Hardship Comes Ease w/ Sh.

Omar Suleiman INTRODUCTION We tend to ignore the issue though people in general are just not happy. Today we have more convenience than ever before and all the comforts of life cars, houses, travelling around the world in a few hours and we can do so much yet we arent happy and getting more and more depressed. Suicide rates are on the rise, over the past 10 years it has increased every single year. Every year divorce rates are increasing, drug addictions are increasing, everything that represents anxiety and depression is increasing. If a person has revolving issues of depression they may lead to doubt and a loss of faith. Such a person can not progress very far. SOS: people ask me often, Ive got it all, why cant I be happy!? I must clarify that I am not speaking to you from a medical perspective on depression, this is not my place. I have read many books on secular happiness, but they say what the Quran and sunnah already says anyway. I will also not be able to cover this vast topic in but a few hours. If you look at Islamic literature, there are volumes that are dedicated to this topic. We look around and we see people with absolutely everything but they have deprivation from the inside and they are just not happy. On the other there are people with a sense of fullness and satisfaction on the inside and with miserable external circumstances, yet they are fulfilled and content. This is a fact. When talking about this entire subject of depression and happiness and loneliness. Islam rather is practical and about taking solid concrete steps, its about looking deeply inside oneself and trying to figure things out. Often we try to blame external factors, "if im not happy it must be evil eye on me, I must be possessed". When youre an imam everyone thinks they have a Jinn, "how do you feel when you read Quraan? - Great - well that in itself is a very telling thing about you that you are human and not possessed!" Life is tough, you go through things, and you will naturally find obstacles in your life, and thus the Quran is called, the cure for the hearts for a reason. When you turn to it you ignore inconveniences in life and get to what is important. When speaking about happiness, the word in the arabic language is, "sa-ada" and "Sa'eed" is someone happy. The opposite of this is Shaqi, someone sad and deprived. Happiness or beign Sa'eed in the Islamic texts means fullness on the inside whereas Shaqi is someone deprived on the inside. UNDERSTANDING WHAT GIVES YOU HAPPINESS Being happy doesnt mean that everything is perfect, it is that you have decided to look beyond the imperfections Anonymous From a faith or duniya perspective, this is what happiness really is. People who try to make a perfect world in this duniya will never achieve it! All these books talk about a person unrealistically expecting that they can have a perfect world on Earth, but Islamically speaking paradise is the certainty that there is no paradise on Earth. As an example, whenever you try to create an unrealistic world in terms of your financial prosperity, if you do well financially a family member dies, you are afflicted with a disease, your faith is not satisfactory; something is always falling apart and this is what duniya is. You patch one area, the other falls apart. In your 80 years that you will face think about all the things and the trauma that you see in your life (or may have already seen), and you can not avoid this. At the end of the day this is the exact thing that is being said. If you excel in one aspect of duniya you will suffer in another aspect. As they say, if you get rich and famous you will no longer have

meaningful friends. If you dont have these things family may be stronger actually. A coolest sign on retirement: twice the husband, half the money meaning if you make money you lose out on your family life. You gain in one area, you lose in another. This is just the way duniya works. The idea here again that the Akhira is the only happiness. When we talk about the signs of the coming of the end of the world, our beloved Prophet Mohammed (s) spoke about advancement in everything - technology in that we would be jumping between skies (i.e with airplanes), competing to build tall buildings, gather and discovering oil and gold, everything was mentioned by our Prophet (s). The Prophet (s) mentioned that there would be much advancement in humanity, yet he also mentioned that toward this end of time a person would walk past the grave and envy the one who died, wishing they had switched places. Men would wish suicidal thoughts. All of these are signs of emptiness, a lack of faith and fulfillment. Eventually people feel a sense of defeat and do not find a reason to live. James Baldwin said: the most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose. When you have absolutely nothing to lose you do not care anymore. When you study the psychology of this person it is someone who lost hope in life and reason for existence. And people think the Emo culture does not exist today amongst Muslims. But people do this today just so that they can feel something, i'd rather inflict harm on myself then feel no reason for existence even if this means taking a knife and cutting myself up, I just want to feel something. The point is that the reason why people do this is because they dont have a reason to live. An interesting study showed that people like that before they end up in this kind of situation resort to crazy lifestyles, again, I need to have some sense of feeling, excitement and meaning into my life. This people are seen going crazy and even when this ceases to fulfill them they start to become such, and again, there is no sense of purpose. A poor person in America today lives like a king lived but a few decades ago, he has access to things a king did not have access to a few years ago, but still he is in such misery. Today you drive past a small town and you see people doing farming and the simplest things in life with full contentment. We think of them as inconveniences without recognizing that there is a sense of happiness and contentment to such tasks and in such living. When you have lofty expectations of this world you feel a sense of betrayal, you feel like you invested yourself into this and you thought it would make you happy. This sense of depression is worse then anything in this world. Remember Sh Hatem's quote, as long as you do not have expectations in this world you will be fine. But today people have expectations, e.g. people when they go to med school they become a slave to their profession for a good time, some people do go into it wanting to help people and with a good intention, humanitarian reasons. When they come out and they are not fulfilled they are miserable. A person spent 13 years trying to get his PhD, and at his graduation he was so upset for this because he literally wasted 13 years of his life just to add 3 initials to his name. The point again is that lofty expectations can really affect you. The idea is fulfillment and often times people blame religion. People fail to recognize on an individual level what deen gives to a person. Historically this is not true, everything that happened in history - the crusades, the holocaust - were disguised as religious warfare but there was some political agenda hidden beneath this. Europe went into bankruptcy and next they go into the Crusades against the Muslim crusades to hide their socioeconomic situation. On an individual level religion has been associated with better marriages, greater rates of happiness, better family structures. and people often do not acknowledge this. Religion as a whole gives us a sense of purpose and fulfilment. In Surah Anfal, Allah says, Oh you who have believed, answer the call of Allah and His messenger when they call you to that which gives you life. When a person does not have this purpose - and not having purpose is indeed enough of a misery - this person just sees no reason to live and when this person suffers a hardship they have no idea how to handle it whatsoever. As Ibn-al Qayyum al Jawziyyah said, for everything you lose in life there is a replacement except for Allah. People can be fulfilled with miserable lives because they have Allah, and having Allah means you need no one or nothing else.

Perspective is very important. Think about the glass half empty versus full; Hisham ibn Abdel Malik was a khalifa and had a dream. He saw that all his teeth were falling out so he called the dream interpreter and asked what this meant. The interpretation was that every single person in your family will die infront of you in your life. He was upset and punished the interpreter. He asked for another interpreter and he said, glad tidings oh commander of the believers you are going to live a long life til you will outlive everyone in your family and Hisham was happy! The same interpretation and he just played with the words. This is the perfect application of half empty vs full. The Prophet (s) called this world the prison of the believer and the paradise of the disbeliever, but this does not mean the believer is depressed, rather the idea is that the believer is happier! Again, unrealistic expectations! The person with no standard of faith or moral compass can do more in this life because they do not restrict themselves, but because they depend on such things to give them happiness and they fail, their unrealistic expectations create a hell on Earth for them. Thus that life wont be perfect, but Allah is and the believer knows this. The role of Dua is very important, it is very powerful! The angel actually writes when the soul is still in the womb the happiness or misery of one person ( Parents take note). Everyone is capable of happiness and misery, but being capable of happiness doesnt make you happy, even the Prophet (s) would became sad. Ibn Taymiyyah (IT) spoke about what gives happiness. He said that just as one is made of Roh (the soul) and Jasad (the body), everything finds comfort from its source, so the body is created from the earth and it is from this duniya so it finds pleasure in eating, drinking etc and this is how animals are too. Thus Allah describes some humans as being animalistic selves, in the Qur'an Allah says the example of them is the example of a dog. Thus with the component of body you have unrestricted desires like the animal. And the soul will only be comforted by its source which is Allah and it inclines only toward Allah. Thus like nourishing a plant properly, you have to nourish the soul with Allah. Ibn Taymiyyah further said that they both affect each other, when the soul inclines to Allah the body is at peace as well. Ibn-al Qayyum al Jawizyyah further gave a beautiful analogy. If you have a bad dream at night, a nightmare, when you wake up is your body affected by what you saw? Yes. You may dream of yourself getting stabbed, and you wake up actually feeling as though you were stabbed! It happens. Why so? Because Allah takes the souls every night. On the other hand, if you are physically hurt can it affect your soul? Yes, it can get you down. Another person sleeping in the same bed may have had a good dream and they may feel amazing, their day is so much easier because they are spiritually fulfilled. The Prophet (s) connected the two as he said that, when a person prays fajr properly and do wudhu right, he wakes up with a good soul and energetic but it isnt the same vice versa, when the body is satisfied and the soul is deprived you wont find happiness. The angels don't have the jasad (the body) and thus have no desires. Their happiness is through ibadah and worship. For them they have no choice. As Ibn-al Qayyum said: As humans we are in between the angels and the animals (in our purpose). The animals have unrestricted desire and no purpose, the angels purpose without desire. If the human clings toward it's purpose (to worship) then he becomes angelic. Hasan Basri actually said that he becomes greater then the angels because he has a choice and he opts for the worship of Allah. So his status is greater then the angels because he opts for worship. Ibn Taymiyyah also said that one affects the other, the extent of which everything gives you happiness in duniya is the same extent of which it will give you misery. As an example, money makes you happy but makes you lose friends, it gives you higher responsibility and worries.

Getting drunk in the beginning will make you happy in the beginning but give you the same amount of misery when you have your hangover. Kids make us happy but make us sad, heard of demonic twos when kids are of two years old? As reported in Imam Ahmed, the Prophet (s) said: There are 4 things that yield happiness, a good spouse, a spacious home, a sweet ride (literally) and a good neighbor and there are 4 components of misery (and these are the opposite of above), a bad spouse, a suffocating home, a bad ride and a bad neighbor This hadith is phenomenonal because the Prophet acknowledges that it is easy to arrive at happiness if these things are taken care of and it is easier to justify sadness if these conditions are not met. Driving a car that wont give you trouble will definitely get you a better day then the person whose car gets broken down every single day. Having a good spouse also makes life easy. Having a more spacious house will naturally make you happy as well. Having a good neighbor is especially important in cultures where it is emphasized. On the neighbor, the Prophet (s) said that Jibreel came to him and stressed the importance of being good to the neighbor so much so that the Prophet (s) thought they would begin to take from inheritance. But when comparing this hadith to the life of the Prophet (s), did he have all these things? No Did he have a spacious house? No (his house was 9 feet by 4 feet! Aisha narrates that when the Prophet would go in sujjood he would tap his wife's leg to get her to move it), a good wife? Yes, a good neighbor? No, there are many narrations of his neighbors commiting heinous acts against him, a good ride? No. Often times we would see the Prophet riding a donkey, a mule, with a worn out saddle, which is not befitting of a king let alone a Prophet. And was he happy? Yes. So we see that his happiness did not depend on those things! And this is the idea. There is no one happier then him and it even reflected in his manners, Jaabir says about the Prophet (s) that he as not always smiling, rather he was always smiling and making others smile. Abdullah bin Hareth said I never saw the Prophet's face except that he was smiling! Despite his hardest task in his world, to deliver a message to the entire humanity, facing rejection from people, suffering much emotional, personal, financial losses, despite all this he was so happy! So again the Prophet (s) also made an important point: your happiness should not depend on any of those things. He was still happy and he did not have 3 out of 4 of these things. We conclude from this hadith that what the Prophet is telling us is that these are things that can contribute to happiness, but again, do not depend on them! With our youth many think that they are miserable unless they get married. They are placing their happiness on the condition of being married. When you depend on those things and get attached, this is where misery begins. Even in marriage! If you are single you can not think that you will be happy only when you are married. It does not have to be the car, the house or your social circle. Again if you make your happiness dependent on your spouse, your home, your car, your neighbor then you will be disappointed. SOS: I visited my friend's new and massive house and before this they were living in a small apartment. He was crying at his new home because he did not know where his kids were and what were doing now. Before this they would always be together. He even had an intercom in his house but they did not even answer his intercom. So we reconcile the hadith versus his life and the majority of sahaba who did not want this: These are components of happiness that allow happiness to be achieved. There are people that have all 4 and are not happy and some have none and are not happy. The Prophet (s) also teaches us the difference between a person capable of happiness versus one who is happy, and a difference between a person sometimes grieved and sad and a grieving person. The Prophet (s) teaches us in a hadith about the angel coming to the womb at four

months, and writing the Qadar of that fetus. He writes down 4 things; his lifespan, his date of death, his rizq (imagine! it was written for you even before you knew the world, yet people think they got it because of their work) and if the soul will be happy or deprived. A few comments: Allah obviously does not force anyone's situation on them, rather His Knowledge is all encompassing. These are the things we work for and achieve other then our life and death, but the point that Allah does not force these things on you. But from the hadith we see the difference between being capable of happiness and being actually happy; it is to have a consistent behaviour of happiness. In reality a person who is really happy suffers moments of grief, because a person of happiness is one of purpose. If a person has meaningful purpose they will also grief at times. ATTACHMENTS Again it is about your expectations with duniya. Shirk means polytheism, taking beside God. Allah says that, attachments can become a form of shirk. Not that one commits shirk, but Allah says in Surah Baqarah, from the people that have taken partners beside Allah, they love those things as they should be loving Allah, but the believers love Allah more than they love those things This is what the scholars call the shirk of love - shirk al-Muhabba - because you seek the pleasure of someone and prioritize something above Allah, and you are naturally setting a rival to Allah. These things they control one's life, they act and move for them, and they do things seeking people's approval, and thus constantly engaged in fulfilling this unhealthy addiction. Human nature is that humans do not retain consistency in anything. Once the quality that attracts you to someone diminishes, you stop loving them and because you depended on it it now hurts you. But again those who believe love Allah so much more. Al-Qurtubi says that the way the believer loves Allah you will never find anyone loving anything else, why? do the qualities of Allah ever change? is He Merciful one day and not the next day? Does he ever stop fulfilling? No. Allah is consistent, His 99 names and His attributes are consistent. Allah is removed from His creation in that you can't compare Him to these things. Thus a person who loves Allah is consistently fulfilled because the soul is consistently fulfilled. Ibn-Al Qayyum said that, because of the consistency of Allah's attributes, a person who loves Allah never finds himself unfulfilled, whereas someone who loves other then Allah when their qualities diminish it leads to disappointment. Interestingly people that come and say they are not into religion anymore, they must see what their heart is attached to and what circumstances and surroundings they have put them in for years and decades, and then see why they are not finding any fulfillment in your prayer. It takes a certain level of understanding, of an expectation, and placing your hope in Allah and directing your source of happiness to Allah, the Creatora and the Rabb. Sh Hatem Al-Hajj, a scholar in Houston, is also a pediatrician and a former doctor with the mayo clinic. The islamophobes launched a huge hate campaign against him and he was no longer able to practice, he lost his job at the Mayo clinic. Despite all this he was so happy! He would only work 15 hours a week and focus the rest anyway on dawah. He was totally unphased by all this and he smiled and said: if you dont have any expectations of the duniya the duniya can never disappoint you. Again it shows the attachment you have to Allah. He who has Allah needs no one and nothing. Allah makes another statement, that those who love Allah love Allah more then those things . A person who finds Allah never goes back, Allah describes this in Surah Ibrahim: have you seen the example of a good word (the shahadah), it is is like a tree (the Prophet compared iman to a palm tree, as narrated by Abdullah ibn Omar). Allah says that this tree has a solid foundation and its branches are high in the sky and it consistently gives fruits.

Like palm trees in Madinah, they always produce fresh dates. When was the last time we found an apostate of Islam who was a scholar, a daaiyah? Never, and how many priests come to Islam? Many! A good Christian will end at Islam if exposed properly. We find Rabbis, Priests that accept Islam and in large numbers, but we will never find someone knowledgeable in Islam leaving Islam. Why? Once you develop an attachment to Allah, yes the Imam withers, but there is a foundation and you always produce something. There are things that we as Muslims never give up; our prayers, our acts of worship etc. *SURAH ANKABUT (29): 41 Allah here says, The example of those who take awliyyah (wali means a protective friend, a friend who is a guardian and emotional, physical and spiritual protector, as Allah says that He is the Wali of those who believe beside Allah) its like a spider that constructed its home, verily the weakest of homes is the home of the spider, if only they knew. Why is this ayah so unique? This is one of the miracles of the Quran. Is a spider web strong? To some creatures that get trapped in it yes, but why does Allah say the weakest home is the spider web. The only mention of the spider in this entire chapter is here, SubhanAllah. The focal point of this surah is not the spider but rather of Allah testing the people for their faith, we can get an idea of this from the beginning of the Surah as Allah says, do people think that they say they will just believe and they will not be tested for their faith, We tested the people before you, and through that we know who is truthful in their faith and who is lying. . The spiders web is an amazing creation of Allah because scientifically speaking the tensile strength of a spider web is stronger than steel. A bug caught in a web is not getting out. But the web itself as a whole is still weak because when the wind blows it will not hold. Why does Allah use this to refer to one who searches for protection other then Allah? Allah uses this example because when you are attached to something you cant see the world outside that attachment, you are just so caught up into it just like the bug caught in the spider's web. So again, the entire Surah is named after that one ayah because of how profound the analogy of the spiderweb is! Going back to addiction and dependence, as an example someone establishes a relationship unlawfully, 3 years later they tell their parents they want to get married and instead of opting to stay with the family they get married, why? Because I cant live without her. This is all psychological, in fact their life was a lot better before this! But when you are caught you are caught. This is a mental block that one creates for themselves; this is my source of happiness! And the only way you see outside of it is when the spiderweb is destroyed and this is when you realize you really did not need this thing or person in the first place. People come from overseas where they lived very simple lives, when they got here and got use to a certain lifestyle, when they have a financial hardship they think life is going to end! When our phones break we become depressed! Look at our attachments. We are literally addicted, but your life would be so much happier if you werent attached. Give yourself a vacation and let go of your attachments and youll see how much happier you will become. In Surah Baqarah, Allah says, you will be tested with anxiety, diminishing of health, wealth, and by this Allah purifies one of having any other attachments. In Surah Doha, think of the problems the the Prophet went through no parents, no financial prosperity, his societal hardships, his humiliation, persecution, his close ones being taken away from him all this because Allah wanted the Prophet to only be attached to Him. in Surah Doha Allah says, dont think that your Lord has ever abandoned you rather Allah was breaking all the attachments, Didnt Allah find you as an Orphan, looking for guidance, found you poor and gave you wealth. Allah reminds the Prophet of His favors upon him. Why? To break those attachments, for him to enjoy a certain level of trust and reliance upon Allah, and then Allah encourages the Prophet and us, when you see others in the same situation you remember! The orphan, the one asking, and Allah tried you with the same experiences. Allah broke those spiderwebs so the Prophets trust was solely with

Allah. In Surah Hajj, ayah 31, Allah also gives an example of those that take Gods beside Allah awliyyah - as He says, The example of those that took protectors beside Allah, is like this person was dropped from the skies (mid-air), than a bird catches him up and takes him somewhere and drops him and he finds himself in a lost and abandoned place (he doesnt know where he is, he is lost). Some scholars say this refers to the Hereafter and some say it refers to this world. In this ayah Allah speaks that those that take from those other then Allah; this person is dropped and gets picked up by a bird, than the bird drops him. What happens to a person already emotionally vulnerable? They are insecure and need another attachment another bird picks them up and drops them and so on with another bird, and the person finds them self lost. This is exactly what shaytaan does, he tries to get you to despair and be hopeless. Look at celebrities, they literally kill themselves because of the fame that they pursue. They spend their entire lives achieving this, then they are miserable because of their fame and end up killing thesmelves. How often do we now hear of celebrities overdosing on drugs or being found dead in bathtubs? NEEDS VS WANTS Often times you will find that when you feel like you need something Allah will not give it to you. It becomes problematic when people begin to think they know exactly what is right for them and do not trust Allah for this. Look at the example of Istikhara, often we may ask someone, why dont you pray istikhara? It means Allah will make things easier for you or harder for you depending on what is good for you or not. Sheikh Omar mentions the story of two people that he gave the dua of istikhara to, and both responded by saying they didn't want to pray Istikhara because they only wanted that specific person. Ata said that if Allah sees you asking for something, He will give not give it to you so He can break your attachment, then He gives it when you don't want it anymore . SubhanAllah, Ata called this the Ihsaan of Allah. A lot of times when we ask because we do not know what we want. And we find that sometimes when people break that attachment than Allah gives it to them, why? It is no longer something that affects your emaan or your llife, and then and only then does Allah make it easy for you. Ibn-al Qayyum said that sometimes Allah will not give you what you want because you feel like you need it, but once you have converted a need into a want Allah gives it to you. Lets look at the life of the Prophet (s): he lost his parents, he depended on Abu Talib but he passed away, his uncle Abu Lahab was not much good in protecting him, rather made his life difficult, his emotional and financial source Khadija (ra) passed away. After he exhausted all he had he is then living boycotted, faced rejection. He goes to Ta'if and thinks there may be hope but he was given the worst response. Talking about expectations because they determine the response, Aisha asked the Prophet what was the worst day of your life, and he replied without hesitation the day of Ta'if because he thought he saw a dream of good which may have indicated either Ta'if or Madinah. He thought Ta'if because the Ansar had all youth - 3 people over the age of 40 - and in Ta'if there were people of stature. We see here that the Prophet (s) developed expectations for Ta'if due to this dream. Yet when he went there he was treated in the worst of ways, they lined up the ill and sick for 3 miles while the Prophet (s) walked between them and they cursed him, they beat him, threw things at him and so on. Again, it goes back to expectations, the Prophet (s) finally thought he had an answer. But Allah comforts him, He says do not be disappointed because Allah saw you, and the Jinn converted, and Al-Addas the slave converted. 10 years later when the Prophet (s) was in Madinah a young child came to him as a teenager and accepted Islam. This child had already memorized Surah Tariq and the Prophet (s) was confused how he knew this without exposure to Islam. The boy answered that when he was a child the Prophet (s) came to Ta'if and recited Surah Tariq. He memorized it at the first shot! And he never forgot it for ten years.

The expectations were thus very high and indeed he was disappointed, but Allah gave him not only his expectations but also prayer - the journey of Isra wal Mi'raaj. Allah allowed the Prophet (s) to taste the utter and absolute bitterness of duniya so he could feel the sweetness of Salah, literally, this is what was revealed at Isra wal Mi'raaj, subhanAllah. And so the Prophet (s) would later say that he loved his wife and he loved perfume but the coolness of his eyes was in Salah! This is what gave him happiness and fulfilled him. THE ADVICES OF JIBREEL The next ahadith is a very profound hadith, an advice that Jibreel is giving the Prophet outside of his capacity of revelation, narrated in Imam Ahmeds musnad with the highest chain of authenticity. Hadith Qudsi is what we know outside the Qur'an. This hadith is Jibreel, the best of the angels, giving advice to the best of the mankind and creation, Mohammed (s). The scholars say there is no other narration like this narration between Jibreel and the Prophet (s). Jibreel says to the Prophet, oh Mohammed.. (Allah when addressing Mohammed as a Prophet always says Ya Rasool-alAllah through out the entire Quran. That Jibreel addresses him here by his first name two things come out of this, 1. That this conversation is outside of the capacity of revelation and 2. This is heart to heart advice, from the best of the angels to the best of mankind and all of creation) And Jibreel gives the 5 advices... 1. Live as you will, you will eventually die People often think that talking about death is pessimistic, but psychologically talking about death in a good way is productive because you have something to look forward to. For a believer this is but a break and then he moves on to the next and a better phase. The Prophet (s) himself died the most successful man on Earth, Micheal Hart (who rathed the Prophet (s) as the best man in human history) said he yielded success in every field, he literally enobled success! After all that he went through and in 23 years later he is living success. Not that he had a big house and material, or that he went back on everything, he achieved what he wanted to achieve. And he was given a choice by Allah - to live immortal or have the companionship of Allah, and Aisha narrates that when he died, his face was brighter then the moon, chanting I want the highest companionship over and over again. This is the face of a man who embodied success. The Prophet explained this advice wisely when he said, be in this world as if you are a stranger or a wayfarer, and he also said, the example of me in this duniya compared to the hereafter is like a traveler who takes rest under a shade, and than he moves on . Abdullah ibn Omar, the narrator, understood this and as a young man he said further that if in the evening dont expect to live to the morning and if the morning, dont expect to live till evening . His idea thus that you should have a sense of urgency always. As an analogy, think that you travel and spend a night at a hotel, you spend thousands of dollars at this hotel, you buy a car for this hotel night, whats the point? Again, as a traveler you are not concerned with the conditions of your travel - you want comfort but not a lavish lifestyle and you will never compromise on your place of settle for your place of travel. You won't sell your house to stay at the rich hotel. You dont want to harm the place you are going to! Ibn-al Qayyum said: A person will not find a home in the hereafter to live in except the one that he use to build before his death. i.e. you cant build houses in akhira (after you die), only while you are alive in the duniya. Literally you are in your building phase right now! If a person neglects that building they will have no home in the Hereafter. Ibn-al Qayyum then said about this, the one who gains happiness in this life is the one who abandons the world before the world abandons him. This is talking about attachments and emotions, but at the same time we are not encouraging

someone to be a monk as there is no monasticism in Islam. Ibn-al Qayyum continues, the one truly happy in this world is the one who builds his grave before he lives inside of it and the one truly happy in this world is the one who pleases His Creator before he meets him. Your grave is your good deeds in essence, you will only see in your grave your good deeds. You will meet Allah regardless, grudgingly or with anticipation, you either spoke to Allah in this duniya or you did not. The wicked and the righteous, every single human will meet Allah. There will be no intermediaries, so please Allah before you meet Him. Having a bad interview on this day will render everything fruitless, and you really only have one chance, one meeting for your eternal fate. As Allah says in Surah Haaqa, as for the one who receives the book in his right hand, he will go around boasting saying go ahead and read my good deeds, i knew this day was coming. Whereas the other person who receives the book in his left hand, i wish i never received the book,and I never knew what my account was going to be, and i wish this was the end. Here is someone who was not ready! And as Allah says in Hadith Qudsi, whoever loves to meet Me I love to meet him, and whoever hates to meet Me I hate to meet him. Aisha said to the Prophet (s), we all hate death, and the Prophet (s) said that this is not what it is, rather the believer is given the glad tidings of the mercy of Allah and His pleasure, he loves to meet Allah, and when the disbeliever is given the bad tidings oh Allah's wrath he hates to meet Allah. This person's entire life is getting ready for that interview thus! Your entire life is that, no matter what your condition is in this world. The irony is that the believers fear the consequence of their sins most, afraid of being held accountable, but still want to meet Allah because of their love of Allah, they do not despair from their sins, and their love of Allah does not cause them to be complacent as well. The attitude of the believer is that they can not wait! The disbeliever on the other hand pretends it does not exist, and does not prepare for it. A very powerful statement to consider: live life like a cancer patient If everyone did so everything would be great. Why? If one is a cancer patient and they are in the last stages, what happens? Naturally all the relationships are reconciled, and prioritized. 2. Love who you will, you are going to depart from that person that you love It is definitely good to have a solid relationship, especially with those Allah has commanded us to be good to, but Jibreel tells the Prophet (s) and thus us to love who we will, know that one day wewill be separated from this person. Two things that we take from this, first that we must prioritize our relationships. As we have said before, do not become dependent on any other relationship beside Allah, no human being whatsoever. First and foremost is thus Allah A powerful hadith from ibn Kathir narrated in Musnad Imam Ahmed: Abdullah ibn Salaam was one of the great Jewish Rabbis who accepted Islam. After the Prophet passed away, he was one of the last sahaba to live as he lived long. Once a group of people saw him walking to the masjid, some sahaba told the tabaieen that this man is a man from Jannah, so this TabI Qais ibn Abbab said he followed Abdullah and told him that people said such and such about you, and the first thing he responded is by saying: subhanAllah, it is not befitting for someone to say what he does not know, only Allah knows. But he told Qais the situation where the Prophet told him that you are a man of Jannah, he, Abdullah said: I had a dream and in that dream I was in a large garden and in the middle of that garden there was a pole. I went to that pole and I was told to climb that pole, and I said I was unable to, than something blew me from under and blew me up, at the top of that pole was a handhold, I grabbed it and felt stability. I woke up and told the Prophet about that dream, the Prophet said: as for the garden, it is the garden of Islam, and the pole is the pole of

Islam, and the handhold is the steady handhold as described by Allah in the Quran after the ayaat of Ayat-ul-Kursi in Surah Baqarah. Thus the Shahadah is a statement of negative first, nothing is worthy of worship but Allah, and the Muslims break that bond, and they grab onto the steady handhold, the Muslim finds tranquility and stability by holding onto this, and this is the handhold of Emaan. Ibn-al Qayyum said, make your love for the sake of Allah, if you are separated you can look forward to Him after sometime. Umm Darda was married to Abu Darda, Abu Darda took it a little too far initially in Islam in his practices and became neglectful of his self and his wife. We learn this from the hadith of Salman al Farsi. Umm Darda had beat up clothes and was not well taken care of or paid much attention to by Abu Darda. Salman was the assigned brother of Abu Darda after the Hijrah. When he saw this, Salman forced Abu Darda to not pray all night and to sleep, to not fast all days and to break his fast, and so on, and to spent time with his wife and for his self. The Prophet (s) agreed with Salman. Umm Darda was with Abu Darda at the time of his death, before she got married she had a very comfortable lifestyle, but at the same time they lived very simply. Umm Darda tells Abu Darda before he died, look in this world when you wanted to marry me you asked my father for my hand in marriage, now I am asking you to ask Allah for your hand in Paradise ! SubhanAllah, beautiful, this is optimism! She is asking to be proposed in the next life as well. Abu Darda agrees and asks her to stay patient and he passes away. How do we know how loyal Umm Darda then was to this oath? And what is her optimism now that Abu Darda has passed away? Muawiya, the khalifa, sends a proposal to her and she responds that she can not because she is already engaged to Abu Darda in the Hereafter. Umm Darda did not receive much from him, but they understood this was a temporary break. The second priority after Allah is your parents and your family that are closest to you. Just because someone came into your life today does not mean that you neglect the people that have been with you for decades, a relationship that began at your own child birth. Just because you had ups and downs with your parents does not mean you sacrifice this relationship. Being on good terms with your parents, spouse, the people around you is also a great source of joy. Back to the cancer patient analogy, you will sort things out because you will not be heedless thinking you have time. Look at the loyalty of the Prophet (s) to Khadija, he was so deeply attached to her even after she passed away. Aisha was jealous of this and one day asked him, did Allah not replace you with something better then an woman?, he said No and he defended her by mentioning her good, she believed in me, gave me, bore my children etc. Stability thus in our relationships is a great source of happiness. Thus trying to fix your relationships with the people you need to have your relationships sound with gives you happiness thus. Ummar bin Khattab said, dont let your love be too much and dont let your hate be too much because one day the one who loves you too much may one day turn around, stab you in the back, and become your enemy and the person that you hate may end up being your best friend, so dont be excessive in loving and hating. Sometimes when you hate someone so much it becomes your life and how you live your day.

3. Do what you want, you are going to be compensated for what you have done Some people are completely reactive rather then being proactive. They do not feel bad about their sins until they face the consequences. A hole may be infront of you and people keep telling you not to approach it, and only until you fall into it and face the punishment do you regret it. Rather a believer has so much certainty in Allah that he worships Him as if he can see Him and He follows the command of Allah with full faith. Ali said at this, if i was to see Jannah I wouldnt it any more then I already do, and if I were to see Hellfire I would not fear it more then I already do . SubhanAllah, this is certainty!

And Allah in the beautiful ayat of Surah Zumur tells the people of despair and sin to not do so and to turn to Him, further Allah says He will forgive you, so switch course and turn around, before punishment comes then you will not be helped. Follow the truth revealed from your Lord, before the punishment comes all of a sudden. On the day of Judgement a person will say, Oh how I wish ("Hasra" refers to something on the day of Judgement), what did I do? I use to be those who mocked the revelation. Or he says, if Allah would have guided me I would have been those amongst taqwa. Here we see that this person does not take responsibility for his actions! Or when he sees the punishment, this person says, had I only had another life I would be amongst those who excel. I will worship Allah as if I see Him. The problem again that some people do not wake up until they see the consequences of their actions. Such people face punishment in this life too. They just don't take accountability for their actions. A book on success mentioned the quote, "goal minus doubt equals reality." Think about your goals, think about the doubt that you have in achieving that goal and this is where your station is. Thus ibn Huyaan would say: I am amazed by paradise, how is the one who is seeking it asleep, and i am amazed by Hellfire, how is the one running from it sleeping . The point again that there is a sense of urgency for both situations. You should always be in urgency, whether in fear or hope. Allah allows you to act as you will, but you are only going to find on Day of Judgement what you have done. This is the most important aspect of Qadr. On the Day of Judgement Allah is not going to show you Al-Lowhal Mahfoudh, the preserved tablet, where everything is written as it will happen. Allah will only show you your own books and your deeds only. Jibreel is telling the Prophet because we have an understanding that happiness is not just the akhira but the duniya as well, so Jibreel tells the Prophet do whatever you want, youll be compensated. 4 and 5. Know that the nobility of the believer is in his standing at night, and his honor is in being independent of people These two advices are extremely important and should be taken together. Having a solid relationship with your Creator is so important, and of the sunnah prayers the best is Tahajjud without a doubt because when the entire humanity is sleeping this is a chance to be alone with your Rabb. Ask yourself if you have experienced Tahajjud how beautiful it was e.g. in Ramadan in the last few nights praying Taraweh at night. You didn't sleep much but how amazing was your next day! One answer for happiness is literally standing up at night and talking to Allah. Hasan Basri was asked because he would barely sleep, but at the same time everytime you would see him he would look very fresh. What was it about him? So they didnt want to ask him directly, so they went to him and asked him why is it that the people who pray Qiyam have the freshest faces, and he responded very beautifully, they secluded themselves with the Most Merciful so Allah dressed them from His light With Allah you have this opportunity every single night. Just 30 minutes before Fajr wake up and just pray. As the Prophet (s) said that Allah descends to the lowest heaven, asking is anyone asking for forgiveness so I may forgive him. Allah thus has a private conversation with this slave every single night! Things will happen for you that even you can not explain. Your nobility is when you stand infront of Allah invoking Allah alone, this gives you so much happiness and elevates your status, naturally when you ask someone it degrades you, but with Allah the more you ask Him the more your status increases! The Prophet said: Whoever lowers himself for Allah, Allah elevates them. Ibn Rajab said: I am amazed that people spend their nights at the doors of the kings, asking, and the One who owns everything, the kingdom of the heavens and earth, extends His Hand, is there anyone that wants something that I may give it to them? When further looking at these two advices together, one is spiritual and the other is physical.

The advices emphasize independence in both ways. Do you call people and complain about your problems after Qiyam? No, because the greatest form of independence is emotional. In Islam and generally as Muslims, we should all strive to be as independent as possible of people. The Prophet (s) said the giving handing is greater then the receiving hand, the upper hand is the giving and the lower is the receiving hand. Asceticism does not mean you will be a begger for the rest of your life. Asceticism does not mean poverty. The greatest form of fulfillment is emotional and the greatest form of trial is emotional. Allah says in the Quran, we will test them with some form of fear and hunger Imam Sa'adi said the reason Allah mentioned fear first is because emotional trials are greater then physical trials. Betrayal is as if being stabbed in the back, it is one of the worst feelings to have but at the same time you opened yourself up to be let down. And so the greatest form of fulfillment is emotional fulfillment again. Your sense of satisfaction is knowing that you are fulfilling to Him. And as for anyone else that you are trying to please in this duniya? Allah says, the one seeking and the one sought has been weakened. You will never be satisfied with anything other then Allah. Always ask yourself who you are trying to impress and what will they do for you? Who will answer when I am in need? Is there any God beside Allah? On the other hand Allah being impressed with me is what I want. This is self-actualization, in Mazlow's hierarchy of needs the level of selfactualization is being independent of the need of others. A French teenage girl shaved her head when the French government passed the law that a girl can not cover her head in school. When asked, she smiled at the camera and said if being ugly in the eyes of the creation means being beautiful in the eyes of the Creator then it is worth it. SubhanAllah. Imam Sufyaan At Thawri said: oh Allah, if your love for me has been actualized then everything else becomes meaningless, because everything else is meaningless, it is of dirt and is dirt in itself Habeeba Al Adaweeya who was known for her worship. She would stand at night on her roof and she would be heard sayig: Oh my Lord, the stars have come out, the eyes have shut, and the kings have closed their doors, and every lover is with their lover, and here I am standing before you. SubhanAllah, these righteous people demonstrate complete dependence on Allah and dependence of Allah yields independence of creation. Islam thus teaches financial independence and spiritual independence as soon as possible. It creates a perfect society in that the people well off are looking for those not so well off. And those not so well off are independent and not looking for anybody. And this happened in our Ummah. Ummar bin Abdel Aziz in his time did not find anyone to give Zakah to. They had to run after people, he had to go and investigate the entire Ummah and we know that it was extremely large at the time. They just could not find anyone needing Zakah. A man came to Ibrahim Adham and said he wanted to become a monk, and when asked of his rizq he said Allah would provide. Ibrahim said you are a fool dont do this, go work . Rather the man continued. He sat in the masjid and saw a bird with one wing that was clearly blind. And he thought to himself how will it be taken care of, so he saw another bird come, give it it's food and leave. The man though this is how he would also be taken care of. So he decided to wait until the food came, and he waited three days without any food. So he returned to Ibrahim and asked him why this happened. Ibrahim answered why did you think of yourself as the crippled bird why not the one fully functional one?

COMPLAINING (for more on this, see "Tafsir Surah Maryam" done by Sheikh Omar Suleiman) Iqbal wrote a famous poem on this topic called Shaqwa (or complaining). The scholars were

unhappy with this so he wrote Jawab-as-Shakwa (the answer to the complaining) and all the scholars were happy. What about complaining to a human being? Ummar bin Khattab would say there is no good in complaining to another person except that you'd depress a friend or make your enemy happy . There really is no good complaining to others. Usually the way friends are is that they look at how much they benefit from each relationship. If I am getting more out of you than you from me, were cool, but when this becomes imbalanced that person will get sick of you, that person wont like to hear you complain all the time! When you are always needy, emotionally and financially, you overburden the other person. In essence we find that there are some people that are capable of helping you but unwilling to, and some are willing to help you but not capable. Rich people can wrtite you a check but are unwilling, your mother would love to write you a check but is not capable. Allah is both, willing and capable. As Ibn-al Qayyum said, people eventually get sick of you. At the same there are people that really love you but are incapable of helping you, Allah is always capable and willing. Further, Allah becomes angry with you when you do not call upon him, the Prophet (s) said when you dont ask Allah He becomes angry with you. A generous host when not asked for anything gets frustrated. Allah is more generous then anyone in this world and He does not like that we stop asking of Him. As Yaqub (as) said, I complain of my grief to Allah, there is no good in me complaining to the rest of you in telling how sad I am that I lost Yusuf. Amazingly, in Surah Yusuf, not once does Yaqub ever complain to anyone else! The theme of Surah Yusuf is Yaqub never loses hope in Allah and does not complain to people about Allah. We must really understand this concept to turn to Allah and complain, oh Allah I am hurting! And you are most capable of those giving mercy . This represents trust and makes us more independent of people. It allows us to have that relationship with our Rabb. In the story of Prophet Zacharia he calls to Allah; oh Allah my bones are old and my hair has exploded with grey but You never let me down before, youve never left me deprived . Here is a 90 year old man asking for a child with full confidence in Allah! And Allah wants us to understand as He says, this is the mention of the Mercy of Your Lord to His servant , so we understand that this is the same Lord who will answer us and listen to us. The idea here is that complaining to Allah is absolutely not a bad thing, Ibn-al Qayyum said that this is a form of dua. Ibn-al Qayyum further said something beautiful: When you complain to people all the time, you complain about the one who has mercy upon to people who dont have mercy upon you! But it is the manner in which you complain to Allah that makes it permissible or prohibited. Ayyub (as) went through all kinds of hardships, did he complain to Allah? Yes! But how? Literally, I am hurt and you are the most merciful of those capable of having mercy SubhanAllah. This shakwa, complaining to Allah, if you have that ability to stand alone with Allah at night calling upon Allah, you dont feel a need to constantly vent to human beings! Why? I am venting to the One who has mercy upon me and this strengthens your faith. And why would you call upon Allah if you dont even believe that He is there? To summarize, the advices from jibreel 1. Live as you will, you are going to die 2. Love who you want, you are going to depart from that person 3. Do what you want, you are going to be compensated for what you have done 4. Know that the nobility of the believer is his standing up at night 5. His dignity, izzah is being independent of people

A MEANINGFUL LIFE

Allah tells us in Surah Hadeed: 19, Know that the life of this world is play, amusement, superficiality (appearence), competition amongst yourselves, pilling on money and living those same things or shallow goals through your children. This ayah is commented on from many different ways and angles. One such is commentary is that Allah gives us 5 stages that a person goes through in our life. At-Tabari says about this ayah that this is chronological and one will have some aspect of what is mentioned in each phase. When you are born everything is about play - your iphone is a toy even. The second is amusement, the kid grows up to be a toddler and you can put them in front of barney and sing the same song 500 times, this is the zombie age and they will just be entertained all the time as this is what they want. A scholar said that by the age of 7 every child memorized the equivalent of the Qur'an in cartoons and such. This is the amount that is stored into the brain by meaningless things. Then with teenage-hood comes superficiality, you define your worth by how others define your worth. Boys spend hours in front of their mirror! The music you listen to is because people like that you like that music. At that age you really live a very purposeless life, and this is again for one that has no meaning, it is all about perception of others. Then comes the ages of 18-20 and competition begins. You want to prove yourself, and you tell your parents you are a grown man and that they cant talk to you a certain way because you have pride. This is a very dangerous stage. You want no one to tell you anything and feel threatened and insecure. You are about your position and proving yourself, thinking you are someone who deserves respect. You get your degree, money, and you get married and you have children, then you live the same accomplishments through your kids; they have to look a certain way and not bring shame to your family, and your life becomes money and kids, meaningless. Unfortunately this is very apparent in the Muslim community today. Then Allah says in the same ayah 19 It is like a strong beneficial rain came and some crops grew and the farmer got excited, the crops grew and they appeared to be giving fruit (meaning he begins to be amazed by the crop that he feels like he is yielding through these things), became nice trees and crops and so on, then the tree starts to fade, and the leaves (dry and) turn yellow (you see it as yellow) then it completely disappears. And they will be punished in the Hereafer as well. You spend your entire life going through these phases without managing to break out of the cycle of life, chasing after the things everyone chased after and without deriving any form of happiness through these things. What Allah speaks about now is that anything you have in this life and duniya turns yellow, this will be your perception of it even though it may not turn yellow. When you first get something, especially something you really want such as a car or house, it looks amazing, and once you have it you no longer have fulfillment from it. Soon the car just becomes your steel box that you use for work and commuting. Imam Showkani said, Allah did not say it turns yellow, rather you see those things turn yellow . You move into a brand new house, and it is amazing, next thing you know the kids have holes in the walls, stuff all over the place, and then its just a place to live. Shaytaan markets by our vulnerability, a professor once said that marketing is exploiting people's vulnerabilities. We are told; You need this to be happy, do this and you will be satisfied, this product is what you need etc In particular, some scholars comment that this is at the time of death. When a person looks back at their life and they did not gain anything they face immense regret, what was their legacy in this world? There are all these questions that they have of their life because they did not achieve what they felt like was meaningful. In the Quran Allah says that the one dying will say, oh Allah send me back so I can do well with that which I left behind. This is a great sense of regret and remorse because a person did not live a meaningful life. Ibn Taymiyyah said that, nothing that Allah has created in this world gives a person ever-lasting happiness. He gave the example of alcohol, they drink to escape, short-term happiness, and when people wake up in the morning how do they feel? Hangovers, terrible headaches and so on. Even with this people drink that to escape their problems and wake up with greater problems, and have more problems in their lives.

Allah describes the "hamster in the wheel", you think you are getting places but in reality you are getting no where. These people fail in all stages, and then they realize they have done nothing meaningful in their lives, and this is extreme depression. The sooner you break out of this phase the sooner you get to Allah. Someone young and developing a relationship with Allah will find it harder to be deluded, and the more one believes in this process the more they are deluded and the harder to break out of this. This is punishment in this duniya, and Allah says, do not be impressed by their money and children and all that they have, Allah is actually punishing them by their thinking that this will give them happiness! Why? Everything turns yellow. Iphone 1, 2, 3 and so on and nothing satisfies. The tragedy of America is that you enslave yourself to a mortgage thinking it'll give you happiness, then you get a car thinking it'll satisfy you, then you drive to work to satisfy a mortgage for a house you can't even appreciate. Everything loses value! It turns yellow. Every year companies will change their cars by a bit, and thats it we want it. There is no difference between new phones, new cars and so on, they just play to people's insecurities. As human beings we love what we dont possess, from the outside it looks amazing, once you get it it is not fulfilling anymore, I need something else now! The next iphone, the next car and so on with things. You get a nice house and you put yourself in debt and slavery, than you have to work more to pay, than a nice house comes up and that house looks a lot nicer! Shaytaan does this, beautifying things from the outside, and than you are miserable beause the things dont meet your expectations. Think about this, you buy a car which looks amazing! In 2 weeks or so it is just a car. A $40,000 cheaper car is the same after two weeks, it takes you places and is your transport which is what it is supposed to do. At the end of the day your million dollar mansion is the same as an apartment, you live and sleep there. And you must spend more and more to satisfy yourself. Allah says, everything turns yellow! After you own it. You move from one stage to the next, and the faster you break the addiction the happier you will be! Look at the one at a young age they find Allah and their happiness. The longer you take, the harder to break that addcition. The young person though who is seeks guidance by Allah though found meaning in their life at an early age. The ayah then says, in the Hereafter you are punished. It was punishment in this life to think it would make you happy, and it than led to misery in the hereafter as well. Today the highest suicide rate is from celebrities and millionaires! Usually what happens is that the celebrity in glamour will drown in a pool, found behind 7-11 with a needle, and people think how could this ever happen. . AOL has a feature called, "what happened to that 80s star". So you look at that nice celebrity and next you see them years later and they look horrible. And you ask these celebrities decades later and what happened to them? They mention that they thought all that wealth and fame would make them happy. A celebrity that was being interviewed was very depressed and were asked, what do you want? She answered, I just want to be able to take my son for ice cream and not be papparizied. Sins in particular are problematic. As Ibn-al Qayyum said, a sin is a fleeting moment of pleasure with a lifetime of regret whereas a good deed is a fleeting moment of regret with a lifetime of pleasure. What we find is the strength of good deeds! The Prophet said (as narrated in imam ahmeds musnad): if your good deeds make you happy and your bad deeds sad you are a believer (i.e. you have some emaan). The idea here is not that a person becomes proud when they do a good deed, but that good deeds make you happy. You feel good when you pray fajr, make dua, give charity, read Quraan and this natural! The worshipping of Allah never ever loses value. Achieving milestones in deen, building yourself up to Allah never loses value. Ata said that there are three pleasures to good deeds and 1 temporary one for everything else: 1. The pleasure of actually doing a good deed, even if you are getting exhausted, 2. The joy every

time you remember the good deed. As an example, ones that toil hard to build a masjid look back at the people that come with happiness. At the end of the day a sense of accomplishment is all that one really needs. 3. When you meet Allah with those good deeds and you live an eternity being rewarded for those good deeds. For the one who does for other then Allah all the reward is is temporary happiness and it is suffocating. People that buy a house on a 20 year mortgage in a few years feel entrapped, they can't leave the house even if they want to! And they suffer in regret. When you think about your Ramadan, your Fajr, your volunteering, and all those times when you really strived hard in your worship you always have fond memories of it. You never feel bad when you think bad on those things. Remembering a good deed gives you a sense of happiness, and the ultimate joy is meeting Allah. As an example, the Prophet (s) said that for the one who fasts are two joys , when he breaks his fast and he does not even know the real joy when he meets Allah with that fasting. Again here is a sense of living a meaningful life. Accomplishment is happiness, even when tired and exhausted you will be happy. When we look at the lives of the companions and those that came before, they cried at night, their feet swollen from prayer, they were beaten, humiliated and oppressed, they exhausted their efforts for what they believed in. This does not sound happy as we think that chilling is basically happiness but were they ever unhappy? No. Ummar bin AbdelAziz did not have much at all, infact he only had one garment. He was always stressed out about injustices during his reign, but when he is dying what happens? Think about having that sense of regret mentioned earlier - he had none - his face lights up and he asks his family to leave him alone, and as they are peaking in the see that he is smiling and he recites, welcome to these beautiful faces that dont belong to Jinn or human beings . And he recited, this is the home in Paradise, we grant it to those who do not seek corruption or status in this world, and victory belongs to the believers. He is content and happy because he accomplished great things. We see this in the lives of the Sahaba and the righteous that they worked their entire lives and Allah gave them peace and satisfaction in their last moments. Likewise with the Prophet (s), when he was dying he told Abu Bakr to lead the prayer, and while Abu Bakr was doing this the Prophet removed the curtain of his house, he was smiling and watching the believers praying, and his face was so beautiful that it was narrated it was like the face of the mushaf. Anas narrates that they noticed him and started to get excited, and he made a signal for them to continue and this was the last they saw of him. Think: blood, sweat and tears, and think of the fulfilment had when the Prophet (s) saw all these people praying as he taught them to pray, that feeling of accomplishment was worth everything he went through in his life, SubhanAllah. Do you think he was thinking of Ta'if at this time? Bitter about the past at all? No - it all becomes worth it when you see the fruits of your efforts. This is the key and this is what Islam gives to us. Eleanor Rosevelt said that Happiness is not a goal but a product of a life well lived. Every night when we go to sleep we die a minor death, when you put your head on a pillow at night when you review your day you should be able to smile and say alhumdulilah i had a good day. Think then at the time of your death when you review your life you will be pleased, inshaAllah. It is so important to have goals and this is exactly what Islam gives us. Islam gives us everyday goals, monthly goals, lifetime goals and so on. Sheikh Omar comments especially on the sweetness of memorizing the Qur'an, having accomplished that goal, when you finish reading Surah An-Nas after dedicating yourself to memorizing over 600 pages, the feeling that you have is beyond this world. The story of the mother of Sh. Omar Al Ashkar: him and his brother were great scholars. Their mother, 70 years old wanted to memorize the Quran but she did not even know how to read it. They decided to teacher her from the absolute basics. The first word they taught her to read was Allah. Sh Omar would read the Quran to her and she would get excited when she saw the word Allah. Then she started to know the common names, and then the common words in the Qur'an. In 6 years, at the age of 76 years old she finished memorizing the Quran! He said that it took her longer to read Surah Nas then to read Surah Baqarah because she could not stop crying. This was her sense of accomplishment, I did it.

Again, it is so important to set goals. These goals must be attainable, low enough that they can be aspired for, and high enough to inspire to do. Imam Abu Hanifa before becoming a scholar and even after becoming a scholar was a very successful business man. He would buy clothes for his students and would spend on everyone and in his personal lifestyle went from extravagance to simplicity. He would say, if the kings knew the joy that we had, being in the pursuit of Islamic knowledge, they would send armies to attack us and take it from us. Another beautiful quote on knowledge, the one learning is in pleasure while learning while the ignorant one is constantly deprived in his ignorance InshaAllah we can be of those people that do much in our life. On the day of Judgement you may not even recognize your good deeds because Allah multiplied them so much! A french philosopher posed as a Muslim and went to Hajj to capture the experience, he said, I knew this was something beyond my comprehension when i was doing Tawaf around the Kabah and I saw a man clinging to the cloth of the Kabah and saying Now repeatedly! Asking Allah to give him death then. You know you are doing what you love if you wouldnt mind dying doing what you love. Sh Omar narrates the story of Sh Mohammed Hussein. During Hajjj on the day of Arafah he fell and down and hit his head on tiles. He had big wound on his head and went into a coma for 4 days. He woke up on the 13th of Dhul Hijah and opened his eyes and was actually regretful as he was really hoping that Allah would take him away at Arafah.

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS Is there such a thing as clinical depression in Islam? Are anti-depressants Halal? Yes and yes. Unfortunately there are two extreme viewpoints on this, the first that everyone needs antidepressants and they are over-prescribed and secondly that only Qur'an, dhikr of Allah will work and nothing else is needed. A study in USA said that 82% of people get prescribed a medicine they don't need. A book called "The church of medicine" speaks about eating unhealthy and adopting an unhealthy lifestyle so we can visit doctors often. Is there such a thing as clinical depression though? Yes, chemical imbalances do exist. In the past scholars would talk about a man who is always sad and greatly depressed. Even modern day books of depression and pyschology do talk about situational depression. This is normal! Situational depression means being depressed if something sad happens to us. There are going to be times in your life where you feel depressed and sad. We as humans have a tendency to always blame external factors in extremes - self hatred to everything around you; seher, envy etc. Life is such, it will make you sad sometimes. This is not clinical depression. Unfortunately as Muslims we like to blame others if the smallest calamity happens in our daily life. If I am depressed it must be black magic, while these things do exist they are completely overplayed nowadays. As Ibn Taymiyyah said, most of it is humans taking advantage of other humans i.e. charging you so much money to do nothing for you claiming to get rid of your Jinn. The other problem is that the first time we believe in black magic our next question is who did it? And Allah says: do not have suspicion on people for verily suspicion is sin. But we think of people close to us. Allah did not create an environment of paranoia and this is not encouraged in Islam. But again we like to blame external circumstances rather then internal failure. The Prophet (s) as narrated in Sahih Bokhari, Abu Dawud (more comprehensive narration), actually prescribed to a woman an anti-depressant, "Talbina" a word from Milk in Arabic - it litereally means boiled barley - which is to take barley and boil it in a pot until the water has a white color to it. The Prophet (s) said it is good for the heart and does away with your grief. Sh Hatem Al Hajj did a study on boiled barley and found that the 3 leading brands of antidepressant medications used boiled Barley because it normalizes serotonin! This research can be found on his website. He showed that the chemicals added to the drugs are actually the harmful substances that increase dependence. This does not mean that we stop the remembrance of Allah, reading the Qur'an etc and indeed boiley Barley has much positives. Market drugs are good but again they haev chemicals in them

which increase dependence. Modern day herbals have much good and should be strongly considered, the Prophet recommended such.

CERTAINTY Confidence in the way you approach reality, meaning you always believe that there is a greater purpose that things are happening for a good reason. Something bad or good happens you are ok because you conclude you don't even know what is good and bad anymore. Ummar bin Khattab said when I wake up I dont concern myself with good versus bad, Allah knows best and I dont even know anymore and dont know at the moment. As the Prophet (s) said, how amazing is the affair of the believer, if something good happens he thanks Allah and is happy, and it is better for him (i.e. in the Hereafter too) and if something bad happens he is patient and that is better for him (i.e. in the Hereafter too). This certainty allows you to face life with this disposition and perspective thus! There is no calamity if there is certainty. In our deen there are no calamities if there are certainties. If there is certainty in Allah, His Word, His Promise, Jannah, protection from Hellfire, and if everything in this world is used as a means of elevation of Jannah, and if a person has this certainty they will never ever be depressed. The famous example of Ibn Taymiyyah; whenever his enemies wanted to punish him he laughed at them, he said what can you do to me? If you kill me I am shaheed, if you lock me up it is a chance for khalwa i.e. being alone with Allah, if you deport me it is tourism to contemplate the signs of Allah, my garden is in my heart! This is obviously a high level of certainty, but a person who can face life with that always sees things as good and never as absolutely evil. Theodacy or the questioning of Why, why does suffering happen? Why do bad things happen to good people? etc etc causes many people to lose faith! This concept that why do good things happen to bad people and bad things to good people is a fundamental problem of every single faith. Because of our consumer mentality we approach religion the same way, we pick apart our religion because it does not give me what I want right now. What can Islam do for me right now? I do not want paradise, tawakkul, patience etc. This is with a mentality of consumerism. The only time we supplicate is when we want something in this world. Often Allah does not give you what you are asking for is because it is like feeding your drug addiction. Allah wants to break your addiction first then give you. The first answer to theodacy is self-accountability, the famous quote: I wanted to ask God why things happen and I was afraid He'd ask me the same thing , Secondly there is no fairness and balance from such a person in attributing good versus bad to God. Something good and this person attributes it to themselves and if bad they question ask Allah why such? An imbalanced perspective of God causes you to have a very negative reaction. As the Prophet (s) said the believer is not faced with any form of hardship, not even the prick of thorn, except that Allah expiates his sin. Your eyes are constantly on the goal and so a person can progress and come to terms with what bothers people. The believer comes to terms with many things including: 1. Why does Allah allow certain things to happen Firstly if you draw a circle for yourself this circle is the legislated will of Allah, meaning Allah commands us to do certain things (good deeds, fast, enjoin good forbid evil, treat people with justice, obedience, prayer, Hajj etc) and then draw a bigger circle around the the original, this is the universal will of Allah, meaning the Knowledge and Will of Allah, and that everything happens with His knowledge and His wisdom. (27:32) Allah allows it to happen even though he did not command it - meaning you choose to be unjust, hurtful, sinful - and Allah allowed it though he did not like it, you did it because of your own sins. Allah if He allows such allows it for the greater purpose and for overall good, even if it may be temporarily or may appear to be evil. Scholars thus say that nothing that Allah allows does not have more good then evil. Even Shaytaan has a wisdom, would we be as strong in our belief had it not been for Shaytaan? No, so even in his existence is benefit. Thus there is no such thing as absolute evil Islamically. When we call upon

Allah thus, whenever bad things happen it is when Allah leaves us to ourselves because we neglect His commands and what He tells us to do is what bring a just and harmonious society. The pious would say oh Allah dont leave us to ourselves, protect us from ourselves. A sister in chicago with an Autistic child, and she is incredibly compassionate to her child, forming an organization to help autistic children. When people meet her they are always sad for her but she always smiles, and she says this is my gift, i would not be compassionate without her! This certainty is confidence. Instead of the question "Why?", she asks "What can I do Oh Allah?" Can du'a change Qadar? Yes, the Prophet (s) said such, however sometimes Allah answers you with an answer you do not want to hear. There must be certainty in your du'as. Sometimes Allah says No because it isnt good for you. Certainty in the Hereafter shows itself in our attitude, when you supplicate three things happen: 1) Either Allah answers it the way you want, or 2) He averts an equal evil, or 3) He leaves it for the Hereafter. Thus I must be confident Allah did not give it to me because it was not good for me and i would hope He has something better for me in the Hereafter. The Prophet (s) said that when we see the reward of the good in the Hereafter of our du'as we would wish none of our supplications were answered in this world. SubhanAllah. This is confidence in the way you approach reality, this is certainty. And as for trials and hardships that lead to depression and misery, a beautiful saying from Ibn-al Jawziyyah: Sometimes Allah allows you to break so He can put you together Sh Omar narrates that his most difficult hardship was his most greatest spiritual turning point The comfort that Allah gives you as a result of that hardship is so great that you would never look back after receiving it in this world and in the Hereafter. You will never wish ease in your hardship. For this may have been the reason you turned back to Allah and had that comfort offered to you by Him. The Prophet (s) said, no sadness, no hardship, not even a prick of the thorn harms the believer except that Allah takes away some sins as a result. When the comfort of the one who is causing you comfort is greater then the hardship of the one causing you hardship you do not want to change things. Levels of Trust. The 3 levels of trust from Ibn-al Qayyum: Level 1 The way that a person would trust his agent or Wakeel. And Allah is Al-Wakeel, He gave the example, if you were to leave your land and appoint someone to watch your land you would have to have a certain level of trust in that person. At this level of trust, the minute something appears to be wrong or different, you develop suspicion in them. Some people trust Allah this way, the minute things go a little different then what you want, you begin to ask the question Why?. The suspicion developed is so bad they may not have trusted Allah in the first place. You make Allah your scape goat? You blame Him for everything. Sh Omar narrates that he was sitting with a group of 27 clergy and they were listening to a grief counselor tell them about how to deal with grief and sadness in community members. She said the problem with preachers is that they dont teach people that its ok to be mad at God. Other clergy agreed with this woman but this is not how we think in Islam, we absolutely do not blame God for our issues. Level 2 To trust Allah the way the child trusts its mother. The mother's love for the child is the greatest form of love, He calls himself Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem from Rahm meaning motherly love. The Prophet (s) teaches us of a woman who found her child running between people in battle, and she found him and held him tight, and he asked the people you think that woman would ever throw her son in Hellfire? No, Allah loves him more. Ihsan is to worship Allah with confidence, as if you can see HIm. Likewise even when the child can not see the baby knows when the mum is in the room and when he is not in the room. In an experiment in parent relations with the baby, if the father were to inflict harm on the child, the child would run to the mum but when the mum causes distress the child would run back to the mum. The child does not run to anyone else because they know that the one that loves them the most

is the mother. The Prophet (s) taught us to ask Allah, oh Allah, I seek refuge in Your pleasure from Your displeasure, I seek refuge in Your pardon from Your punishment, and i seek refuge in You from You, there is no escape from You except You. Level 3 To trust Allah the way that a dead body trusts it's washer. The washer will turn you and you will have no say. It is complete submission. Ibn-al Qayyum said about the Prophet that this certainty did not stop him from calling upon Allah. Allah did not give us du'a because he could not give us without us asking, rather he gave us supplication for a greater cause so we can get acquainted with calling upon Him . The greatest representation of this is the Prophet (s) at the battle of Badr, the day of the battle he is raising his hands to the sky crying oh Allah give me what you promised, if you allow this people to be killed you wont be worshipped on the face of this Earth . This incident alone may tell you that the Prophet maybe lost some confidence, but the day before this the Prophet was walking with the companions and pointed to a ditch, and pointed where all the enemies were going to die. And they did die at their designated spots, there were 3 different narrations from 3 different companions that all said that they all died exactly where the Prophet (s) said they would. The Prophet (s) never lost confidence and this is the affair of the believer. The believer calls upon Allah with love and desperation, invoking His Mercy. He proceeds with du'a because he knows Allah loves to hear his voice, and the gift of du'a in itself i.e. the ability to make du'a is greater then what you are asking for. Again, your nobility and honor have been preserved.

PATIENCE The greatest degree of patience is when you seek the reward of your patience, literally taking that patience and scoring good deeds from Allah in saying, oh Allah I am doing so because I want your reward. This is called Ihtisaab. The Prophet (s) said patience is victory. If someone tries to harm you, your patience will always be victory. A man walked into the masjid and told Imam Shafi that he was a hypocrite and faasik. How did Imam Shafi reply? He made du'a; oh Allah if he is right in what he is saying forgive me and have mercy on me and accept my repentance, and if he is other then that than forgive him and have mercy on him and accept his repentance. What a beautiful example of patience and victory by Imam Shafi. If you are a good person you will be taken advantage of often and you are sometimes not going to be able to exact complete justice. Even if you do it may not be fulfilling, justice in this world isnt always fulfilling. So being able to say you will let go for the sake of Allah is victory. Ibn-al Qayyum said, when your enemy shoots arrows at you and he misses you he suffers two losses, he missed you and he wasted arrows . Practicing Ihtisaab with everything that happens is an important quality of the believer. The Prophet (s) taught us to tell others upon their hardship, to Allah belongs all that He has taken and given, and Allah has everything with its prescribed term and be patient and seek the reward of your patience. On the major level the greatest example of ihtisaab is Aasiyah, a woman who the Prophet (s) said about that she has perfect emaan. The Prophet said 4 women in history have perfect faith 1. Maryam, 2. Asiya 3. Khadija and 4. Fatimah. It was with the will of Allah that this particular woman with perfect faith, Aasiyah, is married to Firoun, the worst person on the face of this Earth. She herself saw the hairdresser and her kids being put in a boiling couldren by Firoun, and she then came and told Firoun I disbelief in you and I believe in the Lord of my previous Prophets, and I do not care what you do to me. Firoun takes Aasiyah and ties her in the middle of the dessert, has her lashed, whipped, dehydrated and she is laughing and looking into the skies, why? The increase of her emaan! Allah shaded her with the angels, the Prophet (s) similarly said the people of Asham are shaded in that they can bear much hardship. She looked up and what du'a did she make? Oh Allah build for me with You (replace companionship with Firoun to with you) and

replace a palace in this world with a palace in Paradise . Allah took her soul before she was even killed. SubhanAllah, why did she ask this? This is ihtisaab. Anything in duniya is going to go away anyway. And an example of seeking Ihtisaab at the smaller levels; Abdullah bin Masud was walking in the marketplace while this someone stole his money, and people were enraged that this could happen to a great scholar. They wanted to find and punish the culprit but Ibn Masud told them to stop and he made du'a, oh Allah, if he was poor then bless him with what he has taken from me, and if he was not poor replace for me with something better. He automatically thought how can I use this situation to seek from Allah. Saad bin Abi Waqqas (ra) is another example of practising Ihtisaab. The Prophet (s) made du'a that Allah answer Saad's du'a for anything he asks for. Saad was promised Paradise many times, and his du'a was always answered. There are many incidents narrated where people were actually afraid of his du'a. But Saad went blind at the end of his life and people thought he'd just make du'a to cure his condition. They asked him why he didn't ask Allah to cure his blindness, and he said, Wallahi I am ashamed to even ask Allah to cure my blindness. I am going to be patient and seek reward instead. the Prophet (s) said nothing he does before or after today (the day he was promised Paradise) would hurt him but still he sought ihtisaab in his hardships. This was the generation of the righteous, they always looked for the greater reward from Allah. Saad also taught us that patience can not come after gratitude. If you were not grateful when things were good, you won't be patient when things are bad. Sometimes when you ask Allah for good He will give you better in this world and the next. An example of this is Umm Salamah who was old, had kids, and was married to Abu Salamah. Abu Salamah died in battle and she thought to herself no one greater then him would ask for her hand in marriage and she turned down proposals from Abu Bakr and other honorable Sahabis. And then the Prophet (s) asked for her and she could not believe so, and what a beautiful reward! And so every time the companions were hurt they would use this hurt to seek leverage The famous story of the woman who came to the Prophet with seizures, she would faint and her hijab would become loose, exposing part of her 'awrah. She asked the Prophet (s) to make du'a and cure her. He replied, yes I can and you will be cured or you can be patient and Allah will grant you paradise. You are assured Paradise if you are patient he said and she agreed, and she only asked to not be exposed, and he agreed. She only wanted to please Allah. Likewise in Abu Dawud it is narrated that a man would visit the Prophet (s) often with his son. His son would play around the companions and all of a sudden both were not seen anymore. The Prophet's beautiful character was he would always ask about people when he didn't see them, he did so even with the lady that cleaned the masjid and died and they buried her without telling him. So he asked about this man and they said his son died and he is depressed. The Prophet (s) visited his house and said, if you want i can make du'a and Allah will bring your son back to life, or you can be patient and you have Jannah. What an amazing proposal to have his son back, yet this man chose Jannah instead. The Prophet (s) said that when a man loses his child, Allah asks the angels, "how is my servant? Did you take away his coolness of his eyes? And how is he?" and they respond that "he sings praise of you", so Allah "says build him in Paradise a house of praise" There is nothing that a person could lose in this life and not compensated for in a much better way in the Hereafter. Thus use Ihtisaab, you have turned this into an opportunity. As the famous quote goes, a pessimist turns opportunities into difficulties whereas an optimist turns difficulties into opportunities. SELF PITY VS SHUKR Self-pity is one of the most dangerous things one can fall into, thinking they have it worse then others. With this mentality one can never progress. Allah says in the Quran, Allah does not give a soul more then it can handle. The Prophet (s) said whenever you see someone better then you in wealth always look at those that have it worse then you, and that will give you grateful always. But rather people are always ungrateful because of what they see on facebook and TV. Few people will spend an equal amount of time getting acquainted with the problems of the world. Who would be happier? The humanitarian or the one spending all day on Fb? Acquaint yourself with those who have less then you.

Shukr means "Extra" while Kufr means to completely deny. Arabs would say when someone keeps on giving you and you respond to them " Shakarta" (i.e. you've given me too much). Allah is As-Shakoor, He is still Grateful for our imperfect acts of worship though He gave us the faculties to worship Him and so He calls Himself The most grateful. If we are disconnected from our gratitude we have mediocre lives and mediocre worship. Abu Ishaac said that if Allah allows you to die saying alhumdulilah you owe Allah an alhumdulilah for this alhumdulilah Iblis is the most ungrateful of creation, In the Quran, Shaytaan says most people will be ungrateful. Deen comes from "Dayn" meaning debt, you feel indebted to your Creator and to your society. This is basic gratitude. If you dont have gratitude you will not be driven to worship and to change for the better. Allah acknowledges in the Quran that yes not many of the creation will be grateful but those grateful will be rewarded. A beautiful story narrated by Imam Dhahabi of Abdullah bin Mohammed, a Tabi'. He narrates that he was assigned to to Egypt to teach them Islam (In islamic history Egypt quickly became one of the greatest countries of Islam. They quickly produced their own scholars and became an Islamic powerhouse). Abdullah bin Mohammed said he left Egypt early because of it's positive response to Islam and that it no longer required him. He narrates, on the way back to Madinah i came across an old, beat up tent in the middle of nowhere and i peaked in and saw a man with no arms, and no legs and who was blind. He said I looked at him and realized he was blind because he did not see me walk in. I recognized his du'a and he said, "all praise and thanks to Allah who preferred me over many of his servants with a great bounty", and i was so surprised by this that I blurted out what have you been preferred for!? And he was shocked by my presence, so he asked who this is. Abdullah introduced himself and wanted to know the bounty. He said he'd tell Abdullah if Abdullah could do him a favor and Abdullah agreed. He said, oh Abdullah didn't Allah create people that can not hear and I can hear? - he replied Yes - Doesn't Allah have servants that can not speak and I can speak - he replied Yes - and does not Allah have some creation that cant think and I can? - he replied Yes - so he replied, then I will continue to praise Allah as long as Allah has given me the ability to praise Him just for the ability to praise Him . Abdullah bin Mohammed felt ashamed for what he did and said asked what the favor was that the man required? He said, I have a son who comes and brings me food, he did not come last night , so Abdullah went and tried to find him. He narrates that, eventually I noticed vultures descending upon a valley and i saw a dead young boy. I picked him up and was thinking how am I going to tell him his son is dead. and I was thinking how will i tell him i have his dead son. I went to his home and left the body out and walked into the tent and said, oh so and so have you heard the story of Ayub? - he replied Yes - didnt Allah take his wealth? How did Allah find him - he replied that Allah found him grateful - and didnt Allah take away his health? How did Allah find him - he replied that Allah found him grateful, and was he not grateful when he took away his children? So be patient and seek reward from Allah for Allah has taken your son . Abdullah says he started to cry, the man started to cry and i sat next to the man to console him , he said, "alhumdulilah Allah did not allow him to live a long life maybe he would grow up to be disobedient, like the story of Khidr". Abdullah narrates that, he kept saying alhumdulilah till I recognized he was not making dhikr, and he had died. Now i had a situation where I had two people I needed to do jaanazah for. I held both dead bodies between each arm and my body, I went outside and walked slowly to find travellers to help me and I saw 5 tabi'een, successors to the companions walking and told them about what happened and exposed their faces. They all broken down crying, and I asked, "do you know who this is?" And they replied, you DON'T know? This is Abi Qilaab al Jurmeem, a great scholar and a student of Ibn Abbas. He was given a leadership position and he fled and he was not seen after this. They prayed janazah on both of them. That night Abdullah says he saw the man in his dream and in that dream he was wearing a green thobe and he had all his physical faculties including his legs and his arms and he was clearly in Paradise, and he asked me, are you the same person? - I replied Yes - he thanked me for the janazah , so i asked him how are you and where you are? He responded, verily in Paradise there is a station and no one will reach it except for the one patient in adversity and grateful in prosperity *. The believer who lives between patience and gratitude constantly increases leverage with Allah. Such a person can do accomplish much, imagine when Allah says, when you are patient I will

increase you. He did not say specify an in increase in what? So the scholars said He will increase you in everything and especially faith, because with the lens of faith your circumstances are always favorable. People have amazing lives but they are always unhappy, just because they do not have faith. Action items: 1. Exercise gratitude so Allah increases you. The increase is not limited to faith, without a doubt a means of preserving a blessing in your life is being grateful for it. There are 3 ways to exercise shukr 1. Being grateful with the heart How is this attained? Sufyaan at Thawri said of all the predecessors I met all would sit and count their blessings because Allah said, if you were to count the blessing of Allah, you would not be able to. Sufyaan said there are so many blessings literally, I would sit there and take 1 blessing and try to count its blessing and when I'd fail I would achieve internal gratitude. A man in toronto was 70 and had lost the ability to urinate. When he was given the medical bill he broke down in tears. The doctor told asked him why? He said because Allah has given me the ability to urinate for 70 years without a bill. Allah says that He has made the Earth to be at our service. How many of us go outside and look at a flower and say oh Allah you should not have. To practice internal gratitude sometimes you need a break in your blessings. The goal of Ramadan is to to increase in gratitude and we should be thankful for the blessing of faith. How many non-Muslims tell us in Ramadan that we should be thankful Ramadan is over, but for us we hate for Ramadan to end. Secondly by breaking away from your food and blessing you become so thankful, that date tastes so good. Ummar bin Khattab said if you have a very comfortable bed don't always sleep on it . It is important to take a break from your blessings to gain full gratitude for it. 2. Being grateful with the tongue Constantly saying alhumdulilah, saying SubhanAllah before Alhumdulilah, why? Allah does not need our praise, we praise Allah for us. Learn to actually say these beautiful words. 3. Being grateful with the limbs and in one's actions. Allah says to David, work oh family of Daud in a grateful way. This is why in Surah Doha Allah says, Allah has never forsaken you, Allah found you poor and looking for guidance and took care of you. Now to show your gratitude when you see someone in need don't turn the people away. As for the blessing of your Lord, speak of it. Sh Omar narrates that some of the happiest people he has ever seen in his life are those that do relief work. Why? They are constantly living a grateful life and they are always thankful. Being this way will not only make Allah pleased with you, but you pleased with yourself. This is why after Surah Doha is Surah Ash-Sharh, Allah reminding the Prophet that didnt He lift your burdens and expand your chest. Abdullah ibn Masud and other scholars actually said that both these Surahs are actually so well connected that they are one Surah. (youtube video: The story of Ammar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy_IGgkHY90 A must watch video clip) The idea again that we must make the best of our circumstances. This is not something that you feel sorry for yourself about, don't waste your time. A scholar said that the time that we spend complaining about our situation is more then the amount of time the entire world will have seemed to have existed on the day of Judgement, because in the Quran when asked about the duniya the man will say the entire world probably existed a day or less then a day. ABUNDANCE VERSUS BARAKA (this topic was covered in detail in the Behind the Scenes AlMaghrib course taught by Sh Omar)

Allah says in Surah An'aam, whenever they turned away from our reminders we opened the doors to everything they wanted until they became so pleased with what they had then they were taken and left in despair. Here we see that money, fame, and material becomes a punishment for these people. In Surah A'araf, Allah says, if only the people would have believed and been pious, we would have opened for them the blessings of this Earth In the city of Joplin where the Tornadoes hit, CNN did a documentary where they interviewed affected people. One woman was seen holding her baby, a two year old daughter, and she was smiling and saying this is the greatest day of her life. When asked why she said that when the hit she saw her daughter flying away and at that moment she asked God that she did not want anything else except her daughter, and she grabbed her daughter and saved her life. The famous story of Ibrahim ibn Adham and Younus bin Malik. Younus said Allah has given me nothing, Ibrahim said sell me your right arm, left arm, right leg and so on.. you say you have nothing, i see you as a millionaire. Shukr thus brings contentment and blessings. COMPONENTS OF HAPPINESS i.e. "the addison 3" 1. Something to do 2. Something to love 3. Something to look forward to These 3 elements are spoken about in many books that talk about being happy. In essence without one of these three things you will not be happy. Look at people that are retired, they have nothing to do anymore and so they give themself work to do otherwise they may feel depressed. Some people have no meaningful relationships at all, and this also becomes a form of misery and depression. If we look at why so many celebrities commit suicide, and the subhanAllah the average salary of a suicide is $253,000 for the an adult over 18. Why so? Fame makes celebrities extremely lonely. They have no one that they can have a meaningful relationship with. We always feel like we need to have something coming up, an element of surprise. I want to do more always! And Surah Hadeed mentions the phases of life, once a person has moved forward they have nothing and they only think back at what they had and what they could have done. What role does Islam play? 1. Something to do Isn't it true that as Muslims we are never suppose to be complacent, this is a disease in of itself. We are always to be productive and when you are doing something meaningful there is a happiness just in doing that action. You must always be in a state of progress, with a new set of goals to aspire for. The Prophet (s) said, rush to do good deeds. How often does Allah say in the Quran, Sabiqu or Sari'u i.e. rush or race! 2. Something to love This can only be filled by Allah, Ibn-a; Qayyum said, for everything that you lose you will find a replacement except Allah. We never say we have done this many good deeds and this many bad deeds and so I am good, no! There is love and emotion involved. Its not just Jannah, its love, we love Allah. Ummar bin Khattab said about Sohail Al Romi, if he didnt fear Allah he would still not disobey Him (because he loved Allah so much). And Uthman said the love of Allah can bring out what the Quran does not in a person. So if you seek Allah indeed you will find Him. 3. Something to look forward to The constant mention of Jannah is not just for us to imagine, rather to make us strive. Allah did not say be a believer and that's it, certain people have different ranks, there are things to do to get trees, houses and so on in Jannah, everyone's Jannah is customized for them. We are told to make our garden more and more beautiful in Jannah, and as Allah says, the Hereafter is better and longer lasting. Imam Ibn Ata said: Allah has made Jannah the place where He will reward His

servants because this dwelling of this world can not fit what Allah wants to give them It would be like giving you a car and driving the car into your living room, rather I'd give you the keys and say your car is outside. The Prophet (s) tells us that the key to Jannah is La Ilaha Ilalah, the testimony of faith. What if Allah gave us Jananh in this world? What would it matter? If would not be able to fit and there is no way really for what Jannah really is because this world is flawed, so Allah has reserved Paradise as the place of reward, and He said, because Allah has elevated His servants He would not give them a place temporary in nature. If Allah gave you everything you wanted in this world and you passed away why does it matter? We don't know what forever really means, and Allah says indeed Jannah is better and longer lasting Remember that once you are there you are there, there is no messing up. There is no halal or haraam. If you sit with yourself and grasp that concept you understand why someone can take all these things in this duniya, all these hardships, because he has full certainty that Jannah is there. Remember goal-doubt = reality. The amount of doubt you have in Paradise and the existence of the Hereafter shows in how you perform your actions, if you have no doubt you will work for it, just as surely as when you work and get paid by the hour. In Jannah nothing spoils, nothing turns yellow. This is scientifically proven with cataract eyes that you actually physically begin to see yellow. The Prophet (s) told us about Paradise that everytime you see and experience something it will actually be better. Imagine a fruit, and thinking it is amazing, and come back tomorrow and it will be better. For husband and wife in this duniya, we may get older and the physical attraction may be fade, but in Jannah sisters often ask do I need to be with my husband in Jannah? But no, the Prophet (s) said there are no arguments in Jannah and the spouses would see each other in Paradise and the husband would say to the wife you are even more beautiful then the last time I saw you, and she would respond you are more handsome then the last time I saw you, Allah actually beautifies them everytime so we do not lose interest in anything in Jannah! And this is something to look forward to. Allah has summarized all of this in one ayah, in Surah Al-'Imran, Allah says, rush (something to do), be productive, to the forgiveness and love of your Love (something to love), and to a Paradise that is more vast then the heaven and the Earth (something to strive for). DUA'S TO DEAL WITH DEPRESSION Fortress of the Muslim is a highly recommended book for authentic du'as from the Sunnah. 1) In Sahih Bokhari, the Prophet (s) once visited a man while he was very sick and the man said I wish I was dead. The Prophet did not tell him to fear Allah, rather he tried to cheer him up, he said, you wish for death and I am with you, don't say that but if you want you can say, oh Allah with Your knowledge of the unseen and Your power over the Creation, give me life as long as you know life is better for me and give me death when you know it is better for me. 2) Once Uthman bin Affan was standing and Saad bin Abi Waqqas walked by him and said Salam without an answer, so he complained to Ummar bin Khattab, did anything change? He answered no so they went to Uthman and asked why he did not respond to the Salam, and Uthman said I remembered and apologized and said he was deep in thought. He was thinking about this time he was sitting with the Prophet (s), and Saad said I will tell you when you were thinking about, a du'a that relieves hardship. The Prophet (s) said should I not tell you the best du'a to relieve your hardship, and right when he said this a Bedouin man came and asked questions so he did not say, so Saad followed the Prophet (s) home and made noise to attract the Prophet, and reminded the Prophet (s) of this du'a, and he said, the best du'a when one is in hardship is the du'a of Yunus (as) when he said La Ilala ila ant, subhanaka inni kuntum min-na dhaulimeen, that there is no God but you oh Allah, glory be to You, verily I was of the transgressors. This is a great du'a as a means of relieving your stress and hardship. 3) Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum bi rahmatika astaghi, aslih li sha'ani qulla, wala takilne ila nafsee tarafa 'aynain

Oh Hayyu Ya Qayyum, I seek refuge from your Mercy, correct all my affairs, do not leave me to myself even for the blink of an eye On Hayy-ul-Qayyum, some scholars say these are the greatest names of Allah (some said it was just Allah). The Prophet (s) encouraged us to call Allah by His greatest name, and when asked by it He will always answer and he said Surah Taha and Surah Baqarah when he was asked about it. These two names are in these Surahs. For more du'as get the book, Fortress of the Muslim. It can also be downloaded as an App. To end, TEAR THE ROOF OFF Islamically Allah tells us, the one who turns away from My remembrance will have a miserable existence, a suffocating life. The famous saying of Rabbi' ibn Aamir was, Allah sent us to take people from the servitude of other servants, worshipping those we should not be worshipping to the servitude of the Lords of all servants, and from the constriction of this world to the expanse of the Hereafter, and from the injustice of all systems to the justice of Islam. Again, Allah places expanse in your chest. You always have this, and this comes through being constantly connected with Allah, otherwise you always feel like the walls are suffocating and you will always be depressed. In that ayah, when Allah says, we will raise him on the day of Judgement blind, the way the person speaks, he will say, Oh Allah why did you raise me as blind and I could see before He attributed blindness to Allah and sight to himself, subhanAllah. And Allah says, the hearts become blind and not the eyes, and how ungrateful is this person! He blamed Allah for the bad and did not attribute to Allah the blessing. This attitude causes suffocation again, so establish that relationship with Allah, as He says, verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction. Contemplate on this! The highest suicide rate by every study are found amongst athiests, they are just not happy and content rather are very confrontational, why? There is a lack of tranquility to the heart. Even though they do whatever they want, take this world and live a carefree life but they are miserable. This is something that has to be really be considered. And Islam is the fastest growing religion despite holding onto it's traditions despite the lifestyle changes and submission that it comes with, and people that have everything in this world come to this deen and are so happy. The idea again that when we submit ourselves and do good and create that relationship we never feel like we are suffocating. The other connotation of tear the roof off is to make the most that is given to you and do not ever feel sorry for yourself, because this time you waste is time you could have been raising your status in the Hereafter. There is no room for self-pity and when you call upon Allah He will make things better for you.