What is Pain

This is your spiritual giant and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio.

I wouldn't be nagging mina shaytani r rajim Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim salatu salam ala rasulillah. While Allah He was a heavy edge mine. We are again and hamdulillah together during this blessed month of Ramadan, Allah Spano Tata has given us the opportunity to live another day and to be able to fast another day, for his sake, inshallah, we ask Allah Subhana Allah to bless all of your fast to bless all of your deeds and to accept your fasts and inshallah we pray that this sacrifice that we are making together from the lead the the days are long this year, and we pray, we ask Allah subhanaw taala that the sacrifices that we're making, for his sake, will purify us and elevate us

and be pleasing to Him in sha Allah, Who knows, I mean, we are continuing today with the topic, the theme, because this is such an important topic, and it really, really applies to so many people. And that is the topic of depression and anxiety. We're talking about this again today. And and, you know, further elaborating on your questions regarding this this theme. This is a topic that is oftentimes not, you know, I think dealt with in our communities. And a lot of times I have people who contact me

with with problems related to this, because they have no you know, and they they express to me that they have nowhere else to go that that that there is really this vacuum there's there's a lack of resources in our community. And it's considered something very sort of taboo or hush hush, it's under the rug, you kind of brush it under the rug this the the whole topic of mental health and depression and suffering from from this type of, you know, this type of illness. This is something that is that, unfortunately, is not spoken about it. And in general we have a lack of resources. This is something we need to talk about what is it and how do we deal with it? And, and what are

some of the causes? What are some of the things that can cause depression or worsen depression and anxiety. But before I get into that topic, I want to begin, as I had mentioned before, I want to share your stories, your inspirational stories, and so I want to inshallah begin every show with an inspirational story or something that I personally was inspired by, and I asked you in sha Allah to send your stories, send your inspirational stories, share with us, you know, something that moved you something that changed you something that inspired you and and send it to serenity at one legacy radio.com Also, you can send your questions to serenity at one legacy radio.com We're also on the

chat box and inshallah, we will we will be opening up the lines inshallah, in a few days, where you can also call in with your questions and your reflections. So the story I wanted to share today was a it was a short letter that I received. And it says, I am from in I am from India, and I fell in love with a Muslim guy in UK, I realized how much I was into this guy. Once I came back from UK, I would sit and cry for months, thinking of him and wanting to be with him so much. I went into depression, I was taking antidepressants, my friends would counsel me, the guy I was in love with was asking me to stop expecting anything and seek help from Allah subhanaw taala and I came across

yes means article. Why do people have to leave each other? Yes, man, I cannot thank you enough. You brought such a change in me. I listen in your videos and I know Allah subhanaw taala will never leave me. He is planning something really good. I need to have patience in this tough phase of my life. Please remember me in your diet. And I am writing this just to say thank you. Yes mean, I really, you know panela this story. The reason I wanted to share it is it is such a common story that oftentimes people so many people find themselves in a very similar situation. They get very attached to someone or something and they can have that thing or it doesn't work out and this causes

them to spiral into this

downward spiral into depression. And they don't know how to get out of the concept that I want to talk about today is related to this. And it's a concept that that also relates to many of the other questions that I received. And this this is this is something that has to do with where do we put our expectations? And ultimately, where is our our strongest and most important attachment? Where do we put that? Some of the the other questions that we got, also a similar theme, where, you know, one, one of the listeners or one of the readers had asked it, you know, that they had also really, really wanted to marry this person. And then their parents, one of their parents said that they

couldn't go ahead with the marriage. A lot of times the reason why the marriage, the parents don't approve of the marriage has to do with a difference in ethnicity, that the that the pert the two are from from a different race. And so because of that, the the you know it, they don't they don't allow it. Now, the question is what happens next? Usually, what happens next is that the person becomes absolutely devastated. And this is the part that I want to talk about, is this concept of devastation, the concept of, of deep, deep suffering, and what are some of the causes of this type of suffering, and of devastation? And what are some of what is the purpose of this? Ultimately, it's

a question of what is pain? What is the purpose of pain? And where does pain come from?

In order to understand this concept, we have to go back to the root. Basically, we as human beings are created with a particular type of nature, this nature is called fitrah. Our fitrah is the way that Allah subhanaw taala made us naturally, Allah subhanaw taala has created the human being with a fitrah and nature, whereas we were designed to worship Him alone, we were designed to recognize, to hate to recognize the oneness of Allah subhanho, wa Taala, in all things,

to recognize the oneness of Allah subhanaw taala in ultimate love, in ultimate fear, in ultimate dependency, the moment that we go against that nature, that's when we suffer. So what happens is you're taking something that was intended to be a certain way, and you're forcing it to bend in a different way, as a result of that, that unnatural bending, that's why things break. What does that mean, in this situation, it means that I was designed to my heart was designed to love Allah Most to know Allah subhanaw taala, and to have a lobby, the utmost focus in my life, the moment that I take that focus, and I put it on something else, as it should only be on a law, that is the moment I

break, that is what causes me the deepest type of suffering, when what another way that we can conceive of this is by giving the the analogy of the heart and the hand. And this is something that I explained in my writing quite a bit, that there is a difference between where we hold the gifts of Allah subhanaw taala everything that we have, is a gift of Allah subhanaw taala when we have people in our lives, whether we you know, our friends, our family, our spouses, all of these are gifts, our own health is a gift. Our beauty is a gift, our money is a gift, our knowledge is a gift, our our intellect is a gift, all of these things are gifts from Allah subhanho data.

The question now is, where do we hold these gifts? Where do we hold them when we have the gift? Is the gift held in our hand? Or is the gift held in our heart and the difference between holding something in your hand versus holding it in the heart has to do with attachments and has to do with dependency? Whatever I hold in my heart is that which I am most dependent on? It is that which I love most more than any other thing. Whatever I hold in my heart is going to be that which consumes me that which leads me that which commands me that

Which I will obey. Regardless of anything else, the thing that is in my heart is what I become a slave to, and it becomes my master. So, so we have to be very, very, very careful what we hold in our hearts, because know that whatever is held in your heart is going to be, you are a slave to it. Now, what is held in the hand, is something that we still love, something that we still want, but not something that we are ultimately dependent on. If something is in my hand, now we go, and we look at what happens when those things are taken away. So if we want to understand, first of all, that's the result. You know, and you'll see the consequences of where you hold things. When you when

that thing is taken away, or you don't attain it to begin with, that's when you see the consequence. But backing up a little bit, how do you know whether you're holding something in your hand or in your heart? How do you know what really is in your heart? Well, the answer is there are a lot of pointers to what you have in your heart. And one of them is as this sister describes, she says that she, when she was no longer able to be with this, this person, she said I would sit and cry for months, thinking of him and wanting to be with him so much. I went into depression, to the extent that she actually had to take antidepressants. This is this, in and of itself explains what happens

when you keep something in your heart that isn't supposed to be there. Now what has happened is, you've taken something and you've loved it, as you should only love Allah subhanaw taala you've taken something and you've injected it into your heart. So that basically, another way to look at this is like your life revolves around that thing. Your life now revolves around that person, or that thing. And, and, and it's, it basically becomes the most important thing to you, you know this, because it's all you can think about, you know this because it's what has the power over you, to make you happy One moment, and to make you miserable, the next it has the power over you to make you

so angry. It has the power to make you so upset. It has the power to take away your sleep and your appetite. It has a power over you, you become a slave to it. And that's how you know that this thing is being stored in the heart that you are too dependent on this thing that it is, it is it is in a place that only your Creator should be and that your life is now revolving around that thing, instead of Allah subhanaw taala here's where it gets tricky. Sometimes these things are not home. Sometimes these things are, in fact, our own family. Sometimes these things are even our own children and this is actually one of the greatest tests for mothers. One of the greatest tests for

mothers is their own children. And Allah subhanaw taala tells us in the end, that in our spouses and and our children are a fitna, Allah uses the word fitna, fitna one of the meanings of the word fitna is a test something that that will test you something that will be you know, a difficulty for you because it is it is something and and what type of fitna is this, it's a it's a fitna because of the amount of love that one feels for the spouse or for the children. This is just an example of how something that can that is Hillel can actually be a huge test for you. And what happens is, you know, whether it's a mother and with her children or or a spouse, or or you, you know, there's

someone that you want to marry, or maybe it's your career, or maybe it's money, or maybe it's your status, your image, whatever it is, it is so important to you that it becomes your focal point, it becomes your ultimate attachment.

Now comes the issue of pain. Now comes the issue of suffering. What now happens when that thing is taken away? What now happens if that thing were never given to you? Suppose that that the most important thing to you your focal point is getting married. And this is a panel a lot of people are in this situation. May Allah make it easy for them, that they're the most you know, the thing that is obsessing them that is obsessing their mind and their heart is I can't find a spouse or I need to get married. It's all they think about. So what happens to that person who isn't then able to get married or what happens to that person when they get married.

And then they get divorced. What happens is that when that thing is taken away, or it's not given at all, then that's when the person completely crumbles. And that's, that's when we talk about devastation. That's when we talk about deep, deep suffering. And this is different. Now we will, we will, we will talk about the difference between something in the heart versus something in the hand, when that thing that person or that concept, or that career, or, or whatever it is, is held in the hand, meaning that my ultimate attachment is to Allah and Allah alone, but I still love those things. I still want to get married, I still love my children, I still love my spouse. But my

ultimate focus is on Allah subhanaw taala not on those other things, that my dependency is on Allah. It's only Allah, ultimately, that I can't live without, if that is the type of balance that one has, that when those things are taken away. This is where you have the normal emotion, human emotion of sadness, no one is going to say that you're never going to feel sad, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam who had the most pure of hearts in the most strong attachment to Allah subhanaw taala also felt sad. And there was, you know, we talked about what we know from the CETA of the prophets, I send them that there was the year of sadness, and that the prophets I send them cried. So one is one

cannot claim that sadness is not normal sadness is a part of being human. But there is a definite difference. And this is something that anyone who has experienced it can know. There is a difference between the sadness that comes from something being taken from the hand, versus the devastation, the paralyzing devastation that comes when something is taken from the heart. So what is the solution here? The solution here is, we we spoke about this, and this is this is a principle that we have to understand, every single thing in this world will pass away, all of the creation will eventually pass away. And there's only one thing so everything is temporary right in this life. Cuando la hefin

every single thing is passing away except for one thing, only one. And that's Allah soprano with Allah, Allah is the only permanent thing in this life. So my question to you is, what should be in the heart, what should be that thing which which is which I put my ultimate dependence on that I put my ultimate focus on that I give my ultimate love. And, and and fear to, it should be something that never fades that never passes away. That never changes, and something that never leaves. The only thing like that is Allah subhanaw taala every other thing passes away and every other thing is temporary in this life. The one who takes the temporary things and puts that in their heart and

becomes most dependent on that. And then takes that which is permanent and matters most Allah subhanaw taala and puts that in the hand is the one who's going to suffer most because what we do is this, we love our money more than Allah subhana wa tada we love people in our life more than Allah subhana wa Tada. We love our beauty more than Allah subhana wa Tada. And how do we know this? I'll tell you how we know this. Because when I love someone more than Allah subhanaw taala I am willing to displease Allah and engage in a haraam relationship with that person. Because I it's more important to me to be with that person than it is to please Allah subhana wa Tada. I don't say with

my tongue that I love this person more than Allah subhanaw taala but I say it with my actions, because what I'm doing when I'm in a hot arm relationship is I am saying that ultimately my because I want this thing so much, because I want this person so much. I wanted more than I want a loss of data. I want it more. So this becomes what I really hold on to most How do I know that I love my money more than Allah subhanaw taala Well, I'm never gonna admit it with my tongue hopefully right? But how do we know that we love our money more than a loss of handle data, because I am willing to be engaged in a haraam business I am willing to deal with with Riba with interest. I am willing to

to do things which are

displeasing to Allah subhanaw taala to get more money, so what I am saying is I love my money, more than I love the pleasure of Allah subhanaw taala my attachment, what is in my heart is the money. And lastly, how do I know that I love my beauty more than Allah subhanaw taala it's because I would rather be beautiful to the people and show my beauty than to cover it up as Allah subhanaw taala told me to when I am unwilling and unable to cover myself the way that Allah subhanaw taala has told me to, and to cover myself and to wear hijab and to be modest in the way that Allah subhanaw taala has commanded. I am saying that my beauty is too important to me. I love it too much. And, and and

in this way the in the hierarchy in one's heart internally, my beauty comes before the pleasure of Allah subhana wa Tada. I'm going to pause for a moment now for for a short break. And when we return, we will continue in speaking about the purpose of pain.

As salam aleikum, this is Yasmin Mujahid, and you're listening to serenity, streaming live on one legacy radio. We are continuing today on the important topic of pain, sadness, depression, and anxiety. We are speaking about what are the inner sort of causes of the of pain? And what are the different types of pain? What is the difference between the sadness, and suffering and devastation? What is the difference between our different types of attachments of where we are holding a gift of where our dependency is, and how we end up actually hurting our own selves, because we depend on the wrong things, and things that were never designed to be in the place that we put them. And now that

brings us to the question of pain in general. Why does Allah subhanaw taala subject us to pain? Why do we go through this emotional and psychological pain and sometimes physical pain? And there are a lot of reasons why that what that we are told, one of the reasons I'll begin with is that Allah subhanaw taala has told us that, that whenever we go through something painful, there's a Hadith of the Prophet sallallaahu Selim that says that, when a believer is struck with any kind of pain, or sadness or sorrow, even if it's just the prick of a thorn, it removes that believers sins, like leaves falling from a tree. So this is one of the purposes that that were taught of this pain is

that it's actually a mercy from Allah subhanaw taala, to clean us to remove our sins. And, and that through that we are actually purified. If If and this is a this is an important conditional clause, if we respond properly, if we respond with with at the very least, patients, if we respond with patients, then then this pain that we undergo is actually a purification for us. And and and yet there is there's other, there's other purposes of pain, there's there's other wisdom to pain. And I'm going to explain this other reason, by giving you a physical metaphor. There is an example. This is actually a true story. And it really, it really shows that the the point that I'm that I'm trying

to share here, and that is there was a man who went to the dentist, and the reason he went to the dentist is he was in excruciating pain. So because he was in pain, he went to the dentist to find out what was wrong. And what happened was he apparently maybe he didn't have insurance, but he found out that he had an infection, but he didn't have enough money to cover both the antibiotic and the painkiller. So there's, you know, there's these two medications that he needs to take. One is to, you know, numb the pain so he doesn't have to feel it anymore. And the other is to cure the cause of the pain. And because he did not have the ability to pay for both, he had to choose one. And as many

of us do in our lives, he chose the painkiller. So what he did was he instead of getting the antibiotic he he got the only the painkiller to numb the pain.

He just didn't want to feel it anymore. So he got the painkiller. And this is actually true story, what ended up happening is the infection spreads so much that it actually went to his brain. And he ended up dying of this infection that started out in his in his tooth or in his mouth.

What reflections can we get from this story? Well, first, we also in our lives feel pain, maybe it's not tooth pain, but it's some sort of pain. And there are times in our life where we, where we undergo this pain, and sometimes it's emotional pain, sometimes psychological pain, that pain itself oftentimes, is a pointer for us that we need to that we need to change something that we need to cure something, that there's something wrong inside, when I have a headache, or when I have a toothache, it is pointing me to some problem that I have internally. In this case, he had the pain. And that's what told him that he had an infection, it was the pain that pushed him to go to the

doctor and find out what was wrong. If he had no pain, then he wouldn't have known that there was a problem, he wouldn't have known that he had an infection, and he wouldn't have gone to the doctor in order to get cured. Similarly, if you have a heart condition, none of us can, you know, regularly look inside of our hearts and see the condition of our arteries. Right? We We We have no way of knowing if we have a heart problem. What Allah subhanaw taala did is he designed it such that if you have a heart condition, you feel it, you will meet, you'll begin by feeling actual pain in your chest, even before you have a heart attack. Even before you have a full on heart attack, you will

feel pain with for example, stress or with strenuous exercise, you'll feel a pain in your chest. This is indicating to you that there's a problem. And you go to the doctor to find out what it is. And then you solve it, you cure it. But now what happens when you don't cure the problem? Now, this is what brings us to kind of where we are in society. Society basically tells you that if you feel pain, numb it, ignore it, just get rid of it, right? There's no there's this, this idea that you're never supposed to feel pain, right? And if you do, you don't take a pill, right? If you feel any kind of sadness, go take, go take a pill, if you feel any kind of pain, go take go take some

painkiller, there's no emphasis on let's solve what's causing the pain. And and that pain is actually a normal part of life, some amount of pain is inevitable, and that it's in fact, something that Allah subhanaw taala has designed to, to as a as a defense mechanism for us. But what we do is we just numb it. Allah subhanaw taala has also has this similar, same mechanism inside in the spiritual realm, when there's some problem internally with our hearts, when there's some problem with our relationship with Allah subhanho data, or maybe things are imbalanced inside, if I am, I am putting something in a place that Allah subhanaw taala should only be it will cause excruciating

pain, this is that pain to tell me there is a problem. This is that pain to tell me you need to go to the doctor and seek a solution. This is the the spiritual problems that then cause us emotional and psychological pain. It's the same system designed by the same designer and that's a loss of handle data our Creator. So when I am feeling on believable, excruciating, paralyzing emotional pain, all the time, it may be, it may be because I have put something in my heart that is not meant to be there, that I have taken something other than Allah Subhana Allah and put it in the place that only he should be. There is I that that goes along with that there is a torture a torment that goes

along with that. And Allah subhanaw taala warns us of this in the end when he says Lolita Roma, La Ilaha Fatah coonan Amina pata akuna Minal Mata bien, Allah is saying here, do not call on another ILA on another object of worship other than Him,

or you will be among the tormented.

This is extremely profound. Allah is warning us here, that anytime you take another object of worship, whether it's your money, or it's your status, or it's other people, and you take another thing as an object of worship other than Him, you will be among the tormented

His torment not just in the Hereafter, but in this life first, this is this torment itself is our pointer, that something needs to change. And you will find any people Subhanallah have contacted me and told me this told me their story, that, that I felt this excruciating pain that I went through this suffering. And then I realized what the problem was. And it was only when I started to put a loss upon with Allah in the place that I had previously put this person, and that I had previously maybe put my career I had previously put money, only then did the torment go away, only then did that excruciating, paralyzing pain go away. So this basically tells us that the pain is not there

just for us to numb it, it's there for us to realize that there's a problem and to make a change, and it's a problem inside, it's a problem with our attachment. It's a problem with our focus. And ultimately, it's a problem with our love. It's a problem of what do we love most, it really is very simple. The formula is very simple. If we love something else, more than Allah Subhana Allah know for a fact that that very thing, and this is the irony, that very thing that we love more than Allah subhanho data will be the cause of our greatest pain. I'll repeat that, because it's so important. The moment we love anything more than Allah subhanaw taala that very thing which we love more will

be the cause of our greatest pain, no matter what it is, whether it is our money, or it's our spouse, or it's our children, I tell you, and I guarantee that that thing will end up being the cause of your greatest pain. Because not because that thing is evil in and of itself. But because you have taken that thing, and you've put it in a place that it doesn't belong, you've put it in a place that only Allah subhanaw taala belongs, and you love it more than you love Allah subhana wa Tada. The next question comes, you know, once you diagnose this, we said, How do you diagnose this, all you're gonna know, because that thing is going to cause you the greatest pain in your life, it's

going to be constantly making you cry, it's going to constantly be making you angry, it's going to constantly be on your mind, it will be that thing that causes you most anxiety, it will be that thing which you can't stop thinking about, you'll know because it's going to make you it's going to torture you, it's going to torment you, you're not going to be able to be balanced and healthy psychologically, because of that thing, it will be on your mind, and you'll know it. And that's how you're going to know that there needs to be a change made internally in your heart.

You know, one of the other questions that really gets at this is this question, what are you most afraid of losing? What are you most afraid of losing? Usually, there's something in our life that causes us so much anxiety, at the idea, even just the thought of losing. And oftentimes, it's maybe a person in our life, sometimes it's our business, or maybe our career, maybe it's our car, you know, who knows, but sometimes there's something that we're so afraid of losing. Sometimes it might be our our beauty, the way we look our body, that, that we're so that it's so important to us, that just the thought of losing it causes us so much anxiety. And at times, this may be our parents, it

may be our spouse, maybe our children, but it just causes us so much fear, that is also a pointer, that this is something that is in your heart, this is something that you are too dependent on that just the idea of not having it

causes you almost physical symptoms of anxiety.

How then do we solve it? And this is, you know, the the question that that, you know, many people are asking, and people have asked on the chat box today. How then do you solve this problem of of once you realize that there is a gift that we have stored in our heart, that there is something that we love more than Allah subhanho wa Taala? how then do you regain that balance? And really, you know, there the answer has to do with how much are we filling ourselves with the remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala How much do we even know Allah subhanaw taala I'm going to give you this example, which I think a lot of people can relate to. You know that people say there's a saying,

right? That you never get over someone until you find someone better, right? You don't get over someone until you find someone to replace them. Usually, that's the easiest way to get over a heartbreak, right? Someone dumps you, you find someone else all of a sudden, you know, next day you're over it. Human beings are this way. Human beings don't like to be empty human beings.

don't want to have any empty spot inside of them ever for even a moment it's it's too painful. We always want to fill we want to fill, we're always looking for things to fill. Now here, if we use this, in, in this in this case, how are we going to get over these very deep attachments that we have in our hearts, to our, to our families or to our spouses or to our children or, or to or to our money or to our career or to status, whatever it is of the dunya? How are we going to solve this and put these things in their proper place in the proper balance of where a gift should be? And the answer is very similar to what we just said, find something better, find something better to replace

it, find something better to fill that place that you've put that person or that thing, and that something better is only Allah Subhana Allah, the more that you realize, Allah subhanaw taala, who Allah is and what Allah subhanaw taala the the role that Allah subhanaw taala plays in your life, then you will be able to fill that hole and you will be able to replace whatever else is the Allah, you know, when when, when anything is compared to a law. You know, it just becomes You know, there's no, there's no, there's no competition. And if there is a competition, then it means that we don't really see Allah subhana wa Tada. If there's something that's competing with Allah, or even

surpassing Allah in our heart, it automatically means that I really don't know who Allah is. It means that Allah is just a word. It's just a few letters that we put together. And we say it when we pray. It means I don't know my Creator, if I really know Allah subhanaw taala who he is, and the right that he has over me, there is no way that anything could ever compete with him. The moment that I know a lot more, and I see a lot more, and I focus more of my life on Allah, I increase my ticket, I increase my remembrance of him. There is nothing else can compete. Nothing else can look can look large, when compared to Allah subhanho wa Taala nothing else can look great and important

compared to Allah subhanaw taala. So we in order to put things in their proper perspective, you just have to see Allah subhanaw taala more, you have to fill your life more with the remembrance of Allah subhanho wa Taala fill your life more with knowing him, you know, know understand who the who Allah subhanaw taala is and get closer to him. And some of the ways to get closer to him is talk to Allah subhanaw taala ask Allah subhanaw taala make more than a lot of times people have this very formal relationship with their Creator. It's like you know that it's very ritualistic, we stand up we pray, we say a bunch of words that we don't understand and we don't feel and then that's it allows a

stranger to us. He you know, it's kind of like Yes, I'm praying with my body. But Allah has nothing to do with my life. Allah has nothing to do with, with how I live or why I live. And that is our problem. We need to make Allah subhanaw taala our closest friend, in order for someone to be your closest friend, you need to constantly be speaking to them. We know this from from our friends on Facebook and you know, our our acquaintances that those people who you are closest to, are the people you keep in contact with most usually, right? you contact them regularly. Maybe you're texting them, you're calling them you. Your best friend is someone who you pretty much need to talk

to every day and maybe many times a day depending on your friendship. How do we expect that Allah subhanaw taala is going to be our closest friend. If we're never talking to him, if we're never if we're never communicating with Allah subhanaw taala communicate with him talk to Allah subhanaw taala make dua go to Allah subhanaw taala with your problems, that is how you build a relationship with him and that is how Allah subhanaw taala will begin to replace the false deities that we have filling our hearts. inshallah I will take another short break now. And when we continue, I'll be looking at the chat box, write your questions in the chat box, share your reflections and inshallah

we will be returning shortly.

Solomonic Mujahid and you're listening to serenity streaming live on one legacy radio. I am now taking more questions from the chat box, we have a number of questions of hamdulillah. I asked you to continue to write your questions at Serenity at one legacy radio.com. I also want to hear from you about your inspirational stories. I will share I will choose stories and I will share them of course, completely anonymous. I won't mention any names also mentioned where you're where you're listening from, I want to know when we want to hear from you on on serenity at one legacy radio.com let me know where you guys are, what what country you're in what what city you're in, because at

hamdulillah we have a global community and and we want to know where where our brothers and sisters are. So So someone writes

what what should we do, if we are trying hard, but still, we keep feeling our heart back with the gift filling our heart back with the gift again, and again. And there's always a low and high and how connected we feel to Allah subhanaw taala. This is very, very true. There's definitely always a low and a high, there's nothing that's going to be stable in this life, except a loss of power that everything else changes. There's no state that is stable. So it is true that that we go through ups and downs, the important thing is, and I and I really want to emphasize is consistency. Yes, we will go through spiritual highs and spiritual lows. But so long as we are consistent in in our data, as

long as we are consistent in our worship, and consistent in our remembrance, regardless of how we're feeling. And I want to emphasize that regardless of how we're feeling, we are consistent. That is the only way that we will get out of our lows. And that's the only way to prevent our lows from becoming really lows. That that everyone Yes, the prophets I send them says that they're for everything. There's a peak for everything. There's a low, but but in order for and he goes on to say as long as a person's low that in a person's low that that dip, as long as that person is according a follows the Sunnah of the prophets I send them then they'll be all right. So the the lesson that

we can learn from this is that, yes, know that you will go up and down when your Eman starts to go down, do not lose hope that's key. Because the moment you start to lose hope what ends up happening is you give up. So losing hope leads you to give up giving up leads you to go even lower. That's the key here. And by the way, that's what shaitan capitalizes on. He wants you to go lower, he wants me to go lower. He wants all of us to be really, really low. So what he'll do and this is one of his tricks is that the moment you mess up or you slip up a little bit, or maybe your Eman is going down, maybe you're not feeling it as much, you know, you're just you're kind of you know, and so you you

kind of get disappointed. Well, what will happen is shaitan will now come to you. And we'll try to make you feel so bad about yourself. And then we'll try to to put in you a sense of hopelessness, that you know what, there's no point anyway, why are you trying so hard? Why are you even wearing Hijab? I mean, why are you even wearing You're such a hypocrite, right? Why even wearing it? You're you do this you do XYZ? Why don't you just take it off? Right? Or? Why are you praying anyway? You just committed the sin? Why are you going to go and pray now? What a hypocritical thing you would do? What what kind of to face person are you? I mean, these conversations sound familiar, right?

This is shaitan Titan, his his way is that the moment you slip, instead of making instead of telling you, you are human, you're going to slip go back to Allah. In fact, you just committed the sin, you need to go pray even more, he'll say the opposite. And he'll convince you that actually, it's hopeless now. And now you might as well give up, you might as well not pray. You might as well take off your hijab, you might as well just, you know, just give you know, you suppose you're trying to stay away from this hot on thing. You know, you're trying to stop smoking or you're trying to stop drinking or trying, you know, trying to end the relationship. You know what? I messed up? What's the

point anyways, and this is how he gets us. We have to be very, very careful. First, not to expect ourselves to be perfect, we will never be perfect, and we were not designed to be perfect. That's also important to understand. If Allah had wanted us to be perfect, he would have made us angels, he would not have made us human beings. Allah has designed us in a certain way. And part of our design is we will slip up we will make mistakes, but Allah loves those who repent. Allah loves for people to come back to him and to seek forgiveness and to not give up Allah subhanaw taala says

Kalia Abadi, a Latina, surah for Allah and forced him last token atonement Rahmatullah. Say all my servant who have transgressed against your own selves, do not despair in the mercy of Allah subhanaw taala. Allah forgives all sins, if you go back to him, Do not let shaytaan deceive you do not let shaitan tell you that every time you go, you know, every time you make a mistake, you might as well give up you might as well take off the hijab, because you're just, you're just a hypocrite, right? You're not perfect. So you might as well take off the hijab, Allah never asked you to be perfect. Allah asked you to continuously go back to him, when you do make a mistake. And to keep going back

to him, you need to pray is spammy if you just committed a sin, then that's all the more reason why you need to go pray, and repent and to ask Allah to, to, to to enable you to leave the sin to enable you to seek forgiveness and to and to purify you have it, you need Allah subhanaw taala more, you need Allah subhanaw taala because that is what that's what's going to save you. You know, giving up hope is only going to make you slip down even lower. The idea here now, we keep trying to fill our hearts again and again with the gift Why do we do that? We do that because we as again, as human beings, we have this empty hole in us that was intended to be filled by the remembrance of Allah

subhanaw taala. And we just want to fill it with whatever is easiest, whatever is in front of us, and we forget what is actually closer to us, because we can't see it. Allah subhanaw taala says he's closer than our jugular vein. But we go for, you know, the, our the person next door or the person in front of us because we can see them, we can see the money we can, you can feel it, but we can't see Allah subhanaw taala so we step over what is closer to what is farther away. But what is less real, and what actually is an illusion, because those things cannot fill that emptiness and and someone in the chat box posted a part of one of my favorite quotes of MLK am Rahim Allah, and if a

person were given the whole of this world and what it contains, it would not fill this void. There is an emptiness inside us and it can only be filled by the remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala practically how do we keep that we have to be consistent, we have to be consistent in our prayers, we have to be consistent in our connection to the Quran. And we have to have good company, we need to be very careful who we surround ourselves with, and who we keep close, because our company will either help us or hurt us. Our company is something that the prophets I send him spoke about in many, many different traditions in many ahaadeeth when he says, for example, that a person is on the

Dean of his friend, a person is on the way, the way of life that the practice of your friend, you're going to be like them. This is the words of the prophets. I said I'm not my word. So So the idea is if you want to be a certain way, surround yourself with people who are like that, surround yourself with the people you want to be like, not those people who you don't want to be like because you will become like them. The Bad Company is a poison for your heart. Surround yourself with those people who who will remind you of Allah subhanaw taala and and you seek refuge in Allah. You know, sometimes there are people that you can't avoid, right there are people who are around you and

you're in a certain circumstance and you can't seek refuge in Allah subhanaw taala will give you refuge but as much as you can try to surround yourself with those people who remind you of Allah subhanaw taala

I'm going to end in sha Allah with this last reflection because I think it is very true and very deep. Maybe we always want to fill because we always seek perfection that doesn't exist in this world. And I think this is very, very true. I think that we as human beings, we were not created for dunya dunya is just a stop on our way. Originally where were we originally we were in Jenna with our you know our father Adam Ali Salim was in Jenna and Hawaii and and that is really our true home. Our nature is is one that that seeks and yearns for that which is perfect and everlasting. It is part of our very nature. We don't like things to be imperfect we don't like things to end we don't like

things to be temporary want it to last forever. If you take a kid to Chuckie cheese, they never want to leave. Right? They know they want to they want it to last forever. We want the fun to last forever. And and adults were the same way. We don't want the the happiness and whatever pleasure that that we that we feel to ever end. Our hearts were made to yearn for Allah subhanaw taala our hearts were made for agenda. Our hearts were not made for this life. And so we yearn for that which we were made for and in sha Allah We ask Allah subhanaw taala to return us to that place.

That we were made for and to that place that we came from insha Allah I encourage you to continue to write your questions, share your reflections, share your inspirational stories at Serenity at one legacy radio. I pray that that that inshallah there was some words that were beneficial if there was anything that was beneficial it's from Allah subhanaw taala alone, and any mistake that I made is from my own self occluding Connie Heather was stuck for a lot li walakum innovaphone Rahim subhanak Alo the ham duck and shadow and Illa illa Anta nostoc Federico Anna tubal egg was sin mo aleikum wa rahmatullah. He was about a cattle