55 and look how bani israel went on there
1:19:58 went back to worshiping the carving oh
1:20:00 musa had to struggle with all these
1:20:02 people
1:20:03 but allah still says to musa speak to
1:20:05 pharaoh in a soft word maybe his heart
1:20:07 might might be reflected and so
1:20:09 therefore the message is convey the
1:20:11 message as best as you can with guidance
1:20:13 with vasira with with with insight and
1:20:16 wisdom and with knowledge and with
1:20:18 courage and all these things and then
1:20:20 leave your affairs to allah subhanahu wa
1:20:21 ta'ala and you know when allah guides
1:20:24 even katherine says i think al qurtabi
1:20:26 says because i mentioned in the book he
1:20:28 says that the one allah guides is one
1:20:30 who is mr one who is deserving of the
1:20:32 guidance so you don't know who's
1:20:33 deserving of the gun because only allah
1:20:35 knows who's deserving
1:20:36 why would you beat yourself over if
1:20:38 allah knows who's
1:20:40 so therefore the it's a big blessing if
1:20:42 allah has afforded you
1:20:44 that the time the chance the in life to
1:20:47 do something to convey this beautiful
1:20:50 deen unto other people and in the course
1:20:52 of that to make you more mindful of him
1:20:55 and in his remembrance that's
1:20:57 the the biggest gift i think allah has
1:20:59 given a person in his life so therefore
1:21:02 may allah make us appreciative humble
1:21:04 and grateful to him and patient in our
1:21:07 affairs
1:21:10 so just to complete this podcast i think
1:21:13 just to summarize what you've said you
1:21:15 know when we go through these laws
1:21:17 actually you know stand in the
1:21:19 possibility that the meaning you're
1:21:20 giving is not the right meaning and what
1:21:22 the meaning that allah is giving it and
1:21:24 the meaning that the prophet salallahu
1:21:26 wasallam is the correct meaning i hope
1:21:28 you transcend these calamities and these
1:21:30 problems
1:21:31 and
1:21:32 so with that being said there is so much
1:21:34 more we could talk about of course
1:21:36 there's so much more we will talk about
1:21:38 in the future in future podcasts
1:21:40 but you know brothers and sisters if
1:21:42 you've been inspired touched moved and
1:21:44 inspired by this and for me it's been an
1:21:46 emotional podcast throughout the podcast
1:21:48 alhamdulillah
1:21:50 i think you know start engaging with
1:21:52 this work as well go to our learning
1:21:53 platform it's all free learn.sapience
1:21:57 where you could start your dollar
1:21:58 journey to share islam compassionately
1:22:00 intelligently with wisdom and to share
1:22:02 intellection academically to our
1:22:04 brothers and sisters in humanity we have
1:22:06 an advanced our training course we have
1:22:07 the no doubt course 10 effective
1:22:09 strategies on how to do with your doubts
1:22:11 in the lives of others we have the
1:22:12 courses from doctors my native on being
1:22:14 human divine perfection and many other
1:22:16 courses on christology atheism and so on
1:22:18 and so forth and we've got future
1:22:19 courses coming out as well feminism
1:22:21 secularism leadership
1:22:23 the sifat to the attributes of the day
1:22:25 and so on and so forth and it's an
1:22:27 exciting time
1:22:28 so dr jazakallah bless you
1:22:31 have a great jummah and
1:22:34 i pray that allah grants your
1:22:37 mother-in-law jonathan fredos and
1:22:39 forgives her
1:22:41 um
1:22:42 it was not not my mother-in-law it was
1:22:43 my friend's mother oh sir this is your
1:22:46 wife's mother
1:22:48 what am i doing my wife's
1:22:50 friend's mother my wife okay okay
1:22:53 to to them as well and of course to our
1:22:56 beloved brother whose father passed away
1:22:58 as well with
1:22:59 he had tidings really you know he
1:23:01 couldn't speak but allah gave him the
1:23:02 power he's like speaking
1:23:14 he passed away he didn't have any
1:23:15 illness i think he just passed away
1:23:17 just like that and when i i didn't
1:23:19 really know him that well but when i saw
1:23:21 all the kind of uh positive comments
1:23:23 from different people across the kind of
1:23:26 theological and community spectrum
1:23:28 i was inspired in a certain way you know
1:23:30 i was inspired expand allah you know he
1:23:32 was only 47 or something and what he
1:23:34 achieved was phenomenal and it should
1:23:36 encourage us to uh keep on racing and at
1:23:38 the end of the day as allah says
1:23:40 the final outcome is with the righteous
1:23:43 so we should all become righteous as
1:23:44 best as possible and that itself is
1:23:46 going to be a gift from allah and
1:23:47 therefore that would require gratitude
1:23:49 as well it's always going to be an
1:23:50 infinite regress of gratitude
1:23:52 that's right
1:23:55 and i'll speak to you very soon
1:24:02 [Music]
1:24:08 you