Latest / After Maghrib 🌙 / My life revolves around Muharram (Ft. Muntazir Jaffer)

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My life revolves around Muharram (Ft. Muntazir Jaffer) · After Maghrib 🌙

0:00
Other Mullah, Ajura Nawajura Kumble Musaba Nab, Abdullah
0:03
Hussein's Ali Ali respected brothers and sisters.
0:08
We offer our condolences beginning this podcast to none
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other than the amount of our time and of course to the entire
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Muslim Ummah on the tragic demise of Abdullah Hussein's
0:20
Salah Aliah Osama Ali, his beloved family and companions.
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Yesterday we mourned the day of Ashura.
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The skies wept blood. On this day, the universe cried
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out. For this was the day where none
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other than Imam Hussein Alayhi Salaam, the Ark of Salvation,
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was martyred on the plains of Karbala.
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So we gather now to reflect on this tragic event, to take
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lessons away from the day of Ashura and to understand how
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this tragedy can help us move forward in our lives, to connect
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with our last panel to Allah and of course to the Holy Imam,
1:02
Alehi Salaam, alehi Salaam himself as well.
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Inshallah. Today we'll have a fascinating
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discussion talking about some of the lessons we can learn from
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the Holy Imam, how we can apply the lessons from him and wider
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lessons from the religion of Islam into our day-to-day lives,
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as well as of course, the introduction and the application
1:21
of the Holy Quran into our day-to-day lives.
1:24
So as always, I welcome my respected Co host, said Ali Rado
1:30
E Samwali Hussein. How you keep yourself?
1:43
Al Hamdallah hearts are heavy, but Hamdallah we are still alive
1:48
and able to go to Majalis and mourn Imam Hussein and this is a
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blessing from Allah. Hamdallah, Al Hamdallah, it's a
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blessing to be here again with you say that we've we've had the
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honor to to mourn the day of Ashura again and we have the
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opportunity to continue with with the work that we aim to do.
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And as always, we have another fascinating guest, a good
2:09
friend, dear brother Montezo Jafra.
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How you doing, brother Montezo? Firstly, it's it's so nice to
2:22
have you on. I know this podcast took some
2:25
time to happen. Finally, for those who don't
2:28
know, you are Hamdullah. You are a scholar in training, a
2:32
student honestly from from from the holy lands.
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And right now you are back home. How has your Muharram been?
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How was the day of? Arshallah for you.
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Sula Rahman Rahim, first of all, thanks so much for having me on.
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I think a lot of time when I, when people ask me, you're here
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and I'm like, yeah, I'm here for the summer and they say, but you
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left Muharram over there to come here.
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Like what's that about? I think that there's, there's a
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special charm to do Muharram in your home as much as there's a
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lot of Balakan doing it in the Holy Land, but there is a
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special chance to doing it at home.
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And I find, especially this Muharram, I found that one of
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the most beautiful things, especially about London, is just
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a variety of Majalis cultures, languages, mourning and
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spreading the message, saying they're very unique ways.
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Yeah. And I think that that was just
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beautiful and I missed that. One thing so obviously you and I
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have grown off together and one thing for those who know you
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Marshall, like you are known as, if you don't mind me saying, one
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man Mudslis. And you knew I was going to say
3:43
that. And it's because you Mashallah,
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are gifted in so many arts of practicing the Dean.
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And that could be through on recitation, it could be through
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Majalis and giving lectures, your recitations in every
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language and I mean every single language, your spoken word
4:00
poetry and Hamdallah now you're becoming, you're a student of
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the religion and inshallah we will learn from you in years to
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come. So we're really honoured, of
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course, to have you bro. If you don't mind me asking,
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when you look back on the last 10 nights and what you expected
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to gain from the 10 nights going into the Majalis, how do you
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feel looking back on it introspectively in terms of what
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you've learned? Have you gained what you wanted
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to gain and how do you feel now? So I think that ties in
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perfectly to to what what we want to talk about today and
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I'll answer the question. I think that coming into
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Muharram, coming into this Muharram especially, there was a
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huge question in my mind that OK, say that happened between
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the three of us, we've probably heard hundreds of hours of
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lectures, Some of them awesome. Some of them we loved.
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Some of them we didn't really like.
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Some of them we loved and we appreciate the content.
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Some of them we may have loved the content.
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But maybe, you know, the speaker was, for example, we, we didn't
5:03
take our boxes, not that he wasn't a good speaker.
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There's a lot of good speakers out there.
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But sometimes you know how it is, We sit at a lecture, we
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because of our shortcomings, fail to connect, right?
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So for me, it was about, all right, I'm going here, I'm
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listening to, for example, 1012 hours worth of pure Islamic
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content from the member. When I go away, am I 12 hours
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worth of Islamic content closer to God?
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Or am I exactly the same person that I was?
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To me, it doesn't make sense. It's, it's a waste of 12 hours.
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If I sit there, listen and come out exactly the same, the same
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way it would be a waste of, for example, years of going to the
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gym, if after years of going to the gym, you look exactly like
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you did before, right? So I think that fundamentally
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that was my question. Going in and coming out.
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I guess the only person that can answer that is myself and, and
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each and every one of us, we're accountable to only ourselves,
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even your significant other is not going to hold you to account
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about that. It's going to be you.
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And I think that's the journey of Islam as a whole.
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How can we reflect? Because you're saying it's down
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to us? I think it comes down to the the
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idea of Islam that we have in our heads.
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At the very core, you see, I think Islam for us has, I'm
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speaking to myself first, but I think that living in this life,
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getting caught up day-to-day, we know that.
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OK, here's here's our box, here's our red lines.
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We're not going to go outside of it.
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So for example, we won't go drink alcohol, We won't blast
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music and alcohol when we're driving down the street.
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Blast what we are. It's a different story.
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We're not going to blast music when we're driving down the
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street, right? We have these don'ts and maybe
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we have some dudes, for example, I press hollow every day.
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All right, aside from that, aside from religion being this
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red lines, these red lines, these parameters that we never
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cross in your day-to-day life. And I'm, I'm putting this
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question to you honestly, I, I don't, you don't need to answer
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on the mic. I just want to think about it.
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But aside from that, in your day-to-day life, when it comes
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to how you treat your kids, how you are at home, decisions you
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have to make in the workplace, decisions you have to make in
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social circles, every single day, man makes a numerous amount
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of decisions. Where does Islam fall in your
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criteria or in your pros and cons list when you're making a
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decision? It's interesting you say that.
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I'm thinking now I I think it happens automatic.
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I've never actually fought. Like if I want to do something,
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what does Islam say? But save my point is that that
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automatic realization is just those parameters.
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OK, am I crossing the line? Am I not crossing?
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I'm not going to. OK, I'm good.
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As long as there's no Haram for example, I'm chilling.
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But why? Why do we not go further than
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that? Like, are we genuinely happy to
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be on this basic lowest level of religion after hundreds of hours
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of lectures that we've sat through and.
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Listened to. That's very true.
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Right in, it's very interesting when you, when you try and
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introduce the concept of a mass panel at all, right?
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Even if you're talking to a Muslim, you know when you got in
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nature and you see mountains and you see trees and you see
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rivers, right? There's Subhan Allah, look at
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all this. You see this and then you tell
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me there's no God. What is according to some
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reports, what is what I'm saying, saying to Allah, Meta
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ribta, when were you ever away from me that I needed something
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to point me towards you? I'm not saying it's wrong.
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It's not wrong to say, wow, Subhan Allah, look at all this
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and then tell me there's no creator.
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That's perfect. But when do we take the next
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step and say, OK, you know what, Allah is here.
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I don't need to look around me to take me to Allah.
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Where's that next step? Why do we not push ourselves?
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That's that's the crux of the conversation that I want to have
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today and I want to delve and dive into that a little bit
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more. Why is Islam an afterthought as
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opposed to our nature? It's not, it's not our primary
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concern. It's a shame.
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Do you think it's because a lot of us feel like we, we, we live
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amongst a safety net and we are very comfortable in our circles
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and in, in our comfort zones of being able to benefit and take
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from which we enjoy. And you know, from the multitude
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of, of, of pockets of knowledge that we have access to, we pick
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and choose what we'd like and we leave at that.
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And a lot of us don't go above and beyond to gain the knowledge
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and then to make the effort to apply that into our lives.
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So let me give you an example. You mentioned the majalis.
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I think for a lot of the community, sometimes even
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including myself, I will use majalis as my source of
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knowledge, which I don't think is correct or sufficient because
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majalis are there, in my opinion, they should be there
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for reminders and they should be supplementary to to the
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knowledge that I'm gaining myself, the research I'm doing
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myself. But perhaps sometimes we feel so
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comfortable in what we have access to, so we do not extend
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further, and therefore we limit Islam and practice of Islam to
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the areas in our life where we feel comfortable to practice
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Islam. And then when I step into it,
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like you mentioned, the workplace, your university,
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wherever it might be, you become a different person, you assume a
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different identity and you you wear a different hat and you
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begin to engage differently to when you are in the Masjid
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Sumama Hussein alayhi Salaam, for example.
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And like you said, sometimes we just consider the wajibat and we
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may not consider the musta habaat and all of the other
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things, what might be makarur or even not, not even what's what's
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wrong and what's right, but what might be beloved by our last
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partner, Ta'ala. There are things which are loved
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by Allah, which are maybe mobile for argument's sake, you know,
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in the sense of from from a hokum charity perspective.
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Do you get me? So do you think it's perhaps
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because we don't go above and beyond in our own practice of
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Islam and what we consume of Islam to then apply outside of
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Islamic circles, if that makes sense?
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Yeah, I think you've hit the nail on the head.
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I think that we stay in our comfort zones, right?
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But taking it one step further, I think that that causes
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something. And what it causes is that it
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causes us to become passive in our approach.
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We take Islam, what we learn from the age of what, 6556 up
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until the age of 1718, right? That's where our parents trying
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to drill into us. Once you get to 18/19/20, you're
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making your own decisions based on the framework that you've
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built. So it's those years that we're
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consuming this content, this knowledge, right?
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But after that, what happens is all we do is use that framework
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going forward in our lives. I don't think we do enough to
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continue building on that as opposed to just relying on what
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we've done in those years. So what happens is in the future
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years, we start to become very passive.
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We start to say, all right, you know what?
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I have my Islam, I know my Islam and that's it.
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But the reality is that passiveness is not enough in
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Islam. And I'll give you an example
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from the Quran, right? I'll ask you right now, answer
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me this. What is the meaning of Rahman?
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What is it mean of? Rahman on the basic level, I'll
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say mercy. Mercy, yeah.
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Mercy. We all know it means mercy.
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What does it mean when we say that we are looking or Allah is
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the most Merciful? It means that we either did
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something wrong, right, or we didn't do something right.
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Mr. Salah, Allah right. Can you see how that's passive?
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Or we did something wrong and we're hoping in the mercy of
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Allah, Spano at Allah because of our lack of action or action in
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the wrong way, we're just hoping in His mercy.
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Do you mean because we rely on the lenience of Allah?
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Yeah, we. Just rely on that, right?
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But what does Allah say in the Quran?
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So even to attain this mercy which is not yours, it's not
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your doing. It's Allah's mercy that we've
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been relying on because of our lack of action.
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But in order to do that, you need to do something Allah,
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Allah the prophet. It's not passive.
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You can't just do something wrong or not do something right
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and then say, yeah, God. God's forgiving, God's merciful.
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So the idea of being passive in Islam is not there, right?
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Everything about Islam is an active endeavour, which which I
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think our us in our communities seem to lack beyond a certain
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point. Your kids are in the madrasa
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until the age of what, 1617? What about after that?
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It's all well, It's amazing. In fact, it's not just all well
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and good. It's really good to be focused
14:06
on producing the best doctors, the best lawyers, the best
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engineers, the best pharmacist that the world has ever seen.
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It's a noble objective about what cost, right?
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So I think that it needs to be the case where we build more on
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that because knowing things is not enough.
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Passiveness is when you take what you know and you just keep
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it and you rely on it. But is knowledge enough?
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If knowledge was enough, did not have knowledge about Imam Ali,
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did the people at the time not have knowledge that when the
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Prophet was speaking about loving his family, he was
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talking about Fatima? Did they not have knowledge of
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Imam and Hussein? They did, but it took whole who
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didn't just have the knowledge to say that.
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I would say the same thing back to you about your mother, but
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your mother's Swatham Tazara. He knew it, but that wasn't
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enough until he took action on that knowledge.
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And on the day of Ashura, he said, I see myself choosing
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between heaven and hell. He can have the knowledge.
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It's not good enough. So I saw Allah in that moment.
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He saw what is it that Allah, Subhanahu wata Allah wants from
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me. On a basic level, I know this is
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the son of Amir. I know.
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That's why I told my army to pray behind him.
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That's why I couldn't respond in kind when he told me that.
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I couldn't say it back because I know.
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But until the morning of the 10th, he was destined for the
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Hellfire. Do you think it's that there's
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there's an element of Marafa on this?
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So knowing in the case of heart as an example, knowledge of the
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Imam from a descriptive and an aesthetic level is one thing to
15:58
know his, you know, his family lineage, to know his status in
16:02
Omaha and whatnot. But Manafar of the Imam will
16:05
extend beyond that. Of course, the enemies of the
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Imam knew the status of the Imam.
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They knew how they were related to Salaam Muhammad, sallallahu
16:11
alaihi of Salaam, for example. But the Manafar of the Imam kind
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of acted as the catalyst for her to make that decision.
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And in the same way for us in our, in our kind of predicaments
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and our dilemmas that we face on a daily basis, magnifier of our
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present Imam will perhaps, you know, encourage us to make the
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right call to make the right decision as well.
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And I, I just want to ask you something as well, and maybe you
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can correct me if I'm wrong. But magnifier of the Imam is one
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thing. But of course we know that when
16:45
we always talk about hadith Akalain and the relationship
16:48
that Imam Hussain Aleh Salaam had with the Holy Quran was so
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unique on so many levels, whether it's in his biography
16:55
prior to Karbala, when he would bring the Quran into his life.
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He there I, I, I read a story a couple of days ago about how the
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Holy Imam actually got a teacher for his children to teach them
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so to Fatah. And so not that he couldn't, but
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he wanted to show the community that you should invest in things
17:15
like that. And he would overpay and
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overcompensate the teacher for his children to show them that
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the Quran was of such great status.
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But beyond that as well, obviously, we know from from the
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Makatu that the Imam wanted an extra day so he could spend the
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night in worship and prayer reading the holy of Quran.
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All the last words he uttered were the words of the holy of
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Quran. A last point to Allah honours
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him in Suratu Faja, which is the sort of imabi saying we are the
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verse behind me. You know, we talk about Nasir
17:42
Mahatma in there. And so it's a fudger.
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There's so many of us. Before the podcast, we were
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talking about the whole of the mokata art, you know, Kafaiya
17:48
Einstad, like there's so many parallels to draw between the
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Quran and the AL Beita Lehima Salaam Manafort of the Imam is I
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think is so important. But is there, is there an like
17:59
an equivalent when it comes to Manafort of the Holy Quran?
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I think there definitely is. I think that the Quran is almost
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the missing piece of the puzzle sometimes.
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Like we, we have so much respect for the a little bit that it
18:21
seeps into our everyday life sometimes.
18:23
Like look at us right now, we're all wearing black.
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We're not wearing black because we chose to colour coordinate.
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We're wearing black because we have an affinity towards Imam
18:32
Hussein that seeps into our life come the time of his
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commemoration. We're wearing black because we
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know in Muharram we are in a state of grief.
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There are certain communities and I'm sure you've come across
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them as well as I do. They do not do certain things
18:47
during the 10 days of Muharram out of respect.
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They refrain. Some people don't get haircuts,
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some people don't play football. Today I was speaking to some to
18:56
a brother who told me like there was a couple of brothers having
18:59
a conversation and they said he's signing up football and he
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goes, it's the 1st 10 days of Muharram, I'm out.
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It's it's not disrespectful to play football, but because he
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has this level of knowledge that I am in the state that I am in
19:16
right now. I do not want to do this because
19:21
I am in this grief, right? So there is that, and it seeps
19:24
into our daily life that handle love.
19:26
As well as a sign of respect. Exactly.
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But I think we we're lacking towards God in other places in
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our life. How many people do we know when
19:34
it comes to a Willow that they buy their kids ice cream when it
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comes to a fart, they tell their kids, OK, listen, no TV today
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because we're we're we are in this household.
19:41
We are commemorating. So it does seep into our daily
19:44
life. What about the Quran?
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What happens there? Quran comes kids come sit down.
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Here's your IR that you're on today.
19:51
Two IRS close the Quran or done for today, right.
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And partially I think that and you guys can correct me if I'm
19:59
wrong, but from my experience. I've seen almost a fear of
20:05
getting close to the Quran, right.
20:09
If I told if you didn't know anything about Islamic, you know
20:11
anything about the Quran and I told you that listen, your life
20:15
as a human is going to come with tests and trials and
20:17
tribulations. Well in a blue and nikum bishe
20:19
in minal hofi well Jew one aksa minal M1 well emphas well
20:23
thamarat, it's going to happen. You're going to lose things.
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We're going to test you, Bishe in Minal Hof.
20:29
Fear, Jew, hunger and loss. Loss of what?
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Mal people? The Your, your whatever you've
20:36
earned, you're going to lose it. We're going to test you.
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Well, then everyone like we will, right?
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But if I told you that there's a book somewhere, Go, go to this
20:46
library. Pick up this book from the
20:48
bookshelf. I'm telling you, read it.
20:50
Read it properly. Read it carefully and have all
20:53
the answers you'll ever need. It doesn't sound real like to
20:58
someone who's not been exposed to this.
21:00
That's because we haven't read it exactly.
21:02
But the concept of it is so abstract to the outside world,
21:05
it does not sound real, right? There's there's no such thing as
21:10
an instruction manual for life, except there is, right?
21:14
So there's this fear of getting into it because it's like, the
21:18
more I get in, the more I'm going to take out.
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What if I can't handle what I take out, right?
21:22
But the answer is that, well, my, my, my honest thoughts are
21:27
that the Quran, there is no rule against you delzing into the
21:31
Quran on your own. It's not like understanding the
21:34
Quran is conditioned on there being a scholar to teach it to
21:38
you. Baba, open the Quran, read one
21:40
verse, reflects on it a little bit.
21:42
Take what you can from it. If you take that thing
21:45
implemented in your life there, there's no barriers between you
21:48
and the Quran. And I think we need to stop
21:50
acting like there are because that's going to take us further
21:53
away from the Quran, right? And I think it also goes back to
21:57
understanding that none of these things can work in an abstract.
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You can't understand the presence of God in an abstract
22:05
without having the Quran in your life.
22:07
You can't have the Quran in your life without having the elevate
22:09
in your life. You can't have the elevate in
22:11
your life but then forget the Quran and leave.
22:13
God doesn't work. These things come all together
22:16
as a holistic package to make the perfect religion.
22:19
And who? The hadith of Catalan makes it
22:20
clear that they do go hand in. Hand they will never separate
22:27
you will never go astray and they will never separate until
22:30
Qatar right so the Quran is like really the key to this and to
22:37
show that they're interlinked you just have to look at the
22:40
life of Imam Hussein and then go back to the Quran and see that
22:43
bro these two are like it's like reading the life of Mark Hussein
22:47
in the book the. Quran, they do go hand in hand.
22:52
While you were talking, I was remembering a conversation I had
22:55
with a friend many years ago. By the way, this memory just
22:57
came back now And we were like, we were having a common between
23:00
each other, like, why are we really not into our Quranic
23:04
recitations, Quranic readings, Like, why are we slacking so
23:06
much? And my friend said something
23:09
very interesting. He he said, the more I read the
23:11
Quran, the more I feel like I have to become more religious.
23:14
So I'm happy where I am. And it goes back to the point
23:17
you were mentioning earlier where we just want to do the
23:19
basics and nothing more. But I think we have to do more.
23:22
I need, we've just come up from the Mazalis of Muharram.
23:26
I need, we have to stop this business where we say Quran is
23:30
just before the measureless. A Quran is just.
23:32
I could of course, see if we're travelling a Quran, if it's a
23:34
relative that's passed away, we have to really connect and
23:37
understand it full well. Yeah.
23:40
And and why Like I remember now, I was reading the other day the
23:43
the Wasiya of Amir Al Muneen Ali Salam to his sons, Imam Hassan
23:46
and Imam Hassan, when he references the Quran.
23:50
Yeah. And and he says make sure this
23:52
message, whoever reason implements it as well.
23:55
Like there's an emphasis on the Quran that we should learn from.
24:00
If we say we are Shiava Miramumani, if we say we are
24:03
Hosseini, you know Habibi. They stood with the Quran.
24:06
Yeah, everything was Quranic about them.
24:09
Imam Ali was Quran and Natak. And do you know what said even
24:12
just to add, like a lot of the, we, some of some of us
24:16
unfortunately, and I think coming back to the point of
24:19
understanding Imam and what he stood for and, and what happened
24:23
before, during and now in these days, after Karbala, everything
24:27
ties in with Allah's other and the mission of the Imam hand in
24:32
hand with the other of Allah, span of Allah.
24:34
And unfortunately, some of us when we attend Majalis, we, we
24:38
unknowingly do it for selfish reasons.
24:40
So we will go and we will look for enlightenment, we'll go and
24:44
we'll look for healing and, and whatnot.
24:47
Even then on that level, that's OK.
24:49
Because I think like you said, Allah is Ahmad Rahman.
24:52
And so as well Allah says when Nazilu, when the Nazulu mahalo
24:58
Quran, mahua shefar, if I'm not mistaken, we've set down the
25:02
Quran as a shefar and a mercy to those believers.
25:06
And the idea being is that we, we are able to gain that shefar
25:10
from the Holy Quran because for our spiritual diseases and for
25:13
the things that we look for in terms of Afia and contentment
25:17
and and tranquility in our hearts.
25:21
The tranquility that Imam Hussein had when he lost his
25:24
life and he returned to his Lord as a contented soul who was
25:27
pleased with Allah and Allah was pleased with him.
25:30
A lot of that can be found, if not all of that can be found in
25:33
the Holy Quran because he was the embodiment of the Holy
25:35
Quran. He is the son of revelation.
25:37
And everything that we learned from his life was done in such a
25:41
way where he followed the Quran in his day-to-day actions and he
25:45
lived by the Quran. It's we're doing a disservice to
25:48
the Holy Imam if we if we claim to be his Shia and we have no
25:52
relationship with. Quran it's you know when they
25:54
say that the Quran and Nathak or the Imam Ali or the Quran and
25:59
Nathak, right? If you look at it from the
26:01
perspective of somebody who 1400 years later is trying to follow
26:04
this path, it almost fits in like a flow chart.
26:07
All right, a last panel to Allah has revealed the Quran who then
26:10
Linus, right? That's what the Quran is.
26:13
It's a guidance for mankind, right?
26:16
So we have that. So we know that, OK, we believe
26:19
in the last panel to Allah and he's revealed the Quran.
26:22
OK, Then we read the Quran and we say, all right, know what
26:24
this stuff is? It's useful, it's heavy.
26:29
How does it apply to me? What can I do in my daily life?
26:31
Where do you look? You look to the M Ali Masala and
26:34
how they live their life because they are the talking Quran.
26:40
That book that Hood and Linna's is them.
26:43
Yeah, we always, we, we get hung up on these conversations of
26:47
Imam Ali in the Quran. Where is Imam Ali in the Quran?
26:50
Where is they're there? I'm not saying they're not
26:52
there. But when do we stop to look for
26:54
the Quran in Ali? Where do we stop to look for the
26:57
Quran in Ali Hussein? You look at these people and you
27:00
see that these people are living the life that a loss of Hanu
27:04
Muthala has set out for us to live in the Quran.
27:07
And I'll give you one example. There is in the Quran, in black
27:12
and white, a formula for achieving success.
27:15
It is absolutely simple. You will never achieve success.
27:24
Lend in the future, you will never achieve success, right.
27:31
We're talking about, we're talking about money in.
27:32
The back of finance. We're talking about that.
27:34
We're talking about the real true meaning of success.
27:37
So not only if you, if you go into the tafasir, there's
27:41
definitions of bill, right? How bill comes from bill.
27:45
Well, there's huge definitions of bill.
27:48
So not only has Allah given us success and what it means, but
27:52
he told us how to do it until you give from that which you
27:58
love. What did Allah Hussein do when
28:01
it came to protecting the religion?
28:03
Name me one thing he didn't give.
28:06
What's money? Mom said.
28:09
I was holding his six month old child in his arms.
28:12
He gave it. He gave it.
28:13
He gave it and go. And then what did he say?
28:17
How? When am I and who?
28:20
It's easier. What is there upon me?
28:23
What's happening upon me is easy for me because it's under the
28:26
eyes of Allah, which is also in itself.
28:28
That statement in and of itself is another living manifestation
28:32
of the Quran. Allah says we said this.
28:36
I will test you with everything. Hunger, fear, loss of children,
28:43
loss of livelihood, everything. But what did you say Arthur?
28:46
Why best share of Saberine A Levine?
28:50
Give good, give glad tidings to the patient.
28:53
And Levine ET al, Asar Bethu musi Bethun.
28:56
When tragedy befalls them, what do they say?
29:01
Yes, those words are in the Quran, but the fundamental
29:04
principle of it is that when it befalls you, the first thing you
29:07
do is you turn to a lost parent. This person's lost his whole
29:10
family. He's lost his children.
29:12
He knows that as soon as he dies, these enemies are going to
29:16
come and they're going to set fire to the tents and they're
29:17
going to take it to him in captive.
29:19
But he takes a moment to say that whatever's happening on me
29:22
is easy. Why?
29:24
Because you're watching. Because it's under your eyes to
29:28
make Allah the center of your life like that.
29:32
Now compare that to us, to me, where I'm saying in this day and
29:38
age that you know what? I'm happy where I am with
29:39
myself. I don't drink, I don't listen to
29:41
music. I'm happy.
29:43
What are we doing? Where are we going?
29:46
Right? We need to push ourselves that
29:48
little bit more. What would you say are a few
29:50
practical tips we can we can do to achieve this?
29:54
Because I know many listening, myself included, it's like, OK,
29:57
I want to do more. Two weeks ago me and I haven't
29:59
had an episode where like there's more we can learn from
30:01
Ashura, from from Karbala. There has to be more.
30:03
What can we do? I think one of the things is
30:07
that we need to, I heard this once in a, in a, in a talk, we
30:12
need to stop reverse engineering with the Quran.
30:16
The likes of yourselves who are very active in the community,
30:19
right? You know, this more than I do
30:22
that a lot of the times in the community, we go, we find
30:26
something to do, we find an initiative, we find a project.
30:30
And then when it comes to launching it in the speech,
30:33
we'll be like, all right, what does it say in the Quran about
30:36
this? Where can I find the ayah to put
30:38
in the beginning of my speech to show people that what I'm doing
30:42
it's part of? Like, it's in the Quran, it's in
30:44
the hadith. We're trying to make the Quran
30:46
fit off. Go look at the Quran.
30:49
Look at the Quran. Read the Quran a little bit.
30:51
Yeah, sit down, think about it and say, you know what?
30:55
Here is a gap and it's what the Quran is saying.
30:59
Let's go there. Then your whole foundation is
31:02
based on the Quran. Not only that, but you.
31:05
And I guarantee you the scholars will tell you more than I will.
31:08
The students of knowledge will tell you more than me that when
31:11
you start looking at one part of the Quran, it will lead you to
31:15
that part, that will lead you to that part, that will lead you
31:17
here, that will lead you there. Like just today in the
31:20
conversation we've had, the amount of like Quran that are
31:26
there. You were talking about malafa,
31:29
right? The baseline of malafa is what?
31:31
When a person knows himself, he knows what he worships and
31:39
therefore he knows his Lord. Doesn't say man, Allah, Allah,
31:42
Allah. He said he knows who his Lord is
31:46
because you know yourself. What does it say about that in
31:50
the Quran? Have you seen that person who
31:55
has taken his desires to be his Lord?
31:57
If you know yourself, you know who is it that you Revere and
32:01
who is it that you worship and is that Allah?
32:03
If it's not, we need to recenter.
32:05
Do you see what I'm saying? You open up a conversation about
32:08
the Quran, you open up a conversation about the a little
32:10
bit and link it to the Quran. You will go from here to there
32:13
to there to there. Before you know it, your
32:15
knowledge will be expanding. But like we said, knowledge is
32:20
not enough. It's not enough.
32:23
What I would say is say it to answer.
32:26
To answer the question is that we need to start reading the
32:29
Quran a bit less like a book that was revealed 1400 years ago
32:36
and a bit more like I actually like an instruction manual.
32:40
When you go to IKEA and you buy a shelf, you don't sit there and
32:44
recite the instruction booklet while the shelf is running the
32:46
way there. You read it.
32:48
Step one, take the screws and put it in these holes.
32:51
Oh, but you pick up the screws, you screw it in the hole.
32:53
Shout. Out to IKEA you.
32:55
Know what I mean? You don't just sit there.
32:58
That's not true. So we need to start picking up
33:00
the screws, yeah, and putting them in the holes.
33:03
I love it. I love that analogy.
33:05
Yeah, absolutely. In the next 3-4 weeks, obviously
33:09
in the build up to other way in, a lot of us will try our hardest
33:14
to keep up momentum. And I think this is probably
33:17
something on the minds of a lot of people who have now concluded
33:21
the 10 net 10 days, the 10 nights and who are trying their
33:27
hardest. And obviously the day after
33:29
Ashura for a lot of us is probably the hardest because
33:33
that's the day where you are emotionally, physically,
33:35
spiritually, arguably exhausted. You're shattered and drained.
33:39
And we all know the feeling after you've cried for hours and
33:42
hours and hours, especially in the day of the Mokdan, you are
33:46
physically drained. The day after, in your mind
33:50
there is a waswasa saying, now you can relax.
33:54
Ashwala has done you've, you've, you've done your mostiba.
33:58
You've cried. Now you can relax a bit.
34:01
You don't have to wear black all the time.
34:03
You don't have to stop joking and do you know what I mean?
34:07
You can start to go back to your old ways.
34:09
This, of course, we know is wrong.
34:11
But it's an uphill battle in essence.
34:14
And keeping the momentum between now and Arbayein and of course,
34:19
Arbayein should be on par. Of course, we had an amazing
34:23
lecture from said said Abdullah Naqib.
34:26
Of course, he was on last week on after Maghreb.
34:28
He mentioned in one of his lectures about the five sides of
34:30
the believer, one of which of course is yard to Aruba in and
34:34
there's yard of Aruba in which we inshallah are looking forward
34:37
to is so pivotal for us. So we should now be aspiring to
34:41
reach there to be in a better place to where we are now.
34:44
How do we not only just sustain where we are, but improve on
34:48
where we are? Because now we have 40 days, we
34:51
have 40 days. This is amazing.
34:53
We have 40 days as opposed to the 10 we've just had to
34:56
continue the progress, to continue the search for
34:58
knowledge and understanding ourselves before understanding
35:02
our last kanal to Allah, understanding our Holy Imam.
35:05
How do we continue that to the point where we arrive at the
35:07
point of abbaeen, the zyad of Imam Hussain Alayhi Salaam and
35:11
present ourselves to the Imam in his service to say I have I have
35:15
made it this way. I've come this far and I'm at
35:18
your service, your your absolute service and service to the Imam,
35:22
the service to Allah and serves to the Imam of our time and
35:24
service to our last problems or other.
35:26
How do we get to that stage? That's I think for me is
35:28
probably my biggest question. So I think that we need to
35:33
analyse what happens once we feel drained.
35:36
I think it's completely normal, it's completely human to finish
35:39
the 10 nights of Muharram and collapse, right?
35:42
Especially, especially when I know these volunteers that work
35:46
so tirelessly, right? Come the 11th day of Mahalam,
35:52
they're drained. Physically, they're finished.
35:56
I don't blame them. What happens after that?
35:59
The question for me would be, once I'm drained, where am I
36:03
getting my strength back from? What is my motivation if I get
36:08
my strength back from lounging around watching Netflix,
36:12
relaxing, taking my mind completely away from Muharram
36:16
and Muhammad Hussein and everything that I've heard and
36:19
the Majalis and the Husseiniyah? I need to question myself.
36:23
Yeah. But if I again physically take a
36:27
day recuperate, right? I'm not saying finish the 12th
36:31
of Muharram on 13th. I want you back in the
36:32
Husseiniyah, back on the pots, starting the game and all.
36:35
Doesn't need to be like that. But where do you get your
36:38
strength from? What it the ideal world?
36:43
Again, we're not living in an ideal world, but the ideal world
36:47
in my eyes. And something that's you see it
36:49
has to be sustainable because the last thing you want is for
36:54
you to be on this high-powered steam train until Urbain, you
36:58
land in Heathrow, get back to your house and you're dead for
37:02
the next year until the mineral Harlem kicks in.
37:04
That's not what we want. We need to implement sustainable
37:07
changes such that throughout the year we can continue this,
37:11
right? So I would say that for someone
37:13
like myself who's who's quite weak willed in that way, right?
37:16
What we do is what what I would do is, and again, this is very
37:20
like this is like going down to the nitty semantics of how to do
37:24
it. Everyone can have their
37:25
different approaches, but this is this is my honest opinion.
37:28
Once you're drained, right? Take a day, recuperate, fine.
37:31
Then think back. People like me only go to one
37:35
messages a day, but I know there are people out there that do two
37:38
or three a day, right? That's 2-3 hours of solid
37:43
content, right? Take 11 lecture.
37:49
All right, 2 * 12 is 24. Let's say you've gone to two a
37:53
date, you've heard 24 lectures or even 2 * 1020 lectures,
37:58
right? Take one of those lectures.
38:01
Actually internalize it. Live it.
38:03
What did the speaker say on this day?
38:05
Why did it resonate with you so much?
38:08
You know, I once heard a person say that if you felt attacked by
38:13
a lecturer who's lecturing, then you need to go back and be like,
38:18
yeah, don't stop blaming the speaker.
38:19
Why? You're attacking me.
38:20
Oh, but he's not attacking you. He's talking about advice.
38:23
If I have advice, I have advice. Why is Why is it offending me?
38:25
That's. He's talking about Libra.
38:26
OK, I do Libra like it's my bad. I need to change it.
38:29
Don't attack the speaker. He's doing his job, right?
38:32
True. Right, the, the point is, take
38:35
that one lecture, internalize it.
38:37
Why did it strike a chord with you?
38:39
Why did why is that the one that stuck in your head?
38:42
Maybe it's because that one that was the one you found most
38:44
relevant to you. And that's what you need to
38:45
change, right? And work on changing that every
38:50
two weeks, every month, take another lecture.
38:54
By the next time there'll be more lectures come out.
38:56
Take it, use it, follow your favorite speaker.
39:00
Just take something to take you to that next step, but make it
39:04
sustainable. That's my, that's my honest.
39:08
My honest approach would be this.
39:10
That's that's a beautiful advice.
39:11
And I think it's one I can implement now because I'm
39:13
thinking, you're right. You know, I, I can consume hours
39:16
of lectures a week. Yeah, I need outside of
39:19
Muharram. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
39:20
I can literally listen to two or three lectures a week at
39:23
minimum. And I have forced myself that's
39:26
so I can learn something or I, I want to be up to date with the
39:30
series they're doing, for example.
39:32
But that means I took that initiative to do that.
39:35
And I can do that similar thing with the Quran, for example.
39:37
But what I want to focus on is something that you mentioned
39:39
earlier, like this is very similar to Ramadan.
39:42
It's like Ramadan, we build up spirituality, it comes then
39:46
somehow everyone has a freedom pass, like we're back to normal,
39:49
everyone's back to square one. We even see, for example, those
39:51
who became so close to a loss of all of a sudden you're like
39:55
crash land. 24 hours ago you were praying Salah Saleh and now
39:59
you're missing every single prayer throughout the day.
40:01
So I think we have to take some accountability of what is it
40:04
that we want from God? What is that relationship?
40:06
Is that relation fair of this Hellfire or is that relationship
40:09
worthy of him being worshipped? Because there's so much
40:12
questions. We need to, I need, and I'm
40:15
having forced money right now. I don't want to share because
40:17
there's so much I need to improve on in my own life.
40:20
But one thing I would say is that I don't think, to add to
40:24
your point, Habibi, that I don't think we have been able to
40:27
structure our lives to allow God to answer it.
40:31
Because I'm not going to blame distractions for everything.
40:33
But we don't have to divide our time.
40:35
Yeah. And we spend perhaps 8, some
40:37
people do 12 hour shifts a day. You come home, there's no time
40:41
for your family, let alone to Allah.
40:42
I said I want to zoom out. I want to zoom out even more.
40:46
You're saying there's no time to split your life.
40:48
God shouldn't be one of the categories.
40:51
No, I think it should don't don't get me wrong.
40:53
And I and I based that based on the hadith by Emir al Mamunin
40:56
where someone asks them how do I spend my day and he said you
40:58
should divide into 33 parts. One one third is to a Las
41:02
Panotala, the 2nd is towards earning a living if I'm not
41:05
mistaking and the third is enjoy what's halal to you.
41:08
OK, so so I agree with you. Yeah, I agree with you.
41:10
God should be one of. Let's say God should be one.
41:12
Of sorry, I wasn't disagreeing. No, no, no, no.
41:14
But my point is that if just because we keep him in one part
41:17
doesn't mean he is not present in the other part, I think
41:20
that's what we need to work on. I, I, I think that Hamdallah,
41:25
Hamdallah, Hamdallah. I'm I'm proud of our communities
41:28
to say that Salah is held a very high regard in our communities,
41:31
right? You and I grew up together.
41:33
Like you said, we know this. We go play sports on a Saturday
41:36
night. There will be a hard stop comes
41:38
a lot of time. Whatever is happening, we'll sit
41:40
down, we'll pray, then we'll go back to the game, right.
41:43
But my point is that if we section off our time and we
41:47
dedicate OK, family, this that whatever it may be, and we have
41:51
a Las panata in there, all well and good.
41:54
That should be extra, the idea that Allah, spanawata Allah,
41:59
should be the bedrock of our entire life, whether it's
42:03
university, whether it's school, whether it's work, there should
42:07
always be this constant remembrance of Allah.
42:11
And when we say vicar, I don't mean spanos, pallas, pallah.
42:13
No, no, no, that's not what I mean.
42:16
But you see God in all your actions, I mean.
42:19
I think it's also about making ordinary things.
42:22
I'll be more conscious I. Think yeah, when I said earlier,
42:24
I don't know if if I if I made myself clear, but when I said
42:27
sometimes things that are MOBA are sometimes beloved, but I'll
42:30
laugh. But I mean, for example, like
42:31
when you eat, you can make eating an ordinary thing
42:35
activity. Well, you can turn it into an
42:37
act of victor. Do you know what I mean?
42:39
You think about the etiquette of eating.
42:40
You talk, you say you say you're Bismillah, the the halal and and
42:44
the Haram. Obviously that goes without
42:46
saying. But also overeating.
42:49
Thinking about Hadi, thinking about the etiquette of eating
42:51
from the Sallallah peace be upon him and his family.
42:53
But like there's so many different ways of engaging with
42:56
something in your day-to-day life.
42:57
One thing which I bring up a lot on the podcast is like in my
43:01
work life and the way I speak to clients and the way I react.
43:05
And when I have a client who is rude to me on the phone and how
43:10
I react and when I when I hang up the phone, how I keep myself
43:13
calm. When I quote a client, am I
43:16
ripping them off? I've told you this example so
43:17
many times, but making something which is ordinary part of our
43:21
day-to-day life or part of our our our relationship with our.
43:24
Just two, two small things to mention one that really stuck
43:28
with me when I heard it right. There was a lecturer once who
43:32
mentioned that. You know how every time we, we
43:39
come close to something significant.
43:40
So for example, we're driving and you know about to change
43:45
lanes and all of a sudden you see a car come right past you
43:49
and you swerve and you stay in your lane, right?
43:51
What's the first one that comes? Out of your mouth, Yeah.
44:00
We remember God there. When you go home and you tell
44:03
your family, they're like, bro, God saved you.
44:06
Other when there's not been the last 100 journeys, I've had not
44:09
had an Ms. who saved me. All those times it's not been
44:12
me. That's a reality check, yeah.
44:15
I must find Allah save me every time I drive.
44:17
It's not just when I have a name.
44:18
Mr. Allah says yeah, you know what bro, come here, it's not
44:20
your time. You're saving every time God is
44:23
ever present in your life that that that is what we really need
44:28
to wake up to right And I think that once we have that
44:34
realization that at the crux of it.
44:40
One that this is the second point that I wanted to share
44:42
that one of the practical ways of remembering Allah span of
44:46
Thailand. Everything that you do, whether
44:48
it's sitting down to eat, whether you're starting the car
44:50
for a journey, whether it's after a long journey and you've
44:52
reached that place. Just remember, were it not for
44:55
Allah, were it not for Allah, what would happen if at any
45:01
single point in time, last panata Allah took his mercy off
45:05
me, took his gaze off me, I would cease to exist.
45:10
It's not just about I would cease to have the money.
45:14
I haven't. But you would not be there.
45:17
Not not that a last panata. Allah doesn't bless you extra.
45:20
If he turns away from you for a millisecond, you're gone.
45:24
You're on nothingness. You know those people that are
45:28
on life support machines, right? You've seen in in these comedy
45:32
movies sometimes, right? Someone's on life support
45:34
machine. The guy needs to charge his
45:35
phone and goes to the plug, takes out the last full machine,
45:39
plugs in his phone, realizes what he's done, goes back and
45:42
plugs in and lasts. It's too late.
45:44
If we remove that plug, If that plug is removed for a second,
45:47
guy's gone, right? This is how a last part Tyler
45:51
should be in our lives. This is how we need to
45:54
internalise and genuinely understand the fact that if it
45:59
were not for Allah. And that's why that's why I keep
46:01
using this catch phrase because all you have to do is sit down
46:03
at the table and just have that thought for five seconds.
46:06
If it were not for Allah, So what would happen?
46:10
That's how to a practical tip of how to genuinely make yourself
46:15
aware of Allah in every situation that you find yourself
46:19
sent. Also thank you so much bro.
46:22
It's been a pleasure. You've been truly enlightening
46:25
and I, I could not thank you more.
46:28
I think this is the right conversation.
46:29
I'm truly the best conversation we needed to hear after these
46:33
ten nights to help us reflect on on so much that we've just
46:37
experienced in terms of knowledge, in terms of mourning.
46:42
So thank you so much and we ask our sponsor, Allah to continue
46:45
to give you Tofiq in everything you do, the head.
46:48
May you do the knowledge you're gaining and seeking and sharing,
46:51
of course, with the people around you and for you to
46:53
always, always be counted amongst the ones who receive the
46:56
intercession of about the lad Hussein Islam in Dunya and
47:00
Aharam. May you always be granted the
47:01
Ziada, Amman Hussein, the Islam, and may you be raised amongst
47:05
the ones who are alongside him, Inshallah.
47:09
Just just a quick note to also pray for the top vehicle of all
47:14
the speakers who have been over the last 10 nights.
47:17
Hundreds, if not thousands of people have been travelling in
47:20
the world to spread the message of Abdullah.
47:23
Some of them we know of, some of them, most of them we don't know
47:26
of. Travelling to big communities,
47:29
small communities, popular places, remote places.
47:33
Whoever they are, wherever they are, increase them in all their
47:36
top vehicle and accept all their services inshallah.
47:41
Thank you so much. I hope it's not last time we
47:43
have you on Sharla again. It'd be my pleasure.
47:46
Sharla next we see you on the pulpit sharing this knowledge
47:49
with Sharla. Say it over to you.
47:53
You know what? What was our Rihanna?
47:54
We go way back just before we end the Annie.
47:56
We've been majalis together. We've been different communities
48:00
together. I've seen you recite on the
48:02
pulpit. I've seen people have
48:04
recitations from your own spoken word poetry.
48:07
And now it's nice to see you also as a student of knowledge.
48:10
This is an encouragement, Michelle, not just for me and
48:12
for other people out there that everyone can pursue knowledge.
48:15
Like don't take it little don't think of it.
48:19
I know it's only for those who go on the pulpit.
48:21
Not anyone can do it. And Michelle, that's a lesson
48:24
where we can say, you know what if we say what Hosseini and we
48:27
say what she and we say, you know, we we are holding on to
48:30
the Tucker Lane that pursuit of knowledge is to always be there,
48:35
not just learning it, but implementing it.
48:37
And one thing I had in mind beforehand is that one thing
48:41
that helps me at times, and I do this with my children all the
48:44
time, is when they ask me a question, can I do this or can I
48:48
do that? If I know it's wrong and they
48:50
don't know what's wrong, I would say, what do you think Allah
48:53
wants? And then they will try to answer
48:56
it from a very innocent point of view of, OK, no, maybe God
49:01
doesn't like that because it may be something that Shaytan likes.
49:03
Like that's the mindset that they have as little children.
49:06
And I think as adults we can do better than that.
49:08
And you know, does this act please Imam and Mehdi?
49:11
Does it just please Imam Mehdi, These are questions which shall.
49:15
Ask OK guys and Shala, we will be back next week.
49:20
So stay tuned and continue to support.
49:23
And I also just want to thank all of you on behalf of the
49:26
whole team here for engaging, sharing, commenting and praying
49:31
for us as well. We've received so many amazing
49:33
kind of war messages. We've lost a couple of weeks.
49:36
So thank you so much. We'll be back next week and make
49:39
sure to spread the word. We'll see you then.
49:41
Take care of some Alicum Hamilton like.