Inner Harmony Through Worship & Devotion - Weekly Series - Sister Zahra Makke

31 المشاهدات· 24/07/12

Lebanese Youth Foundation
مشتركين

في محاضرات

Join the Lebanese Youth Foundation - LYF weekly on Mondays during the Holy Month of Ramadhan to engage in a series of interactive talks.

🎙️*Speaker:* Sister Zahra Makke (Lebanon)
📆*Date:* Every Monday starting 19th April 2021
⏱️*Time:* London 19:00 | Detroit 14:00 | Beirut 21:00 | Sydney 04:00 +1 day
📡*Location:* Live on Facebook and Youtube channel

Please make sure you are following our page and channel: @lebaneseyouthfoundation and share.

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Transcript

[2:40][Music] assalamualaikum everyone thank you for joining us for our second session

[3:15]in the series in harmony through worship and devotion with sister and

[3:21]this is a weekly event running every monday throughout the holy month

[3:25]of ramadan inshallah we also have an event taking place every thursday

[3:29]at 7 00 p.m with a mecca we're also um excited uh

[3:36]to have zara with us for the first time um we had

[3:41]our first event our first series in the event last week and

[3:45]this week it's the second so we hope that you've enjoyed and

[3:53]and benefited from the the last event and our our videos are

[4:00]being posted online for you to watch after as well and to

[4:02]share with friends and family we hope that you enjoy and benefit

[4:07]from the talk and please don't forget to share with uh with

[4:11]your friends and family now as well if you can just before

[4:15]we begin i'd like to give a brief introduction to sister zahara

[4:18]sister zahramaki is a graduate of philosophy from the american university of

[4:23]beirut and is currently completing her master's in philosophy she was born

[4:27]and raised in the united states and moved to lebanon at the

[4:30]age of 19 where she currently resides during zahara's time in lebanon

[4:35]she pursued traditional studies at the islamic seminary alongside her academic work

[4:40]zarat's research interests include gender studies western philosophy and traditional islamic thought

[4:47]she has most recently been engaged in life coaching women on embracing

[4:50]an islamically rooted feminine identity in the modern world i'd also like

[4:57]to ask if you have any questions um don't hesitate to to

[5:04]post them um in the in the comments sections on facebook or

[5:08]or youtube and and also you can private message us it would

[5:12]be quite nice to generate a a discussion with sister zara um

[5:17]i'd like to welcome sisters for a second session as well thank

[5:36]you so much for uh hosting us thank you for being here

[5:39]thank you thank you for your time whenever you're ready okay muhammad

[5:56]everyone is doing well thank you all so much for being here

[5:59]uh so that we can hopefully grow in knowledge with one another

[6:03]uh last week we spoke about the futral we spoke about the

[6:08]human essence and we talked about what is that thing that we

[6:10]all share with one another that makes us who we are basically

[6:13]the essence of the human being the nature of the human being

[6:16]and we talked about how for various centuries every civilization has tried

[6:21]to answer this question some even outright denying that there's such thing

[6:25]as human nature but then we offered islam's response to the question

[6:29]of what constitutes humans as humanity and we spoke about the fitro

[6:36]allah says so it's this fitra of allah that he constituted us

[6:43]all people upon so whether we are muslim or non-muslim this fitra

[6:47]is something that's universal to all of us now we defined three

[6:52]qualities of this fitra last week we said that because it's because

[6:58]it's which constitutes all people the verse says then we know that

[7:05]this fitra is one universal it's innate to all of us it's

[7:07]part of our nature so the universality of this fitra the second

[7:12]thing we spoke about was how following this a allah right after

[7:18]there is no alteration in allah's creation and so we take from

[7:22]this that the fitness of something that cannot be corrupted it cannot

[7:26]be changed it is um eternal it's not something that you can

[7:30]ever lose for example and finally the third element that we abstracted

[7:34]from this verse about human nature is that this fitrah is a

[7:37]good fitra it's a good human nature because it is a divine

[7:41]sacred nature and had it been anything ambiguous allah wouldn't have said

[7:45]allah he would have said maybe and left the ambiguity as to

[7:52]whether human nature is a good thing or a bad thing right

[7:54]but he says outright that it's meaning this nature is a divine

[7:57]nature it's a sacred nature it's a good nature and so this

[7:59]fitra is something which is constantly urging us towards good to tr

[8:04]draw towards good now we also explain that is what makes us

[8:09]who we are yes but how do we define the fitra what

[8:14]is the fitra and we said that the fitra is nothing but

[8:16]a yearning a yearning for what it's a yearning for kamal mudlak

[8:19]it's a yearning for absolute perfection now oftentimes people misplace those things

[8:26]in which they see perfection and yes so some people will locate

[8:29]that perfection in dunya thinking that it will give them absolute happiness

[8:34]it will give them absolute prestige absolute joy but over time they

[8:39]realize that all their pursuits in dunya are always failing them the

[8:43]people that they invest in are failing them the careers they invest

[8:46]in are failing them it's never enough to satisfy the human yearning

[8:49]this is why we have that that quote that says that the

[8:53]grass is always greener on the other side it's because we always

[8:55]try to look for these things in dunya but there's always another

[9:00]another better thing and then we chase after that chase after that

[9:02]and all this chasing is in essence just the fitra's yearning to

[9:06]acquire that thing that is innate within itself which it's which is

[9:11]it's yearning for that command for that absolute perfection and we underscored

[9:16]the idea of absolute perfection because you can find pieces of goodness

[9:20]in this world here and there but you and i don't want

[9:25]pieces we want the whole thing we want absoluteness and that's only

[9:29]found in allah so we said that the entire world's yearning is

[9:32]actually just emotion towards god whether they realize this or not whether

[9:35]they acknowledge it or not it is just a motion towards come

[9:40]on mud luck it's emotion towards the divine and this is this

[9:45]is sort of where we stopped last week and we spoke briefly

[9:49]about why this good fitrah this innate goodness that we all possess

[9:53]is something that we find is lost in people you find that

[9:59]how is it if this fitrah is innate to everyone it's universal

[10:02]it's good and it's eternal how does this fitra become how do

[10:06]you find that there are some people that are just really lost

[10:09]really oppressive really evil people in this world so there's this valid

[10:13]question that comes in response to this and to this question when

[10:17]you answer that the fitrah is always in between two things we

[10:20]said it's between always the faculty of shaha and the faculty of

[10:24]these bodily faculties the faculty of desire and the faculty of anger

[10:28]this faculty of drawing away from and sometimes these faculties when they

[10:34]overtake the self and they govern the self without constraints then they

[10:38]veil or they blind the fitra and we mentioned the quranic verse

[10:47]makes this promise that the one who really has you know is

[10:52]that lost is the one who has concealed this fitra this this

[10:56]self he doesn't say corrupted and that's usually what we tend to

[11:00]um you know translate the verse into he says this literally means

[11:07]to conceal so you're concealing the goodness of this fitrah by blinding

[11:10]it and covering it and veiling it in the material world and

[11:15]the pleasures of the material world so this is where we stopped

[11:20]last week this week we're going to talk about re we're going

[11:22]to talk about the the dean itself so this fitra that we

[11:25]just spoke about how do we posit it in relation to the

[11:27]religion itself and so the first thing is we're going to redefine

[11:32]the deen because a lot of us have been either misintroduced to

[11:35]the deen or that as we grow we realize that we have

[11:39]to reintroduce ourselves to this idea of religion now first and foremost

[11:43]what we want to do is we want to redefine our understanding

[11:46]of the religion in general when we look at society when we

[11:50]look at civilization we find that there are three elements to every

[11:54]tradition to every civilization to every era and within yourself you find

[12:00]that these elements are reflected as well what are they the elements

[12:06]that make up every civilization every way of thought and every religion

[12:09]is three it's the first is world view how do you see

[12:13]the world how do you encounter yourself and posit yourself in this

[12:19]world how do you understand this this existence do you believe in

[12:25]a god do you not believe in a god is there a

[12:28]creator is there no creator the questions that we pretty much grow

[12:31]up asking as children are these questions that later on constitute what

[12:35]we call worldview the way that you see the world and so

[12:39]you begin to ask the question of where did we come from

[12:43]where are we going what's our origin does this life have a

[12:46]meaning does it not have a meaning these are the questions that

[12:48]begin to constitute your worldview now the this this world view these

[12:55]questions these fundamental questions that we all grow up asking are what

[13:00]later on make up the system of beliefs that we call akkad

[13:04]your belief system now second to this we have ethics we have

[13:11]your moral code what are those things that you believe in what

[13:15]does your morality look like what are those principles that guide your

[13:21]ethical conduct so these are questions you look either within yourself or

[13:25]you look in society you'll find that every society has answers to

[13:29]these questions whether it's explicit or implicit so for example within islam

[13:33]we have this idea of you know we're principles of justice principles

[13:38]of peace these are part of our ethical code part of our

[13:41]moral code but even within our moral code there's an established hierarchy

[13:44]so even within these principles that we uphold as a society as

[13:48]a religion as a civilization or as an individual there's a hierarchy

[13:52]again whether we realize it or not so for example right now

[13:54]we look at the world we look at the phenomena of the

[13:57]world and we look at the arab countries today and we're looking

[14:00]at all these arab countries who are saying that they want to

[14:02]normalize ties with israel and what is it that they cite as

[14:06]their reason is that we want peace we want to establish peace

[14:09]for this generation and generations to come and likewise we are people

[14:14]that want peace us here we all we all want peace right

[14:16]but there's another principle that interferes at this point and it's justice

[14:20]we don't prefer peace over justice when there is people who are

[14:25]being oppressed we don't say that we're gonna in the name of

[14:28]peace look away from this oppression in order to establish for example

[14:31]peaceful times now what does this stance uh reflect it reflects that

[14:35]even within our moral code we establish a hierarchy between even these

[14:41]principles so that justice precedes peace we don't overlook the oppression of

[14:45]the palestinians in the name of establishing peace in the region with

[14:48]israel for example because establishing justice is more important than reaping the

[14:53]fruits and the joys of having peace at whatever cost and so

[14:57]even within the system this moral code there's a hierarchy and it's

[15:01]upon every one of us to figure out what this hierarchy looks

[15:02]like for each of us finally you have a system of law

[15:08]and legality so the the the laws of a country for example

[15:13]so then every country for example like america you want to look

[15:16]at america america has a worldview the country has a worldview the

[15:20]citizens oftentimes have a worldview then they have an ethical code for

[15:23]example loyalty is very big for these nation states loyalty to the

[15:28]flag loyalty to the country this is one of their moral codes

[15:31]so for example loyalty for them might even overtake this idea of

[15:35]justice so i will be loyal to my flag loyal to my

[15:38]country even at the cost of them being oppressors or them being

[15:40]usurpers of rights so again you'll see that there is this hierarchy

[15:45]of principles with within the citizens of that nation for example then

[15:49]finally you get to the system of law and legality what does

[15:52]it mean to be a good human being and for example america

[15:55]it means to be a good citizen it means to be someone

[15:57]who stops at the red light who you know who obeys the

[16:01]law in general your citizenship is what informs how good of a

[16:05]human being you are you can be within your home doing the

[16:07]worst of worst and so long as you stop on the stop

[16:12]sign you're a good person under the the moral code of that

[16:17]country under the moral code of that law so this is just

[16:19]to give an example of this how this sort of three elements

[16:21]manifest now islam likewise has these three elements but this is the

[16:26]way in which most of us understand these three elements we see

[16:29]that okay we have a system of belief and worldview so we

[16:32]have an entire philosophy does god exist yes god exists why we

[16:35]have philosophical proofs to prove that he exists um from this uh

[16:40]these proofs we we understand certain attributes of this god from these

[16:44]attributes of god we have for example the attribute of mercy and

[16:47]justice from the justice we derived that if this god is just

[16:51]then he must have sent me guidance because he wouldn't hold me

[16:55]accountable if he didn't try to guide me okay from this justice

[16:57]we get messenger we get that there is prophethood from prophethood we

[17:01]get to imam we get to all this is just on the

[17:06]level of just establishing a worldview in proofs and moving forward with

[17:10]that so from that you have a worldview then you have the

[17:13]system of ethics justice how important justice is establishing how that's literally

[17:17]a pillar of our faith and then we have lastly a system

[17:23]of law jurisprudence sharia so finally the sharia comes and establishes how

[17:28]our relationship with the world should be like what is our problem

[17:32]right now in the way in which we introduce the d into

[17:35]the community the way we introduce the deen to ourselves and oftentimes

[17:38]the way that we under uh introduce the deen to children is

[17:42]that we conceive of these three pillars as if they're like pieces

[17:54]of one cake right you know you have just equal slices 30

[17:57]you know 33 33 they're just one thing but no that's actually

[18:02]not how we're supposed to conceive of the faith when it comes

[18:07]to conceiving of the faith islam says you have to conceive of

[18:11]it not as a circle you conceive it as a pyramid you

[18:13]see that the world views will underlies everything so at the very

[18:18]bottom that huge chunk you have your your look your outlook on

[18:23]life your outlook on the world your philosophy of existence above that

[18:27]pyramid above that chunk what do you have you have your ethics

[18:31]what's your moral code finally the pinnacle of it all all of

[18:35]this culminates in what in a system of law in okay in

[18:40]sam you've accepted this is your worldview this is your philosophy this

[18:43]is your moral code finally now that we've established all these things

[18:48]now that we've established a moral code which honors nature which honors

[18:53]the environment for example which honors the soul as something sacred then

[18:56]you come to a system of law that islam tries to implement

[19:00]for the self it says okay now we establish what your relationship

[19:03]should be with your body now we establish what your relationship should

[19:07]be with your heart with your mind then you go a bit

[19:10]further now islam establishes what your relationship should be with your family

[19:13]or your immediate family than to your government then your relationship with

[19:19]the environment with nature how that should be islam comes and delineates

[19:22]all of these different relationships and roles that now you have to

[19:25]play on the basis of what's on the basis of those two

[19:29]tiers which proceeded now what do we usually do is that you

[19:33]we come and try to relearn that how do we really learn

[19:37]the deen we learn it purely from a jurisprudential standpoint or we

[19:42]introduce it to our kids purely from a system of do's and

[19:46]don'ts but even when it comes to how we upbring our children

[19:52]what does the imam say leave them for seven years does that

[19:55]mean that you're leaving them you're not teaching them no no let

[19:58]them experience let them build a world view in those first seven

[20:03]years let them ask the questions that we grow up and we

[20:04]become numb to like you know baba mama who you know who

[20:08]created you know everything why are we here um you know why

[20:12]is nature nature these basic questions why because in those seven years

[20:17]you're building an outlook for the child without the child realizing it

[20:21]then you can introduce slowly a system of do's and don'ts because

[20:25]that's when the particulars of the faith will fall into place for

[20:29]the kids likewise for us and this is why it's very difficult

[20:33]right when someone has an issue with the law and you have

[20:36]this happen all the time right people will cite a problem that

[20:41]they have with islam and say well look at this law that

[20:45]you guys have but you as someone who understands the background of

[20:48]the faith the world view of the faith you know exactly why

[20:52]this law is in place but it's like how do you even

[20:53]begin to respond to this problem that they have in a particular

[20:57]law without saying wait before i even talk to you at the

[21:01]level of the law let me just tell you the way that

[21:03]i see the world the way that i encounter the world what

[21:06]my moral code looks like then the law will begin to make

[21:12]sense so this is the first thing is that when we misalign

[21:15]the dean a lot of times we do ourselves a big disservice

[21:18]because what we do is we cause so much confusion and disarray

[21:22]and chaos within the self because whenever there's a deficiency in the

[21:27]way that we navigate these three tears of the deen it'll always

[21:31]show up within our salat within our tafakkar within our i bed

[21:35]always the confusion will always appear and there will always be a

[21:39]lack of harmony if we don't harmonize between the law between the

[21:43]worldview and between the the ethics and the moral code and so

[21:47]that's one of the projects is to create a harmonious perspective on

[21:51]the deen itself because when we fail to do that what happens

[21:56]to the fitro the fitrah is drawn away the fitrah becomes confused

[22:00]the fitra can no longer locate the beauty in the deen because

[22:05]you're masking so much of the beauty by not introducing the faith

[22:09]to it in the way that it's right so it's it turns

[22:13]out that what we do is we flip this pyramid and we

[22:17]limit the dn to just a code of do and don't do

[22:21]and if you don't do this is the consequence and if you

[22:26]do this is the consequence so the d in the becomes that's

[22:28]based purely on transaction and not on a way of life an

[22:34]outlook on life and that's one thing that we want to establish

[22:38]especially this we want to remove the deen from just a system

[22:42]of do and not do but as an outlook as a world

[22:46]view as a way in which i live my life it's a

[22:48]beat to my existence my dean is not just something i i

[22:51]practice here and there it's something that i live it's something that

[22:58]i internalize so that you don't feel like i'm i'm someone who

[23:01]worships in the mosque but when i interact with other people i

[23:05]don't see how the religion has bearing on that no the dna

[23:09]is everything it's all encompassing of your being so we said that

[23:13]it's an outlook and today inshallah we're going to talk more about

[23:16]this fundamental underlying outlook of how the the religion sees that the

[23:23]world and how it wants us to internalize this perception of the

[23:26]world around us last week we spoke about what happens when the

[23:34]fitra becomes failed we spoke about how when shah and desires and

[23:38]anger take over the self how it becomes failed but we don't

[23:43]speak about what happens when it doesn't become veiled when the fitra

[23:47]is not a slave to the whims of the self then what

[23:53]happens so at this point in the journey what you find is

[23:56]that you arrive at union with allah you arrive is free to

[24:03]walk as it as it seeks to walk and urine towards that

[24:06]truth that it seeks to acquire then it can beckon itself to

[24:11]that union with allah and this is why allah says you are

[24:25]toiling to your lord your laboring towards your lord so the first

[24:30]thing is allah is acknowledging that this journey is is a journey

[24:35]of laboring it's not easy he's saying that i acknowledge that it's

[24:38]it's a toiling it's a toiling in the self so that's the

[24:42]first thing he's saying i know it's a journey that is that

[24:45]you know you have all of these challenges you have all of

[24:49]these things that you have to overcome externally even within yourself and

[24:53]the dean is acknowledging that so allah is saying okay i know

[24:55]there's a toiling but what does he reassure us to meet him

[25:00]so yes you're toiling you're going through this dunya you're really trying

[25:04]to overcome the how are the passions on the self allah is

[25:08]sort of initiating that reassurance that you will meet him you you

[25:12]will arrive at that destination which is the finality of all of

[25:16]our struggles and that one day insha'allah we will finally be reunited

[25:21]with allah but we want that union to occur sooner than death

[25:26]die before you die does that mean that you know literally no

[25:30]it's that reunite tear down the veils of the material flesh of

[25:36]dunya from yourself so that you can meet with allah before it's

[25:40]time for you to actually be forced out of this material body

[25:43]upon your actual deathbed and having to have that meeting in that

[25:50]way and so this is what we want to strive for and

[25:54]actually acquire and this is why also that when when we talk

[26:00]about the fetra we always use the word freed we use the

[26:03]word concealed and when it's not concealed it is freed and it's

[26:08]because we want to reaffirm this idea that a lot of us

[26:10]might not have chains around our hands but are very much in

[26:17]change to our desires to our passions and it doesn't necessarily have

[26:21]to look like the corruption of hollywood stars a lot of times

[26:25]people are enslaved to their love of money their love of fame

[26:29]their love of leadership their love of self and self-interest some of

[26:34]the more subtle loves of self loves of dystonia can take root

[26:38]in the heart and these are in my opinion some of the

[26:41]most dangerous ones because they're so imperceptible to the self and so

[26:45]the the prophet's mission was described as a mission of releasing people

[26:53]from their chains to remove the chains that they weren't chained to

[26:59]obviously we're not talking about physical chains but the chains of the

[27:05]self kamen how many times you find an intellect that is enslaved

[27:11]to the passions of the self the the the the want the

[27:16]want the want of the desires of the self and we already

[27:20]spoke about what happens at that point when the intellect becomes veiled

[27:23]in that way when it becomes overtaken by the desires it no

[27:28]longer surrenders its kingdom it no longer has a say in where

[27:30]you go and where you come and at that point you're very

[27:34]vulnerable because you become chaotic when your intellect is no longer in

[27:40]charge when the the prescriptions of allah the revelation of allah no

[27:44]longer has a bearing or a strong bearing in yourself what happens

[27:47]is your desires come come over and they take over your anger

[27:50]comes and takes over what does that look like for us and

[27:53]in a very practical way we become very chaotic we become reactionaries

[27:58]so that anything that happens in your life on a day-to-day basis

[28:02]is enough to affect you so like you come to work you

[28:08]have a little disagreement with someone you go home suddenly you feel

[28:12]like your entire day is shot down finally you go to your

[28:15]prayer mount to pray you feel like you can't even concentrate in

[28:17]your prayer well that's because you become someone who's a reactionary your

[28:21]desires is that thing which governs you so meaning when your desire

[28:24]is tipped over or when your anger is tipped over you have

[28:28]no more control over yourself you start to feel like i'm very

[28:31]angry i'm very upset i'm very irritated when it comes to my

[28:34]prayer i can't even concentrate in prayer at the moment this happens

[28:36]to us a lot this is because we've become people who are

[28:40]just so affected by dunya that we no longer have autonomy over

[28:44]saying that this isn't something worth getting affected by this isn't something

[28:48]worth being bothered by but when the intellect is no longer there

[28:50]when the mind is no longer seeing clearly then everything and anything

[28:53]will affect you anything will make you lustful anything will make you

[28:59]angry and that's something that we want we don't want to leave

[29:01]ourselves vulnerable to and the say that you are died your soul

[29:11]has died in the colors that you immerse yourself in and in

[29:15]a more practical way what that looks like is your environment what

[29:20]you surround yourself with now you might think okay maybe it's just

[29:23]the basis of you know friends let's say bad friends you start

[29:27]to become like them for example you know like imam he says

[29:29]tell me who your friends are i'll tell you who you are

[29:32]so he's not just taking a dig at your friends imam is

[29:35]just trying to tell you that what you immerse yourself in you

[29:38]become however let's take this even a bit further let's take this

[29:41]not just necessarily bad friends you know some of us might have

[29:43]great friends but we're so immersed in dunya meaning even the way

[29:48]that we think all day we're just thinking about okay budgets finance

[29:52]um you know like just prestige growing in in leadership growing in

[29:59]fame growing in love of the dunya without you realizing that's what

[30:03]your thoughts become so your thoughts are even bound by the material

[30:06]world so that even when it comes to for example finds finding

[30:10]solace in the deen you can't find that peace that the imams

[30:13]talk about when they refer to the deen or when it comes

[30:18]to a salaat maharaja salat is the ascension of the believer you're

[30:21]just you wonder i pray every day but i'm not ascending it's

[30:23]because your internal self has become dyed with the dies of em

[30:29]of materiality so that even when it comes to churning to allah

[30:31]you're so entrenched in dunya that it becomes very hard for your

[30:35]heart to release itself from those chains those chains that are built

[30:40]bit by bit over time thought by thought glanced by glance reaction

[30:44]by reaction more and more you become more and more entrenched i

[30:49]once had a teacher who anything like everything that would happen in

[30:54]his life and he you know on the outside doesn't really look

[30:58]like he has an easy life but anything that would happen he

[31:00]would smile and he says it's easy simple he was so unaffected

[31:05]and unbothered by anything that could possibly go wrong because he had

[31:10]absolutely he would do his part and that's it that's as far

[31:12]as it goes for him so that anything that would happen around

[31:15]him he had this sort of wall up because he was preoccupied

[31:20]with something so much bigger than dunya so that when something went

[31:24]wrong in dunya he wasn't totally lost in it it didn't totally

[31:26]overtake him and we find that literally like when each any one

[31:29]of us you know if there's an argument with our spouse we

[31:33]find that even our prayer our concentration everything goes wrong we go

[31:38]to stand in our salat we can't even focus we can't even

[31:42]pray we're so easily susceptible and vulnerable to the emotions that hit

[31:46]us that we can't take a step back and let our mind

[31:49]play its role give us clarity and this is why prayer is

[31:54]so important meditation is so important is because it creates that space

[31:59]between your feelings the emotions the chaos of everything and yourself your

[32:01]core that thing which looks upon the thoughts and chooses which thoughts

[32:06]it wishes to take and which thoughts it wishes to leave behind

[32:09]and this is why by the way you know when you want

[32:14]to talk to an atheist or any non-believer about allah they get

[32:18]totally baffled it's because you try to speak to them about a

[32:21]being that's outside of space and time and no weight no dimension

[32:26]no length no with they become absolutely mind-boggled because everything that they

[32:31]consume in their life every way in which they think is bound

[32:33]by the bounds of materiality by dunya by things that have space

[32:38]wait time things that they can see they can touch they can

[32:41]grasp so when you begin to introduce these ideas to them they

[32:45]themselves feel like you're crazy because they can't even begin to imagine

[32:48]anything outside of that so this is an example of chains not

[32:52]just being in terms of how they see the world but like

[32:53]even within their thoughts what they're able to even think so take

[32:56]that and apply it to ourselves because this doesn't just happen to

[32:59]atheists it happens to us as well when we become people of

[33:03]dunya yes we're still believers yes we still do our prayers but

[33:07]it becomes so much harder for us to witness the realities witness

[33:11]the truth of life to transcend ourselves and become something much better

[33:16]to let our fitra actually actualize the potential that it was meant

[33:21]to actualize and that's why we said that okay at this point

[33:25]what happens what needs to happen is that shadow the revelation the

[33:30]intellect have to intervene and take back the reigns and say that

[33:34]this is my kingdom i'm in charge and how does it do

[33:40]that do this it does this by constraining our desires does this

[33:43]by constraining our anger so freedom is only established in islam once

[33:49]your desires are constrained which is such an oxymoron for so many

[33:53]people it's very ironic how can you talk about freedom and yet

[33:59]speak about right people always come and pose this this problem or

[34:04]any other duty that we carry out as muslims you were muslims

[34:06]are not free people you are people who are oppressed take for

[34:09]example the the recent occurrence in islam in france so there's this

[34:13]idea that any constraint is a constraint on freedom but then the

[34:18]perception of freedom itself for these people is a perception that's confined

[34:22]purely to the body freedom is to do whatever you want it's

[34:26]to act on whatever shall we whatever desire whichever lust for anger

[34:29]for speech for self that you have freedom is to be able

[34:32]to actualize that wherein islam says no no freedom is to be

[34:35]able to be free from that if you choose that freedom and

[34:40]that's why islam is a choice if you choose that freedom what

[34:44]does it come through submission islam and so we just we want

[34:47]to keep that in mind and once that submission happens once the

[34:50]intellect regains its autonomy and acts over the body then you have

[34:54]the nur that dawns in the heart then you have that peace

[34:57]that dawns in the heart that's when you begin to see the

[35:01]reality of life last week we spoke about imam ali we spoke

[35:07]about even the infallibles we always all of us want at one

[35:11]point asks this question of you know are they programmed to never

[35:13]sin no it's that they see the reality of the sin and

[35:18]because the reality is so ugly they can't even bear going towards

[35:24]that thing when an individual peels themselves i really mean peel it

[35:28]because it's hard it's difficult when you peel yourself from that lower

[35:32]self that keeps pushing you towards desires and love of this world

[35:35]something happens within the self a light begins to shine that's when

[35:39]you begin to this is when the hadith by imam who does

[35:53]this light is whose heart is this light cast into you says

[36:11]we go back to this all the time that even if we

[36:15]want to begin to see clarity clarity begins with that nur but

[36:18]how can that come we can read as much as we want

[36:23]before not working to actually internalize this knowledge and purify the self

[36:26]then this knowledge isn't going to be knowledge that permeates us or

[36:30]affects us or moves us or even dies us in that color

[36:33]that we want to be died and in that pure color that

[36:35]we want to be died in the godly color that we want

[36:40]to die our souls in and so the the first effect of

[36:45]removing ourselves from this love of dunya love of this world is

[36:53]the root cause of every mistake that we make if we want

[36:57]to remove ourselves from this dunya the first symptom of that is

[37:02]that you will automatically find yourselves a lot calmer a lot clearer

[37:07]because you're no longer a chaotic being that's being affected left right

[37:12]and center by everything that comes your way this person said this

[37:17]to me this went wrong at work today this these are all

[37:19]things that yes they're you know they happen and you you have

[37:21]to deal with them and you have to grapple with them but

[37:23]then they won't just they won't totally destroy you like this like

[37:27]they destroy some people at that point what do you have you

[37:31]have stuff up you have clarity and when you have clarity what

[37:34]are you able to do you're finally able to turn inwards to

[37:37]turn to the inner meanings and live this life in accordance the

[37:42]way in which it was supposed to be lived which was a

[37:45]life of the bowats and the inner meanings and not just being

[37:47]occupied with the shadows and the appearances of this material world and

[37:51]so one way to understand this is to liken ourselves to a

[37:58]river how is a river a river is always crashing and going

[38:02]and rocks and it's just bumping into all these sorts of things

[38:06]it's crashing everywhere it's chaotic and a lot of us are that

[38:11]river right now but what we want to aim to become is

[38:13]that lake that lake that is just calm is clear is is

[38:18]pure it's it's just sofa it's pure self-thought once you get to

[38:23]that level of suffolk purest clarity what happens when you look at

[38:29]a lake a lake is a lot of the times when you

[38:33]look at the lake that's calm that's collected what you see in

[38:35]the lake is you see the skies and you see the trees

[38:38]and you see your reflection so when you become that lake what

[38:42]happens all that you are you become just a reflection of the

[38:48]divine realities because you are no longer a chaos of emotion of

[38:52]desire of one thing to annex of worrying about the future always

[38:56]preoccupied suddenly you feel a sense of calm you become that lake

[39:02]when you become that lake suddenly you become that cup which receives

[39:05]the realities you become that mirror you become that reflection of allah's

[39:11]names which was all along the the goal in the end for

[39:15]the fitra is to become god-like is so to become as much

[39:20]as we can people who mirror the attributes of the divine that

[39:23]can only happen with stillness stillness can only happen when we start

[39:28]to peel away the chains of love of dunya of preoccupations to

[39:32]dunya by churning towards the actual purpose for which we were created

[39:36]which is to actualize that servitude that would and i'm going to

[39:42]end on this is the perfect opportunity because on comes and it

[39:47]shows you how much you're capable of doing comes and it says

[39:53]i want you to abstain from that thing that is so fundamental

[39:56]to your life itself it doesn't matter if you're rich or if

[40:00]you're poor if you don't eat you die so unless comes and

[40:03]says oh i'm going to take away that thing that is universal

[40:06]to anyone and everyone that's so fundamental to everyone sipping water and

[40:11]it says i'm gonna ask you to abstain from doing that sun

[40:15]down sunrise the sun down and allah is in a way showing

[40:21]you your strength that if you can abstain from food and drink

[40:25]something as internal to you as drinking water for an entire month

[40:29]can you imagine what you could begin to accomplish if you took

[40:33]this journey seriously could you imagine what you can forsake for the

[40:37]sake of allah for the sake of your own self if you

[40:40]actually took this journey seriously and this is why we end up

[40:44]emerging from as different people after shah rahman we find that we

[40:49]don't return quickly to our older habits our negative habits that is

[40:52]we find that we're a bit more careful why because shah ramadan

[40:55]gave you a taste of mastery you had some mastery over yourself

[41:01]all of us right now can go open the fridge and have

[41:03]a sip of water no one have ever has to know we

[41:07]can go ahead and break her fast no one will find out

[41:11]but we don't we exercise that mastery for something so fundamental to

[41:14]all of us it's not easy but in a way allah doesn't

[41:18]just show you your weakness inshaallah he comes and he shows you

[41:21]your strength look what you're capable of doing for the sake of

[41:24]allah i wonder what you'd be capable of doing for the sake

[41:27]of your own self can you let go of this dunya after

[41:32]sha ramadan needs to leave this month feeling like it's possible to

[41:38]gain mastery over myself i don't have to surrender to this dunya

[41:41]i don't have to surrender to my desire no mastery over the

[41:46]self is possible imam ali speaks to seduce another person not me

[41:56]when we begin to have that mastery over the self which insha

[41:59]ramadan begins with for example abstaining from food and water when the

[42:04]sulayika of the world comes to us you know is not just

[42:08]an individual in the quran she's an individual in our history but

[42:11]she's an allegory of so many things the world the material world

[42:17]that's constantly seducing us and the verse says that that when when

[42:21]she comes towards yusuf what does yusuf say he says my lord

[42:32]has honored me your lord has honored each and every one of

[42:37]us by giving giving us giving us this sacred nature but then

[42:42]the verse continues that she was going to seduce him and he

[42:53]would have maybe been seduced by her had he not seen the

[42:58]quran of his lord had he not seen the quran of his

[43:03]wrote lord meaning was at a point where he was seeing the

[43:06]reality and it's that sight of the reality that caused him to

[43:10]abstain from indulging in this in this seduction in this dunya in

[43:15]this material world that appears to us in all these beautiful forms

[43:18]that tries to take away our autonomy again and again and again

[43:21]islam comes and tries to put constraints on this desire so that

[43:24]the fitra can walk because the role to allah is very very

[43:28]easy we tend to put up so many obstacles in the path

[43:32]that makes it difficult for the fitra to do its thing but

[43:37]once it's freed once it starts to have a little bit of

[43:38]control once it's freed from the chains of desires the father was

[43:42]like okay i'll take it from here let me show you what

[43:45]i can do it's in my nature to walk this path let

[43:47]me show you now how i'll walk it and with that inshallah

[43:51]i'll conclude and open the floor for any questions thank you sisters

[44:06]for your beautiful words and very very touching touching talk if anyone

[44:12]has any questions please feel free to to send them through now

[44:18]add them on the comments or send them dms uh i have

[44:23]the first question i have is a question from last week um

[44:26]and of course it's related to this week as well um one

[44:30]of the sisters asked what's the difference between desire and a need

[44:38]um and how how do you differentiate between the two like a

[44:41]lot of the time you know you you feel like you've earned

[44:43]something you've earned this holiday you've earned this um you know eve

[44:51]and this um you know right to indulge or um or do

[44:55]something that you know you you you want to do to treat

[45:00]yourself basically but how how do you differentiate between the two and

[45:02]how do you kind of train the self-discipline um yeah yeah yeah

[45:08]well that's a really good question which is why when we talked

[45:11]about shakha last week we said that it's not a bad thing

[45:15]it's what allows us to enjoy life it's what allows us to

[45:17]engage in the halal pleasures only becomes an issue when it trans

[45:22]when it um transgresses against the bounds of the intellect so when

[45:28]it becomes too much let me give you an example for example

[45:30]eating your favorite food that's not shallow right but eating too much

[45:34]of your favorite food becomes that's the differentiation when it becomes too

[45:39]much and everyone can sort of uh basically measure that for themselves

[45:43]but another example is like you know going on a lot of

[45:47]times we've earned it you know a lot of times we need

[45:49]to get away go into nature that's fine that's not that's a

[45:51]positive form of challenge when it becomes a negative point form of

[45:53]shallow is when we begin to indulge the point where we're not

[45:58]doing what we're supposed to be what the intellect would dictate for

[46:02]us to do and this happens a lot when we become loved

[46:07]ones love sorry is the audio okay on your end yeah yeah

[46:09]okay cool okay sorry because i'm just hearing an echo we become

[46:13]lovers of comfort and culture so that even our responsibilities become neglected

[46:18]so the the bound between positive and then which really takes us

[46:23]away from allah is precisely what the intellect sort of draws eat

[46:30]what you like but eat until you know you're full and not

[46:35]beyond your full because that'll take away from your spiritual progress and

[46:38]if you do this enough times this is going to affect again

[46:41]how you sleep later on so like if you're continuously gluttonous you're

[46:44]going to create this this love of like food of indulgence you're

[46:48]going to trickle down into you know your love of sleep your

[46:51]love of comfort and even like how how much you sleep whether

[46:54]you sleep in or not this also will trickle into other areas

[46:57]in your life like how much you continuously indulge it's like a

[47:02]domino effect because you kind of give yourself away more and more

[47:06]space for rome when the intellect became no enjoy life you earned

[47:10]it but enjoy it enough and within reasonable bounds so that it

[47:13]doesn't take away basically from your exercise of self-restraint when you need

[47:18]to exercise self-restraint thank you thank you for that thank you i

[47:25]hope that answers the question um if we have any questions from

[47:32]from this week um so the first question we have salaam alaikum

[47:37]how do you then recommend we speak to non-muslims when explain our

[47:44]religion when they ask questions um you see it really depends on

[47:50]who's asking and what they're asking so a lot of times people

[47:54]will ask because they're genuinely curious and what i recommend is in

[47:57]that situation i would recommend introducing more so the world view than

[48:01]to sort of delve into the laws because the world view in

[48:05]many ways is a prerequisite to understanding some of the laws or

[48:07]making sense of the particulars of the faith however a lot of

[48:12]times you know sometimes at least people will you know come with

[48:16]a certain problem with the deen and try to throw it at

[48:20]you and have you solve it for them like these are obviously

[48:23]non-muslims but they're just trying to for example like put down the

[48:26]faith at that point that's when like you can introduce the faith

[48:28]in a way in which you're sort of giving the background the

[48:30]philosophy the worldview but then the other person has also a responsibility

[48:34]to go sort of go out and seek those questions themselves but

[48:38]what i've learned and this is from sort of being in a

[48:42]educational setting where everyone around me is like either they're ex-muslims or

[48:48]their atheists and a lot of times when it came to discussing

[48:51]like the muslim faith i had to make sure that i wasn't

[48:57]getting myself into discussions that i felt like were just fruitless that

[49:00]were just about proving something or disproving something and so i think

[49:04]it's upon every one of us to sort of know which which

[49:06]person we're getting into this discussion with and not just sort of

[49:09]always get into these different fights or arguments or these you know

[49:12]facebook i see i see these all the time these facebook chats

[49:14]left right and center to be careful but when it comes to

[49:18]just generally talking to non-muslims i recommend always beginning with world view

[49:21]because i think when you begin with worldview it becomes so much

[49:25]more understandable and the faith becomes posited as as truly beautiful because

[49:30]there's so much misinformation out there that we really have a responsibility

[49:33]to try our best to like sort of draw away and clarify

[49:36]as muslims thank you thank you so do we rely on willpower

[49:50]to free ourselves from the chains of desire are they um are

[49:53]are there any practical ways yeah yeah so like obviously you know

[50:00]you can't always think yourself into a more powerful state and the

[50:03]the way that we conceive of the self within islamic philosophy in

[50:06]islamic psychology is that you're not just a soul you are a

[50:12]mind you are a body you are in heart and one way

[50:14]to look at these three facets of yourself because they're facets they're

[50:18]not parts are as windows into your soul their windows into your

[50:23]core and so when you speak your tongue reveals you when the

[50:26]way in which you exercise your body reveals who you are on

[50:29]the inside and so sometimes we can gain insight about how we

[50:33]are who we are where we're at spiritually by just you know

[50:36]witnessing our like bodily acts like sometimes you'll do something or you're

[50:40]going to say something and then you take a step back and

[50:43]you said why did i do that like why did i say

[50:44]that i thought i was better than that that's like a good

[50:47]caution for ourselves because our actions reveal us our tongues reveal us

[50:50]so that said we can't always like i said we can't always

[50:55]like think ourselves into like a willpower powered state but we can

[50:58]begin with the small things and this is why i feel like

[51:00]mastery of the self should not be divorced from mastery of the

[51:03]body and so what i would recommend is beginning with the small

[51:07]things like beginning with scheduling your sleep um scheduling a meditation every

[51:12]day this is this this is one way in which you're sort

[51:15]of um gaining control over your mind gaining control over your thoughts

[51:18]gaining control of your body not being gluttonous um you know maybe

[51:23]exercising if possible these are all ways in which you strengthen your

[51:26]determination your azimuth so when it comes to even your spiritual self

[51:29]because these are all going to have bearings on this determination that

[51:32]you exercise even within your soul leader on so once you strengthen

[51:37]these different facets of the self what you're doing is in the

[51:39]meantime you're also strengthening your resolve so it's something very very real

[51:44]it's something very practical it begins with your food it becomes it

[51:47]begins with and like one way to like conceive of it is

[51:48]just thinking about sha ramadan how sha ramadan is this powerful month

[51:52]it's the month of quran and yet what allah asked us to

[51:56]abstain from wasn't something theoretical it was something very physio physiological it's

[52:00]very real it's food and drink and that's because you emerge from

[52:04]this month with a a renewed sense of determination that you can

[52:07]apply when it comes to your own spiritual diseases that you know

[52:11]just exercising control over the food and the drink suddenly strengthened your

[52:15]resolve in a way where you find yourself not indulging in in

[52:18]reba and talking about people and gossiping about people you find yourself

[52:22]waking up for fajr how just by exercising restraint on the level

[52:25]of the body for the sake of allah gives you and generates

[52:29]that resolve to exercise that restraint when it comes to waking up

[52:32]for fajr or not indulging and over sleeping and things of that

[52:35]sort thank you sister uh i think that is yes that's the

[52:44]last the last question or maybe not uh how do we stay

[52:48]balanced with regards to desires again is it just willpower i find

[52:53]i either don't indulge at all in pleasures or over-indulge me yeah

[52:59]i think that's a real problem um especially like you know the

[53:03]all-or-nothing mentality and i think that that's something that you know you

[53:08]figure out like with regards to balance and especially with like being

[53:11]someone who takes life very very seriously this can also harm yourself

[53:14]because you also want to indulge in the beauty of a life

[53:19]the nature of life um because i don't want us to say

[53:22]for a second like when it comes to love of dunya doesn't

[53:24]mean that we don't love things in dunya doesn't mean we don't

[53:29]appreciate nature or love our spouses or um you know enjoy enjoy

[53:32]the the pleasures that doesn't mean that way at all love of

[53:36]dunya is when that becomes the primary way it becomes an end

[53:39]in itself your husband becomes an end in itself your wife becomes

[53:42]an in herself your relationships become an end in themselves when they're

[53:45]all supposed to be a means so like min allah uses ayaat

[53:51]to describe what the marriage is meaning an ayah is a sign

[53:54]what does a sign do it points signs point you into a

[53:58]another direction or the right direction so marriage is a sign that's

[54:02]supposed to point you to allah for example so to not really

[54:06]see these pleasures this love as an end in itself is what

[54:09]we're talking about when we speak about it's about every love of

[54:13]the dunya that takes us away from remembering of remembering allah from

[54:17]the law from remembrance of the hereafter as opposed to for example

[54:21]you know overindulgence and treating things as a ends in themselves now

[54:25]how do you you balance both that love and that like basically

[54:32]absolute abstinence see this is something that um we encounter like i

[54:37]encounter a lot as well in terms of like just questions um

[54:41]life can get very busy and it can be very hard to

[54:44]like schedule time in where you're actually basically enjoying the halal pleasures

[54:49]which is part of what we're supposed to do your your day

[54:51]should be split up into enjoying the pleasures of allah alongside getting

[54:54]sustenance alongside worship that's a hadith from i think it was imam

[54:57]salvik so it's actually something we're supposed to incorporate in our day

[55:00]my biggest recommendation is to actually pencil it in like this is

[55:04]literally what it comes down to because oftentimes um you know if

[55:08]you're someone who's very busy or you have a lot of work

[55:11]going on if you don't pencil it into your schedule sometimes it

[55:15]even comes down to like actually forcing yourself out like you know

[55:17]like sometimes you'll have like a like a you know sahara with

[55:21]friends and you haven't seen friends for weeks you're so preoccupied this

[55:24]can also hurt your soul so sometimes i've had like situations where

[55:27]i'd literally make myself go somewhere because i realize if i don't

[55:32]i'm also hurting myself so too much of something is bad but

[55:36]nothing nothing of of halal pleasure is also very bad for the

[55:38]soul because it's suffocating and the fitra needs to also have like

[55:41]room to breathe and enjoy the halal pleasures so my recommendation is

[55:45]pencil it and like sometimes that's what it has to come down

[55:47]to and that's okay um you're welcome thank you sarah i actually

[55:58]have um another question for you um so on uh on sunday

[56:03]on saturday inshallah it's the um first night uh of leia and

[56:09]um so after these discussions we've been having about desires and and

[56:14]um and self-discipline do you have any tips for us any um

[56:19]anything we can do in these next few days to prepare ourselves

[56:23]um for for these these nights these three nights uh yeah i

[56:31]mean of course there's there's always more things that we can do

[56:34]um for this preparation the the artifacts students used to say that

[56:40]the their teachers would spend all year preparing for this single night

[56:46]and i think i brought this up last last week that is

[56:49]like it's it's a holy night and sometimes we can feel the

[56:52]pressure of it coming and like we want to be prepared what

[56:53]i recommend is if you haven't taken advantage of shadow mulan if

[56:57]you feel like you haven't been doing enough to just begin um

[57:02]the prophet says that like whoever has a loss for allah 40

[57:10]mornings then fountains of wisdom pour from his heart and upon his

[57:15]tongue so i i would say take a look at your situation

[57:16]right now take a take a look at how much you were

[57:20]actually taking advantage of and see where your your improvements can lie

[57:23]sometimes it's not going to lie on the level of your identity

[57:27]like you know maybe i need to read more quran maybe you're

[57:29]reading enough quran but maybe your luck with you know your family

[57:31]members hasn't been really on point lately that is that is a

[57:35]way in which we can remove or peel away something that could

[57:38]be a veil that will allow us to receive less of allah's

[57:43]mercy because we're not exercising mercy over others in our life so

[57:45]it really just depends on i think what i recommend is tonight

[57:49]take some time 10 20 minutes on your own and really think

[57:51]about where you want this year to go for you what you

[57:54]want this year to look like because there is that night where

[57:58]things are preordained and destined so take a look at where you

[58:01]want your life to go and see right now like what can

[58:02]i begin to tweak to show that allah that i'm beginning to

[58:06]walk the path and hopefully be someone who is more receptive to

[58:10]the mercy that's going to overflow inshaallah both in ramadan and also

[58:14]on the knights of kadur thank you so much sister and we're

[58:18]looking forward to to next week um ciao on the second night

[58:23]of leia lil eddie will be blessed with with the lecture um

[58:27]i'd also like to invite um remind everyone sorry that on thursday

[58:33]we have a third um series with the with brother um and

[58:40]please don't forget forget us in your prayers salaam alaikum you

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التالي

Inner Harmony Through Worship & Devotion - Weekly Series - Sister Zahra Makke

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التالي

Inner Harmony Through Worship & Devotion - Weekly Series - Sister Zahra Makke

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