Welcome to this wonderful class. I'm really excited for this class. I wanted to actually begin first by sharing a du'a for studying something that I'm endeavoring. It's one of my goals this Ramadan that I've memorized this du'a. So I figured, inshallah, I can share it here with all of you as well. So I'm going to quickly screen share. And I just have this image here for us to read from. And I encourage all of you to, if you can, you can actually purchase this if you want from the Zaituna College bookstore. But it's a really beautiful du'a that I think all of us, we're all students of knowledge. Hopefully, we all see ourselves as lifelong learners and students of knowledge that we are mindful to really call on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, even when we're in spaces like this, learning from each other, inshallah. So, Alhamdulillah, you could see here the meaning of this du'a. Beautiful. And it really, I think, puts us all, it puts me, inshallah, all of us in a state of humility where we are really asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make this path of studying His Deen easy and give us Tawfir and to make us sincere, inshallah. So again, you can get this. It's a really beautiful poster. You can get it from Zaituna College. But I do encourage you to memorize it. And if you want to take a quick screenshot of it for now, you can do that. You can also do a Google search for it. Just do a supplication for studying Zaituna College, and you'll see this image, inshallah. So with that said, I'm going to now share the document that I really am excited to read with all of you.  And I think that's precisely why our teachers, Mashallah, translated it and it taught us to study it because they wanted us to benefit from the saints of our tradition who just had so much insight and really helped to help us to navigate our path even now, centuries later. I mean, it's just amazing. So actually, I'm so sorry. If you give me a moment, I have a, I apologize, one second. I have some noise coming from the back. Sorry, my husband and sons are assembling something. And I think they forgot I had class. I just let them know. Thank you. All right. So I come to do that. Where is my, I'm sorry, I'm looking for my notes here. Oh, yeah, I just wanted to do a quick biography. Some of me wonder what, you know, if I hope you got the PDF, I know it was sent, the PDF of the document. But if you're not familiar with Houssi Ahmad Zarruq is his biography is really powerful too, just knowing who he is. He's a 15th century scholar from Morocco, Fais Morocco, to be specific. He has different titles, Ahmad Zarruq, Imam Azzarruq, Shihab, Addeen, Abu al-Abbas, Ahmad bin Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Isa al-Barnousi al-Fasih. That's the long name, masha'Allah, that he was given. But he was born in Morocco. And he has, again, many beautiful titles. One of his titles is Muhtaseb al-Olema al-Odiya, which is the regulator of the scholars and saints. And he really just as a spiritual master and gave us so many, you know, gems from the different texts that he's also produced. But his life story is actually also fascinating, because he was orphaned when he was young. And he was actually raised by his maternal grandmother, who was also a scholarly woman in her own right. Her name was Umal Banin. And if you read some of the stories that he shares about her and how she would teach him really beautiful ways of teaching Islam to children, you know, he mentions in one of his, in his autobiography, he mentions one of his texts, or one of the stories. He says that she told me that one night when I was two years old, I looked at a star and asked her who put it in the sky. And then she explained to me the duty of belief in that matter. She used to tell me anecdotes about the righteous and the reliant ones. And when she told me stories, she never told me anything except about the Prophet's miracles and the wonderful miracles of the devout. She also used to order me to pray even without performing the ablution. And when my maternal aunt once blamed her for this, she said, let him do so until he prays performing it.  They didn't have much, but she would hide food throughout the house and then tell him to supplicate with her and that maybe Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala would put food somewhere.  And then they would find it and she would remind him to thank Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So he has all of these beautiful memories from his grandmother, teaching him Dean, putting him on the path of scholarship. He taught, she taught him how to pray.  So he really gives a lot of credit to her for, for his path. And I think that's just really beautiful for us to also remember that many of our scholars, they had, you know, mothers, grandmothers, motherly women figures who were very much a part of their journey of Islam. And I think that should incentivize all of us to really take the path of studying knowledge seriously and to be passionate about it and not to act as though it's the domain of exclusively men. Because certainly that's just not the case at all. But I really love that he attributes so much of his success to his grandmother. So much all there's a lot more to share about him and there are biographies available. But just in the interest of time, because this is a one hour class, I wanted to go ahead and share with you now the PDF. And you also hopefully all of you have that PDF. But let me go ahead and screen share here so that we can read it together. Now, I love this text is because it is a roadmap and it's just so beautifully organized, which also really impresses me because I'm looking at, you know, 15th century, the fact that, you know, him and men, even Imam Al Ghazali and other scholars, I noticed that they had the foresight to, you know, to put their teachings or to structure their teachings in a way that was really digestible to the reader in this, you know, like bulleted point way of structuring, you know, everything they taught. And I've always thought that was so fascinating because, you know, it's you would think, you know, I think for in the way that we're educated now, that's common, but I just wouldn't know or I didn't, I guess, think that, you know, people back then thought to do things like that, to actually organize like their teachings in this way.  So I thought they were more interested in just actually documenting and putting it all together, but to actually structure it in this way. I think it's really amazing too. But so he starts off basically, and we can just read this together and then provide commentary, inshallah. But, you know, he starts off and he says, if anyone has asked about the foundation of his or her spiritual path, he should reply. And then he gives us the five foundations and each one of them, we could spend an entire session on really talking about, but we're going to again, try to go through this, navigate this text together.  And you finally come to that point in life where you really want to embrace your faith, inshallah, we're all there. Then you need to, these are the goals. These are the objectives and these are the foundations. And so then, so let's, let's read through them. So he starts off and he tells us first that taqwa, right, that the most essential prerequisite of being on a spiritual path is that you, that we are mindful of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And you'll notice this as we read, continue to read that he puts these, these caveats or disclaimers that because, you know, that's pretty understood. It's kind of like, okay, I understand taqwa. We're all taught that. But what I love is that he, you know, he, he mentions here, and I'm sorry, let me just quickly zoom into this text to make sure you guys can all read along with me. It's clear for me, but I realize now that it might not be for you. Okay, Bismillah. So he says here, he puts the condition here. This is a conditional statement, right? So it's mindfulness of Allah, but how privately and publicly. And I think that's really important for us to reflect on because, you know, it's easy if you think about it because social pressure.  And so it's easy when we're in social settings to play the part, right? We may behave actually even more religiously or more mindful of our behavior, of our words, of our language, the way that the topics that we talk about because we're in public settings and we don't want obviously the consequences of maybe unveiling certain parts of ourselves. And so we put on the persona or, you know, that and we all do it to a certain degree. But we have that nature, right? Of doing that.  They're very convincing and that they show up, they come to the same spaces, and they perform or they appear to perform the same, you know, rituals that we do. But it's really about the hearts and the true essence of a person's faith is known when they are alone. And I think that was really, again, it's when we say it now, as I'm saying it, I feel like it seems so obvious, some of these things, these insights, but I think to point it out and to make mention of it, leaves really no room for doubt or question that this is exactly what we want. We want to have this degree of Taqwa where when we are alone by ourselves, that's when we are truly mindful of Allah's power. So it's not just that we play a part, but that we're actually sincere. And so that's many of our scholars say that that in fact is, you know, an indication or if you want to know your state with God, and you want to know where you are, then you have to pay attention to what you're doing by yourself. So when you're alone, no one else is around. There's no way for people to see you do, you know, observe you. How are you using your time? What are you engaged with? And that is really an indication of your state. And then in terms of, you know, the broader meaning of Taqwa, there are so many definitions. And, you know, there are technical definitions actually in this book, where the foundations of the spiritual path was first printed for my understanding in English was in the book Agenda to Change Our Conditions. So if you don't have this text, this is actually a wonderful text as well, because it is really about doing what, you know, this text also discusses, which is changing. And, you know, coming to a point where you really want to start to practice your faith with sincerity. So they have the first entire chapter is on the definition of Taqwa and the benefits. And so, you know, there's different scholars who gave their own interpretations of what Taqwa means, but I'll just read briefly here. So see the other, what had been Ashab defines Taqwa as follows. The summation of Taqwa is avoiding prohibitions and fulfilling injunctions both inwardly and outwardly. And then in his book of definitions, Imam of Jorjani defines it accordingly. Linguistically, it means to ward off. In other words, it is to take precaution. According to the scholars of truth, it is to protect oneself from the punishment of Allah by obedience to him. And it is to guard the self from Allah's punishment due to an omission of a right action or commission of a wrong action. What is intended in ones of the hands is sincerity. And Ibn Ashab says that there's four aspects to Taqwa. And he says that first, it's fulfilling obligations outwardly, fulfilling obligations inwardly, avoiding prohibitions outwardly and avoiding prohibitions inwardly. So it's interesting again here is that even within the way that Taqwa is defined, this condition is necessary, right? That we are mindful inwardly, outwardly, publicly, privately, all these conditions are embedded even in the concept of Taqwa itself. So that's just again speaks to, you know, what your level of sincerity really is. Because we can all say on our tongues that we fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that we really are mindful of him and that we, you know, are want to obey him. But the proof, as they say, is in the putting or in the actions, right? And so that is determined both privately and publicly. So that's the very first foundation. So we have to commit to that. And that's where I think, obviously, Alhamdulillah, the month of Ramadan is a great time of spiritual reset for many of us, all of us, hopefully, for us to really come to terms with whether or not we're truly sincere. And so there's a lot of time where we're alone. And maybe we're not in our normal routines, because I know, you know, people take time off work. And usually there's adjustments made in our schedules for this last month. But we might find that we have a lot more time on our hands now that we're not eating and drinking and socializing and going out and meeting friends and meeting family. So what are we doing? You know, what are we doing? And so this is being the very first point is something that we should all really take inventory of ourselves and our actions and where we have been over the course of our lives and whether or not we can objectively and truthfully say that when we are alone, we are displaying Kaplah. And I think that's a question we all have to ask for ourselves. Like when we are by ourselves, are we mindful of our Lord or are we distracted? And then the next question obviously would be if we're distracted, what are we distracted by? And that's when we get to, you know, the practical steps of changing course, right? Because if we're not here yet, then inshallah, that's where we should be. And so we'll get to that later. But the next, you know, point of the five, right? The next one he mentions is adherence to the sunnah in word and deed. Again, you'll see it's a conditional statement. So, you know, it's very easy for some of us. I mean, I don't, you know, I was looking at, I have, I recently moved. And so I have a lot of books in boxes still. And I was looking through some of my boxes and looking through some of my books. And I realized, yallah, may Allah be gentle with us and not take us to account for all of the things that we're not acting upon, right? Because I'm just overwhelmed with how many books I have. And I love books. I just yesterday went to a bookstore because I had a little bit of time and I could spend a lot of time in bookstores because I love books. And I think a lot of us, you know, we may see ourselves like that. But then it's the acting upon the knowledge that we read or learn that is really important.  So knowing his sunnah, right? Many people know his stories. Many people, many of us have sat in classes. We've read his seerah. We've listened to lectures on his seerah. You know, we've even taught our children or other children, maybe, but we have definitely engaged with the sunnah on an intellectual level, right? And I think people, Marshall, I'm always impressed.  They know so many details. But again, the true mark of taqwa or of whether or not you're doing this right is, are you acting upon the sunnah? Because it makes very little difference if you have all of that knowledge. But then in your actions, you're nowhere near trying to at least embody the Prophet's life set up. I mean, obviously, he's perfect. He's complete. He's our exemplar. And we may never achieve that level, but it's the effort that we're looking for. So if we're not even striving towards really changing our customs, our ways, and to adopt his ways, and that's a deficiency that we need to contend with and ask why. And this is where it takes a lot of self reflection and knowledge. You have to have knowledge of yourself in order to know what you're working with, right? So that's baseline.  And so that is going to require a lot of internal spiritual work and self development. You're going to have to face your blemishes. We all have them. We're all completely riddled with spiritual diseases and shortcomings and character flaws and vices, bad habits. We all have them. But again, when we say adherence to the sunnah and word indeed, it's being so aware of those things that you want to transform. And then you have obviously the example to model yourself after. So you're learning the sunnah for the provisional sunnah and it should fill your heart with pride and love and joy for him because that's also part of our faith that we love him more than we love ourselves. We should do that. But the actual true example or manifestation of that love comes from adopting his sunnah and really ridding ourselves of anything that goes against his sunnah, certainly that. And then the other things that we have to modify and change and refine over time, we do it with the need to try to be as much like him as we possibly can. So again, that's foundational. These are all the, you know, as, as, you know, the example goes of a structure, of any structure.  So that's what we're talking about here. This is what, these are the prerequisites that we need in order to then beautify our faith, right? The process that Imam al-Ghazali refers to as the three steps, right? Of tahalli, tahalli and tajalli. This is where we empty the, the, the nefs of disease and all these bad habits. And then we, you know, start to grow in our understanding and knowledge and beautify. And then we really aspire to be our, the highest forms that we can be. So it's, it's a process, but this is what's required to even get there. And that's why I think it's so needed right now. We need to really understand this, this roadmap that he's laid out for us. So adherence to the sunnah word indeed, making sure that we know the process that is the way, and then we're also modeling that. So the way again, we walk, the way we talk, the way we eat, the way we dress, the way we deal with other people, the way our transactions with human beings. What, how is it? Am I just defaulting to my personality or the way that my family raised me, even if it's against, you know, the sunnah and I'm comfortable in that. And I don't really want to change. Those are the types of questions that we have to again contend with when we look at this point of, of making sure that our outward match matches our inward understanding, our outward behavior. So then the third foundation, right? Indifference to whether others accept or reject one. And I love this point again, because it's so relevant, especially in today's day and age, when people, I think most of us, if not all of us, are so affected by, again, the social pressure, right? The social pressure can take over in many cases. And a lot of our motivations, sometimes all the blah, are not for the sake of Allah. Our intentions are not for the sake of Allah. They are for trying to, you know, either ingratiate or, or, you know, enter certain circles, be accepted by certain people, or that we have a fear of being rejected. And so when we let social pressure dictate our behavior, and we're not really dealing, we're not on, you know, we're not facing our intentions or purifying our intentions, then that can compromise our good actions. And this is why, you know, further study of the spiritual diseases of the heart is so essential, because when you realize so many of the spiritual diseases actually have to do with intention, it has to do with the starting point of your actions, then it, and this makes a lot of sense. So being indifferent to other, others accept or reject one is, is, it's a, again, it takes a lot of internal work because we have to overcome insecurities. And when you're dealing with real life, you know, situations, people have trauma from their family backgrounds in, you know, things growing up, maybe they're in relationships where they're not supported, they're not really encouraged, they don't have a lot of positive influencers. And I use that word very carefully because I'm not talking about that word in the context of social media, but like people in your life that are really positive people. And it's sad, but a lot of people don't have positive people in their life. They have people who are detractors, or as you know, they say haters, a lot of the negative energy people who tend to be more critical than positive. So what that can do for anyone, and especially if you, you know, really go back into a person's history and their, and their upbringing and their childhood, this is how we, it's a breeding ground, right, for becoming more consumed with people pleasing, because we're looking for love, we're looking for validation. So you have, you know, people and a lot of people, this is what's, what's happened to them, maybe they didn't get the love and validation from their, their parents, or their other, you know, caretakers, or maybe, as I said, they had too much negativity. And so there was just this need for, for praise or acceptance that began at such an early age, and then it was never really resolved and that continues into adulthood. But you can see how that can spiritually compromise you if you're not dealing with those things. So really working internally to face your insecurities is really important. And then to, to kind of step back and, and start to really address how people, no matter how much they, you know, goodwill they may have toward you, they don't benefit you. And that I think was, for me personally anyway, a very big realization, you know, that there are a lot of things that people do for us and a lot of good that comes from human beings. But at the end of the day, of the day, they are the seba, the means, right? The, the, the, the one who is providing those blessings and gifts, even the words that people share, compliments, kind words, dua, it's all goes back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, because every good goes back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, every good. And so, and that doesn't mean that we don't acknowledge the good of people. That's certainly not what I'm saying, because we are taught to acknowledge the good people do for us, the kind words of support. But it's more about the metaphysical lens, right? Because you can see the world from a very worldly perspective, like, you know, just like, as they say, horizontally, what's happening. So you talk to people, you're engaging with people. And so you can just leave it at that level.   And so if, because for example, I'll give you an example, I've had, you know, I've given talks and have been up for a long time now. And, or I've written posts, sometimes my Facebook posts or my Instagram posts, I can't tell you, I have no way of even quantifying it. How many times I've had people come up to me and say, Jazakul Khiddin, I read your post, or I heard this, and I feel like you were speaking exactly to my problem, like, exactly everything I needed to hear. I needed to hear this today. I get that sometimes almost, you know, on all my posts, I've seen some comment like that, or someone will give a feedback like that. And to me, that's just subhanAllah.  That's Allah SWT just working through His creation. I don't, I believe truly in that. And I really believe that that person, Allah SWT is communicating, you know, to them directly. And so, you know, it's just an important lens to have. And it really does help you to rid yourself when you can start to think in that way of the need for human validation. Like, you don't look for it anymore, because you're just like, no matter what, it's not them. It's Allah SWT. So whether He, you know, sends those positive messages through people's words or actions, or it's manifest in the blessings that I cannot enumerate. We cannot, we can never, I mean, I really think about this sometimes, and I'm like, subhanAllah, it's overwhelming.  It's happened to me several times before, where I feel, I don't even know how to, like, what is happening? Is it a physiological visceral reaction to the process? Is it a mental spiritual? I don't know. I don't know. But I feel this, like, it's this overwhelming feeling. And all these things are emotions are coming to the surface. And I actually have to, in a way, slow down, because I can see myself if I were to continue. I don't know, maybe it would turn into something that I don't know how to, I wouldn't know how to control, because, you know, sometimes these emotional states can arise out of these exercises. So I felt that before, because I'm like, Ya Allah, it's just never ending. And what I appreciate about, you know, our teachers, Alhamdulillah, I remember years ago, like something that I never, it never occurred to me in my entire life to think of was something that, you know, Shahamza had mentioned many, many years ago, one of his classes, I don't know what, but he was talking about this positive gratitude to Allah and how much we should be doing this. And he said, you know, think about like your eyelashes. And, you know, that kind of just, you know, started like this domino effect of thoughts that were out. I was like, yeah, because he was talking about like the blessing of eyelashes. And I was like, yeah, I've never once prior to that moment in time, ever said thank you Allah for giving me eyelashes. But then when he, you know, went on to describe the immense benefit of how eyelashes protect us.  And so that also affects their ability to be out in public. Because can you imagine, Allah protect all of us. But if you don't have certain means to protect your, you know, your most important faculties, it would be very uncomfortable, right.  So that was just a really interesting observation. But you see, if we're not thinking of these things, then we may never even get to that point of reflection, right. If we're not thinking that there's just too many things to be grateful for. So once you start living in that way where you are seeing the Munim, right, the one who is the one who blesses us or the source of all blessings, when all of your thoughts start to go back to him, that's when you break free from the shackles of needing constant human validation. And so this third point of being indifferent. So when people come and they compliment you that it doesn't affect your heart, where you are excited for that, you know, you may be like, Alhamdulillah. And that should really be the response that you have internally, outwardly, Alhamdulillah. And you mean it, like it's all from Allah.  So how do you do it properly? Well, you give credit where it's due. And so we always, we should always accept compliments because their recognition of blessings that Allah has given you.  So someone says something nice about you, you don't need to, you know, go to that extreme of wanting to show so much humility that you actually start to negate the attribute itself or the blessing itself. We don't want to do that. No, no, no, no, don't say that. That's all true. We shouldn't do that. If people make observations to say Alhamdulillah, because that is Haqq. That's Haqq. We didn't do anything to warrant the compliment to ourselves, to take, to attribute that to ourselves. No, nobody's done anything. Like all of it comes from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala.  No part of that can you truthfully and honestly say was from you alone. It's entirely by Allah's permission and his gifts for you that you were able to do those things. So that's what this is about. Getting to that point, if I just don't really feel moved, either way, by whether or not people accept me or reject me, because my only concern is Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. And it takes a lot of, again, real deliberation to get to that point. But inshallah, we all get there, because we're living in a time where I think, especially with social media, and now the pressure of the political environment that we're in, where there's just a lot of suppression of our true values and beliefs because of fear. There's a fear that I'm going to be judged or canceled or somehow I'll get this thing taken away from you, from me. And that's where I think, unfortunately, a lot of things have, it's fostered a lot of harm in our world when people just silently acquiesce and we don't really speak up or speak the truth. And not, you know, not our truth, as they say, nowadays, where everybody has their own truth. We're talking about truth, like speaking the truth. And of course, there's a way to do that. We have guidance on how to give, for example, nasiha or how to speak truth, as they say, to power. There's always guidance on these things. But the point is, is not allowing the fear or the desire to be accepted by people or the fear of rejection dictate. And that is, again, foundation. Also, it's like inshallah, you can see, and I don't mean to overwhelm anybody, but if this is the foundation of our faith, then you can imagine how beautiful and how much more is involved when we start to build upon that foundation. But if these are, this is what our scholars are calling us to the best versions of ourselves. So they're really helping us to, you know, to cleanse these, these impurities from our soul, inshallah. So that's the third point. And the fourth point we have is contentment with Allah in times of both hardship and ease. And again, so beautiful because this is in, you know, in, in today's world, it's very easy to worship Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala when things are difficult because it's a coping mechanism sometimes, which is good. I mean, there's nothing necessarily wrong with turning to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. But I think a lot of us may naturally do that, right? And you can see that when a tragedy hits, people usually turn to their, to their spiritual, you know, practice or faith or whatever it is, you know, I'm speaking generally as a human beings, right? If they have that, if they have faith. But the fact that he's put, again, this condition here, contentment, having ridah with Allah, when things are difficult to not just, I'm sorry, when things are difficult, but also when they're with ease. Because, you know, to be, and I'm sorry, I think I'm actually, I'm switching the two here. So I apologize. Let me, let me backtrack. So the first, this point is about contentment. So it's having pleasure with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala being content with Allah during hardship and ease, right? And that's difficult because it's easy to be happy with Allah, when things are going well, right?  I mean, you would expect nothing less than for you to be grateful and to be in a good state with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So that's kind of obvious. But what about when he withholds something? What about when you are put through a difficulty? Are you just as content? And that's the really good question here. And it's very much tied with the last point here, which is the kind of our, you know, you can, you can go between them to their interchangeable. But the idea is consistency, right?   And as long as he's doing that, like your prayers are being answered, your dreams are being fulfilled, your desires are being fulfilled, that you're happy with him.  Those are the types of things that I think, again, we have to be really addressed within ourselves. Do I do that? Do I feel constriction toward Allah, where I'm just not, I don't, I don't feel as open and as full of love, because now I'm going through something hard? Or is it consistent? Because I realize that all of it is good as the process I'm taught us, right? Alhamdulillah, ala kulli hal. Like that level of awareness, again, these are things that we're all hopefully aspiring to. But to see it all from him, that whether it's a tribulation in my personal life or hayr, there's openings, it's all from Allah. And there's lessons that I'm supposed to glean from these events, instead of just wallowing or falling into a state of, again, distrust or disease. And I start to, you know, question things. And that's, you know, these this is where paying attention to our thoughts, making sure that we have really good people around us who can help us. Because Iblis, obviously, that's the other part of this. He will see us in those vulnerable states. And, you know, he will magnify the hardships and minimize the blessings so that we start to fall into these really negative states.  And this is why learning, for example, the story of Prophet Ayyub alaihi salam and other prophets is so important, because they give us that perspective. Like, they lived years of abundance and joy and hayr. And so when the hardships came, they weren't suddenly, you know, having a crisis and fades, they were totally accepting that this is from the same source. And so that's how we can contend with, with whether or not we have ridah with Allah consistently. And then the last point, again, is very much tied, but it's really about action, right? Like, what is, what is our protocol? So when you're in a state of prosperity that Allah has given you all these blessings, right? Are you continuously turning to Him? Are you getting up every night for your, you know, the hajj and your prayers, making sure you're doing them all on time as early as possible? Are you engaging with the Book of Allah swt?  Are you doing that in times of prosperity? Or, as I was saying earlier, is it something that you do naturally or reflexively when things are, you know, when you're scared? There's a fear element, right? We go into panic mode. And we saw a lot of this, for example, during COVID, you know, you can just think back on the fear that took over so many people, many people found faith, right? That they didn't have before, which is Alhamdulillah good, guidance any which way is good, right? But it's about, you know, consistency, that if we're not, if we're, if we only, and I remember like, it was like an ongoing kind of joke when I was in school or college. But finals week was the time where everybody was suddenly super religious, you know, because we're, we're all worried that, oh, you know, we want to get the best grades. So people started to pray and somewhat even fast and they were very serious because they were scared that, you know, I need, I need to do well. And so I have to turn to God right now. But then as soon as they got, you know, the results, then they weren't doing the same. So that's the problem with, you know, the mind that doesn't understand that really, and if you look at all five of these points, the message that I hope should be very clear to all of us is it's really about consistency.  Consistency is again, I mean, it's one of the, one of the many beautiful virtues of the prophecy that we also need to, to be aware of that he didn't have these these dual sides. He was a very consistent person. And that that's not to say that he didn't have his private life with his, you know, family more intimately than when he was in social, in social settings, of course, that's just natural. But we're talking about character, we're talking about, you know, one's lived experience being aligned with their faith regardless of people, right, regardless of, of who's watching who's around. And I think it takes a great deal of practice, inshallah, to get there and may Allah give us all the food to get there. But again, what I love about this, you know, road map that Saddam al-Zarif has put out is he's laying it for us. He's given us the tools, he's given it to us the criteria for what we need to really build upon. And so there's so much to explore with this. And there's a lot more to be said and shared. But let's read from this paragraph. And then we can maybe stop if there's some time for Q&A. Here's this paragraph that follows right at the bottom. It says, the realization of mindfulness of Allah is through scrupulousness and uprightness. So now he's giving us the practicum, right? Like, how do we actually do this? So if you want to have true taqwa of Allah, you have to be mindful of it. You have to be thinking of it. And every moment you really can, if you try hard enough, you look at what you're doing in the moment and we can maybe go through some exercises where we do this, but just how you can train your mind to create a little trail that goes back to Allah. It's not difficult. It's actually easy to do. And I've kind of in my own life forced that process because I wanted to try to do that. So at every moment, I'll try to find something. I mean, obviously, I'm not perfect. I definitely fall short. But it's something that if we're deliberate about inshallah, we can do more than not doing it at all. So being mindful of Allah is through scrupulousness and uprightness. Again, just being aware of oneself, being upright, having the understanding of what good character is and all of the virtuous behaviors that we should be embodying as Muslims, just following the sunnah, the prophesy sunnah, which is the second point here. The realization of adherence to the sunnah is through caution and excellent character. The realization of indifference to others, acceptance or rejection is through patience and trust in Allah. And that's really again beautiful that we, because people will disappoint us, people will hurt us. So I think the more we learn to lower our expectations of the creation of Allah, then the more we will increase our expectation of the Creator. And that's really comes through patience and just tawakal, you know, just trust, putting our confidence in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, right? If you're grateful, I'll increase you. So knowing that the gifts are coming, and then anindithani abdibi, all of these beautiful, you know, teachings and principles of our faith that Allah swt is incentivizing us with, right? That if you, I am in the opinion of my servant, so just be mindful, but have the best opinion of Allah and He will show you in due time. And then the realization of contentment is through acceptance to what one is given and turning over the management of one's affairs to Allah. So, you know, again, it's a station to get to this point of really being content with Allah and people are going to, we're all going to go through different struggles in our lives, where this lesson may be really the point to make sure that we're getting this lesson that maybe, for example, again, something may be withheld from us for some period of time. We may be in that limbo of uncertainty, which is very difficult if you've ever been there before. If you don't know if something is going to unfold a certain way, whether it's with your health or a personal, you know, your personal relationships, it's very difficult to be patient, but to surrender or to, you know, to turn over one's affairs to Allah swt that is so beautiful, right? It's just such a beautiful concept that Allah, I'm incapable. I have no way of seeing this through. I can't see the future. I don't know what's in my good. And that's why I sell out the list to Allah. It's such a gift for us because we are literally asking Allah swt to take over our affairs when we miss each other in that way. But it's such a gift because it's true and we are surrendering to our Creator. And that's what He loves to see. The more we surrender and show our confidence and faith in our Creator, the more content He is with us. And then it's, that's where, you know, in the Ma'ala Suryaustra, in the Ma'ala Suryaustra, you know, that the ease will come after the difficulty. But He sometimes puts us through certain trials to get to that level where we really have surrendered. So it's, inshallah, Ma'ala, give us all of that. I mean, give us all that ability to get there, inshallah. And then the realization of turning back to Allah is through praise and gratitude in times of prosperity and taking refuge in Him in times of affliction. Again, beautiful, because the more mindful we are of Him and just constantly, Alhamdulillah, you know, really being in that state of just abundant gratitude.  I mean, it's part of it. It's shukr al-lisan. So it's the gratitude of the tongue. But it has to be deeply rooted in the heart, right? So shukr al-al-qalb is really more important that you truly feel grateful to Allah, you know, that it's not just something you're saying. But, you know, a good exercise would be the next time someone does something for you, catch yourself, because sometimes we'll say, thank you so much. And we say it because it's that social etiquette.  But how many of us take a moment and think about that? Like, I'll tell you just on Friday, I mean, I'll just thought about it right now. On Friday, I was teaching. I teach Alhamdulillah at a wonderful school at North Star, which is here in the Bay Area. Alhamdulillah. And many of our Rahmah founders and teachers are part of that school as well. Make da'a please for the success of the school and all the students and families. But I was teaching there Alhamdulillah. And just at the end of the class, right when we're all about to leave, one of my lovely students comes and she hands me, let me see if I can get it for you. I think I have it. She hands me this beautiful bag. And first of all, this bag, oh, I don't know if you can see it, not probably because I have a filter.  There you can see it. She gives me this beautiful bag. And I, if you, if you know me, I love this Zilej print. I have a lot of things in my house with this print. So I, and her mother actually, Mashallah is the one who put this gift together. So she knows my love for her, but I think she, anyway, she gave Mashallah gifts to the teachers and I was very fortunate to be counted among them. Although I don't work full time, but anyhow, so she gives me this gift. And I just was like so taken aback not because I was surprised at her giving me a gift. She's, they're a very beautiful family. But you know, I had been having one of those days, just feeling heavy. This is a heavy time for my family and I as it's, there's just a lot of things that happened in my, in our family. My father's eight year passing anniversary will be in just a few days. My mother was Allah, and Allah, she was ill last year at this time. So I just been feeling very heavy thinking about them. And, you know, she didn't know that. And I was, you know, just teaching mode. But she gave me this gift and it just like hit me, you know, with like real, because it's Allah, right? He's the one who, who puts, you know, these, these thoughts, you could say in the minds of his creation, like, you know, we need people all the time.  And then they came without knowing at all that you were having a heavy day. And they gave you this beautiful gift and it's got so many wonderful things in it. And they had no idea that they were going to make such an impact on your heart. But when you step back and you say, that's Allah, right? He's working through his creation. That's the shukr al qal. That's what we should be aiming for, like that degree of thank you, Allah. You see us. And you remove pain in this way. You know, so that's where the gratitude moves from the tongue to the, it's in the heart. And then it's the actions that you do that follow, right? The door that you make for that family. You know, the well wishes that you wish for them. And then, inshallah, maybe you'll have the opportunity to gift them as well, right? The head of the habu. We should be giving gifts because it's going to increase love for, for one another. The Prophet s.a.w. taught us. So this is a real gratitude, right? That we have that awareness that Allah s.w. is always the one where every good that we have is from him. There's nowhere else that, you know, that, that you can attribute the good of your life. Nobody else, your parents. Yes, they're again, the means, but it's Allah who blessed you with those parents. So Alhamdulillah, being mindful in times of prosperity. And then when things happen, right? When, when calamities hit, which they will, that we immediately turn to Allah, that our first thought is, yeah, Allah. And I'll give you again an example.  So why not? But it's about Allah. When there was a point where she was in the hospital and this was before we knew the gravity of her state. We didn't know how, what was going to come. So there was a lot of momentum and, you know, we were looking forward for treatments and all of this. And so I had spent some time in the hospital with her. And at one point I needed to go home because I had a, I slept basically at the hospital in the car. I was just there for a few days. And I decided I need to come home for a break to just to basically freshen up. And, and then I was going to go back. So I sought her permission. She was still awake at that time. And I said, I'll be back. I just need to go, you know, and there was a bit of a drive. I said, I'll be back. And so I came home. And this is where, again, Allah, he's going to test you. I had just seen her. I just spoke to my mother. And my sister was with her. She was not alone. Everything seemed fine. I came home. I saw my children and husband after a few days. I went to freshen up and shower and I came out. And it was about a 15 minute window. And this is what I mean when calamity strikes. 15 minute window of me feeling somewhat like, you know, normal, as you can say, because I felt like I was in an alternate universe. When I came out, my phone was just buzzing. Like it was blowing up with message after message after message. And I was like, freshly out of the shower, I'm just trying and I see these messages.  And it was very, very serious, basically. She had cardiac arrest while my sister was in a room with her. And so I'm seeing these text messages just completely. I just was calling on a lot and I immediately ran out of the house at a record time. I got in my car and the entire car, I just cried more in that maybe than I ever have in my life. And I just begged him to please not take her from us. I couldn't even bear the thought of that. Like it was, I just saw her how, you know, just please don't take her suddenly from us. I just, I can't, we're not ready. I don't know what to do. And I begged and I begged. But my point in sharing is the doctors were with her. She's in a hospital. The nurses were there. My sister, family members were there for her. Nobody could help her. Nobody helped her in that moment. Allah does with his dominion what he wills. And he, in the moment that I left, just, you know, put her and all of us through that test. But it's again, he can do that. Our response to that is where we show our belief in him. And I just, for me at that point, it was like, Allah, you're the only one. I can't call on anybody at this point. And Alhamdulillah, you know, we got to the hospital. And although she suffered, you know, an incident was very serious. Code blew all of it, the whole thing. Alhamdulillah, they had stabilized her and she was again awake. And it was just like, Oh my God, thank you, Allah. Thank you for hearing on it, for hearing us. Thank you for accepting our dua that this, please don't take her from us. But, you know, it wasn't long after that he took his creation back. He called her back. And that was his will. And we had to, as a family, deal with that. It was, it was, that was our test. But this is life. This is dunya. So in times of affliction, the only refuge is Allah. And I'm telling you, from my experience, that was the hardest test of my life, weeks at the hospital. But you can ask the people closest to me in my life. I really couldn't even talk to people. I just, you get to a point where you realize, I just need Allah. And that's it. And the Quran was my best friend. And the prayer mat was my best friends. And that's, that's, that's what we need to really realize. If we want to get through the trial of this dunya, refuge is Allah. He's the only refuge we need. Alhamdulillah. So I think I did, I went over, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. But if we have time to go over some questions or comments, I'm happy to stay a little longer, maybe 10, 15 minutes. So thank you for that beautiful introduction to the text, as well as just kind of laying the foundation for us. And there wouldn't be a class with you, if you didn't share something to really move our hearts. Let's take a few moments to answer some of these questions that we have. We have questions in both the Q&A as well as the chat. Just going forward, it's easier for us to follow the questions in the Q&A because the chat is moving. So if you put your questions in the Q&A, it's easier for us to follow. Would you like me to read the questions or do you want to? Sure. If you want to point me to the questions that you vetted, that's helpful too. Or you can read them, however. Okay. I'm just going to start with the Q&A, just as a sort of disciplining. That way we know that students next week, when Shala will use the Q&A. So I'll start there. It says, As-Salamu alaykum wa s-ta'ala ho say, can you please address the idea of spiritual bypassing in the context of detaching from dunya? How can we strike a balance in being emotionally present and available in this life while working towards our akhira and not becoming flooded by dunya? Mashallah, a great question. It's something that I think may be the easiest way that I can answer it is there are others who've written on this topic of just becoming more self-reliant and the detachment process. But I did write an article that, for me, it was kind of my own way of coming to this point of realization that I really want to not have these attachments. And so I wrote an article for Medina Institute. Let me see if I can find it. But I feel like it really does help on this topic of how we can move away from our attachments of dunya and become more self-reliant, all based on the sunnah. This is actually a prophetic practice. And he encouraged us to not have attachments to even people and to not ask for people of things. These are things that I think more of us need to speak on. And I know it's a delicate balance because obviously we're in the world. We have relationships. We have to, we're constantly, I mean, there are rights that we have over people and obligations. So there is this, you know, balance that we have to find. But I think it's you, for me, I feel like so much of this gets resolved when we adopt a mindset and then we're fixed in that mindset. So our mindset has to be that metaphysical effort of mindset. And once you have that mindset, then the other things kind of just start to make sense. So I'll try to find the article. Insha'Allah, let me see if I can do that. And you can also share it next week. But if you find it in the meantime, we can always share a via email. Okay, so in the meantime, I'm going to read you the next question. Insha'Allah. It says, Masha'Allah. Everything you have said is on point and relatable. You mentioned the lack of love as a younger child that manifests as we become adults in society. How can we stay strong when we still seek the love from our parents, knowing we can't force anyone to love us in an affectionate way? But I guess my question is more pertinent to the patients needed to accept this. Being a daughter of immigrants pose the effect of receiving love in the means of meeting our basic needs and meeting our educational needs. But there was always a lack of love in a relationship. Yeah, Masha'Allah. I think, you know, I can also in a way speak about this because, you know, when you have multi like sibling families, you can, some children, it's all like mentioned, she comes actually mentioned this recently about like hierarchies that even within family systems, birth order, they're hierarchy. So some children get more love and others just don't. And I think some of us may have even had that experience where we get lost in the shuffle because there's too many and parents can only do so much, especially immigrant parents who are dealing with all the challenges of coming to a new country and starting over. So being forgiving that it's not personal, because sometimes we personalize things because it, you know, speaks to those insecurities we may have. And maybe we have core memories that are really hard to erase. So we start to build like a narrative. But at the end of it, when you have a more broader holistic view of things, you start to see that I'm personalizing. In my case, for example, my mother, I mean, she, you know, we're Afghani. And so she came from the Pashtun culture that was not very demonstrative. It was not a very affectionate.  And so my mother, growing up, she was, you know, tough, but she was also tough because she was put in a very difficult situation to raise five kids, leave her home country, leave everything behind, not speak the language, have to barely, you know, survive on whatever means that my father could produce. She was a homemaker. So she had all of that context that as a child, you don't, you're not aware of, you're not cognizant of. But as an adult, you are. So for myself, I started to really, once I had children, start to see my mother in a very different light growing up than I did when I was younger, which I did feel I was the fourth in line. And, you know, my mother and I would kind of had our differences growing up in my teenage years.  So anyway, my point is it was, it wasn't until later on when I started to really see how much my mother went through and that empathy that I had for her made me realize I personalized so much that was not personal, my poor mom, like she was just trying to survive. And that actually completely changed my relationship with her. And we became very close, Alhamdulillah, up until, you know, her passing, you know, Alhamdulillah, I'm very grateful to Allah, I was able to take her to Umrah. Alhamdulillah, we had a lot of great times together, just talking, she would call me for therapy because after my father passed away, Allah, Alhamdulillah, she really had a lot of emotions. And so I, I just, we had a different connection, but you have to find the empathy within yourself to see your parents as they're, they're not always delivered. InshaAllah, nothing is ever delivered. I mean, that's not to say there aren't, and I'm not speaking about your parents, but there are parents who, Alhamdulillah, you know, may have, may have harmed their children, may Allah forgive them. But I think a lot of our parents may have inadvertently caused harm, but the Nia wasn't to harm. And once you come to that point, you can forgive them. But then also the other part of it, which is Allah, you know, like I, you know, to start to prioritize you know, the love that you have for Allah and wanting His Radha for you, just starts to make your human relationships, yes, important, but not as important. Because when Allah becomes your, you know, your focus, then He will start to fill you with a level of again, Radha within yourself that will heal a lot of these wounds. And I'm speaking from personal experience, you know, I've lived through a few different things in my life, where I feel like it's only the love of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala that healed those wounds for me, nothing else, only the love of Allah. Alhamdulillah. There's sort of a flip side question to this idea of, you know, it says how do you navigate family environments where there is an unset expectation to make appearances when you are someone that has the mindset of I have no need to please others or look for praise in those environments. So sort of like this little switch, if you're only looking to please Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and then in that way, you have no need to please others or look for praise in the environments, how does that, I can see that sort of as like going too far to the one side on, you know, the flip side. How would you address that? Yeah, that's that, I'm sorry, is this something that I want to read this question? Yeah, it's in the Q&A. Is it already answered? No, it's in the open. Okay, so if you, and I'm assuming, I don't know, sister, if this is the case, but I'm assuming maybe you are a trophy child, right? Because sometimes our parents like to showcase us for different reasons. So if you find that you're being used in that way, you know, and it's putting you, it's kind of making you maybe, you know, like it's difficult to reconcile your Nia because of it, then I would just say, you know, make your intention a bit, if it's your parents that are asking you to do things, but you're not in it for the praise, you don't really want to do things for others to know or acknowledge you, but you're doing it for your parents, then just make it your Nia that I'm doing this for the sake of Allah to please them so that they are pleased with me because that is also a huge part of our faith, that we seek out every opportunity to praise our parents. And if it means, you know, kind of putting ourselves in awkward situations for their sake, as long as internally there's no conflict, there's no ulterior intention, then there shouldn't be an issue, and inshallah Allah accepts your Nia because you're doing it for that beautiful intention. I hope that was in line with the question. Yeah, I think, I think you brought it back to Bid al-Wadi Dayan, which is a really good reason to do things, but sometimes we feel like, you know, we don't want to because it may put us out there or we're showing off or something, but if you can just bring it back to just putting joy in the heart of your parents, it goes a long way in terms of our relationship with Allah's fountain. Absolutely. There's one last one, when struggling with low self-esteem more often than not, you find the confidence in people's words and acceptance to what you've done, and when they don't, you start to question where you went wrong. How do you shift that reliance back to Allah's fountain and not what people say to you or about you? That's a great question. Again, I'm giving you like real lived experience here because, you know, as you know, being a public figure, you end up getting a lot of attention from people. And so then there is a time, I remember before I even understood the diseases of the heart, where I absolutely, I know I did, I had, you know, Riyadh for sure, Summah, probably all the diseases of the heart that deal with wanting to be known and recognized and people saying things to you and complimenting you. I had all of it.  But over time, as I said, when you start to peel back the layers and see that sometimes, you know, people are, they just, you know, they say things that maybe they're genuine, maybe they're just saying that because that's an expectation that they think that you need to hear something, you know, but it's not always necessarily true. You know, some people do flatter, people do give empty compliments. It's just the fact. So I have just over the years realized like I inshallah, and maybe I'll always keep it so, but I don't put a lot of weight in the compliments that I receive. I'm very self critical. So for me, it's whether or not, you know, I feel like I put my best effort into something. If I did something with inshallah, with it, and I feel that I put my best effort, then I feel that they see it will come, you know, the facilitation comes, it comes, but I don't necessarily look for, you know, the compliments. I'm looking at it more like, you know, in terms of the effectiveness, the impact. So I think looking at the impact of your actions is more important than looking at how people perceive you as a result of what you do or say, like, you know, and I again, I'm, you know, I'm speaking from a very personal experience, but I think generally, just no longer seeking people's praise because you realize like there's very little value in what someone says to you if it's not true.  But if that's not true, then why did that compliment impact you, right? It's just, it's just a perception. Whereas the truth, it's like a mirror. The truth is your, you know, relationship with Allah.   JazakAllah Khairan, if you could just end with the closing dua for the Yes, JazakAllah Khairan again, and I'm sorry that I didn't get to all the questions, but if there's a way to maybe log these questions, we did, we hit all of them. Okay, even in the chats, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, please, okay. Alright, JazakAllah Khairan, Bismillah, Rahman, Raheem, JazakAllah Khairan, everyone. InshaAllah, we will see you next week at the same time on Monday, and if there are any other questions you have, please send them our way. Thank you so much. Thank you, Sadafah Dua. Thank you, and inshaAllah, we'll send out a one-day reminder and a one-hour reminder for class as well as the link for the text via email, so it should come from Zoom, and it will have this, it'll be the same link, and please encourage others to log on and join this wonderful class, inshaAllah. Assalamu alaikum. Alhamdulillah. Assalamu alaikum, welcome, everyone. Thank you for being here. InshaAllah, we will begin shortly.  All right, alhamdulillah. So first of all, if you're here for the first time, welcome. This is our second session, Foundations of the Spiritual Path. The recording did go out, so if you weren't here for last week, inshaAllah, you can watch the recording when you're, when it's convenient for you, but we'll continue the text, inshaAllah, where we left off. Before that though, if you remember, I made mention last week that I was trying to memorize the dua for studying, and I shared it with all of you, so I'll be reciting that for a brief moment, and then we'll begin the actual text, inshaAllah. Alhamdulillah. Ameen, Ameen, may Allah accept it on behalf of everyone here, alhamdulillah. So the text that we are reading from is Foundations, and we're going to also pull that up, and hopefully you have your PDF as well, inshaAllah, we can all read together. Just again, bear with me as I bring up, there it is. Okay, so now where'd my Zoom screen go? Too many screens, wow. Okay, I lost my Zoom screen, it's hilarious. There you are, there I am. All right, one moment, this screen share. So here we go. So just a quick review for those who are joining us, maybe today for the first time. We mentioned last week just some biographical information about Sidi Ahmad Zarrukh, who authored this text, Shahamza translated it, and then we introduced it, starting with just this section here. So we read only a small part of it, this is actually pretty lengthy text, so I don't know how much we'll be able to get done in Ramadan. We may possibly have to go beyond Ramadan, but inshaAllah we'll do our best. So just a summary, basically the text is a roadmap for the seeker, for the person on the spiritual path, for the student of knowledge, for all of us, to really be able to clearly build upon a foundation. And so it's called Foundations of the Spiritual Path. And what he does is he introduces first the foundation, like what is required, what is the prerequisite of someone who actually is on this path, and he lists those at the very beginning. And then he works backwards in terms of mentioning what would be required to get to these foundations. So we started off by explaining and just getting commentary on what these foundations are. So for example, and again, I'll just quickly summarize them. We have the first one being taqwa, mindfulness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala privately and publicly, and then adherence to the sunnah in both word and deed, indifference to whether others accept or reject one, contentment with Allah in times of both hardship and ease, and then turning to Allah in prosperity and adversity. And so again, I pointed this out last week, but there are conditionals here. These are taqwa, of course, as a given, as Muslims we all understand taqwa, but the conditionals that he provides are that it has to be consistent. You have to be a consistent person, right? You can't just have a persona and show up, you know, part-time as being a person who has taqwa, because other people might be around you. So he puts those conditionals, actually on each point here, there are conditionals, but the first one is that you are, you have that taqwa, you can maintain it even when you're by yourself. And that's obviously a station to get to that level of awareness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. It requires work, which is what we're going to start to now explain. The prerequisites to getting to even to these five. So there's that consistency factor and then the same with the sunnah, right? Many of us, as I mentioned last week, we may be very well aware of, you know, aspects of the Prophet's life, certain teachings, because we've heard them, you know, we've heard them our whole lives, maybe our parents or relatives or from our teachers at the Masjid or Islamic school, Sunday school. So we may know them, but knowing them is only part of it. It's the action that has to follow. So there has to also be, you know, it has to show that you understand, you know, who the Prophet's life was, that he is our exemplar, and you are doing your best to emulate him. And that would show obviously in your actions. So you're constantly trying to better yourself according to his way. So, you know, and everything, this is where adapting, for example, the sunnahs would obviously be the first point. Like, what were the sunnahs of the Prophet's life? So how did he begin his day? How did he, what are the different, you know, actions that he did throughout the day? Where did he spend his most of his time? And then what are the accompanying du'as for those actions, right? Because obviously he was a human, like us. And so he, he did many of the same things that we do, but he also taught us how to do it best, right? So when he got dressed, for example, you know, starting his day, he did so in the best manner. And so he's showing us those steps, you know, how he started with his right and then his left, and then the du'a of actually wearing clothes when he would enter or use the restroom, leave the restroom. There's all these beautiful du'as that we should know, and we should certainly be able to almost imagine him as we're doing them, because that's what a guide is. It's someone that you try to, to emulate and follow. So to that degree, we should be familiar with the sunnah, and then obviously put that into action in our own practice. So the du'as that we say should follow his du'as. And just to even teach our children that this is how we protect them, right? We're at a time of immense fitnah, of immense fitnah. And if we're not giving our children the best course, then all of these other deviations, deviated paths will start to, to take hold of them, because, you know, we're, we're denying them, which is one of the rights of children, this, this knowledge. So we have to be very mindful, but first, obviously we need it for ourselves. So the sunnah is, again, we have to be consistent. And then the third point is also very important, that once you embark on this path to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, you don't concern yourself with the opinions of other people. And we have to also qualify that a little bit, because we do have social responsibility. We have responsibilities to our family, our community. So this is not, you know, what we find today, which is, you know, I'm going to do me and I don't care how it affects other people. That's not what this is. This is a matter of your heart. This is a matter of not being compelled to action, because you're trying to impress people, or you're trying to avoid being ostracized. Because what that does is it, it's, it's, it's an issue because the intention has to be for the sake of Allah. But when we start to, you know, factor in other people, then it's no longer purely for his sake. So learning how to do things truly, because we want his pleasure, we want his ridah with us, right? We want him to, we want to be pure and sincere in our devotion to him. But if we're also bringing in, you know, this group or that group or this teacher or that teacher into our heart, then this would be a compromise of that pure intention. So that's why the indifference is, is again, you have to work on yourself because you have to really have those conversations with yourself. Like, why would I seek the approval of other people? You know, in that type of line of questioning, you'll, it's a self-discovery process, because maybe there's, you know, factors, like, you know, if you, for example, are familiar with, you know, children who come from multi-sibling households, we know from research that some children, depending on where they fall in the order, may be susceptible to excessive people pleasing, right?  And I've, as someone who comes from a household of five or five of us, I certainly felt that growing up, you know, I felt, I'm forth in line, but I do feel like I kind of had the middle child affected because I felt it growing up. But recently, Sheikh Hamza actually was speaking about hierarchies, you know, that hierarchies are real, and he brought that point to this, you know, to, or he brought that perspective that this is from Allah, that Allah swt actually puts us in these systems, in these family systems in order for us to learn, right, that some he gives to some and he doesn't give to others. So it's very intentional that we experience these things, right? So if you're aware of yourself and you know that that might be something that you grapple with, then when you have this introspection, this, you know, where you're asking yourself like, why do I always seek people's validation, then maybe you can arrive at, you know, at the same conclusion, which is, I didn't maybe get that from my parents, right, another, and we've talked about this, or I've talked about this in previous talks, but, you know, Imam al-Razadi and others reference the potent eye of the mother and the father, but specifically the mother, that we as mothers have an immense power given to us, which is our attention, right? So children, we know they seek undivided attention, but mostly from their mother figure, so, or the, you know, the main caretaker who's taken care of them. So when we are deprived of that, then we go looking for, as they say, love in all the wrong places, right? And so a lot of children who did not get the attention from their mothers may start to seek it elsewhere. And this is certainly relevant in today's, you know, states. I mean, look around and you see a lot of children who were not raised by their parents. In many cases, they're being raised by other people because of the way our societies are structured. You know, a lot of people are working out, or both now we have double-income homes, and so the child either has a nanny or maybe a daycare or a school drop-off. So they get, you know, get lost, and now you're competing with not two, three, four, five, which would be maybe normal in a family, but you're competing with 30 students, right? For attention from an adult, and that can really affect the child's self, you know, image and view. So a lot of these things are very real human experiences, but once you start to pay attention to your own self and what drives your behavior, it can help to heal some of those even past wounds.  But Subhanallah, you know, the love of Allah can absolutely heal all of that. So that's what this process is. It's getting to that point of, I don't really need to worry about being accepted or rejected by the people because if I have Allah, I have enough, right? I have more than enough. I don't need human beings when I have the Creator. And so that, that's really what the point is here. And then contentment with Allah in times of both hardship and ease and turning to Allah and prosperity and adversity are similar in the sense that, again, you're consistent and you have the right understanding that you have to not change your opinion of Allah based on your circumstances, right? That your fidelity, your loyalty, your love is true, pure, unconditional to your Creator because you realize that all of your blessings are from Him. And even if things aren't going well at certain points of your life, that doesn't mean that you turn from Him, but that you know that there's wisdom. Because when you have trust in someone, or in this case, obviously Allah, when you have trust in Allah, you don't doubt the reasons certain things have to happen the way they do. You know automatically that there is hikmah, but maybe that's something that you have to wait in order to learn or for it to be unveiled to you. But you don't doubt that it's actually there. You know that it must be khayr because it's from Allah. So that's what is required for this path. That level of absolute unconditional unwavering trust in Allah, knowing that He always has your best interests and whatever His decree is for you is always better than anything you could have decreed for yourself with certainty, right? With yakeen that you have that level of understanding. So, Alhamdulillah, I'm just going to, I think my screen share got bumped off, but we'll wait for, Alhamdulillah, I'm happy to see you. I think it's Saada Khadwa. If you can please re, give me back. Oh, there we go. You did it. Thank you. So I'll just go ahead and go back to the screen here. We're happy to have you here. Alhamdulillah. So we're just doing a quick summary and then we're going to jump into the lesson for today. So you know, having that understanding, again, turning to Allah in both times of hardship and ease and I'm sorry, contaminate with Allah in both hardship and ease and turning to Allah in prosperity and adversity. So now the first is like your, your understanding of who Allah is. It's your Al-Qaeda, right? The second point is your, your protocol, like what do you do? What is your protocol for when you have hardship?  Or is it that you have that trust that Allah swt that will make things easy for you and you just patience, you know, you kind of, you've read the stories, you know, about these lessons that we've been given. So this is what's required. And Alhamdulillah, that was, you know, last week's discussion mainly. So InshaAllah we can, if again, you're welcome if you're new, but you can go back and watch the recording to get more commentary on those five. For today, we're going to start with the building blocks, I guess you could say of the foundations, right? Like what, what are the pre, the first prerequisites for these five? So again, I love the way he structured this, this whole text, Mashallah, it's beautiful. But the first one that he says mentions is exalted aspiration. So basically, if you want to get to that level that we just described, this amazing, the foundation, right, then you would need to have high aspirations. You have to have high him, right? You cannot be a person who's willing to settle with mediocrity in yourself, especially, right? Because, you know, sometimes again, we're, get lost in our own, you know, whatever we're busy with, with our work, with our families. But when it comes to your work for the sake of Allah, you have to be a person who understands that you perform with the best that you strive for it. So it's not good enough for you if you, you know, and I'll give you an example. For example, there's times where, you know, I'm out and about and I come home and I'm rushing to come home because I have to print, right? I wasn't able to do it outside. So I have to pray. But, you know, it's kind of one of those situations. I don't know if you guys are like this, but I'm like this where as soon as I get home, you know, because I've been out all day, I end up, you know, wanting or it's kind of like a biological thing. I don't know, but because I'm in my comfort zone, I also need to use, you know, the restroom. So now I'm like, oh boy, you know, what do I do? Am I in, I'm in a situation, should I pray? Because, you know, I need to pray. Obviously, I don't want the time to go out. But, you know, I also don't like that feeling, that anxiety of I need to just rush to do the prayer because I need to rush to the restroom. So there's many times where I have prayed because I'm afraid of delaying it or getting distracted and doing something else and then forgetting.  You know, you were, you were very distracted. You were kind of rushing to get through because you needed to use the restroom. Is that, is that befitting for someone who is trying to better themselves?  Next, I come out and I make will do and I'll go right back to the prayer rug. It's happened many times before. But this is from this teaching because if you accept mediocrity in yourself, then that's what the nefs will acclimate to because the nefs is lazy. The nefs does not want to put in effort. So when we take the, you know, the fast route, the easy path, it will always push us in that direction. But the challenge, majahid and nefs is actually going against the nefs. And so I kind of, I don't know if I read this somewhere, if I heard a teacher mention this, but it clicked. It was whenever you have resolved to do something. And because we know ourselves even in the Qur'an, I don't know the specific ayah, but all it's not that it says, you basically, you know your own self, right? So you have to know yourself. But if you ever get to a point of resolve on an action and you're not, you know, you have to kind of question it, you have to question the source of that resolve. And this is where knowing the Khatir, right, the four sources of our thoughts is very helpful. Because if you understand that all of our thoughts are going to emanate from four sources, then you can start to suspect what is a thought that you should follow and what's a thought that you shouldn't, right? So what are the four sources? We have Khatir Rabbani, Khatir Badakani, Khatir Nafsani and Khatir Shaitani. And so obviously there's a split here. Two of them are good, always positive thoughts.  That may be your angel, your angelic, the angelic thoughts that come to you, because we have angels that are with us, right? And they sometimes, you know, nudge us in good virtuous behavior. So it could be that. Istikhara or dreams are attributed to revelation, that it's a source of revelation. So these could be considered Khatir Rabbani, right? Or just a really strong, you know, conviction and something could be from Allah. So those two are pretty obvious that they're good. But the latter two, which are those thoughts that we should be suspicious of, emanate from the nafs and shaitan.  So he's going to compel you to do things worse than what you've done before, he'll push you in a further, like a worse direction.  Okay, so you have this resolve, you make the niya the night before, I'm going to wake up for the Hajj. Now when you wake up and the alarm goes off, and there's a thought and it's very, you know, the nafs is very crafty. The nafs is very crafty. So it'll come up with all sorts of justifications. You know what, you're sick, you haven't slept for three, four days, you have a work meeting, you've got so much to do, it's okay, just go back to sleep and wake up in an hour when Fudger comes in or two hours, whatever the time is, right? It'll give you all of these excuses. And so that is the thought that you want to be suspicious of, because it's such a strong resolution, right? It's so like, it's, it's, you're kind of flooded with all of these excuses all of a sudden, like where'd that come from? When before you had this beautiful intention, it's your nafs. And Shaitan may even, you know, inspire you with something worse, you know, I don't know, maybe you'll come in instead of praying to the Hajj, you find yourself, oh, check your email real quickly.  And now you're on TikTok and you've been watching TikTok the entire time until Fudger comes in, right? So Iblis knows how to get us, our nafs knows how to get us. So the point is, when you have such strong conviction on an action where you already had a prior resolve, suspected immediately be like, nope, that's nafs or Shaitan, I have to force myself to do it. Don't even stick around for this back and forth, but immediately know that these two evil forces that work against us 24 hours a day are at play, one or the other. And you have to be so aware of what's happening that you are, you force yourself into action, going back to that initial intention you had, right? That's how we overcome the nafs. That's how we elevate our worship from mediocrity, because mediocrity is just doing the bare minimum. I'm just going to do how I always have done it. But if you want to push beyond that, you have to learn to struggle against yourself. And that's what that looks like. It's suspecting the thoughts that we have, sourcing them, and then realizing that Allah inspired you when you had the beautiful intention. That was inspiration or it was maybe your angelic presence that was inspiring you. Who are you going to listen to? It's a choice now. Because you had the niya the night before. You set your alarm. What happened now? What happened now is you forgot that you have these two forces, demonic and the nafs, that are going to do everything to thwart your initial niya. So you have to fight them. And the way to fight them is action. Be true to your initial niya.  Just get up and do what you were going to do. So it's also an aspiration. I mean, that's just one way of doing it. But it really is wanting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, wanting proximity to Allah, wanting to be the highest, your greatest potential, wanting to really see who that person is. And that's why Ramadan is so special.  And so I made a reference. It was very outdated. But I just thought, let me throw it out there. Because sometimes these teens get into what do they call it when they go back and watch things that are from previous generations. I forgot that there's a term for it. But anyway, sometimes they'll watch things from the 70s or 60s or 80s. And that's how ancient we appeared to them. But I referenced a movie that I watched maybe around, I think it was the 90s. I saw it. I don't even remember the details of it. But the concept I remember, which was sliding doors, sliding doors with Gwyneth Paltrow. I don't remember the movie, but just the idea of the movie was so cool, which was, here's this woman. And she, it's basically showing like a split screen almost of two different paths that her life took based on one decision. So that's, it was a very cool concept at that time, right? So you get to see her, she made this decision. This is the course her life took. And then she made this decision. And this is how her life went into a total different direction. So I always thought that was so neat. And what I've realized is that Ramadan in a way is kind of like that, because we get to see ourselves in a light that we don't normally see ourselves, right?  And then the idea, I think, inshallah, is by the end of it, you have now a choice to make, you know, am I going to be this new improved version of me? Because Allah has given me ample time to really form good habits and just to become better and be more mindful. Am I going to be this person or am I going to go back or regress to the version of me that I had before this month? Because that's usually what happens, right? For many of us, we've definitely done that. May Allah forgive us. But that's where Ramadan is so amazing is that it gives us an opportunity to really have exalted aspirations. Why not? Why not have high goals? And that doesn't mean you feel like a failure because you didn't maybe hit all of those, you know, points on your checklist to do list or goal list. Don't feel like a failure, but be happy that you had the Himmah to even want to do those things. If you wanted to go to the masjid every night of Ramadan for tarawih, masha'Allah. If you wanted to to do multiple khatams, masha'Allah, if you were like, oh, I'm going to memorize this many surahs this month, masha'Allah, or do this many salawat every day, that's amazing. Alhamdulillah. But we can't lower the bar as we find, unfortunately, in this culture, that's what they're incentivizing or that's kind of how they're conditioning people. So just keep lowering the bar so everything's kind of become lower. Our language is lower. You do the bare minimum. You get participation trophies for everything. Everybody gets rewarded regardless of their effort and merit. That's not our way. You work hard and you reap the rewards of your hard work. And you're grateful to Allah for the opportunity and for the gift of being able to do those things. But you have to have the aspirations to start with. So this is required, right? So having, again, high Himmah. And then the next is maintaining Allah's reverence. Again, so important in this day and age. I mean, always important, but certainly in a day where religion is attacked and even God's name, as they say, is taken in vain all the time and in many cases even erased entirely. People don't want to talk about Allah, even within our community, but also outside of our community. We see, unfortunately, people sometimes becoming a little bit constricted as soon as people start talking about religion and getting too extreme or fundamentalist. These are the kinds of words I've certainly heard be used against me, describing me when I get into my desire to want to talk about Allah or praise Allah or reference Allah, because it's necessary. We should be. We should be thinking of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala all the time, directly or indirectly. But He should certainly not be erased and forgotten. How is that a reflection of gratitude when your every experience in life is due to the existence that He gave you, but then you can just forget Him. And of course, we're human. We get distracted and distractions are external. They pull our attention away. That's not the same as someone who is willfully denying the remembrance of God or just not revering Him as they should. And reverence to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala looks like, you know, saying Bismillah before you eat, saying, Mashallah, Alhamdulillah, subhanallah. When things happen to us, you know, there are a lot of things that Allah shows us amazing signs and we should have awe of Him. And that's why, you know, one of my why I love to teach children is because they just have it naturally and you'll see it, whether it's your own children or other children. There's always this awe that they when they're young, right, for everything, but they're they're they're teaching us of something that we once had that we've lost. So we have to now bring that back.  So if you're, you know, for example, you know, I heard this story, I think it was, I was, I was just sharing this beautiful story on his social media. And it's so amazing. It was just such a powerful story, but I'll share it with you. He said that he met a woman who came to the masjid, he'd never met her before. And she said to him that she had only 100 pounds to her in her account, like that was all she had. But when the earthquakes in Turkey hit, she was so moved by the plight of the victims that she gave half of her wealth of her savings, 100 pounds, as you can imagine, is not very much at all to live by, but she gave half of it away. And she said that just a few hours later, just a few hours later, what happened, 8,000 pounds was put into her account. And it was from some loan, I think student loan that she had forgotten about years before, but a few hours later, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala deposited 8,000 dollars, just 80 times, right? Or actually, no, by the way, you have the math, you can do the math better between, yeah, you can do the math for us, but let us know how many times more that he rewarded her with subhanAllah. So I just thought that was so profound. And the reaction to these types of stories, some people, I've actually shared stories like this with people.  That's amazing. Or the, oh, that's cool. That's cool. And they kind of like, that's it. And they're not really impressed by these types of stories that we would see as obvious signs from Allah that he's showing his signs to us. So the believer doesn't just make it like, you know, respond that way. They actually respond with all subhanAllah.  What do we just hear?  But it allows for this process of just like, Allah Waqfah, Allah, Allah, so amazing.  But the reverence for Allah is all of these things. It's adab with Allah. It's knowing how to call on him by his most beautiful names. It's knowing how to speak of him, you know, as I said, and bring his remembrance into the conversations. We should never have meetings with people, you know, obviously professional meetings aside, but like when we meet with our friends, our family, our community, there should be the intention, whether it's the host of the gathering or someone there, someone at least should have the intention to make the remembrance of Allah subhanAllah. And if you find yourself in a gathering where there is no remembrance of Allah being made because everybody's talking about politics or vineyard and material wealth and school and kids and all of that stuff, then it's on you if you have that awareness to somehow share something, oh, let me share this wonderful story I heard or guess what happened or something or I read this, I or did you guys listen to the recent talk that so and so gave or whatever, make mention of Allah subhanAllah so that people don't fall into the habit of ever coming together and omitting him. That's that's tragic if you think about it, that we come together and we don't even mention the name of our Creator. So that's, you know, Remnants for Allah, also for his book, you know, knowing, for example, not to speak over the Book of Allah subhanAllah, it's a very important adept that we should have when we hear the quran being recited, that we know to quiet our just immediately, you know, go quiet, or if you have to speak, whisper at least, lower your voice and teach your children if the quran is playing, quran is playing. How do we carry the quran, right? How do we hold the quran? All of that reflects your reverence. When I was, you know, I teach quran from the day I used to teach young children, but we would spend a great deal of time on just practicing carrying the musha because, you know, it's not an average book. This is the greatest book. So they have to treat it like the greatest book and they should revere it. They should know to hold it with two hands. They should know to hold it above their waist. They should know to hold it in a state of will do. All of these things should be taught. I've seen, unfortunately, many people, adults as well as children, running through the masjid or from, you know, Sunday school or whatever, and they completely lost this. They carry the quran like it's, you know, another library book under their arm, or sometimes Awad-e-Bala hanging by their side. Awad-e-Bala. So we have to have proper reverence for Allah and also teach this to our children and our families and obviously body ourselves. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la also said in a hadith, Sahih and Al-Bukhari, the Prophets and said that which is that the Prophets and said whoever loves to meet Allah, Allah loves to meet him and whoever hates to meet Allah, Allah hates to meet him. So the reverence and love for Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, this is the, you know, the how it plays out. If you don't have it in you to want to meet your Lord, to make mention of him, to just be in awe of him, then it will be reciprocated to you al-Bida and we obviously do not want that. So that's a very important point again to be mindful of and then expending oneself in excellent service of others. So remember what we're doing is we've laid the foundation right of the path. Now we're helping to build upon or to put together what is required to get there. So these are the qualities that we have to have in order to get to those five. So the third being service of others, khidmah. Khidmah is a beautiful, a beautiful, you know, part of our deen that has also been lost, you know, wanting for your brother or sister what you want for yourself. It really comes down to our values and if you value the ridah of Allah, more than yourself, then it will be easy for you to give up your comforts for other people. Because you realize that the nefs, as I already mentioned, right, is not your friend. So to cater to it constantly is actually your own undoing. But to go against it will elevate you. It's better for you, right, to go against your nefs. We get so comfortable with comfort that we are opposed to discomfort, but sometimes discomfort is actually better for you because it pushes you outside of constantly being in that nefcy state. So doing something for someone else, right?  And we just sit down, right? We've just sit down to, and we have our nice cup of chai and we're going to have our little piece of, you know, cake or cookies or whatever treats we've brought for ourselves. Maybe we're going to read a book, maybe we're going to turn on the TV and turn on something, inshallah beneficial. But we're just, we're now, it's all about us, right, self-care as they call it. And in that moment of just immense comfort, immense joy and ease, maybe you get a text message, right? And that text message is from a friend who is going through, she's distraught, she's going through something really difficult. And you hear from this friend a lot, you're in contact with her, she obviously you care about her, but this is the worst timing, right? So you have choice to make. I could leave the messages unread, she wouldn't know that I saw them because we have all the preview screen. And I know I use it all the time, I have to, right? So you may go back and use that feature on your phone to preview the message, but you're not going to look at it because you don't want to let her know that you've seen the messages, because you're just enjoying yourself too much. You can't give up your comfort, right? Now that's a choice you made, you're enough certainly, you know, compelled you to it. It certainly made sure that you did that because it wants you to not benefit from the rewards that Allah just pretty much dangled in front of you. Because what's greater than removing the distress of fellow believer, right? And between those two choices, I mean, I hope it's obvious. Yes, we're deserving of ease, right? We're deserving of that sometimes, especially if we're not doing anything haram. And it's fine.  He saw that you said, no, I want to put aside my own comfort because my friend needs me. And I know this would please Allah so that we can't even fathom how many rewards you would get. And Allah is so generous with us. So that, you know, expending oneself in excellent service. And so then the excellent service is also important to clarify here, because if you're going to do something with pure intention for Allah, you can't do it begrudgingly. You can't do it huffing and puffing and annoyed. And what, you know, what does she need now when you're like griping as you're doing it? And, you know, these, we all have grown, inshallah, we've grown and we don't do those things anymore. But just think about Allah's witnessing you. So when you do it, you do it with excellence. And with excellence, it is controlling any negative thought that comes. You certainly don't, you know, vocalize those things.  And this is boundaries, you know, boundaries. And there's a lot of ways this, we can, this conversation can go in terms of how to do things with Ehsan. But I would say, create really healthy boundaries around these things, especially if you're someone that's called on a lot. Like if you have family and friends, and there's a lot of people that you end up having to do for, then you need to take care of yourself. And by creating healthy boundaries, you'll get to a point where you don't do things, as I said, begrudgingly or really with frustration. And there's resentment in your heart. We don't want that. We don't want to ever do things for others with resentment in our heart. And so that's where purifying the intention that it's for Allah, it's for the sake of Allah. And when we do things for the sake of Allah, it should always be done with, with immense, with, with, you know, happiness, with joy, with gratitude, because Allah's giving you an opportunity to draw closer to Him. But this is, you know, where intentionality, and it's a lot of heart working to get to that point. But it's very important to be, to desire to serve other people. When you're in the, at the Masjid, for example, you come in for an event, maybe it's a premier speaker, everybody's rushing to get to their seat.  And you stopped to help someone because their bag was too heavy, where they were elderly, or they had maybe a physical, you know, disability. Allah is watching you. He sees that you had the need to do something, but you redirected yourself for the sake of someone else for his sake. The rewards of that, again, we don't know, but you should be certain that it will be far better for you to do that than to just walk back past your brother or sister in need to serve your own nefs. So these are the kinds of ways that we pay attention to our intentions and we become better. Fulfilling one's resolve. This is very important as well, because when we say something, we have to, you know, act upon it. We can't be the type of person that, that just throws words out, right? Because, and I'm pulling out from the content of character, because right on the very first page, right, we are taught the Prophesies that have said, Qadr Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, ayatul munafiqin salatuh, So this is in Al-Bukhari and Muslim, and the Prophesies said the characteristics of a hypocrite are three. When he speaks, he lies. When he gives his word, he breaks it. And when he is given a trust, he is unfaithful. These are warnings for us that if you get in the habit of throwing out a lot of words, a lot of lip service, a lot of false promises, but you don't, you know, fulfill them, this is dangerous for you. It's a sign of weakness, of spiritual weakness, because the believer, when you have an intention, you follow it through. When you promise something to your children or someone else, you follow it through, even if it's against yourself. And if you need a break, maybe you overshot, maybe sometimes we want to do a lot out of our love, but you can't.  Like, yeah, I saw what I said that I couldn't do it too bad. That's not the way that we should behave as believers, because it's, you know, to break someone's heart, to not fulfill a promise would inconvenience others in ways, you know, again, depending on the situation, that would really harm them, potentially.  So if you take those things seriously, but just generally speaking, if you plan to do something or say you're going to do something, hold yourself accountable. That's what it is. Hold yourself accountable.  And there are a lot of people, unfortunately, who, who've just been broken because of people in their lives who give them false hope, false promises, but they never come through. And it can be very, very, you know, hurtful in the long run, especially, I mean, just think of children who's, you know, who are, I know children, for example, who are in different homes, you know, their parents have divorced. And many of the, the suffering of children of divorce are because of this specific situation. One parent will be neglectful. They will promise, oh, I'm going to come into your basketball game. I'm going to come take you here. I'm going to take you shopping. I'm going to give you this. And then they end up not doing it. And then, of course, who has to pick up the pieces of that child, the parent that the child is with. It's very sad how common that is. But this is what happens when you're not working on yourself spiritually. You've, you've fallen into these very nefcy states where you are your biggest priority and you don't really care how your decisions or indecisions affect other people. So may love protect us from that, but just be a consistent person, be a person who follows through. And then the last one is so important. I mean, all of these are important, but in terms of daily, daily exercises, I would say this is so important, like on a daily basis, no matter what you're going through, this should be your state where you're always looking to magnify the blessings. You're always looking to, to, to count the blessings, right? Recently I came from an event and I came home the whole drive. I was just in a constricted state because I had heard from so many people, just a lot of suffering, you know, loss of children, multiple different losses that have happened recently. I saw people in these states weeping uncontrollably because of the loss of a child. You can imagine, right? And then, you know, divorce, being, dealing with infidelity, dealing with suicidal ideation, you know, parent who has taken their own life. And now the children who are also suffering with their own suicidal ideation. These are things that I heard all in one day. And I heard them in one day and I came home. And as soon as I came home, I just, my hometown family was there and I just said, we all have to say Alhamdulillah, like all day. And I told my children, I said, please promise me when you make your Sajdah that you really, really are in a state of gratitude to Allah because I don't think you realize, Alhamdulillah, how much suffering a lot of people are going through, that we're not going through Me, Allah protect us. But that kind of hyper awareness of your blessings usually comes from this very intentional practice of, you know, magnifying your blessings, but also, you know, communing with other people, talking to other people, observing other people, and seeing that suffer, there are people, everybody's suffering in different ways.  And this is how we get perspective, right? He's, he says, first, that it could always be worse, right? Whatever you're going through, could always be worse. And that's a factual statement. Any, you take anybody's suffering and whatever it is, as awful as it is, it could be worse, right? So that's a perspective we have to have. The second thing he says is that it's in your dunya and not your deem, right? Because a tribulation that affects like a material thing, a part of your life is different than something like a faith crisis. A faith crisis is real. That's, that's a very scary tribulation. So that's something to be grateful for, that it's just dunya, right? And then the third point is that the tribulation is in this life and not the next. These are things that give us perspective, right? That will hopefully then put us in that state of gratitude to Allah. Alhamdulillah. Thank you, Allah, for everything. Thank you for life, for existence. Thank you for my family. Thank you for my friends. Thank you for my health. Thank you for my mental acuity. Thank you for my ability to communicate. Thank you for my ability to be mobile, right? I mean, just think of how many people are dealing with neurodegenerative diseases or other types of diseases where they cannot move. And they have full, you know, they're awake mentally, but they can't move, male or protect us from those states. Financially, Alhamdulillah, if you have a fridge full and a pantry full, you're, we're living like kings and queens compared to people who don't even have potable drinkable drinkable water. They don't have these things. It's not a reality for them or food that's, you know, not that can be preserved, right? They have to eat whatever they can because that's all they don't have ways of preserving their food. So these are things that unless you're doing it, it will, you won't, you won't notice them. And then Shaytan is right there to do the opposite of this, magnify your problems. So instead of magnifying your blessings, all you're doing is wallowing in self pity over why did this have to happen and why this and why that. And I, you know, I deserve this and we just get in these really awful states. So these are, you know, regular practices we should be doing all of these, right? Make sure our goals and our intentions are high. Don't shortchange yourself. Seek the Akhira, not dunya. Dunya is low. It's, it's temporal. It doesn't last. Akhira is forever. Be always mindful of Allah and have the best adab with your Lord, right? We have to have the best adab with Allah. We only speak about him in the best way possible. We have khusna al-dhan with Allah. And there's actually, let me, I pulled out a hadith on this particular topic. Where is it? SubhanAllah. So there's a beautiful, oh here, this is actually one hadith, but there's something else I'll mention. So I believe in Masud, I mean, Allah be pleased with him said that, by the one beside whom there is no God, a believing servant is not given anything better than good thoughts about Allah Almighty. By the one who besides whom there is no God, a servant does not improve his opinion of Allah Almighty, except that Allah will give him what he assumes. That is because all good is in his hands. So this is of course, you know, la in shakartum, la azidah minakum, right? When we are grateful to Allah, when we're veering him, we're exalting him, he increases us. When we have the best opinion, right? Anand-e-dhan, the ad-dibi, I will, he basically confirms what you think of him. So this is what I've been asked, or I'm sorry, I've been listening to this calling us too. And so I'm sorry, I'm looking at the time. So let's read this last paragraph here before we pause for Q&A. So he whose aspirations are exalted is raised in rank. Allah mentions, or I'm sorry, Allah maintains the respect of he who preserves his reference. He whose service is for others is ennobled by it. Beautiful, the perspective, right? We are the beneficiaries of the service we give. It's not the opposite, because you think of service as a God serving people, but we benefit. We're ennobled by the khidmah that we do. He who does that, which he resolves to do, is a short continual guidance.  He who deems blessings to be great by his own eye has shown gratitude. And he who is grateful ensures an increase in blessings from the giver of gifts according to the promise of the truthful one. SubhanAllah, it's just so succinct, so beautiful, so powerful. But on this point of he whose, I'm sorry, Allah maintains the respect of he who preserves his reverence. This is also, I just wanted to quickly mention, because there are a lot of people who seek status, who seek, as we said in the beginning, acceptance by people who want to be respected, who want people, whether it's in their family, in their professional life, in their community, to look upon them with reverence, with respect. But they forget that that is something that Allah rewards to his believers or to his servants. And so it's not, you can't just get it, because how many professional people, how many people of who you think they would, it's warranted that they would have that respect, don't get respect, because Allah doesn't will that for them. So it's not something you can get from a worldly place. That type of reverence that people seek is through Allah. So if you're not going to revere the one who gives you that place and status amongst his creation, then you clearly don't understand how things work. So I just wanted to mention that. But alhamdulillah, we can pause it. I'm happy to stay for an additional however many minutes to go over the question. So Bismillah. Salafatullah, are you here? Yes. Thank you for another wonderful class, masha'Allah. I'm going to go to the Q&A where I've asked everyone to please direct your questions to the Q&A box so that we can keep track of questions asked during the session. The first question is asking for the dua that you started the class with. And I think that you had said that that was available on the Zaytuna website. Is that true? Yes. So I'm sorry, because I had mentioned that I do, I have a, not a PDF, it's an image of the dua. And so the way that I found it, let me see, I'll just quickly do it while you're talking and you're reading the other questions. So we save time. So let me go ahead and find it for you. Is it far away? All right, thank you. The second says, I often find that what people say to me really affects my mood. If it's something good about me or my work, I find myself extremely motivated and cheerful. But when I don't receive this kind of recognition, I start to feel low and think negatively of myself. My question is, how can the, how can the one that suffers from low self-esteem and low self-confidence find ways to build it up instead of being dependent on what people tell them about themselves? Mashallah. So I'm really glad this sister asked this question because I think a lot of people would probably fall in the same category, right? We are very affected. We do source external validation because of all the things I mentioned, maybe other things, you know, there's, you know, temperaments and different personality types. They seek, you know, these things out more. So being, I think, more self-aware of yourself. And I'm glad that you have this awareness that this is what's going on. Is the starting point changing? But also, I think I'm just going to throw it out there because I feel like this is also a factor. If you don't have good sohbah, right? If you don't have good people who reflect goodness to you, right? The believer is a mirror for the believer. So when you have really good people around you, they will know how to uplift you, but do it in the right way because throwing like flattery is looked down upon because it's empty. There's no substance to it. But when you have God-fearing good company who really wants your good, right? People who are good people who genuinely want to, for you to be successful, then they will uplift you in a way where it doesn't feed into maybe what has been going on, right? Which is there's this maybe insecurity that you're dealing with that those other compliments are kind of feeding into. But really, righteous people will always remind you that your blessings are from Allah SWT and help you to redirect even your own need for validation back to Allah. Because it's kind of just habit, right? If you start to take some of the attribution of your blessings, this would be something to work on because nothing, nothing, no good that we do is self-made, nothing. So all of it should be redirected to Allah.  It's social. It's a product. It's like an etiquette. You know, you just want to say something nice to someone. But the reality, the haqiqah, what's really happening is they are witnessing Allah SWT who's blessed me with skills, with gifts, with abilities, and the, you know, the life force to actually do these things. So what they're witnessing is Allah working through me. So Alhamdulillah, wa shukulillah, right? It's all back to Allah. And if you can start to do that regularly, then the words are not going to impact you anymore because guess what? Whether they say it or not, it's true. Whether people give you the compliment or not, it is true.  You know it. InshaAllah, you should. And that's where confidence building is also important. Recognizing the naima, recognizing that you are, you're skilled at something is a good thing to do because you're recognizing that it's Allah who made that happen. But my point is, is whether people give you compliments or not no longer is important because it doesn't take away from the reality of what's happening, which is indeed Allah Akbar. Indeed Alhamdulillah, Allah is deserving of all praise. So I hope that's clear. Thank you. Our last question says, can you please give some advice for improving one's say, do ratio at work? I work in a corporate environment and it can be extremely draining. Sometimes I fall short in delivering and unfortunately it's starting to impact my performance. I work to support my family. How can I take the spiritual route for improving my state of affairs? InshaAllah, again, that's a very good and relevant question because, you know, a lot of people are struggling with the life, home life balance. And yes, we become overly ambitious with our careers. And so we want to do a lot. But I think, you know, having every business or every environment is different. I don't know what the company that you work at. But if you have people who are there to kind of help shape like your goals, you know, your trajectory at the company, like what your long term objectives or goals are, what your short term goals are, then maybe instead of leaving it to yourself, because sometimes if it's like there's sort of either insecurity or feeling of what do they call it imposter syndrome, there's a lot of these things that can affect our sense of self. Those things drive us to take on more than we can chew, right? Because it's like, oh, I got to show up. I got to impress people. And so there's a lot of insecurity driving that. But when you become more intentional and actually organized and plan, like have like a plan for your year, like, okay, so in my current capacity, this is where I'm at. But this is my target for the year or target for six months or target for three months. And then you're working with maybe a coach or like HR or whoever would be in your company, helping you to your supervisor, maybe shape how that's going to materialize. Then you're working, you know, in a very, like that is a much more structured way of goal setting, as opposed to letting the fear of maybe not doing enough and being, you know, I know there's people who are now very insecure in their positions because there's so many layoffs happening. So a lot of people are just in panic while trying to do more. But I think planning is always going to yield better results and planning with someone who's a little ahead of you in your role to be realistic, because they may offer great advice to you that says, Hey, don't do that, because I made that same mistake. And this is what happened to me. So asking for help, you know, and this is actually part of leadership. If you look at the different qualities of like leaders is knowing when to ask for guidance and help from people. It doesn't mean that you don't, you know, that it's somehow a negative quality. It's actually very intelligent to do that, to seek out your supervisors or people ahead of you and just say, you know, can you help me kind of put together some real practical, realistic, long term and short term girl goals for my work so that I can be balanced and not take on more. And inshallah, Bismillah. And always, of course, start with Bismillah. Yeah, I'll give you a feel for inshallah. Thank you, Sadah Hussai. You mentioned earlier in the class about the recording. Are we ready to share just? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you can always share the recordings unless something really wild happens on these sessions. I don't have a problem with the recordings being shared. Yeah, I'll put it in the chat. I just created a shortcut for this week. Oh, and then inshallah, I'll post this one soon. Be patient. We have a lot going on these days. Thank you. And thank you. So if there are no other questions, we're only doing Q&A box, right? So yeah, I checked the chat as well. And no other questions. And you can end with the closing door. Sure. Just one last thing. Did you check the math on Sister Luna's math here? Is that correct? 80 times 100 is 8000. I said that. The percent increase is a 7900 percent increase. So inshallah, we'll just think grander of Allah's. Inshallah. As-salaamu alayhi wa s-salam. So deferred to her for all your math questions, thank you so much to everyone. Thank you all for being here. And I look forward to our next session next week. And feel free to read ahead. And if you have any questions based on your reading, please provide them. Or send them to Salah Fadwa. Maybe we can look over those before we start. So with that said, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Thank you again, everyone.  And please remember us if you haven't made a thar at a thar time. Inshallah. Thank you. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. As-salaamu alayhi wa s-salam. Wa alayhi wa sahbihi wa s-salamu t-tastimun katira. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, everyone. Welcome again. Alhamdulillah, it's an honor to be with all of you. We will jump right into it because I want to maximize our time. First we'll start with the dua. But the ad-dars, the student of knowledge, should recite before their studies. So inshallah, we'll recite that together. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. So with that said, let's go ahead and screen share, inshallah. So that we're all reading the document together. Alhamdulillah. So we are reading from the foundations of the spiritual path. And again, as Sadafuddin mentioned, the recordings for previous sessions are available, so you can go back and watch those to kind of bring yourself up to speed. But we have only barely scratched the surface. It's such a rich document, masha'Allah. So we've only covered the first section here and the second section. And today we're going to continue. So again, just to remind everyone, the way the document is built is it gives us the foundations of the path first and then the prerequisite things or qualities or actions that we would need in order to even get to the foundation. So it's kind of working us backwards in a way. So we talked last week about how if we wanted to again establish a strong foundation, we would need to have exalted aspirations, maintain Allah's reverence, expend ourselves in service khidmah, fulfill our resolve. So once we have an intention that we actually see it through, and then to be in the practice of gratitude, magnifying one's blessings, always mentioning them, of course, feeling the gratitude in the heart, mentioning it on one's tongue, and then working towards good deeds as a reflection of one's gratitude. So those are the three levels of gratitude. Now today we're going to talk about how we can get to those levels, because those are all conduct related. So the foundations of right conduct in order to get to what we just shared, to the place where we have exalted aspirations, where we can maintain Allah's reverence and we can do khidmah freely from a pure intention and we see through our intentions, making sure that we finish and complete them to the best of our ability, and that we're always in the state of gratitude. In order to get there, we have to then look at what the foundations of right conduct or corrective conduct are. So that's what we're going to talk about today. So again, he has these bulleted points here, organized, structured, so that we can really follow this through. The first point he makes is seeking sacred knowledge in order to fulfill Allah's commands. And this, of course, follows logic, right? That in order to have correct conduct, you need to know what correct conduct is. So knowledge and being in pursuit of knowledge is really important. And I've mentioned this in previous sessions as well, that we, as Muslims, always have to see ourselves as students of knowledge. And it's really important that we hold on to that part of our identity until we take our last breath, because Islam is so rich and it's so deep that we'll never be able to fully arrive at any level of true understanding. But at least we can be on that path, inshallah. So seeking sacred knowledge is first. And then just to share it, because it's a really good document, during the, I've been giving these sessions on the foundations for a couple of years now. And afterwards, this is on an app called Clubhouse. You may not be familiar with it, or you may be familiar with it. But I asked you, it comes in specifically, what would be a good text to follow up with this text, as well as content of character and other texts. And he pointed me to another text, which is really amazing. And that's what I'm working on now with some of the students who attend the sessions on Clubhouse. And I'm going to share that with you right now. Let me find the link for it. But he pointed me to this document called The Six Points of Tablif. And this was, this is actually a document put together by the group, as we may know it, called Tablir et Jamar. One of the main, I think the founder of it, his name is actually here in the document. I can't remember his name, but he put this together. Let me see if I can find it. So let me see here, is it? Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm looking for his name. Maulana Ilyas, Rahmatullah Ali. So he's the one who put this document together. And then another brother, by the name of Bilal Malik, translated in English. So let me go ahead and share this in our chat here, because it's a really great document for all of us to benefit from as well. As it kind of gives you many of the topics that we're going to talk about here, it gives you more broader explanations. And there's a lot of Ahadith and Quran. But that's the link for it. Oh, I think I sent it only to the south, but let me send it to the whole chat. So you guys should be able to see this now. So this is a document that we're reading together, but there's a whole section there on just the benefits, the merits, the objectives of acquiring knowledge and being in the remembrance of Allah SWT. That's actually the third point of Tabligh. And it's really beautiful. There's verses shared, but also, they mentioned here that the objective, the purpose of the alim is twofold. The first is that one is able to differentiate between the halal and the haram. And then as well as purity and impurity, what's legitimate, what's illegitimate. This would pertain to all aspects of life. So that's the first purpose of why we should acquire knowledge. The second is to know that at any given moment, in one's 24 hour existence, what Allah wants of him or her. And this is, they have an Urdu reference here, but it's basically recognizing the command relating to the present. So this is really profound because as we know, part of the challenge of the modern world is mindfulness, of is being present in the moment. It's very easy to get caught up with the distractions that are all around us. And even in our own minds, even within our thoughts, we can be pulled away from the moment. So what knowledge does as beautifully elucidated here is it first gives us all that clarity about right and wrong, basically, and good, pure, and impure, all of those things. But it also helps us to reorient ourselves in any given moment. Because if you're hyper aware of the gift of life, of the gift of the present, and also you have that taqwa that reminds you that Allah swt is watching, that your deeds are being recorded, that choices are going to be presented to you at every given moment and you will be held accountable. Then it brings you into that ideal state, that inshaAllah we all wish to be, which is again present with Allah. So these are the objectives. And then they go on to, in this document, as if you've opened it up, you can read, it's on page 11, you'll see the merits of it. And there's so many ahadith, mashaAllah, that you can just read through and skim through, that really give us a lot of insight into the value of knowledge. This is again not just something that we should think of as the activity of a student per se, like a registered student, someone who is pursuing that path of scholarship as a student that would maybe go on to do more. That, if you think of knowledge that way, then most of us would not feel inclined. But if you think of it that knowledge is a pathway for us to gain closeness, ma'rifah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then it becomes something for all of us to partake in. So here that's the first foundation. If you want right conduct, you have to seek sacred knowledge. And inshaAllah we're all hopefully doing that in our lives. We're all here and we're all students of knowledge. The second point is that we keep company with spiritual guides and the fraternity of, sorry, keeping company with spiritual guides and the fraternity of aspirants to gain insight into one's faults. So this is also another really important point because if we try to go at this alone, this path of spirituality by ourselves, very dangerous. And as they say, the one who doesn't have a spiritual guide, a sheikh or someone to help them, then Iblis will be their sheikh or their guide because he will delude you. He will make you focus on unimportant things and lose sight of really valuable things. So that's why it's very important to tether yourself to someone who is either again ahead of you in terms of if you can have access. Not everybody does. If you have access to a teacher who's in part of the chain of traditional sound knowledge, he or she has those credentials, then that would be the ideal choice that you are in a solid path of knowledge. But if not, then at least someone who is a little bit ahead of you, that maybe is older, has been down the path, knows what to stay away from because as we get to in a moment, there are pitfalls to each of these points which he's going to point out. That if you don't have, first of all, knowledge or at least access to knowledge by way of a spiritual guide, then you are susceptible to falling and slipping and causing and having real spiritual struggles that may be very difficult to overcome. So keeping company with guides but also a fraternity or sorority for the sisters, right, but a group, a group that keeps you accountable that also you can check in with. It's so important. We're a deen of Jama'a, we're a deen of Sohbah, we're a deen of the Prophet, some had companions all around him and they would always be in his orbit because obviously they wanted to be around the best of creation but I think that was a great model for all of us as well that have people around you, be in circles, be with people who you can remember Allah SWT with and as the Hadith says, al-mu'min al-mir'at al-mu'min, that the believer is a mirror for the believer. So if you don't have good company to help check in, to help, if you stray, if you maybe you stop, for example, let's say you're in a halakah or you have a routine with a group every single week and all of you come together regularly but then one stops coming. One of the attendees stops coming maybe they've been, they've fallen into a bad group. This happens all the time. People are consistent until something comes and distracts them, the dunya, shaitan, whatever it is, they're somehow now pulled away. Then your group that you've created or that you've been blessed with, hopefully, realizes your absence and will check in on you, will check in on you. They'll find out what's going on and maybe, inshallah, there is a path for you to come back. Earlier today I was watching a video of this young girl, she's mashallah, very beautiful and she was doing her makeup while she's talking. Now these are the trends where people have to be doing something while they're telling you a story but she was going on about her experience with hijab and why she left hijab and that she's not religious anymore. She's all the way, she's not even fasting and I just, my heart just sunk because I'm watching her listening to her very proudly talk about her experience in Islam as this forgotten past historical moment in her life that she's, she's not really lamenting about, she's not sad about, she's just kind of sharing certain things that happened to her and I just thought, oh, I would have been like, I wish she had, and maybe she did, maybe she had very good friends around her but she just, Allah is the one who guides and misguides but the point being is, it's sad to see that that can happen to someone that they completely leave the practice of faith but the beauty of having a good group around you is that they hold you accountable and that they follow up with you, they check in on you and they hopefully remind you of what's more important so that when you're distracted by something that distances you from Allah that you have this group