Allah Is With Us

Santa Monica

out of la mina shaytani r rajim Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim o salat wa salam ala rasulillah Allah any Sufi edge main rubbish dragon is sundry way acidity Omri wha Hello, Dr. melissani of como Kohli.

I was asked to talk about a very important topic that is very, very relevant right now. And that was this concept of Latin in Allah hamana. Do not despair, Do not be sad, do not lose hope for Allah is with us. Now before I get to that, I want to talk about some of the things that can make us despair along the path to Allah subhanaw taala. See, when you find yourself in a situation that you don't like, when you find something that you want to change, before you can fix any problem, you have to diagnose it properly. In order to diagnose a problem, however, you have to have the proper site. And in this case, I'm going to talk about a different kind of site than the kind of site that we have in

our eyes. I'm going to talk about a deeper kind of site called bossy you will see it is an inner site, but see it is insights. But see, it has the ability to see and understand the world, which is not with our physical eyes. Because a lot of people may have perfect 2020 vision with their physical eyes, but are completely blind with the true sight of the heart. Allah subhanaw taala tells us that there are a people who are blind, but it is not their eyes that become blind. It is the heart inside their chests. See, the thing is a lot of us believe that we understand and comprehend the world through our physical eyes and our mind but in reality, in reality, Allah subhanaw taala tells us

that the heart is the apparatus by which we see the world. It's the apparatus by which we comprehend and understand the world. And that's why Allah says, Let him kulu bhulaiyaa Kahuna Bihar that they have hearts that they don't understand with La La home, kulu, la luna Baja, that we that they have hearts, they don't reason with that these, this apparatus of our heart is how we are going to understand the world. And if the heart is warped, if the heart is covered, if the heart has is is is not working properly, then our understanding and sight of the reality around us is not going to work properly. And that's why Allah warns us about this kind of blindness, the kind of blindness where

the heart is blind. Right now, we are facing a situation with a lot of confusion. Right now, when we look around us, it looks dark. And it's hard to know which way to go. Different people saying different things. Who am I supposed to believe? Which group Am I supposed to follow? Which website Am I allowed to read? And so there's a lot of confusion. And whenever there's confusion, you are not going to find your way by simply giving that task to someone outside yourself. Yes, we need to seek knowledge. And yes, we need to seek the people of knowledge. But I'll tell you this, if this room was had blinding lights, right now, the blinding lights only in my face. But if this room was had

blinding light all over the room. And and you had a blindfold on, would you be able to see the light? The answer is no. Unless you are able to see unless you remove your blindfolds, you cannot actually see what's in front of your face. So this is a role that no one can do for you. So you can have the most amazing teacher in the world. But this is a job that you have to do individually with Allah subhanaw taala. And that is you have to polish the lens, that lens is the heart, the heart is how you are going to be able to see the world, you have to take care of the heart so that it's healthy enough to be able to receive that light. Because again, unless you remove the blindfold, all

the light in the world isn't going to reach your eyes. And unless the heart is prepared to receive lights, unless the heart is prepared and clean and able to receive, you could be surrounded by all the light in the world. You could be surrounded by the most knowledgeable teachers, but you won't be able to see your way unless you actually prepare the heart to be able to receive that. And that's something that we have to do individually. We have to be able to clean our hearts such that we're able to see things

For what they are, we're able to see that path because you can't follow a path that you can't see. You have to be able to see right from wrong. We have to be a people who constantly ask Allah Subhana Allah, Allahu meridional have kapkan or sukhna, Tibet or LA, or LA show us truth is truth, because there's so much confusion. Well, I didn't know botella Bolton was machinima. And let us see falsehood as falsehood. and bless us with staying away from it. One of the biggest problems and the first problems is that we don't see things for what they are, we are confused, we are not able to distinguish right from wrong black from white up from down. And until we clean the lens, we won't be

able to see that and we won't be able to diagnose the problem.

Now in order to take care of that lens, we have to clean it, we also have to protect it. I warn you and I warned myself from something that's very, very easy to do right now. It's a subtle point, but it is extremely dangerous. And that is focusing on the problem itself. See, one of the most powerful stories to me is the story of Musa alayhis salaam in front of the Red Sea. I feel like within this story, there is like it's like a narrative that explains our whole condition. And the reactions that we have when we are faced with challenges. And you and Allah subhanaw taala shows us in this story, he he compares and contrasts the reactions of different people to the same external event or the

same external obstacle for Lima, todo el germani, Carlos Hubba Musa in Alamo dracoon, when these when Musa alayhis salam is now trying to escape Pharaoh. There's a pharaoh following behind with his army. And now him and his people are facing there in front of the Red Sea. And there's an army behind them. And this is a superpower army, and they're a group of slaves. And now they're put in this very, very difficult situation. Do we find ourselves in a difficult situation just now? Yeah, kinda. We have only a couple more days right?

We are in a very difficult situation. And when the two of us says when the two groups sign each other,

the people of Moosa Carlos Hubba Moosa in Alamo dracoon the people of mu Silas Salaam said we will indeed be overtaken.

That's exactly exactly how many of us felt after the last election. We indeed will be over in Alamo dracoon. And that's a very natural reaction to being stuck in front of the Red Sea with a superpower army behind you. It's a natural reaction that we had. But I want to tell you something amazing. And that is the reaction of Masada, his solemn in that same exact situation. He's looking at the same situation. But his will see it on his his heart is looking at and focused on something else. Carla Keller, he said no, by no means the word Pella, as you know, is a very emphatic No way. Absolutely not. Paula Keller in my era, bc I did. Indeed My Lord is with me. And He will guide me through this.

The reason why I love this story so much, is because this story isn't just a story. It's awesome. It's something we tell our kids, but it isn't a bedtime story. It is a sign and a lot actually continues to say in the few Valley killer area that indeed in this is a sign. But most people don't get it. Most people don't understand it is You and I are never going to be in front of a large body of water with an army behind us. But we are going to be put in situations where we feel trapped. And we are going to be put in situations where we don't see a way out. And we and we feel that way. Just now. We feel that way politically, we feel that way socially to a large degree. But what's so

powerful here is how how was Mussolini's Sallam able to respond in that way? How was he able to say no, we will not be overtaken? No, I'm not going to be shaken where I'm not even. I'm not even worried that we're gonna be overtaken. Why was he able to do that? And the answer is because his focus was not on the problem. His focus was not on the the Red Sea and his focus was not on the army. His focus wasn't on Trump.

His focus was on a law. His focus was that No, no, in BC I did, my Lord is with me. And if Allah is with you, you don't have to worry. He will guide me through allies teaching us a timeless lesson. We're going to be put in situations where we feel trapped. that's a that's a that's a promise, we're gonna be put in situations that look impossible. And what also strikes me about his story is that he didn't know how he was

was going to get out of that situation. It's not like people were going around splitting seas. This wasn't like a regular occurrence. And yet he did not worry, even though he didn't know how, see, for us, it's easy for us to say, Oh, it's no problem, because I got a plan ABCD we know exactly how it's going to happen. But when you don't have any idea how it's gonna happen, and you still put your trust in Allah, that is so awkward. He he knew allies with me, and He will guide me through now. Now y'all are gonna say, but what about doing our part? I know I'm at Mass. What about doing our part?

And the reality is what's so beautiful about this story is that although, although, obviously Allah soprano that I was going to save him, Allah still asked musala Islam to take action, he's asked him to do something, he asked him to take a staff and strike the sea. And so he was still asked to take action. We are still asked to take action, to what goal and action are not separate, they have to go together. And how what our call as the prophet SAW, Selim says that you have to tie your camel and at the same time your trust is in Allah don't think that they're separate. So often, I hear this translated as, tie your camel and then put your trust in Allah.

It's not that's not what it says. It says, Allah, what are what can when the man was told by the prophets, I seldom tie your camel and put your trust in Allah, the two are simultaneous, we don't work and then depend on our work and depend on our deeds for results. No, we work and we depend on Allah for results. And that's a very important point.

One of the things that happens a lot, and this is a pitfall that a lot of us activists fall into, is that we put our trust in our own activism. We put our trust in our own activism. And so what happens is when we don't see the exact results that we wanted, we lose hope in ala mode. rakuen we have that attitude of we're going to be overtaken. But you see if you put your trust in Allah subhanaw taala regardless of what you're seeing, you know that he's got your back. And that's what happened with musala his salon, he was told to strike the sea. So he's taking an action. But this is an important point. If I asked you right now y'all are in I'm Where am I now? Chicago? Yeah. If I tell you to go

take a large staff or a large stick and hit, you know, like Michigan, it's not gonna split.

Why? It is not his action which caused the results. Why did he strike the C because it was Allah Who told him to, it was part of his worship, every single thing that we are doing of our activism should be part of our worship. But we should never believe that our opening that our salvation, that we're going to be saved because of our actions, because of our activism. We don't get saved because of our activism activism, we get saved by Allah. And this is a very, very important point of our tohei. To understand it's only a law who saves us it's only a law who provides the opening. He is unfit that he is unfit that I'm not unfit that you're not unfit that we're not as organizations alfetta we

don't change our circumstances. A lot changes our circumstances. But here's a very important point about the formula for change in the law, you hydro Malbec, Coleman had a vital map and fulsome. Yes, a law is the one who changes our circumstances. But a law also says that indeed a law does not change the condition or the circumstances of a people until they change what's inside themselves. There is a job that we have to do, there is a striking of the see that we have to do. But we have to at the same time, never despair, we have to at the same time have the attitude of Kela in the mire of bcit. And indeed My Lord is with me, and He will guide me through this is extremely essential.

And I will tell you this, if you are focused too much on the problem, you will have the reaction of Benny Australian. Because if all we talk about

is the problem, if all we think about is the problem, if all we post about is the problem. If all we discuss is the problem, then what happens is and this is a psychological reality, whatever you focus on, grows, whatever you focus on grows. This is why Allah subhanaw taala told us to focus on the kid that the more that we focus on the remembrance of Allah, the bigger the importance of a less panatela is in our lives. But if we're focused on everything

Everything that's going wrong. If we're, if our focus is on everyone who's saying this about us, and they're going to do this to us, and then this, and that's it. And that's my focal point, I promise you, we will fall into despair. And the reason for that is that the problem will actually grow because it becomes our focal point. And this is a dangerous thing that we fall into. Our focal point needs to be in Nehemiah or bc ideen. This is a very different focal point, the focal point of Masada Salim, indeed, my Lord is with me, and He will guide me through yes, I do my part. But while I'm doing my part, my heart is looking at a law, my heart isn't looking at the problem. My heart isn't

focused on what Trump is saying or what Trump isn't saying or what he's gonna do or what he's not gonna do. Yes, I do my part because it's part of my worship. But Allah subhanaw taala is my focus. And when a law is your focus, then you don't, you don't fall into despair, because you know that Allah has got you.

This is extremely important.

The other thing that happens on our path to Allah subhanaw taala. Or that can make us fall off track is, if you think about a person who gets in the car, and they start driving, right, there's two ways for you to get off track number one, you can run out of fuel, what's going to happen if you're driving and you never stopped to fill up with gas, what's going to happen is that you're going to run out of fuel and you're never going to end up at your destination.

I remind you and myself, that as activists, as workers, as anyone doing anything for the sake of Allah, whether that's inside your home or outside your home, you need to constantly refuel, just like a car needs to be refueled. You need to be refueled. If you do not have a constant source of spiritual refueling, you will burn out. And this is one of the mistakes that a lot of activists fall into any worker, anyone barely a mother, an activist, a teacher, anyone if there is not a source of internal refueling, you have to have your time with Allah subhanaw taala refilling inside, because if you don't have that there is no way you're going to be able to continue, you will burn out just

like a car runs out of gas. The other way that you can get off track while you're driving, is you can crash is you can crash, something can come and hit you. And you can fall off or you can get off track.

Here's the thing. I'm going to give you guys an analogy.

Y'all know the story of the three little pigs, right?

So the thing about the three little pigs is that you have these three pigs, and each of them built a house. But you have one pig that was really lazy. And so that pig that was really lazy, built a very weak house. And then you have another one who was also lazy, not quite as lazy, but also built a rather weak house. But then you have a third pig who put in the effort to build a strong house put in bricks. So now what happens is the big bad wolf comes as big big white bad wolves do right? So whatever form that big bad wolf is, you see in life, we have a lot of big bad wolves. In life, you're gonna have a lot of big bad wolves and they're gonna come in different forms. Yeah, they're

gonna come politically, they're gonna come into office, sometimes they're gonna come in your personal life. And the nature of a big bad wolf is that he Huff's and he puffs, that's just what big bad wolves do. So this big bad wolf comes and he Huff's and he puffs and what does he do, he blows the house down because he was weak. And the second house, he blows it down, because it was weak, but he cannot blow down the third house, because the third house had a solid foundation. It was made from brick. And I tell you this, we can't control the weather. We can't make it stop raining. We can't control storms. But what you can do is you can control your sanctuary and your refuge. We as

as an oma needs to have a stronger foundation. We need to have stronger roots as Allah subhanaw taala says in the Quran, about this the difference between the solid tree right the good tree and sort of the brain and the battery, the good tree aslo has sabbat what photo fsms The amazing thing about trees is that the taller a tree gets the deeper it has to get its roots into the ground. And it has it's proportional to its height, that the more it goes up towards the sky, the more deeply it's rooted and the more wide its roots will be.

And that's how we have to be as an oma. We cannot be these flimsy houses that the moment someone Huff's and puffs, it blows our house down. We can't be that way. We have to be the solid Oh

That has firm roots that yes, there's going to be weather. Yes, the big bad wolf is going to blow but it can destroy us if we have solid roots. Now how do we make those solid roots? How do we make those solid roots? You and I, again this is work we have to do individually and collectively, but we have to go back to our relationship with Allah subhanaw taala Allah's book and Allah and the messenger so I send them so now we have to go back to understanding these things and building this relationship because Allah tells us that these things are going to come. Allah tells us in the hood, an adhesive to mentored hula Janata wala Maya Tikka Masala Dena Holloman. publikum do you think that

you'll enter Paradise, and you won't go through the things that the people before you went through my settlement but saw what the law was always you know, hepta, hula Rasulullah, Dena and Omar who matana through LA, they were given adversity, and they were so shaken. They were so shaken xad like Zulu, this is this word has the same root as earthquake, they were so shaken, that even the messengers and the people with them ask this question, which many of us are asking today maternal through law, when will the help of a law come? When will the help of a law come? And then Allah says Allah in natural law here Karim.

There are lesson after lesson that Allah gives us sign after sign. If we just study the world, if we just study the world, in a few hulka somehow it will already work the left lady when Ariela is in the old bed, indeed in the heavens, and the earth, and alteration in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and alteration of night and day are signs signs for the people of understanding. Who are these people, and Lavina of Corona Lucha tm and we're called ny legend obey Him for Karuna Casa mawashi will adira bana Malhotra has a bottle and subhanak See,

all around us our signs. But these signs will only be understood by a specific group of people. And that group of people are those who are the those who remember Allah standing and sitting and on their sides. We cannot be a people who only are Muslim, when it's convenient. We cannot be a people who only remember Allah will only stand up to pray when it's convenient. Because you know what these people they have to remember all last standing, when it's easy when they're strong, sitting, maybe not so much. And on their sides, in every in every condition of life. You know, when it's not convenient, like you're at the airport,

or you're not feeling it. There's they're remembering Allah in every condition of life. And unless we are that way, we won't be able to have that ability to read and understand the signs of the heaven and the earth. One of those signs that you'll find again and again, all over the universe, in everywhere that you look of the design of Allah subhanaw taala is that growth and change, take time, growth and change take time, a child, a baby, Allah has the ability to develop a child in a week. Why not a month. But Allah has designed it such that it takes nine sometimes painful months, there is a sign in that a lot could have made an oak grow in a year. But Allah has designed it such that

it takes sometimes hundreds of years for these trees to get to that height. Allah is teaching us that change takes time that growth takes time. And it may look like there's nothing changing. You're looking at a tree. You don't see any any actual change. But it takes time. And there is a process that happens before a change occurs. One of my favorite stories is the story of a woman who was in an impossible situation. She was in the middle of a desert and she had a child.

There's no one around. What did she do? See this woman had her trust in Allah. But she didn't sit and wait for water to fall from the sky. She got up and she strove she ran. She ran from Safa. tamatoa, looking for water. But here is what really really affected me about her story.

After she looked at suffer and there's no water, right, there's I mean, she's not seeing anything. She goes to Mandala. She's not seeing anything. Now she's already tried. What do we do in our lives when we've already tried something and it didn't work? What do we typically do? We give up. She didn't give up.

She goes back to the same place. She already checked. And she again, doesn't give up. She goes back again. She doesn't do this one.

She doesn't do this twice. She does it seven times. And that is so powerful that Ally's teaching us this is one of this is one of the sunan of Allah that sometimes, you know, change and growth. It takes not only does it take time, it sometimes it takes repetition that you have to keep at something, you know, saying yesterday are is you can't say, I did a sit up.

Why didn't it work? I did a sit up, right? It's not gonna work if you did a sit up or a push up, right? You have to do like repetition. And repetition is where Allah subhanaw taala could have had us just say Subhana Allah once. And hamdulillah once, why the repetition? Why so many records, why five times a day, because Allah is teaching us that change and growth happen through persistence, and through repetition, and through and through perseverance. So we can't be a people who just give up because it didn't work. Yeah, oh, we already tried that it didn't work. You have to be a person, we have to be a people of endurance, this isn't a sprint, it is definitely a marathon. It is

definitely a marathon, we have to have endurance, we can't just give up the moment that something isn't working out.

Finally, I want to say this

part of our path, part of our path to Allah subhanaw. taala is our relationship with the Creator. But part of it is our relationship with the creation. One of the principles that you'll find throughout the text is this principle, the way we are with people is how we should expect a lot to be with us. Again, and again. We're told this principle that if a person does not care about others, if a person is not merciful with others, then he will not be shown mercy by a law, that if a person shows mercy for the creation, the creator will show mercy towards him. There's a hadith in which the prophet SAW Selim tells us parallel after parallel, and in this video, he tells us that if you help

a person in need alone will help you when you're in need. That if you take away you know a difficulty that a person is going through, then Allah will take away a difficulty that you're going through in this life and the next and alone will continue to help you so long as you help your brother or sister that we have to be a people of compassion. We have to be a people of mercy. We have to care about the struggles of others, we have to and that's part of our Amen. We are not a an oma of pulling away and saying that I'm I'm just going to worship on my own in private, we have to be part of the society and we have to care about the pain and struggles of others. We have to be at

the forefront of this. This is part of our Deen the prophets I send him said, when you see something wrong, you have to try to change it. And it's only if you cannot then at least hate it in your heart. And that's the weakest of Amen. But if we don't even have that, if we don't even hate it in our hearts, and that's a problem with our Amen. We have to be a people of compassion.

And we have to be a people of hope. Allah subhanaw taala has told us again and again in the hot end that we're going to face struggle. I'm going to end with this. It's one of my favorite draws, in that it encompasses how a believers state should be in hardship, how a believers response should be in difficulty, and that is a uvala his sallam.

He had gone through struggle after struggle after struggle, test after test after test. He was his health was tested his wealth, his family,

and in the midst of his pain, he calls out to Allah subhanaw taala and says and Nima, Sania Dora and or hamara Amin. The reason why this moves me so much is because on the one hand, he is acknowledging his pain. He is acknowledging that it's difficult right now that indeed and Nima Sania daughter that indeed, hardship calamity, difficulty has befallen me. He's not pretending, but he is acknowledging his pain. But in the same breath, he is also has complete and full hope, in the mercy of Allah went on camera, he mean, even while he is in the midst of his storm, he hasn't been saved yet. He is in the midst of his storm, he's still in the midst of his pain, and yet he still continues to have hope

in Allah subhanaw taala a believer may be sad, but a believer never despairs in the hope and in the mercy of Allah subhanaw taala clinically Heather was tougher Ali welcome in our phone Rahim. subhanak Hello behind Dhaka shadow en la Ilaha. illa Anta sakurako to boulais was Salam alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh