t they know it they know what to do they go play it and we just you know have that quiet time while we're listening to it takes about 18 minutes and it's all seeking protection all the du'as that you want to start your day off with it's like creating a force field you know of positive energy a shield of you know against harm around yourself and your family and your loved ones alhamdulillah and you you know you do that every day just gives you a nice start and then at night after mahrib you can also um do the same there's prayers that are for night and morning but even once a day is good so inshallah those are the um the advices so I think we are almost out of time or we might be oh wow I went all the way to the end of the hour just for a lot of time just sometimes it seems to go quickly so it's about 857 but this was the last yeah so that was the end of imam and always advice and as I said it was one paragraph you saw it subhanallah but so much wisdom packed in in that so alhamdulillah I don't know if there aren't any questions um this happens to me uh every session so I'm gonna try to go on the Facebook page and see if there's anything um where there are there are any questions and inshallah if there are I will answer those questions if I'm able to so just give me a moment here while I click on this okay I don't think that is the correct one you know Facebook changed their whole uh interface I'm not a fan of it I don't like abrupt changes so um anyhow I can't see yeah I don't see it I don't see the video here okay let me try the YouTube page I'm sorry I feel like every single week I do the same thing where I'm like hold on but I can't see anything um maybe it's under the videos tab I'll try one more thing oh there are comments okay alhamdulillah um aww mashallah thank you you guys are so sweet I see some lovely messages you guys are so sweet thank you I really appreciate your your kind words there salamu alaykum to uh sabiha to lora to sumayah to edelin mashallah so beautiful to see all these new sisters here thank you for being here um I don't see any questions there so I'm going to go to the YouTube page quickly um and see if there's anything here inshallah but yeah feel free you know that's if you have a question that may not necessarily be related to the text if I'm able to answer it I will try I will certainly try for lora um so let's see alhamdulillah alhamdulillah salamu alaykum so sweet I'm always so tired I feel like I'm just going through the motions I don't feel the closeness you know subhanallah that's a great question um you know clearly the time you know if you're waking up and it's hard for you because you're not getting enough rest or sleep then this might require some tweaking of your sleep schedule a little bit but honestly the fact that you're getting up you have to really hold on to that but that is an invitation for you that Allah swt is you know it's because of his uh you know favor upon you that you're waking up and sometimes we forget that it's not really our efforts um it's really Allah swt that he wants you to be drawing close to him in that hour so the fact that you're responding to that call and you're getting up and you're trying even though it's hard for you is an amazing thing but you also may want to look at the circumstance like if the room is dark and you you know they recommend some of our teachers recommended for example using water when you're making your because if it's like on warm tap you know or hot water if you like if you like things hot then you you're just um continuing the state of comfort and sleepiness and drowsiness but that cold water is intended to really wake you up and to kind of get you out of that slumbered state so you might need to do that you might need to drink some water you might need to just make subtle tweaks so that you have more presence of mind turning on because for me I have a light I pray close to my bed but I have a light that I started turning on because I realized the same I wanted to have more presence and so you know I would do that and also you can break up you know sometimes people get into the numbers with the Hajj so it's like they just want to do blocks and blocks of prayer and that can be physically exhausting but if you do even turaka of really present mindful prayers and you just sit and you are totally there totally mindful and making the offer all of your loved ones and asking you making a stuff that and all of the things that you really want from Allah those two prayers are treasure you know and don't underscore or undervalue that for because you think I need numbers you know it's not about quantity it's about quality so if that's what you can do and still stay awake and still stay engaged then Alhamdulillah try that and then make little other tweaks like I said try the cold water splashing try some drinking some water turning on a light or moving the space sometimes leaving your bedroom into another space also helps you because the bed the bedroom is too inviting and you just can't wait to get back into the bed because you're tired you might feel more inclined to you know rush through or not rush through you know you're just you're kind of going through the motion so try disrupting you know what you're or the system you have a little bit you know change it here and there and see if there's an opening for you and of course ask Allah to give you more rest maybe you're not getting enough rest when you sleep so that when you're waking up and I've talked about this actually in previous Harqas but you can look up you know the sleep cycles when you study and understand sleep cycles it's also really helpful because you'll know how to wake up you know during the time where you're not disrupting a really important sleep cycle you know so there's cycles that we need it's about I believe one and a half hours where we hit that deep sleep and when you hit the deep sleep that's when you're going to feel rested so if you wake up after completing that cycle you'll feel more rested but if you wake up in the middle of the cycle this is usually what a lot of people do because they're not aware so you wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle then you don't get the restful sleep that you need and therefore you wake up groggy you know you just you're out of it right and that's likely because you didn't complete that cycle so you go through I don't know three four or five cycles I think depending on how many hours of sleep you get each night so you always want to set your alarm or just you know you'll get into certain habits where you body will know from myself for example after I had children you know I started having some back issues and other health issues so I just by nature wake up every two three hours I'm always awake you know I there's nothing I can do about it I will always wake up and see that it's I've only been asleep about an hour and a half or two hours and then I you know I so I just I'm grateful for it because I'm not in that slumber where it's really hard to wake up out of but I don't remember ever having slept like that for years I mean I can't I honestly can't remember when I slept that way where I was just knocked out for more than two to three hours so sometimes age and certain life circumstances like a health issue might facilitate it for you so for me I have that advantage is that I'm always waking up just by my own internal clock but I know that there is a way to train yourself to do that as well so sleep training just like you know they do for children adults can also sleep train so you can start to become less dependent on hours of sleep and really look for getting the best quality of sleep in the time that you need and this is you know study the way of the profits and of the ODA they didn't sleep overnight you know they did the recovery sleep we know but they did recovery sleep during the day but the night was for worship so it's very possible to not be a sleep dependent person but you want to do your math you know to see how much you need for functionality and health and make sure you're definitely getting your sleep in some way covered throughout the day so you know just maybe need to do some research and see what works for you but I hope that helps you I mean I'll reward you for your beautiful attention I'm sorry Faisa you were asking is this page 66 in the text that was a long time ago that you asked that question but that's where we started with Syriah Mazarouk's text we read from page 73 so today's session was from page 73 that's appendix B so I don't think there are any other questions I hope inshallah I didn't miss anything but thank you so much for all of you for tuning in and let me know actually if you wouldn't mind because I haven't told anybody at MCC but I am considering maybe doing a time change or a day change for these sessions and I'm trying to figure out if Sunday would work better for some of you because in the middle of the week I know with work commitments in school and you know with children dinner it might be hard but weekends tend to be a little bit more flexible so if you like this time from 8 to 9 Sunday evenings can you let us know in the comment section on MCC just let us know if you prefer Thursday evenings or Sunday 8 to 9 and let's see what happens I'm not sure if MCC what they'll say but at least we can explore maybe some options but thank you so much again for tuning in I will see you guys inshallah in two weeks at our next session and we'll continue with more from Agenda to Change Our Condition so thank you again Jazakum Allahu Khair and we'll end in Dua Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem Al-Asr inal insana la fi khusr illa alladina almanu wa amil asman ya haqi wa tawasab as-sabar subhana rabbika rabbil azati yama yasifun wa salamun a'lam al mursalim alhamdulillahi rabbil a'lamin alhamdulillahi jazakum Allahu khairan again have a wonderful evening inshallah and we'll see you in a couple of weeks alright salamu alaykum it's about seven pages long and the three main areas that he covers is our current state and this was published in 2013 so keep that in mind that this text was seven years old but still when we talk about our current state a lot of the things that he discusses is still very much relevant then the inner and outer transformations and the importance of family so we'll likely not get to all three of these points because there's so much content to cover so inshallah we'll continue wherever we left off for the next session but let's go ahead and begin Bismillah so first the very first page here I'm going to read along and then we'll stop for some commentary here and there so he says, Islam is submission to what is real with the capital R it is a recognition and an acceptance of the way things really are and not as they appear everything is in submission to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who is the real al haq you know just Friday I did another program the dunya and the verses from surah the kaaf verses 7 and 8 where Allah says that he has adorned the world and we looked at the meaning of those verses and the the seed of those verses and what it indicates is that as we know the word for the earth dunya is actually translated to mean of low place at the now dunya it's a low place and so what we extrapolate from the verses that in its essence the dunya is low but there's embellishments, there's beauty there's adornments in the dunya and so when we talk about what is real we're not talking about what those adornments and embellishments are we're talking about the reality of the dunya right or the reality of things and the fact that everything in this dunya including us we will all perish everything will perish and be removed and destroyed except for the face of Allah this is what we're informed of in the Quran so here this is again speaking to the same truths that when we submit as Muslims we acknowledge that there's reality and falsehood and we have that recognition that what we see in the illusory world around us is not reality it is illusory, it's deceptive it's enticing, it's attempting and it's by design that way because Allah SWT created all of those adornments to test us to test who is true in their faith and to test who will fulfill be virtuous in their deeds and who isn't so it's all part of the design element so here again this is the reminder that we are to be a believer is to submit and to accept this as truth right and then he goes on to say only human beings and willful spirits which are the jinn can rebel against our creator right so all other creation is in submission animals right they can't all living things they can't be anything in any other state but in submission whereas we humans and jinn can we have free will we can choose right over 1400 years ago this path of Islam was renewed to mark the entry into the last phase of human experience on earth it was renewed by the best of creation the Prophet Muhammad SAW as the final prophet and the seal of all of Allah's prophets upon them all be peace he was its greatest wayfarer and he never deviated from its course his blessed footprints remain clear and unchanged for anyone desiring to set out on that ancient prophetic path so then the next paragraph he now talks about what the this text is right so he says before you is a concise treaties on the path to taqwa so now we're being introduced to this concept of taqwa which is conscious awareness of our Lord devotion to God through taqwa is the primary reason for our existence and the means by which we are insured continued succor from our creator so this is a really powerful reminder because you know it's very easy to get caught up in the delusions and the illusions of the dunya and get so preoccupied with all of our responsibilities right some of us are you know we our parents are still alive so we're still dutiful to them we have spouses maybe we have children we work we have dependents that we take care of we have responsibilities at work we're community members so we have all these different roles and wear different hats and all of those things can sometimes you know take over our frame of mind our thinking and we become so obsessed with all of those things that we can sometimes forget that even though those things are important certainly they're important the main purpose for our existence isn't necessarily those things or our career paths or our dreams and goals those are not the reason why we were created we were created solely to worship Allah SWT and so that's what Taqwa is and so then he says Allah says in the first command in the entire Quran right he says O humanity O mankind worship your Lord who created you and those before you in order for you to realize Taqwa so again this is the whole purpose of our creation and he's reminding us that this is the first command Allah SWT gives us and it's right in the very beginning of the Quran the second chapter sort of the Baqarah verse 21 and then on the very next page he says he reminds us of the first prohibition so right after this verse you know where he's giving us the first command now we have our first prohibition where Allah SWT reminds us do not set up false deities besides Allah you are aware of what you are doing so what we should be doing and what we should not be doing right and then this next verse which comes later right he says while there are many false this is Sheikh Hamza's commentary while there are many false deities besides Allah the self is the greatest and most subtle so this concept of a false deity you know sometimes when we think of a deity or an idol we think of a little statue or a big statue something that people prostrate to and it's symbolic and there's you know there's something real before a person and they you know they have this they worship that idol right but here he's making it clear that you know there's many idols in the world there are many people who still ascribe to those beliefs but the one that is the most subtle and the greatest is the worship of the nafs the soul I mean the ego right the nafs and so the translation of that verse is have you not seen the one who took his desire as his deity so Allah swt is reminding us that there are people who literally worship their own desires and whims they just live to fulfill their whims and desires and if we are being honest right now looking around the world it is clear that this is true because we have never likely I mean again I can't I'm just making a general observation but the amount of indulgence and extravagance and access to things that we have now is unprecedented we don't you know have to really do much in order to get what we want it's so easy now with everything now moving to digital and online formats you can request services you can order food you can order gifts you can order whatever necessities you have your medication can come to you can do so much you can even have online doctor visits there's so many things that we can do in a click of a button so it's clear that this access to indulge in our whims and desires and this ease of access or ease in doing that can definitely create a dependency and then some form of addiction preoccupation which is all in line with the same sort of thought that this is a form of worship if that's what you live to do if you eat and your whole day is centered around food and what you're going to eat and you can't wait to wake up and have this meal or that meal or you have a craving and you can just order it and that's how you live then you become naturally because of that I mean it's human nature you'll become entitled right and once you become entitled to your you become accustomed to your nafs you become a slave of your nafs and then it's very difficult to do anything else besides that so when it's time to pray for example well your nafs is like I'm too tired you know I'm exhausted I'm too comfortable to get up and move right now so all of those challenges become or just the natural nature of the nafs which is to be lazy and to procrastinate they are exacerbated because you've habituated yourself to doing these things to giving into yourself all the time so therefore that is how you live you live to serve yourself you're not living to serve Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and this is the reality of most people now especially in the west you know of course there's a lot of poverty and a lot of people who are certainly not doing this because they are in impoverished states but I'm talking about our reality so in our reality this is very true right that many people they take their desire as their deity so then he goes on to say that struggle with the self is the means by which we purify our hearts of false deities so fighting those urges fighting those desires suppressing those desires is how we can overcome these things right it is the ancient way of the prophets it is to walk the path toward a realized state of submission to the will of Allah our God is mighty and transcendent exalted above and beyond the pettiness of this lower world right but he is also an imminent Lord who sustains and nourishes his creation at every level of existence so then he says here I'm not sure actually if I have this no I don't have this verse but I'll read it what has caused you to be deluded about your generous Lord who has created you and made you so perfectly proportioned and fashioned you in whatever form he chose right subhanallah may Allah forgive us for our delusions so now that he's introduced these ideas right that the believer is in submission to what is to the real to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that we have a clear understanding of what taqwa is and we also understand the first command and first prohibition that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave us and the idea that you can actually worship your own desire you know that's something maybe people never thought of before but that's again these are verses from the Quran to get us to think about our own behavior how are you proving your ubudiyah your understanding of your relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as a servant and he's your how are you proving that if you're indulging in your nafs all the time so getting that across that it's very possible that you we may fall into this behavior unwittingly because we're not we don't know how to we're not aware of the signs and the symptoms of this but clearly as we said many of us are very indulgent and we do give into our nafs a lot and we will prioritize our nafs over the worship of Allah it's just this is what the mujahidah is right and so acknowledging all of that and then that we can be deluded so now that he's done that we enter the first section of this introduction which is the titled our current state so let me go ahead and read this and we're going to get to these to the slide in a moment but in this section he starts off and he says now the current state of the people of this ancient path is deplorable generally speaking we are powerless, bereft morally bankrupt objects of history rather than subjects of history as were our pious predecessors who engage the world with the power of truth and dispel darkness with their spiritual light our condition is far from that of our noble forebears it is as if we never recited or even heard the prayer of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam which he recited every morning O Allah I seek refuge in you from grief and anxiety Allahumma inni aawudu bi kameen al- hammi wal-hazan wa ajazi wal-kasal wal-jibni wal-bukhal wa wa dallail daini wa qalabatil rajal right so this is O Allah I seek refuge in you from grief and anxiety impudence and indolence cowardice and miserliness and from being overcome by debt and overpowered by men so this is our reality right he is comparing our state to our noble forebears as he says and saying that we are nowhere near them right so the question arises well how did we reach the state there's two questions that when we examine our condition this is what where we are how did we reach the state right and then how do we get out of this state and he goes on to say that the answers to both of these questions are quite painful and complex but subhanAllah again from the Quran we get an answer that summarizes both or gives the answer to both of these questions in this verse and this is chapter 13 verse 11 where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says Allah does not change a people until they change what is in themselves so he then continues to give commentary on this particular verse and shares the commentary of Imam Abu Tadeb al-Makki who in the nourishment of the heart he goes on to say that the beauty of this verse is that it comprises a twofold meaning first it means that Allah does not remove blessings that he has bestowed upon a people until they transgress from obedience to disobedience so it works both ways when we talk about change right it can work for the good or for the bad right so here he's giving that perspective and so this is the response to our first question right that we're in this state because of our disobedience and then the second meaning of this verse is that Allah does not change a people's outward state of abasement, humiliation and objection until they change what is in themselves so this then answers our second question right so again when we ask these questions do we reach this state well we're in the state that we're in because of our disobedience how do we get out of this state we must consciously move from a state of disobedience to a state of obedience so SubhanAllah again so much to think about there that you know instead of just you know some people when things get tough or difficult or just seem so hard to move forward they want to give up right they don't have the will the motivation so it's like what's the point you know damaged goods it's a done deal and that's you know what's supposed to be from shaytan because of course he doesn't want us to be motivated he doesn't want us to have hope he doesn't want us to think that change is possible or there's potential so he may and there's certainly people who do that they look to the past and they see the glory of the past and then they go what's the point we're just a ruined people we're a ruined species this is human nature and they get very cynical and just negative but this verses to remind us that you know doing that if it just if that's your end you know the end of the result of contemplating the history and where we are and you know kind of assessing why we are we where we are that you just want to give up you're not you're not putting your trust in Allah SubhanAllah this verses is empowering and it gives us hope right that if we find ourselves in any situation we can change it you know I I received an email yesterday from a sister who it's just it's hard because you know you see shaytan how he weighs on people how he strips them of hope and he you know he really makes them feel worthless because you know they falter they do things that they have shame about and then he fills their heart with all of this hopelessness you know and so we're reminded constantly our teachers remind us and of course the Quran that we we're not a people that should fall into despair right this is Islam is not a faith of despair it's a faith of hope and so when we look to this first we should you know remember this because you know this sister when she messaged me the entire first you know few lines of her email where you could just see the she was guilt-ridden she had done some things that she was very very ashamed about but she had very little hope in herself and just riddled with with guilt and sometimes you know you know this is a little footnote but shame is when it's shame between us and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala that's healthy you know it's it's healthy to have that but we should also not fall into a a sense of again despair where we just think we where there's no hope those that's a when you reach those types of thoughts you should know that those are for me please right there's there's a line a fine line so if you've done something you shouldn't do and you have remorse and you really feel bad and you just sits with you for a while and it weighs heavy that's good because inshallah there's purification in that remorse is a good sign right because hopefully you won't fall back into that sin so you shouldn't rush through that process either which is like oh well I did it and now you're just back to being carefree no sit with those feelings of remorse and regret and really just you know you know beseech Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala ask him plea to him beg him for forgiveness make toba a process that you don't rush because of your discomfort with it right some people they have a hard time taking blame and criticism and so when even when things are clear you know it it's undeniable that they've done something wrong maybe because they don't they're just not comfortable with that sense of shame and guilt they just zip right through that process altogether and those people are likely the ones that return to sins right because they didn't really do the proper process of toba so toba is something that we should you know let just sort of play out naturally and the natural processes to feel that guilt remorse maybe kind of you know not not want to see people for a little bit and just be really preoccupied with centering yourself back with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala trying to reconnect with him that might take a few days maybe it takes a couple weeks maybe it takes a month maybe it takes longer for each situation in person it will be different but the point is knowing that there's a healthy way of doing that but when you get to the point where your sins and your wrong deeds make you doubt that you have any hope or that you're damned and you're condemned and there's nothing you can do about it those are clearly from Iblis because he wants you to not think of yourself as being redeemable right he wants you to feel a fall into despair fall into depression and then God forbid do something to harm yourself or just lose faith because that's a lot of some people do they lose faith out of out of total guilt sometimes right it's really sad but we should just know that there's a balance to that right so the point again here is that when you when you take a verse like this it's not just to you know look back and think well you know get cynical like I said about where we are with the state condition that we're in like oh we had this glorious history and now we're all doomed and look at our the Muslim umma and we're all this way and that way you can get really negative and that's not a good place either you know every time and every people have tests every person has tests so instead of you know getting to that place just look at it like it is what it is you know these this is pretty clear we are in the state because we disobeyed and we can reverse course that's what the verse is telling us reverse course you got here because you strayed now if you want to you know go back and and you know be connected to all this profit again on course and you know what to do right so alhamdulillah and then he goes on to say so we're back on if you're if you have the text I'm still on page three so as I said there's a lot of text here so we're we're going to pace ourselves but he says here that um let me see actually so this question how right how do we change our condition right so then he answers this question and he says sorry the slide shows a little slow nope went too far okay so here the first thing he says is that we must recognize that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave us guidance through messengers okay in our case the final prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and that as long as we adhered to that guidance in large numbers we were under the protection of Allah so when you look at the you know history you know the Islamic history and you see that you know all of the the different stages of our history and you see the tofiq that we had and all the scholarship that came out or just so many incredible things that scholars were able to do you want to attribute that to obedience to Allah right because we were in obedience to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he gave us tofiq and we saw all the success right the golden age of Islam and all of the you know accomplishments that we had as a as an Islamic came out of because of the obedience to Allah then he says as those numbers right the numbers of people in obedience to Allah diminished throughout Muslim history the outward enemies of Islam began to make inroads into the heartland of the Muslims until they actually conquered the Muslim lands so he's giving us some you know a summary of the historical facts like this is what happened there was a period where we had we were flourishing and we were successful we were in obedience to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then you know as we started straying the enemies you know came in and they they found a way to to further you know water us down and further take us away from our faith so he then goes on to say today both the Muslim heartland and Muslim hearts are oppressed by inward and outward forces that oppose the purpose of Islam which is to free people from submission to created things by helping them achieve submission to the creator of things subhan Allah and he goes on and says a culture of vice usury and consumption that enslaves people to the lowest aspects of their nature cannot survive amid large numbers of people committed to freeing themselves from those aspects of their nature so when we see you know everything that I talked about before all of the indulgence and the extravagance and all of the things that we have all fallen in you know these into these bad habits of doing because it's easy to do or it's excess it's it's there right people are doing it so we do it too those things only can exist because there aren't enough people resisting right and so if we want to you know remove those things from our society or culture we need to start working on restraint we need to start working on disciplining the nops and really you know fighting against our own selves because that's the only reason why they're thriving there's you know it's we learn in you know economy 101 right scarcity and now I'm forgetting my words right a supply and demand excuse me supply and demand right so you see these things because there's a demand for it but if we you know don't ascribe to those things and then things will change so we have to go back to ourselves and hold ourselves accountable he goes on on now on page 4 and says that the earlier infestations of such dark forces that succeeded in penetrating the muslim lands also set up schools to inculcate their ideas and ways into the hearts of the young impressionable muslims of the last two centuries you know subhanAllah this is actually really important because I mean he's you know mentioning the history but even now when we see what's going on in our world you know a lot of the things that are happening to the younger generation of muslims do happen in the schools right indoctrination is a real thing you have I mean I work with teens and I've worked with teens for several years and I can tell the difference between teenagers who are you know in muslim schools or maybe home schools because they haven't been exposed to certain ideas or beliefs or they don't have you know relationships and connections with people who are so different than them you can totally tell the difference because you know it starts early and unfortunately in some places it's starting earlier and earlier you know and here in California we have had a lot of issues over the past few years of things being introduced you know early to even elementary school children or preschool children ideas that are just completely antithetical to our faith and we've had you know people school boards and there's a lot of you know just legal issues going on with things like that because it's you know for us as people of faith there's certain ideas and concepts that are just not part of our faith so to have a school decide for families and communities that nope we are going to teach this no matter what it's really tragic and you know it's what it's done unfortunately is it has affected the way that some of our Muslim youth see the world they have adopted the lens of the you know the larger society because that's what they've been exposed to you start them off I mean you're thinking about and well just be practical I mean just be logical here you put your child in an environment for eight maybe ten hours a day if you if you consider after school programming or tutoring or something else that's beyond you know the school day they have your home and they are being with people who may have ideas that again differ from yours so if that's their predominant you know culture like that's what they see the most of the time every single day and the only time they get to spend time with you and your family or your community you know it's one day a week if that because some kids don't necessarily you know because they're over scheduled with sports and instruments but they're a part of especially as we get to the older you know older group of teenagers they don't have time and sometimes they have no interest in attending the last or on a Friday night you know youth program I've worked with many families where that's the case the parents are you know just really frustrated because they don't know how to get their child to want to be a part of the Muslim community because they're so over spread thin in other ways that are not part of their community right so things that they are into with people again that don't necessarily share the same faith that is the most of their social experience or their experience outside the home so it's a big challenge and a lot of you know Muslim families are struggling with this fact right I mean I mean now with COVID and quarantine inshallah I'm hoping and praying that more families are coming together and there's more connection with the family but it's absolutely a reality for a lot of our our community members that this is an issue so going back to this point that subhanAllah even historically you know schooling was one of the ways with which they were able to get to the Muslim youth is not surprising right ala bilah so then he goes on to say they undermined the spiritual authority of the scholars of Islam I mean again this is this was written you know seven years ago or even maybe before that because it was published seven years ago but it was I'm certain before that but the undermining spiritual authority of scholars of Islam that's what's been happening you know in our community unfortunately for a while now with social media and you see cancel culture there's been a lot of rhetoric that's just alien to our faith tradition to many of our cultures that have been you know injected into the discourse amongst Muslims especially the younger generation you know just this idea of not really seeing religious authority as authoritative and or you know or blurring the lines with what is an authoritative figure and what isn't it's happening a lot unfortunately so again you know this is history repeating itself right they undermined the spiritual authorities of scholars of Islam making them appear backward and foolish I mean that's also the other thing you know there's we live in a meme culture and then a lot of you know mockery and you see people in authority whether they're law enforcement or politicians and I'm not defending those groups but I'm just saying that generally speaking the idea that authority whether it's religious or otherwise parents parental authority it's undermined very much in this society you know you can look at cartoons films they start them very early right I mean I was raised in the era of Bart Simpson I know it's still going on I mean it's the longest writing cartoon right but you learn so much about you know mocking and undermining authority from those types of shows and so it's just part of the culture to do that right so again history repeating itself that that's what they did and they do that by making them into buffoons and you know they're old they don't know what they're talking about they have thick accents and so there's this culture of mockery that unfortunately has taken over the youth culture and a lot of it sometimes is directed to to religious authority so then he goes on to say that again they make them appear backward and foolish by promoting the idea that the scholars religious cosmology cosmology is paled before the impressive pillars of modern science and industry this is another tactic right to the war between science ism and faith in general right any type of religion there's it's an intellectual war and the people of science or atheists you know they posit themselves as being superior because they're more they have more advanced understanding of things you know they have science on their side which is verifiable and testable and then faith is you know based on faith it's so there's definitely that these realities is still even today right then they then begin to remove the powerful cultural distinctions of Muslims that had flourished for centuries and replace them with the accoutrements that's the French word right of western experimental cultural norms and more so Hanallah so the you know appropriation of Muslim culture Muslim foods and just the again watering down of our cultures of our traditions of our norms and giving them that flair that western you know American US or just western flair right that's still again subhanallah very valid slowly the dress of Muslims changed the scarves fell from the heads of our women and the beards from the faces of our men robes and modest dress were replaced first by ridiculous brimmed hats starched suits and ties and finally by jeans and t-shirts causing Muslims to appear not as caliphs of Allah but as wage slaves of the western styled factories that sprouted up all over the world sandals so beloved to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam were replaced with tennis shoes made in sweatshops by people so poor that they could not afford the very shoes they produced subhanallah you know that I have so much to say on that but I remember when I was younger and you know looking at albums of some of the photos that my parents were able to bring back with them we became as refugees from Afghanistan but they had they had some pictures it always shocked me when I saw how European the fashion sense was in Afghanistan because I just I assumed that it was a culture where people dressed in traditional clothing you know and that they had that that was the predominant way that people lived and they identified very much with their Afghan heritage so it was really shocking to see my mom for example and my aunts and some of my other relatives wearing very European style clothing even my dad you know that the haircuts the suits the dresses the music they listened to they were very familiar with western culture this was something that always shocked me and then when I the first time I ever traveled outside of the US into a Muslim land it also troubled me deeply because I was I knew that I would have a cultural shock but I think I was expecting to be pleasantly shocked you know going into a Muslim land for the first time as a practicing Muslim who in that time there weren't very many visibly Muslim in like there are now when I first started wearing hijab even in my own family and amongst my friends and community there weren't that many so I just couldn't wait to go to a land where I didn't you know have to hide or not that I did but you know just feel a little awkward and out of place I was just so excited to do that but actually the opposite happened where of course I saw people who were dressed you know Muslims and they spoke you know they had those same you know customs and all of that which is great and I loved it but there was definitely an obsession with American culture there was just this love you know and I went to Jordan for the first that was the first country that I ever went to outside of the US and I met Jordan and I just remember thinking wow I you know I just I expected such a different scene than what I had and even some of the people that I encountered they were very interesting and very sweet and very kind and hospitable but some of the conversations we had just left me you know scratching my head like how is this even happening you know they would be shocked when I would be when I was introduced to some of them and they find out that I wear hijab in California or in the West they were shocked like how why and they would question me like why are you wearing hijab you're in America you don't need to and so some of the things even I remember having discussions with some of them who were so surprised that I prayed five times a day so that was you know really a little difficult to be honest to absorb but you know I understood it was because and I figured it out quickly actually when I was driving through the city and I realized the ads and the stores so many of the similar things that we have in the U.S. they had set up shop in the Muslim countries you know a lot of big retail chains and other things but also what really made it clear for me was that I went to some of the poorest areas of Amman and there are a lot of really poor areas but I was struck by the amount of satellite dishes upon every single rooftop it's like unbelievable people no matter what their socioeconomic level is there were even I went to tent cities you know there's a lot of tent cities in Amman as well or areas there as well for for people who are refugees from Palestine and other places but oh my gosh subhanallah I was shocked because even there we saw satellite dishes so I just realized like western culture they were so exposed to those things and you know we can go and talk about that as a whole issue in a separate program but the point is they were exposed and once they got a taste of that life and the Hollywood way that life is depicted here in America that's what they aspire to so it was really really sad but it was obvious too in the styles and the clothing and like I said the shops and the stores and what people were really in the way that they gained status had to do with adopting very western styles so not surprising right subhanallah one need only to look at the photographs taken by the first Europeans in the land of Islam 100 years ago to see the nobility of Muslim dress so now we're being shown the other side that before all of this happened before these colonial powers or imperial powers went into different lands in the Muslim world where how did Muslims dress right let's look at that and he says the American poet Ezra Pound remarked that he had no idea of the force that was unleashed from the Arabian peninsula in the 7th century that led to a thousand mosques in Cordoba Spain until he caught a glimpse of it in the way a Muslim walked in Tangier in 1913 subhanallah that's pretty powerful right the way that Muslims carried themselves were being you know reminded that there was this just natural this way of walking of being of dressing that we were that was very custom to customary in many Muslim lands that even non-Muslims observed these things right compare that image to the current Muslim cities teaming with desolate youth looking for a ticket out of their empty lives to anywhere but home subhanallah right again these are really powerful images it's very you know descriptive language but it is intended to really make us reflect right when you go to a doctor you know I just this past week went to get treatment for some things after a long time having seen a provider and you know the first appointment took a really long time because it's an intake appointment and they make you go through your history and so there's a lot of questions and back and forth but that's part of the analysis process you go over the symptoms and how did things happen and why did you know when did you notice this and so doing that reflection is important in order to you know get the right diagnosis and then eventually to get inshallah the right treatment so in many ways that's what we're doing here we're looking visiting the past really trying to look at what went wrong like how did we go from this place of nobility or even as in this example non-Muslims were so struck by and in awe of just seeing a Muslim walking in a way that they dress to a place where we've lost that completely we don't have any appreciation for those things anymore we were taught in some places we look down on those things you know it's embarrassing for someone to wear traditional clothing out in public they should wear European style clothing because why would you do that it's okay in the home or in private places but how did we go from that to this right so we're looking at the history for that reason to really let it sink in like there was somewhere we went wrong and in order to again know how to get back on course we have to analyze things then he moves into Muslim cuisine once the envy of the world produced in the homes of the believers with love and remembrance of Allah's blessings people I don't know if you've ever had I've had two very like memorable meals in my life where I just felt like the food was completely blessed once was in the city of Medina we were invited to a large gathering but you could just everybody said the same it was just so there was just something incredible about that meal and it wasn't anything that we hadn't had before but there was definitely something there that we couldn't explain and another time a friend who I just felt a lot of love from may Allah bless her and her family I felt that her food was very melodic and it was like I remembered those meals I hummed it on my mother as a wonderful cook my sisters I have many people in my life Mashallah who are amazing cooks so not to take anything away from them because everybody's food is delicious but there's something about people of you know who are close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when they cook they do it from a place of you know it's they're remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala even as they're chopping the onions and you know cleaning the meat or doing all those little tasks it's a labor of love and that reflects in the flavors of the food so he's reminding us this is the envy of the world because people loved to have these meals and there's a reason for it right they were remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and now it's replaced right by techno food which is not produced or livestock but a product bereft of barakah Muslims have forgotten that food is the foundation of behavior according to our scholars understanding of Allah's words right that oh you messengers eat of pure things and do righteous deeds subhanahu wa ta'ala you can see it too in the Muslim lands when you go to any Muslim country subhanahu wa ta'ala so many people right what do they look to do when they get into a Muslim country I mean I've been guilty of it I think it's because we're so deprived of certain things in the west that it's exciting to say hey I'm going to go and have a you know a halal big mac or a halal this and Kentucky fried chicken or whatever your special or your favorite food is but you know that we leave these lands and we go to Muslims to have that type of food we've lost appreciation right for our own that our own food had and so in the fact that we are commanded to eat of the pure foods subhanahu wa ta'ala so I'm just going to do a quick check of time let's see here um okay so let me I have about 10 minutes and I want to make sure I don't go over and I can answer some of these questions I've received a question here from brother Salman who's asking where are these two passages from sister I don't know if which passages you're referring to but everything I'm reading is from this book called the agenda to change our condition so and this is the introduction believe it or not there's still a lot more masha'Allah gems throughout this book but this is the introduction and we covered just page four so you know insha'Allah we'll try to get through this but I think we'll stop here um and then yeah because let me actually see you know what let me read one more paragraph and then we'll stop so this paragraph that comes after this reflection about eating from the pure food as she goes on to say pure food is being replaced with fast food made with haste and waste two attributes of the devil right consideration is from God haste is from the devil sugared sodas replace natural milk water and juice corporate fast food chains with their mass produced disease ridden pathogenic food now appear everywhere even in the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina meanwhile Muslims who for centuries food filled with Baraka made by people with loving hearts who found joy in feeding others now line up to consume products with less nutritional value than dog or cat food all the bellahima shaitan of regime I think that's I know it's heavy on the heart to hear words like this but we have to be accountable for our own behavior and we've all likely fallen into into this before but it's not to do anything to remind us of where we were and why we are here now how did this happen how can we go back to to being where we once were we can't like I said do that if we don't have this uncomfortable real or these uncomfortable realizations about our own you know behavior and hold ourselves to account and that's really what this is right so much Allah so many gems and so much more to reflect on if you don't have this book again I'm going to urge you to get it in the meantime until our next session you can certainly read up ahead and if you do get the book I ended at the top of page 5 so likely for next session I will finish you know I'll try to finish this some introduction for the next session and then we'll get into chapter 1 and proceed from there inshallah so I hope you found this a benefit if you did please don't forget to make da'a for our beloved scholarship for giving us access to these texts and for translating these you know many of the texts that they have worked on and have provided for us it's their efforts that we're able to benefit from this knowledge Alhamdulillah so please remember them in your da'a remember the people at MCC all of the staff and all the donors and board members and everybody who gives us these spaces these virtual spaces to convene and to talk and to remember Allah's praises we could all be doing anything for this one hour but inshallah our hearts are pure and we have the intention the right intention to come together in the remembrance of Allah's praises with the intention that He draws closer to us inshallah by seeing our efforts so may Allah's praises bless all of you I hope you have a wonderful evening unless actually forgive me let me get off of the I forgot to stop screen share so I apologize for that but yes I will quickly check to see if brother Salman has any other comments for me and also I know sometimes on the YouTube page there are some questions I'll quickly survey that before I go so that I don't miss anything excuse me just give me at one moment inshallah but yes in the meantime again may Allah's praises bless all of you and make it easy for you and keep you safe inshallah and as any other comments sorry I need to do that Alhamdulillah I don't see any other questions on YouTube brother Salman so if there's nothing else on the Facebook page then inshallah we can go ahead and we can wrap it up for this evening and just for those of you again who are maybe tuning in for the first time these haraqas are they're called it's a sisterhood sorority and sisterhood but I want to make sure that you know I don't personally mind if brothers are tuning in I know some people might have different views on that but I don't mind inshallah so if your family wants to watch I'm honored that you'd want to watch so please feel free to share this with others but we will be meeting from now on Sunday evenings 8 to 9 inshallah no longer Thursdays inshallah until unless things change but for now we'll keep it Sunday evening and we'll continue with the rest of the text inshallah the next time we see you which will be in two weeks so these are not weekly they're every other week so not next Sunday but the following inshallah so I look forward to seeing you all there have a wonderful evening and may Allah keep all of you safe inshallah inshallah inshallah inshallah inshallah inshallah inshallah Sayyidina wa Maulana wa Habibra Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, wa Alaa Alaihi Wasallam Tasbeeman Katera. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Welcome, alhamdulillah, to all of you, brothers and sisters who are out there tuning in to our official second halaqah here or session on Agenda to Change Our Condition. It is a text that we have been covering actually for several weeks now, but we started a little differently with the appendices in the back of the book. And so we're now reading the actual text. So if you don't have the text, I highly encourage you to get it. It will be easy to follow along with me, but I do have slides prepared, which I will bring up in just a moment. But here is the book. Again, for anybody who's new tuning in, it is a text that is written by Shechemza Yusuf and Imam Zed Shaker. And it is called Agenda to Change Our Condition. And again, this is our second official reading. So we're very early on into the text, alhamdulillah. So I'm gonna go ahead and pull up my slides here. And that way we can begin, inshallah. If I have one minute here or one moment. Okay, Bismillah. So here we go. I apologize one second. Stop screen share. Okay, okay. I don't know what happened. Let me just, sorry. We had it all set up just a second ago, but for some reason I'm getting an error message now. So if you bear with me, while I pull this up, how do you sharing that location? Huh, okay, I'm not exactly sure why I'm getting this message, but once I'm sorry for the inconvenience, we just had everything working fine. Subhanallah. Screen, because if Brother Salaman, can you just verify if you can see my screen? For some reason, I'm getting a strange message. Are you able to see it? Brother Salaman, are you there? Subhanallah. We come on early and we can, okay, so I think you've sent me a message. Okay, inshallah then we're good to go. I apologize. I was getting a very strange error message I've never seen before, so I'll have to do that. All right, let's go ahead and begin. So again, the last week or last time, it's been about two weeks now since we meet every other week. We started reading the text. We were very much in the beginning of this text. I'm sorry, one more second. I'm gonna full screen it so that we don't have any issues with the display. Okay, so now inshallah we should be good to go. Anyhow, alhamdulillah. We started reading this text together and I said there's so much to get through. We ended up only getting to a few pages. So where we are right now, if you have the text, is we were talking about the rapid changes in the Muslim world due to imperialism, colonialism, a lot of Western influence that came into the Muslim world. We began to see and so in the text, Shahamza here and the introduction, he describes all of these very rapid changes. He describes changes to the cultures in many Muslim countries, food, clothing, language, even the infrastructure and architecture of Muslim lands started to change and become more Westernized institutions. And many other things have just started to transform away from the traditional Muslim architecture and design and just the way that the cities and towns were built and more and more Western influences were coming in. So he talked about that. And then on page four at the very bottom of the text, he says here, one need only look at the photographs taken by the first Europeans in the lands of Islam 100 years ago to see the nobility of Muslim dress. The American poet Ezra Pound remarks that he had no idea of the force that was unleashed from the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century that led to 1,000 mosques in Cordoba, Spain until he caught a glimpse of it in the way a Muslim walked in Tangier in 1913. Compare that image to the current Muslim cities teaming with desolate youth looking for a ticket out of their empty lives to anywhere but home. So again, he's just describing the contrast of where we were to where we are now. The stunning architecture he describes on page five, gardens, parks that engendered awe in the eyes of all who gazed upon them, right? Those were suddenly transformed and more commercial buildings with just brick buildings or stone buildings with very little color or dimension or design took their place, right? And then he goes down and he talks about the schools, the madrasas where the love of Allah and his Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was instilled in the hearts of the students along with the rich understanding of the Dean of Allah and with memorization of his book have been replaced by secular institutions that instill in people a disdain for the past and a boredom that lingers long after the last empty book is closed and an equally empty career begun. So, you know, all of this is to really help us to see why we're in the situation that we're in. The text is about changing our condition and we cannot help ourselves or heal from where we are if we don't first diagnose ourselves and see where the problems began. And so the problems in many instances began with these things that were introduced into the Muslim world, right? The government systems that we have currently, right? Many of them are abusive systems of power of rule. And so he's describing all of this at length in the very early pages of page four and five. And so then he goes on, let me just change the slide here. Bismillah, give me one minute. Okay, went too far. So then he goes on and he says on the next page on page six here, he says that, you know, if Muslims were truly living Islam, our greatness would dispel any negative influence from the West in the traditional lands of Islam. And he quotes the famous historian Arnold Toynbee. He said that he recognized Islam as a spiritual power that could help reinvigorate the dissipated state of society and its life threatening social ills. So other people recognize the power Islam had, but unfortunately we lost appreciation for our own tradition in many ways because we were so quick to replace it. And that's really what he's pointing out here. And then he talks about how subhanAllah, I mean today, first of all, I didn't mention it, forgive me, but it's, you know, the first day or now it's the second night of Rabi al-Awwal, the month of the birth of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So Mubarak to all of you who are out there, but important to reflect on the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his experience. And so in the middle of page six, he talks about how the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asked only one thing of the Quraysh, right? All he said is, let me be that I may invite people to Islam. He wanted them to just leave him alone so that he could do his Dawa and do what he was meant to do. And they didn't, they were relentless and they were brutal and they didn't give him that opportunity at all. He had to of course overcome them. But Shukram Sahir says, we on the other hand are given, leave to invite people, yet we do not. You know, and again, this is symptomatic of the fact that we have lost appreciation and value for our own tradition and we have in many ways become preoccupied with the world and the dunya and acquiring wealth and materialism and all the other things that this dunya can delude us with, right? So then he goes on and he, again, we're on page six here and he talks about, he says, we on the other, I'm sorry, he says, this is not to deny that there are some who oppose the spread of Islam. Among such people are those who will not sit idly by and allow others to invite people to Islam without attempting to undermine Muslims, cause dissension in the ranks of believers and place obstacles along the path. They ultimately manifest disbelief in a very real way and their existence is a test from Allah to distinguish real believers from hypocrites. However, our prophet, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, in a sound hadith said, do not seek confrontation with your enemies, but when it occurs, be steadfast. So again, he's just giving us some insight into the current dynamic of our community where you have some people who are just really disconnected and disengaged and other people who are, you know, they're being obstructive. And so we have to be steadfast and continue to do what we're meant to do, which is spread this tradition, value this tradition. That's what our responsibility is. And so he goes on on the same page. And again, let me pull up the slides. So those of you who don't have the text can at least read along partially here with us.  He says here that true Muslims, so now he's defining for us where we all should be because we're clearly confused, we're lost, we've lost value for our tradition.  And in many cases, those of us who are living, who are Muslim minorities living in non-Muslim lands, we're also reflecting the same problem of just not really appreciating our faith tradition as we should because we're too caught up in the pursuit of the material world, right? The material world. So he's reminding us here that where we all should be. And he says, true Muslims love peace, obey the law, but are also commanded by a law to be witnesses unto humanity. And in order to fulfill this, we must first be witnesses unto ourselves. So he's making us hold ourselves to account here. We can enjoy the privileges, the opportunities that we have here. Alhamdulillah, we live in a time and place and many of us where we do have immense privilege. And so we can certainly enjoy what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given us and we should do our best to be the best citizens wherever we are. But our ultimate objective, we can't lose sight of it. It's just to worship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and also to bear witness as Muslims that this is a true faith and to live this Deen and to teach it when we can, when we have the opportunity. But he reminds us here that in order to do that effectively, we have to first not forget our own selves. We have to hold ourselves to account. And so here in this ayah from Surat Al-Baqarah, I ta'moruna nasa bilbiri wa tansona anfusakum, right? Do you command people to righteousness and forget yourselves? So this is really about not becoming a hypocrite. You can't espouse the beauty of Islam and all of these amazing things that are true. But then you don't live it yourself. You have to have consistency, you have to have truth. And so this is the starting point. Know what your objectives are, but hold yourself to account and have the balance. Be in the dunya, but also know that you have an important, a very important role in this dunya. And now he's gonna introduce what that is. So in the next page, or actually, excuse me, the next section, again, if you're following along in the book, the very bottom of page six, we now have a section titled, Inner and Outer Transformations. And so here, let me just check if I skipped a, no, I didn't. Okay, I thought I skipped a slide. So Inner and Outer Transformations. Here he says that the path for us, and now he's speaking specifically to the Muslims who are in Western lands, okay? So he says, the path for us in these Western lands is twofold. The first is Inner Transformation through Spiritual Struggle. You know, I'm so sorry, I think I did skip a slide. Let me see if I put it somewhere else. Where did that slide go? Here it is. I don't know how this slide got all the way at the end, forgive me, but I knew I definitely skipped over this. Here we go. So he talks about Inner and Outer Transformation. So he says that the first is the Inner Transformation. This is the spiritual struggle with the soul, right? This is a very first part of our path here in the West. The second is the Outer Transformation. And this is struggle with the vices and degrading aspects of society. This means working toward the realization of social justice and a culture that embodies moral comportment, protects children and enhances family and community life. Now, again, you know, this book was written several years ago and published in 2013 as a text, but it was written even prior to that. And so when you think about where we are now, this is such incredibly relevant advice. I mean, I just, you know, I gave a parenting, started a parenting class yesterday and we talked a lot about some of the struggles that parents are having with their families. And so, and one of the things that I hear a lot from people are the fears, legitimate fears that they have about raising their children in this society and in other parts of the Western world as well because so many of the things that are now acceptable and normalized in these societies are completely antithetical to our creed, our belief. And so it's very difficult to try to navigate, well, how can we live in these societies when every thing that you see out in that again is acceptable and even encouraged is pulling people away from their faith. And so you have natural fears from parents and about future generations, about their children now, you know, what's gonna happen to them when they get a little older? Are they gonna be able to maintain their faith? These are all very, very legitimate fears. And so this, you know, part of the text is really for us to contemplate where are we with both of these aspects of our path? Where are we with our own inner transformation, right? Where are we with our own mujahedah? What are we doing? Are we living this Dean as much as we can or have we sort of just given up in certain areas? You know, are we not really striving to be better? Have we become stagnant and stale and we're just kind of going with emotions? Are we making efforts at all, you know? And the best way to really gauge that is to ask yourself, where were you, you know, just a few months ago, where were you last year? Where were you 10 years ago, five years ago? What major changes have you committed to in terms of your spiritual, your own individual spiritual identity, your own individual spiritual path? Are you having the same problems or have new problems emerged? Like were you better five years ago? Or have you really overcome a lot of your struggles? But where are you right now? And this is something we all have to do individually and independently and have those really honest conversations with ourselves. Because it absolutely impacts the second part of it. I mean, again, the whole book is agenda to change our condition and we know from the verses in the Quran that Allah SWT that it says He will not change the condition of the people until they change themselves. So if we want to see our community healing, our societies improving, we cannot expect that to happen if we're not first willing to look to ourself, which is what the entire purpose and the majority of this book deals with. It deals with really the inner, the inward lens, the looking inward and trying to figure out what all of us have to do differently. Because if we don't do that, then it's very likely that we're not gonna have success when it comes to all of these other things outside of us that we so desperately wish we could control. So these two things, for all of us again, just to give us perspective, very important to reflect on. Now I'm gonna go back because the slide got out of order. So just bear with me a moment while I find my placing here. But let me go back. Bismillah. So this is the slide that should have come next. So here on the top of page seven, we have a quote from the great scholar, 11th century, Mufassir and scholar of Arabic, Raqbal Isfahani. And Shahamza quotes here that he gave us two main reasons or in his opinion, there were two main reasons why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created the human being. The first is to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, right? And so here we have the verse, right? وَمَا أُمِرُ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُ اللَّهَ مُخْلِسِينَ لَهُدِّينَ حُنَفَاءَ They were only commanded to worship Allah with purity, making the religion solely for him. So this is again the reminder that this is a part of our creation. The second reason is to cultivate the world, right? وَاَنْشَاءَكُمْ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ وَاستَعمَرُكُمْ فِيهَا So he brought you forth from the earth and has caused you to cultivate it. So this idea of first recognizing our own purpose, we're here to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that's solely our purpose. But then also there's the other side of the coin. We have to cultivate this dunya that we've inherited, that we're a part of. And how do we do that? So then the rest of the text he now describes that. So he says here, again, if I can get to the next slide. Bismillah. I went far. Okay, so here, so what cultivation means? He says here, cultivation here means to sow seeds that produce both temporal fruits as well as eternal ones. Such cultivation entails building schools, hospitals, farms, roads, bridges and cities and towns, wherein Allah is worshiped and the sanctity of the earth is preserved. In order for us to realize our God given potential within our lifetimes, we must break the cycles of stagnation by abandoning methods that have proven ineffective in fulfilling our responsibilities as people committed to Islam. We can accomplish this only by changing our current condition. This requires courage, commitment and above all critical introspection. So I mean, look, that's a pretty tall order, right? If you think about what we're supposed to be doing and what we're all actually doing, many of us and I can speak for myself as well, it's very easy to get caught up in our own individual goals and pursuits and forget the bigger picture, right? We all work, we have families to take care of, we have children to take care of, parents in laws. And so we can just kind of get caught up in that routine and then lose sight of the fact that we should also be looking towards the future because our children, what are they going to carry forth if we're not also trying to help in some way? So whether that means we actually get involved with institution building or supporting institutions and organizations some way or another, you can do that financially, you can volunteer and work, you can serve onto committees or boards. Some part of us should feel compelled to do that. I think that's what the point is here that we should look to the benefit that all of this will bring for generations to come as well as for our own progeny, our own children, our grandchildren, they are going to reap the benefits if we prioritize these things, but if we just get caught up in our own material worldly pursuits, just making money and buying homes and cars and vacationing and eating the best of foods and buying all the clothes that we want and just it's all about what we benefit from for ourselves instead of looking at these other very important big picture things, then we have no one else to blame but ourselves when we see that our children, for example, are not really interested in being part of their community, right? If we don't take them to the masjid and have them appreciate, for example, what a great resource and what a great blessing it is to have you part of a community and to have a community center, to have teachers, to have classes regularly and it's understandable that we're not gonna always be able to attend every single event or lecture, but at least to value it, at least to have appreciation for it so that when you get that email from the masjid asking for some support, some donations that you don't just roll your eyes and become cynical and act as though it's just here we go again, but rather instead of spending money on whatever big purchase you might have had your eyes on for a while, that you see the bigger picture, that it's better to pay it forward for the benefit of your community, the benefit of your children and grandchildren, inshallah. So really thinking big picture, but to think about all of these things that this is what cultivating means, that we actually invest in schools and hospitals and building institutions and improving our world and our society and taking that seriously. So civic engagement, getting involved with what's going on in local government and actually being a part of that is a big part of the role that we should have as Muslims here living in the West. So I have that really great powerful reminders for all of us to reflect on and that last line is so important, right? We can accomplish this only by changing our current condition. This requires courage, commitment and above all critical introspection. So we have to be willing to think critically about our own culpability and why we are in the state that we're in as a community, because we all do have some part in it. And that's, again, a very subjective individual process, but we have to start there. And that's what the whole objective of Mujaheda and really trying to change your condition is. It's a matter of let me first, again, diagnose the problems, look inwardly, look outwardly, analyze the situation, make sense of it, and then from there, figure out what I have to do next. So it's an essential part of the process. Now the next slide here, Bismillah. Give me a second here. Okay, so the next section on page seven at the bottom, he has titled the importance of family. So here he says that the family is the first and most important unit of society and is designed to nurture and prepare the young to carry on the civilizational enterprise. It is in serious crisis throughout the world and our children, whether in Muslim households or those of other faiths and beliefs are suffering everywhere. So, I mean, this is just an absolutely true statement and you can look at research, whether it's from different academic institutions or scientific institutions, journals, psychologists, therapists, there's a lot of people who are looking at what's happening with our youth and it's very concerning. Anxiety disorders are on the rise globally and mostly in amongst the youth teen demographic, young adult demographic, we're seeing a lot of mental health issues and it's getting worse and worse and there's a lot of thought and analysis on why what's happening, but the bottom line is it is happening and it's everywhere and we have to hit pause for a moment and just try to at least figure out what are some of the potential reasons why kids are suffering so much more today maybe than ever in human history. Allah knows, I don't know if we can make a specific or exact claims, but when you do look at the data of how many teens are reporting problems, suicidal ideation, cutting, a lot of anxiety, as we said, disorder, social anxiety disorders, depression, these are not, we shouldn't take them lightly or act like, oh, this is just a reflection of typical teenage angst and all teens go through that and they can be dramatic and sometimes people get very cynical, these millennials, these generation Z, they're also spoiled and they're just brats and that's not how we should stuff a lot, talk about people, I mean, clumping people and those types of generalizations is never a good thing, but especially when it comes to young children, I mean, that I think is just deflecting because as adults, it's our duty to protect them and to take care of them and so when you see children engaging in really risky behaviors, whether it's drugs, alcohol, premarital relations, all the things, the risk factors and the fears that every parent has for their child, when you see them doing those things and in doing things that maybe you couldn't even think of doing when you were their age, instead of blaming them and making it sound like they're just inherently flawed, I think it's more effective to look back on where did we as adults fail them? How did we fail them? What did we do that led to this problem in terms of society and culture, the messages that they're getting, the access to a lot of these things that they're getting, we have to look back to ourselves. For example, I mean, very simple thing to look at is again, access, like when I was in high school and even throughout my childhood and well into even my college years, my parents had very strict rules and I'm sure many people of my generation can relate about curfew and about who we could be around and there were rules in terms of what we had access to. And so that built in maybe just an awareness that was Alhamdulillah with us even when our parents weren't there, we just knew we couldn't do certain things because very early on those things were understood and communicated and there were consequences. So when we are vigilant as parents and we can implement those types of rules and really be vigilant and be firm, our children will naturally fall into line but a lot of what's happening is that we aren't as vigilant and I can say that because the structure of our homes are different. When you have at least one parent in the house and they're stable and they're consistently there and they are present and watchful over the children, you have less likely chances of things passing through that or getting the children getting through a way with things. But when both parents are disconnected and just really distracted, I should say, because of other obligations and it doesn't always necessarily have to be work. It can just be personal other things that come up or roles that maybe a parent plays in terms of other family members. I've seen some friends and people that I know who are very consumed by other obligations in their life due to other family members maybe or other things going on. So the point is is when we don't have that type of vigilance in the home, then you see a lot of things happen and kids of course, the world that they're in, they don't really have to go very far to get access to some of the worst, most toxic, dangerous, poisonous elements of society. It's all within reach within seconds because of social media and devices and all of these very dangerous things that our children do have access to. So vigilance isn't always necessarily where our children are going outside of the home and watching, I mean, that's part of it, certainly who they're spending time with, who their influences are. But I think from our generation and previous generations, it's the opposite now. It's inside the home, what are the influences that our children have? Are they watching a lot of television? Are they watching a lot of Netflix and all of these other streaming services that may seem like not a big deal because, oh, they're in the home. It gives you kind of like a false sense of security if you think about it as a parent. Oh, they're just in their room. They're watching something with their friend or their sister, they're just watching a movie. But if we're not being vigilant to know what are they watching and do we follow up? Do we have measures in place to be able to know what they're watching? Or do we just give them all access passes to a lot of these, I mean, HBO, there's Netflix. There's like, there's all these streaming services that do not have very good content at all. And the sad thing is, is that their generation, the shows that are tailored for their generation are some of the worst. Some of the worst shows that you could possibly imagine are made for and presented to as, you know, as entertainment for the teen demographic. For example, there's a show on HBO I mentioned, Euphoria. If you don't know this show, know that your teens most likely know about this show because it's very popular in that demographic. And I believe it just won an Emmy, it won some award recently. And it was very, you know, it received a lot of awards, I believe. But the point is, is that show, if you watch even a few minutes of it as a Muslim, it should absolutely fill you with horror because every type of debauchery you can imagine is shown in that show from the get-go. It's like, you know, just within a few, for a few minutes. There's many other shows as well that are like that, but they celebrate ideas that are not part of our faith. And yet they are marketed specifically to teens. And so as parents, if we're not aware of the, again, the shows or the music, look at the music industry and how much it's changed in the past, I would say 10, 15 years, even when I was younger, much different lyrics, just different type of content that teens and young children were exposed to. Now, if you're paying attention at all to what's going on with social media anyhow, you have on TikTok, for example, there are so many trends with young children. Forget, you know, older teens who are, at least you could say, you know, from our tradition, they're young adults, right? They have accountability. I'm talking about young children, like seven, eight, nine, who are dancing in very provocative ways to songs by someone like Cardi B, you know, it's like really horrific. But this is the world that our kids are in right now. And so we have to pay attention. And this is where the onus is on us as parents to know that it is a very difficult time for children, but we have to stand vigilant and make sure that what is coming to, what they have access to, that we know what it is. So all of those, you know, those systems that you can find, whether it's online, you know, just security systems or apps or whatever it is that will allow you at least some level of control over what they're taking in and consuming is essential.  We all know what peer pressure is. We all know that young children and teens do not have very strong ability to regulate themselves because those functions aren't fully developed yet and that part of the brain. So we know these things. So we shouldn't assume that just because they're good kids and they're sweet and we love them, that they won't fall. I mean, we know from just reading our history that some of the best people have fallen. And so that's just naive to think that a young child, just because they're good, that you can necessarily trust them to not get curious, to not wanna look, to not wanna do something. And also aside from that, there's predators that are very good at grooming and luring children into traps. And so the bottom line is is we have to be very serious about the crisis that is unfolding and has been unfolding in front of us with regards to our children and to really be worried. We should be worried. If we're not worried, there's a problem anyway. I mean, that's my personal opinion because I work a lot with teens and I deal with a lot of issues that I think would really, to be honest, just startle, freak out and make a lot of parents just fall into deep, deep despair and depression because it's like, how can this be happening to our young children? Unfortunately it is. So I think that's the point that he's making here is that it's children are suffering and we really do have to help them. And then he goes on to say, now he's giving us some insight into also another area that we have to be aware of. And he says here on the bottom of page seven, he says, schools once meant to nourish and enhance the intellects, bodies and souls of our youth, now dumb them down and prepare them for a life of mediocrity and servility in many instances to perform meaningless jobs that neither benefit humanity nor help the individual grow morally and spiritually. There's a lot of, there's a lot more content here just regarding the government and just different ways of how these things are influencing our ability to parent our children, privacy issues and other things. But I think that point about schooling is something we should also take very seriously as Muslims because as someone who went to public schools my whole life when I was growing up here and who's visited public schools since then, I've spoken at many public schools for Islam and other topics. I am shocked. I think the last time I went to a public high school was a year ago and to give a talk and I just remember immediately from the get go being totally shocked by my experience because it was so different than anything that I remembered or experienced in my own life. For example, one of the things that immediately I saw was police cars, vehicles in the parking lot of the school that I went to and it wasn't necessarily a dangerous neighborhood or anything like that. I came to find out that that's pretty much standard now in many schools across, public schools across the country where maybe in major cities or close to major cities and maybe more but the point is I was shocked that there were so many police vehicles in the parking lot and all the school entrances were gated, completely gated and it was a very tight knit security system which to be honest it felt like a prison. I'm not exaggerating because they had metal bars throughout every entry and exit point of the school of the perimeter of the school. And so I just remember going, how do the people working in these institutions and attending these how do they feel peace? Because in my short visit, I did not feel peace. I actually felt very anxious being there and I remember I was walking, being someone who is an adult and you need all these passes. I had to go from one part of the parking lot around the building and there was a kid, he was a high schooler behind me but he had his backpack on in a very strange way and he was very closely walking behind me and I remember feeling like fear. Why is he so close to me? And his backpack was in front of him and he was like doing all these weird things that just felt very uneasy. So then I thought, wow, here I am a visitor and I'm feeling so uncomfortable. Imagine this is every day for these students. So the point is, public schools have just changed so much due to all of the violence and the risks that are out there and we're not, I mean, this is just reality that many people have experienced unfortunately some really horrific things at the schools on site. And I'm not speaking just about terrorist attacks or any type of school shootings necessarily, but bullying. I mean, bullying is such a big part of a lot of teens' everyday experiences which is why you see so much depression and so many other mental health issues is because a lot of kids are traumatized from bullying behavior. And then just exposure to other things that are when you think of teens and how vulnerable they are and what a difficult time it is in their life to have to on top of managing their own emotions and all the changes that are happening to them physically, mentally, emotionally, all the fears of their future. You have, what am I gonna be? What am I gonna do? How well am I gonna perform in school? Am I gonna go to college? All of these very legitimate concerns that they have, the pressures that they have from their families, on top of that to have to go into an environment where they are judged very harshly and critically for their appearance, girls are anywhere. Girls, of course, we know are judged very harshly for how they appear, for how they look, immense pressure, boys as well, for not just how they look and appear, but how, whether or not they measure up. There's a lot of very just close minded, narrow definitions of what it means to be a boy or I mean toxic masculinity, just look it up and you'll see what I'm talking about. But all of those things are real and so a lot of our teens experience daily anxiety and pressure because they are going into environments where those things are just, that's their everyday for eight, 10 hours a day, that's what they have to deal with. And then on top of that social media, which is just an extension of the school now because everybody's online, everybody's connected and so a lot of these behaviors follow them even after they go home, right? And I know right now we're in quarantine so this may not seem to be relevant in the moment but if we're just speaking generally about life before quarantine and likely what's going to happen when things resume, this is the reality that the public schools are very toxic environments that we have to protect our children from and so here, Shahamza as well speaks about that and he says that we must raise our children outside of the modern schools that are designed to make them no more than functional literates. So, and this is I would say also a moment of pause for many of us who may have become so wrapped up in the, what we've been conditioned to think is the script that you parents work, whether it's one income, double income, children go to school, we come home, we have our meals together and then weekends we do things together. That's very typical for a lot of American or Western families because we work, 40 hour plus work weeks and there's schools are morning to afternoon and then you have all these other extracurriculars. So there's not a lot of time in between for families to really connect but I think that's the point is that that being status quo isn't good and it's actually causing a lot of these problems. So just because everybody is doing it we should be able to step back and see that there's harm and the harm is obvious when you look at what's happening with parental authority over children and just the total lack of respect that a lot of teens have for parental authority. If you look at Dr. Leonard Sachs's work he really does a phenomenal job about describing the breakdown that is happening in what he calls the collapse of parenting in America but this is affecting Muslim families as well. There is definitely a problem with teens just being so disconnected from their family because they're not spending enough time with them that when it comes to parents trying to establish authority it's just falls flat. I have literally worked with many families and spoken to many parents who are completely at their wits and they've lost hope. They just don't know what to do. They feel like they really don't have any options anymore because their teens or their even college students have lost total respect and value for the family and they are rebellious. They're just doing a lot of things that the parents don't know how to control. So these are symptomatic of the fact that we are not spending enough time with our children and our families need that bonding time. And so we have to prioritize that and if schooling and the model of schooling and I'm speaking now very specific maybe to where I am which is in the Bay Area of California and it's a very highly competitive area. There's immense pressure on parents and teens to not only excel in their school but then beyond school to have to be scheduled basically until they zonk out at midnight or even past midnight because they have all these extracurriculars and it's all about getting into the best schools and getting into this system and that system or whatever dream career path that they may have but the pressure that that puts on the teens and then of course the how the effect of that pressure on the family, the family dynamic is real. It's very real. And so we have to step back and say, is it worth it? Is it worth it to push our kids so hard, so fast and so intensely into that direction if it's at the compromise of the family of their faith identity of their identity in general because when they're exposed to so many different groups or messages and different paths all at once it can affect their ability to really discern what is in my best interest and what isn't and this is why we have to study about teens for example, like their peer group at a certain point has more influence over their decisions than their family. So if we're not even aware of who their peer group is because they just go to this school and then after that, once they get their license anyway they can drive themselves to wherever but if we're not aware of the influences that our children are exposed to we shouldn't be shocked when they come home and say, I don't wanna do this anymore. I wanna do that or I identify as this and I wanna explore this lifestyle. We shouldn't be surprised because that is their what their environment is for the majority of their day they're spending time with people who have different maybe views than you do. So I think the point here is that we have to step back and say, is this model effective? Well, clearly it's not. We're seeing a major problem with youth culture in this country and a lot of it does stem from the school system, from social media. So let's step back and see what our alternatives are and that's why he offers here again in the same text he says, we must remove our children from state schools and then the onus is back on us. So it's like, okay, you see the problem is in these public school systems or these systems that again do offer or influence and condition and indoctrinate children. It's just a fact. If there's a problem in those systems and you're aware of that, pull them out because that's your duty but then at the same time you have to work towards what we talked about earlier the cultivation, it's your obligation to be part of that, to be part of the building of institutions that are actually going to help your children and other children. So design, build, support life enhancing places of learning and alhamdulillah, I personally am so grateful because I actually know people who did this exact thing and if we look at here in the Bay Area we have alhamdulillah Islamic schools that were started grassroots from nothing from like one classroom, one teacher, a handful of students meeting in a very humble beginnings but alhamdulillah because of the sincerity of the people involved and their vision and their ability to see the longer picture and wanting to work towards that they made it happen to where now we have institutions like North Star School, for example it is masha'Allah one of the most successful schools in our community, Peace Terrace Academy, Averaweez. We have, of course we have the longest, I believe it's the longest established Islamic school in the Bay Area, the MCA high school and school system. So we have alhamdulillah, great models but all of those were started by parents who did not want to just let their kids fall into the system but actually saw the problems that were there and they decided to do something about it. So that's on all of us to be actively trying to fix the problems that we see instead of just ignoring them, sweeping them under the rug or just saying, oh well kind of acquiescing to again the status quo that this is what everybody else was doing, I guess I should do it too. We have to be thinking about the consequences of these things. So that is for maybe parents who are contemplating or having children or have young children and they're thinking about their future. I just got a message actually recently, I think it was yesterday or today about that, moms who are worried about the schooling of their children who are younger now and that's good. It's good that they're worried because that's where inshallah some good changes will come. It's that fear of the unknown, the fear of the risks and the desire to not want your kids to suffer that will hopefully inshallah lead you down the path of protecting which is our number one job as parents, right? So he really emphasizes this point a lot about moving kids from those school systems. And then this last point is also very important. We must abandon cruel and punitive child rearing techniques as this is the primary source of social dysfunction and hypocrisy. We all need to be reminded of this message because unfortunately some of our cultures and some of our family, philosophies of parenting that maybe we received from our own families are really broken systems. They're just not, they actually contribute to so much of the suffering of children and so much of the dysfunction that we see in society because if you come from a culture or a family that condones abuse of any type towards children, we should be very clear about it, unequivocally state to everybody out there that there's no room for that in our tradition whatsoever as a good Muslim as a God-faring Muslim, you do not strike, you do not abuse, you're not harsh especially with young children and those that are weaker and smaller and who are dependent on you, you don't do that. I mean, subhanAllah, the prophet said in so many of the hadith that we learned from him, he defended the rights of animals who were being mistreated. So what about children? Of course, he rebuked any type of abuse towards the innocent creation. So we have to be very careful about allowing ourselves or justifying ourselves to do that because we think that this is gonna get them in line and they'll respect us and they have to listen and some children are so unruly and they don't learn the easy ways we have to teach in the hard way. Those are all just excuses that you're making to justify your abuse of behavior and you're not willing to actually do the hard work which is to maybe take them to the professionals who can help determine why they're acting out if there are actually legitimate behavioral issues that you have to deal with. But that is what the parent does. The parent who's responsible and who understands that the child is in a manner from Allah and that they will be held accountable for their treatment of that child doesn't look at the child as a burden and as just this nuisance that they have to deal with but they look at it like this is a trust from Allah and I have to take care of it. So when I see that child unable to regulate themselves or their emotions acting out, speaking out or doing something they shouldn't be doing I wanna fix it, right?  That's a total different attitude. So we have to go back and really again have these internal dialogues where we hold ourselves to account about the choices we make with regards to our children and protecting them because our families as Shahamza mentioned here it is the most important unit of our society. So if we see our families are breaking down we have to determine what the sources are if our children are not again respecting us following the rules of our home. What is the reason? Is it because we ourselves are failing in some capacity? Are we being hypocritical? Are we establishing the prophetic model of parenting or are we just being authoritarians who are wielding our power and abusing our power in some cases and then we're expecting our children to listen to us. This is a broken system. Are our kids being influenced by external sources and what are those sources? Do we know what those sources are? Are they from media? Are they from social media? Are they from friend groups that are toxic to them? How are we protecting our children? Are they going into schooling systems that are detrimental to them spiritually? What are we doing to protect them? So all of this is on us to determine and to really take seriously because again, the importance of the family cannot be overestimated. It is the most important unit. So we have to do everything in our power to protect it but it's really a matter of doing this type of internal introspection, analyzing, thinking and holding ourselves to account. So Alhamdulillah, this is the end of today's class. I think, yeah. There's more, inshallah, that I invite all of you to independently read in that section, the introduction. And then inshallah, in two weeks, when we rejoin we will start with chapter one, which is on taqwa. It's definition and benefits. So Alhamdulillah, we'll actually start the official text next week but we did the introduction, Alhamdulillah, we did the appendices. So I look forward to our next meeting. I'm gonna quickly get out of screen share here and see if I see any questions. I think I did go over. I apologize for those of you who are tuning in but let's see if there are any questions that I can get to, if you give me a moment. Bismillah, Alhamdulillah, thank you. I see some comments. Thank you, I believe they came earlier when I began asking about my screen. So I don't see anything on a Facebook group but I'll check the YouTube page as well because I know we have people tuning in on different platforms. So I again, don't wanna miss any questions. So bear with me real quickly. Alhamdulillah, I hope it doesn't play here. I don't want it to play, I just wanna see if there's any questions. Okay, Alhamdulillah. So we have a question here from, I think if it's Sister Anjum, can you please give me an example of raising children outside modern schools? That's a great question. Alhamdulillah, we do see a lot of alternative school systems, a lot of co-ops, a lot of charter programs, a lot of private schools and people I think are getting even more creative now that the pandemic is fully underway and they're losing their maybe patience with the online virtual public school systems. I think there are people who are thinking of other ways. I know some people who have actually opted to homeschool, not necessarily through a charter or any government program but actually independent homeschooling where they take full control. And as a homeschooling mom and someone who has sort of explored all the different options, I think there is a lot of misconception and fear around homeschooling unfortunately.  I'm not gonna simplify it. You have to do a lot of the legwork to find the proper resources and the curriculum and all the stuff that is required to keep your child active and engaged and tailored for him or her. It takes work but Alhamdulillah, we have so many amazing resources. I'm very fortunate enough to know many, many homeschoolers. Alhamdulillah, we have, there's Kinza Academy, we have, let's see, there's, I'm trying to think off the top of my head but there's a lot of different programs here anyway that they do work with parents who are interested in exploring alternative options but we have the East Bay here in the Bay Area. We have the East Bay Homeschooling Group. We have the Silicon Valley Homeschooling Group which is based in the Silicon Valley. We have, I was part of the Southern California community for many years and they have a very large homeschooling community. Many sisters who've, masha'Allah, successfully homeschooled their children from young age, I mean preschool all the way through college and successful, amazing stories really, really done a phenomenal job and they're available to talk to and to get ideas from and they have a lot of resources online. So I think that the fear we have to help people overcome that it's not like maybe what it was 20, 30 years ago, I understand, there's certainly a time where maybe I myself may have looked at homeschooling and thought, what, that sounds so strange but I'm a teacher by profession so I've never really shied away from teaching but I know people who tell me I just, I don't think I could ever do that but Alhamdulillah, I've also heard from people who were fearful and never in a million years thought that they would find themselves as homeschoolers but then Alhamdulillah, Allah opened their heart to the idea and they began to do it and suddenly it's, they're so overjoyed by all the strides and the successes that they've seen with their children. So I think every parent needs to make that decision but the point I think that Shahamza was making in that text is to empower parents to start thinking about their choices and to see the consequences of some of those choices and to know that there are alternatives so that's really what we should take from that that there are other options and now Alhamdulillah maybe because of the fact that so many people are exposed to a different form or model of education even though it's not necessarily always ideal through the virtual system but at least it's something different that parents can start to think, you know what maybe I don't need to rely on this system that I thought was the only option and rather look at other options because my children their mental well-being their physical well-being, their safety their, you know, their spiritual well-being that's the most essential thing is the most important thing to preserve and so I need to do my job as a parent to make sure I can do that for them. So inshallah, but thank you for the question sister and I don't know if there's other questions but I'm assuming because I don't see anymore that that is all that I have kept you five minutes past the hour but thank you so much and forgive us for the technical delays we try every session to come early figure all of it out but there always seems to be something and Alhamdulillah it's humbling but I appreciate your patience inshallah we will see you in two weeks we will begin inshallah chapter one on Taqwa so please if you would like read ahead and we'll see you there Jazakumullahu khayran and end in dua Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim wa la'asir inna linsan la fi khusir illa nadina amin wa amir as-salihati wa tawassu bil haqi wa tawassu bil sabr SubhanakAllah wa bi hamdika as-shirwan la ilaha illa anta na astaghfiruqa wa naitoobu ilayk Allahumma sallim wa sallim wa barak ala Sayyidina wa Maulana wa Habibina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala arihi wa sahbihi wa sallim wa sallim wa ala kafirah Alhamdulillah, Jazakumullahu khayran And again, I'm going to be the first Mubarak to all of you. InshaAllah we'll see you in a couple of weeks. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Alhamdulillah, Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salam wa ala as-shirb al-anbiya'i wa al-mursaleen Sayyidina wa Maulana wa Habibina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala arihi wa sahbihi wa sallim wa salliman katira As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Dear brothers and sisters, Alhamdulillah, it's great to be with all of you again. We were together just a couple of weeks ago. We do these every other week for those of you who are joining in for the first time. Alhamdulillah, these sessions are open to everyone. We are covering a text called Agenda to Change Our Condition which is written by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir. And Alhamdulillah, we are today actually, we just finished up the introduction, the last session, the last two sessions, we were working on the introduction part. And so today I'm excited because we're gonna start chapter one. Alhamdulillah on Taqwa. So if you have the text, you can read along with me. I also have slides which I'll share in a minute. But just for those of you who do not have the text, here is another image of it. I like to always show this just in case there are people who are joining us for the first time. So let me go ahead if you permit me, excuse me, permit me just a second. I will share my screen, inshallah. Okay. And let me expand this so that you have a large view. Bismillah. Okay, so I'm going to again, we're gonna pick up on chapter one, it's page 12 in the text. And so Alhamdulillah, this chapter is on Taqwa. And here we have the slides are all from the text. So if you don't have the textbook or the book, inshallah the slides will be sufficient. So right off the bat, the very first thing that's shared is the meaning of what Taqwa is. And we have a few different scholars that are quoted or a couple of scholars that are quoted. First off, Sidi Abul Wahed ibn Asher defines Taqwa as follows. It is the summation of, or the summation of Taqwa is avoiding prohibitions and fulfilling injunctions both inwardly and outwardly. And then Imam al-Jorjani defines it accordingly. He says that linguistically it means to ward off. In other words, it is to take precaution. According to other scholars of truth, it is to protect oneself from the punishment of Allah by obedience to him. And it is to guard the self from Allah's punishment due to an omission of a right action or a commission of a wrong action. What is intended is in one's obedience is sincerity. So SubhanAllah, we can clearly see there the definitions are all pretty consistent of what it is. And especially this last definition which is expanded on again by Ibn Asher. He says that the aspects of Taqwa are four in number. And so we wanna look at these four as well. So I'm gonna go ahead and go to the next slide. Jump to head there. So Ibn Asher, he tells Aradi Lahhan, he says that the aspects of Taqwa are actually four, right? And these four, the wayfarer are the pathways of benefit and the four are fulfilling obligations outwardly, right? So whatever is incumbent upon us, we do them that are outward, we do those actions. Also those inward actions, right? So whatever is from within our heart, what we should be believing, but also you could read this as outward actions versus private actions. So thinking about being again consistent in one's practice and then also avoiding prohibitions outwardly and avoiding prohibitions inwardly. Because again, we know that the Munafiqin or were the ones who outwardly they may have displayed a type of action or belief, but inwardly they had a total different reality. So the believer who has true Taqwa is consistent in his or her outward and inward realities, but also in their, when they're with people in private places, I mean in public places or privately, they're consistent. So it's not that they only pray or fast or speak well when they're with people, but they're actually that is just their character, right? So these four qualities or these four aspects of Taqwa have to be applied to eight things. And he's defined those as the heart and then the following inroads to the heart. So all of this has to be again consistent in one's internal spiritual heart and one's belief system, but as well as the actions that one does with our tongue, eyes, ears, stomach, genitals, hands and feet. So you cannot be a person of Taqwa but then have the sort of cherry pick where you want to apply Taqwa or on certain things you are obedient and you fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or you claim to fear Allah, but then you make excuses in other areas. It has to be again, across the board, these four factors or four aspects of Taqwa have to be applied in all of these different areas.  Bismillah. One, two, four, ahead. Okay, so then on page, so this is all covered subhanAllah, just on that first page, all of this content given to us right away. And then we move to page 12 and now we have from some gems from Imam Ibn Juza Al-Kalbi who tells us that the stations of the human being are five, okay? So what are they? First is guarding against disbelief, right? This is the station of submission as a believer, as a Muslim, as someone who accepts Islam, you're in a state of submission and you are protecting yourself from disbelief. Guarding against forbidden things. So now it's not just that you believe or you submitted, but you're actually, this is the next step, right? And this is the station of repentance. So you're actually really concerned about seeking repentance, but staying away from those things that are haram, guarding against doubtful matters. So there's a lot of things that are kind of in that gray area, right? The haram is clear, the halal is clear, then you have the makru and you have those things that are just not always clear. So this would be scrupulousness. A scrupulous person is the one who's really just very specific and tedious or very careful, very careful about their practice. So they guard against doubtful matters, right? So that's the station of scrupulousness. And then your move, so all human beings, we find ourselves in one of these five. So you have to, as we're reading through the list, consider where are you in this list, right? Are you at that level where you really are trying to stay away from those things that are just not clear? And if so, then the next station is where you would, it's like a goalpost. Then the next station that you elevate to is guarding against extraneous matters. This is the station of freedom, zuhad, right? So really just trying not to be excessive in any way. There's a lot of things in our world as we all know that we indulge in. So when you take a path of zuhad, you're trying to really just limit yourself to the bare necessities and not really indulge your enoughs very much and really you're very much more focused on, again, your worship and your, they could have Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then the last is guarding against other than Allah occupying the heart. And this is the station of vigilance. Obviously all of us, our hope is that we can inshallah reach this last state to be totally free of all the distractions of this dunya. And I thought it was interesting again that this is the, you know, we all, if you think about all of our paths, right? We inshallah, we're all obviously, as even stated here, every believer is, we're already past inshallah, that first state. But we're, there's growth, right? And that's the objective of Mujahidah of constantly struggling against the self is that you don't just remain in one state or get stagnant and resign yourself to just being comfortable where you're at. You're always looking to better yourself. And that's how we inshallah achieve taqwa is that we're never satisfied with where we are.  You know, why are these things taught to us? What is the point of all this? It's because we're supposed to be getting better. We're supposed to be, you know, working towards purification and transformation. And again, the whole point of this text is to change your condition. So think about really seriously where you would fall in this list and ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for Tawfiq to give you the himma, you know, the strength, the ambition, the will to want to elevate to the next level and to protect you from slipping back because so many people, unfortunately, that's also a very true reality, you know, people who do go through these different stations and maybe achieve a certain level of practice, but then because they weren't, you know, maybe they got a little self-righteous, maybe they attributed their success to themselves, right? Which is one of the great tricks of Shaitan that a lot of people fall for is that they think that their spiritual growth is because of their own actions and they forget to keep asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for guidance, to keep asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to protect one from losing whatever they've acquired, right? So it certainly happens to many people that as I said, they'll progress along and then all of a sudden they fall back and fall short. So we wanna constantly ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for protection from that, but you have to have the humility to know, first of all, that that can happen to anyone, but also to have the understanding that the point of our struggle, our spiritual struggle is to move up this ladder, to be always looking to the next place. So for example, if you're inshallah, you know, staying away from the haram, like you've given up, you know, or you just don't indulge and really try your hardest to not do any of the haram acts. And of course there's clear haram and then there's subtle things that most people still struggle with. For example, you might, you know, people might not drink alcohol because that's very clear haram, but then they still indulge in gossip, right?  What are you doing that is potentially, you know, not letting you move forward. If you, you know, I speak to people all the time who kind of express that they feel like they're not really getting anywhere and they haven't really grown very much, even though they do continue to pray, they fast in Ramadan, you know, they'll do things, but they don't really feel like they're, they're growing spiritually or that they have khushu in their prayers. There's too many distractions, there's too many other things going on, or, you know, they're just, their thoughts are not always clear. There's an internal clear battle happening. So they're trying to figure out what the potential cause is. And a lot of times it could just be that even though they're abstaining from the clear haram, maybe they haven't purged other things that are still, that would still fall under the haram, like, you know, consuming ribba, just things that you have to take inventory and really think about what is preventing me from having spiritual growth, but always again, looking to get up this ladder, where am I, you know, if I've covered the, inshallah, don't indulge in the haram, then let's look at the makruh. What am I doing that's potentially makruh that I need to change? And then beyond that, how much am I indulging my nafs? You know, if I've covered the haram and the makruh, okay? Am I really, am I giving into my desires so much that it's preventing me from really doing my prayers with khushu, reflecting on, you know, Allah Subh'anaHu's attributes, doing all the extra ibadah that I wanna be doing. Are my actions or my nafs? Because sometimes, you know, the dunya is very tempting and we may not realize that the food that we consume or the wealth that we have that we're not distributing fairly or adequately, the excess purchases that we make that we don't need.  So those habits, those actions are also sometimes contributing to why we're not increasing or moving forward, moving up on this ladder, this spiritual ladder. So taking inventory is really important, but we all, inshallah, the objective is again to get to that last place where the dunya just loses its flavor. You know, we don't, inshallah, want to be here to the point that we're willing to let it take over that very, very special real estate in our heart. You know, the real estate in our spiritual heart is incredibly valuable and it should be for Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, for the Prophet's life, for things that truly matter. And so if we're attached to things in this dunya, then it's gonna take over that real estate and that's where when you start to think about the value of things, what really matters.  Then it's a lot easier to let go of some of those attachments. So that is, you know, the higher level, inshallah, it's a hard, it's not easy process at all to get to, but we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for it. So he goes on here, and this is from, again, Ibn Jazeb Kalbi, he says that every believer is at the station of submission, but we increase Allah's protection over us by attaining the higher stations. So the more we progress, then Allah will protect us, which is of course, we all want his protection. This dunya, again, is not a place of safety for anyone really, it's a place where there's a lot of danger to our personal selves, but also our spiritual hearts. So we're always, inshallah, in need of and seeking Allah's protection and of course protection of the next life. And then he says, because the vast majority of the Muslim community is only at the first or second level, we all suffer. This is a really important point because now it's talking about, you know, the collective responsibility we all have. When we talk about the agenda to change our condition, this is on a very personal level, but also, you know, a communal level. Like let's think about the Muslim ummah right now, let's think about the suffering that's happening in so many parts of our world. Why is that the case? It's likely because, again, we're at those two bottom tiers and we haven't moved forward. And he says, when a critical mass of believers commits to moving to the third and fourth levels, we will see the benefits of Taqwa permeate our communities as promised in the Quran, subhanallah. Insha'Allah, that's we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for that. So what are these benefits of Taqwa? Let's look at the text is now moving to describe the benefits, inshallah, on the page bottom of 13. So the very first one listed, here it says, the benefits of Taqwa are innumerable, right? There's many things that are hidden, we don't know them, but of course Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows all the benefits. So ones that are known are perceivable and are important, he lists here in this text. First is the moral rectitude of one's offspring. Now, you know, for those of you who may not know, I do parenting classes, I'm actually in the middle of one right now, we're having our last session next, this coming Saturday, but this question about, you know, the worry that's or, you know, one's children, the concern about whether or not our children are gonna maintain their faith, they're gonna be able to, you know, withstand all of the fitna of this world is probably one of the questions, the most common questions I get and I see, and of course I have it as well, I have two kids.  That's my, certainly my law for my children and I'm sure all of us. So here right away, it's the very first thing listed that if you really care about your children, then you have to think about your own behavior, right? But because it's connected. If you have taqwa, then this is one of the benefits, right? That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala insha'Allah assure you that your children will be protected. So here the verses that are cited, Oh my son, establish regular prayer and join what is just and forbid what is wrong and bear with patient constancy, whatever afflicts you. Surely this is resolve in your affairs, right? And then another verse, those who have left behind weak offspring are fearful concerning their wellbeing. Let them have consciousness of Allah subhanallah. So it's the remedy is right there. If you're worried about your children, and I know I've talked to parents who are worried. My child is so meek, so kind, so vulnerable, gullible, gentle hearted.  So if you have sons and daughters or a son or a daughter that you are worried about because again, the world is increasingly becoming such a dark place. Well, here is the answer, you know? You know, taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make sure you are fulfilling your obligations. And insha'Allah, it's one of the benefits that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will ease your heart in that regard. So the next one or the next blessing of taqwa, for us, insha'Allah, if we commit to again taqwa is that blessings come which come from above and below. So I mean, who doesn't want blessings to descend upon them, right? We all do insha'Allah. Here in chapter seven, verse 96, had only the people of the cities believed and had taqwa, we would have opened up for them blessings from the heavens and the earth. So all of us have to think about that right now, you know, that in this strange time where we all are seeing very odd weather patterns, right? Global warming is a big topic that's always around or it's a buzz topic. But let's think about if we want that, you know, if we want protection as well from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make easy for us, you know, the weather and whatever else is happening in this planet that we are just completely unaware of, you know, things are always happening in outer space, for example, that we may not even have any idea that could be imminent danger, Allah knows, right? But we want peace, right? So here this ayah subhanAllah is giving you a clear solution that if you have taqwa and you have strong faith in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then inshaAllah he will again bring you blessings from the heavens and the earth. So you're not gonna come manifest itself in many ways. I just used weather because it came to me, but of course blessings from the heavens and the earth can be many different things depending on whatever Allah subhanAllah decrees for us. Another blessing is provision from Allah and a way out of difficult circumstances. So how many of us struggle, right? With maybe financially, there's a lot of people who are struggling right now. They may not know if they're going to have rent money or money enough to withstand the rest of this year or the rest of this quarantine and COVID lockdown period. So there's that and then there's also just difficulty. You know, it could be a very difficult situation of relationship that you're in or a job or some other situation that you find yourself in. Again, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is giving us the solution that if you are in a difficult place in your life, then taqwa could be the answer to giving you, inshaAllah freedom and ease from that. So whoever has taqwa, we will prepare for him a way out and provide for him from where he was not expecting subhanAllah. And that's really deep if you, I mean, we could all if we really think about moments of utter desperation, of just feeling like we had no solution that came to us or that we didn't think there was a solution to maybe a really difficult problem. But maybe we prayed, maybe we got up in the middle of the night and we asked Allah yalla, please, I don't know what to do, right? We have, I mean, that's what this taqada is for, right? This taqada is really a thought of total utter desperation. Like I'm stuck between two situations or I just am lost. So you're asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for guidance. And when you do that with true sincerity and taqwa, how many of us have had those experiences where shortly after suddenly the answer comes, and it's again, it's confirming w