that can hopefully bring you back in gently with love of course. So that is really important that we have those groups or those teachers, those guides to help us and then the third point that he mentioned so it's knowledge and then it's people that hold you accountable so knowledge is obviously the guidance that we need and we need to work on getting those from the proper sources so it is very much intertwined but also keeping in the company of really good people who will hold us accountable so those are the first two points of right conduct and then this is also really important for going dispensations and interpretations concerning injunctions for one's own protection so I know it's a word salad as they say it's quite wordy this one but it's basically talking about not looking for the easy routes because part of spiritual mastery and discipline is welcoming some of the discomfort we're in it right now fasting is absolutely to help us build willpower and it is uncomfortable you know we're not sleeping as much we're obviously not drinking and eating during the day but the discomfort that we experience has exponential benefits to it and so getting out of this very modern mindset that everything good is always easy right or everything good is always comfortable and easily accessible that's actually not true as anybody who's ever worked hard at anything will tell you that the more hard work you put into something the more value it actually has so sometimes what happens is you know we come into the practice of faith but then we're looking for all those little loopholes or ways out of doing things and we're kind of allowing that nefs to have you know some still some influence over us and you know this takes against for practice to to become aware of even those little suggestions those little nudges that maybe are always looking for ease right and so being disciplined enough to say I need to you know take on this practice diligently seriously and not a giveaway for my nefs to to basically you know to try to in any way give me that ease so that I fall into those habits and in those that becomes very difficult again to overcome so that's also the third point here on how to to correct our conduct our behavior so that we can get to the prerequisites of what are then the prerequisites for the foundational path so it's amazing Subhanallah that there's so much more to what what we would maybe assume to actually be on this path doing it you know with Ahsan with with the correct way and of course Islam is easy so I want to mention that it's not a difficult thing but it's a matter of working smart not hard and working smart is having this understanding and this structure and this roadmap and of course looking at the Sunnah the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as he's our exemplar that that's how we work smart when we work hard we're trying to do it all on our own which is the experience of many Muslims nowadays you know they just pick up books they they flood their their libraries with a lot of books they'll take classes here and there they may open up the Qur'an or just here kind of cherry pick different aspects of Islam which it which in and of itself is not a problem but if it's not guided if it's not done correctly then it can pose problems and I'll just mention this because it's relevant but you know recently during Ramadan there's been a lot of online feuding unfortunately and some of the most prominent that ease teachers maybe in you know in the West have been unfortunately caught up in a wave of argumentation caused a lot of fitna because you know there's this new Scottish Prime Minister named Hamza Youssef this obviously is not Hamza Youssef although many people got it wrong but this Prime Minister apparently took some positions on LGBTQ that are you know contradict Islam and so some people without really understanding the context with which he may have said things we don't know the thing is we it's always better to be neutral on these matters because you don't want to be held accountable before Allah to make the feed on someone right just because someone says something without a context you want to be careful so anyway this whole debate started and a lot of them began to argue and for now a couple of weeks ever since this was announced I think there's just been these back and forth videos on YouTube and a lot of fitna unfortunately and it's sad because this is the obviously and so to see that so many people are getting caught up in all of this as a result of teachers right and may Allah forgive them and guide us all but that's really heartbreaking because our teachers are supposed to be excellent examples for us and you know we're all human and you know there was Alhamdulillah apologies given and inshallah things are fine between the hearts but the damage that I think these types of things cause we just don't know because many people as soon as they see these kinds of behaviors they just turn away they turn away from the Dean so this is the value of having you know really not trying to just do things on your own because then you may be blindsided by your own nuffs and your own nuffs is dictating to you and you don't know it and next thing you know you're embroiled in some fitna whereas a teacher or a group or someone that really is close to you and I think even in the way that the apologies have been given it seems as though Alhamdulillah that is the case you know that somehow maybe teachers or a good company got to the individuals and they helped them to to redress their mistakes but this is again just the point of of the importance of value of having really good people in your life so so we're on point number three so now the fourth point here is organizing one's time with the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to maintain the presence of heart so this is also you know I think anybody who's you know pursuing whether it's a personal you know goal or this case studies or work or you know they have some objective they know that time is of the essence because time either works for you or against you and the best way to make your time useful is to be structured to be organized and to actually have you know have your calendar or whatever you know you use you can use all these modern gadgets I know people who still use daily planners which seem like relics of the past in today's day and age because they're not about like you know online stuff it's all written and they actually use the planners very effectively because they can see it and you know they can they take it with them wherever they go so everybody is going to have to choose for themselves the best way but I think organizing your time to make sure that you know you know what you're doing as we talked about one of the again objectives of knowledge is that at any given moment you know what Allah swt had that wants from you in that moment and that's just such a beautiful concept you know that that's why I mean that's how we should that's how we should exist right that we're always aware of the present so that we can know what what does Allah expect of me in this moment so scheduling yourself would obviously help you to do that because if you you know naturally I mean inshallah you know depending on our work and our schedules and our routines we may have already figured out a good portion of our ibadah in terms of our prayers right so those are usually kind of locked in because the prayer times are known to us and inshallah we're doing all of our prayers we're prioritizing them but then there's also other matters that we should think about for example our relationship with the book of Allah which is why I'm a lot of such a gift because you know it gives us the opportunity to really prioritize the Quran and more so I think that any other time of the year we become very consistent right in our relationship with the Quran and we will pencil it in as they say as a priority in this month so we're showing ourselves that is very possible right whether that's going to be after Fajr which is you know according to ayah and the Quran right that the recitation of the Quran at Fajr is witnessed right that this is the most recommended time to read Quran would be at Fajr time inshallah so that could be part of your routine and hopefully you're doing it you know you're doing it already right now that you can see that it is very possible because Allah showing you you're doing it so you know that you have that routine and then you know I had someone on Facebook the other day write a beautiful post about the merits and benefits of doing 1000 Sadawat every single day and I believe Ahmad Shah said that we should be doing at least 300 to 500 and that if a person doesn't have a spiritual guide going back to that second point that just doing Sadawat on a daily basis would compensate and that's just beautiful right because the Prophet's life said him is obviously all of our you know our teacher our Murabi he is the ultimate Sheikh teacher that anyone of us could want so even by by just doing our Sadawat on the Prophet's life said and we are protecting our hearts but obviously ideally would be nice to have a direct relationship with the teacher that's just in the event that a person is so remotely distant or not able to find one that they would at least have a recourse so the Sadawat though as this post was saying was the benefits of 1000 and much all the brother went on to give a structure that if you were to do you know however meant 200 I think he was saying after every prayer right this is 200 times 5 that you would gain a thousand Sadawat and he's you know he just beautifully gave the structure and the explanation that there's just you know the way you'll feel the way your day will go the way that you will experience the openings that come from such a beautiful devotion are you know are amazing so that's how when we talk about organizing one's time that's what it's about it's about looking at what practices moving I mean for now for example we're talking about the Sadawat but what practices moving forward can we maintain and how are we going to plug them into our schedule because obviously we were only created to worship Allah so that actually is the most important thing that we do but is that reflected in our day and where is it reflected because just the prayers alone which are you know undisputable or undisputed they're thought of we have to do them if we're distracted even during those prayers because that's who you know our creation were constantly distracted then now it's it's a matter of quality right not just quantity so and then where where are we compensating right where are we compensating and to me you know when I think of the prophecy Sadawat and his routine the du'as that he left us right at every single point of the day what I gained from that is that the prayers are spread out and they're you know really they're like massive kind of billboard signposts that tell us and remind us right that we have one purpose only and that's alhamdulillah but again because we're so distractible we need other little signs throughout the day as well so it's not enough to just have these five big neon signs that remind you you you're going to go back to God you will be standing in front of him and he will you know take you to task for all that you did that is is good but because our nature so distractible the prophecy Sadawat has left us all of these you know daily du'as woven within the day between the prayers right so you wake up in the morning you haven't even you know prayed fudger yet but you're telling you say the doffer for waking up and then you move to the bathroom and you say the doffer entering the bathroom and then you come out and you say the doffer leaving the bathroom and you say the doffer completing here will do and then you move forward and maybe you go and get dressed and you say that doa and then you know you go to pray it says SubhanAllah it's so beautiful because it's like every movement almost that we do or every action that we do even just I mean Bismillah that's that's what we should initiate all of our actions but that being our time being moist with this type of remembrance throughout the day is constantly reorienting us right so it's kind of like the nuffs within is this force that that causes you to look away from your path and shaitan obviously is calling you from the other side you know so you've got these forces that are taking your focus away from your path and then you have these other more better forces that are actually reorienting you when you look away and that's how we can understand the doa's that we say and the prayers that we say and this is just human nature right so organizing one's time really important and to also be mindful that's also the other part of it so it's not just that we're reflexively or moving quickly mechanically through our acts of evada but we're actually sitting paused with real presence right doing that to devor to fekor just thinking about everything that we're experiencing whether it's you know the breath that we're exchanging you know the carbon dioxide the oxygen just thinking about what an amide is to be able to breathe like you know I've seen I've seen people close to me who've been ill have really labored breathing and until you watch how stressful it is to see someone who can't breathe you might not take it I mean you might take it for granted but it's really something that if you're present with Allah like even these things these you know these systems these bodily functions that we're doing at all times without any effort right they're just happening because it's by Allah's will that you start to be like aware of it and like subhanAllah you know when it was cold the past couple of weeks for example I would look at my nail beds and you know if it gets really cold then your your extremities aren't blood supplies and getting it you'll see you'll start to see this bluish purple hue on your nail bed you know that's indicating to you that your your blood is somehow you know not getting to to your limbs right and you know there's science for that because when it's really cold your blood preserves your vital organs so that's why your limbs tend to be cold right as well until you warm up so your hands and your feet but it's amazing that we have all of these signs that Allah has created to help us to just be mindful of these things like you know you're you've got blood surging through your veins and you know there's all these I don't remember exactly what it is but it's it's insane the length when you add up all of the you know the the network of our circulatory system right but with the blood vessels and the capillaries and the arteries when you when you stretch it all out it's like thousands and thousands of miles and it's hard to even fathom how that is contained within our bodies but this is the type of thought process that brings one into the presence of of Allah Akbar right where you're just like an awe and I would recommend this because I think he's doing an incredible job there's a brother named Paul Williams and he he's a convert to Islam from from the UK he has a YouTube page called Blogging Theology which is very popular and he invites a lot of great guests but he also has I don't know if he does it on any other platform I just follow him on Twitter he has a very strong Twitter presence but he has this amazing hashtag that he started which is just so great and a lot of the stuff he shares I think would be great to even show your children because he finds these incredible examples of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala you know most of this is you know the universe whether it's you know celestial or animal or just the plants and vegetation but what he does is he shows us he reminds us and the hashtag he's created is called no design and he kind of does this thing where you know he writes no design and then there's like a little eye roll emoji and he's speaking to the atheist right because the atheists are so quick to look at human accomplishments and and fawn over them because oh we're so intelligent intelligent design but then they um they they don't have that same reaction to the natural world where there's phenomenon everywhere so anyway these are really wonderful ways that you can just get those kind of doses of wonder that we all are so in need of to bring us back into that state of this is incredible like the fact that we are in existence this is incredible like that we have consciousness right it is something to behold so those are the ways that we can do that but if again we have to organize our time and then under the last point he makes here is suspecting the selfish soul the nefs right in everything in order to free one's self from its whimsical desires and to be safe from destructive circumstances it's very hard to um you know like when we think of harm or or evil or darkness we usually think of external things right but sometimes we forget that the greatest harm to ourselves to our souls is actually within us it is the nefs it is the greatest impediment the greatest evil the greatest obstacle to our closest to a lot so to suspect the self is very important to constantly question oneself that when you do something you say something you know you you take a position right sometimes we take hardline positions on something and we feel very right to always be a little suspicious of oneself what is my motivation why do I feel so strongly about this is this a thought that my nefs is compelling me to or is it truly something of virtue this is how we we do this process of suspecting the nefs so um Alhamdulillah these are the five again foundations of right conduct and now if you just scroll down as we're doing you will see that he's going to go over the pitfall of each and this is also really relevant information because he's reminding us that as we pursue these ways of conducting ourselves to be mindful of what could happen along the way so the first is saying the pitfall of seeking knowledge is the company of sophomoric people whether due to their age and intellect or deficient religious practice in other words those who do not refer to sound principles of guidance in their actions so a person for example could take on the path of knowledge but then they fall into the wrong group that doesn't have good um you know first of all they they don't have uh you know a a a tradition that or or a chain excuse me they're not part of a sound chain of transmission this should be the first red flag because anybody who claims to be a teacher right who claims to have knowledge should be able to provide their background like who did you study with what what are your credentials and I think we understand that interestingly enough in uh in a material sense right if you go to if you wanted to you know take a class on mathematics or science or something else you would want to know the credentials of the teacher and make sure they go to a reliable or they went to a reliable institution and they actually you know are credible people so the same applies if not more to our faith and that um that requires transparency it requires someone being very open about their teachers and what they studied and what credentials they have and people who don't do that but yet speak as though their authorities are very dangerous very dangerous and there are many of them there's so many of them now online with uh tiktok because these spaces have exploded during the pandemic you know tiktok youtube there are a lot of that ease they they call they self you know describe themselves as that ease but uh just by their takes by the way that they speak they don't lack they lack adab which is a hallmark quality of a believer let alone a scholar or a teacher or a student of knowledge so a person who espouses you know righteousness and being and and tries to direct people to the book of Allah and the sunnah but does so with a foul tongue does so while simultaneously cursing other people that is not someone you ever wants to take dean from and so be careful basically that when you're seeking knowledge that you seek it from people who are actually credible and check their sources so that you don't fall into the dangerous groups that are that are bound right now the pitfall of keeping company with the spiritual guides and the fraternity is elitism deception and self-righteous meddling in the affairs of others this is an amazing point because this absolutely happens right group think is real when you start to follow a certain you know kind of belong to a group and you you carry yourself a certain way maybe where you live there's a certain group that is recognized by the community and it has you know some rank and status and now you've you're in that group that can be very dangerous spiritually because now is it the the you know the glory of being a part of a group like that that you're seeking or is it the glory of God right what are you seeking what what are you why are you there so the danger is that you might start to really again like the enjoy the perks right enjoy all of the doors that are opened for you as you are now part of this elite group of students or you know spiritual seekers so these are the things you want to be very careful of and also that sometimes when people get very enmeshed with each other they create unhealthy co-dependencies where they lose the respectful boundaries that we should always maintain you know just because someone is in your home and you're interacting with them day in and day out and learning from them doesn't mean that now you should pry or metal into their business or affairs but these are where you know just having more clearly defined boundaries would help which can be a problem if people get fall into this group thinks type of issue so there's just something to be mindful of not to fall into groupthink and and you know keeping company with with people who may you may feel that that sense of pride in just belonging to you have to be very careful with with these things so the third pitfall that he mentions is a foregoing distinctions and interpretations concerning injunctions is self-pity due to hardship so if there are rossas for example that you you know would want to seek out that because you're disciplining yourself you might start to shaitan you know your nefs might start to make you feel like you are you're a victim of some type you know like oh this is becoming so hard for you and I'll just give you a very brief example as we know you know for for women who are pregnant or nursing the option to fast is there and every woman has to make a decision for herself right every woman has to make a decision for herself so and you know many people would say it's up to you know the medical like if she has you know a doctor or someone advising her but also herself like if she knows that she's feeling weak that she you know can take that rossa there are more you know conservative opinions that would say it's better for her to fast and you know unless there is a direct threat to her or the baby so there's difference of opinion on this matter but someone may find themselves in this predicament where they want to be strong you know they want to be strong they want to maybe push through a fast while pregnant or nursing but then that you know because they're doing it for the sake of Allah and they're doing it to you know to maybe limit the amount of makeup fast they have they'll have to do later there's a lot of reasons what people would want to push through the fast right but then this idea might come where it's like oh you poor thing you know you're suffering and all of a sudden there's this guilt and this shame and and that's where you have to be very clear that when you make a decision right as we mentioned before that you see it through and you don't just start to a self pity because that is enough dictating to you and also don't rush into decisions right make decisions thoughtfully carefully because you want to commit to them and similarly with people who wear hijab you know there are a lot of sisters who wear hijab because they have resolve right they feel it they feel the hemma they start to do it but then somewhere down the line all of a sudden you know they they forget that there's you know if they take the more conservative route of wearing hijab they'll start to feel like they're missing out because oh so-and-so is wearing like a wrap and she can kind of be more creative with her style and she wears makeup and so there's all this whistless of the enters the mind and maybe that sister now starts to feel like somehow because she didn't take certain easy you know paths that she was she's being you know she's she's on the short end of it these are all you know again pitfalls that you want to be mindful of because enough lies enough deceives enough tricks so that's an important point and then the pitfall of constantly suspecting the selfish soul is inclining towards its upright states and goodliness but Allah's God that reminds us were he to offer every kind of compensation it would not be accepted from him so when we you know start to suspect the nefs that's also part of the trick of the nefs is we can start to feel proud of how well we are mindful of our nefs and so you know these are all just very subtle spiritual things that can creep in and compromise the purity of what we're doing and so he's pointing all these things out so that we can be very you know aware and awake and vigilant right and he goes on to say more over the noble son of the noble one Yusuf the son of Yaqub peace be upon him peace be upon them both says in the Quran I do not say the selfish soul is free from blame the selfish soul indeed commands to evil acts except for those on whom my Lord has mercy so that's just an example and some people attribute this verse to being Zuleikha who was speaking so there's a difference of opinion but here we're just citing this opinion so you know to to be careful that if you get so far to the extreme of thinking like you've got your soul figured out that that might make you feel you know puffed up a little bit and that in and of itself is a sign of the delusions of the nefs so there's all these things to be mindful of Alhamdulillah and I think we can stop so that we can allow for some Q&A before we stop and then we'll continue next week inshallah with the foundations of what will cure the sicknesses of the soul so this is going to be really interesting as well because we have to remember that we all are diseased we have spiritual disease of different varying degrees but we also have cures and remedies so inshallah we'll talk more about that next week but let's go ahead and I'll stop the screen share and so if I do if there are any questions and then I'm happy to take thank you Stela Hussain for that beautiful class today masha'Allah I just want to ask that everybody put their questions in the Q&A versus using the chat to make it easier for us to follow inshallah so there's two questions in the Q&A right now the first says salam how can we become more intentional with seeking good virtual sahaba if it is evident that seeking it in person is difficult where one resides masha'Allah excellent I mean a beautiful question I think you're at the right place I mean here we have Rahmah Foundation one of my favorite organizations because the whole purpose of it is to bring sisters together to learn from one another to be in these companies and if you haven't yet been blessed to attend a non-site Qiyam or Halqa then Alhamdulillah they do have a lot of online programs and they're going to have one I believe Tuesday evening and then continued through the odd nights Qiyam a major one on Friday evening so I think you know looking to contact people or organizations like Rahmah and asking maybe you could even say I'm in this particular region or locality is there do you is there a way is there a bulletin is there a way for us as Rahmah students to engage with each other so that I could put out like a bulletin maybe to say hey I'm in this area I would love to meet up with any sisters who are also in a similar area or is there anyone from the online virtual space that would like to have an offline group and you know I'm I follow for example this someone had this great idea so she comes out through the Zaituna College he has the book club right the first command book club and it's a great Mashallah space if you're if you're not familiar with it look into it but one of the attendees decided to go on telegram and create a group for all of the book club members so now everybody is talking to each other and then they have this amazing I don't know how they did it because I'm not really familiar with telegram but within that group they have a bunch of subgroups all based on top it's topical so they have topical subgroups like parenting and I'm like what a great idea you've brought people from an international audience together on a platform and now each person kind of has their own niche or you know group to to be able to to dialogue with so there's these options but I would definitely say contact you know the info Rahmah and see if there's a way for you maybe during one of the PMs to put that out there and we can put you in contact with some sisters inshallah may Allah bless you thank you actually didn't know that the book club had a group I need to get on that oh you're gonna love it it's incredible the subgroups I've just shocked at I'm like how do they do this we all should do it maybe you need a Rahmah foundation telegram page yeah maybe that might work if somebody knows maybe I should join that one to see how it's organized and then yes kind of go for that Allah's yeah I think we should and I'll help you with that Salafiullah because I think it's a phenomenal idea so may the sister who asked may you receive the reward of that inshallah if it happens hopefully it'll happen thank you people inshallah and again another question similarly related what are the best means for cultivating good sohbah in one's local community if there are no third spaces to gather meet people how can one initiate in this area if there is a clear gap alhamdulillah great great question jazaki lakhir and I had a sister a few years ago attend one of my halakas and she had just come back from like an alamea program but she was in the same boat like what do I do so I told her I said you know this is how we started off Salafiullah knows 25 years ago or so I've aged myself but yes that long ago we were doing halakas out of home rotating from home to home for the sisters who had space and just meeting weekly every it was called Friday night halakas but we were meeting weekly so I just told her you know just start at the home level with a few sisters and serious sisters make it once a week twice a week whatever works for your schedules but do it at someone's home don't worry about the space I saw her maybe a month and a half ago at an event where she invited me as a speaker to her organization that she now works with and she shared this with me I forgot about that in her exchange we started with four or five people and now look and I was shocked because I'm speaking at this incredible event with hundreds of sisters and it all came from that seed so start with just a small group in your home halaka and let Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala take care of the rest you'll see it expand maybe at some point someone will say hey we have a venue why don't you use it and you'll it'll just turn into something amazing but always have you know high him and inshallah I'll give you some fear that's great I mean even the Rahmah Foundation it was just a group of us that came together that wanted to have programs some 15 years ago and you know you just slowly build inshallah that we can have more of these types of organizations across the country absolutely absolutely mashallah oh I'm sorry and I just wanted to make mention because sometimes when people think of starting a halaka they fear that they have to have like a lot of knowledge but the best thing to do if you feel like you're with a group of people that are kind of all starting off is to look to the teachers so there's a lot of resources already so I know people who come together they'll watch a youtube talk and then they'll talk they'll read a book together and then they'll talk this is how we grow in knowledge and also how we respect you know we kind of stay in our lane so that nobody starts to get ahead of themselves and you know presumes to to be more you know on the more and more qualified than maybe where they're at because it keeps you in line when you have teachers to hold you accountable to so that's just something I want to mention but I'm sorry go ahead and set up but I think there are a couple more questions sorry I had to mute myself one of my children was like calling and I'm like oh well it worked out I didn't know but actually it worked out perfectly you literally started and ended as I was dealing with that so all right the next question says my question is how can I strengthen my soul to not care about what others say about me for example I recently hosted an iftar for in-laws and someone commented on the dryness of a certain food I felt I was very sad and felt defeated and had anxiety I worked so hard to host and cook and felt disrespected Subhanallah May Allah bless you sister the fact that you cooked in the month of Ramadan for guests supersedes any critique they could make of you and the thing is the best thing to do is when you see people lacking you know the most basic of that like the Prophet said when he didn't like something he would never criticize it he just would avoid it but he wouldn't go out of his way to tell the person this isn't good so if you see people lacking this very basic etiquette of how to receive your hosts and feel grateful that they cared to invite you that they cared to cook for you even if it wasn't the most perfect meal then you should just you know look at it like as a deficiency in them make to offer them but certainly not take their critique to heart because your reward is with Allah whether it was dry that's a very subjective thing some people could eat two people could eat the same thing one person comes out and it's raving and the other person's like no it's not so subjective criticism like that are not something you should ever you know like affect your heart because the Nia that you had in cooking for them and the beautiful you know reward the rewards that that are awaiting you as I said far supersede one person's criticism so don't attribute that as some flaw that you now have to worry about and and you know fear that oh no I'm a bad cook no it's not for a while they just lacked basic adab and make to offer them and make and just be content that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala that is pleased with you we don't need to be pleasing people because you'll never please people whereas Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala the bare minimum we do the bare minimum we do he is pleased with us because we still are are showing up that we're fighting ourselves it's not easy to fight oneself right so I think you did that sister your reward is with Allah this last question is my favorite says salams my mom is wondering when you're going to release a cd and anthology of your lessons I suggest give you a commentary on the cd set of purification of the heart along with your clubhouse sessions and some book writing on top of that too JazakAllah Khairan that's very very kind and generous of you mashaAllah you know I as a Sadaf I know is this is I'm kind of in this perpetual struggle because I love to write and then there's so much need in our community there's a lot of you know needs that come my way so I have a very difficult time managing what's what my heart tells me or my mind tells me because if I had it like my way I would you know be more I would be more structured be more be more consistent with producing and doing things because you know we all want to be able to have goals that are met but I think my heart gets pulled in so many different directions so it's really difficult and I I feel like a broken record just make the offer me please because I think at a certain point and I'm like we all do you know we're going to run out of gas and you know we're just going to have to slow down and maybe that's that's when you might see more more writing and more more content being produced hopefully inshaAllah but thank you for the good opinion may Allah bless you I think we'll just have to make you solar so you don't run out of gas inshaAllah inshaAllah and then I think that's it for questions tonight and then inshaAllah if you can just close with adha that'd be great absolutely again first of all just like I'm looking into the Rahmah Foundation to set the fedora and the whole team for helping put these wonderful programs together I love this text and I'm so happy to be sharing it anytime I can so thank you for the platform and thank you to all of you for attending week after week as we mentioned we will likely have to go beyond Ramadan so I hope you'll stick it out for as long as you can and inshaAllah the recordings are available to you as well so Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem wa la'asir إِنَّ الْإِنْسَانَ الْاَفِي خُصِرْ إِلَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنَ وَعَمِرُ صَالِحَةِ وَتَوَاسُوا بالْحَقِ وَتَوَاسُوا بالْصَبْرِ SubhanakAllah وبحمدك شدوان لا إله إلى أنتنا استغفرك و نتوبه إليك اللهم سلام و بارك على سيدنا محمد و علي وسحف وسلم تستيم الكثيرا سبحان الربيك رب العيزة يا اما يستيقون وسلام علي المرسلين والحمد لله رب العالم الحمد لله جزاكم الله خير and everyone inshaAllah we will see you next Monday wow this is I think the most punctual we've ever been one minute past the hour الحمد لله but we'll see you next Monday جزاكم الله خير والسلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته I'm about a good night and today is of course the day of the 27th so I hope that may Allah accept from all of us are you bad or whatever we gave inshaAllah for his sake may he accept it with that said I wanted to just also welcome there are today I did something a little different I have some friends hopefully joining me here on Instagram live as well I thought why not try this out I'm not a multitasker when it comes to these kinds of things but today seemed a little easier to do just hit the live button on Instagram but I'm for those of you who are watching on Instagram I'm with the Rahmah Foundation we are doing a class called The Foundations of the Spiritual Path if you go to my link tree on Instagram I want to thank Brother Omar for pointing it out to me that I had posted it there that you will see the link to register it's free anyone can tune in if you want to join the actual broadcast happening you can register for that because we're going to continue even inshaAllah after Ramadan so this class is basically on this document it's an incredible document translated by Sheikh Hamz Yusuf but it's written by Sidi Ahmed Zarruq and so we have been going through this for several weeks now I think this is our fourth session or third I can't remember but Alhamdulillah I'm very excited to continue this text so we begin inshaAllah first with our dua so we're going to do our dua together and then I'll jump into the text but again for those who are on Instagram you might want to come on the zoom call because there's a lot of visual stuff here to look at so hopefully it'll help you to follow along Alhamdulillah again peace be upon you peace be upon you everyone we're going to now begin the text or reading the text so I just wanted to actually share with you something that I worked on just a little while ago I thought for those of us who are visual learners this may further help to kind of see what we're doing here so I'm going to screen share actually I should just put this in the same tab so I don't have to keep going back and forth hang on one second let me add this to the same tab and then that makes my sharing a lot easier to do inshallah okay so what I have done a year is because as I've mentioned I say it all the time but it's true I am a visual learner I like to just see things so this is how when I imagine reading this text this is how I'm reading it right that we started off defining what the foundations of the spiritual path are according to city Ahmadzaruq who gave us much love so much content and rich insight into how to really be on a path right if you if we want to take our path seriously which inshallah we all do I mean we're here Alhamdulillah we're in the month blessed month of Ramadan inshallah we're fasting we're praying we're doing our Quran recitation our dhikr our charity we're doing all the things that we should be doing every day of the year because that is the purpose with which we were existed which we were brought into existence excuse me which is to worship Allah so all of these things we're doing and it's being facilitated for us and if we want to sustain this path right because that's what we're these are the conversations we need to start having how can we keep this momentum going then we need to really see it as clearly explained to us what the ask is and the ask which of course is you know benefiting us and only us is that we take seriously our path our spiritual path and we start to build upon it but in order to do that we have to first lay the foundation so that's what city Ahmadzaruq has done he's given us here the the five foundations which are taqwa right being mindful of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he you know just giving those summary points for us all to kind of again you know bring full circle what we're doing here but to be mindful of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in private and in public right so that's the condition there's these are all conditional that we have to have taqwa consistently we also have to practice the sunnah consistently in both word and action we can't just you know teach or or or share the the beauty of the prophesiedum's character and his seerah without acting upon it right that would be a huge fail and it would be actually a sign of ingratitude right to acknowledge on one hand that he is the perfect role model and the exemplar but then to not even embody it it doesn't make you very convincing right it doesn't make you convincing at all so we have to put it into practice and then in difference to whether or not people accept you or reject you this is really important given the context that many of us may find ourselves today where social pressure actually really does inform a lot of our decisions right many people are afraid to disappoint people whether it's their you know family or you know people in their immediate circle or outside of you know in professional circles wherever they go there's a lot of these things that people are factoring into their choices and decisions but in order to be sincere on the path you have to completely abandon that idea of letting the people dictate to you and really thinking more about what is in your best interest in terms of your relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so the creation becomes irrelevant right it's about the creator and then contentment with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala whatever difficulty you find yourself whatever you know situation you find yourself whether it's in times of prosperity or in times of hardship that you have a consistent ridah with Allah that you do not allow life's circumstances to turn your heart this way or that way from Allah but that you understand it's all from Him the blessings are from Him the tests are from Him right so your loyalty your fidelity your love your devotion your reverence to Allah remains the same undisturbed regardless of what's happening to you and then the fifth point is reliance right that your default setting is to turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you are in times of adversity or difficulty and in times of prosperity and this last point is really important because I think it's easy for us to turn to Allah when we feel helpless and sometimes even hopeless that may just be natural right we're inclined to do that because what other means do we have but when Allah is telling us that in times of prosperity and abundance we should actually be turning to Him this is I think sometimes lost on us because we're easily distracted by dunya and ease and comfort and luxury and all the things that we enjoy that we forget that it is those acts of devotion those you know the things that we do consistently that are really giving us the reserves that we need when things get bad right so we're kind of we're stockpiling we're adding we're building the reserves because spiritual reserves are necessary we should constantly be looking to try to fortify ourselves life hits people very hard I just spoke to someone earlier on a clubhouse call who lost her father Allah alhamdulillah to a car accident just 10 days ago sudden sudden death I mean subhanAllah taken in this blessed month of Ramadan of course and inshallah we pray that He is accepted as a Shahid but regardless it is still very difficult for the bereaved to process as a death like that but if you've been doing your work right spiritually consistently every day day in and day out doing your prayers reading your Quran doing your decade reading the stories from the Quran turning to the book of Allah then those when those events if those events are decreed for you when they happen inshallah you'll be able to stand you'll be able to have that you know that necessary strength to endure so this these are the five foundations and then if you remember we've talked about these again for those of you who've been consistently coming every week just like more hidden but we talked about how to what are the prerequisites of getting there how can we even achieve this it seems maybe too difficult but it's not subhanAllah because again our amazing scholars have given us the details or the or the prerequisites they've outlined it for us so exalted aspirations right Allah's reverence service completing our results if you have a goal you actually see it through and then being in a constant state of gratitude magnifying your blessings so these are the ways with which we can at least aspire to those five foundations and then all of that right requires proper conduct so I just love the way that this is structured and it really helps us to understand so that we can see and visualize where are we missing where are the gaps what do I need to work on right so the proper conduct is in and of itself its own foundation right and that's why you when you as you read the text this is how you want to understand it it's like levels right the highest level are the foundations right and we because of our state and the time that we're in we have to work on the on the lower levels we're we need to go all the way back to the to the original steps you know before we can even begin to get to the foundations and then build and beautify and build upon that so this is how we're working so the proper conduct he's also helped to to elucidate like what does that mean well how do you get to proper conduct you have to seek knowledge you have to know what proper conduct is you can't have proper conduct without knowing it you have to also seek out spiritual guides you have to look at people who are ahead of you on the path so that you can follow their example because trying to do this on your own is very difficult it's very difficult to to try to do this on your own and then you also don't want to look for those shortcuts right if you are intending to go on a path and you're you want to really experience the journey then you can't just be looking for loopholes right and there are of course that paths of ease that are within our Sharia and Vic that are meant to facilitate certain circumstances but if you are at the very onset of your journey are already looking to try to seek out the paths of ease then you're not really up for them for the arduous path ahead and you should be because this is what is going to fortify you so for going those dispensations and then organizing once time this is how we get to proper conduct and then the last point that we talked about which was to suspect the nuts right and so these are the ways that we get to proper conduct and then sorry let me just check here okay I think I didn't know I apologize I'm looking at this here I didn't get a chance to edit the bottom levels here so hold on to that don't don't don't don't don't look at that yet because this is really what the next level should be so just ignore that bottom level because this is what we're going to talk about today okay so today we're going to look at how to cure the soul sickness because if you want to get to proper conduct if you want to do all the things we just talked about right which is seek knowledge keeping spiritual guides for going dispensations organizing time and then suspecting the nuts you have to be mindful of your own delusions of your own spiritual diseases and afflictions so he's giving us these all of these insights so that we really are doing this right right we're really addressing our needs in a correct organized structured manner so I just wanted to share this and you feel free for those of you who are here to just quickly snapshot any of these and I'll share them again but I'm going to now flip over to the document because I just wanted to you know kind of bring us all back to where we left off last time so that we can now read together about the spiritual sicknesses so at the bottom of page 10 here so we have the PDF open let me zoom in here so that you can see we start this section right the foundations of what will cure the sickness of the soul are five so now this is a new level right this is the level of purifying the heart or the soul so the first thing he mentions is quite relevant because we're still in the month of Ramadan is moderation achieved by lightening the stomach's intake of food and drink so subhanAllah you see now that this is all you know and for those of course who are familiar with with other teachings like those of Imam al-Ghazali and others this connection of spiritual strength and the appetites is very well known and this isn't exclusive to Islam either many other religious traditions have you know have acts that involve abstaining that have acts that involve restraint right the Catholics of course we know they have certain periods where they fast we have other traditions as well the Buddhists the Hindus they have a traditional fasting and just being able to really not give in to every appetite and there's a great reason because when we are diminishing right the power of the nefs then that allows for what to emerge right think of it that way it's kind of like we have these two oppositional forces within us which are our nefs the appetite of soul right which calls us to all of our base desires and then you have the aqal and the the ruh that was that's created to worship Allah subhanAllah the higher form of our being that's constantly looking to draw closer to Allah and they are really working oppositionally and so when we suppress the lower nefs when we're not giving into our food and our drink and our sexual appetites and our sleep although sleep is necessary of course because we need it to function but we're not indulging and there's a difference there right when you're indulging and you just don't want to get out of bed because you want to be on tiktok all day or just you're pretending to sleep right sometimes people delude themselves to these things because they just want to basically veg as they say these this can this can really prevent us from achieving a lot spiritually speaking right so when we're suppressing all those things when we give into those things that's what I mean but when we suppress those things when we don't give into the lower nefs then what happens is we find ourselves suddenly having much more energy much more himma as they say right which is ambition or aspiration we feel that this this desire to to do more and then from the efforts that we give and of course in this month the mother of Ramadan Allah out of his generosity will expand time right the dilation of time so you suddenly find yourself just being able to produce more and have also other benefits like the clarity of mind right how many of us experience that so the to really achieve moderation which is you know temperance the ability to know when is enough right it's this is a virtue it's a quote one of the cardinal virtues but it's the ability to just really not indulge beyond your needs is something that requires practice because by by nature we want more right we're very nefcy beings and nefcy being that we want to constantly indulge these appetites that is the default setting of the human being so we have to work to moderation and that's where where fasting becomes incredibly useful to actually get to that level right and we we're given this month where it's required of us but subhanallah like with everything and this is the the sad state of the human being is that we cannot see the immense benefits of even what what Allah requires of us to do all of it benefits us you know it's not human beings are different right when you have certain tasks or work that you have to do that feels forced you know or is you have to do it like for for your employer or for school those things can really feel weighty because they're arbitrarily sometimes given based on the you know the the individual who's dictating right so individuals we can sometimes you know not always delegate or or give you know instructions on certain you know whether it's to children students or other people that are necessarily always going to be beneficial to them we we can sometimes because we're humans we make mistakes right so our ability to necessarily be able to you know to to to require of others things that are always going to be beneficial isn't that's not guaranteed whereas with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala every single thing every single thing that he expects of us to do is always beneficial consistently beneficial our prayers our fasts our Qura'an recitation everything we do it's not a chore that would in any way bring harm right it's all because it's all been determined by our creator who obviously knows what we need so he knows best what is in our best interest that that's why we have to really show immense gratitude that that our Lord is is you know he's giving us this opportunity in this month of Ramadan where he has made it require you know a funnel it's a pillar of a stand to fast right it's not optional because he wants us to go against ourselves right if it wasn't for how many of us would fast we wouldn't if we had the option to fast or not most of us would not fast I can guarantee it out I'll speak first about my own self I'd probably find ways to get out of it because it's optional but the fact that it's fun you know we got to do it we and we're believers we're committed we do it but then Subhanahu wa ta'ala we read the benefits so this is our generous Lord he makes it required for that reason right or what that's one of the reasons so that we can see for ourselves and then of course the rewards that he has waiting for us I mean there's just so much abundance there but the point is that moderation in in will help us to to cure our diseases but in order to become moderate we have to do certain things so that's where fasting becomes an incredible tool the next point of getting you know mastery over the nefs and purifying the nefs of these diseases is to be vigilant about places where one fears that they are going to make mistakes so this requires some brutal honesty with yourself like you we all know that there are certain people that may pull us into harm we all know that there are certain places and environments that when we go to we suddenly get a little too loose you know sometimes because of familiarity of just closeness of comfort level we lose comportment we lose other we lose the vigilance over ourselves and we may start to do certain things that we wouldn't normally do by ourselves or in other settings right and so that's why we have to be very careful like if you know if you had for example like let's say when you were in your high school college days you had a period of you know jahlia like we call it right like a period of ignorance you know you did certain things that maybe you're not proud of but you had you're a partner in crime to do it with right you had someone who was there with you and you guys did things together that person now unless they've reformed and you've reformed and you've really truly made toba can become dangerous to you right if you have kind of started to go in a different direction and that person is not at the same level right maybe they're not there yet and Allah guides whomever He wills but you leave the door open to maintain a friendship with this individual knowing that you kind of have this history with them and there could be a relapse you're risking your own soul right so you have to have the presence of mind to know that as much as that person maybe you care for them and you should we shouldn't cut people off we should certainly not think ourselves as better than those when we if we've kind of achieved a certain you know spiritual like we're being drawn spiritually we should never let ourselves think of ourselves as being better than others but we should just be honest and say I'm weak still right I'm vulnerable I could easily relapse if I'm with this person or go to this environment you know maybe if you're on a college campus is a perfect scenario I've had because I work with college students I've had this you know issue come up of you know non-Muslim friends, classmates who are really nice people and you get along with them but they always want to invite you to like party kind of environments you know and I recently actually had this question from my brother who was like how do you deal with that you know like you want to maintain a friendship with these classmates that you've forged bonds with but they always want to invite you to scenes that you know are not right for you as a Muslim how do you find balance and this is where boundary setting is really important if you allow yourself to let your emotions dictate to you then what you're going to do is say oh I don't want to be perceived as a bad friend and I don't want to be ungrateful or make this person feel bad I'll just go right but when you're trying to fortify yourself without you know any real concrete like you know established practice that would that is so far removed from that kind of behavior then you risk relapsing or falling into centralness right like if you're if a person for example is practicing their Dean inshallah for 10 15 20 years and they're pretty you know they have that strength and that fortitude likely those environments would never even tempt them they would never even go they just no question about it but a very young you know person on the path young not by age but like a seeker who's relatively you know new on the path has to be very careful not to allow that door to remain open and then to walk through it because it just takes then that's just so weak that in that case when you haven't built that fortification you could easily be called right like the siren call as they say of sinfulness or or sinful behavior it kind of puts people under a spell like you go to an environment with all your peers and there's a lot of peer pressure as we say but also you're you're a young adult you know hormonal teenager let's just say if that's the the context and you go to an environment where like you are enough is literally being hated to everywhere you go your eyes are able to look at things that you normally would not see your appetites are being you know enticed it's too much it is a sensory overload and next thing you know you may fall into sinfulness and once you cross a line with like doing a severe haram act that you know is haram it's a very slippery slope because she don't is now he is relentless once he has a person in his grip when he's got them to do something they've never done before so that the first experience right of drinking alcohol the first experience of smoking weed the first experience of touching a man or a woman that's not lawful to you and actually doing things with that person becomes a source with which he will continue to work the individual down right he will continue to entice you and also spiritually shame you to the point where you may think what's the point of you know I'm too you feel so guilty and you feel so terrible and have so much self-loathing that you start to distance yourself from the path and even from you know the spiritual friends or a company that you may have that were on the opposite side completely because you feel so disgusted with yourself and sometimes we we wear that shame externally so we feel like everybody can see it then we avoid those groups and this is exactly the path that the you know how sheath on works he gets people to slowly transform and slowly turn from one direction to the other so avoiding places is really important if you want to to remove these sicknesses and I would say this is not just also restricted to physical places because in the context of social media there are far more places we traverse that are haram from the social media perspective than we than physical spaces I would say the far more because at the access the access is so easy you know with it with the touch on the finger you can go down the most demonic pathways possible now it's very simple and that's why people are ruined many people become ruined spiritually speaking because it took a button it took a you know click and then all of a sudden they're down a very very very dark path so when we say avoiding vigilantly places where one fears misdeeds occur understand that there's multiple iterations of that it's physical it's virtual it's individuals it's not just places but also people that could also call us as mindfulness so as a second point the third is to see yourself in a state of perpetual humility right perpetual humility because that then forces you to always you know ask Allah for forgiveness right continuously asking Allah for forgiveness coupled with devotional prayers upon the promise I said in both solitude and gatherings of people and I love that he puts those conditions because you know making a toba or doing sada wet right when it's in front of people can lead to what we would call riyadh right which are which is which is performing spiritual acts for the the sake of just being seen right ostentation you want people to see you and sometimes when we're in certain gatherings right if you're sitting in a thick of a circle you're in a mess yet like you know last night last night was a PM all we all inshallah some of us were on virtual PM some of us are on physical PM whatever the case is if you're participating in something and people can see you and you're just kind of going with the motions it's easy to do because it serves you know the nuffs in some cases people are oblivious to these things but it you like the the feeling right of being part of the jama part of the group and so the intentions can be sometimes compromised whereas when we're doing these things separate from people's eyes and view and just completely independent this is where we really are showing our sincerity so toba and my perfect example is toba in a gathering where everybody's you know same together in unison like a loma in a kafu and toha bilafu faafu anni right these are all things that we could be doing in unison in a group do we really think that's the same at the same level and of course every individual heart is different but I'm just kind of drawing a parallel would you say that that would be the same as a person who is in their own private quarters not a single soul in sight and they are shedding tears for remorse before their creator this isn't about anybody else this is about true remorse to their creator true remorse or is it the same if we're all in a gathering and there's a you know kind of nice uplifting setting where everybody's doing silhouette and they'll prophesize them and we're all kind of just sharing that moment together is that the same as a person who is in every waking moment whether they're driving or they're excuse me they're walking they're cleaning they're doing something of benefit but there's nobody else that around and then they remember you know what I want to do salawat on my prophesialism because he his entire life right was for me for me to benefit from and I owe it to to him to at least to at least at the very least offer my words of gratitude by sending the salam upon him right so you just do that from your own heart it's not about just being a participant in a group activity it's about you demonstrating your true love and devotion to the prophesialism so that they're very different and I think we can all agree to that so that's why these conditionals that's the episode puts are so important because he's reminding us to purify our devotion not just to do it in the context of it being done with others and and yes there's still benefit and merit to that we don't want to disconnect from our community but to actually do it independent of that as well be consistent be real right so being in a state of Toba consistently will help you to not want to continuously what transgress the boundaries of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so that's the wisdom right that you are continuously mindful of your sinfulness in the past so that you prevent yourself from falling into further sin and then doing salawat then the prophesialism is in the same vein by witnessing his blessings upon you and not wanting to disappoint him right because inshallah we're all we should all seek that when the on the day of judgment inshallah when we're all gathered and we're all running around you know it's going to be pandemonium it's chaos that the fear that strikes the the human being in that day but what we find is our umma we're blessed in that we all are our sought seeking our prophesialism but he's also seeking us he's looking out for us and how does he know us right how does he know us he knows us by the marks of our will do by the limbs that are literally illuminescent right they're let they're lit up because of our will do so he will be seeking us and we will be seeking him but we should seek to not be those who disappoint him right so this is where the wisdom of doing the tawba coupled with the salawat where in both solitude and gatherings of people is so so profound mashallah and then so the fourth or the fifth excuse me point here is keeping company with one who guides to Allah and then this is you know Sidi al-Manzarru he's he's he's making a comment here he says unfortunately such a no one such a one no longer exists and he's talking about you know the 15th century where in his time he's witnessing this idea of a single spiritual master or guide was was fading it was it was just not they were they weren't in existence then so what about now and I think this is an important point because there are charlatans there are people who who pose as being spiritual guides but they actually have ulterior motives so I think you know he's he's making a recommendation but also warning that not to fall for just anybody and then there's more as we read we'll continue to read you'll see where he's going with this right so now he pivots a little bit and he speaks specifically about Abu Hassan Shadri Rahimullah who said what and this is the council that he gave so it's in the same context and he says my beloved council of me not to put my feet anywhere except where I hoped for Allah's reward so we just talked about avoiding places where one fears misdeeds and now this is a beautiful pairing to that right don't go anywhere if you don't feel that there will be reward for you why even go what's the point what's the point of going if there's no reward so this is the council right and then not to sit anywhere except where I was safe from disobedience to Allah so watching the gatherings watching the company that you keep not to accompany anyone except someone in whom I could find support in obedience to Allah so if you're going to hang out with people you're going to go travel with people you're going to work with people but they do not call you to obedience of Allah you know even marriage like I'm just subhanAllah it's sad because you hear so often these cases of divorce just popping up every single day I was you know watching a Qiyam last night where duas were coming in there was like a just people were asking for duas and several of them were please make dua for the sister the divorce to kids you know brother divorce divorce divorce divorce and you're just like yeah Allah what's happening what's happening you know Allah knows but I've worked it up to the in the community to see that many people will completely get caught up in the superficial you know they'll get caught up in the looks and the attraction and the emotions the tension that they feel with with a potential mate you know they get caught up in the attention that they're getting so if you're lonely you're feeling insecure and someone suddenly comes along and fills you with all the compliments in the world you love it you love the way they make you feel right that's all nuffs your nuffs is completely taken hold of you because if your rational mind was activated you would realize that human beings use people you know people will say whatever to get whatever they want they'll say a lot of things they'll tell they'll lie to your face and you know it's just the way that the nature of the human being is in order to get something out of you and many people do that in order to get something they'll flood people right love bombing is a very real thing that predatory people do so it's not something to necessarily be impressed by but rather to be suspicious of especially when it's done quickly you know someone you barely know and all of a sudden they're making all these promises to you and they're you know giving you all these you have to have the reasoning to know wait a second something doesn't seem right here and this is where our dean is constantly warning us how do you do that you look at character you don't look at the superficial you don't look at a person how attractive they are how you know the words that they use how charming they are those are not the criteria for marriage right or for for drawing close to people how wealthy they are but this is what we've come to now where these things matter much more a person gets completely infatuated with someone just because of the clothing they wear like I know people that that's what it was so I love the way they dress I love the swag they had swag so your criteria to give your soul and heart and body and mind to someone was because they dressed in brand name clothing and you don't see there's an issue with that and the reason why I mention this is because look at the advice here right not to accompany anyone except someone in whom I could find support and obedience to Allah if the person who you are going to give your entire being to is not calling you to be an obedience to Allah what are you doing right how do you possibly expect to have how do you possibly expect to see good come out of a relationship like that when the person doesn't obey their Lord and for women I'll say this because I really feel like we need to warn our sisters if he doesn't fear his Lord what on what basis do you have any assurance that he will give you your rights it's a very big risk to marry someone who doesn't display Taqwa and if you get caught up with the physical attraction and all the other superficial things and forget that Taqwa is the most important quality in a companion let alone a partner in life that you will learn a very difficult lesson and I think that's what we're seeing with the rise of divorce is that people let their emotions dictate to them but then they realize in order to sustain a relationship I need to have someone with a conscience right I need to have someone who understands what fairness is what justice is what rights are what balance is what compassion is and that can't be in the heart that's not it can't it doesn't exist those things can't exist in a heart that's completely heedless of their Lord so you just can't have your cake and eat it to as they say you need to prioritize but I find it important that he mentions this and then he says and not select anyone for myself other than those who increase my certainty and how rare are they to find there you go don't shortchange yourself in any of regards you know whether it's friendship and again this is just something to mention so many people I know they have quote-unquote friends that are really harmful to them but they don't they still continue to maintain those relationships if people are not benefiting you and they're causing you harm they're stressing you out they give you anxiety you panic when you see their phone come in you feel restricted and constricted every time you're around them what are you doing have a leader for yourself have a leader for your heart your heart is special it was you know created to know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and instead of knowing Allah it's being consumed with all this you know with all this toxicity of dunya and and it's not because the dunya just got in it's because we let it in right so we have to protect our heart we have to stand vigilant so that's you know the council's just to be very mindful of where you go who you spend your time with and and really protect your own interests protect your heart he also said may Allah be pleased with them whoever directs you now the opposite of this or whoever directs you to this world right has cheated you so when people are telling you you know give into your knobs and and just forget your spiritual religious obligations what's the big deal your heart is pure I've heard people say that to me literally I'll take your sin for you just let's let's go don't worry about it you know God is the most merciful our hearts are clean but I'll take it for you I mean that's like the height of of real all of it not only arrogance but also ignorance because we we should never feel so safe right nobody should ever feel safe and then he goes on to say so whoever directs you to this world has cheated you whoever directs you to deeds has exhausted you right and then but whoever directs you to Allah has truly counseled you so we have sometimes people who push us towards actions right whether they're worldly or other worldly without really directing us to Allah and that's important because sometimes you know people get again too preoccupied with the external or the outward but the heart matters and whether the sincerity matters so the true companion in this life the true person that you want to spend time with whether it's a teacher a spouse a partner a friend whoever it is is the one who is constantly directing you to Allah right who's constantly trying to remind you of your relationship with your Lord it's not about them right and I'll say this for example like parents when I do parenting sessions I'm always I try to remind parents that our role as parents is to you know give our children the necessary tools and all of the the you know the the tarbiyah that they need in order to navigate this world but at a certain point we have to get out of the way right we are in there or because you know it's kind of like when you you have a toddler and you're you're teaching them to walk right what do we do we usually hold their hands and we walk backwards while they walk forwards with us because we want to hold their hand and guide them in their direction the correct direction and we are in the path we're right in front of them right this is how all of us taught our children how to walk or we stand and we we we incentivize them to come to us right but we're in their way and they love us so much they want to draw close to us so they come and they start to walk Subhanallah that's kind of like metaphor for life right for the instruction of a parent we do that but at a certain point we have to get out of the way and this is really the difficult part for a lot of parents because we get so comfortable with the dutifulness of our children we get so comfortable with their devotion and love to us and we want them to constantly acknowledge us and you know be mindful of all the things we do for them that we sometimes realize we are an obstacle for them spiritually because if we could redirect or kind of slowly phase out and just leave and turn everything back to Allah we're going to help them a lot more so it's you know it's really about trying to do that in the most in every situation is just constantly direct to Allah Subhanallah for ourselves and our children whoever else but the the company that we keep that's what the best company is those who are like Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah it's all from Allah it's all from Allah it's not me it's not you we're in blessing we're in nama because of Allah that's it that's the person or the people that you want to keep company with and then he says here and I'll we'll close out with this he also said may Allah be pleased with him make piyati taqwa your abode so beautiful so simple so succinct make your home your your place that you reside in right taqwa and the delight of your selfish soul will do you no harm so long as it is discontent with its faults and does not persist in acts of disobedience nor abandons the awareness of Allah in solitude this is the formula right your nafs will not continue to wreak havoc on you if you can maintain taqwa and make sure that what that it's aware of its faults right so when we talk before about being suspicious of the soul that's very important to have that mind to be aware of that always to be vigilant that your nafs that which resides within you should become always suspect you know they have that word now when they when you want to say something is suspicious it's sus the nafs is very sus it's always going to be sus it will always push us out of the blood to to just indulge and to do things that that are going to take us backwards right so be always mindful of that and don't let it ever become too content with itself which we're going to get to soon right about this idea of being content with oneself it is a sign of spiritual disease and also obviously I mean it's obvious do not continue in acts of disobedience so whatever whatever haram you're doing at a certain point you've got to wake up and say what am I doing it's like your self harming you know we gasp when we hear of people's self harming right the teenagers are self harming they're cutting themselves everybody's like but in reality all of us are you know rude harming or nafs harming whatever you want to call it we are harming our soul and we're harming our body too I mean it's all harm but we are harming the most our the most essential part of who we are heart our self and that way our soul we're all doing it in this way so disobedience has to be you have to come make a break like I'm not going to be actively disobeying a lot it's one thing when you do something accidentally or you're not aware of something but to actively be doing haram aware of it and then not even feeling guilt over it you've kind of just resigned yourself that it's just who I am it's just part of who I am it's just what I do this has to stop and we all have to make feel good from that and then the last point he makes to also be aware of Allah and solitude and this is full circle right because we started off with that the foundation the first one is taqwa with Allah and private and in public and solitude the ticket of Allah and solitude far far outstrips and outweighs the performative the gift that we may do in the company of other people just being mindful of Allah when we're completely by ourselves and that's an indication actually of who we truly are what are we doing when we're alone right if you're alone no one else is there no one else is watching you what are you doing it tells you a lot of what you need to know where you are and the final thing he says I say that being content here it is with the self persisting in disobedient acts and abandoning awareness of Allah are the foundations of all illnesses tribulations and pitfalls SubhanAllah so it's like these are by the way the words of Sidi Ahmad Zadrul because those are councils from Imam Ashadri but now these are his words again you could just see by the font so this is the cliffhanger then I'm going to leave you all on for next week we're going to continue inshallah these sessions until we finish this text I'm grateful to the Rahmah Foundation because initially this was supposed to be part of Ramadan but I realized that this is such a rich document it's not going to be able to I'm not going to do it justice doing it in three or four sessions so inshallah we're going to continue but that cliffhanger we're going to leave you all with and just think about it deeply right he's these are he's not equivocating his words here he's very clear here that all illnesses tribulations and pitfalls come from these things right the self being too content with it perpetual or persistent disobedience and completely abandoning awareness of Allah those three things and we all have to answer you know eventually but let's examine ourselves now so let me stop here and I'll take some questions if they're already inshallah before we close out come do that finally come thank you again for another wonderful class so you mean telling you all about how little sleep I got last night and how good I'm feeling today it's not the path not the spiritual path how we can do that that's just it's like the the Facebook morning statuses exactly all those days it's so funny when you look back on what were we all thinking moment of our day was a status upon Allah Mashallah all right so this first question says As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu when you mentioned sincerity and difference to social and family pressures and pleasing the creator and not the creation what about wishing someone a happy birthday no cake yeah I mean these are like you know other questions for my understanding you know really comes down to like these types of cultural customs like in some cultures birthdays are a really big deal so if you're marrying into a family or you maybe you come from a family where this was just a custom I don't think there's anything harmful about it as far as I've for my teachers that we've learned so these are you know not things that we should preoccupy or get to caught up in because it's just it's out of its culture whereas you know there are other opinions that are very strict about these things but I feel like that causes sometimes more harm like I've seen people have you know disputes family disputes and if you really think about it just wishing someone a simple happy birthday should not cause problems right but if people become sticklers on certain things and then they politicize or make things you know everything about haram and halal and bidah and it turns into this big debate issue it just causes these problems in the hearts and that I think would be far worse so it's not a I don't think you know it's a big deal again this isn't my opinion this is what our teachers have taught that those types of things don't make issues out of it inshallah and just have the best of intentions that you're doing certain things to bring the hearts together all right thank you so how do we best identify our attachment to food when should we realize how culture and environment inform our desires any best practices huh that's a good question so I think you know you know I had a friend who who used to say you know it might be actually a popular quote but I just remember she would say it often that we fuel is a food is a fuel right and we should live live to eat no eat to live sorry eat to live not live to eat right because of the culture we're in today lives to eat they're obsessed with food preoccupied with food and you know there is there are there is the hadith that talks about you know the lack of baraka when food doesn't have baraka then you have an insatiable appetite right and so this is where it's all connected but I think if you're just consumed which is ironic that we use that word buy food because we consume food but if you're consumed by it you're waking up you're thinking about it you're dreaming about it you're like constantly obsessed like I was teasing someone I know recently that on Facebook we have one of the most probably active Facebook groups I've ever seen here in the Bay Area it's called Bay Area Food Halal East I think or something I think I'm on it but I'm not really on it but I just I see posts and people send me stuff and I'm like wow this this is such an active group and man mashallah I wish we had this level of interaction on other you know groups that are maybe more intellectual and I get it people you know especially during month of Ramadan they're hungry so it's kind of it's natural to do that but I feel like if that becomes like your life where you're just like browsing through menus and and looking at different restaurants all the time and you just want to eat eat eat eat eat eat there's there's definitely a problem there you have to work on breaking the that hold that food has over you that food is enjoyable it's it's a great Nama that we've been given but I think this is where practicing restraint and creating a an independence from food you know is really important like seeing your your patterns right is it certain types of food or is it just the entire you know topic of food that excites you because there are a certain you know we we we can certainly get addicted to certain foods right and if you look at the quality of our food and the properties of our food they're designed to be addictive so sometimes it's not even a person's actively seeking these things they're just consuming things that are affecting their brain chemistry or their physiology and they don't even know that they've created these these addictions or these food dependencies so there's so much there but I think the bottom line is if your mind is constantly thinking about food there may be something to explore there because and I want to be sensitive to also people who have had really difficult lives and food became a source of comfort I remember a friend of mine who had severe you know trauma as a child I mean really severe all the things that I they're they're made of nightmares that she you know she had gained a lot of weight and she said it was completely intentional she hated her body so much that she actively ate a lot and I that's a reality there are people who consume themselves because of real severe trauma so I don't think it's fair to just speak of these things as being somehow a person's weak it's more just paying attention to your mind whether or not the preoccupation is coming from something that may be more you would need to explore more from a mental health perspective or if it's just an enjoyable pleasure that you like indulging in that is distracting you a little bit too much you know I know someone who is stick thin I mean this is it's weird because you know we can't predict these things someone who is really much so thin like maybe less than 100 pounds but loved food to the point that their refrigerator was I would say it was like pregnant with food like you couldn't open it without something falling out and they said themselves like their eye was bigger than they could consume they didn't eat a lot they ate like birds they like like the portions were so small but they loved the idea of food and you know this again could there could be other implications all on those but I think each of us are going to have to examine our relationship with food from that perspective because I've been you know much less than the fedora we've all you know maybe some of you have been on this call have been around like really spiritually people who have mastered these things I I'm in awe they eat like nothing but subhanAllah they look fully nourished it's not like they look emaciated they just food is not interesting to them and they eat to live it's a fuel and that's very possible I mean I'll just share this with you because I actually from our teachers being around them I was so amazed by their ability to restrain themselves we would have these lavish you know meals sometimes because people would host and everybody's just pouring it on and then there's dessert and chai and you would look at their plate and it was like a date a small little morsel and water and everybody's drinking soda and it's just it was a scene but I would just look at them and go subhanAllah what kind of strength do they have you know and I actually this is a true story it happened to me when I went to hedge back in December of 2004 long long time ago this was my go out on Arafah I asked Allah subhanAllah I said please ya Allah give me the ability to completely restrict my food intake and have complete mastery over like my my nefs so that food is not interesting to me like I can I can basically I wanted to have what they had and I so I put that Da'a out there and subhanAllah it was amazing because Allah completely answered that Da'a and you know those of who know me personally you know I went through a period before I had children where I lost a lot of weight and part of the weight loss was me literally forgetting to eat I just cut off my Shahwah completely it was cut off I went entire days Allah is my witness wallahi I would have maybe one cucumber there was a couple of days I didn't eat but I wasn't even interested I was drinking water but I had no desire for food and you know I would go to girls parties halakas there was dessert plates everything brownies everything that you could want you know women usually go for the desserts men go for the meat we know that but I was completely unfazed I had no desire so it is very possible these are spiritual things Allah can turn your heart off from these things so I've lived it I know it's real mella give us that fortitude and strength to not be enslaved by our desires inshaAllah I mean sorry there's a I give these long answers I apologize Salafa, do I hope we're not we're fine it's like cows you know they just eat grass and they become these massive beasts and it's not like they go around looking for something else right no but it's part of us that we have these shahwas and so there's so much variety in the food that we can eat and it's it is it's a path it's just one of the paths that you can take to really train yourself but yeah it's interesting there is one more question if you have time for it I do absolutely so this one this person asks we're new parents and my husband always blames me for everything that happens to the baby example the baby has eczema and it's my fault how do I stay positive without having bad thoughts about my husband ya Allah that's really difficult I'm sorry to hear that it's not your fault you know Salafa put a lot sometimes men really want control or I mean I shouldn't say that they want control what I mean to say is a man especially husband a young father the way that Allah has created our men folk is that they have so much responsibility they're constantly bearing this weight of being responsible for their family and a new child a new baby an infant so vulnerable right as soon as something doesn't go the way that would be ideal the father may feel that he has somehow failed but it's you know a lot easier sometimes to scapegoat because to deal with to confront or to accept that maybe you know you somehow miss something is painful for some people so that's where a lot of this blame and shift goes between spouses especially and young children bring a lot of tension and stress for that reason but I think open communication is really important and what I would encourage is to always kind of especially as you're learning right I mean you have a new baby this is a learning phase for both of you and not you don't get a like a handbook on how to do this but I do think the more you show and demonstrate that you are ahead of these things like making sure doctor's appointments are scheduled in advance giving reports you know of daily things so that he feels like he knows what's going on it will actually protect you from these types of injurious you know accusations because it's it hurts so hurtful right you're the mom you're with this baby all day taking care of it tending to it and to have someone throw an accusation like that it's very very painful but I think if you think of it like from his perspective if he at least knows what's going on and sometimes men because they're working I'm assuming you're home with the child and he's out he doesn't know right what's going on and we as women sometimes we're so spent we don't think of the importance of actually sharing all of the daily stuff because sometimes you get so you know repetitive like oh okay every time I change a diaper I have to tell them no but it's more like anything that you notice or observe or just even checking and like when I was married with my I mean when my kids were younger and you know we were in Southern California with my husband I would just update him send pictures constantly keeping him in the loop is what I'm trying to say because if you keep him in the loop and he knows what's going on it's kind of like you're submitting these reports periodically then he'll feel some sense of like control right but if he's absent in the day it doesn't really have much to do with the the day in day out stuff a parent of of you know taking care of the the child then it will be very easy for him as soon as something goes wrong to be like it's your fault right so I think being a kind of getting into the team mindset as a mom is really important that yes I'm doing the bulk work of this you know of the child you know taking care of the child but I can at least bring him into the loop so that he feels we are a team in this I'm doing this part he's you know going out and you know getting you know I mean working and then bringing the sustenance for the family to be sustained where we are a team we just aren't communicating and I think in the absence of that communication these things happen and then fear sets in panic sets in blame shifts and it's just all this ugliness so try that try being more open and more communicative giving him those little reports inshallah and don't don't let your heart turn from him it's out of love and concern but obviously he's not emotionally managing himself well because he's blaming you but I think you can inshallah help to turn that around by just having a little bit more clear communication with him and also as I said being on top of those appointments and kind of reading and sharing articles on certain things that involve the baby it shows your productivity and he can't then blame you for for being you know for missing something because you've been actively doing that I hope that makes sense inshallah thank you so that was I sometimes I think too the you know when when maybe men are working in a professional sphere and they're used to that sort of having to assign blame to somebody on the team because things didn't go right and then they try to bring that home you know it doesn't necessarily work I mean obviously it doesn't work and so that may be and they're both new that that's the thing they have to remember as she has to remember you're both new at this parenting and it's really important that you allow each other to have time so just like she would like time to sort of learn about the best care for her baby she should also give her husband that time to learn to be a father in the way that he can and with his other responsibilities and with her other responsibilities so it's interesting to to see these new parents for those of us have been around a while we know it's these are just the easy days of dealing with the babies but you know it's important at the beginning I think too to just have that relationship and use you you know use your words of course absolutely and not let shit don't come between you too because he's that's what he will continuously do he'll find these ways oh he's blaming me no just be like you know when he's a dad he's worried about his baby he's not handling it right this is stressful we're both lacking sleep we've never done this before it's hard for both of us but I can you know show that you know like I said be proactive and really for the sake of the family and try to make these little adjustments insha'Allah I'll give you a talk for you insha'Allah Jazakallah please close the sub with the dua and then insha'Allah we'll be back to Monday schedule next week is that correct yes insha'Allah Jazakum Allah and thank you so much again everyone thank you please support the Rahmah Foundation by the way for those who are you know joining and benefiting from these classes insha'Allah they try to make so much programming available for women and young girls all over the world and I really they didn't ask me to say this but I really wish and pray in these last mubarak days and nights of Ramadan that we all do whatever we can to support this wonderful organization it is on my top list of organizations and they know Sadafado knows she basically owns me whatever she needs I'm at her disposal on the service but Alhamdulillah I just because I love the mission so much and this is really if we want to protect our future and I say I don't say this lightly I really mean this we want to protect our future as an ummah and as a community then we have to support our women because the women the woman the mother is the first house the first mother is the first school the first source of so much of the the dean that is transmitted to the child so we need to fortify our women folk and our young girls of course to be able to handle this insane world that they're in and then we will see the benefits of that in our household which will reach our boys and our sons and our men and inshallah but let us invest in organizations like the Rahmah Foundation that center women Alhamdulillah Jazakum Allah Khirin with that Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim Wa la'asir Inna l-insana la bi khusr illa ladina aamani wa aamir al-sali haqi wa du'asab al-haqi wa du'asab al-sabr Subhanak Allahumma wa bi hamdika as-shadu an-la ilaha illa anta al-saqtilak wa natsubu ilayk Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik ala Sayyidina wa maulana wa habibra Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alayhi wa sahbih wa sallam tasliman kathira Subhanah rabbika rabbil aizati amma yusifun wa salamun a'la al-mursaleen wa alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin Alhamdulillah Jazakum Allah Khirin everyone thank you again inshallah we will see you on Monday next week for the continuation of As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Wa alaykum everyone inshallah we'll begin in just a moment Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Ashraf al-anbiya'i wa al-mursaleen Sayyidina wa maulana wa habibra Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alayhi wa sahbih wa salam tasliman kathira As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone first of all Aide Mubarak inshallah I pray that all of you had a beautiful end of the sacred month the blessed month of Ramadan and a beautiful Aide Alhamdulillah it's been quite bittersweet for many reasons obviously the month coming to an end wasn't in and of itself bittersweet and then many of us I think are also still in shock and grieving the loss of our brother Sidi Mu'ad and Nas inshallah so I wanted to just take a moment and recite Fatihah for him inshallah hum may Allah swt Ota'ala grant him the highest station in Jannah-ul-Firdosa and may he be united with the Beloved Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He was a very dear brother MashaAllah and earlier today was his Jannah. So for those of us who may have tuned in, it was a very beautiful MashaAllah Jannah. There's so many people were there, so many beautiful people were there to make the offer him. And we ask that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala give his family Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala Jameeth. It's very difficult. I can't imagine a harder test than to lose a child. It's kind of like his parents are beautiful, righteous, God fearing people and from everything that has been circulating in the past few days, they've done nothing but demonstrate amazing faith and are really strong MashaAllah. But of course we know that grief is a very difficult unpredictable process and when you're surrounded by loved ones and community Alhamdulillah it does help to carry you through. But we ask that Allah Subh'anaHu continues to give them that beautiful Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala Jameeth when all of the news and this just everybody being there when people start to lead them and they're by themselves again. It's difficult. So our hearts are heavy for them. But Alhamdulillah, this is dunya. We have to I think just be prepared and as you know I think every year this seems to happen almost where some news will just come and completely take everyone by surprise. And it's difficult but it is part of our dunya and we're in many ways protected more so I think than previous like pre-modern people because sickness and illness, death were just so much more common. And a lot of parents actually it was very common to bury children not just a child but children. So for us I think because of modern medicine and a lot of the advances of our modern world we were hit so much harder by these things because they are not as common. Of course they still happen but may Allah Subh'anaHu grant us all strength and yakin and conviction and to remember that this is the temporal world and we're all going to leave at one point or another we will leave and there is no way to determine when that is but we have Alhamdulillah beautiful faith that gives us so much clarity and really if we just stick to our faith Alhamdulillah we can get through any difficulty and challenge so may Allah make it easy for us but Alhamdulillah. So as we all know we've been working on this text the foundations of the spiritual path throughout the month of Ramadan Alhamdulillah we are going to continue our reading of it. I begin I'll begin with a dua for studying that I really encourage everyone to memorize inshallah so I'll go ahead and recite that and then we'll begin and look at the text. So I'm going to go ahead and screen share because I had a couple of things I wanted to show all of you first of all this text that we've been reading I actually didn't I forgot that I had done a infographic on Instagram on this very text it's called the five foundations of faith that's what I titled it on Instagram but I wanted to share it with you in case you wanted to maybe grab a screenshot of this to help you I've mentioned it many many times but as a visual learner I think just seeing things laid out can make retaining knowledge easier so for me it works but here is the infographic I'll quickly go through this it summarizes basically the very first five foundations and also gives us the necessary questions to really self-examine right so first what is the foundation it's the lowest load-bearing part of a building typically below ground level and it's or it's an underlying basis or principle so it's a beautiful word because it actually implies we are building on this structure of faith that we that's you know the objective anyway that it's a lifelong process of knowledge acquisition and obviously application so you're constantly building you're constantly moving toward a goal of becoming a better version of yourself every day so there's this idea of building upon something but it's also a matter of establishing your principles of belief like what do you believe and what are the ways in which you manifest or represent that belief so the five foundations again this is just summary for those of you who have been here from the first week but good visual to kind of see it all out laid out mindfulness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala privately and publicly very important foundation for strong faith if you don't do this there's a problem right if you're mindful of Allah because everybody's watching you within as soon as you're by yourself that's clearly an indication of spiritual disease right there's a problem there because if you are alone and you do nothing to remember Allah and you actually do you know other things that you shouldn't be doing and you completely forget Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then this is again indicating that there is spiritual affliction that you have to rid yourself of the next is the adherence to the sunnah and word indeed and we're gonna we we already kind of you know went through each of these but i'm just reviewing it and also i have people on instagram live who are tuning in who i'm hoping will also look at this document and really understand it it's called the foundations of the spiritual path by cd Ahmed Zeruq so the third point here is the indifference to the acceptance or rejection of others so not being moved by whether or not people like you or not like you because that's not i mean you know our the reason why we do what we do is not for the pleasure of people it's for the pleasure of god so that becomes your criteria not seeking to be part of the in-group or fearing being excluded you know and being ostracized those are not motivations so really getting to that point and then satisfaction with Allah and hardship and in ease and turning to Allah and prosperity and adversity so those are the five foundations and here they are written out a little bit more you know as as you know in text form and then the questions that i think are also really important for us all to ask to determine where we are with uh in this you know spectrum of belief are important like how are you and you're completely alone um how close are you to the sunnah um in in your speech and actions do you talk the talk but but not walk the walk how much do you care about people pleasing or being excluded you know does your preoccupation with people prevent you from practicing your faith authentically and how much do you complain and whine about your life and events outside of your control do you resist the decree of Allah by questioning and saying things like why me right and then how often do you remember Allah when things are going well and remind yourself to be grateful or do you only turn to Allah when things are going back right so um and then we last week if you recall i shared with you these other visual aids to also just kind of lay out the foundations for us inshallah so everything we just mentioned right um what they are the talk about the sunnah the indifference the contentment and the reliance and then how do we get there right through exalted aspirations through Allah's reverence through the service of others khidmah is a really important part of spiritual um you know purification of spiritual preparation right we we better ourselves through the service of other people completing our resolves so having goals and meeting those goals and objectives and then magnifying our blessings being people of gratitude it's very important that we live um you know with gratitude every single day no matter what happens and you'll see this you'll see people of um faith even when they're tested in the most difficult circumstances you will never uh not hear their that them expressing their gratitude because in their grief in their sorrow in their sadness they can still um be filled with total gratitude to Allah because they can they're witnessing that they still have so many other blessings right so this is a very important um quality the believer must have and then we talked about you know proper conduct and how uh one gets to proper conduct so you know seeking knowledge is obviously the first point you can't get to certain levels if you don't know what the levels are or how to even you know what they are or how to get there right so you need to seek the knowledge keeping spiritual guides as part of that right where are you gonna get the knowledge from hopefully from people who are on the path and are are ahead of you uh in some cases you might find you know really uh qualified teachers to help you in other cases you might find other seekers on the path that are similar to you their students they're just trying to gain more knowledge and you can come together and have circles and study from with one another but whatever the case is to seek those out um I actually had a sister message me earlier today on instagram just saying that it's been very disheartening because she doesn't have access to female teachers and she was just saying expressing that she feels very weighted down by that you know that she doesn't have the access and I know that there are a lot of people who are in similar situations maybe in their region like where they are regionally they don't have teachers that they can access but this is why we also have to magnify our blessings because um alhamdulillah the internet affords us opportunities that many of us would otherwise not have right we can connect with a lot of amazing people online and there are spaces for that right now what we are doing is a proof of that right um the rahmah foundation has opened up an opportunity for us to come together on their platform using you know their platform to learn from one another and we're reading this incredible text that was translated to us by um our you know modern scholars who have who had access to the original Arabic um and so we're we're doing this together we're all students of knowledge but this is the way that the believer you know they operate is that they're always um as they say where there's a will there's a way so you seek knowledge you seek out company and you look for those resources and you don't let shaytan um getting your head and you know dissuade you you know dissuade you from your path um and you also other uh you know things that we need to be mindful of is not also seeking out um those dispensations and shortcuts in order to prevent what's necessary um to be on the path which is discipline right disciplining uh the nefs getting mastery of the nefs requires hardship and if you're always looking for the easy way out of everything then you're really not going to um not going to excel it's kind of like a student right if a student um is you know seeking uh for example they're they're looking to classmates for um you know it's uh you know cheat sheets and things that will prevent them from actually studying the text right sometimes teachers will give very long assignments that are required of the student in order to prepare them right for for the test or the exam but a student who's not disciplined will forego right looking at the reading the actual text even getting the book in some cases i remember when i was in college there were students who never paid for textbooks because they didn't want to spend their money and they would much rather just attend maybe um any groups study groups or just borrow and ask other people who are taking notes to to take their notes from them and some people are so nice that they would share those things but that student is not going to learn discipline they're not going to learn um they may get by because they're taking those shortcuts but if the purpose is to gain mastery and gain real knowledge then how are those shortcuts serving you so in the same way if you're on the path and you're immediately trying to make everything easy and cushion yourself you know from difficulty then that means you're you're setting yourself up to uh to not do very well because there is um that that especially in the beginning you know you need to to show up you need to put your best effort forward um and then inshallah al-as-partha of course will will bless you and things will naturally become easier but if you're just going to start off with this attitude of wanting everything handed to you um it's not going to you're not going to do very well so that's the third um requirement for proper conduct and then organizing one's time so making sure that we are really mindful of where we spend our time what we're doing who we spend our time with and being unapologetic about boundaries it's very important that we get to a point where we are comfortable um saying no thank you you know I know that there's you know social um considerations because sometimes we may be invited by certain people to participate you know in in certain events or activities but if it's a matter of obstructing something that you set out to do like if you're on a path to really for example let's say you want to memorize something or you you want to complete a text or you want to take a class and it's very rigorous um and then in the midst of your beautiful intention you are being invited to um to participate in certain activities with friends and maybe they're fun and they're exciting but you know that it would really pull you away from your studies right then you you have to be willing to you know respectfully decline those types of invitations and just make a priority that right now you're in a phase of your life where you're really doing something serious and as much as you would love to you know clone yourself and make it make it make it possible for you to be everywhere all at once you simply can't do that and so drawing those boundaries is really important and sometimes I think we let the fear which goes back to that first foundation right the fear of being ostracized or not liked proceed our own goals and you see many people giving up you know their their own goals because of these types of factors so you have to take this really seriously then when it comes to your dean and your path you should be very very selective and it's okay to do that it's not it's it's not something you should guilt yourself over so organizing one's time and then the last part that he mentions here about proper conduct is suspecting the nuffs which is really important because you know what he's saying is that pay attention to that inner voice because the inner voice is usually dictating to us but if we're not suspicious of the motivations of that inner voice the source of the inner voice then we're susceptible to falling for its tricks right because it can definitely trick us and so suspecting the nuffs is you know it's a daily process but it's really about the choices you make and the resolves that you have and where is it coming from right if you for example I mean I know because I'm seeing already questions online from various different people who are posting these things that post Ramadan right we're now in the post Ramadan phase we feel the dip right some of us may be feeling that sudden because we reached a high we all got really excited especially in the last 10 nights but then you you kind of freefall immediately after because aid comes and you know I was just speaking to someone yesterday just about food food intake she was saying like my god what happened like we're all doing so well all of a sudden it comes and it's like suddenly all the food that you've been avoiding it's like you're permitted to once again indulge and it just it doesn't feel good you feel you start to feel sick and you know she was just saying that it's too much too soon and I think a lot of us who've had maybe some eat celebrations can acknowledge that that's true right we really likely did see too much all of a sudden all at once and so similarly you know spiritually speaking all those goals that we achieved during Ramadan maybe we were doing so much more than we have been in the past few days and so you start to feel like you know what's going on now the nefs right now is vulnerable it's very vulnerable to spiritual attack because you could you know want to go back you want to jump back you know you fell off the wagon as they say you want to jump back on but then the nefs may start to tell you certain things like oh you know it was Ramadan and Allah made it so easy and you had the support of the masjid and the jama and now you know things are different and then it's then there's all these justifications that come from that right like oh your work schedule is more intense now if you have children you know it's the end of the school year summer vacation so all of a sudden you're getting like all these ideas that are basically justifying you slowing down right now really going back to that Ramadan spirit that you had this is all from the nefs because the nefs is and it's going to sound legitimate and if you're really being honest maybe some of those things are quite reasonable and fair and true right it's true that in Ramadan we have facilitation it's true that in Ramadan you have you feel more supported because everybody's kind of doing things together and there's more events and there's just that vibe right that's all true but when we say to suspect the nefs that's part of examining like you know is it true that I that the person that I was in Ramadan I have to completely hit pause and then move you know in a completely different direction or can I maintain certain things in Ramadan that maybe maybe I can't maintain it all but is it kind of like this all or none narrative that I have to accept right that that it was possible in Ramadan but now that it's not Ramadan anymore I just have to kind of you know move on and um maybe revisit that next Ramadan if Allah gives us the gift of doing that so the nefs like I said will really encourage us to to to not hit those goals and those objectives by by flooding us with a lot of justifications but we have to be like no this is this is not right I had so much hemma I had so much hope I had so many aspirations in Ramadan because I was feeling it Allah was showing it to me I need to reclaim that somehow even if it's a part of it even if it's a fraction of it but not certainly not allow all these justifications and excuses to make me feel like I don't need to you know I just need to kind of move on because it was just the Ramadan high and now that it's not Ramadan it's all good that's just that's 100% nefs shaitan working to sabotage and they do that quite frequently they do it on a daily basis but they also do it when we have just had this incredible month right of really seeing our own potential and so right now we're vulnerable but every day actually we're vulnerable so this is you know something to keep in mind now last week if you remember we also touched upon the sicknesses of the soul and what the cures are right because according to the document right so let me hear for those of you who are on the zoom call you may recall we went through sorry let me let me just expand this a little bit so you can see it better but we went through right the five foundations of right conduct and then then he brought us to this point the foundations of what will cure the sicknesses of the soul so this is a new now chapter in a way right where he's now articulating or elucidating for us what are the ways to cure ourselves of sick of spiritual sickness in order to again avoid falling into these pitfalls so the first thing he mentions and I'll go back to this here is the moderation of food intake which brings us back to you know Ramadan and the significance of Ramadan because it is a very big part of why we have so much to fear the nefs is you know it's it's like it's a beast that resides within us and it is emboldened and empowered by food food is a very big part of why the nefs can bog us down because it's you know there's it's connected right the the mind-body connection is very real and it's true like if you really think about what happens after we consume food right what happens is are the the the digestive process is such an intense process that it takes so much energy from us that you start to feel very sluggish especially if you've had a heavy meal you know if you're eating good healthy foods it's different but if you're eating the typical foods that most people eat which are convenient quick you know and a lot of our foods from our different respective cultures usually are quite heavy right so what happens is when we eat those all that energy is focused on breaking you know those that food down and then there's also the hormonal impact right because we know that there's also a huge connection between our mental well-being and the gut flora the microbiomas as they say and I know there's many experts who speak on those issues and you can look more into that but there is a connection of mood of just general feeling of even other mental health issues being affected directly by the stomach so this is incredible that our scholars you know Imam al-Ghazali in particular and others made these connections for us you know over a millennia ago hundreds and hundreds of years ago that the food that you eat will actually really impact your output and so when you look at your spiritual output and how much you're doing you have to link it to the food you're eating I mean number one criteria is are you eating halal food if your food is not halal this is a problem right if you're eating food that's sourced from haram income or if in and of itself it's haram then you likely will have spiritual affliction or other problems because you know we are commanded by Allah swt to eat from the pure so there's definitely a connection there so that's one thing and then the moderation aspect of it if you're overeating right eating things that you shouldn't be eating consuming to the point of just disgust you know and you know it's a joke it's a running joke but for example the you know what happens to people after Thanksgiving right the food coma that everybody falls into and it's not just the the trip to fan that's in the turkey it's usually because you're eating a lot of heavy foods all at once and then there's desserts so what happens to a lot of people is it just feels sick and then they just you know lay around because it can't even move so moderation in our dean everything is you know the middle way it's it's we are the the the dean of balance and the middle path requires that you know and the process of you know in the hadith reminds us that the stomach should be divided into three right three parts which are a third for air right so that you can breathe comfortably and if you've ever eaten to your fill that's one of the things that you have a difficulty with you can't breathe properly because your stomach is expanded and you're actually pushing on your lungs like what you know that we can we can do that and if you've I mean for those of us who've been pregnant before right you know how that feels it's very difficult to sleep to be comfortable in certain positions because you feel like you're suffocating right you have this mashallah the baby is pressing on you so you have to eat very very small especially towards the last trimester of your pregnancy most women right so that's a third for for air and then a third for food and a third for drink and you know it's so not also to to delay the the drink part until after you've eaten so there's all these considerations that are so beautiful because they're teaching us the importance of not giving into the nuffs because ultimately that's what we're doing we're not only potentially harming our physical bodies with too much food intake but also we are indulging the very lowest part of us that will make it difficult for us to spiritually act right it will be it will obstruct our our spiritual aspirations because we just simply don't have the energy i've you're just too exhausted or tired from all that food so moderation is really important the second is the seeking refuge in Allah at the onset of difficulties and challenges right this is how we gain that mastery over the nuffs but also purify ourselves from spiritual weakness and sickness right if we look to the material world we look to people whenever things you know go wrong but we don't even think that the only one and this is just the simple truth who can change our circumstances is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we don't think to turn to him that means that there's a misunderstanding there's there's a misalignment there's something off about one's understanding of the way the world works right because Allah is the source of all blessings a hundred percent without a doubt he's also the source of our tests so you have to know and this is why going back to the original five foundations it is very explicitly stated that we turn to him right in both situations um in hardship and in ease like we have to have that reliance on Allah so seeking refuge this is training yourself this is getting into a habit where immediately when something you hear difficult news um you immediately just turn to Allah you know Hasbun Allah wa re'a ma l-awkil la hawla wa l-awkut al-abillah inna lillahi wa inna irengi radyun all of these are taught to us to know how to process um difficult news whether it's directly impacting us or other news that we may hear of loved ones and people that we care about but it's just immediately seeking that strength that support in Allah and not falling apart you know because some some people who don't think to turn into Allah can let you know their emotions get the best of them and then you know there's a lot of uh further problems that come from that so this is just training yourself that no I immediately need to know what to say how to say it some people mashaAllah immediately will fall in you know in sajda um asking Allah whether you know it's it's just seeking strength from him or um protection seeking refuge in him from whatever it is but they know to do that because they've been taught that that's how you respond to to difficulties and challenges so this will help one to to cure those those illnesses of the soul and then avoiding haram places so we talked a lot about this last week as well that in order to um you know really prevent yourself from relapsing or falling into sinfulness you have to cut yourself from the source and so cutting from the source is examining who and where is it that I start to fall short is it certain people that are too overpowering and if your temperament is you are you know a more mild mannered quiet person you're you're kind of you know a little bit you know you're you're you're you're less likely to maybe speak up because you don't you know want to disrupt things and some people this is just temperamental very agreeable person then you might need to examine your circle of influence and friends because maybe they are so overpowering in terms of the way they are there's a lot of pushovers you know people who are easily pushed over um and it's not and you know that's that's a beautiful and in some cases it's a beautiful quality because you know the the the alternative in some cases is the you know to be overbearing and and and difficult right and so if you're a mild mannered it's a beautiful qu