I hope you're all doing well. This is our second session since post Ramadan and Masha'Allah, we're in the month of Dhul Hijjah. This is the second official day, insha'Allah. All of you are well and enjoying this Mubarak time. I didn't realize it was going to be Dhul Hijjah last time, but Alhamdulillah, what we shared last time for those of you who were with us or weren't with us, I'll just kind of recap. We talked about the effects of post Ramadan, you know, where we are spiritually. And so I just read from something that I had created. It's just a little short list of 10 qualities that are helpful to know if you are growing spiritually or not. So I read from that. And so Alhamdulillah, here we are. It's Dhul Hijjah. And I mean it's kind of time, you know, it makes you think about how time moves so quickly sometimes. Of course, there's periods where time is stretched for us. So we ask Allah to stretch these next Mubarak nights for all of us and days for all of us so that we can really maximize the benefit. I actually wanted to start off with a few hadith just to, you know, get our hearts prepared on Dhul Hijjah, but then just give you the agenda for today. It's interesting that I said agenda, but there is a text I don't know how many of you are familiar with it but it's a transformative life changing text so in a similar vein to what we talked about last time which is really looking at the trajectory of our spiritual path kind of assessing whether we are growing or not. We, I wanted to continue that conversation but in a more proactive way. So I'm going to be reading selections from a text called agenda to change our condition. And I'll go ahead and show you an image of the book if you don't have it I highly recommend this textbook. There's a Hamsa Yusuf and a Shaker. Of course, Hamsa for those of us in the Bay Area San Francisco Bay Area we are very familiar with both of these incredible gems may Allah preserve them and protect them. But this work is one of, I think, you know, there's certain things in the in the Muslim home library that that I think every Muslim home library should have certain books, of course the Quran hadith, but there's certain texts that for all ages really in many ways, they're relevant, you could always use them to educate your families to come together for discussions for individual reading. So this is one of those texts. And so I'll get into that for the majority of the discussion but let's go ahead and start off by just reflecting on some hadith about this month inshallah. I'm going to screen share. So I will go ahead and I want you guys to have a visual I know sometimes when people are reading it's hard to follow along if you don't have that so I prepared some slides. So I'll go ahead and screen share here and let me see this middle. I hope you guys can see this. So inshallah you guys can see where we are here and your everything is clear for you. But this is the list that I read from last week, or two weeks ago, excuse me two weeks ago from today. We read from this list like I said I created this image created the list, based on just some of the readings that I've had of different scholars, where they talk about spiritual growth and so came up with this short list just to give us you know some guy is some something to test whether or not we're really growing spiritually, you're free to tune into that session it's up on the MCC website and if you want to listen to that talk. But this is the slide that accompanies that talk unfortunately I didn't have it last time on hand, but I wanted to provide it, at least here. So let's go ahead and look at the virtues of this beautiful time of the year for all of us. You know it's amazing when you think about how many opportunities we have every day, and throughout the year we're almost practice in many ways throwing us a lifeline spiritually. Ramadan is certainly a big one, and all of us are so in need of those 30 days to really renew our faith to commit to get into good habits. As we talked about last time it's very normal, because the ego is so strong and we don't have the incredible gift that we have gotten that we we had for so long and maybe even took for granted may Allah forgive us of our jamma right. Ramadan in many ways other than this virtual space has been taken from most of us now for months and it's been very spiritually taxing. I've heard from many people who are struggling with prayers, struggling with hijab, struggling with different spiritual works because even reading the Quran because what they had before this consistent weekly at least dosage of Ramadan or programs at the masjid where they could see community members. They no longer have that and it's difficult to manage the online classes, even though, Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah we still have a great many teachers and organizations that are still providing programs. Of course MCC is included among them may Allah protect and preserve all of the staff and everybody involved with MCC for facilitating, but still people are feeling the effects of this quarantine that has just stretched out for so long. And so the spiritual reality or the reality is that many people are spiritually in those in that, you know, that state of just vacillating between, you know, with highs and lows and that's natural. A few a couple months after Ramadan ends, Allah gives us this next great windfall, spiritual windfall of the Hijjah at the first 10 days. So Alhamdulillah this is again from the mercy of our Lord. And when you reflect on the Hadith and you realize what an opportunity this is, then it makes you kind of reinvigorates you, you know, and inshallah we need to we need that we need that reinvigoration whenever we find ourselves slipping and just sort of losing momentum. So Alhamdulillah for our Deen, Alhamdulillah for Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and his generosity for blessing us to witness these Mubarak days, may we make the most of them. So let's look at what the Prophet said and told us. He said here in this first Hadith, the Prophet said there are no days in which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala than in these 10 days. So MashaAllah I'm having made Hajj, I know from personal experience, the preparation of the excitement in the heart of the believer who's going for the journey of Hajj is, it's really hard to capture in words. For those who've been, you know what I'm talking about, even for Umrah, anytime you visit the sacred cities, but Hajj has a distinct quality of excitement, fear, there's just so much emotion preparing for that. But again, just reflecting on the mercy of Allah that he has made this period accessible to not just the Hajj and those on the journey, but for all of us in order of maximizing our deeds and the potential of amassing as many rewards as we possibly can. So SubhanAllah we have to reflect on that because every year I'm sure, with the exception of this year, every year there's always that feeling from those who are left behind wanting so much, yearning so much to be able to make this journey, whether it's Hajj or Umrah, but especially during this month. And so the fact that Allah SWT kind of levels the playing field, if you would, by telling us that all of our righteous deeds are beloved to Allah SWT in this time more than any other time. To me it's just such a profound thing and something we should not take for granted, which means really being mindful of what we're doing in this time. You know, so this is a period of time where you want to make sure you're not squandering it on anything that's wasteful. You know, doing things that are no benefit or just engaging in wrong deeds obviously would be reprehensible more so in this time than any other time because of the sanctity of this time. So you want to really watch yourself and say, what am I going to do in the next eight days now that we're in the second, you know, day already? What's my plan? Or do I have a goal? You know, much like some of the sisters on some of these threads that I'm, you know, we're all on WhatsApp threads. But I received from a couple of sisters this little hijab PDF and it was really like a chart or a way of keeping yourself motivated every single day of these 10 days. And I thought that was really great, especially for young children to get involved if you want to start creating that system of, you know, just holding yourself to account or having accountability, right? Because if you have a chart or something where you're writing things down, it's really easy to see your progress and it's good to get the kids started on something like that early. Similar to how we do it for Ramadan, right? We have the Ramadan calendars and a lot of parents get their kids excited with incentives and things like that. We can do the same for this period of the month. So taking yourself into account, setting some goals, what are you planning to do? If you're going to plan to read more Quran, are you doing selected prayers or making up for missed prayers? Are you planning to do anything? Attending classes? Something of virtue or the more the merrier, right? But really thinking for the next few days, or eight days or so, what is your plan and taking advantage of the potential of it. The next hadith here we have the Prophet ﷺ said, or was reported to have said, there are no days greater and more beloved to Allah than these 10 days of Dhul-Hijjah. So increase in them your declaration of the oneness of Allah, right? La ilaha illa Allah. Your exaltation of Him and praise of Him, right? Subhanallah. And your praise of Him, Alhamdulillah. All of the asqara that we know that they could that this be that we would do on a normal even more so during this mubarak time. And in the last hadith here, the Prophet ﷺ said, no good deeds can be done at a time better than these first 10 days of Dhul-Hijjah. And one of the Sahaba asked, not even jihad in the way of Allah, the Prophet ﷺ said, not even jihad in the way of Allah. Again, telling us how important it is that we take advantage of this windfall of Dhul-Hijjah and not take it for granted. I know, as I said before, we're all in a slump physically, emotionally, mentally, because of the difficulty of this quarantine and maybe other personal issues that people are going with. But the case remains that are the fact still remains that this is a incredible time for all of us to reconnect, maybe get capture what we were missing from Ramadan. So inshallah, may Allah unify our hearts and really help us to set some practical and sustainable goals. You know, you don't want to go too to the extreme when you're setting goals for this type of stuff. You want to have practical goals and really listen to yourself and work consistently. That's the most important thing. Creating habits, spiritual habits that are consistent, even if they're smaller as we know from the hadith, is better than trying to do too much.  So we want to avoid extremes. So may Allah give us balance and bring our hearts together. So I just wanted to put these reminders as we continue the conversation for all of us to reflect on and so that when we leave this short time that we have together, we have some goals in mind or we start to prepare for some goals, inshallah. So with that said, I think this book Agenda to Change Our Condition is quite fitting because it really is about helping us to formulate better habits and there are so many treasures in this book. I actually considered starting in a sort of chronological order from the beginning, but I thought about, let's go to the back actually I'm going to do something a little different and I have my own reasons for that but I really think that we in order to set on the spiritual path and really commit to doing something that is consistent and transformative. We have to consider everything in front of us you know what the options are or what we're setting out to do sort of like when you prepare for travel right you have to really think about what your where your destination is what you're going to do to prepare for that. And this text mashallah from the beginning it kind of dives right into a lot of very obviously beneficial things, but I feel like the back of the book, where the appendix is has a lot of great advice and the more advice, the better right especially because we're just so bereft. And you know there's reasons for that this is a very difficult time in the world, and many of us don't have as I said access like we normally would or we just simply don't there are a lot of people I know sisters and brothers and communities that are far away. We don't have access to teachers so that's why they're so mashallah grateful for these types of programs because they really don't have that support system in place but the more we can learn from our predecessors before us, our spiritual guides before us the better So part of this book, we have appendix a is actually advice from city Ahmed Zaruk who was a great scholar kind of saint and he has many different wonderful. There's just so much guidance here so in the time that we have I'm going to try to time myself as much as you know be be a try to watch the clock because I can get ahead of myself and not go overboard but I will go through some of the advice he has and then whatever we don't complete today if we can't get to all of it inshallah will continue in our next meeting which will be two weeks from now so For those of you again who are joining and may not be clear. Normally when we do these haqqas with the sisters it was once a month but for the time being anyway during this quarantine we're going to do him twice a month so every other week. So we'll be back in two weeks but let's go ahead and go to the next slide where inshallah you will see. Here's the title of the book again for those who don't have the book I highly recommend that you get it. You can check sandala, which is the main publisher and find it there if you have a local bookstore inshallah it's always great to support the local businesses. So check it out there, but this is the name and the authors. So let's go ahead and look at this advice that city of itself gives us. So this the first what I like about the way that he structured his advice just to give you a little bit of context before I jump in is that he separates things in fives. Okay, so you'll see as we continue with the slides that there are five. You know, pieces of advice and each advice is sort of built upon what or how should I say it's kind of going backwards like this right here this first slide is the is the goal right it's the spiritual path. So he lays out what the foundations of the path are first in the way and we'll get to the details. But then the next slide. He describes to us how we get to these five and then the slide after that or the list after that is how you get to the five before so it's kind of like, in a way working backwards and deconstructing the spiritual path but I think it's really brilliantly done because there's so much good for thought and so much content that we can really use for a discussion so if we look here. He often says, the foundations of our path or five. So, first is mindfulness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala privately and publicly. So if you want to be on a spiritual path and really be committed and devoted. This is the most essential point that you are a consistent person in your mindfulness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and of course from the Hadid of Jibril. We understand the difference between Islam, Iman and Ehsan right. Ehsan is to imagine that you see Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala knowing you can't see him, but also being aware that he sees you. This is what Jibril Alehsan revealed to us so that we understand that is the ultimate goal. Islam, of course, is important. It's, you know, it's actions, right. It's showing the display of your faith. Iman is what you're, you know, what you believe in. So of course those are all essentials. But to take your faith to the next level is to have that awareness at all times.  That you are aware of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and you seek to please him, obviously, but that you have that presence. So I kind of, I've been teaching through the Rahmah Foundation for the summer school program and we've been teaching teens. So we also covered this text. And one of the ways I tried to explain how this works, this concept of thinking of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala is kind of imagining like a cloud above your head that is always telling you to remember Allah, right. The cloud itself has some message, but there's a cloud that follows you everywhere you go.  You feel the cloud above you, right. And so that's kind of how you want to imagine this mindset to this consciousness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. You don't need you at any point. You're always aware that it's there. And so this analogy of the cloud is useful because sometimes we're distracted by things in front of us, right. That's the dunya. This is the whole test that we're all under is that the dunya is, it bedazzles us. It takes us away from the remembrance of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. But our objective as believers is to always, even in those experiences when we're, things are trying to pull us away, that we check in regularly, right. So we're, the cloud doesn't move. It's always there, but we have to also be cognizant of the cloud and bring awareness into our mind of the cloud. So we look up to make sure that it's there. It will be there, but it's just that it's on us. The onus is on us, because if we don't do that regularly, right. If we become deluded by all of the distractions around us and we forget the presence of the cloud, then clearly we will get sucked into whatever it is that's pulling us away. But our responsibility is that we have to actively become aware of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala in this way that we look up and then we realize that his presence is there. And you know, I'm speaking not physically, right. We're not placing Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala physical space, but I'm talking about the consciousness, the awareness of the mind, right, that Allah is always there. So, but having that in public and private space. Okay. And he says here, I'm just going to read the commentary mindfulness of Allah is realized through scrupulousness and uprightness. Right. And this is being scrupulous, being constantly aware of oneself and always, you know, putting the standard of having high standards right you're not taking it, taking these matters lightly so really do your due diligence and being upright. And then the next point is adherence to the Sunnah and word indeed. So this is another very important component. I was speaking to a friend earlier, and we were just having a conversation, but I just said, we have to be willing to always redirect the lens back on ourselves or, or, you know, to hold ourselves accountable for the things that we say and the things that we claim. So when we claim to love the Prophet, it's easy to say on the tongue, right, but the proof of the claim is in word and action. And so if we don't adhere to his Sunnah, if we prefer our own way over his way, then we cannot make that same claim of devotion and love. It's not consistent. If you truly are devoted to him and you truly love him, it's not enough to just weep at the mention of his name, or listening to a Nashid or a Qasidah and your heart use, or doing salawat and you are just repeating it. It's not good things in and of themselves, but the proof of true devotion of true love is whether or not you apply his Sunnah to your own life. So adhering to his Sunnah and word indeed, if you're truly wanting to be on the spiritual path, that that is a foundational principle you cannot be on the path and not be consistent with that. And he says here that adherence to the Sunnah through caution and excellent character, caution and excellent character, right, thinking about always what would the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam do, would he be pleased with me, right, and preferring always to have the most beautiful character in every situation. And I'll tell you, yesterday, my kids were watching the Celebrate Mercy broadcast. And it was said, Shem Mahmood and Shafi'as al-Fahmi, and they were both teaching last night during a class of Surat al-Mulk. And I encourage those of you who don't know to look that class up. It's a wonderful program. It's actually going to be happening soon, but 730, I think, to 839 every night. So anyhow, they were watching it. And both of the brothers, mashallah, you know, they were in totally prophetic character and the way that they were speaking to each other. So much adab, just preferring one another, just really beautiful display. But my son, because he was looking at it as a, he didn't understand like how they were so nice to each other, thinking that they were maybe not, they didn't really know each other. You know, it's normal to expect that from family or from really close friends, but he just thought, these are two teachers and they're just teaching in class.  And I reminded him, this is the prophetic way. This is the beautiful character of our prophet, so I said that they are displaying Mashallah, may Allah protect and preserve them. So we have to continue with that in our own practice. And also, I would add to this in public and in private so in our homes, and when we're out and about in the company of other people. Then we have the next which is indifference to the acceptance or rejection of others. This is also subhanallah really profound because we're living in a time and era where people pleasing is rampant. And many people sometimes even prefer to please people before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it's, you know, they're not, they're thinking short term versus long term. So this is where a person may, for example, be out with their friends and you know, adults and youth, I think everybody in between has possibly either been in the situation before or, or, you know, close to it. But the prayer time for prayer comes, you could be out with your friends or even in a social setting, right, a party, a dinner party. Some somewhere where where you may choose to prefer to just keep the peace or, you know, not ruin the fun. And so prayer comes in and you think to yourself it's okay I'll pray when I get home later. How many people have done that in our community. And we know that Allah's father created us for nothing else but to worship him. But we've gotten into the state of, you know, political correctness or social, you know, anxiety where you just start to think that if you do something and you have, you know, say something speak up, right, about something important that it might cost you socially. So you retreat, you don't say anything at all. And it's usually because you're too preoccupied with being accepted or rejected by other people. So the believer is not worried about that the sincere believer always thinks about the pleasure of Allah, knowing full well that if Allah is pleased with them, then everything else will fall into place. And the whole worry gain the anxiety that people get caught up in worrying about relationships worrying about impressing other people worrying about being included in groups, or, or what have you comes from a place of deep insecurity, but the believer who has strong faith and prioritizes Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la in every instance doesn't afflicted with that because they know that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, he will, you know, he can he can do anything and he can turn these people's hearts this way or that way, as long as we focus on pleasing him, we don't worry about the the people or anyone else. So really having that concrete, like your focus is on Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and not worrying about other people. So he says here, in difference to the acceptance or rejection of others through patience and trust, right. So that's what it is that trust is that confidence that lack of insecurity, and that patience that, you know, just because someone may not understand you or not agree with you now, give people time, you know, there's time, some people need time to process things, but you have to have that trust. We were speaking again earlier during this class with with the teen girls, and one of the girls asked about, you know, what do you do about hijab, you know, if you want to wear hijab but your father is, you know, isn't as worried about your safety and security.  Well, you can't do anything to change your dad's or forget about it. But being patient with people who may not accept something you want to do, even if it's obedience to Allah in this case anyway, is, is wise, right, because Allah can turn their heart eventually, but you have to be patient and strategic and wise and, you know, have that emotional intelligence to know how to handle that situation, but not to give up. Same with converts, right, many converts enter the faith and their parents or their family members in the beginning may reject them, but we have to be patient because they might not accept you, but their hearts are in, you know, they're with Allah's path so that he can do anything. And how many people have come after some time to say, you know, I, my parents were so against this faith and now a year later or three months later, my mom wants to take Shahada, my dad, my brother, you know, Allah can do anything So we have to just have that confidence in him, trust in him and be patient not to rush things, right, but really not to be moved or swayed by people. It's all Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Then we have, he has your satisfaction with Allah in hardship and ease. So this is also incredibly important.  And we have to always, always make sure that whether we have hardship or ease that our opinion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not affected, right. We're not those like the fair weather friends who are only there when things are going good, but then they disappear when you're having hardships. Who wants a friend like that, right? Who wants anybody in their life like that, who's only there for the party, but then when there's challenges and difficulties, they've disappeared, right, nobody wants that. So we should never be that way with our Lord. We have to always have the best opinion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that ultimately, even in those hardships that we endure, as long as we remain patient, that his pleasure to acquire his pleasure is worth every instance, every millisecond of pain and hardship that we endure, because his little thought is the is the prize. So that's the kind of attitude you have. And similarly, when things are going in ease for you that you don't forget to remember and to be grateful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala where you start to take things for granted. As I said in the beginning, many of us just got so used to the liberties we had, whether it was traveling or ease of movement, going in and out of the house, visiting our friends and family, going shopping, all the ease we had, the masjid, you know, being able to just, oh, I'm going to go pray, you know, Maghrib at the masjid or Fajr or Isha, inshallah, Fajr and Isha. But you know, I'm going to go pray at the masjid. It was something that we just thought would always be consistent and available to us as long as we walked and drove over there. Well, here we are, right? That ease that we had, did we, we have to ask ourselves with all of the ease that we were given, did we truly show Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gratitude or did we just kind of take it as it's just, you know, it's what I deserve. There's a form of entitlement almost, right? Privilege. This is what privilege is when you forget that it's actually all a blessing. And even now, despite everything we're going through, the reality is the hardships we are enduring are nothing compared to what so many other people are suffering. And now, before us, after us, I mean, really, when we compare the lives that we have living in the West, living for those of us who are here in California, it's one of the most coveted areas in the entire world, we really don't have much to complain about. We are still in Nehmeh and we have to check ourselves whenever our nafs wants to take us into a dark place where we start to get ungrateful, check for yourself. No, sakhfirullah, be grateful for my limbs. I mean, we have to, there's times during the day, if it's, if this isn't something that's second nature to you, that you might have to just start doing where you actually start to look at yourself in a way that is, you know, almost like you're outside of your body and you're observing yourself, because that moment of just looking at your hands, for example, should really put you in a state of subhanallah, right?  This is the process of gratitude. This is exactly how people who are, you know, trying to be grateful and always be mindful of their blessings. These are the practices. It's taking account. It's listing mentally or by hand making actual lists or doing these type of exercises where you are becoming conscious of the blessings and bringing awareness to your blessings. So, you know, doing that as a regular consistent practice and not ever complaining to Allah swt. Audhu Billah from ever complaining about Allah or to Allah about what He puts us in. May Allah protect our hearts from being of those who complain to our Lord when He is so generous. The generosity of Allah is something we can't even measure. We can't fathom, seek protection from Allah, from being of those who are ungrateful and complain, and rather ask Him to make you of those who are patient, right? May Allah swt make us all patient and grateful, right? So the last point here, he says, turning to Allah in prosperity and adversity. So similar, right, that whether or not from a material lens you have prosperity, success, right? Everything's sort of going well for you. You have ample wealth. You're able to, you know, provide for yourself, your family, you have financial security, whether you're in that situation or you are in debt or experiencing real challenges financially, that you, your protocol is to turn to Him always in a state of immense gratitude and obligation, right? When you have wealth, it's a gift from Allah swt. It's also a test. It's supposed to, you're supposed to do something with that wealth and He's watching to see how you are responding, right? So you have to become aware that it's not just for me to enjoy this wealth and take advantage of this wealth, but I also have to respond in a way that pleases Him the most. So it's an amana to have wealth, and that's where the turning to Allah would take place, that Allah, please guide my decisions with this wealth that you've given me. Please, you know, be pleased with me. Please don't take me into account. Purify my wealth. This is the type of mindset that one has when they have wealth. And when they have adversity similar, they turn to Allah swt. Ya Allah, please increase my risk. Ya Allah, I have nothing without you.  You are the most generous and really having that yakeen that only Allah swt is going to be able to provide for you, only Allah swt. Nobody else will give you, and if he uses the means, obviously people can be the means to how that reaches you, but the source is always Allah swt. You have this solid in your mind, where it's just default, you know exactly what to do in these situations, and you don't stray from that. And so, Siddiah Mazarouk, again, on the last two points, he said that with the satisfaction with Allah and hardship, he says, the reaction through acceptance of what one is given and consignment of one's affairs to Allah, and then turning to Allah through praise and gratitude in times of prosperity, and through asylum with Allah in times of affliction. So he's much more eloquent than I am in the way that he simplified that, but inshallah it's the same message of really having the proper response to these situations. So now, as I mentioned, if anybody's joining late, the way that this advice that Siddiah Mazarouk has provided is constructed is that it's building upon itself. So we're going to deconstruct it in a way. We're going backwards. So these five foundations he starts with, then here we get here, where he gives us an insight on the qualities we need to have in order to get back to here. So we have to possess these, and then we can get here. So I love, again, how he's done this. And that's why I was really excited to share this with all of you. But let's look here. Possessing celestial aspirations. I love his terminology because it's just so, it's enough, right? It's very, it's so telling, it's clear, but just to offer a little bit more insight. You know, having high aspirations, this dunya is not our goal. We don't plan for this world as the end all be all, you know, we just, there are people who are really focused on success in the dunya. And it's sad because they compromise their akhira for it. They're that obsessed with material success that they'll compromise their akhira for it. And so we want to have higher aspirations because if you really think about it, no matter what you achieve in a material way, it pales in comparison, pales in comparison to any type of success in the akhira. And why? Because this life is fleeting, it's temporal, and it really in the grand scheme of things, it's very little weight, right, in terms of what it means. It's not very meaningful. The weight of our deeds will be really realized in the next life. So you want to have celestial aspirations. Look beyond the material world. Look to the next world. How can I get to Jannah? How can I please Allah's power? How can I be among those who love the Prophet's life and he loves them, and that we are with him? How can I have the ultimate, ultimate prize ever that we could possibly fathom, which is the beatific vision of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Jannah the third of those? How can we have that? How can I get there? What do I need to do to get there? So we don't look to this world and just think about degrees and money and homes and carves and wealth and accumulation of worldly things as being the drive that wakes us up every morning.  I was always amazed that there were so many people on the streets so early in the morning because I had early shifts. So, you know, Fajr and then I'd have to go teach at the school or go to the office. But I was always kind of an early riser. But it was kind of bittersweet. It was heartbreaking, right?  Most people on the road with you driving on the freeway were likely doing many other things other than remembering Allah. They were maybe listening to the morning news or having their breakfast, curling their hair, having, you know, their coffee or doing their makeup for two to three hours. But they weren't remembering Allah. And now they're on the streets in pursuit of their dunya. And so, you know, this is what a lot of people like I said, they'll go to great lengths for the dunya. If it comes to Allah, they're forgetful. So may Allah protect us from that. But always seeking higher goals, right? Then we have preserving reverence for Allah. So key, you know, if you have a bad opinion or bad adab with Allah, it's going to be very difficult to elevate your spiritual path. Right. If you start to question, like, you know, people, this is why it's so important to read the books, like purification of the heart by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf. Because he will explain to you that displeasure with the divine decree is a disease of the heart. So anytime you ever say why Allah, why did you do this to me? That is having a van of Allah. You are literally having a bad opinion of Allah. It's a disease of the heart.  And so they end up in many ways. This is my opinion anyway, but I think they anthropomorphize Allah because when you start to speak to Allah in those human terms, you're forgetting that he is the Lord and Master of the universe.  You cannot talk to the Creator of the universe in that way. Humble yourself as the stars and the mountains and all of the celestial beings and everything in creation, the fish and the sea and the rocks and the trees and the great prophets before like all of the greatest things in this existence have prostrated and humbled themselves before Allah. And here we are in 2020 because, you know, in many ways we've reached the height of human arrogance with with the modern, you know, scientific sort of mindset that we all have acquired that where we think we can talk to about Allah or talk to Allah in this way. We have to really make a saqfer from that. Allah is above everything. And when we say Allahu Akbar, we have to mean that literally. Allah deserves the best of the best of the best of the best and nothing less. And even if you're going through really difficult times and I'm not saying this, you know, from a soapbox, I hope people understand I have been through challenges in life. And so I'm speaking from lived experiences of I know it's difficult when you're going through a test to see the silver lining to see what could possibly be the wisdom of this. Yalla, I didn't plan for this. I didn't ask for this. I've had some people come to me and say, I made this the khada and you know, how could this happen? SubhanAllah, you know, this is why Sahaba is so important. If you don't watch the company that you keep and you don't have the teachers who reorient reorient you when you're getting out of line to remind you, wait a second, who do you think you are? Right? Who do you think you are? When you have prophets who suffered for decades, who suffered immense, you know, things that most of us couldn't even fathom, being ostracized, being pushed away, having stricken with disease and illness, having your children taken from you or killed, so much betrayal. Our own beloved Salih said, look what he endured. So we have to really ask ourselves, who do I think I am that I can, you know, have this attitude that tells me that I deserve everything a certain way. And if I don't get that way, I can go back to Allah and challenge him, right? And question him in this way of I don't deserve this. It's from Iblis, those thoughts. And so we have to reject that. And this is why when you commit to this path, you have to understand we are asked about everything that we do because we were brought into existence by Allah and we were nothing and He brought us into existence and then He gave us the incredible gift of existence. It's a gift of consciousness to be aware of Him. He gave us life. He gave us all that for one reason, which is to worship Him. And then He told us we will be held accountable for what we do. And it's pretty simple formula, right? But we are not, it's not equal. This isn't an equal relationship where we can question Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala on what He's decreed for us. Rather, we surrender. We submit Yallah. I don't know what's good for me. I have no clue. But if you're putting me through this challenge, even though I am frustrated, I'm angry, and you can feel those emotions. Sometimes people are testing you. Maybe you're in your family. There's relationships that are testing you. You're not a robot to turn off that emotion. So feel the emotion, but assigning blame to Allah, that's where we have to be very careful. So we never assign any negative emotion or blame to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. We accept if He's given us something, whether it's a positive thing or something about a blessing or a tribulation, that there's always, khayr in it, always. It's just a promise, right? Because He knows better. So having that vision of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala always with, as they say, rose-colored glasses, always hasnab van, never even entertaining a negative thought about Allah is so key and so important. And so the next is excelling in service of others.  Self-centered people are not spiritually very successful, because it's not the prophetic way. The Prophet ﷺ was in khidmah all the time. He was always caring for people, always taking care of everyone. So you can't try to, you know, be on his path, but not be up for service of other people, right? And always thinking of your own self. It just doesn't work. It's not consistent. Then he says, fulfilling one's results, right? Whatever resolutions that you have.  Follow through. Again, this is just a very difficult time in existence because people do a lot of lip service. They say a lot of things. They promise things that they can't deliver. And so we want to be very careful of falling into any of that type of behavior where we are very lofty in our goals and aspirations. And it comes time to execute them. We kind of give up. So hold yourselves to account. And of course, you know, when there's moments of weakness, that's normal. Don't be too hard on yourself. But look at it like something you still have to achieve. I said it, I have to follow through. If I said it, my word is serious. If even if it takes me a lifetime, I'm going to do it because I committed to it, right? Oaths are important and we value them. So fulfilling one's results and then exalting one's blessings, right? Being always in a state of gratitude. As we said earlier, if you cannot, if it takes you a long time to think of your blessings, it's probably because you don't reflect on them enough. But if you were asked quickly, could you give me 30 of the things that you are the most grateful for in like five minutes. If that was an exercise that you were asked to do, and it took you more than five minutes to do, you need to be better. You should be able to list quickly every single blessing that you can. I mean, it should just come to you quickly because it's a habit. It's something that you reflect on enough. But I've been in those situations, you know, I do a lot of group work. So I've sometimes given exercises like that for people. And of course, I understand not everybody, you know, people process information differently. Some people are very quick and they can list things out fast. Other people might take their time. But the point is, is you have to ask yourself, am I doing this exercise of being able to really show my gratitude to always prep that up for different things enough? Or is recall difficult for me because I don't do it enough. I might know the big things like, oh yeah, I'm grateful for my health, my family. We have the cliche pat responses that everybody knows, right? But I'm talking about detail.  That is something when who thinks about eyelashes, like who sits there and reflects like, wow, what a blessing it is that I have eyelashes. Except for the person who thinks about eyelashes, right? If you're, if you're aware, because you're purposely bringing things into your consciousness to think about, wow, I should be grateful for this, you're going to do it. But if you've never done that before, then it wouldn't occur to you to be grateful for your eyelashes or grateful for, you know, saliva, right? Grateful for the hairs in your nose. These are things that we don't think about when we think about gratitude. Like I said, we think about the big obvious things. But there are so many more things that we should be grateful for that when you start to compare yourself to people who don't have those things, then it suddenly hits you, right? Like, oh, wow, when you watch a documentary, for example, on someone who lost is a paraplegic and they lost their limbs, all of a sudden everybody becomes super grateful for the ability to move and walk and run. But maybe without watching something like that, we don't even think about it. So this is, you know, something we have to take seriously enough where it's automatic. We don't have to deliberate heavily on it. It's not something that takes a long time. So being in the habit of all of being able to recall your blessings. And he just says in his commentary quickly, for the first point, possessing celestial aspirations, he says, when one aspires to heights, one station rises, subhanallah. Again, I can't even compete. I won't even try to how beautifully he captures each of these points. You know, you want to rise to Allah, or you have that as your goal, Allah will elevate you, right? One preserves Allah's sanctity. One's sanctity is preserved. Subhanallah, so beautiful. We all want to be, you know, saved and have that safety and that just feeling of Sakina, excuse me. So how do we do that? Well, we, we of course have, we preserve the reverence for Allah. When one excels in service, one standing is assured. So when you put other people before yourself, excuse me, Allah subhanallah, will be pleased with you. So you are in that state, safe state. When one fulfills resolutions, one's guidance continues. So subhanallah, the more you are, hold yourself accountable for those things that you say that you're going to do and that you commit to doing and you follow through. Allah's path draws you near and near and your guidance continues. That's the byproduct of that, masha'Allah. And then when one exalts blessings, one is grateful and gratitude ensures increase from the ever giving in accord with his sincere promise.  It's just a proof of his, of why he is to be worshipped as he deserves because there's just, you know, his praises are innumerable, but we have to look at these things as reasons for us to reflect and to follow through. So subhanallah. Now, as I mentioned, these five perceive qualities, proceed the five foundations that I mentioned earlier, right? So in order to get to, sorry, the slide shows a little slow at the moment. Let me see. I'm trying to move the slide. Okay, so in order to get to here, we need these, right? But how do we get here? Well, we need these. So you see how it works? We're going backwards, right? So let's look at what he has to say. And I know we have just a couple of minutes left. So, or a few minutes left. So I'll try to be quick. But he has here the five foundations of proper conduct. So first, pursuing knowledge to fulfill the sacred affair. Really important, right? We want to pursue knowledge. And we have to be serious in our commitment to pursuing knowledge.  No, that's not right. And we will be held accountable. We're in the West. We all have access to knowledge, even if we are not in communities where maybe they have Islamic centers and teachers. We still have access to knowledge through this very medium that we're on right now, the internet. So we really have to take seriously the pursuit of knowledge and be consistent in that. Accompanying a spiritual guide and a fraternity to gain insight. You know, not only should we seek knowledge, but we should seek knowledge from the correct sources. There's a lot of people out there who presume to have knowledge and to, and they, you know, they amass a following and, you know, a lot will judge them, but it's very important that you recognize who the true scholar is or who the who a qualified teacher is versus someone who may have ulterior motives. And, you know, that's there's a way to vet teachers finding out where they studied who they studied with, whether or not their sources are authentic. You don't have to do that due due diligence, because there are people unfortunately who take advantage of other people with with faith or charlatans out there so you have to be really careful. Before you just take someone's word or follow them. And then also you want to follow, but you want to have a group that you are able to lean on as well so that because in our own mind sometimes when we're processing knowledge or taking knowledge we can come to conclusions but it's really helpful to have a jamma, a group maybe that you're studying with to bounce off ideas to share ideas and to gain from their wisdom and knowledge and vice versa, and not to take this endeavor as, as something that you do alone because shaitan draws to those who are always alone in things you know so you want to lean on the jamma, but seek those people who are trustworthy inshallah, and vet people correctly. Next, abandoning dispensations and excuses for one's own protection. So, you know there's a lot of times we're easy on ourselves right we let the ego make excuses, and we take the short cuts and we find loopholes, so that things are made easy for us you want to really be careful of doing not where you are cherry picking things and you're not consistent. It's just all about ease for you because now your nefs is in control right so really being careful of that managing once time for litanese that results in the presence of the heart. So, litanese are prayers right formulaic prayers that we do all taken from the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and they include all of the daily protective Dawaz that he left for us throughout history different scholars created their formulas of how to take his prayers and adopt them during the day, so some would you know have selective prayers in a certain, you know as I said a formula, and they were different so there's the word that is one of the more common ones that our teachers have told us but imam of know he has them there's other scholars who have their own a rod or litany. But in here, managing one's time for litanese making sure that you are doing them, but not doing them where you are not you've lost mindfulness right of what you're saying, making sure that it's an exercise where you're truly aware of the purpose of it. So when you're listening to the way or you're reading the way we're citing the word whatever you're doing, that you're bringing those words into your consciousness that you're really internalizing the meanings and focusing. It's not just words coming out of your mouth that you don't know what you're saying like many of us in our prayers this is a challenge for all everybody gets distracted which is normal, but many people have a very hard time connecting to the prayer, because they don't know the words so that's always starting place if you're having a hard time connecting to your prayer maybe you need to look into the deeper meanings of what you're saying, and be able to recall all of those meanings while you're reciting, but if you if it's just a foreign language to it's going to be hard so really having presence of heart when you're doing those litanese, and then guarding against the ego to free it of whims and save it from destructive tendencies. The nafs is works against us right it's a part of us that works against us. It is very it's the portal or the access point for Iblis you know to to really reach us. So we have to be very careful and make sure that we can control it and command it, and that's what the whole to skid the nafs process is become so aware of one's nafs that you're able to dictate to it, instead of letting it always dictate to you so an example would be you wake up. Let's say fudger alarm goes off, or maybe even before fudger you know let's say fudger now and where I am. I think it comes in, like around 455 456 something like that very close to the 5am mark. So if you wake up at 430 your eyes are wide open.  You should get up. This is a mubarak time. This is counted still as the Hajj, even though it's 30 minutes more till fudger, you should get up. If that thought comes to you, you want to look at it that maybe that was my angel might you know I have angels that are around me or maybe it was an invitation from Allah SWT like who Allah knows right we have different inspirations that reaches the hawat that right. So that internal dialogue of maybe I should get up versus what the nafs is going to tell you. It's, you got 30 minutes it's way too early you have to go to work after that you have a morning meeting later you got to catch up on your sleep otherwise you're going to be groggy you're going to be cranky. And so you start to confuse you know, make a really good argument for why you should remain in bed. Right. Now, remember, this is your nafs working against you. And but of course the blissful would, you know monopolize or, or pounce on that opportunity because it's, it's wonderful opportunity to completely make you miss your prayer how many people has that happened to where they dilute themselves to thinking that they'll just wake up for fudger or set the alarm, you know, at fudger time.  But what happens to them. Right.  The point I'm making is that we are presented with opportunities like that all the time where the nafs is battling us because we have the Ruh which is always longing to for Allah SWT wanting to do the right thing. And then lower self. And when those two are at it, you'll, you have to pay attention because whenever you don't do what you know you should do your ego has won. And so that means that if that's a constant, then you are your ego dictates to you. But when you can push yourself out of bed in that example I gave, even though you are so tired and you are warm and it's so comfortable.  That is you dictating to your ego because it's going to not want you to do that. And then when you go make will do it's a whole other experience right I had this clear what happens when the person wakes up and the knots are untied. But the point is, you know, this is, this is our jihad every single day so guarding against the ego to free its wins so much wisdom and there's a lot more to cover. He again, may Allah bless him, has given us so much to reflect on and to think about this is it continues. So what I would like to do is, I'm going to stop here because we are at time a little bit over time, and invite you to join me in a couple of weeks where we will continue the advice from see David Zaroq inshallah. And if there are any questions, you know, next time I let me actually quickly look because I do have access to the Facebook link on zoom unfortunately I can't see the questions in zoom because it's a private room but let me quickly look on the Facebook page to see if there are any questions or anything that anybody has I forgive me for going over. I don't want to keep you on too long. There's some very sweet comments here but if there's anybody who has any questions about anything that was shared. I can stay on for another maybe we'll go to 810 just to to follow the questions if there's any questions I am on the Facebook group. Actually, let me see sorry YouTube I know there's, we're so high tech here at MCC Mashallah the Bible a male or reward brother Muneer and his fantastic team because they've got, you know, we're on everything we're on Facebook we're on YouTube. I'm on my own Facebook so there's a lot of screens here I'm going to try to find where this is to see, inshallah if there are any questions on the YouTube page. So let me look here. Okay, sorry. Oh, you're going to hear me. We mute myself. Alright, so I'm going to just quickly check the chat room or the there's a chat happening here. I want to make sure that I get all of your questions. Sorry. Okay, I can't open up the chat it just says there's a verse in the Quran someone's posting okay so I don't know if there's any further questions but I don't see anything there so let me quickly go back to the Facebook page of MCC and see if there's any questions there if not then inshallah we can wrap it up for tonight and I will. I look forward to seeing you guys in a couple of weeks, but let me do a refresh I don't want to miss any questions and see them afterwards. Okay, so I don't see anything. Ladies and maybe brothers I think brothers are watching on YouTube. I don't see anything so I want to thank you all for tuning in. InshaAllah, we will see each other in two weeks. May Allah protect all of you, preserve all of you, give you an incredible remainder of the rest of this Mubarak month of Heja but especially in these first 10 days. I hope that all of your prayers are answered if you're fasting inshallah you're faster accepted. Any charity you give may Allah accept it and increase it for you inshallah and reward you without measure in this world and the next all of you and your families. I know it's a hard time for our world and our community but inshallah we have to always put our trust in Allah so that he knows what's best for all of us and just remember he's in control. And we just have to be grateful for our community because there are many people who have no community that they belong to they have really nobody very very isolated in this world. Some of them are orphans, some of them have no family or have left hearted ways with their family and they're trying to manage this world without even a faith. It's just it's remarkable if you think about how people can have existence in this world without faith. It's really something that shocks me but alhamdulillah I'm always so grateful. Alhamdulillah la ni'mat al Islam. This is my my dua always so may Allah's father again protect all of you. Let's go ahead and end in dua inshallah and we'll see you in two weeks. Inshallah we'll see you soon and please continue to support MCC. Thank you. Salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. As-salamu alaykum. Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala ashif al anbiya'i wa al mursaleen. Sayyidina wa maulana wa habibina Muhammad. Salallahu alayhi wa salam. Wa ala aari wa sahbihi wa salam tasriban. Salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Alhamdulillah. I hope everyone is doing well and inshallah you all had a blessed Eid celebration with your families and your loved ones inshallah. Alhamdulillah. Last time we were together we covered a text and I'm going to just reference it for those who are possibly joining us for the first time. The text is called Agenda to Change Our Condition. I'll go ahead and hold it up for you so you can see it yourself. This is written by Shechemza Yusuf and Imam Zeh Shaker. And there are so many gems in this book, masha'Allah. And I encouraged everyone who was tuning in last time to get the book for themselves because it really is a transformative text as the title reflects. Anyone who reads this from beginning to end should really walk away with a much clearer understanding about how to transform themselves and hopefully for the better obviously and really set themselves on a successful spiritual path. So there's so much content in this book but I'm choosing for the sake of our discussion and purpose to look to the appendix section at the back of the book. So if you have the book you can follow along. But Appendix A is titled Foundations of the Spiritual Path by Sidi Ahmed Zarruq. And this is advice, it's nasiha. And I personally benefit tremendously. Every time I read it I go back over the list and I think of more things. So it's one of those lists that's really masha'Allah just it bears a lot of fruit. So I think that this is the state we're all in. We're all in need of guidance, we're in need of nasiha, may Allah protect and preserve all of our scholars past and present for what they've blessed us with. But this advice is really timeless. I mean to think that he passed in 1493 but this advice speaks so ring so true to us today. I think just really speaks volumes about how insightful he was and how well he knew the human condition and human beings and human behavior. So I really wanted to go back to this text because we only partially covered the advice that he gave us. So I'm going to go ahead and screen share, excuse me, I have to mute myself here. I'm going to go ahead and screen share insha'Allah so that you can follow along because I did put together just a quick summary, sort of a slideshow I guess of the points that he makes so that as we're talking about it you have something to follow. So let me go ahead and do the screen share insha'Allah and we will bring this up, excuse me, share it and then present. So here's the presentation that again just follow along. I'll try to go over what we already covered as quick as possible so that those who are tuning in can follow along as well. So this advice that he's giving is really about the spiritual path. All of us insha'Allah we all are on a spiritual path of our own or we want to be on one and obviously we want to succeed. So he's giving us advice on how to be successful on our spiritual path and he starts off by giving us a list of the five foundations of the spiritual path which are covered here. Now again if you're tuning in and you weren't with us last time for the sake of time I'm going to ask that you go and watch that session to get more in depth commentary on these points because I'm just going to show you the slides but we're going to move on so that we continue from where we left off. But what I appreciated so much and I shared this last time as well is that the structure that he has this advice is working backwards in a way. He starts off with giving you the foundation of the spiritual path but then he sort of deconstructs it in a way where you understand how you build this path and so he goes into several different areas but I'll go ahead and move along so that you can see. So he gives us these five foundations and then he says that these foundations are predicated on these other qualities. So in order to get to the slide that we just looked at you have to have these five qualities first. And then he again continuing in this building phase where he's showing you how to get here he says that in order to get to those five qualities there's a certain conduct that's required of you and so he lists those out for us. And this is I believe where we left off on this particular slide and we went and you know covered it but the next slide is related to this obviously as we're continuing all of them build on each other. So I'm going to go ahead and start today's discussion on this slide which are the five pitfalls of the soul. So as you know he lists that in the previous slide that these foundations of proper conduct right are listed here. Well there's pitfalls that are associated with them and so you know things that we have to look out for and be vigilant. So this is where this next set of five comes into play. So he lists here that in our pursuit of knowledge right as we want to increase our knowledge of alas Prathara and you know that's part of our path. We have to be aware that there are pitfalls to that and he lists here that specifically pursuing your knowledge or academic knowledge spiritual knowledge that one can fall into company with image the immature right so you can meet people along the way that are perhaps not at the same level of maturity as you are or they in some way or another can take you down whether it's age or you know their understanding devotional practices. Or because they themselves lack you know maybe moral you know the virtue so they don't really have their unprincipled their ungrounded themselves. So this is part of the reality of a lot of people who are seeking the spiritual knowledge or otherwise and if you look in our modern context. And this is certainly true in any type of schooling right a lot of serious students some of their struggles doesn't really have anything to do with the knowledge you know acquiring the knowledge. It has to do with the social aspect. There's other distractions that can get that can pull them away that can, you know, take their focus away so a lot of college students or even high school students will throughout really throughout our lives. We find that the people struggle in this way because there's so many other people that share are on the same path with them, but may not be at the same level of maturity. And so you have to be vigilant about this when you are seeking knowledge. Who are you going to learn from? And are you doing this, you know with a group and have you vetted that group of people? Are there people that you have to be careful of because perhaps they, you know, have those domineering and strong personality types that that do tend to sort of take over and there are. And this is why, you know, self knowledge is important and knowing, you know, how different personalities work with one another. These are all really important knowledges. But something to just be cautious of that this is a potential pitfall because you could be really sincere in your desire to know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But if you're not paying attention to the company that you keep, it could contribute to you not doing very well, especially if you are on a very serious or rigorous path. Right. So he mentions that then he talks about another pitfall because, you know, proper conduct, which again in the previous slide he listed the second foundation of proper conduct. He said was accompanying a spiritual guide and having a fraternity to gain insight. So having, you know, someone to look up to or having a jamma that you belong to, it also comes with some pitfalls, which he lists as the pitfall of spiritual company is arrogance, deception and meddling in the affairs of others. And this is really important because, you know, if we look at, I'm just looking at my own experience. I've heard from several people that they have felt as, you know, arrogance coming from religious people, you know, from people who are who look outwardly religious and have knowledge, but they felt arrogance from them. And so sometimes, you know, you can fall into that if you're not cautious that self-righteousness can enter the heart and you suddenly feel you're more superior because you have more Quran memorized or you've, you know, you dress modestly as more than other people, or you are fluent in Arabic or, you know, it could be a range of things. But if, if you're not cautious of the, you know, what are the conversations that you're having in those, in those jamma, you know, is it a lot of just everybody's praising one another and, you know, you're feeling really puffed up every time you leave those gatherings, or are they gatherings that really do the opposite and they leave you feeling humbled about how little you know. And so we have to be careful. And you certainly see this not necessarily always in religious context, but even in academia, this is certainly an issue that a lot of people once they, you know, get a degree or are in a program, they can have a more elitist attitude and suddenly, you know, just think of themselves as better than, so these are all spiritual, you know, pitfalls that we can fall into if we're not vigilant. So just pointing these, you know, really important things out. The second, so the third foundation of proper conduct that he lists is abandoning dispensations and excuses for one's own protection. And so, you know, this is, again, there are, he has listed here the pitfalls of foregoing dispensations and excuses is self pity. So falling into, you know, just a feeling of that you, there's exceptions to the rule. A lot of times, you know, the, the nuffs is very indulgent, so it can certainly make a person feel that that they, you know, that they're an exception to certain rules. And so that's also one of the dangers. We have to be very careful not to, to take our faith seriously and not to look for those excuses or loopholes or whatever just because we feel that we may need, you know, an exception for whatever the issue is. The next rule or foundation of proper conduct he lists is managing one's time for litanies that results in the, in presence of the heart. So obviously it's very important that we establish an aura or a word and, and to, to make that a practice, a daily practice because it was the practice of the prophesy. And he, he, he did protective doors. He had, you know, he was very disciplined. His, his life was scheduled around prayer, around worshipping Allah at every different point. There was always a remembrance of Allah happening. And so we should be in the practice of that as well. But the pitfalls that he mentions here are that the pitfall of managing time for litanies is spectacle and ritualized devotion. So that you start to maybe seek attention. It becomes more performative, right?  So the presence may be lacking. You're not really focusing anymore, but it's just now something you have to do or because you've habituated to. And of course, forming good habits is very important, but mindfulness is also important. We can't just mentally check out when we're praying or doing the kid. And so if we're, we're not aware of our mindfulness, this is one of the pitfalls of falling, of taking on those practices without that, that awareness of what we're doing and how we're doing it. And then he says, the last foundation of proper conduct, he says, guarding against the ego to free it of whims and save it from destructive tendencies. And so one of the pitfalls is guarding against the ego is complacency due to its excellence and probity. So, you know, if you start to think that you are doing really well, or because you're consistent in a practice, this can lead to complacency. And again, that, that, that, that notion that you're, you're, you're doing really well. And so there's a delusion there because the believer never is satisfied with what they do. The true seeker and the true believer always feels inadequate. There's always a sense of inadequacy, no matter how much you learn, how much you do, how much you've done, it's never seems enough. And you always feel that you should be doing more. And so one of the pitfalls of, of again, the soul is that you would start to think of yourself as being better than or safe in that regard. So these are things that he's pointed out again, really a lot of food for thought. If we, if we take each one of these and just apply it to our own selves, you know, all of us can do that. Where are we with regards to all of these pitfalls? Have we fallen short? Are we in, have we, are we in one right now? And how can we emerge from that? But, you know, the starting point is to become aware of the pitfalls. So, you know, once you're on a spiritual path, if you just think it's onward and upward and you're not paying attention to the fact that Iblis is always in pursuit. And he's, he doesn't rest from what his aim is, which is to destroy us spiritually. He doesn't take rest. This is a 24 hour constant, you know, thing for him. So we have to be vigilant. And that's why Marshala, this, this type of nasiha is so useful, because as I mentioned in the beginning, it's still relevant to all of us. It's timeless advice. I think throughout, you know, until we leave this world, this would be useful to anybody who read, who read it, a believer who read it. So, Marshala, again, there's so much, so much information here. So let's look at what he shares next. So he says now, so he goes from, you know, the pitfalls to the five foundations of treatment of illnesses of the soul. So now, you know, if you find yourself having maybe fallen, as we just discussed, then how can we emerge? How can we get ourselves out of those illnesses? So he focuses first on relieving digestion by reducing the amount of food. And this is, you know, if you've studied any of Imam al-Razadi's works and many of the great, you know, scholars of the past, there's a lot of emphasis on food and spiritual habit. And, you know, not only how much you're eating, the quality of what you're eating, we believe in that. We do believe that it affects your state. If you're obviously eating anything from the haram, it would affect your spiritual state. Likewise, if you are overindulging or excessive in your consumption of food, it's going to affect you spiritually in many ways. Primarily, you know, the sloth, the sloth is associated with overconsumption of food. You just find that, and it makes sense because physically, physiologically, you know, the, as we know, just basic information about digestion, that when you're consuming foods, especially if they're different types of qualities of food, the food is heavy and it can, you know, weigh you down.   It's very difficult after you eat a large meal to feel that sense of that burst of energy. It's usually the opposite. And so you, you, this is just basic knowledge that food would make a person feel, especially if they're eating a lot or heavy foods, that they would feel spiritually ill because of that. So that's the first line that he attacks or that he offers the first advice that he offers, which is to, to reduce the amount of food that you're eating. Then he says to seek asylum with Allah from harm at the time of its occurrence. So, you know, we have to be in that mindset of seeking refuge with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala first, that when something happens, whatever it is, a tribulation, personal, you know, personal circumstance, or even on a large scale, like what we're dealing with now, that our heart, mind, soul, body, it just immediately defaults to going to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala first.  And it's not, you know, it's something that of course we have to all work on because it's, it's not always easy. It's not always the first thing that comes to mind. But if you, you know, the more and more you read, I was speaking to someone earlier today about her own personal, you know, struggles. She's going through a very big calamity right now. And I just reminded her that this is why we have stories of people of the past, you know, the prophets of the saints, of the scholars. We have those stories to look at how they responded and to take from their example. And of course the prophet said, I'm story in and of itself is enough. But you can look back to all of these incredible, you know, figures of the past and see how whatever their circumstance was, because we do have answers in terms of how to properly respond and we can gain strength from their examples. So Alhamdulillah that we have all of those examples. But just, you know, it's something that we have to work on and invest in thinking about and learning how to do. The next advice here he has for treating the soul, the illnesses of the soul is shunning places where one fears the misdeeds will occur. Is although we're in quarantine right now and we might physically not be able to go to places that are sinful because of the modern, you know, technology that we have access to, places can come to us just in the palm of our hand. We have these devices and machines that can transport us to several different places depending on where we want to go. And so I think this is really quite relevant now because you see a lot of people, maybe as I said, not physically or interpreting as something like that as meaning to say, you know, I'm walking somewhere I'm deliberately moving my physical body from this place to this place. But there are a lot of places that that again we can go to mentally, visually that are harmful. And so we have to really look at what we're doing right now with our time, because a lot of sinful behavior is happening, even though people are in their homes and they aren't physically going somewhere. And it's because their eyes are seeing things that they shouldn't see their ears are listening to things that shouldn't be listening to. And so in many ways, you know, those are still places that we choose to go to, right? I mean, if you're watching certain television or films that are inappropriate, or as I said, social media, the internet, there's a plethora of opportunities to engage in very, very harmful and sinful things. So really being cautious about what you're doing with your time and what you choose to engage in and and making sure that if there are places where you your guard is down and you're, you know, you're more likely to fall into sinful behavior, that you practice that, you know, that that you restraint and you you prevent yourself from even in opening those doors. So that's the third treatment that he has there. The fourth treatment is continual repentance, coupled with prayers upon the provost, I said I'm in solitude and society. This is important because we are in a time of immense, you know, just there's a lot of darkness in our world today. And we need light and what better light than the provost, I said I'm. And of course, Toba, Toba is light, Toba erases sins, Toba, those black spots that we all accumulate every day because of the sins that we commit. We need a way to erase those sins and Alhamdulillah, Allah has given us a way, very easy way really. If you think about how merciful Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is and how many hadith and how many ayahs in the Quran. He's constantly reminding us that no matter what we've done, how much we've done it, that the doors of Toba are always open and it really is just a matter of true sincere repentance and remorse. And then words, you're just articulating words when you make Toba, of course they should be in the heart, but it's really such a simple thing that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la asks of us. After we've gone astray and done things that we shouldn't ever do, may Allah forgive us, that he's willing to erase all of it just based on words that we say. So this is the mercy of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, but doing that as a daily practice. And then of course the Sadawat and the prophecy that I'm doing those together is how we remove so much of our past misdeeds and all that darkness as we mentioned, but also open up our heart for openings, for light. I mean, so many people I know in my life as well as my own experience of when you're in this constant state of remembrance of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la or in Sadawat or the prophecy that things will happen and it's just amazing. You'll start to see visions, dreams of many people I've spoken to, the more that they say they're Sadawat, that Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la all of a sudden they're having openings. And these are people, I mean I remember I once gave a haraqah and we talked about the importance of Sadawat and seeing the prophecy Sadaam in our dreams. And there were all sisters and one of the sisters was really sad because she lamented that she had never seen the prophecy Sadaam in her dreams and she really wanted to see him. And so we just talked about Sadawat and how often are you, it's one thing to wish to see the prophecy Sadaam, but to remember him often, to say praises upon him is a different form of reverence and love that we need to be in the regular practice of. So when we talked about how often are we doing Sadawat, she admitted that that wasn't something that she was doing enough and so she started to do that. And I believe it was that night Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and Allah knows best but she called me the next day after this haraqah because we talked about the importance of Sadawat. And she said that Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la she spent all night after the haraqah just doing a lot of Sadawat and then she saw a dream of him and it was the first time ever. And so she was so excited the next day to tell me that Allah was so immensely generous with her because she just in one night. Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la he fulfilled that wish for her. So Allah can do anything as we know but we have to be in the practice of these things to remedy the spiritual illnesses in our heart but also to open up experiences for ourselves. Sometimes people don't realize that it's, I've heard from for example many people who have a hard time getting themselves to start a practice, whether it's their five daily prayers or reading Quran or doing something consistently because they feel that they don't have the feeling in their heart to do those things. Or that sincerity, that burst of iman that they're all seeking, we're all always seeking, right? Because they don't feel it, it's hard for them to actually get up and to do it. And they're waiting for that feeling to be the catalyst for them to do those things. Well those feelings are gifts, immense gifts, but they're the fruits of your labor. You're going to get, inshallah, those feelings increase the more you work towards it but you can't expect it right off the bat. I mean of course Allah again can do as he wills so maybe for some people that's their experience that with very little effort they have these amazing spiritual openings. But for most of us you know we have to kind of realize that our efforts will be rewarded with the more we display our sincerity and how do we display our sincerity, it's with consistency. So you know just to be consistent in our practice will inshallah open up those openings for us inshallah as Allah wills and you know he again does as he wills. So that was the fourth advice that he offered to treat the illnesses of the soul. And then he talks about in the fifth one accompanying a guide to Allah or to the fare of Allah unfortunately such a person no longer exists. So Allah I mean he's talking again 1493 is when he passed I'm not sure when exactly he wrote this advice but it was around that time several centuries ago. And he's saying that back then these amazing spiritual guides didn't exist. So what can we say about our state today? Allah knows of course sometimes our scholars would say these things just really as a statement of the state and the condition of the ummah. And so we have to seek Allah's forgiveness and pray that Allah brings people like that in our lives. People who remind us of Allah who you know there are people out there. There's certainly people out there who mashallah just by looking upon upon them as soon as they speak a few words. One's iman you can feel your iman increase. And Allah's given that ability to to certain people mashallah. So you know asking Allah to bring people like that in our lives. So he again we're just following the text and it's everything that I'm presenting is written exactly as he's you know written it here. This next section are he's he followed up that section about the illnesses with advice that he inserted from another famous scholar. He says here and he shares this advice and again it's all related because we're looking at you know spiritual illness and how can we protect ourselves from those things. Well he's just sharing this further counsel and he says this is these are advice. So let's start with the first four. There's there's more that follow. He says first don't set foot in a place unless you expect a divine recompense. SubhanAllah that's really profound because we have options we have free will we have the ability to go right left you know forward backwards Allah has given us the ability and the you know the the mental or the intellect to be able to discern what is beneficial and what's not but to make it a rule sort of you know it's just don't ever go somewhere unless you expect a reward for being there. That's immense discipline right and that's showing you the level of awareness these people had about their movements about their words about every every moment of their lives. SubhanAllah may may Allah give us that type of awareness but to have this as a as an advice that you live by that unless I know that I'm going to be rewarded I won't go there. And of course there's ample opportunity for reward because Allah so generous. You can go anywhere unless obviously it's a haram place but somewhere you know that there's many places we can go where there is an abundance of reward. So that's the level of awareness and thinking and contemplation that we all should be in the practice of maximizing the reward because actions are judged by intentions. So inshallah if you go with the intention to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that would be the first step right before you even think of going somewhere that it's your purifying your Nia that inshallah you're going to go and take care of whatever it is whether you go to the store or the post office or you're visiting someone that you're very clear on your intention and that you're very clear on how you're going to go about your you know that that process like what's your plan of action. For example something that I think is lost on so many people today and may Allah guide us but it is absolutely a foundational principle of our faith in terms of interacting with other people is lowering the gaze. How many people think about that before they even step outside the house that I have to make that intention that Allah I'm going to go and take care of what I need to take care of but I'm going to consciously be aware of myself and lower my gaze because I anticipate seeing things that I shouldn't be looking at especially in this season that we're in. I live in California and the weather is warm and this is why summer is usually not my very my least favorite season because I you know there's just so many so much that we're not that it's hard you know everywhere you look subhanallah and for women as well as men we all have to be very vigilant about these things because it seems to be getting worse and worse and worse. I remember just the other day yesterday may be the day before there was a big news story on the cover of one of these websites about this woman who stopped a lot she went to. I think it was in Southern California she was at a beach and she was practically all the below just she was practically naked she was wearing very little. And there was a family who apparently called the police on this woman and she was the police came and had to argue back and forth with her and the party that she was with they were all very angry because they felt totally justified that she wasn't doing anything wrong that she was not naked whereas you know she was she was you know from the small glimpse that I saw it was enough to say all the blood this woman is completely naked. But you know there's that's what we're up against it's getting worse and worse people are very free carefree with their bodies. And so whether you're at the beach or you're at a shopping mall or at a store or just driving by you might see things that we shouldn't be looking at so but how many of us have the presence of mind to make that intention before we leave the house like y'all I'm going to do my best to lower my gaze and be in that practice so that I don't bring on that harm to myself right. So it's really a matter of having such discipline and awareness but you know in this particular point that the advice I just find it profound because it tells you again how ahead these people were where they made these rules for themselves like unless I know there's a reward I'm not going there so you know so maybe learn from that. The next advice is to never sit in a place unless you feel safe from sin. So it's one thing that you don't enter a place unless you expect a reward but also that you refuse to participate or go somewhere if you unless you feel safe from sin. So think about professionally how many I remember I used to work you know for for corporation before I started teaching and they would have Christmas parties and there was always a lot of pressure you know from fellow employees to come because it was going to be so fun but I was young you know I was in my 20s but I had to make those very clear boundaries for my coworkers that I don't drink alcohol and I'm sorry but I cannot be in an environment where I know there's going to be a lot of alcohol you know there and everybody's it's just it was very uncomfortable and I think you know they they understood it and they respected it. There was you know always a little teasing comments here and there and even afterwards about how much I would miss out on all the fun but they respected my decision and so we have to as Muslims be principled people and be confident and they never lack that courage to speak up about our beliefs and our and and to feel shy about that but it is a problem that you're seeing that we're seeing more and more people are afraid to you know they don't want to rock the road or offend people they don't want to come across as too religious or extreme or fundamental so they tend to make those excuses and it's hard I I've certainly been in environments myself with family where it's very difficult because you know that there are certainly certain things and it's out of your control but you know this is just showing you the level of discipline that these people had a male or guidance to have that strong conviction so that we can also apply these this advice in and of course the best way possible but it's certainly something to think about moving forward how are we as you know how are we going to do this you know are we going to be able to when things open up you know I'm still I'm kind of in the quarantine mindset that right now we're safe from a lot of these things because we were not really socializing but perhaps that's what we need to be doing is thinking you know taking ourselves into account about past behaviors past mistakes how can I improve because that's what the point of all this is right it's all advice to help us better ourselves on the spiritual path so the best thing to do is to listen to these points and then to go back on oneself and say well there was that time or I have done this in the past how can I change that moving forward so that's where I think we should all be this is you know we're all in the same situation of really taking ourselves into account a reflection hopefully that's what we're doing anyway but really thinking about moving forward when things open up again and we're able to visit people and we're able to socialize and do things like we did before are we just going to go back to how things were and and just you know status quo whatever it is I'll just go along with it or are we going to maybe take things a little bit more seriously and and create those boundaries you know from just just be more open and honest with people so something to think about but again I'm just appreciating much all the level of these scholars because they were just so strong you know to have this deep conviction to be able to do these things is certainly not easy so the third advice that I was in a shadow that he has for us is do not accompany anyone unless you find him or her supporting your duties to Allah subhanallah and the next one is and is similar right do not select anyone as a friend unless he or she has increased your certainty so really this is about the company that we keep you know if you are you know sharing time and being influenced by people who really don't respect your religious values then it's going to affect you eventually this is why people who are disciplined in their faith the more and more they hang out with people who have weaker faith you find them changing right and so we have to you know look at the company we keep and try to surround ourselves with people who increase our belief increase our certainty with Allah and that we you know those intimate people that we bring close in those inner circles that they are those people that they're the people who as you know the advice says they increase our certainty that inner inner circle should be those people we have acquaintances there's family there's friends there's extended people in our lives that we may have to meet periodically but what when we assign the label a friend or confidant to someone they should be people that again remind us of Allah that increase us in our in our e-men that they support us when it's time to pray that they're not the ones going oh man really can you do that later you know stuff for a while there are people who who would get annoyed if being around you know a religious family member I've had those experiences personally and I know of others who've had as well that you know if your religiosity doesn't match the people that you're with it can make them uncomfortable and they may indirectly or directly expect you to tone it down dial it down a little bit you know whether it's directly telling you to not do something or to not make a big deal out about something or just kind of passively aggressively making comments you may start to find yourself being influenced by that so being very vigilant about the company that you keep and the influences that are around you and making sure that those people again share your faith and respect your faith and also increase your faith and those are really the primary qualities you want to look for so Mashallah he continues to give even more advice that he's listed here about the you know the people that that are in our lives that we should all think about again first whoever directs you to the ephemeral cheats you the ephemeral is what's you know temporary it's not lasting it's not lasting so this is thenia right the dinia is not going to last and the dinia is very intoxicating and and very tempting but if we have people in our lives that are always reminding us of the dinia and pushing us towards towards you know towards the dinia and away from Allah no matter how close they are no matter how much they claim to love us and how much we love them they are in many ways cheating us because this dinia as we said is fleeting it's going it's dying it's not going to last and so for us to put all of our focus and time and energy on that and become heedless of Allah it's clearly we're we're on the losing end of that and the opposite would be true that the one who is reminding you of the next life and to work towards that life and to not fall into this dinia and temptation and your desires that they're actually your greatest ally and greatest friend even if sometimes you know it's a bitter pill to swallow and to see how sometimes people give you advice or you know they may be a little hard but if you really analyze their words and look at which is which of the two is looking out from my soul right one may be wanting me to have fun and to enjoy life and to you know to to to ride this this wave with them this wave of life but the other one is looking out for my soul for my eternity and if they're telling me not to go to this place or not to go to that place because it's harm even though I my might not like that to be reminded I have to appreciate that that person is looking out for my soul and that's a true friend so you know just very simple reminder but it's also profound because we tend to blur the line sometimes when it comes to how we define friendships and we forget that the true friend the true companion in this world is the one who is looking out for your Akhira not just who's your ride or die or you know the person you can have fun with you know that I mean they're they're you know they might be good for those things but in terms of true friendship the true friend is the one who's always trying to prevent you from slipping for with a lesson on that whoever directs you to activity exhaust you so this is actually it was sort of I separated the three but it was in one statement so he's making distinctions for us so that we can see different categories of people there are going to be those people who again pull us towards that to do things right to to be out and about and I think for for you this is certainly true I remember you know if you look back into your earlier years your teen years or your 20s and maybe early 30s that's the sort of the prime of life and there's the zest for life that a lot of people feel and so everybody wants to do things and have experiences and travel and do fun things and let's jump out of a plane and you know the kind of throw a caution to the wind and just be free spirited and so there's a lot of you know push to do those things because you've tasted freedom you're out of you know your parents home you have maybe your own financial you know freedom to do things the way you want to do you're in a relationship whatever the case may be there's a sense of I can do whatever I want let's just go and explore but it can be exhausting and so he's just making that distinction that people who direct you to always do things with them they can exhaust you people who direct you to the ephemeral Chi you and then the last point he says is whoever directs you to Allah is by that counsels you this is a Dina Nasiha right this is what we want we want those types of friends and those types of people in our lives who are always reminding us of Allah so when you're in a group setting you know sometimes it's all fun and games and people can get really silly but you want to look out for where's that friend who whenever they speak it's sort of like pin drop silence they always have wisdom to share there may be not the ones goofing off and dancing or acting silly or all the participating in the you know that gossipy corner over there you know they're they're not those people they're the people who are hey what time is it has more of come in or hey you know what we should go we should check out this this you know talk or or let's listen to this awesome new Nashi that came out instead of you know the other type of music that may may not have any benefit to it. So there are those people who are always kind of trying to redirect people back to Allah and when conversations get out of hand even they may have really thoughtful things to talk about maybe not always necessarily religious topics but at least thoughtful responsible worthy it's not idle talk you know you want to think about those people and that's those are the people you gravitate towards and if they if there aren't any of those people you should be that person you should be the one who is you know thinking about these things ahead of time. And so I've you know I've counseled people who have sort of social anxiety sometimes and they they're afraid of misspeaking or not really having much to say or being put on the spot. So my advice is always to you know to arm yourself with different topics that you can talk about why are you waiting always for someone to invite you into a conversation. Whereas if you're taking initiative and being proactive you come up with topics that are going to be important you know whether it's it's incidences of social anxiety or others like I've heard from many people who are like well what do you do when you're with family and friends but then they always gossip and they're always talking about Haram and we're doing things that they shouldn't be doing and you don't want to you know cause fitna and you know have a big blowout. What do you how do you deal with that situation. Same advice same advice be proactive you know come up with a short list of topics that may be interest everybody there could be a political topic could be scientific you know people like science people like to know facts that they you know that that they never heard before but be creative be think about these things and work so that ahead of time so that when you're in those situations you don't find yourself suddenly doing something you shouldn't be doing so you know again if you can't if you don't grab those people aren't around in those circles and be that person for everybody else inshallah but I like the way that he just sort of distinguished these different categories so that we can really think about the company that we keep and realize where where are those beneficial people in my life that remind me of Allah and to appreciate them more inshallah and then he says make mindfulness of Allah you're abode and the delight of your ego will do you know harm as long as it is not content with the vice nor persists in sin and you do not lose your awareness of Allah in private so if you are aware of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and try to be at all times then you can enjoy life basically as long as you don't fall into you know vice and then harmful habits or things that you shouldn't be doing sinful behavior and that you don't forget Allah so you know it's we don't have to look at being religious as being completely void of you know life I think a lot of people unfortunately have that that image that if you're always aware of Allah or just Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that you kind of lose your life that spirit of life because you're so serious all the time you're brooding you're just constantly you know reflecting and so you can't be too some of the most amazing people that I know are fun loving and and very you know energetic people but subhanahu wa ta'ala they love Allah and they always infuse the remembrance of Allah and their discussions they find ways to bring faith into into the discussion but in an animated and and relevant and fun way as opposed to being just you know very serious and and again and too intense so this is how we do it you know have that awareness of Allah and your ego can enjoy you know again the lights of this whatever this dunya has to offer without harming you because as long as you follow you know the guidelines here that it's not content with the vice so you don't fall into bad habits you certainly abstain from sinful behavior and you do not lose your awareness of Allah in private that's also a very important distinction because you know if you're in public and you make a lot of these claims and you're very overtly you know you're very forthcoming with your reflections about God when you're around people then you want to make sure that's consistent what happens when those people leave are you still thinking about Allah or do you completely turn into a different person entirely and now it's just like you know you do whatever you want and it's all about your whims and desires so there's that's the the test the test of sincerity is is it you know are you sustaining that same or maintaining that same state of awareness even in private or is it just you know a public thing because maybe there's an image that you're putting out so that's how we know whether or not we're we're sincere so let's see here I want to see how much time I have okay so I'm going to stop here because there's more slides and there's more discussions to have inshallah and I really want to hear from all of you to see if there are any questions I tried to do this last time so let me see on my page if there are any questions and then I'll see on the YouTube page I we have just about five minutes left so Bismillah let me see I'm going to go back to the MCC page just bear with me for just a moment because sometimes the questions come like last time I tried to answer your questions with Subhanallah I saw them pop up as soon as I logged off and I felt so bad so I'm really sorry for anybody who asked questions for people who are asking I see some questions about the text I'll put it up again so here is the text that I'm using this is agenda to change our condition so I hope that's clear it's I'm sorry Shukram Zayusaf and Imam Zaid Shaker who put this together you can get it from Sandala okay so that's the text and the section that I was reading is Sidi Ahmed Zarruq section the appendix a in the back of the book so it's there's a lot of text here Mashallah a lot of great information so we'll continue this in two weeks when we resume inshallah and we'll continue to read and there's more advice and like I said this book I really encourage all of you to have it because there's just so much amazing content that's quite relevant and if you're a parent especially it's useful for ourselves as parents first and foremost but in trying to help our children pave their own spiritual path this is a wonderful tool it just outlines so much that will help you and help them so definitely worth getting so inshallah I'm on the Facebook page I only saw questions about the text I don't know if there's any other questions but let me look at the YouTube page sorry because there's Mashallah technology right we can broadcast on multiple platforms here so it's some good opportunity for us to see let's see Mashallah any other questions so again if you guys have questions this is the time because I am going to give it a couple of minutes in case it takes a few you know a little bit to load but I don't want to have have happened what happened last time where I saw the questions afterwards and I felt really bad so we'll go ahead and wait just a couple minutes but if there are no further questions and we will inshallah continue the discussion next time we meet now for those who again are possibly joining for the first time these sessions will be broadcast here same time 7 to 8 p.m. every other Thursday so we don't meet every week this is a bi-monthly or bi-weekly halaqa and alhamdulillah it's open I know that there are it's it was you know initially when we were on site anyway it was for sisters but alhamdulillah it's open to really anybody who wants to tune in I don't mind if brothers are watching I have no issue whatsoever it's an open discussion for all of us inshallah so feel free to share it with other people if they feel like they want to tune in alhamdulillah they're more than welcome so okay I'm going to check one more time and just see if there are any questions and then we will end because I don't think there are I haven't seen anything pop up yet but I thank all of you for tuning in masha'Allah thank you for the lovely comments I see some of your very nice comments she's like a mullah you guys are very generous masha'Allah okay so I think we are good for as I said we'll continue the discussion next time so yeah I don't see any more questions okay so we will continue the discussion and we'll read continue to read from again this text agenda to change our condition inshallah please get this text if you don't have it and benefit from it and if you have any questions we can inshallah address it for future sessions but thank you so much for joining we'll go ahead and end in dua inshallah and I look forward to seeing you guys in future broadcast subhanakAllahumma wabihamdika shaduman la ilaha illa antanas taqtiruk wa natuhu ilayk bismillahirrahmanirrahim wal'asir inna linsayna la bi khusr inna ladina aminu wa amiru sallihaati wa tawassu bilhaqi wa tawassu bil sabr so alhamdulillah jazak allah khayr and again everybody inshallah have a wonderful evening it's the night of Juma remember us in your da'as inshallah and this is the prime time we talked about salawat to do your salawat inshallah tonight tomorrow as we know there's more reward for salawat on the day of Juma and the night of Juma certainly inshallah may Allah increase all of you and may He bless all of us inshallah with visions of our beloved salallahu alayhi wa sallam inshallah that's my hope for all of you so jazakum allah khayr and have a wonderful evening As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh As-salamu alaykum bismillahirrahmanirrahim alhamdulillah wa as-salatu wa as-salamu alayk as-shaykh al-anbiya'i wa al-mursaleen Sayyidina wa Maulana wa Habibina Muhammad As-salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam tasliman katira As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh dear brothers and sisters Alhamdulillah today is the first of Muharram as we all know of this new year I woke up this morning with some really just soul-crushing news subhanallah You know sometimes you hear things that are just beyond your imagination So all day today I've been consumed with this news and I wanted to just mention it here because it's so important and it is in a way relevant to our discussion as we've been focusing on agenda to change our condition with this amazing text we've been reading from it if you've been with me for the past few weeks But the news story that came out this morning was that Netflix was sort of previewing some of the programs that are to come and I believe in September they're going to release a movie it's made in France it's a French production that won a Sundance Film Award and so it's called Cuties and in this film it shows a story of a young Muslim girl who her family is practicing Muslim and she struggles with her family over the issue of her wanting to be a part of a dance troupe where they specifically do a specific type of dance called twerking and if you're not familiar with this dance it's very provocative, very sexualized it's highly inappropriate so this film is basically showing pedophilia it's showcasing and encouraging pedophilia because it's showing the sexualization of young girls it's just very disturbing and in addition to that to add insult to injury it's also attacking Islam and Muslim culture some of the clips or the audio, the dialogue in the trailer are clearly trying to portray Islam and Muslim culture as being old fashioned, antiquated, it's not progressive you could just pick up on all of these on the subtext of this film just watching that clip, that short trailer, even the description of the film is an attack on Islam and Muslims, they refer to her family as being dysfunctional and of course this is a family that I'm sure just watching the trailer anyhow it's clear are not happy with her choice of wanting to be a part of this dance group anyhow very upsetting news and I posted about it on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram as soon as I found out about it, my blood was very upset I've been upset pretty much all day watching the news about this waiting hoping that not just our community but Americans, people who have also heard about this film we had an outcry and it was national, everybody, I saw a lot of people from different backgrounds protesting this film, angry, if you go to the Netflix Instagram account a lot of people are very upset, leaving messages, they're basically blasting them and of course their response was what we should expect from such a large entity they addressed, they focused on one thing which is the poster that they released was very different than the one that was released in France and the poster was actually horrible, it was atrocious on every level, highly inappropriate so the apology that they issued only dealt with the poster and it's amazing to me that all of the other complaints that they're receiving they're just not even addressing those things and this is where we're at, I'm still monitoring the situation there is a petition on change.org, you can follow my Facebook post about this film and you'll find some action items there, one of them is to sign the petition another is to leave really low ratings on the IMDb page and anywhere else this is how we get the attention of these people, this is serious an attack on children, we have to, when we again say agenda to change our condition this is a perfect opportunity, we cannot expect our world to improve or the state of our world to improve if we continue to turn a blind eye or just become apathetic to things like this this is a very big deal, when you start to promote something as depraved as pedophilia and gloss it over and make it like, oh it's just this cute little movie about dancing and teen girls and coming into their own and struggling with their sexuality I mean why does an 11, 12, 13 year old girl, why do we have to again exploit children it's mind boggling that this is happening in our world and that as we remarked through the day about the fact that it's not the fault of one person we can't blame necessarily the director or the producer or the person who put this story together there are hundreds of people involved in the making of a film the cast, the crew, the writers, the directors, the producers every single person is complicit in this story being shown to billions of people it's a global market right with film and so it can fall into many different markets and audiences but the point is what's the message, the message is that young girls to look at them with this again in this horrible way in this inappropriate way to exploit them so we have to as Muslims when we see things like this have the right response I really wanted to start off my conversation today with all of you about this because it's just been weighing on my soul that this is happening so openly there was a time where pedophiles and people who promoted this were hidden they knew better, they did whatever they did but in darkness and God, we pray that there weren't many of them but Allah really is the only one who knows but they at least didn't feel bold to act out their depravity in public but now we see films being made and nobody is blinking an eye that this is really inappropriate to see girls dressed in the way they're dressed in a film, you'll see them and just giving off these or sending these messages that are so dangerous for them what are we teaching our children, boys and girls, men and women when we allow this to happen so we have to turn to ourselves and all of us we really have some decisions to make there are people who are calling for a boycott of Netflix if they don't remove this and we know if you're paying attention to any of the programming this isn't an outlier situation there's many programs on Netflix that are completely against our faith and so we have to reconsider what we're going to do moving forward when it comes to these type of scenarios that we find ourselves in are we going to just turn again and all of us have to have this internal conversation we all have to think about the choices we make whether it's subscribing to a streaming service like Netflix or whatever if we are promoting are we somehow complicit in what they're doing by supporting them, by giving them our monthly subscriptions by in any way supporting them are we going to be held accountable? So may Allah forgive us and guide us it's a difficult conversation to have but I think all of us have to become aware my niece just a few minutes before this broadcast started she messaged me, she saw my post she's off to college soon but she was so upset herself being a young Muslim girl seeing this trailer that she became activated by my post and decided to address it she was also asking what more can we do other than sign this petition and try to affect the ratings and the reviews so my response to her was I think the best thing right now to do is to just become aware and to share this with people because the more people are upset and outraged then that's how we get these people to pay attention if this just becomes a small little group in our own corner and we're just screaming to the top of our lungs we're simply not going to get much traction because for them it's all about money it's all about are we risking people cancelling subscriptions, is that worth it or are we risking losing potential multi-million dollar film contractor agreement, I don't know we don't obviously know the terms of these things but clearly money is what talks and so sometimes the best thing to do is just try to mobilize and make sure that our voices are heard so that they take us seriously so I would say please share this information with your family, your friends tell them about the petition for now it's probably already passed 200,000 signatures since this morning but we can do better there's how many million people in just the US alone we're looking at two billion Muslims and if we started to wake up to the details and the ramifications of a story like this being normalized and that's really the danger is that this is just the beginning and we've seen it already, look in the past five years just look at the programs look what's happening to cartoons, to television to film, to social media everything, music, it's just it's getting worse and worse and part of that problem is that we're not pushing back strong enough so I think people of conscience, people of faith we need to stand up to these people and tell them you've crossed the line by normalizing this especially when so much attention has been brought about human trafficking and trafficking of children and the exploitation of children already, just this year alone we've seen so much with the Epstein case an acceptable choice to promote this film but I think that's really telling of where we're at that many of these people, this is normal in their world and they don't see anything wrong with it and may Allah all the belages anybody who engages in this behavior or you know even because you know they hide many of them hide behind their their wealth, their power, their status we have to get out of that idea that people who do this, these things are you know just hidden in their seedy in their own like corners of the world it's actually much bigger, there's people in very high positions people with a lot of power who engage in this but may Allah again protect our children protect our families, let us make better choices inshallah so I just wanted to put that out there because it's weighing on my soul like I said and I want to just get the word out now, let's change gears inshallah so for the past couple of weeks we have been reading from this amazing text called Agenda to Change Our Condition by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shaikh and if you have not been following along, I invite you to go to the MCC Facebook page or YouTube page to look at the previous sessions this book Masha'Allah is amazing it's life changing, it's transforming and I think everybody should have it and should read it and we should especially be teaching this type of content to our youth they need to be taught skills and and given the tools to navigate this world and this is the type of content that will do that for them so I encourage everybody to get it but the area that I've been focusing on in the past couple of books is actually at the end of the book so we're doing things a little differently and the reason why is because it's just so profound what's in the appendix I mean the whole book is, as I said, transforming transformative but this section in the back, the appendix A there is a advice here from Sidi Ahmed Zarruq and he he's a noble scholar of his time but he wrote here foundations of the spiritual path so with each session we've been going over this long list of it really isn't counsel, it's nasiha but the way that he structured it is that he lists what are the foundations of a spiritual path so if you decide to commit to a spiritual path what would you need what are your goals what are the objectives so he puts that out there and then from there he proceeds to give you the or deconstruct it to tell you what steps you would need to get the prerequisites before the steps that he's listing so we're kind of again going in a very interesting way but that's why this is such a fascinating piece so we covered quite a few different things already but where we stopped last week actually we had just shared because in the middle of his advice here he actually inserts advice from another scholar so we covered that last week the advice that gave and then from there he goes back so now we're back to Sidi Ahmed Zarruq's counsel and I'm going to pull up a screen share so you guys can follow along with the content that I'll be reading so let me go ahead and do that inshallah just give me a minute to pull everything up yallah screen share so let's do present and oh sorry that happened too fast share and then present okay so after as I said he shared nasiha let me actually show you that so the last thing that we covered last week was this which again is not from Sidi Ahmed Zarruq but from this other scholar and so he talked about different people in our lives and what they will direct us to and whether or not they're beneficial or they're harmful so he again you can watch the previous broadcast to get more content here but let's go ahead and move on to Sidi Ahmed Zarruq's so now let's look at his wording here he says I say complacency persistent sin and negligence of Allah in solitude are the roots of all calamities pitfalls and faults they in turn in gender 5 afflictions so these just the way that he's written this complacency and then persistent sin so every one of us as we're reading this text the best way really I think to do this is to constantly do that internal check at every point and ask yourself where do you fall in this spectrum are you in a place of complacency where you're just kind of not really doing much and you've gotten very comfortable with doing and you're not really motivated to do more are you in a place of sinning and falling into the same sins over and over again and again not changing are you totally negligent of Allah and remember all of these things he qualifies them in solitude and I think that's really important as well because as you study or as we haven't covered it on this in this program but I have in previous discussions talked about the 25 diseases of the heart that Shahmza has outlined in Purification of the Heart which is another book that's highly highly highly encourage you to get but you know we talk about the importance of we're distinguishing whether or not you are doing things for show Riyah is ostentation this is a disease of the heart where you're basically perform it's performative your spirituality is all for show so in public you have one persona and then in private you're a totally different person so we want to again look at how we are in private not how we present ourselves in public because that really shows us where we're at with Allah anybody can perform the Munafirqin they performed they did everything they would pray in the Masjid they would fast or pretend to fast they would say the Shahada so outwardly they look like everybody else they behave like everybody else but the true believer our reality is reflected in how we behave in solitude so again as we're going through this always do that internal check from where am I with this because he's telling us right there that these behaviors that when we become complacent we persistently sin and then we become negligent complete ghafla heedless of Allah swt this is the root of all of the calamities pitfalls and faults so all the stuff that we're seeing personally in our own lives but also look at our world right now for those of us who are in the state of California it's you know it looks like the apocalypse outside it's I'm getting pictures and videos from people in different parts of the state there's a haze that is so strong it's just it looks like one of my cousins she sent a picture she said it looks like the sepia filter right which is an old name of a filter but it has that yellow tint and this was you know broad daylight but there's just gloomy and dark and quite just it's unsettling to be honest but this is you know subhanAllah one of so many things we've seen already in the year 2020 right and of course Allah swt is in full control and he does as he wills but we have to take these things seriously you know it's not just like oh a difficult weather pattern I mean that's of course the scientific or material you know world the lens of the science of the material world but for us we don't take these things lightly you know Alhamdulillah we had for example Imam Taher may Allah protect and preserve him but earlier today he was encouraging and he actually did lead a prayer for rain you know because when you see these things happen around you we can't just whine and you know be upset and angry about it we have to remember to turn to the one putting us in these predicaments and call on him for relief so you know praying for rain and asking for relief because you know people have been evacuated a lot of people are suffering I know people who have asthma and you know it's really difficult to breathe and I was just thinking subhanAllah with covid and you know the pollution of this world everything that you know we've just caused so much destruction with all of you know the chemicals and just everything that we've done to the climate and to our world and then covid and its attack on the lungs and then you have these fires it's like subhanAllah there's this you know it's like there's a you know I'm just imagining that the earth is suffering you know so much as this deep of its airways and we have a hand in that we all have done something or not done something to contribute to that so when we find ourselves in this situation we have to ask Allah for relief from that and so we do have our amazing scholars and teachers leading the way in those efforts so you know just follow their lead we have to restore the balance our teachers and bless them do so much for us and so we have to make offer them remember them and follow their lead inshallah but it's so important again like I said to go back to yourself and then so here these qualities right that we just that he just outlined or defined for us the engender five afflictions so they'll actually you know these five other spiritual diseases are related to them so let's look here number one he lists preferring ignorance over knowledge so again there are some people who you know they have the fight or flight response to stress which is normal right but if you find yourself always running from the problem or just in denial not really wanting to hear it you know you this is you know as they say they're remaining blissfully ignorant um this is blame worthy right we can't just turn away from things that are right in front of us for convenience or because there's a discomfort that we feel around it or we would just rather not know because we're too busy enjoying life um so our state of mind as Muslims as believers is that we always want the truth we always prefer knowledge and in sometimes it's going to be easy you know I certainly know people who I get it they have a hard time coping or maybe they get triggered and so in those cases those are exceptional cases people trauma you know I'm not speaking to that because those are we have to be sensitive everybody's different but there are amongst us those who they just really don't want to be in convenience with the truth right so they would rather not know so if you find you know that this is something you just it's a burden to know things you want to redress you know address that because then who else you know if every if there's only a few people who have to carry the burden and then they you know and the rest just get off and don't have to worry about it is that fair right but if everybody is aware and that we're all trying to do something about the problems that we that we see then inshallah likely we'll get solutions faster but also it's just it's a more fair response right so I think we just have to all internally like I said our own conscience ask ourselves where where again you know do we fall here are we the type that runs from responsibility really that's really what it is essentially right because knowledge is power and when you're ignorant you can just be you know ignorant and you don't have to worry about things so think about that now the next one being duped by every spiritual charlatan so this is certainly a reality you know there are many people who fall for those who you know just are eloquent they have the right words they may promise things that you know they really can't promise they profit off of whatever you know they're they're selling or you know promises they're making or whatever claims they're attesting to that they can profit off of that so it's if you're not aware of yourself or you're not really doing the necessary work to become aware of who you should follow or not you likely will fall for those people you know I've seen it many times in our community you know or heard stories I should say about people especially back home in some of our countries who they make money off of the innocence but also the ignorance of other people right if you've never read the Quran or never engaged with the book of Allah or engaged with the Seerah of the Prophet said them or know your Aqidah well then sure you may believe someone who has again who makes certain claims and you may fall for it especially if you think about people who are in desperate situations right it's like they want something so desperate from this world that they may turn and pay you know pretty penny for oh this person will make the offer you or they'll give you this o