Episodes

  • How to keep yourself safe from challenges of society

    How to keep yourself safe from challenges of society
    Nov 20 2024
    --- *This transcript was automatically generated by AI and may contain errors. * --- In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honor of the Prophets and Messengers. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and upon his family and companions, and he has accepted many, many. Let's read the next one. We have this challenge in this society, that challenge in this society, there is this temptation, this fitna, that fitna, and so on and so on and what shall I do? How can I keep myself safe from the different fitna, different tests, different temptations in this society? So I remind myself in you to keep yourself safe is very simple. It is not, not difficult. So first of all, stop, stop saying it is difficult. It is not difficult. Right? You hear this all the time, oh it is so tough, so difficult. No, it's not difficult. Who told you it is difficult? Very easy. It is very easy as long as I remember and remind myself that one day if I live in this place, Rockford, and I die here, then they will bring my body to this Masjid, and Sheikh Harah, abidullah, he will read my Janaza. Yes? If I am not here, if I am somewhere, some Masjid somewhere or some place, somebody will read my Salatul Janaza and I will be in my cover. And I will be alone before Allah. If I remember that, then there is no fitna which is so difficult that I cannot overcome, with fitna. I have to ask myself, see that's why Allah SWT mentioned something in Suratul Alaq at the end, one small ayah. Alam ya alam bi an la Allah ya ra. The Azbab and Nuzul of this ayah, this ayah came for Abu Jahl. Allah said does he not know that Allah is watching? Alam ya alam bi an la Allah ya ra. Does he not know that Allah is seeing? But we know the Kalamullah, Azbab and Nuzul, alhamdulillah, it comes for a reason there, but that applies to all of humanity till the end of time. So Alam ya alam bi an la Allah ya ra is not only for Abu Jahl, it's for me, it's for you, for everyone. I must remind myself, am I not aware that Allah is watching? So if I am doing something good, I am doing Tilawatul Quraar, am I aware Allah is watching? Yes, Allah is watching, alhamdulillah. But if I am committing some sin, may Allah protect us from committing sin, but if I am committing some sin, I am doing some gheeba, I am doing some namim, I am doing something, whatever it is. Alam ya alam bi an la Allah ya ra. Am I not aware that my Rabb is watching Jalla Jalaluh? Then how can I do gheeba about my brother? How can I play some politics and try to put this one down and that one up? How can I do that? When my Rabb is watching Jalla Jalaluh? This religion of ours, the Islam, this is not the name of a philosophy. This is not hadhi, laisa falsafa, laisa nazariya. It is the religion, the way, the way of Muhammad ﷺ. This is not a philosophy, it is not something that you know. And that is why this deen is about practice, amal. Like I gave you the example yesterday, I think, there is somebody who knows about Judo. He knows everything, how Judo started, who was the first, and so on and so on. And maybe he has a whole book of Judo which he memorized completely. Then he goes on the street, somebody holds him up, he gets into some fight and he is flat on the floor, gone. You say, Asif Khan, you know so much about Judo. That is the problem. He knows about Judo, he does not know Judo. He does not know how to fight, he knows about it. Same thing, if I know about Islam, but I never practice Islam, I never pray, but you ask me about Salah, I will give you a three-hour lecture on Salah. All the principles, all the rules, and the Sunnah, and the Fadha, and everything else, if you leave it, this happens, that Alhamdulillah, MashaAllah, you know all this about Salah. But the most important is, I am going this way. Where are you going? No, I have got some work, by shop. You know all this about Salah,
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    18 mins
  • Focus on the fundamentals

    Focus on the fundamentals
    Nov 19 2024
    The Connection Between Taqwa and Tawakkul Opening In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, ask His help, ask His forgiveness, and rely on Him. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whosoever Allah guides, there is no one to misguide him. We bear witness that there is no god but Allah, He is One, and has no partner. We bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is His servant and His messenger. A Reminder of Our Mortality I begin with a personal experience that occurred this morning - a powerful wake-up call. One of my closest friends of nearly fifty years, who lived in Oakwood, Chicago, passed away at 3 AM. I had hoped to meet him after completing my work here, but Allah's decree came first. Let us make dua for him: Allahumma aflahu wa arhamahu wa aafihi wa afwanahu wa kareem nuzulahu wa wasi muzikallahu wa ghusilhu il ma'i wa saj wa al barat wa naqihi min al qataya kama qayt al thawwil abiyatun min al danas Allahumma adhukilhu fi jannatil firdausil ala bidoon hisab wa a'idhu hu wa a'ifiz hu min adhabi al qabri wa min al naar Understanding Taqwa Allah SWT commands us in the Quran: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنتُم مُّسْلِمُونَ "Ya ayyuhalladheena amanu taqullaha haqta tukatih, wa la tamutunna illa wa antum muslimun." "O you who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not except in a state of Islam." [3:102] What is taqwa? Is it merely fear? The English translation often presents it as "fear Allah as He should be feared." However, taqwa is not simply fear - it is much deeper than that. Fear is a negative emotion; what you fear, you tend to hate. But Allah SWT says about the believers that they love Him ashad (most intensely). The Relationship Between Love and Taqwa Taqwa is the fear of disappointing the One whom we love the most. The more we love Allah, the more we fear disobeying Him. This is not out of terror, but out of deep love and respect. This brings us to a crucial question: How can we love someone we don't know? Knowing Allah SWT We come to know Allah in two primary ways: 1. Through His Self-Introduction Allah SWT introduces Himself through: Ayatul Kursi Suratul Ikhlas His Beautiful Names and Attributes When we reflect on His glory and majesty, our hearts fill with khashiyah (reverent awe). 2. Through Gratitude (Shukr) We recognize Allah by reflecting on His countless blessings: The earth beneath our feet The mountains that stabilize Our sleep and waking Our sustenance Our families The rain and crops The Test of Faith Allah SWT provides a framework in Surah Al-Anfal: إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ الَّذِينَ إِذَا ذُكِرَ اللَّهُ وَجِلَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَإِذَا تُلِيَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتُهُ زَادَتْهُمْ إِيمَانًا وَعَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ "The believers are only those who, when Allah is mentioned, feel a fear in their hearts and when His Verses are recited unto them, they increase their Faith; and they put their trust in their Lord (Alone)." [8:2] The test of our faith lies in: When Allah's name is mentioned, do our hearts tremble? When His verses are recited, does our faith increase? Do we place our complete trust (tawakkul) in Him? The Practice of Islam Islam is not merely a philosophy or ideology - it is a practice. A Muslim is one who practices Islam, with Salah being the primary manifestation of this practice. Allah promises two things for true believers: Elevated stations (darajaat) Forgiveness (maghfirah) The Power of Tawakkul: The Story of Hatim al-Asam and His Daughter Hatim al-Asam رحمه الله, a contemporary of Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal and who lived during the time of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutawakkil, was renowned for his exceptional tawakkul (reliance on Allah). His life principle was simple yet profound: whatever e...
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    28 mins
  • How to raise young children

    How to raise young children
    Nov 19 2024
    --- *This transcript was automatically generated by AI and may contain errors. * --- Asalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu wa barakatuhu wa barakatuhu. I'm sitting in Homewood in Rockbird. And it's filled with stuff for the Christmas holiday. And I don't think I've ever seen a larger collection of things that have no earthly use whatsoever than I have seen here. Almost all of them are of course sold out of premiums. And then they will be abandoned and junked as the minute the season is over. So I guess some within quotes goods come out of the fact that people are employed and they're making stuff. But I don't see what else. Anyway, that's on the side. My topic today is really looking at one of the problems that many parents complain about, which is children with an entitlement attitude. And especially that starts showing its teeth, sir. When the child enters his or her teens. And so I want to talk about why I think, in my opinion, why this is, why this happens and therefore how it can be avoided because it is not a natural thing, it's a manufactured thing. And it's manufactured out of something which is very nice, which is parent concern, especially mothers. But like all good things, there is a potential for evil which manifests itself pretty quickly. And that concern, very little concern is the issue. That is, if you look at mothers, at least I can say this about our Muslim desi and Arab mothers and African mothers, they are so desperately, I don't think desperate is a good word, they were so completely immersed in their children that they are with them and they have the eye on them literally 24x7 as long as the mother is awake and the child is awake, the mother is looking at the child, physically looking at the child, connected with the child, physically, mentally and so on. Now and responding to every single need of the child, the smallest need, the child doesn't even have to say it, but the mother is jumping to fulfill it. Now when the child is an infant, very small, I suppose some of this makes sense, but as the child grows and is growing, it makes less and less and less sense. However, the issue is that this doesn't change. The behavior of the mother vis-a-vis the child remains constant. Until the child is now in the twins and then almost like you turn a switch off, this attention stops and the child is then sort of forced to almost to say, well, you know, look after yourself, you are now old enough. The problem is psychology doesn't work like an electric switch. You can't turn it off and on. So if you have a child who is used to constant attention and constant demand fulfillment, indiscriminate demand fulfillment and also many times parents succumbing to literally emotional blackmail, which is tantrums. It is very physical as in, you know, screaming and so on. But otherwise it's like getting, you know, expressing signs of disapproval. Parents, children sort of clamping up things like this. It works. The interesting thing is that the cure is pretty simple. The first thing that you need to do is to gradually wean them off the constant attention phenomena. It's like detoxification in a way because instead of weaning them off, if you shut it off, then you have problems. And this is where we have the, you know, teenager syndrome, the teenagers express their disapproval. The problem is that when they were little, they did the same things, but it looked cured. But when they grow older, it doesn't. And that's when you notice it and you say, well, what's wrong with this kid? It doesn't have anything wrong with the kid. It is the same kid and he's behaving the same way except that when he was behaving like at age two, it looked different from how he behaves in the same way at age 12. But the reason is the same, which is that the kid is making a demand and you, mother or father, quite rightly are saying, no, it doesn't work. But and so the kid shows disapproval. Now so what must you do is you must wean them off.
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    15 mins
  • Westfield Halaqa – Aqeeda

    Westfield Halaqa – Aqeeda
    Nov 18 2024
    30 mins
  • What’s the value of the Dhikr of Allahﷻ

    What’s the value of the Dhikr of Allahﷻ
    Nov 17 2024
    --- *This transcript was automatically generated by AI and may contain errors. * --- In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the most honored of the Prophets and Messengers, Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and upon his family and companions, peace and blessings be upon them. We have the Hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ which all of us know, which is the first hadith in Bukhari. It is also the first hadith in Riyadh-ul-Saliheen of Imam al-Nabi r.a. And that is the hadith narrated by Ameer al-Mu'mineen Abu Hafs, Umar ibn al-Khattab r.a. Where he said that he heard Rasulullah ﷺ saying, Where he said that the reward of the deed is based on the intention and a person will have what he intended for. And then he further clarified and said that a person who makes Hijrah for the sake of Allah and His Rasul ﷺ, he will have the reward of Hijrah for that purpose. And a person who makes Hijrah, he immigrates for a worldly need or to marry a woman, then his Hijrah will be for that purpose and not for the sake of Allah and His Rasul ﷺ. Now obviously he is not prohibiting somebody from migrating for any halal purpose. I start saying that this is haraab, should not be done. But he is just putting it in place to say that the reward of the deed is based on the intention. I therefore remind myself and you to check our attitudes, especially our attitudes toward the teaching and learning of Islam. With what an attitude do we come to a class? Now, the reason I am saying that is because, first of all, as we see today, many class of deen is almost always sparsely populated. Where this is not the case, Alhamdulillah, it means that those people and community have understood the truth of life. But most of the time it is not. So there is a sparsely populated, few people come. And then you have complaints about how this class was for too long and it should have been shortened and so forth. So I remind myself and you, let us look at this in the context of deen. Now, when you look at it in the context of the hadiths which I mentioned to you, first question to ask yourself is why am I attending this lecture or whatever it is, right? This session, this salaka, this class, why am I attending that? Now, obviously, the within quotes right answer would be I am attending it to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and to learn something about my religion which I intend to practice. Now, if that is the intention, then why would you ask for that to be shortened? Because all the time that you spend in that class is counted as Iqbala, it's counted as worship. We have the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam where he said that when people gather for the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, this is a general statement, remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can be in many ways when they are gathering together to read Quran, to study tafsir, to study hadith, to talk about Islam in different ways and how to apply it in their lives and so on. All of this comes under the dhikr of, under the title of dhikr of Allah because we are doing it for the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So when Abhishma sallam said that when people gather that way, then there are malaikas, there are troops of angels whose job is to search for such gatherings and they go around the world and when they find such a gathering, they surround those people and they fill the space, whatever room or hall or something they were in, they fill the space and then they pile up one on top of the other until they reach the first heaven. So think about that when you are sitting there in the class and you look around and you find only a few people, well believe me every space in that room is filled with malaika, with angels. And these angels bear witness to what is going on and once the class is over, the session is over, the angels go to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and they report and of course Allah su...
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    15 mins
  • Structure your time

    Structure your time
    Nov 16 2024
    --- *This transcript was automatically generated by AI and may contain errors. * --- As-salātu wa s-salāmu ʿalā sh-sharafī l-anbiyā'ī wa l-mursalīn, Muḥammadun Rasūlu Llāhī ṣallāhu ʿalayhi wa ʿalānihi wa ʿasabu ṣallū tisli'i wa ʿanqasīl. Muḥammadun, if you think about this life, think about it in the context of, say for example, if you are sitting in front of your computer and you move your mouse, two things happen. One is, of course, the movement of the mouse, but two things happen. One is the cursor moves on the screen, right? And then by the way you click something happens. It performs some operation. Well, life is like this, which is that we do something here and it has an immediate effect and then it has an effect in the Akhira, in the Hiram. So you smile at somebody, it has an immediate effect, which is that person feels nice, you feel nice, and it is saddakha, so it goes in your account as a good deed. Just smile at it. Similarly, everything else, if you have some charity, you are kind to someone, you are respectful to the elders, parents, whatever is the good deed. Also vice versa, the opposite, that is sins. Something you do wrong, it causes its effect here, plus it's a debit in the hereafter. So it's very important to keep this perspective in mind and to live our lives and to decide on our actions based on this. Not just go by, I'm doing something, I like it, I don't like it, it's fun, it's not fun. So what is the effect of that in this duniya as well as in the Akhira? That's very important. Because things can be, almost as a rule, not always, but almost as a rule, we have, this is a sad commentary on our society and how we have structured it. Almost everything which is fun, almost, I don't mean it doesn't apply to everything, but almost, is either useless or it's a sin. Either it won't earn you any benefit or it's a sin. So we need to, even fun activities, we need to look at it from the perspective of how can I do something which is fun and which I enjoy, plus it's giving me some benefit. Because the time you have is the same. If I spend one hour here or I spend that one hour watching something on television, one hour is one hour. Same 60 minutes. And it goes from my life, it's not going from somebody else's life. I can't say let me spend one hour out of your Isha's life. No, it's my life. It's my life. So how do I want this, how do I want to spend this? Because the most important thing, nobody asked me what's the critical difference or distinguishing feature of Islam. Now I said the critical distinguishing feature of Islam is that we are accountable to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. For everything that we say or do, we are accountable to Allah. No matter what it is, no matter who the person is. I am accountable, you are accountable, everybody is accountable. So therefore obviously it makes sense that if I am then doing something, I will do it with that perspective. I have to give account for this. Is it something I want to do? Is it something that I want to do or I should not do? And with that in perspective, believe me, there is absolutely fantastic, you can have a beautiful life, have great fun, enjoy yourself. But as long as you keep that focus, if you lose the focus, then we go off somewhere else. Right? Now in the question, in the context of using it, when we say akhirah, also think in terms of what is the effect of my actions today in my life itself here. Like I was asking, why are you guys coming for the seminar? I was thinking here is a free seminar that is happening in UMass. Right? No limit. That kind of a seminar for that duration, two hours, usually if I was doing that commercially, you would be paying $1,500 per person. Right? Go look up AMI International catalog, see what seminars cost. The dollar value of that is $1,500 per person. You're getting it for free. Benefit is the same. You know, somebody getting $1,500 is not getting anything more, he's getting the same thing which I'm teaching.
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    Less than 1 minute
  • Will I die

    Will I die
    Nov 15 2024
    --- *This transcript was automatically generated by AI and may contain errors. * --- My friend here, he asked me a question with regard to hijab. And whether hijab is farad or not farad, whether the head should be covered or not covered, whether the face should be covered or not, is it only covering the chest and so forth. So my answer to him and to reminder to all of us is that whether it is hijab, whether it is praying five times a day, whether it is paying zakat, you take any principle of Islam. So really our problem is we start from the wrong end of it, which is we look at the modality of it, the details of the rule itself. Is it this, is it that? Then we get involved in the discussion of the fiqh. And for especially for those who don't understand Arabic, classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic, you are talking about something which you don't even know the language. And most common people have no training in the usurafiq. And usurafiq need training like anything else. It's like trying to discuss medical symptoms and problems, which also people do with equally disastrous results. Because you're talking about something you don't have the faintest clue of it. You're not a doctor, you're not a physician, you're not a scientist, you don't understand, you're head from your own tail. And you want to talk about medical issues of what should be done, should not be done and so on and so on, which happens quite a lot. I mean, this is a very common thing. People take it upon themselves to talk about medical problems and they have no clue, no training, nothing. So I want to focus on this and say that what is the right way of doing it? I mean, the question is there. We're not saying like the medical problem. Problem is there. We're not saying problem doesn't exist. It exists. But you're talking to the wrong people. And you're talking in the wrong way because you are talking to people who don't have any knowledge or you yourself have no knowledge. You're trying to speculate. Why? First question to say is why are you doing this? Because there are people who have knowledge. Go ask them. There are usur, there are principles which are established in the case of the hijab and any usur of the Sharia. It's established by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Himself. So where is the need for you to speculate? So the first and foremost thing to understand is that the first question, whenever we have this kind of a doubt of, you know, should I do this or the first question to ask yourself is, am I going to die? Will I die? This might sound like a dumb question. Of course, no, no, no, not of course. Go stand in front of a mirror. Literally do this as a physical exercise. Go stand in front of a mirror. Look at yourself in the face and say, will I die? Ask yourself, will I die? And convince yourself that you will die. Convince yourself. This requires convincing. Right? I'm saying this is something, it sounds stupid. Why should I be convinced that I should, believe me, you will have to convince yourself because the reason why we are doing a lot of stuff and we do as Muslims, we do a lot of stuff, disobedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is because we don't really believe that we will die. We have to question our fundamental foundational belief in the akhirah, which begins with death. Will I die? Will I be resurrected before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Will I have to answer for my actions? This is a fundamental basic question that we have to settle for ourselves. And this is what I remind myself and you, settle this. Don't live your life like this in limbo, you know, because then you will have constantly problems. It's not only a matter of hijab. Every single thing in the sharia will become a musibat on you, will become a problem for you, will confuse you, will take you all over the place because you have not dealt with a fundamental issue, which is to convince yourself that you will die. And remember, I'm not even going to where Nabi Salah said you can die any minu...
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    20 mins
  • Give me two options not three

    Give me two options not three
    Nov 14 2024
    https://youtu.be/tiQtb7eDd7A ---*This transcript was automatically generated by AI and may contain errors. *--- Right, I have a question here that if a person has is graduating from university and they have obviously several choices. Yeah, no, it's a map here, okay. Looked like a bed. There are several choices of which career to pursue. Now you might say, well, how come they have several choices because in the university they didn't go and study several things, they studied one thing. So how do they have several choices? They have several choices because though they studied one thing, they would have been thinking about something else as well and pursuing some study on the side in that discipline Which is one of the good things that students are allowed to do in American universities is take side courses and credit courses and stuff. So for example, you can be studying a particular subject, say for example, computer science, but you would also be taking courses and studying healthcare, say for them at the same time. Obviously it was more study load and so on and you put that on the day. So now at the end of this term in the university, when you're graduating you're faced with a couple of choices. So the question I was asked was, can you tell me now, can you tell me two things? I'll give you two pieces of advice, not three, two, two, okay. In the thing of course is also to remember and remind myself that you that one of the reasons for obviously choosing or the reason why it's something the choice is because choice A or choice B seems to have better financial prospects going ahead. And then those financial prospects can be broken down into short term and long term. Something good looks good in the long term, something good looks good in the short term and so forth. So all of these choices and elements of choosing, they make the choice more complex and complicated. But complexity is the source of profit for everyone except the one who's giving advice to friends because they don't pay you anything but it doesn't matter. Your payoff is in seeing themselves safe. So the point I want to make here is that two pieces of advice, what would you give to somebody who is just coming out of adversity and says I've got multiple choices, maybe they even tell you I'm looking at this, I'm looking at that, so two or three options. Now how do I choose, what do I do? As I mentioned financial potential of financial impact or financial gain is obviously one of the very big deciding factors or criteria for decision making. So let me leave that with you for a couple of seconds. I... before you listen to this further, I will of course tell you what I think but I I want you to stop at this point and reflect for yourself and say, take a piece of paper and sit down and say well, if a young person comes to me, young person, old person, any person comes to me and says ask this question, how will I answer? Now how I answer this is very simple. Two pieces and remember he doesn't want a third piece of advice, he wants only two. So number one thing and in this case I'm talking to MashaAllah a good Muslim who is practicing, who tries his best to be as close to Allah as possible, he fulfills his Faraid, he is very careful with Haram and Halal, he does not eat Haram, he does not do Haram, he doesn't want to do Haram. So we're talking about that. I'm putting this into context, not because the guy is... not making him feel happy but because this is the reality and therefore the context has to be there to understand. So we're talking to somebody like this. So the first piece of advice I would say is factor Allah into the equation because he is in it anyway. Factor Allah into the equation because he is in it anyway. Now part of the same number one is when you say factor Allah into the equation, what does that mean? It means two things. Number one it means that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told us that the quantum of our rizq,
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    19 mins