Identity, Who are you
Date:
Channel: Moutasem al-Hameedy
File Size: 36.01MB
Episode Notes
Take time to reflect on who you really are, and understand how to get from where you are to where you should be.
AI Generated Summary ©
The importance of "articipation," or the use of words and phrases, is emphasized in Islam. Personal identity is measured by years and there is much more to achieve than just words. The heart to love and achieve is emphasized, as it can lead to optimal performance and momentum building. Working safely during the pandemic is also emphasized, along with the need for a better customer experience and a safe and healthy workforce.AI Generated Transcript ©
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Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah
wala, All praise is due to Allah, we praise Him we seek his aid and we ask for his forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of ourselves and the evils of our actions, whomsoever Allah guides, none can lead us astray. And whomsoever leaves to go straight in uncon guide before we start,
the
sweet and handsome young brothers, okay, pay attention, because we try to focus on you today. Right? Okay.
This is the show, as the brothers have told me that it has become a tradition in Abu hurayrah, where people share their personal views and personal aspirations. And this is an eye opener, I believe, to Muslims living in the West, actually, to Muslims,
all around the world, I'm just trying, I would just try to highlight some of the issues that really concern the Muslims in the
UN who are living in the West. Now, I would say I would try to direct the message to the youth. And when I talk about the youth, I'm talking about youth of the heart. So if you have white hair like myself, consider yourself to be a youth. Because youth is not measured by years, or how many years you spent in this world, there is much more to identity, there's much more to performance, there, there's much more to the contribution that you can come up with, even at a later stage of your life. Now the companions of the Prophet SAW lots of them, some of them embraced Islam, at a later stage of their lives, and they made a big difference. That really made a big difference. What we will be
talking about in Charlotte today with, with the brothers, and with yourself as well. So it's going to be highly interactive session. So don't expect yourself to sit down and relax and chill. We'll put you on the hot seat, we'll get you involved. And if you don't put your hand up, we'll pick you up. Okay, so be vigilant. Because I'll throw some questions on you. If you're not ready, you won't be able to deal with it.
I just want to highlight something about the state of the Muslim Ummah, and no one argues with the fact that Muslims are not in a good state today.
We are on a downhill. And we're not making a we're not doing well as an Islamic home man, especially compared to the history of the Muslims, or the bright history of the Muslims in all aspects of life, in terms of how the prophets of Salaam established the first Muslim state, and how he educated the companions, how he cultivated them to a very high standard.
The companions are a really phenomenal generation, the kind of transformation they went through is phenomenal. There's nothing like that, in the history of humanity.
They were the lowest of all nations. And within about 23 years, they became the best nation ever raised forth for mankind ever, throughout history, and even in the future, there'll be nothing like that. Now, the good news is that this beautiful experience can be replicated, it can be repeated, and definitely not according to the same standards, but at least we can achieve something significant or a significant portion of what was achieved by the prophets of Solomon is comparison the messenger of solemn promised that this will happen one day, it will be the reality of this oma that the man who was this something we'll talk about today and tomorrow, inshallah. We'll come back
to its glory. Now, obviously, things don't happen in a magical way. All of a sudden the oma becomes strong. It is something that we have to work our way through. We have to build it we have to be aware of what stage we are in
And what is our final destination? Where are we trying to get to. So I will try to provide some, a few points that we can start with. So our discussion will be informed inshallah, and we'll try to set the territory clear of what we we are trying to talk about today. One issue is the issue, one fundamental issue in the life of Muslims. And I believe I spoke in my last visit to Toronto, I spoke about this, but I'll try to highlight it a bit more today with more detail and take it from a different angle, the issue of identity, one of the most important aspects of human life, human existence is identity. When we talk about identity, mainly, the way it's been portrayed in the
media, in Muslim books, in Muslim conferences is that it's all related to color, language, background, and religion. But we hardly hear any scientific scholarly breakdown of what identity really means.
To start with, as human beings, it is human, or the human nature is based on one important issue. It is at the heart of our existence, this issue
is worship. Now, it is human to worship. So anyone comes up to you and says, I don't believe in a religion, I don't have religion.
Be sure that this person doesn't know what he's talking about. It is human, to worship. And in the broadest sense, everything you do everything you think about every move you make, every step you take,
emanates from worship,
in some way or another. How does this work out? How can we explain it? Allah subhanaw taala says in the Quran, clearly, one and a half to Jin Illa
Yamamoto Mashallah young Kwanzaa awake. good sign. One Mahalo to Tinder will insert I have not created human jinn and humanity except to worship me. Now, when we make something as humans, when we make for example, a new manual when we when we manufacture cars, what do we make them for? For driving for transport? When somebody manufactures a pen, what do they What do they make it for? For writing?
So essentially, the car does driving, because this is what it's made for. This is what what is created for human beings are created to worship. So everything you do in a broader sense, is worship or emanates from worship, and I'll explain it a bit more.
I hope I'm not speaking Chinese so far.
The issue of worship goes with identity. It goes with identity.
Can anyone tell me what identity means?
What do you think identity means? It's a very elusive term. What does identity mean? Okay, can I get answers? Okay, let's take the first one.
So sorry.
Thank you very much. That's a very beautiful answer. Identity means how you define yourself imagine identity whether even in English, where does it come from? identity comes from identify. How do you identify yourself? In other words, how you define yourself? Okay, what other answers do we have? What do we mean when we talk about identity? Yes, the young brother there.
Can you speak up?
personal information about yourself? That's another puzzle. I'm trying to solve the puzzle of identity. What does identity mean? When I when I say my, that's my identity? How do we form our identity? Is it based on color? language?
country of origin? Where does identity come from?
Hmm.
speaker please.
The date of birth. Okay, so people who were people who were born in the same month, they have
a special identity, okay.
What you do? That's a very brilliant answer. Mashallah. What you do? So is identity something passive or active? That's another question. Okay. Do you take pratama
shala. The brothers are montrealer taking over.
identity. Most of the time we like to view it as something passive. We have no choice about. Yes, color
Language background
or religion we are born with that's what our identity is. But identity is not so
identity is something proactive something something you choose for yourself you choose your identity. And if you don't choose it, others will choose it for you.
Others which was it for you, we had one answer here Yes.
personal profiles getting more complicated Mashallah, these are the young ones Mashallah very good answer, but it needs explanation. Okay, let me take one hand here
on your character, that's a bit still elusive, and I need something more specific. I agree with you. But I'm trying to break it down. Okay, I'll take two more answers from the back. I'll leave the younger ones on scene for something inshallah more important.
Okay. Others
so belonging,
cooperating and Association.
Okay. These are parts of these are actually the features of identity. But I think what's the reality of identity? No problem. Brother Omar, gave us a very good, very good answer. Let me show you.
Now Muslims,
regardless of their background, ideally speaking, ideally speaking, someone comes from Somalia. Someone comes from Saudi. Someone comes from Pakistan. Someone comes from India. Okay, someone comes from Europe, someone comes from Canada.
And surprisingly, ideally, they have the sunlight, same identity, isn't that true?
They're supposed to have the same identity. Bilaal.
May Allah be pleased with him, was from a bikini from Africa. And so he bought Rumi. Although there's a difference of opinion, he was originally from
from a sham from a sham. He was a Roman Roman, which is the European race. Okay, and sell manufactures. He was a Persian, and they had the same identity, the same identity. Now.
Let's move to another stage talking about identity. I just want to explain what brother almost said.
How do human beings process information?
How do we deal with the world around us? Do you know you we are creatures of communication by the way. We are creatures of communication. What do we do in this life? from the date of your birth? To the date you depart this world? What do you do?
What's the main thing you do? You're doing? About 24 hours? You're doing that thing? What is it?
Yes, but that's not the last I'm looking for.
It.
Speak up.
Dawa.
No, no, no, every human being there's some there's something that you do consistently. And wrong.
process.
That's part of it.
But in the back,
reading,
breathing.
Okay, I've saved the time. So we, I don't want to step over the Okay, I'll take one answer. One answer this one.
Okay.
What we do is communication.
It's as humans, the most important thing we do, as human beings we interact with the world around us.
Now imagine a person who has, who cannot see cannot hear, cannot feel or touch and cannot smell.
What kind of human being that is
totally outside this world. No life. There's no life. So what we do basically we communicate with the world. That's what we do. As human beings we have an internal world and external world, we communicate with the universe around us. And this is what Allah Spanish Allah says in Surah illustra in Assam howl basara Walford, kulula econo masala. That's what we do imagine, we do we have two ways of communication. In inward and outward, we have an input and output. The
input is what we receive from the outside world from the external world through our senses. Eyes, is smell, taste, touch. Do you receive information from other use other than your senses? Basically, no
less Will you see it?
receive information, then you start to process it. That's all state of communication. Now the output is what? What you do what you say?
That's your output that you give to the world. That's what this is what all human beings basically, do.
We receive information from the world, we process it in a certain way. And then we give the world our output. Does anyone disagree with this? That's what human beings do.
Now, let's get back to the issue of identity. How do we deal with the world? How do we communicate with the world around us?
And sorry, to give this analogy, which I don't really prefer, but because it serves our purposes?
Anyone who's in it? Who's in it?
Who knows much about computers?
Okay, how do computers deal with information?
Like, for example, a name of a person? Give the name of a person to the computer? How does? How does How is it represented in the computer inside the PC? How is it?
binary system? binary system? So how does the computer deal with devices? a printer?
What photocopier? Okay, whatever it is, how does the community deal with that?
You need to define it. Yes, there's a definition. What do you call this process?
is actually now Windows has already has the automatic ability to define hardware. But in the past, you had you had a CD, and you had to define it, otherwise, the computer doesn't recognize it. And in order for us to deal with the world around us, human beings, objects, events, we have to define them. We have a binary system inside us, what's a different system? We have a system through which we define things, it's a basic language through which we give value two things, you have two friends, okay? You appreciate one more than the other, both of them are human beings. But why do you appreciate one more than the other?
Because you have different definitions for them? How do you define people? How do you define objects? So in order to deal with the world around us, sorry, are you getting bored here?
In order to define things around us, okay, we need to give them certain values.
Why do some people mean a lot to you? And other people don't mean a lot to you.
Why do you appreciate some aspects of life and other aspects you don't appreciate them?
Why depends on your definition. It depends on your definition, something could be insignificant to you, but vitally important to another person. Why, depending on the definition, Islam is important in our lives, because we have a certain definition of it. Other people have a different definition of Islam, so they're not concerned about it, okay. Now, when we are born, the first thing we do we define ourselves, you have to define yourself, you have to define yourself. And I will explain how we define ourselves. Once we define ourselves,
our definition of ourselves becomes the reference point. Based on our our definition of ourselves, we define other things.
And this is why people differ in defining different things. Let me give you the example.
Someone who does driving for a living
someone who does driving for a living, okay.
So without a driving license, he cannot work.
Another person,
he has all the facilities around his house, and he doesn't actually really need to drive most of the time.
driving license to the first person is very important.
But the second one is less important. Why is the same driving licence? And both of them are human beings. Why is it more important to one man and less important to the other one? Can anyone give a clear answer?
relativity I need something more specific. Why is it important for the one who does driving for a living and it's not important for another one? Why?
Okay, that's that's part of it.
Yes,
Okay, just basically, for the first person, it's about usefulness. It's about function. It's about function.
driving licence is important to his own definition of himself. This is the way he sees himself.
His function is to make a living through driving. Okay? So this way, it's valuable to him, it adds value to him by but the other person doesn't need, it doesn't make any difference. So it doesn't do him a big function. And that's the difference. Okay? The young ones stay calm, inshallah we'll get, we'll get to you soon. Okay. The so the first person, I mean, the value of driving licence, it does a huge function a huge benefit to him. And this is why it's of great value. If it's not of value or importance to you, you don't care about it. So one person, I know that you got lost, sorry, the, the example wasn't probably practical enough, but I'm just trying to show you that we define ourselves
based on our function. That's the language the whole world speaks. Look at anything in your life, and try to see how much value you have you have given to that thing, you will recognize the things that are more important to you are the things that are useful, the things that you can use and benefit from. And if they, they are of no use or little use to you they have little value.
And what defines if something is useful or not. It's the function you choose for yourself. Someone is a sportsman. Okay? So being fit, being fit is important to his function is important to him. So if it's important to him, remaining fit is an important part of his life. But if you don't need to be fit, in order to,
you know, function well in life, being fit is not an important thing to you. So it's based on how you define yourself. Now, people define themselves based on their function. And we define things in the world based on their function. This is how we define things in the world. Now, what is the meaning of worship?
What is the meaning of worship?
What's the meaning of worship?
worship, what is the reality the essence of worship?
sincerity. Sincerity is part of worship is one aspect of worship. Who can give me the essence of worship?
Okay, that these are the x that's the manifestation of worship. What was the essence? And the essence right at the back there? Yes.
Now this Yes, uncle? Yeah.
Yes.
Does that jacala you know, the essence of worship is love.
The essence of worship is love. This is what I love about our woman a nassima. Yeah, typically women do Neela here and there that you hit buena home Kabila and some people take partners along with Allah, they love them as much as they love Allah.
So this is the essence of worship. Obviously, it takes different manifestations. Now the reason I brought this up a Lost Planet, Allah created us For what?
For worship, what is worship, it's a function.
Worship is a function. So this is why we do worship with everything. In our lives. Every activity that you have is some some some sort of worship is some sort of worship. Worship is our function we were created to fulfill this function if you don't fulfill that.
What's the value of human beings?
In reality, nothing. If we don't fulfill this function for which we were created, then actually our value goes down. Like you have a car and the car. And I gave this example before, but I repeat it because it comes in handy. Now someone bought a car. His friend sees him a couple of days later, and he system how's your new car? What does he say?
His answer is I don't have a car. Although he has it. Now it turns out that his son keeps taking the car, he drives to work, he comes back, he hangs around with his friend with his friends, and he doesn't bring the car home, except late at night. The father doesn't get to use it. So this is why he says I don't have a car. Why? Because the car doesn't say it doesn't serve the function that was supposed to or it was bought in the first place for Okay, so if human beings do not fulfill that function, they have no value in reality. And actually, they have a negative value.
Which is a destructive value. Now, when we define ourselves as human beings, we define ourselves that this is what it means to be human to fulfill your function as it means. What does that car mean driving,
if you have no driving, if you don't have the service, you don't have a car. If human beings do not do worship, which is the reason for which they were created with function for which they were created,
they have no value. So this is why we define ourselves based on our function. What do we worship? Now I come back to the answer of the uncle, the meaning of worship, and inshallah we'll start very soon. Just give me a couple of minutes to clarify this.
Worship means love. Worship means love. Do you know that we,
what we do throughout our lives is love.
Is love. People have different words for it. People have different words read, and based on love you define yourself.
Now how do human beings function generally speaking, through motivation.
So when people talk about love, they call it motivation. Today, they call it purpose. They call it meaning. They call it passion.
They have different names for it, but it's the same thing. It's love. And it is worship. So if someone comes to you, and this is basically what we do, as human beings, we make an image of something. We love it. We love it. And after we
develop this passion towards it, what happens? We pursue it. Now ask yourself, ask yourself, what do you do in life? What are your aspirations in life? That's your religion. That's your deen.
It's what you love and what you're pursuing your life. That's been
okay. So now when,
when someone comes to you, and they say, We don't believe in a religion, we don't have religion. That's not true. Religion, unfortunately, has lost its meaning as a word, even unfortunately, in the Arabic language today.
It's not it's misunderstood by a majority of people have been means your passion in life.
What is the ultimate love in your life? What is your passion in life? What is your purpose? What is the thing that you hang your value on as a human being identity of Muslims is supposed to be the love of Allah subhanho wa Taala
identity that we have is supposed to be the love of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And the beautiful thing about this ident identity that takes different manifestations
is the basic form of love, which encompasses your life, and then it actually gives rise to every other activity in your life. So when you love Allah subhanaw taala you pray, you start to love prayer. Why? Because it brings you closer to a light enhances your love of Allah. Now someone loves
soccer,
or football, they like to play football, anything that helps them become better at football, becomes zero to them.
You want to achieve financial security or independence, you want to become independent, financially independent, any kind of job that seems to pay off well becomes dearer to you. Why? Because it serves your purposes. It has a function to you. And that's exactly what religion basically means. So atheists are agnostic, each one of them they have something they love. This is why the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said that he said, Dina, Titus Abdullah, and he said that it is time to soldier.
He said, Woe to the slave of the dinar of the dollar of money. Why? Because money has become the ultimate love that drives everything in their lives. It's at the bottom of every action they do.
You see, this is how they define themselves. So you define yourself around your passion in life. You love football so much, that it actually affects everything in your life. It affects your decisions, it affects affects your likes and your dislikes. It becomes your God and becomes your identity.
Someone Loves a Woman so much
that they'll
this love absorbs the heart. This is how they define themselves.
So what they like, what they dislike, what they do, what they chase after, is all defined by that love, anything brings them brings them closer to their love.
If dearer to them, anything that pushes them away from their love is detested to them, they hate it, they turn away from it, that this is what worship means. So the Muslims are supposed to define themselves around love of Allah subhanaw taala. So you Allah is your ultimate love. And by the way, this is how our hearts are created this way. Remember, Liam says human beings have two qualities. And this is if you really study yourself, well, you will see that you are doing this. throughout your life, we have two faculties, we have two things that we do, that encompassed everything in our lives, we have the power of comprehension.
Over to the media, he calls it, okay, we can perceive things we can see, we can understand, we can comprehend. That's number one.
So we form images of things, we form definitions of things. That's number one. Number two, once you form a definition of something, you react to it dynamically. So there's static, which is you form an image, and there's a dynamic, which is how you act to that. So this is why the prophet SAW Selim said, another lie to Salman is how misshapen you know, a look, your gaze, it could be one of these periods of shape one, because once you see, for example, an attractive woman, straight away, you form an image in your heart, about that woman. And don't don't think that this static state will remain entities, it gives rise to what desire.
When you understand the names and attributes of Allah subhana wa, ala.
There is an impression about Allah in your heart, and this is what we call aqidah.
You see, sometimes the word makes it complicated, but it's very simple. What does that mean? That means what is your impression about Allah?
What's in your heart about Allah? How do you how do you view Allah subhanaw taala?
What is your impression about the names and attributes of Allah, once you form an impression in your heart, about Allah or about anything, your heart will move either towards it or against it.
Okay, so the Muslim is supposed to define himself based on the names and attributes of Allah. Once you have the correct understanding about Allah, you heart will develop the will develop the passion, will develop the word, the desire, will develop the motivation
will develop the strength that you bring about, and through which you you function.
Okay, this is how you this is a summary of life. This is a summary of life. This is how we human beings function. This is how we do things. This is how we react to the world. And this is how we define ourselves. So basically, human beings don't define us. Some people define themselves by the way, through their physical states.
They look at their physique around their body. Some people define themselves around their brains, the intellects. Some people define themselves around something external, something like as I said, money,
reputation, their wife, their children. And that's a mistake.
That's a mistake. We have to define ourselves totally based on our love for our last panel to add,
based on our love. Now, sometimes, let me let me give this example which is very practical.
If a person
is injured, for example, they lose
a leg
or you lose your hand, for example.
Does it hurt a lot?
Does it hurt a lot, even about your image about yourself the image you have about yourself? Many people feel frustrated about it, it could destroy some people's lives. If it happens, this person has defined himself greatly around his body.
The way they look
is very important in their definition of themselves. And that's a mistake.
Some people define themselves around their state their financial states. So when they are rich, when they are well off, they feel confident and they feel alright.
But when they are poor, and they, you know suffer from some kind of financial loss or setback, they feel bad about themselves.
A person who's handsome they define themselves they tend to defend themselves around their beauty.
If they have an accident, and they lose that beauty, the definition of themselves is zero. And this is when they lose confidence.
And they lose hope in life. A person defines himself around his girlfriend, she leaves him, what does he do?
commit suicide? Because his definition is gone. No definition.
So,
who are you? It's your definition of yourself. What is your definition of yourself? It's your passion in life. It's your passion in life. Some people define themselves around football. The life is all about that sport or basketball. That's the life if they lose it. They're out of balance. But the companions of the prophets of Salaam in the battle, many times when they talk, even young young people youngest as these ones, like Miranda with anyone heard of this story
with
the Battle of better Rama with two young children that were around 13 1415, two young children, one of them with when he hit a Buddha, Nkrumah, the son of Abuja, Hill, took revenge for his father. So he hit this little boy with his sword. What happened?
I mean, the boy himself, the race the story,
he hit him on his shoulder, and you know what? He cut his arm, and it kept hanging through a little piece of skin was hanging? And do you know what he says? This young man about 14 years old. He says in the battle, it became a burden on me, I couldn't fight and defend myself. So what he did, he stepped on it. And he pulled it
his definition of himself, his composure was still there.
Why? Because he did not define himself around his body. Now imagine some Sometimes a person loses a finger and it takes them months to recover, psychologically, I'm saying psychologically to recover. Do you know what sometimes in arguments you feel offended?
You have an argument you have you have a conversation, you are sitting with some people.
Still, okay.
You feel, you feel a bit offended? Someone says the word and you feel offended?
Why?
Not? Exactly, not exactly. Do you know why? Because they said something that has violated your definition of yourself.
violated your definition of yourself, for example, you define yourself around your reputation, how people see you, they call it whatever, today they call it, extrinsic.
Something from the external world, you define yourself upon something from the external world, okay?
Once you define yourself around something physical,
around something other than the love of Allah subhanho wa Taala, you become vulnerable, weak, people can can get to you, people can destroy your confidence.
Let me define that. Or let me explain it someone. The way he views himself, the way he defines himself is how other people look at him. This is where self esteem comes in. Self Esteem comes from your definition of yourself. There's no fixed thing called self esteem. You choose what your self esteem is. The prophets are seldom in Mecca, they call them a magician, they call them a liar. They call them all names. And he was the most honored among them the most respected before the message. And that never, ever violated his self esteem. He kept composure.
So someone defines himself around his reputation. If you call him a name is gone.
is gone.
You have violated his definition, someone defines himself around how he looks like or how she looks like, once that is violated through any physical injury. The definition is what destroyed is thrown out of balance. people define themselves around some By the way, some young people depend themselves on the car they have. So if the car if they have an accident, and the car crashes, believe me they suffer psychological consequences. So Allah subhanaw taala wants us This is why the believers are the strongest.
If you define yourself around the last panel, the love of Allah, no one can touch that. Can anyone stop you from loving Allah, no one can get to that. No one can get to that. But you define yourself around your love of your wife. She could die. She could leave you.
So don't hang your definition on anything that people have control over.
define yourself around the love of Allah, Allah, you will be fortified. You will be safe. No one can get to you
Whatever people say to you that can never touch you.
You have strong walls you have a strong arm and people cannot break through that.
And by the way, this gives you so much even physical strength. Am I coming up with something strange? Allah says based on the Quran
Allah says in the unfurl
yeah you have maybe you had remote meaning,
or messenger, or prophets inside the believers to fight in the sake of Allah
iya cominco measure on Assad, Iran is really booming.
If there were 20 believers from among you,
they can believe us. They can overcome they can defeat 200 am I joking? No.
One can defeat 10 that's physical power, pure physical power. A lot of dimensional angels hear
where you're coming from me atonia kalibo, alpha male and Latina. And if there there are 100 of you, there will be able to defeat 1000 from the disbelievers why Allah concludes that he can be unknown gunman or Vietnam own life.
Because the believers do not comprehend the reality of this life.
That is really sorry the disbelievers do not comprehend the reality of this life. So they have the wrong definition of themselves. They define themselves around wealth or money status, that I do the worship, whatever it is, but if you define yourself around love over the last panel to Allah, you will get this physical power. Mm hmm says this. In his book modality Salkin.
He says, The love of our last panel with the healer. And the remembrance of Allah has the ability, or you can survive on it. And I'm not sure if I should be mentioning this. I don't want to be labeled as such and such, but I'm quoting him not I am one of the greatest scholars of adolescence. But please understand me very well pay attention. He says, With love of Allah, and great remembrance of Allah subhanho wa Taala you can survive even for a while without food.
That's physical power. Now, don't ask me how, because I kept the buzz waiting for long. But what I'm talking about now is very important for our discussion.
Now, a person defines himself around love of Allah subhanaw taala. That's the basic look, we have a hierarchy, we have levels of love.
At the bottom at the center of our love should be lovable last panel to Allah. Once you define yourself around this, no one can touch you. No one can throw you out of balance. Even if people give you dirty looks as Muslims, they cannot touch your self esteem. They cannot affect you. The reason why when we walk around people can give us dirty looks. You know, we hear some bad comments. Sometimes we feel bad about about ourselves. And if it happens repeatedly, if you are affected by that repeatedly, you start to
have a problem with your identity. So you want to look like others.
You don't want you don't want to hear bad language you don't want people to look, you know to give you certain looks. So what do you do? A brother has a beard. He cuts it short or he shaves it. Why? Because he wants to avoid this kind of psychological injury. People talk about me. So we tried to change the external world, our buddy, no, it's inside you change the internal world. Strength is inside it's not outside.
And the problem with the brothers who feel offended when they are given dirty looks, or when they hear some kind of language or that they are called names. Or someone calls you a terrorist who terrorists you Muslims terrorists.
We feel offended because you define yourself partly around how people look at you. That's the problem.
That's the problem. This is when you become vulnerable. So define yourself around Allah subhana wa Tada. No one can touch you. No one can affect you. Don't define yourself around your wife, you love her. But there's that secondary level of love. It follows from your love of Allah subhanaw taala you love your wife. Why? Because she's Muslim. You love your wife. Why? Because she's with you on the same road to Allah subhanaw taala you love your wife. Why? Because Allah subhanaw taala commanded you to be dutiful to your family. You love your wife Why? Because she can help you make it to Allah subhana wa Tada.
So this is how we should set our priorities in life and our relationship with everything else.
These things should emanate from our love for Allah subhanho wa Taala. Only then you can have some kind of a thematic unity in your life. You're one person, you know many times we are we have duplicity of people, we have schizophrenia.
To a certain degree, sometimes in one place, you act in a certain way, in a different place, you act in a different way. It happens with all of us, sometimes you like something the same thing you like it tomorrow, you don't like it, why? Something has changed your definition of yourself. And it could be rapid if it's rapid, that's dangerous. But if you define yourself solely around around love of Allah subhanho wa Taala, you will have a consistent character consistent definition. And absolute morality that doesn't change from day to day, from age to age, it's the same.
So you will have stability in your life, strength, and no one can get to you and everything you start to see the links, even
with what type of food you eat.
If you really define yourself around love of Allah subhanaw taala everything will fall in place. And this is what the professor said, Oh, the Hadith that is narrated the divine Hadith, which the prophet SAW Selim defines, when he says
when Allah subhanaw taala says
it's not a divine his from the prophet SAW Selim, he says men can at it dunya
The one whose passion, the one whose ultimate love is this dunya money, wife, girlfriend, even children shouldn't be your main passion. It follows from your love of Allah subhanaw taala anyone who has part of this dunya to be his main passion in life, that is his definition is how we define ourselves.
ship that Allahu alayhi wa
Allah will increase his worries and make them scattered. So his mind will be all around the place, chasing money, chasing his relationships, chasing his financial state, you know, chasing his his personal preferences. You know, every war is all around all around the place.
Check for the law and he
was unethical obeying the law will make poverty in front of his eyes wherever he goes.
When I'm here to human adunni illa makuti Bella and he will get nothing of this dunya except, sorry what Allah wrote for him.
But woman can appeal to him whoever makes a last panel to Allah. His passion his ultimate love, His main concern.
In other words and our words his definition.
Jama Allahu Allahu Allah, Allah subhanaw taala will reduce all his worries into one
will be one thing to focus on and you will be satisfied. Gemma Allahu Allahu Allah
wa Jalla Rena who fear Allah, Allah will put the sense of richness and sufficiency in his art will attend to dunya Latina and this life will yield itself before him even against its will, again, physical outcomes, tangible outcomes.
You know, when you when we really fall into this kind of harmony, if we really get to that the world will change around us. Even you Tamia says a very beautiful statement.
Until I was finished with this, so we can start and as we have the conversation, we will add, evidence me assess a very beautiful famous, he says every move in the heavens and the earth, the origin of it, the origin of it apart from humanity engine, the origin of it is love of Allah subhanaw taala
the rainfalls because of love of Allah, the clouds move because of love of Allah. Vegetation grows because of love of Allah. Everything loves the last parameter either and out of this love functions
whole world so once we make a loss, our ultimate love our ultimate passion, what happens we are in a state of harmony with the whole world. And once we catch this harmony we build an on an already existent momentum, powerful momentum. You know during the days of Omar Abdulaziz when he was the halifa
there are
ample historical reports that
wheat
wheat from which we make bread.
One single grain of wheat was similar in size to the stone over date.
Baraka, Allah says in the Quran, Allah Allah And what if the people of the inhabitants of earth if they have believed truly in an Allah and had taqwa and consciousness about Allah subhanaw taala.
Let him Baraka to minister he would have would have showered them with blessings from the heavens and the earth.
Okay, we will start now.
Okay, what's this? I can't read it.
Okay, you sure? Okay, actually, I want to get the brothers involved. So no problem.
Okay, okay. All right. With that, I really apologize. But I got
excited about this.
Okay, before I carry on,
everything I have said
probably was a bit confusing, I know was a bit confusing at the beginning. Did the lines link now? Okay, Hamdulillah, did anyone lose his way through?
Okay, I'll handle I just want to make sure that you are following. By the way, this is what worship means.
In simple words, this is what worship means. And believe me, the way our ultimate passion is your definition of yourself,
is your definition of yourself. Now, when it is touched, when someone has access to it, they will be they will have authority over you power over you. And this is psychological authority.
So it's very dangerous to define yourself around your financial situation.
or define yourself around your body. And this is why when the kuffaar when the people of Quraysh, they got hold of combat,
they started cutting his body, piece by piece.
And they said to him, just swear at Mohammed say a bad word about him.
Would you like Mohammed to be in your place and you're safe with your family? What did he say? He said, No, I don't wish that the professor said I'm even being being hurt by a thorn.
It will pain and I'm saving my house, I prefer to die for him. And he's safe is intact. No problem with him. No pain.
He has disengaged from his body because you are not you buddy.
And reality, don't define yourself around your body because people have access to your body.
They can torture you, they can put you in prison.
And if your definition is about you, is basically your buddy you will be weak. These are the people who will give in the times of hardship. But the people who persist and resists
even if they are captive.
That actually
when they are prisoners.
their gods are the captives. And they are the free ones.
The way you define yourself really defines your freedom
and defines your strength and defines your life. Now I just want to get back to the issue of hierarchy. And this is by the way,
if some of you got lost Don't blame me blame Homer. That's all fall off from
Yes.
Sorry.
Okay, everything I said is worship. Worship means love. Worship means love No human beings and let me
Okay, I needed actually some kind of
stamina. No problem, I'll try to explain it. You know, we think human beings are one level of consciousness. Now, I'm not talking about psychology, conscious and subconscious. I'm not talking about this. But human beings, we do not process our communication with the world around us and our thoughts. According to one level, no, no, we have something deep inside our heart. And that's the basic level that controls over all our lives. And I said, these are the two things in no claim defined your power of comprehension to make an not necessarily an image but an impression about something and that's your faith. That's your leader. That's the definition you have of things. The
definition the impression you have about yourself and about
your mission in life, about your passion in life about your ultimate love. That image gives rise to motivation, which is the drive to do something, the drive to achieve results. Okay, what is the ultimate drive of Muslims? Allah subhanaw taala the love of Allah
because we are designed with we are created to worship the best thing we do is worship. The car is made for driving the best thing the car does is driving. A pen is made to write the best thing you do or the
Best function a pen could serve is what writing.
By default, humans are created for worship. So naturally what do you do worship
without being conscious about it. But the choice is you either worship Allah, you worship something else, that's the choice you have. You don't have, by the way, you don't have any choice whether to worship or not. Humans worship by nature. That's what worship is, you form an impression about something, your heart identifies with it. So you define yourself around it.
And then the drive, this dynamic power is created in your life and your heart. And it pushes you to do all the things that you do in your life, it all emanates from that. That's what worship means. So that is your ultimate love. So if you define yourself around love of Allah subhanaw taala, this underlies all your activities.
And it underlies your definition of things.
This is why for Muslims, Salah, why is that important?
Why is so important? Because it serves your love of Allah. Isn't that true? Which is closer to Allah, you exercise your love of Allah subhanaw taala?
What is Salatu? Ana Muslim? What does it mean? The Muslim, the Muslim way of praying? What does it mean to a Muslim? or non Muslim? Nothing? Why? Because it doesn't serve the purpose. And even if they look at you praying, they say that kind of what what is this guy doing? as one guy I remember I was praying and there was no Muslim passing by.
He said, I had my friends sitting around, I said, Why is your friend head butting the ground?
Is he doing and they don't understand because it does serve the function. What serves the function? Okay, for example, if they define themselves, their own enjoyment of this life, anything that helps them enjoy is important. So this is how they define things, how they give value to things, if it says the ultimate purpose is a bit clearer.
Okay, so the words we use, motivation, purpose, passion, meaning, these are common words, this is all worship. It's called worship, identity. We think identity is a psychological thing. And they have to go through background color language, all these are secondary.
And this is why Islam has the power to transform your life, because it changes the very basis of your life, which is your definition.
It changes your definition. So this is how we define ourselves, we define ourselves around our ultimate love our ultimate passion, this is how you define yourself. And once you define yourself, it becomes the central point, or the focus point based on which are against which you define other things.
So if you look around at your friends, who are the people, you hang around with the people that you love, if they are not righteous, if they don't bring you closer to Allah, there's a problem with your definition.
Because if you choose your friends based on enjoyment,
a huge part of your definition of yourself is based on enjoying yourself. And that's the wrong definition. And this is why if you for example, set up some kind of a trip, or some kind of an activity that will bring you so much pleasure with your friends, and it doesn't work out, you feel frustrated,
because it has affected your definition of yourself. Somehow
the Muslim when does the Muslim get frustrated, or feel bad?
When they miss a prayer, when they miss a fast when they fall in sin? Why? Because it works against the definition against their passion, I guess the purpose gives the meaning. We say you know, many times people say I'm searching for a meaning for my life.
What is meaning its definition to passion. So if you want to transform a person, make sure they change their definition. You don't need to work on how they behave and how they do this is all this is all easy. Don't be bothered with the details. Focus right at the center, everything will follow suit, everything will change automatically.
So this is very important when we deal with our kids. Most of them are sleeping Mashallah.
I wish you got this on camera.
Okay, it's pretty important when we raise our children to help them define themselves around around love, have a Lost Planet, Allah, this is what identity means. So let's forget about language, color, background, their country of origin, all of this stuff. Believe me, all of this is irrelevant. All of this, your physique, your body, don't define yourself around this difference.
yourself around love of Allah subhanho wa Taala and by the way, some people might say okay, how can I increase my love, you know you are created to worship Allah. You are created to worship Allah so there's, there's no need. It's not rocket science to know how to love Allah, Allah you are created to love Allah. Am says and in many, many times in different books. He says, In the holy pally Mahabharata law was shown the law will obey, your heart is created to know Allah subhana wa Taala. And to yearn to his meeting,
to be eager to see a loss penalty and to feel the closeness to him. This is what your heart is created for so naturally inclined to that. But where do most people go wrong?
You know anything wrong, you do anything, anything wrong, the human being does, do you know what they do what it is, it is something that is supposed to be given, or it is designed to be given to Allah, we just give it to somebody else or someone else, or something else. Your heart, your heart is designed to love a last panel. So naturally, your heart is always looking around. For that love is looking around for that love. Most people are short sighted to get stuck with physical things around them. They either love a person, they love fine finances or money, wealth, or they love a house, or they love reputation, which is a bit more complicated, or they love something
intellectual. People love the science. They study. The discipline they study people love their jobs, not only by the way, some people love their job, not for money.
Because it gives them a sense of fulfillment. So they've defined themselves around that activity that's short sighted in this charge at sightedness. This is what Allah Allah says,
la home oluwo urban life Kahuna BIA, they have hearts with which they cannot comprehend. They have eyes with which they don't see. But actually they see physical things. But you are not meant only to see physical things you have to see beyond the world around you, is supposed to lead you to love a lost penalty. And that's what your heart is created for. That's what your heart is created for. So don't get stuck with the physical world tangible world around you be. How have a deeper insights have a deeper insight to define yourself around a lot around the law. So once your heart gets to know the names and attributes of Allah Subhana Allah to Allah learn them. Koran is full with names
and attributes, almost most of the verses in the Quran ended up with names and attributes of Allah. Do you know why Allah created the heavens and the earth? Why?
Why did Allah create the heavens and the earth?
what the answer is in the Quran?
no answers.
For just one reward, which is good. That's the right answer, but I need something to serve my purpose here. Allah, Allah says, and the end of surah Allah, Allahu Levy, holla Casa de Martin, Allah Who created seven heavens one minute are limited in 107 Earths
yet unnecessarily Robaina on the command of Allah descends from the heavens to the earth.
Why, Lita, Allah, so that you know, and Allah Allah.
Allah Hafiz help of the coalition, so that you get to know and realize that Allah
is capable of doing everything.
And that Allah knowledge has encompassed everything. So Allah created the heavens and the earth, and the heavens and the earth, so that you and I know that he is the omnipotent, the Almighty, and he is the all knowing
everything in the heavens and earth was created for that. Imagine,
just to help us know because once we know unless penalty, we define ourselves around him, or unravel the law. And once we do that, everything in our lives would be all right. No one can get through to you. No one can destroy your self esteem. No one can overcome you.
And your whole life will be in harmony, everything will make sense. Everything will be two, three in a state of organization. So just let me finish with the issue of hierarchy of motivation at the bottom, at the root of all motivation in your life should be the love of Allah.
And this is so powerful. This is so powerful because once you use anything that is made for a different purpose or purpose different than what it was made for, it doesn't function well.
It doesn't function well if you use this projector, or this camera, for example.
To store
use it as a cup the lenses, use it as a cup and drink water with it, it doesn't serve that purpose, right? It's not suitable give you trouble will give you problems. But if you use it exactly for what it must mate for this is when you get optimum performance. The same with human being, once you are created to worship Allah to love him, and that drive be at the root of your life, once you do this, you have a whole life will be in harmony, and powerful. So all your energies are channeled into one direction, no contradiction, no waste of energy, no waste of time. And this is where you reach optimal performance. And this is why I believe if Muslims really and truly understand what Islam is,
and align themselves align their goals and their passions around the love of Allah subhanaw taala will law he we can outperform anybody else even at work.
Even at work, we can outperform any human being, performance will be different. And we quoted the verse one last minute I said, basically, that one person will be able able to overcome 10 people,
we can really do that. Now what we will have in Sharla. And I thought this introduction would be shorter or longer, but inshallah we will be doing shall as the data that we want to see what is the future of our own.
Many times, we lose our way we don't define ourselves around totally completely about around love of Allah subhanaw taala. But we will try to do now is define ourselves around love of Allah, don't think that you will lose by defining yourself around a lot, you will suffer from some withdrawal symptoms. If you have defined yourself, by the way, most people don't define themselves that aren't one thing, we have a mixture of things. And this is why this makes us weak. Because it saps our energy, we are distracted. If you define yourself around Allah subhanho wa Taala, you won't lose anything, you will gain even more.
And I promise you will gain even more. Sometimes you feel it difficult to detach yourself from something you have defined yourself around for most of your life is difficult, there will be some withdrawal symptoms. But believe me, once you define yourself around our last panel to Allah, most of your other needs, your other ambitions, your other aspirations. Most of them, by the way, are legitimate. But what we do, we put them in the place of the love of Allah, that's the mistake we do. But get the love of Allah right to the root of everything. And then there's a hierarchy, there's a beautiful alignment, because this love of Allah, it allows you other ambitions, you other needs,
even physical needs, even sexual needs, even financial needs, even needs for self esteem and respect and reputation. All of these, by the way, are legitimate as long as you put them in the right place. And this is when you will get the best harmony in your life. But what we have to do is get the love of Allah right at the bottom right at the root. When I say a bottle, I mean the root is the foundation, the basis that it allows, there are slots for every other ambition you have. So it's full, it falls in place, and it emanates from your love of Allah subhanaw taala. And this is how you start to build that momentum. And it meets the momentum that is created by the heavens and the
earth. And only then you will start to see the fruits of how Muslim how we stand really transforms life. And and Islam can really set everything in your in your life in a state of harmony and optimal performance. We can do truly reach that. Now. Do we have any time for them? Okay, just let me have if you have any questions, any questions? Now what we will do, we'll try to see how we can do this. At this time in which we live by the way, our almost suffers by the way not because of what the enemies of Islam do.
Almost half was not because the financial and the political state of the Muslim Ummah, know,
the problem and the illness is deeper than that these are symptoms. These are symptoms. Now, most of us don't realize the personal responsibility and the contribution they can offer, the sooner we sort of belittle ourselves, we underestimate what we can do. Now if we rise our level, we raise our level of
awareness
to the fact that we can
really contribute by achieving this model. And by the way, I didn't bring anything from my own pocket.
I didn't I didn't bring anything from my own mind. What I'm saying now is that in the Koran and in the Sunnah, and it's present in the books of the early Muslim scholars, you can see it functioning running through their lives, read the seal of the person and that's exactly the underlying theme throughout the events. That's the underlying theme throughout
In the lives of the great Muslims, you can find it there, the traces are there, but you just need to find them, bring them together and organize them in a way we can relate to today.
When the people of Christ from the process of self taught them say that, you know, in the law they fought him one word. Now there are people who commit similar schicke similar polytheism as the people of Christ and they say Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, no problem. Why? Because they don't understand the meaning.
Likewise, many times we read, but we don't understand the real meanings. The reason I put it in that language
is that this is the language we can relate to many times when read translated books, and unfortunately, even Arabs, sometimes when they read the Arabic books, language has differed over time, has become a bit different. And language is not only a word and its meaning package, it's full with associations, it's full with connections, it's full with connotations. So you have to understand it. If someone studies English, and they don't study idiomatic English, you tell them Okay, give that person the benefit of the doubt, they start searching in their pocket.
Searching for the benefit of the doubt. They don't realize what's the meaning, you see. So, language is a package and this is why we will read translated books we read Unfortunately, some kind of unrelated ideas that we cannot really practice. So what we will be doing challenges that we have Mashallah young brothers, young Muslims that I believe and
we've interacted before, Mashallah, I believe that we have inshallah, this level of awareness, so that we can align our goals, there's no problem if you want to, by the way, reach financial independence, there's no problem if you want to become a brilliant doctor, engineer, or business successful businessman, there's no problem with that. Or what you have to do as a Muslim is to align that, put it in its right slots, build that on your faith and love for Allah subhana wa Tada. And so that
your personal goals will ultimately lead you to the ultimate success. So it doesn't become an end in itself. But a means And believe me, you will do better than making it your ultimate life. So we will try to see what our younger generation have and what our elderly have, because they have the experience, the province of Southern says Alabama catch up at liberica the blessings of Allah are in your elderly. So don't underestimate sometimes we can't relate to what they see. That's our problem. So we have to, we have to learn from their experience from the expertise from the the knowledge that they have, and I would like to listen from you. I would like to listen from you. You live in this
community in this country, you understand it very well you understand the social system, the legal system, the political system, and you know, your own personal conditions. How would like to hear some personal reflections, personal, even ambitions? How can you personally align your ambitions and so that they are in harmony with love of Allah subhanaw taala. And by means of that, we can really transform Muslim communities in the west to contribute to a woman General, belonging, we can do it. We can do it. And it's very simple. And you will get rewards collectively on the whole level of the man even personally, a lot you will be transformed, you will start to see a level of life that you
have never enjoyed before. I'm not joking. And this is what it looks like Liam says when he said well, law he in Daniela Jana Malema told me, there is paradise on this earth. Anyone who fails to enter it will not be able to interpret paradise in the hereafter. And that's the type of agenda this alignment, this momentum, this focus, no distraction whatsoever is so beautiful. This, you know, unity of theme in your life is so powerful and so beautiful. And this is the meaning of worship. This is why worship is so sweet and this that's the sweetness of it. So this time we don't have positive and negative we have either has not been in a log with thoughts about a lot of bad thoughts
about Allah. We have our own terminology. This is a different discussion. And I apologize for keeping the brothers here listening and giving them my back. I apologize to this, but this but inshallah hopefully this discussion will be fruitful to hear
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