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Friday Prayer - Sheikh Abdul Rahman Cherri
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23/09/09
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Friday Prayer - Sheikh Abdul Rahman Cherri
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[0:00]foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign no no no [Music]
[1:18]more minutes foreign foreign foreign this marks the 40th Day after the
[3:19]martyrdom of the Imam after the tragedy of karbala had occurred and
[3:24]we can see that the processions are happening around the world people
[3:28]walk out on the streets people have majalis they have commemorations and
[3:34]if you look at what's happening in karbala there are millions and
[3:41]millions of visitors that are going there now a person asks himself
[3:44]or herself this question what is it that draws the people to
[3:50]this what is it that makes people want to travel all these
[3:54]distances spend all this time walk on this path people walk from
[4:01]City to City and other people host people for free they give
[4:05]them food they give them shelter they give them water if you
[4:08]think about it you think about other societies this is not something
[4:14]that happens in a normal situation nobody opens up their door to
[4:19]random strangers thousands of them millions of them you let them into
[4:22]your house you give them food but there's something to contemplate it's
[4:26]not just something that we admire and we say oh this is
[4:31]very nice because such an event doesn't occur in a natural situation
[4:34]if you look around the world how many events gather people to
[4:39]this extent how many events around the world we have six billion
[4:42]humans now they're a bit more than that and throughout the history
[4:48]of humanity we have a lot of places where people gather where
[4:50]people get together where events happen sports events and things like that
[4:54]but nothing of this nature this nature sort of goes against the
[4:58]natural laws that we have as human beings so we have to
[5:04]think about it in a more deeper way and a more contemplative
[5:11]way and I was thinking about the story where the companion of
[5:17]the Prophet who went to karbala after the tragedy happened and the
[5:21]story I'm sure most of you have heard of it when he
[5:25]went without the and they visited the graves of the imams after
[5:27]the tragedy happened he says something that's very interesting he tells or
[5:36]he speaks to the Imam alaihissalam after saying assalamu alaikum he sends
[5:43]his regards to those who have been martyred with the Imam and
[5:48]he testifies that they have come to Muslim they've established prayer and
[5:53]that you've done good and that you've established the prayers you have
[5:57]pizza cut and so on and so forth then jabber says he
[6:09]says by the one who has sent the prophet Muhammad as a
[6:13]messenger or a prophet we have accompanied you or we've been your
[6:19]partners and what you have done looks at Jebel and says wait
[6:26]a second you know but how come you're saying this we didn't
[6:29]lift a sword we didn't fight with them they spent their lives
[6:33]they gave their lives they died they fought in the battle they
[6:37]shed their blood we're over here standing alive how are you saying
[6:43]that we've we're partners with you in this so Japan responds to
[6:49]him he says yeah foreign loves the people then he will be
[7:16]resurrected with them and whoever loves the actions of an individual then
[7:22]he becomes a partner with that person just because of loving what
[7:27]that person is doing if you see someone doing something good and
[7:31]you love that they're doing that good thing then you take a
[7:34]share of that goodness as well and this took me to this
[7:39]idea to think about the religion of Islam it really revolves around
[7:44]this notion this notion of love what Islam tried to establish for
[7:48]Humanity is to create this loving relationship between Humanity that people base
[7:55]their relationship with other people on love especially between believers and when
[8:01]we look at this when we speak about him being the son
[8:10]or the heir of Adam the air of Moses when it comes
[8:14]to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam we say that the prophet is
[8:18]described as Habib Allah the beloved one of Allah and this is
[8:24]a title that he had that was special for him because his
[8:27]relationship with Allah was based on love and this is what he
[8:33]tried to transmit Into the Heart of the Believers if we look
[8:37]at the Hadith that we have that speak about love not just
[8:43]with those who are good with you but even with your enemies
[8:48]even dealing with those who will harm you it should be done
[8:52]out of love a person who is a Believer should be that
[8:54]person who it gives security and love to other people you always
[8:59]have to be elevated above others in the society you shouldn't be
[9:02]always on the same level as them for example in a Hadith
[9:13]Imam in his was his will to his son Muhammad he says
[9:18]it's a long will but I want to take one portion of
[9:22]it he says that make sure that you have love for other
[9:29]people and be patient with what people ask you for if they
[9:31]have needs if they have some problems if they have you know
[9:35]things to come and ask you for be patient with them and
[9:37]if you have a friend then make sure you spend on that
[9:42]friend time energy money to increase your friendship with them and not
[9:46]just money but also yourself your time and then he says and
[9:51]for your enemy you must be a just and you must listen
[9:56]to them and this is the type of mentality that the imams
[9:59]have tried to instill in our hearts that as the movement I
[10:03]don't behave like other people if I engage in a conversation with
[10:06]somebody and that person has a very bad attitude with me it
[10:12]doesn't justify that I respond to them in the same way because
[10:14]at the end of the day a moment is supposed to be
[10:19]up and if that person is down and their behavior then I
[10:21]shouldn't be the one who's going down to them I should be
[10:25]the one who elevates them to my level and we have a
[10:29]lot of haditha indicate this that by showing Mercy towards our enemies
[10:34]by showing Justice towards our enemies that will make even our enemies
[10:39]respect us so this is a mentality that the imams have been
[10:44]trying to instill in our hearts in another Hadith says that when
[10:52]you're with people speak to them about things that they like and
[10:56]don't discuss things that bother them sometimes you think you know you're
[11:00]sitting in a gathering and you're with you know other people you
[11:04]have to try to keep the atmosphere there in a good way
[11:09]don't try to find things that trigger other people you know you
[11:13]can have a discussion you can have you know differences in opinion
[11:16]but there's some people that try to trigger others emotions they kind
[11:21]of get a you know good feeling out of that this is
[11:23]not supposed to be what a Believer does when you speak with
[11:32]people don't be a judgmental or blameworthy individual if you do that
[11:38]many times then you're going to create this harmony between you and
[11:43]others and that will lead to anger and enmity with other people
[11:47]and if you do it so much that's from it's from Bad
[11:52]ethics or bad morality or bad behavior a lot of times you
[11:56]know we have friends we have people we always tend to talk
[12:00]with them even in relationships you see someone doing something that you
[12:03]don't like you criticize it you're very critical you're always a critical
[12:07]individual the Imam says if you're very critical to people then that's
[12:12]going to cause disharmony between you and that's going to lead to
[12:16]enmity and bad feelings evil feelings between each other and and from
[12:20]so I'll add up to be an over-critical person try to see
[12:24]the good things with individuals try to say the nice things it's
[12:26]okay to criticize things but to be over critical and we we
[12:30]all know this because we know people like that sometimes we engage
[12:33]in this type of behavior as well but we have to remind
[12:35]ourselves that just because something is not the way we like it
[12:40]doesn't mean that we have to vocalize that all the time especially
[12:43]with one individual if we keep putting them down we keep criticizing
[12:47]what they're doing at the end of the day that person is
[12:49]not even going to fix themselves they're just going to build hatred
[12:52]towards us in another iteration is this is the opposite now how
[13:03]to make people attracted to us and how to make people love
[13:07]us says good ethics if you want people to love you then
[13:14]you have to be a person with good ethics with good morality
[13:18]your behavior because love is not something they acquire by purchasing it's
[13:22]not something where you wake up in the morning and say I'm
[13:24]going to love everybody and I want everyone to love me it's
[13:26]something that you have to acquire your behavior either attracts people or
[13:30]repels people so love is supposed to be a goal that we
[13:34]achieve between us as humans but it needs to be worked on
[13:39]so there's negative things that we have to stay away from such
[13:42]as being over critical being someone who has evil thoughts about people
[13:46]you know Hadith says that those who think evil about those who
[13:53]are around them at the end of the day is going to
[13:56]repel people from himself because he can't think good of anybody he's
[13:59]never going to have any friends he's never going to have anyone
[14:02]who he can hang around with or build a relationship with because
[14:05]you're always having evil thoughts about that other individual on the contrary
[14:09]the Imam says if you have good thoughts about people then you're
[14:13]going to have more friends why because you don't see the faults
[14:17]in them you want to hang out with them you want to
[14:18]talk with them you're always focusing on the good inside of them
[14:22]if you focus on the evil you end up with nobody in
[14:26]society and another Hadith that is related to the etiquettes of the
[14:36]individual and how that would bring love if you're an arrogant person
[14:40]that repels people people don't like Aryan people they don't want to
[14:45]be with them they don't feel that they can get close to
[14:48]them so the idea is that it's now focused on love as
[14:52]being the criteria that a movement has to establish in his relationship
[14:55]between those who are around that individual and between them and Allah
[15:02]that the best form of worship that you can have is that
[15:06]worship of love that relationship of love he was asked about love
[15:13]and he said is religion anything but love so we have to
[15:18]change this mentality that we have even our relationship with Allah if
[15:21]we want Allah to love us then we have to think good
[15:25]of him we have to build that relationship we have to speak
[15:28]with him we have to try to be a good individuals with
[15:33]ourselves and with other people and with him this is supposed to
[15:35]be our ultimate goal foreign Muhammad um foreign foreign that's changing is
[17:25]this movement towards things that are described as spiritual things that create
[17:31]Harmony in our lives and we can label these under different categories
[17:35]so for example if we look at the things that we use
[17:42]as coping mechanisms with our problems in our lives on one hand
[17:46]we have drugs that we can take right so there are certain
[17:49]pills that people take antidepressants let's say for example narcotics even you
[17:55]know smoking weed or physical things that we can take substances basically
[18:02]we take those and use those as coping mechanisms they help us
[18:07]through our difficult lives our challenges our depressions or things like that
[18:11]right so these are things that were created they're physical and our
[18:16]societies they consume them in general because they see that life in
[18:20]itself is a difficult thing naturally we have challenges in this life
[18:26]I mean the idea of just surviving in this world is a
[18:29]very challenging thing waking up in the morning our body doesn't have
[18:34]a pause it demands food it demands drink it demands oxygen you
[18:38]have to move there's a million things going on inside of our
[18:44]body alone that we have to cope with and on top of
[18:47]that we have the demands of a family or the demand of
[18:52]society we have schooling that we have to go to we need
[18:55]a job if you're a child you're growing you have to learn
[18:58]you have to go to school if you're an adult you have
[19:01]a million responsibilities and as societies expand and they move forward with
[19:08]technology our societies are becoming much much more complicated if you think
[19:12]like back in the day maybe 100 200 years ago Society was
[19:17]not as complex as it was now and if you go farther
[19:21]back than that what are the things that you had in your
[19:22]life that were you know occupying you you had a family you
[19:28]had a house you maybe had a tent he had an animal
[19:33]to feed and life was more simplistic at that time nowadays there
[19:36]are so many things that we are occupied with that it's overwhelming
[19:40]and people aren't able to cope with this because as human beings
[19:43]we only have two eyes we only have two hands we have
[19:48]a limitation for what we can do we're not AI robots where
[19:53]we can you know just go on ask any question and they
[19:55]can answer or they can comp you so many different things at
[19:59]at one time humans are not robots we don't have this capacity
[20:02]to function in that way but the way that's being put upon
[20:08]us as human beings is the way of robots we're being treated
[20:12]as if we're just machines but we can't keep up with it
[20:16]right so humans realize that there's this limitation and they move towards
[20:21]developing things that would function in that way because we're not going
[20:24]to be able to we have a limit we can only reach
[20:28]this point so they'll develop AI they'll develop robots they'll develop things
[20:33]like that because where the human stops this will take over and
[20:37]we'll continue because of this we feel that the burden is increasing
[20:41]on us we're unable to have stable relationships we're unable to function
[20:45]daily without taking pills I mean almost everybody I know cannot function
[20:51]throughout the day without taking some sort of not I won't say
[20:55]one pill I know like they take multiple pills a day or
[20:59]maybe smoking weed or maybe doing something and you feel like if
[21:03]they don't do this they're going to explode they're going to be
[21:06]people who are unable to contain their anger and they either harm
[21:10]themselves or harm other people now when it comes to us as
[21:18]a Muslim Society how do we function when it comes to something
[21:21]like this what do we resort to well first of all we
[21:25]have to understand that we cannot deny reality if we live in
[21:29]a society like this we can't say that no we're not living
[21:33]in it we can't say that no everything is perfect especially if
[21:35]you know when it comes to parents and their children you can't
[21:38]draw this you know beautiful picture in your mind as an imagination
[21:41]and think that my child is not going through this if he
[21:46]understands Society then you have to understand that your children are going
[21:49]to grow into this and they're going to go through these challenges
[21:54]and difficulties so your focus has to be on how to cope
[21:57]with these things and this is the most minimal level of survival
[22:03]that we have coping when it comes to Islam the idea is
[22:09]not only to cope with the difficulties of life well if you
[22:14]look at programs that are being proposed to people so let's say
[22:17]the drugs or the weed and you know those physical substances that's
[22:21]what they do they have a temporary effect on the cell and
[22:24]then they go away so you have to take them again now
[22:27]there are other methods that people resort to that are more holistic
[22:33]let's say that don't involve substances and these are things like meditation
[22:38]people say go and do Sports people say you know do yoga
[22:40]and things of the sort so these are non-physical they're not substances
[22:43]that you take but these are more long-lasting effects it's more internal
[22:48]work and you're not altering any chemicals in your body in order
[22:54]to feel better when you're going for a more permanent or long-lasting
[23:00]change now as a Believer what is our approach to this as
[23:04]Believers as a Muslim Community how do we look at life when
[23:08]it has these challenges our understanding is that these things you know
[23:14]a person is good for him or her to be able to
[23:18]cope with the challenges around them so that they can function normally
[23:21]and not harm themselves or harm other people but the idea that
[23:25]Islam wants to do for the individual is that it wants that
[23:27]individual not only to cope with things but to create an internal
[23:33]change in that individual and move that individual towards perfection this is
[23:39]a difference between meditation let's say and between a concept that religion
[23:44]has as prayer now religion does have Notions does have Notions such
[23:49]as meditation it has and I think all of you are familiar
[23:53]with these things but these are only used as tools as a
[23:56]means so I know a lot of people that do yoga I
[24:00]know a lot of people that meditate I know a lot of
[24:02]people that smoke weed I know a lot of people that you
[24:06]know exercise and do all this stuff and basically the common thing
[24:10]that combines these together is that what they try to do is
[24:13]they try to just cope with their daily problems I wake up
[24:17]in the morning I do my yoga session so that I can
[24:19]have a good day at work in the middle of work I'm
[24:22]going to take a little break I'll do a little exercise maybe
[24:24]I'll do another yoga session so that I can continue and remove
[24:28]the stress that I had and this is something that's very good
[24:30]it's not a bad thing to be able to remove that stress
[24:33]to be able to cope it's good because we don't want a
[24:37]bunch of angry people you know with all this frustration and stress
[24:40]walking around each other it's not a good thing right the more
[24:43]you can calm yourself down the more safe it is as a
[24:46]society to have you know you walking around and roaming around other
[24:50]people however we have to understand that we shouldn't mix the concepts
[24:56]together so Islam would recommend you to do to factor it would
[24:59]recommend you to do meditation but it tells you at the same
[25:02]time that meditation and yoga well Islam doesn't say yoga that's a
[25:07]Hindu practice but even the Western version of it is not the
[25:09]Hindu because it's it was related to the Hindu religion the Western
[25:13]concept usually rids the practice from any religious meaning and it makes
[25:19]it happen in a secular way so the main objective of yoga
[25:22]was to reach that uh spiritual Liberty over here is more like
[25:29]cool thing but a snap doesn't present that it presents other Concepts
[25:33]such as salad such as moving towards Allah as a journey the
[25:38]idea in the Quran is that you are laboring towards your lord
[25:44]in a very difficult way but the idea is that you're moving
[25:50]there's a journey that you're on you're not just standing still and
[25:53]trying to cope with things so the factor is good and meditating
[25:59]is good coping is good but you don't want to stay stagnant
[26:05]you don't want to have an objective in your life where I'm
[26:06]going to stay the way I am and I'm just going to
[26:11]try to cope with my life daily on a daily basis no
[26:13]I want to do that that's the first step the first step
[26:16]is to be able to cope with things the first step is
[26:19]to be able to control my emotions and desires and not to
[26:22]be someone who has a lot of frustrations in himself or herself
[26:25]but after that I have to have an aim that I'm moving
[26:30]towards I have to develop as a human being I have to
[26:32]change the way I behave with other people I have to become
[26:38]a better individual spiritually I need to move towards Allah who is
[26:42]perfection I want to perfect myself so it's not just enough to
[26:48]have a daily life of wanting to cope with things but rather
[26:50]we should use that as a beginning as a means to make
[26:55]us grounded to make us be able to move on this journey
[27:00]so it's just like you know if you have that balance rope
[27:01]right if you know I'm sure you've seen the people that want
[27:05]to walk on that rope with the balance deck well first you
[27:07]have to balance yourself if you're not balanced you can't walk on
[27:14]the Rope so these tools exercising meditating you know doing these things
[27:18]they're tools their means to make you balance but they don't move
[27:22]you on the journey you have to move yourself you have to
[27:24]move towards the goal that you have so this is one idea
[27:29]that we have to keep in mind as what we need that
[27:32]if we engage in this we shouldn't think that okay well religion
[27:35]preaches you know Salat and things like that and on the other
[27:37]hand there's meditation in the organisms and they have they serve the
[27:40]same purpose they don't save the same They don't serve the same
[27:47]purpose one of them is more of the introductory to the other
[27:50]the prerequisite to the other and this is something that we have
[27:54]to keep in mind alhamdulillah foreign selling tickets for for macca's second
[28:22]annual community dinner that would happen next month inshallah so if you
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