Juz’ 22 Qur’an 30 for 30
In the twenty-second episode of this Ramadan series, Dr. Omar Suleiman and
Sh. Abdullah Oduro, joined by special guest Dr. Rania Awaad, explore gems
from the twenty-second Juz’ of the Holy Quran.
Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone. Welcome back to
Qur’an 30 for 30. Alhamdulillah wa salatu wassalamu ala rasulullah wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. I want to remind everyone inshallah ta’ala
before we get started that alhamdulillah as we are in the last 10 nights now
and you are bid’nillahi ta’ala benefiting from all of the content that’s coming
out. First and foremost make sure that you are aware of all the programs that
are happening right now. So obviously we’ve still got the Judgment Day series,
we still have Qur’an 30 for 30. We now have the late night reflections, the late
night du’a with Sheikh Suleiman Hani, as well as the rotating bid’nillahi ta’ala
khatiros at night, the Ramadan khatiro. So it’s a lot going on alhamdulillah but
I hope you find it all beneficial and are keeping up inshallah. With that another
reminder inshallah ta’ala to please do donate to jfln. We’re in the last 10
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us inshallah ta’ala to truly continue to grow inshallah and continue to produce
these resources and we count on Allah Azawajal first and then the generous
support of all of you. So I know we spoke about this at the webathon and
everything that we’re trying to accomplish bid’nillahi ta’ala. We hope that all of
you will continue inshallah ta’ala to support the work that we are doing.
Alhamdulillah with that one of our speakers from the webathon and someone
that we benefit from tremendously Dr. Vanya is with us. Dr. Vanya how are
you? Alhamdulillah doing well and really blessed to be here alhamdulillah. Dr.
Vanya what was your favorite session of 30 for 30 so far? How do you pick
because every single one is a jiz’ of the Qur’an. How do you pick? So that I can
interpret that into it. Either that means you haven’t watched the single ones
you said they’re all great or you can you know you’re just being really nice and
diplomatic so it’s one of the two. I’ll keep it at one of the two inshallah. Is there
anything from from jfln’s content that really struck you within these
These 21 days now? Yeah actually I wanted to tell you that on our campus on
Stanford University’s campus every single night at iftar the students the
Muslim Student Association has a um has an iftar and they watch your
Judgment Day series every single night so it’s literally on a big screen in the
middle of Stanford’s campus and every night Yaqeen is just streaming in to
Stanford campus. That’s a lot of good. Wow wow subhanAllah that’s stunning
subhanAllah. Allah accept it on behalf of everyone the team and
JazakumAllah khayran for facilitating that. May Allah bless you. I have another
question for you where in the world is Sheikh Abdullah Duru? I don’t know
where he is anymore. Sheikh Abdullah is in a different place it was first like 18
19 days I knew where you were Sheikh now I have no idea where you are. You
are in the most random of places all the time. So Dr. Rani do you know where
he is what city he’s in? I cannot possibly Sheikh Yasser his jokes sent you over
to Egypt somewhere man what’s going on here? I’m in South Carolina. Oh
MashAllah. We’re gonna get hotel Sheikh Abdullah today then you know so
inshAllah. It means you’re gonna bring it inshAllah as always. May Allah
accept. Sheikh Abdullah we’re gonna we’ve been talking about the ping pong
thing for a long time next three days all right. How are you winning I thought it
was like 54 percent to like my 43 that’s just. No it’s switched people voted on
Twitter they I think that you have the lead now. That’s what I mean that makes
sense. So we’re gonna have to get this done inshAllah within the next few days
in the night. InshaAllah. InshaAllah.
Allah yi malik feekum. InshaAllah we’ll go and get started. So we’re now in juz
22 and inshaAllah there were two verses that really struck me because they
give the two sides of the book and what I mean by that is that when we often
talk about the recording of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and the way in which
our deeds are recorded and our destiny is recorded sometimes we tend to
diminish our own deeds by saying that it’s already been destined that we
would not do these good deeds or that these sins would be forced upon us
and the precision of Allah’s decree is so beautifully spelled out within this juz.
First in surah Fatir verse 11 Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says, wallahu khalaqa
kum min turabin thumma min nutfa thumma ja’alakum azwaja and Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala is the one who created you from dust and then he
developed you from dirt into a drop and then from a drop he made you into a
pair and Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says, wama tahmilu min untha wama
tala’u illa biidmihi that no woman conceives or delivers without his knowledge
except that it is in Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala’s knowledge, wama yu’ammar
min mu’amarin wala yunqasu min umurihi illa fi kitab. Okay so subhanAllah
two sides of this no one’s life wama yu’ammar min mu’amari no one who lives
long or no one’s life will be long or yunqas or will be cut short yunqasu min
umurihi illa fi kitab except that it is already written in a record and Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala says, inna thalika arallahi yaseer that is easy for Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala so the various stages of coming into this life and then
how long you’re going to live but notice here..
That the nature of what you do in life is actually not elaborated on here so this
is surah fatir so chapter 35 verse 11 then you go to surah yaseen which is the
next surah 36 verse 12 inna nahnu nuhyi almawta wa naktubu ma qadamu wa
atharahum wa kulla shay’in ahslinahu fi imamin mubeen that it is us certainly
who resurrect the dead and then we write down everything that they have sent
forth and everything they have left behind you know ma qadamu are the deeds
that you have brought with you the deeds that you have put forth with that life
that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has given to you okay wa atharahum and what
they leave behind in terms of the legacy the footprint the effect the impact
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala when he talks about bringing forth the mustard
seed on the day of judgment it is everything that was affected by that mustard
seed okay so the one who sets an example of good and people follow in it or
the opposite of that right it is all written with Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala so
inna nahnu nuhyi almawta we are the ones who give life to the dead wa
naktubu ma qadamu wa atharahum wa kulla shay’in ahslinahu fi imamin
mubeen and we write down what they have sent forth and what they have left
behind and everything is listed by us everything is precisely recorded fi
imamin mubeen in this perfect record with Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala this is
talking about allawhi al mafood as the ulama mentioned so subhanAllah you
see you know verse 11 in one surah and then verse 12 one verse Allah
azawajal is talking about the precision of creation and decree and how you
even got here right how you got here in the first place right and it was already
decreed how long you were going to live before you even came into this life
subhanAllah so it was written before you even came into this life how long it
was going to be…
But Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala extends and decreases as he sees fit and Allah
azawajal in the next surah talks about what we have put forth in terms of our
deeds and the recording of that what we did with our lives and none of it
escapes the writing of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala none of it escapes the
decree now of course from a technical point which is an important one
especially when we talk about the night of decree may Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala allow us to witness it with worship and to be accepted within it
Allahumma ameen we talk about the idea of changing qadr changing your
divine decree and the idea of records being written on that night of course
there are several writings that exist in the sharia there is the or in the religion
there is the writing of a lawful which is the preserved tablet with Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala that does not change and that tablet takes into
consideration what happens what happens what would have happened right
so it has all of the the things that could have happened would have happened
all of those things are recorded in a low health map with the preserved tablet
and then you have the writings the annual writings which are the writings of
the angels and they write what Allah commands them to write and that decree
the writing of the angels and the uh the different types of kitabah the different
types of writing of decree that the angels who don’t have unlimited knowledge
Allah azawajal has unlimited knowledge the angels don’t have unlimited
knowledge that the angels write that’s where Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala wipes
out and he confirms why because in those records it may be that it was
decreed for you initially to pass away in this year for example but Allah
azawajal extended it due to a good deed that you have done or you made dua
for something and the dua changed the qadr or you gave sadaqa and the
sadaqa changed the qadr now none of it can escape..
Allah’s infinite wisdom and knowledge which is why even that would be
recorded that so and so was to live this much but then he will make dua or she
will make dua and then this will change and all of that is recorded for imam
and mubiq and Allah azawajal’s writing now with all that being said
subhanAllah what is the one writing we’re going to be confronted with on the
day of judgment our deeds our deeds Allah azawajal will not show you a lawful
mahfuz on the day of judgment Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala will not show you
the writing of his divine decree on the day of judgment because that’s not
what caused you into the condition that you’re in it’s your deeds that you’ll be
accountable for but Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is saying that it is all recorded
with precision none of it escapes the decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and
that precise recording should lead you to have a greater awe of the one who is
recording right not to feel like you are under compulsion and that you cannot
escape this writing but you certainly cannot escape him subhanahu wa ta’ala
and so he is irresistible and he is inevitable subhanahu wa ta’ala and so you
continue to put forth and to write your own books right iqra kitabak the the the
scrolls of the the scrolls of the angels these are the books that you are writing
and you are enough of a witness against yourself but it is really just a profound
transition that we see here between these two surahs that caught my
attention subhanAllah the recording before you got here the recording after
you leave may Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala allow us to put forth only that which
is good and forgive us for any of our shortcomings and may Allah subhanahu
wa ta’ala increase the good footprints that we leave on this earth and let it be
a larger share of al-firdos al-a’la and the companionship of our beloved
messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam…
I like how you ended it by saying you know may Allah allow us to put our good
foot forth it’s important for us to remember that a good deed is repentance as
well you know a lot of times we may commit a sin and then we repent
repentance is a good deed and as ibn al-qayyim subhanAllah graciously
mentions in his book wa’ib al-sayyid the shower shower of good utterances he
talks about how if we are wise how Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala within his
wisdom and hakeem will allow us to commit a sin as a motivation to be better
i.e when you commit that sin you ponder and contemplate over it and that
should motivate you to seek forgiveness from Allah hence being a good deed
inshallah so within these last 10 days it’s really time for inflection we really
have to look at ourselves and realize that we do commit these sins and it’s
important for us to reflect on those sins that we can even remember and
that’s what I want to really want to capitalize on because you know Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala with his infinite mercy his infinite wisdom his infinite
knowledge if he if he decides to take a nation or to take a world it’s because of
his infinite knowledge and wisdom and mercy at the same time all of the
beautiful names and attributes are mutadakh and they have some type of
connection to one another so I want to capitalize this in juice 22 the verse and
the chapter falter where Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala talks about his qudrah he
talks about his ability and gives you some of you know a tidbit of his wisdom
behind it he says after audhubillah minash shaitanir rajim walaw yuakhidh
allahu an-nasa bima kasabu ma taraka ala dhahriha min daabah walakin
yuakhiruhum ila ajlin musamma fa idha ja ajiluhum fa inna allaha kana
bi’ibadihi basira Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says and I’ll split this into three
parts the first part is where Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says and if God were to
punish people for the wrong that they have done..
All at once he would not have left any creature on the face of the earth we
know that that took place with nooh alayhi salam when Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala caused the water to come from from the top and from the bottom and
spring forth from the earth and to come from the skies as Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala says the two bodies of water from above you and from below you sprung
forth at an amount that he knows it’s only known with Allah as some of the
scholars mentioned the whole earth was full of water except people on
Noah’s fulk on the ark so at that time that’s proof that Allah has total total
control over all things as we’ve known but actualizing that through the life of
nooh alayhi salam is important for us to remember so Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala is saying if he was to do that all at one time he wouldn’t leave anything
on this earth that should be you know a reminder for us to realize that firstly
the sins that we commit the shortcomings that we have it’s human but it’s
also human to to have that level of repentance the key from intiqad from
moving from here to there is contemplation it’s thinking it’s pondering and that
brings forth humility when one cries over their sins when one ponders over
themselves and doesn’t ponder over other people’s mistakes so Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala when he talks about taking a nation as Allah says in the
chapter of al-araf and for every nation has their appointed time every nation
has their appointed time if their time and their appointed time was to come
they cannot delay it nor can they hassen it it’s all for Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala to do as he chooses and as he wills to destroy the nation or to bring
forth some type of as we say you know natural disaster but it’s for Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala to choose that and the ones that were righteous at that
time as the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam…
Told Aisha in another narration he told Umm Salama yub’athuna ala niyatihim
the ones that did good they’ll be raised upon by their intentions because he is
al-adl so when we see that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is telling us that he can
easily take all of us away at any moment as he mentions in numerous verses
suddenly suddenly we just look at any storm that we have faced and we didn’t
expect it that’s just a tidbit of what Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is able to do the
second portion of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala he says and he gives him respite
for a state of time whenever the time comes and God has been watching with
his servants so the second part is when he talks about he gives him respite for
a stated time ila ajlim musamma we understand that Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala chooses to do what he wills when he wills how he wills this Is important
for us to remember that we worship Allah on his terms and not on our terms
we have good expectations of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala as he mentions in
hadith Qudsi when we have those good expectations we understand the
beauty and the reality or a tidbit of the reality of those beautiful names and
attributes and the name that struck me here is al-halim how Allah subhanahu
wa ta’ala is al-halim how he is the one that grants respite and may delay a
punishment or even a good due to his ultimate wisdom how Allah subhanahu
wa ta’ala if he delays a punishment it does not mean that he was not able to
punish you know me Louis’s parents sometimes we may want to show or do
ta’dib or to to show a consequence of something that was done wrong by our
children or an employee or someone of that nature because we have a level of
authority of guardianship etc but we’re not able to sometimes because we’re
we don’t have that ability to do so but Allah is able to do all things realizing
that with his ability he chooses when to do something or when to prohibit
something he…
Chooses when to bring his adab and when to bring his ni’m that we face every
single day so looking at this third portion you know when Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala says here God has been watching over all of his servants what’s
beautiful here after understanding that Allah is able to do all things and that
he is in the qadir and that’s panallah his hilm his forbearance his love it’s
couched in mercy it’s couched in love of his slaves more than more than
anyone or anything else Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala continues it ends by saying
wa kaana allahu and Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala fa inna allaha kaana biibadihi
basiran for verily Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is with his servants basiran what’s
beautiful here as the scholars mention how Allah says kaana and kaana it
means a dilemma so Allah says Allah is always has been is and always will be
watchful of his servants biibadihi basiran and that’s one of the beautiful
names of Allah that he is al basir so this verse subhanAllah in conclusion it
really really reminds me of Allah being al hareem and then concluding it with
al basir that his forbearance in holding in holding any punishment from us and
realizing that we need to take take a part in really thinking about the deeds
that we have done the shortcomings that we even remember and using that as
a motivation to call on him in these beautiful names especially in these last 10
nights to call these beautiful names and attributes see how they reflect in our
lives and always know that Allah has been is and always will be watching us
with his mercy and his love so may Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala make us of
those that are conscious of his beautiful names and attributes for really that is
what magnifies the greatness in our hearts inshallah JazakAllah khair Sheikh
Abdullah you look smooth man but it’s it’s uh you you look good alhamdulillah
you sound good…
The the noise in the background I’m like I’m like I wonder I was waiting for
someone to just to just come look at your camera you know come look in for a
moment you know but may Allah bless you honestly I want to thank you
JazakAllah khair you’re you’re the way you’re you’re adjusting may Allah bless
you it’s your commitment to the Quran may Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala raise
you and make you from the people of Allah JazakAllah khair for always just
adjusting man may Allah reward you we appreciate it man and beautiful words
subhanAllah I think especially what you shared about Kana being a dawam
that you know some if you read the English he was you’ll say why why is Allah
saying he was merciful right but actually when he says he was it means he
always is in the Arabic language subhanAllah so I think that’s such an
important point that you bring here JazakAllah khair Dr Rania alhamdulillah I
mean in your in your in your perfectly cozy office then we we look forward to
hearing what you have to share I’m going to dovetail right where sheikh
Abdullah talked about um contemplation and really thinking about the verses
subhanAllah also speaking about surah fatir and the reason I want to do that is
because we have entered in the last 10 nights of Ramadan and this is a time
where if all of the different sunnahs of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam if
we haven’t come to them we really want to try especially the one that was that
he never left in Ramadan which is I’tikaf or spiritual seclusion and it’s that
time of year mashaAllah and I have to tell you both sheikh Umar and sheikh
Abdullah you know in the last few years in the woman’s world we had a
trending hashtag it was called I’tikaf at home because of Ramadan 2020 and
21 we’re in you know at home and so many women said that they benefited so
much from doing I’tikaf sometimes for the first time in their life and because
they were able to do so at home barring from the Hanafi school but here you
know…
The masajid are open again and men and women both are able to go to do
I’tikaf and there might be a subset of women who do I’tikaf at home still but I
want to say that this sunnah of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam these
are the days to capitalize on them and I really hope people do so and I was
reviewing surah tafawt today and really thinking about how to answer is a
question I always get asked which is okay in I’tikaf you might do prayers and
quranic recitation listening to wonderful series like this one mashallah to fill
your islamic knowledge but how else do you fill in the time that’s always the
question that seems to come up and here’s where you know I ask in return you
know people that ask you know have you ever tried islamic contemplation and
they’ll say things like have you mean meditation it’s like no that’s slightly
different meditation and its current form right now is you know secularized
and comes from buddhist roots we have kind of very indigenous forms of very
bad that are much more holistic and that our teachers of spirituality have
written about extensively and I really hope that in a state of after calf that
people are going into inshallah that they use this inshallah this internally and
externally focused attention to your heart your mind yourself your soul through
contemplation and there’s so many different forms and I’ll just quickly
mention two you have imam ghazali who talks about eternal contemplative
tools a couple of the ones he talks about are like morocco self-monitoring or
muhasabah self-evaluation you have ibn al-qayyim who talks about more
externally contemplative tools like to fuck contemplative reflecting or to debor
deeply contemplating the meaning of something and in this case the quran
and so I’m going to share a formula that I use that I learned from my teachers
when I was studying in damascus and it’s a simple formula but it’s a powerful
formula and it goes like this it’s really a tiered approach when you want to
reflect on you know people say how do I even begin to reflect on the greatness
of allah subhana wa ta’ala..
So you could start with reflecting on your relationship with allah subhana wa
ta’ala at its core and then you go to the next level out and on the relationship
with people in your life your friends your family your spouse your kids your
boss whoever you have in your life and then after that you may go to your
community to the ummah to the globe and then eventually to the universe or
you can go the other way all the way through from the universe to the globe to
the ummah to the community to your people and then to yourself your
relationship with allah subhana wa ta’ala and one of my favorite surahs to do
this with is surah fatir because allah subhana wa ta’ala and there’s many
surahs like this but here he’s using something called guided imagery or we can
use guided imagery through this where there’s so many beautiful um concepts
that if you in your minds I really think about how allah subhana wa ta’ala is
describing and we’re going to start from surah uh fatir verse nine and kind of
go through some of these descriptions and in your mind’s eye kind of really
think through what allah subhana wa ta’ala is saying and then he asks us kind
of rhetorical questions that through them we’re able to actually understand
his greatness in much more clarity so if you look for example at verse nine
allah subhana wa ta’ala says and allah is the one who sends the winds so you
think of the winds right and they’re carrying this stirring up this vapor formed
clouds and the winds drive them to a barren land it’s lifeless it’s dry it’s dusty
and allah subhana wa ta’ala says that he brings life from this dead earth and
then says and similar will be our resurrection because when you think back in
a state of you know after catholic and when you’re contemplation you think
back and say what is my relationship with allah subhana wa ta’ala how did he
create me and shaykh ahmad you talked about a verse actually…
That comes very right it’s very close after this where you talked about how
allah subhana wa ta’ala right that he created us from dust and this earth was
dusty and dead and he brought it back to life and we were created from dust
and and then allah subhana wa ta’ala continues to go on to say literally a drop
of seminal fluid and when you think about what that means in relation to the
greatness of allah subhana wa ta’ala we are but a drop right you’re able to sit
back and really reflect on his greatness and that starts the healing process
that we’re going to talk about through contemplation and in that same verse
allah ends it by saying in that this is certainly easy for allah subhana wa ta’ala
making it clear to us who’s actually in charge and then if that’s not enough for
somebody the next few verses invite us to look at the world around us and
allah starts with the waters right the bodies of water with which no living
creature can survive without and it would just be a few days without water that
we would perish and so allah subhana wa ta’ala says he compares the two
bodies of water and says they’re not alike one is fresh and pleasant to drink
and the other is salty and bitter and he thinks you sit back in their
contemplative mode and you sit back and you think what if everything was
bitter and salty what would that have been like right but allah from his mercy
and then the ayah goes on and from both sets of water he’s able to bring forth
you know tender seafood that we can eat and ornaments that we can wear
right and in a different surah surat ar-rahman you know you think about the
imagery of subhanallah and if you haven’t looked this up I hope folks look this
up when you see the fresh water and salt water come close to each other and
how they come right up to each other but they do not merge right…
Right like they do not go and you think to yourself subhanallah I can’t do that
nobody else I know can do that and then you really start to understand the
greatness of allah subhanahu ta’ala and you go from there and it’s as if allah
saying okay if the signs on earth aren’t enough then look to the heavens
maybe that’ll do it for you right he merges the night into day and day into night
you know shukr aman and shabbalah we’ve been in a pandemic for over 10
that over I was going to say 10 years but may allah make us not have 10 years
of pandemic and only two years is what I meant to say that’s a lot of gala and
then he’s like cut cut cut so I’m gonna go ahead sorry allahumma make this
pandemic and he’s gonna get blamed if it goes 10 years now but no no two
years here is under inshallah inshallah it’s coming soon yara but you know in
these two years we have been um and shahamad we have been in in and out
of these virtual meetings all the time all the time and there’s always some tech
issues some glitches some microphone camera issues something’s
happening sopanola bandwidth issues and I think about this verse of and I
love the word unit right like he just merges day and tonight and there’s no
glitches with allah subhanahu wa ta’ala there are no errors with allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala it is seamless and we go to sleep every night expecting
that when we wake up it’ll be day and when every day we expect night will
come and we don’t think about it it literally just happens there are no errors
ever subhanallah and if that’s not enough allah subhan allah right after it says
he subjugated the sun and the moon each orbiting in their appointed terms
right the sun doesn’t come crashing down at us the moon doesn’t come
crashing down at us and if you really think about this that if they were then
who else is going to hold them up except allah subhanahu wa ta’ala…
Which is a verse a little bit later in the surah and so allah subhanahu wa ta’ala
ends this verse this is allah your lord and all authority belongs to him and this
is where you know this is the point we’re trying to get to in this meditative
contemplation to see the greatness of allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to allow it to
shrink our own egos and our own issues right because we think the world
subhanallah may allah forgive us we think the world revolves around us and
what we don’t realize is our problems and our issues when you see the
greatness of allah they start to shrink back to real size this is a very powerful
meditative contemplation is so powerful and you start to really connect with
allah and realize that we’re literally just another everyday blade of grass
except for those who come to allah subhanahu wa ta’ala with a sound heart
and he doesn’t look at our faces or our outward forms he looks into our hearts
and so I hope inshallah this is kind of helps break down that inspires people
inshallah to take on what might seem complicated like a meditative
contemplation how do you take this on both inside and outside of ramadan
but especially folks are doing the sunnah of I’tikaf inshallah and really I really
believe that meditative contemplation has a very strong healing potential
spiritually but it also opens up this window for psychological and emotional
healing as well so my du’a is that allah subhanu wa ta’ala heal us this
ramadan on this healing journey that we’re all on allahumma ameen ameen
very profound beautiful words alhamdulillah and I think um subhanallah what
you what you touched upon here and it was the part that that in the webathon
even like when you mentioned this concept of no glitches I think that part of
entitlement is expectation right you know in many ways they become
synonymous or at least expectation is a huge part of entitlement that…
You don’t ask allah to bring the date time tomorrow you just know it’s coming
you know subhanallah you don’t you don’t and how does the muslim change
that with vicar like you’re thanking allah when you wake up in the morning for
giving you life after death that’s the most that is the most I don’t want to use
the word extreme but intense right form of gratitude like yeah allah I can’t even
take for granted that I’m going to keep breathing throughout the night you
know before even opening my eyes to the world once again that you that
you’ve allowed me to open my eyes to it hundred and now so you’re thanking
allah for resuscitation every day until the ultimate resurrection which mimics
something that we become used to on a regular basis and I think it is profound
and it’s the moment becomes more aware of allah’s greatness when they
become more aware of his favors and when you become more aware of his
greatness and his favors you become more aware of your own shortcomings
and your own your own vulnerabilities uh to allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and so
it’s it’s and so it’s it’s such a this is such a profound chapter uh all of the quran
is profound of course but this jews uh really you know surah yassin fath and
yassin really bring that home subhanallah in such such a great way that the
originator is always in charge the originator is constantly sustaining and our
origin is is a blessing in and of itself our our existence is a blessing that we
can’t take for granted and certainly the way that he allows us to communicate
and the way that he allows us to continue even this subhanallah this glitchy
technology we would not have been able to do it without allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala right so we still fall short over and over again may allah reward you for
those beautiful reflections sheikh abdullah is there anything you’d like to…
Share a conclusion uh definitely one is in definitely how you mentioned father
the originator and then we have the fitra as well our original form and you see
that the morphological makeup of these three radical letters you know it’s it’s
huge uh just looking at how our original self like the motherboard that you
know allah has given us that we you know the sharia tries to call us back to the
beautifying the line um I just want to ask dr rania you know I’m kind of jealous
of her because she was able to be around sheikh malik badri I really
immensely benefited from his book particularly constant it changed my life
contemplation if you can just grace us with you know just some of the
moments you had with him just one benefit of something that he said I don’t
think people know about him as they should and the books that he’s written
but I personally benefited I read it numerous times and told you know
psychology students about it and it’s changed them as well like fairly really the
book contemplation I mean if you can just share some moments or some
benefits that you have from him absolutely well bless you and malik have
mercy on him subhanallah he’s just passed away only a little over a year ago
and somebody like you said um you know he often would describe some of
our early islamic scholars as precocious genius I think he was a precocious
genius way ahead of his time um just in brief masha’allah uh dr malik badri for
those who don’t know him and please do look him up he um we call him in the
field as the father of modern um islamic psychology somebody who really
revived the concept of islamic psychology and in fact this entire section
behind me here is like all dr malik’s but these books and so absolutely it’s it’s
um his book contemplation uh talks about as you said exactly these points we
were talking about today like how it really kind of goes through very practical
step by step how to actually do this and how it transforms people’s lives it’s..
So beautiful to hear that you know shahab dali had that connection from the
book you know when he um was alive subhanallah there’s some very beautiful
special moment that I’m going to share very quickly but I had once um
traveled to a conference actually in pakistan and he at the time was in turkey
and I rerouted my return flight to the u.s to stop in istanbul just to like see him
subhanallah again like as a mentor and um and when I took that trip
subhanallah was the last trip and that I saw him and he had passed you know
very soon thereafter um and he said come I have something to show you my
office and out of the office he pulls out um his the original book that he had
used or he had you know for uh abu zayden bali who’s a ninth century scholar
and very quickly abu zayden bali you know we have some papers actually
written on this where you know hamdi nila was able through dr badri’s writings
he was able to say balky is likely one of the first to really talk about cognitive
behavioral therapy cbt which is now used so much in the field and my papers
are looking more at like specific psychiatric conditions like ocd and phobias
and proving that our islamic scholars figure these things out nearly a
millennium before western you know psychologists did and so he pulled off
this book the shelf and he said this is the original book that was stuck in the is
sofia’s library for literally hundreds of years dusty and it was uh misfiled so
people hadn’t found it for so long and then a friend of a friend had found it and
given it to dr badri and when he saw it he said this is amazing I’ve got to do
something with this and that’s how we have the translation now of bali’s book
so it’s just you know people like that you know that allah has placed them in a
certain period in a certain time to revive something when the time was ready
for it and that’s what he would always say this is the time where the muslims
are finally ready and the world is finally ready for what people combated him
for early on which is bringing mental health into the discussion again and
saying this is our heritage and mashallah…
Allah he’s left in his path you know his his legacy inshallah as all of us
students of his that you know are inshallah hoping to revive the field profound
something else no just the name of the book from belgium and sustenance of
the soul correct yes sustenance of the soul he translated the second half of
the book on specifically the psychological conditions yeah masalih abdan
when anfus is the full name of the arabic text another beautiful book and I
don’t know if people know about if you in the intro mentioned uh talk about
madestan I think it’s very important that people know about that as well so
come to the madestan yes masha allah it’s it’s it’s through works like that that
I was really inspired because I for me and this is the name of the organization
it’s because the um the muslims from all we did with all the historical you
know digging up masha allah of our torath of our heritage you know really
finding out that the muslims were the first in human history to develop in their
hospitals psychiatric boards like specific areas for mental health and
psychological healing and then they had the talk therapies and the sound
therapy and the water therapy and art therapy and color therapy all these
different forms of therapy and people hear this and say is this some new age
thing that you guys took from the west no this is our islamic tradition and it’s
because of the you know the impetus where islam says to really heal
ourselves fully and that allah like the hadith says the prophet but if allah sent
down an illness he sent down its cure and so mental health was no exception
to the rule and so alhamdulillah we’ve named our organization madestan the
madestan is the original term hoping to revive that tradition of the muslims
inshallah this is great to be a you know an observer that conversation that just
happened so may allah bless both of you for for that and bringing in of course
the name of dr malik badri rahim….
Allah of course I’m a graduate of iium he was our uh our uh uh someone that
we looked we looked up to quite a bit at iium in malaysia alhamdulillah and he
also for many people that don’t know uh was someone that malcolm x of hajj
malik ash-shabazz rahim allah looked up to and admired met in sudan and in
fact according to many accounts the name malik and hajj malik ash-shabazz
malcolm took the name malik after meeting malik badri so it’s that’s how
profound of an impact he had on him subhanallah in his meeting with him so
may allah have mercy on him and and on and hajj malik ash-shabazz as well
and all of the righteous that have passed before and allow us to join with them
allahumma ameen we talked about we ended up talking about right totally
unplanned but allah plans beautiful session tomorrow…
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