We are going to continue this series on the traits of the righteous and we've been discussing different virtues in this time that we live in, a time of vice, a time filled with a lot of difficulties, a lot of corruption, but at the same time, Alhamdulillah, as believers we have to remain positive, we have to try to think about all of the good that we can try to attain in this time. You know, when there are fewer people trying to get something, insha'Allah, we get a bigger portion of that. So there might be fewer people in this time, certainly there are likely fewer people in this time that are trying to attain these virtuous qualities and so insha'Allah if we put in the effort, we can attain a vast portion versus in the past there are far more people trying to attain virtuous qualities of all fates. Virtue was a very, very emphasized aspect of pre-modern society and so maybe the portion that was distributed could have been less, Allah knows best, Alhamdulillah. And we are also, we have just entered, so today we're going to be talking about patience. Before we get into the topic though, we have just entered the blessed month of Rabi Al-Awwal and Rabi Al-Awwal is one of one of the most significant months in the Hijri calendar. What is the month of Rabi Al-Awwal and what took place? We'll talk more about this insha'Allah in the coming weeks but just for us to keep in mind, this is a month in which the Messenger of Allah, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, was born. The most of the scholars say that he was born in on the 12th of Rabi Al-Awwal and it is a month in which we should be extremely happy that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam came into this earthly existence and blessed us with his blessed presence. Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and that he delivered to us this message, he delivered to us the Quran, he taught us how to be, how to live, how to attain Jannah, how to stay away from the fire and most importantly how to know Allah and how to get close to Allah. And without the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam we wouldn't know any of these things and so this should be a month which as the month continues, we should feel happy, we should feel, we should be in a state of rejoicing, we should feel excited that Hamdullah, this is an amazing month and just like this was the month in which the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was born and in which the worlds, the darknesses of the world disappeared because of the light of Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, this is a month inshallah that has that same potential that if we have the right intention and that if we connect to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that the darknesses and the difficulties of life inshallah can be removed, can be mitigated by Allah's will through the blessing that is attained in this month and there are so many blessings associated with loving the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, with celebrating the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, with being happy about the birth of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and don't let anybody tell you to ignore those aspects. This is a very, very fundamental aspect of our religion, to have so much love of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that we're thinking about him and that we think about him so much that we're sending blessings upon him and that we say Allahumma ala Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad so often that we establish a close connection to him and then there are those people who their connection is so strong that then they begin to see him in their dreams and they begin to have an experiential relationship with him, a much more personal relationship than one which is maybe a kind of a distant type of relationship but everybody we should have a relationship with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam because Allah says in the Quran that say if you love Allah, follow me and Allah will love you and we're all people inshallah who are trying to attain Allah's love the way to do that, the door to Allah is the messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that if it were not for him you and I wouldn't even know about Allah let alone know about and if it were not for his birth we wouldn't even know about this religion we wouldn't know about all these amazing aspects that hopefully have the potential or have already transformed our life so it is a month in which we should be extremely happy and it is a month in which we should focus on extra nearness and try to attain extra nearness to Allah and his messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam so let's talk now about patience patience is one of the hallmark virtues of the prophets and of the righteous and you know we've done this before and you could do literally a series many many classes on patience there's literally books and books and books written on the virtue of patience but we're going to try to just squeeze it in and you know 30 minutes or so and try to just chat a little bit about why patience is so important it's one of the hallmark traits of the prophets and it's one of the most important traits that the righteous people have if you think about it when you meet a righteous person if you've ever met somebody who is kind of clear that they're very very close to Allah or at least they're trying to be very very close to Allah they have a very different state about them they have a certain type of tranquility and they also have a certain type of patience that regardless of what's going on in their life they're saying they trust in Allah they're going to be patient with Allah's decree and you can see that inward calmness that manifests and emanates from these people and then you have people who there is a certain type of anxiety and a lack of patience that small things maybe get them perturbed we want to be of course in the former group where we try to become people who are people of patience such that small things and big things don't bother us and even if they do we're working on trying to attain a state of submission to Allah so this is one of the most important traits this is one of the absolute most important traits that if we can't attain any of the other traits and inshallah we can we should focus on attaining this trait of patience why? because it's something that is a foundation to getting close to Allah that is a saying, I believe in Sayyidina Ali that the patience is to the head like faith is to the patience is to faith like the head is to the body think about if you didn't have a head you couldn't think you didn't have a brain you couldn't see you couldn't speak you couldn't smell you couldn't hear I mean literally all the faculties of the body the majority of the faculties of the body come from the head and of course the brain is one of the main command points and the control centers of the entire body that is our critical patience that patience is to faith like the head is to the body so it's a critical trait in our religion it is a foundational trait and we need to view it as a foundational trait and sometimes I'm definitely at the top of this list they're like when I'm struggling with something and patience and I'm like thinking in my head like when is this going to be done when is it going to right? and obviously I know that's not patience because if you're patient we wouldn't ask when it's going to be done or when the situation will get quote unquote better but I forget how important it is I might think it's just one trait like all the other traits but no this is like a mother trait it actually is a mother trait it is a mother trait and from its stem all sorts of other virtues right the one who has patience will be able to have a different way in the way to approach people a different type of practice a spiritual practice a different type of devotional practice a different type of relationship with other human beings a different type of internal relationship when difficulties come or when things happen because they have the root trait they have the mother trait and so we want to work on attaining this trait of patience and Allah says in the Qur'an He describes there's many ayahs that relate to patience right? one of the things you'll see in the Qur'an is that Allah lists out groups of people that He loves and He says Allah yuhib and then He lists out the groups so Allah loves and He's one of the people the groups of people He loves are the people of Sabr and Sabr is patience it's translated as patience sometimes but it's kind of like a patience steadfastness firm resolve trying to be kind of this struggle to attain this state of patience that's one of the practical ways for us to think about what Sabr is so that's one of the groups of people that Allah loves and Allah there are about seven groups of people explicitly mentioned in the Qur'an in terms of categories of people that Allah loves the patient are one of them and then you have the mutaqeen the people of excellence the people of righteousness the people of trust in Allah the people of justice who stand up for justice the people of cleanliness and the people of patience and Allah was with us in the Muhammad there's one more slipping my mind but there are categories of people that Allah loves and so we want to try to attain those categories we want to try to become from those categories of people so He says about for example the prophet Ayyub al-Islam that we did indeed find him patient and how excellent a slave he was he was ever turning in repentance to his Lord so Allah mentions here that he was patient he was an amazing slave and he was turning in repentance to Allah and Allah is linking these traits so if you're patient inshallah you will become one of the favorite people of Allah and imagine if Allah said that about you how excellent a slave this one is what kind of praise is better than that if we get for example at work somebody's at work and you get like a really good review or your boss praises you people feel happy you'll feel like good like yeah that was nice thank you for recognizing my work right or looking at your young or even as you grow older right your parents praise you or your siblings praise you or your friends praise you for something you did such a great job at that you're like you really crushed it at that in that game you were playing at that basketball game or in that video game or in that assignment you were doing whatever it is your teacher praises you whoever it is now imagine if the Lord of the worlds praises you right and these people are being praised in the Quran right how excellent a slave he was because of his patience he's referring here to Prophet Ayyub al-Islam the Prophet Jawa al-Islam who was immensely patient through a very difficult physical illness that that he was afflicted with he was extremely patient throughout that journey and Allah also mentioned in the Quran truly those who endure with patience will be rewarded without measure so you can be rewarded with like with measure and then you can be rewarded without measure with measure if somebody you know you take like this and you have a certain amount of you know gold or something in here right and say this is what you get for the deed that you did right there are people who will be rewarded with a certain measure and then for but the reward for patience is without measure so this entire room this entire city this entire town this entire earth I mean all of it filled with all the rewards possible and even then it can go beyond that because you're rewarded without measure because patience is a trait that's between you and Allah Allah knows if you're being patient right if you're sick Allah knows if you're being patient and you're relying on him and you're turning to him to get through it if you were trying to have suburb it or if you somebody's being rude to you and you're Allah knows if you're trying to hold your tongue and trying to be patient and not you know let it let it loose on them right and and let let let go of your your patience and get angry with them right in many situations if you have a dis if if if all of your friends are doing something bad or everybody is you know out there ignoring the rules and you're the only one trying to follow them and being patient with them Allah knows you're doing it and that's one of the most amazing aspects of patience is that it's really a trait between you and your Lord just like fasting is a trait between you and your Lord right only your Lord knows if you truly you're fasting or if you're out in between you know cheating on the fast right and fasting and patience are linked it comes in the ahia al-luma deen I believe it's a hadith with Prophet ﷺ said that patience is half of faith and fasting is half of patience because and fasting can teach you patience there are ways to inculcate patience inside the human being so what is the definition then of patience so patience is defined as compelling the nuffs compelling the lower self to endure hardships and loads and loads some things so let's think about this a little bit it's literally to like endure things that you and I don't like so what don't we like let's think about first many most of us don't like waiting right we don't like waiting right we're waiting to in lines you're waiting to hear back about something you're waiting for your food at a restaurant you're waiting for the people don't like waiting and so it's and these are small examples of course and then there's much more serious actually intense examples of patience but in compelling the nuffs so you're teaching your nuffs you're forcing your nuffs no I'm going to wait Allah knows what's best for me whatever is best for me is going to manifest so enduring hardships and loads some things right I'll give you an example of what not to do here I remember one time many years back I was you know starting to apply for a new job and I was you know going on LinkedIn sending messages sending some emails go submitting applications online all sorts of routes in right and I remember I one one one evening I I sent a bunch of messages I applied to my jobs and you know I did so in the evening and so I woke up in the morning and like checking my LinkedIn hoping you know thinking I'll go people should have replied by now right like it's it's been the whole the whole night past people somebody should have replied right and I remember telling my wife I was like yeah like the whole night past maybe nobody wants to hire me like I don't know about this you know like I don't know what to do like and she was like it was the night like they were also sleeping last night like literally it's been like 12 hours you need to relax and I was like oh yeah and then she was like you need to be patient I was like oh yeah right like that's that's an example right you don't like waiting on a job application if you submit it especially if it's a job you want you're just like come on I want you can't wait right or like you're applied to college or something I mean that in that situation in college you know there's a date when they're going to release it but you usually have a hard time waiting similarly in that case right but you but it's enduring that time right and that's like again a very very minor example of what not to do right the patient person would wait and wait until whatever is going to manifest is going to manifest so we don't like waiting and we have to force ourselves to do it it's another example of this enduring hardships whereas it's compelling the nuffs to endure hardships and load some things if anybody's taking notes this is the thing to take notes about patience is defined as compelling the nuffs to endure hardships and load some things and the nuffs here is our ego it's our lower self which partly governs us and inclines us to either do bad things or it can be weaned to you know basically kind of neutralize a little bit so it doesn't make us do all these bad things or or whisper to us and kind of push us to do these things another example is if you're sick right you know people don't like being sick we don't like being sick you want to get better right so like let's say somebody's sick waiting waiting waiting and sometimes it gets difficult and sometimes somebody might wonder when am i going to get better when this especially if they have a very difficult illness a chronic illness right but patience is commanding the nuffs no you got to wait this out because why Allah knows what he's doing that Allah tests you and I and being patient is the response we're supposed to have and so it's forcing that upon us right and all types of difficulties you and I can expand um upon this remember the Prophet said that patience is when the calamity first strikes so another example here is if somebody passes away in our family especially if they're loved i mean you know if they're a very close loved one it's very difficult to be patient but patience is when the calamity first strikes so in that case if you've trained during the training season then when the difficulty comes and this is one thing that's very important about religion that you and I have to train and the when times are good so that when times get tough we can have the appropriate response because what's the Prophet said Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam saying here patience is when the calamity first strikes now think about it when the calamity first strikes you don't have time to train so if you don't know how to be patient let's say God forbid somebody close to you passes away people you're going to the person who doesn't have patience is going to completely lose it they're going to just completely like what happened how what like oh my like and just completely not being able to process it right versus the person with patience of course nothing wrong with crying nothing wrong with grieving all of those things we should be doing it's an emotional outlet that's that's healthy but they won't inwardly lose it they won't begin to question Allah and then there are people who and we ask Allah protect us from this but who if a calamity strikes they begin to question Allah why did you do this to me why did this happen why me why not them what about this I did this I did that why did I and especially when it comes to death and people and people close to us passing away though that questionings begins to happen and so patience is when the calamity first strikes and the nuts must be trained to endure hardships before then that's the first definition the second definition of patience that's also part of this is it's compelling the nuts to forsake things it holds dear and it's used to so what's an example of this right fasting right fasting you and I are used to like eating a lot right you drink drinking coffee for example in the morning time or chai or something and then eating breakfast and having a lunch and then you know eating some snacks and then eventually eating dinner whatever it is right but the fasting person they you'd like eating most people like eating but the fasting person is literally what compelling the nuts to forsake things it holds dear can't get your morning latte in and it's a custom to you say no today you're fasting or this whole month you're fasting this whole month you're not about to get your coffee right now or you're not about to get it at the time you're used to this whole month or this whole day or whatever it is right so people who regularly fast one of the reasons why one of the wisdoms behind why it's so good to fast regularly for those people who follow the fasting of the Prophet's Islam whether it's just Mondays whether it's Mondays and Thursdays or three days a month which is something we should aspire to at minimum try to fast three days a month that's a good thing for us to do we can do Monday Monday Monday or a Monday and a Thursday or any of the days Mondays and Thursdays happen to be Sunnah and the reason why the Prophet's Islam fast on Monday is because he was born on a Monday and again indicating the importance of taking worship and celebrating his birth through a form of worship that's one of the the proofs that you can think about so but but think about fasting to get rid of what you and I are accustomed to eventually when your end when Ramadan is done you kind of go back the next two three days and you like remember like dang i used to eat lunch every day wow like and then you kind of get used got to get used to it again right but the nuffs you can train the nuffs in anything keep that in mind you can train the nuffs in anything so the nuffs can be trained in patients through one form of discipline through fasting right similarly nobody likes to like wake up heck or early like nobody nobody nobody likes to to people do actually some people do end up liking it because they're trained but generally speaking people don't like to wake up for Fajr or they don't like to wake up early in the morning for like the Hajj before Fajr right because cuts into their prime sleep time but what is it you're compelling the nuffs to forsake the things it holds dear what does it hold dear it holds sleep dear and forcing it to do what you want it to do which is what you want it to pray and that's a form of patience so actually patience links to a lot more than just dealing with calamities patience is in in in four categories the first is patience is in the face of obedience so it's actually you need patience to get through obedience you got to pray five times a day that's actually i mean in the modern world that's considered a lot right like praying five times a day you got to be patient sometimes you just don't want to pray a certain prayer you got to be patient you got to do it we have to do it sometimes you just don't want to sleep through Fajr no got to wake up and we got to do it sometimes you want to sleep before before praying Isha you're really tired whatever it is right we got to we got to just do it right sometimes you're at work and you know you you got to figure out how to make wudu and then what are people going to see your foot in the sink and then now what do i do right like and you just like i'll just skip the horror and us or and do it at late no Allah commanded it on us we have to do it patience in the face of obedience right worship praying fasting praying that got taking care of our obligations Hajj in and of itself for for is an act of of immense worship but also an act of worship that that relates to patience a lot of patience you have to have on a Hajj the second form of patience is patience when you are trying to stay away from haram so patience to stay away from your desire so somebody you know let's say that you are you know let's say you're like a college student right and all your friends are partying and they're smoking and they're drinking and they're partying right maybe you might be inclined to do that but patience is to say no i'm going to be patient because i know that there's something better for me if i just stay away from this because i'm trying to get to heaven and this is not the right road to get there right that's one example but you see people eating something and you know you can't eat it it's not halal or something like that you say no i'm not going to eat that i'm going to be patient right all forms then you want you know uh you you you're on your social media or you're walking around and you see somebody of the opposite gender and you want to look but you don't look why because it's haram because you know it's going to hurt your eyes and it's going to hurt your heart spiritually so you lower your gaze and you do turn away from that thing that you're looking at that's patience it takes patience right the person who has patience they are going to be able to stay away from sin they're going to be able to do more good and then they will be able to somewhat start to tolerate the difficulties that come it's a very difficult state to attain where somebody can actually tolerate completely and submit all the difficulties that come their way but it begins with staying away from sin and with doing good deeds and it's interesting because the person who has patience will be able to stay away from bad even and they'll be able to recognize what is actually bad what does that mean so this is where the intellect and knowledge come in patience is like a force of the intellect your intellect has forces that it uses to get you to do things and to not in the time that we live in if the intellect is filled with all the wrong information with this worldview and this worldview and this critical theory and this ultra progressive worldview that like questions all the foundations of things and whatnot right intellect gets confused it doesn't know what's good and what's not good anymore it begins to lose sight of the virtues that it needs to have and from a spiritual perspective the intellect if it's grounded in virtue it's going to be able to act with virtue and when it acts with virtue it acts in a way that you will actually be able to make true spiritual and intellectual progress one of the reasons why we have some I mean again people in this time right you have some of the smartest people in this time literally devoting their lives to figuring out how to like get more money from ad revenue that's just an example right because the intellect has been fed and I mean you know I'm definitely you know caught up in this right like I work in tech I totally get it but the intellect has been fed this idea that our brains are supposed to be used to make money only and to help somebody else make money and to further that cause right but the intellect is meant to be used for far more than that it's supposed meant to be used to discover to think about things to help other people there are many uses of the intellect but patience will is a force of the intellect and so I you know I kind of digress a little bit but the reason I'm mentioning that is because it will help you and I stay away from the things that we are not supposed to do if the intellect is in the right state and if patience is something that you are grounded in and then the third category is patience when you suffer difficulties this is the kind of more widely spoken about category we're going to touch upon this so Allah says he says that he's going to test us he says Allah says he is going to test us with some portion of difficulty of calamities of loss of life of loss of wealth and a few other things and he says glad tidings to the people of patience those who say when calamity strikes we belong to Allah and to him we are returning we are returning to him literally in every moment one moment that goes and the next that comes for that moment that's gone that's a moment that we have that part of us has returned that part of us has literally died so you can think about it from an active point of view as well you and I are actively returning to God right hopefully we're return we are trying to return and turn to God in our own way by getting near to him and trying to ask him for toba and repentance and making dua to him but in a very very real way every moment that passes a portion of us goes and then the next moment comes and a portion of us goes and we can't get that back so you and I literally belong to Allah and to him we're going to return and so why that's the people of patience they know that and they say okay it's in Allah's hands and then Allah says upon them upon such people will be the blessings from their Lord and mercy and they are the rightly guided so you and I will get a certain portion of blessings and a certain mercy from Allah inshaAllah and a certain type of right guidance if we remain steadfast and we remain patient it's very very important and so we have to try to seek out these blessings and seek out this special mercy so think about it Allah is the one who assists you in being patient in the first place he gives you the ability it's the blessing from him because so many of us things go wrong and we lose it but Allah if he blesses somebody he gives them the tofiq he inspires within them this trait and he builds it within them then he's going to give you a certain type of extra assistance a flow a madad a nafahat a spiritual breeze that pushes you along the path keeps you firmly grounded keeps you patient and keeps you going rather than letting the patient the difficulty get to the point of depression and then God forbid to leave this world to commit suicide or something or rather than let the difficulty get so so much where you just completely lose it on other people whatever it is Allah is the one who gives patience and it is a form of his mercy inshallah so it's it's so important anything we want right in the world right if somebody wants to like get into a good college you got to be patient you got to work hard you got to study you got to like you know wake up early sometimes you're sleeping late sometimes you're just you know studying all weekend you have to work hard somebody wants a good job they have to do interview prep they have to be working they have to be you know preparing their resume all these types of things if somebody wants to raise a family raise virtuous children right they're constantly sacrificing if we think about the sacrifice that our that our parents made frankly just raising children in and of itself so much sacrifice so much patience is needed right you have to be always thinking about them and then be ready to sacrifice your own time in order to take care of them and so on and so forth all so that you can invest in them inshaAllah and that they can hopefully be a source of blessings and barakah for you so there's patience required and all these things good things come to those who wait good things will come to those who wait and so just like it's there in dunya it's for sure there in deen because no the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said paradise is surrounded with unpleasant things look paradise isn't surrounded with all ease in life and this this this concept I mean I have not fully grasped this it's very very difficult concept of grasp that going through a lot of difficulty is kind of like a rite of passage in order to get into paradise and we also Allah protect us but paradise is surrounded by difficult things in the sense that it requires patience everybody around us is doing this we're not going to do it everybody around us is engaging this type of behavior or we're not going to engage in it we we're the believer is tested especially in this life maybe other people are not being as tested we have to be patient people are talking back and saying this and we have to respond with kindness and with gentleness paradise is surrounded with unpleasant things they're not easy to do they're not pleasant they're not naturally pleasant to the to the nafs to the lower self but if you do that you will be able to clear that obstacle course and get there versus hell is surrounded with easy things I mean it's really easy to just like chill sleep all the time not pray just kick it you know if I if I'm feeling down go and you know get some drugs smoke them take this pill go get a drink from the liquor store drink the drink drink my problems away I mean that's it's not a good formula for for in the long term or even in the midterm but it's a very easy thing to do it doesn't require any patience it's it's it's a it's it's a pleasure of this world right and hell is surrounded by pleasures it's surrounded by easy things right oh I'm you know somebody's desires acting up they go on tinder and they think okay who's the next person I can get with or all these types of just obscene things that are possible in the time that we live require no patience hell is surrounded by easy things you and I have to be careful don't think that if things are quote unquote easy for us and we're engaged in all this haram that like that's a bad sign what is it what's it a sign of it's a sign that our path to haram is being facilitated for somebody who is in a protective state their path to haram will be cut off many times they will get major signs that will that will stop them from doing the haram but for somebody who's in a state where the more and more haram just keeps happening from you go from here to you know to to to this thing to this thing next thing you know nights out in Vegas and you know it's just all sorts of haram just keeps happening that's a very dangerous sign because it's a sign that our path towards what towards the wrong place is actually starting to become easier for us we want our path to heaven to be facilitated not our path to hell and so we have to really think about where we're at with patience and so let's talk about let's talk about some of the great the greatest messengers and how patient they were let's begin with when we're patient we're literally joining their club we're like joining this beautiful club of the messengers and may Allah be pleased with them and may peace and blessings be upon all of them of course we're not going to be be of them but we're taking right we're trying to attain a portion of their traits nooh aley salam the prophet nooh aley salam the prophet nooh aley salam was given uh was commanded to convey the message it was commanded to convey the message to his people to obey Allah and to be people of righteousness and to be people of virtue and you know he called them for a long time he didn't just call them for 50 years he didn't just convey the message for a hundred years right imagine a hundred years old and you're still conveying the message you're still doing dawah and they reject you I mean they rejected him for a hundred years they would reject and then not just 200 years he did it for 200 years and kept going and then he did it for literally 400 years and then 500 years he spent calling them and he kept going he called his people for 950 years he made dawah to them and most of them did not listen except just a few after 950 years is finally when the relief came when the flood happened when he had made the ark and and we know the rest of the story 950 years is what Prophet Noah went through and even though not a lot of people converted because of the efforts it's not about the results keep this in mind with our religion this is something that I'm saying first to myself first and foremost to myself it's about the effort it's not about the result this results oriented society that we live in it has a lot of pluses but one thing that we lose is we forget that it's about the intention and it's about the effort because the result is with Allah and Allah for sure recognize the result of his amazing messenger the Prophet Noah such that he's mentioned is one of the ul-al-azm one of the mighty messengers there's five mighty messengers Noah being the first of them then Ibrahim al-aslam Musa al-aslam Isa al-aslam and of course think about that 950 years so much just resolve what kind of resolve must you have to call people and to face their torment spend your life life devoted to it and they reject you reject you so much patience that you that he had to have and that's that's very easy to talk about it's very very difficult to do though takes resolve and so when we are going through a difficulty going through a challenge trying to call our family to Islam trying to bring people closer trying to call trying ourselves to get closer to Allah we have to put an effort it might it's not going to come in a day it's going to take a while inshaAllah it comes quick but it's going to take a while we have to be ready to wait it out another story the story of the Prophet Yusuf al-aslam if you haven't read the story of the Prophet Yusuf Yusuf al-aslam Prophet Joseph chapter 12 of the Qur'an I would highly encourage doing so especially in English it's very very very beautiful read and it's like a story once you start reading it you won't want to finish till you're done with the whole chapter so the Prophet Yusuf al-aslam he was he is the son of the Prophet Jacob al-aslam the Prophet Yaqub al-aslam who is the son of the Prophet Ishaq al-aslam who is the son of the Prophet Ibrahim al-aslam so the Prophet Yusuf al-aslam is the great grandson of the Prophet Ibrahim al-aslam so he and all these prophets in this chain went through a lot of tribulation and this is the chain that Bunny Israel the children of Israel come from so the Prophet Yusuf al-aslam he's he he's a prophet right and he's born into his family and his brothers they're jealous of him they know there's something special about him and his dad the Prophet the Prophet Yaqub al-aslam is giving some type of preference to him is from what they see and so they get very very jealous so early on in his life they take him to play and then they throw him literally they throw a boy a young boy into a well and first they were gonna kill him and then one of them decided no no no let's not kill him let's let the let's just like abandon him right and so they come back and they tell their dad like a wolf ate wolf ate their their brother and their dad obviously you know realizes they're lying he's a messenger of Allah al-aslam but the Prophet Yusuf al-aslam is now in this well as a boy now the first major lesson of patients we see is even as a boy he exhibits patience right because he's patient and trusting in Allah and the tafsir mentions that the the type of experiences that he had in the well then he gets picked up from the well and he's sold into slavery and he is in a state of patience there as well eventually he enters into like this household or like the other prince and the wife of the prince tries to seduce him because he's very beautiful he's one of the most handsome people ever created so beautiful as described in in in the Quran and the wife of the of the potafar of this prince tries to seduce him and so he has to be patient what again what do we talk about patients in not not committing sin so he's patient and not submitting to that right not submitting to this to this to this woman seducing him and then what happens the whole town is like talking about it so he has to be there's all these rumors going on about what happened this happened that happened and he's like he has to be patient through all these rumors that are being spread about what could have happened between the two even though he didn't engage in anything because he's a messenger of Allah he's a prophet so then what happens he's thrown into jail because of that situation and now this he goes he's in jail for a very long period of time and in the Qur'an he's described as being very patient in jail he's relying on Allah he's doing da'wah he's calling the people in the jail to Allah telling them how could you worship other than one God would you should worship one God he continues his mission even in the difficulty that's one thing one lesson we take from this right the second thing that we take from this is that he has multiple events where maybe he sees the opening coming right he's like finally I got out of this well and then he's sold in the slavery finally I get into a good home and then this thing happens finally the rumors calm down then he's thrown into jail multiple events of difficulty happen and this is the case for the messengers in the case the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said the messengers the prophets they are tested the most and then those closest to them and then those closest to them so what do we take from this that when things happen in life and they keep happening difficulty keeps coming that's not a bad thing inshallah if we're trusting in Allah and we believe in Allah the end is going to be good the opening will eventually come but sometimes you're squeezed the most just like the rock is squeezed significantly a lot of pressure is applied to the rock and then a beautiful diamond emerges right similarly sometimes the human being is squeezed a lot and then the beautiful traits emerge and then the beautiful opening comes for the prophet yusuf yusuf alayhi wa sallam after spending a lot of time in jail finally in jail comes this time where he's known to interpret dreams and the king at the time has this dream none of his advisors are able to interpret it and somebody who is in jail with prophet yusuf alayhi wa sallam says no I know somebody who can interpret the dream so yusuf alayhi wa sallam interprets the dream of the king and not only does he interpret the dream of the dream of the king but then he is given the command is like the chief economic minister of all of Egypt of all that area at the time because of the way he interpreted the dream and then he's able to apportion out the the food basically because the dream said there was going to be a portion of really good times and a portion of famine and so he's able to take care of all that and then eventually his brothers who threw him in the well at the end of the story they come from the far land to get food from the ministry right the storehouses that they have from the economic minister when the famine has happened and now here's yusuf alayhi wa sallam who the brothers threw in the well and now he's on top and what do most people are going to do on top they're going to take out the person who messed with them he doesn't do that he sees his brothers and he sees them to come but they don't recognize him of course and eventually the story ends and he forgives his brothers and he reunites with his father he reunites with his mother and his father's story of patience yakuub alayhi wa sallam story of patience is also amazing because he's there waiting this whole time patient for decades about where yusuf alayhi wa sallam went being patient patient patient saying he says at some point that I have a beautiful I will have sabr and jamil that I will have a beautiful patience and Allah is the one who is going to provide and protect and just be the one who I'm relying on really think about that but the relief eventually came it came for yakuub alayhi wa sallam he was reunited with his beloved son and it came for yusuf alayhi wa sallam that he was not only reunited with his family but he was given an amazing position in this town of in this country of Egypt in this dominion and he was relieved of the difficulty of being in jail and of course you know all the other amazing things that probably happened that during his lifetime after that event the opening comes but the patience you have to have in order for the opening to come so that's one thing we have to keep in mind as we go through difficulty it's not easy but the effort also has to be put in and we'll talk about that now so what do we have to do we need to examine ourselves think about it how are we during the day? start from the beginning of the day Bismillah start from the beginning of the day and then go through the end of the day and think about how many times you exhibit patience are you and I patient in the morning can we can we be patient through the difficulty of getting up for fudger? are we patient then throughout the day do we watch ourselves do we watch our interactions do we watch how much haram we're consuming right how patient are we with the tv with how much tv we're watching how patient are we I'm talking about not engaging in the sin that that can come from that when somebody says something bad to us when we hear about some rumor how patient are we and just keeping our mouth shut instead of backbiting and gossiping and just immediately oh did you hear what happened or I was here and then this happened and this person did this no no no no no that's not being patient patience is just not conveying every little thing you hear right how patient are we in these situations so how do we go about getting this this trait of patience and inshallah we'll end here that first is we realize the reward by the way if anybody has any questions please post them in the chat inshallah first we realize the reward so knowledge is the most important thing remember the reward of patience and that'll be the driving force to help you and I get this state of patience so remember Allah will give you an amazing reward He'll give you a reward without measure and then also keep in mind that whatever is going to happen is going to happen whether you're patient or not whether I'm patient or not that's really one of the one of the knowers of Allah they said know that if you have patience Allah's decree has been implemented and you will get rewarded for your patience whereas if you become agitated and don't have patience and have this torpedoity Allah's decree will still be implemented and then you won't get any reward and you'll bear the burden of your agitation right He said you'll bear the burden of your agitation you'll just feel angry and upset right think about it I mean what what different levels to be on Allah's decree is going to happen when you and I got to be patient through the decree and the first thing to remember is the reward that's going to happen and the reward that's going to come second thing is work on slowly disciplining the nafs right this is a process so we reduce the amount of pleasurable things we give the nafs if we're struggling with sleeping or if waking up for fudger we condition our nafs to say I'm not going to give you breakfast if you don't wake up for fudger imagine that there's so many people who don't wake up fudger but they feed their nafs to breakfast now if you told your nafs you don't get any breakfast if you don't wake up for fudger the nafs will wake up for fudger if it needs to eat just like the nafs will eventually start to do that right that's an example you slowly reduce what you give or if the nafs misses something you don't give it any dessert for a whole month or anything it likes for a while that's the type of discipline this is a process we have to be engaged with right then we add in more and more spiritual work so we reduce the amount of pleasure and then we add in the spiritual work so once we start getting there right okay if we don't if you don't wake up or if you don't pray I'm going to make you do 50 raka of nafil because of what you missed right okay the nafs isn't going to want to do that it'd rather pray two raka than 50 raka so add in more and more to to to to build this this muscle of patience right and then slowly once you get your basic our foundations down add in more spiritual work it actually builds the ability to patient the more thicker one does the more nafafil prayer one does the more quran one does the more overall all the types of worship that we do more knowledge we gain the more patience we build up and then third is learn to deal with the difficulty when it comes and when the calamity first strikes so just condition yourself and speak to yourself patience is not passive my wife was telling me this earlier she said patience is not a passive trait it is an active it's active you have to actively be engaged you might not be patient you sorry you might not be engaged in a way people can see but you are engaged in the inner world you are engaged I can do this I'm going to resist the difficulty I'm going to resist this I'm going to resist that if you're sick you're patient in one way but you're still actively engaged in seeing the doctor and you're patient by trying to just be patient with the decree right patience is not passive it doesn't mean I just sit here and just let everything happen and don't do anything no I'm doing things but I'm remaining content inwardly and I'm doing what I can but I'm leaving the restaurant Allah that's the main thing it's realizing you and I are not in control and then the third thing to remember we realize the reward first we slowly discipline the nafs and we realize the opening is coming this will give us immense relief that Allah will lift you and I from the difficulty and he will make things easy inshallah just it's guaranteed it's in his book it's in it's in it's guaranteed inshallah fa'innama al-usri yusra with every hardship comes ease fa'innama al-usri yusra with every hardship comes ease don't forsake the mercy of your Lord don't think that the opening won't come the opening will come inshallah the door will open inshallah the more patient you and I are the more big the bigger the opening is going to be inshallah the more reward we're going to get in the next life and inshallah even in this life there is an immense opening coming there is an immense ease coming and all we can do is hope and dream and pray and think about it and if it helps you get through it think about it pray on it hope in Allah's mercy but don't ever ever let the difficulty or let the difficulty of being obedient or let the difficulty of staying away from the sin get to you try to be firm be a person of firmness be a person of resolve and when you and I mess up just turn back to your Lord be like the people who are always returning and who are excellent in repentance and remember that you and I can attain a state where inshallah Allah is pleased with us but we first have to be pleased with Him and one of the best ways to be pleased with Him is to acquire this state of patience one of the mother virtues inshallah we ask that Allah make us people of patience that He give us the victories of patience in this blessed month that we are getting that He give us the ability to be patient in these difficult times that we are in that He make give immense opening immense relief to all of the people who are suffering through any disease through coronavirus through any difficulty through financial difficulty that there are people who who are passing away all throughout the world that He anybody who is family member has passed away that He make their graves illumined and that He grant them access and to do another for those who are atla with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and that Allah ya'al hamaraahimin give us nearness to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in this time and give us nearness to His to His inheritors in this time ya'al abl alaymin and give us an amazing love for the Prophet sallallahu alayni wa sallam in this blessed month of Rabi al-awwal allow us to attain from the people who attain the most out of this blessed month of Rabi al-awwal and give us tahimah and give us ya'al hamaraahimin the ability to be people of patience and give us the ability to be people of firmness and of steadfastness wa sallallahu wa sallam mubarak ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam walhamdulillahi rabbil al-alamin al-Fatiha Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim Al-Rahmanir Rahim Al-Rahmanir Rahim Al-Rahmanir Rahim Ameen, Ameen, Ameen Ameen, Jazakuma al-dakheir I just see real quick if there's any questions Apologize, I'm just checking and otherwise we will end Alhamdulillahi No questions May Allah bless all of you and may He give you a wonderful week and make this these times easy for you to talk about As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi Keep us in your Dua