Transcription
Let me tell you, I'm hungry. Why don't you get up and see what's in the fridge? Yes, eggs, grapes, half a lemon. Whose chocolate is this? I'm telling you, it doesn't matter, just bring it. Are you guys putting sleeping pills in my food or something? Put it back, put it back, put it back quickly! Wait, I'm telling you, bring it. It doesn't matter whose it is, son. Aren't we supposed to have agreed that he's supposed to be on a diet? You're eating chocolate, and it's stolen too. Come on, let's grab the controller for a bit. Let's sit and scroll through social media, looking at girls dancing and other things that make you ignite. The call to prayer is being made, man. Leave what you're doing. Bring the controller, brother. What details of the call to prayer do you want to stop what we're doing for now? Because you don't see the sweetness in front of you, no, no, no, no, no. I'm telling you, why is the place so hot? Ah, honestly, I got hot. I saw a few things. No, son, you'll weaken now and fall into sin again. Bring the controller so we can grab it. Oh, man, why do you always disconnect us like this? The guy is happy. What call to prayer? And he's going to pray. What does that mean? Little by little, we'll get up and pray, and we'll use everything. You've become a faction because you don't want me to make a mistake. What if we die now? Man, God is forgiving and merciful. Don't be so narrow-minded. In a little while, we'll get up and seek forgiveness. What's this? The controller is off? No, my friend, it didn't turn off. It's just that you forgot I have this. No, no, no. One of the most beautiful films I've watched recently was the film "Inside Out," which is called "Inside Out" in Arabic. The film's idea simply revolves around how your mind deals with emotions and that your emotions are controlled by more than one character, not just one character, like anger, sadness, disgust, fear, and joy. And that was, of course, in the first part. The idea is that each of these emotions would take control depending on the situation they were facing at the current time. For example, if someone insulted you, the one who takes the controller is anger. If a German shepherd dog is chasing you, fear takes control. If a situation makes you sad, sadness takes control. The problem is that the idea in the film was clarifying that joy is the one that always tries to take control, and the absence of joy from this system could cause a disaster. And that is, of course, true in one way or another, but not always true. Because a problem like this is that your attempt to always keep joy in control might lead you to do wrong without you realizing it, just to be happy. Because your feeling of happiness comes when you enjoy something, and that enjoyment is not always right, because a lot of it can be wrong, and sometimes it's forbidden. And honestly, that made me start thinking about the film a little, but with a reference to our religion, which is, you know, what if now, joy really wants to take control, but because of what she's going to do, she'll actually be happy, but in our religion, that's forbidden. So, you can conclude, or you can say, that you can add three major characters to the existing characters: the mind, desire, and emotion. Within emotion, you'll find the emotions like joy, disgust, sadness, and fear, and the new characters that appeared in the second part. This emotional part is responsible for the emotions that come out of you during situations. But there's a second part, or another character called desire, and another character called mind. The idea is that before any order is issued to you, whether from emotion or desire, that order must first pass through the mind. And the mind here is the one that evaluates whether the order coming to Walid is right or wrong, or permissible or forbidden, before you think about doing it. And what determines whether it's right or wrong, or permissible or forbidden in the mind is religion and the Sunnah, or science. The flaw in this time is that most people now get the order without it passing through the mind. The order comes directly from desire to you. It comes directly from emotion to you without you thinking for a moment whether what I'm going to do will anger God, or if it's permissible, or forbidden, or right, or wrong. Unfortunately, this deprives you of the value that God distinguished you with as a human being, which is the mind. Because the mind is the means that connects you to God. It's what strengthens your connection to God. So when you cancel the existence of your mind, you are transforming from someone who worships God to someone who follows their own desires and whims. So you become among those whom God mentioned in the Quran: "Have you seen him who has taken his desire as his god, and God has led him astray despite his knowledge and has set a seal upon his hearing and his heart and put over his vision a veil? Then who will guide him after God? Then will you not remember?" Did you notice this verse? "He has taken his desire as his god, and God has led him astray despite his knowledge." And this is, unfortunately, the time we are in. Most people have become worshipping their desires and themselves, and they are aware of right and wrong, permissible and forbidden, but they still choose the forbidden and choose the wrong. They know the final outcome and the consequences of their choices, but they still follow their desires because the mind's reference is weak, because the mind has no religion or Sunnah, and it doesn't have enough knowledge to make it strong. And the bigger problem is that the soul, with the repetition of something, begins to get used to it, so it becomes normal for this to happen. I want you to think with me about a sin you are used to committing. Think about the first time you committed that sin, and think about yourself now as you do it. The first time, you'll find that there was a hesitation in your heart, a tremor, a fear of God, a feeling of error and shortcomings, and remorse. But now, you'll find that after your soul got used to it, it became normal for you to do it. It's like, "Good morning." I know I'll commit the sin tonight. It's already planned, and there's even an intention for it. And this is a bigger problem because this is one of the entrances of Satan. He says to you, "Boss, since you're doing all this, what's one more thing?" You've been ruining your diet for a while. What's one more chocolate you're going to eat? You're committing the sin of so-and-so. What's one more cigarette, or not praying? And be careful here, because desire is not necessarily an action. It can be the desire to refrain from an action, to be happy when you don't do something, like simply stopping praying, or sitting on social media during prayer time, or playing games. Or you might find prayer burdensome, so the person here turns into a mere animal following their desires and emotions, following what their soul tells them to do. And the problem isn't with emotions as much as the bigger problem is with desires. Because, unfortunately, everything that moves human desires is now almost everywhere. No, because you are in the most difficult time in human history in terms of desires and temptations. How, because of this? Almost all forbidden things of all kinds are now just a button press away from you. If the desire of hunger is triggered a little, all you can do is order food with a button press. Want to earn money illegally? A button press. Download an app and earn money. Want to gamble? Boss, there are gambling apps. Want to watch forbidden things? Also, with a button press. It's no longer difficult for a person to access forbidden things like it used to be. In the past, there was no mobile phone, and to do something like that, there were specific places you had to go to, and you might be afraid of how people would see you entering those places. So there was a kind of shame, and it took a lot of effort to go and do something like that. You'd do it once in a blue moon. But now, boss, it's normal. You want to watch something, or you want to gamble, or you want to do anything. All you have to do is press a button, and that's it. You're sitting alone in a room, or alone in a place by yourself, doing whatever you want. The ease of access to this pleasure without returning to the mind, is it permissible or forbidden, or right or wrong? Over time, it starts to create a conflict within you between desire and the mind over who should be in control. And this is the moment when you feel contradictory. Like, I don't understand anymore. Am I good or evil? Am I bad or good? What am I? How can I have committed a sin five minutes ago, and now I'm standing on the prayer mat, praying and seeking forgiveness from God? Because five minutes ago, I was sinning. So five minutes ago, the one in control was desire. How is it now that the mind is in control? Here, you'll stay in this zone for a good while, struggling with yourself. You'll fall once and stand up once. You'll fall once and stand up once. You'll succeed once and fail once. But be sure that you won't be able to get out of this zone except by one of two things: either the mind will regain control, most of the time, or desire will regain control, most of the time. Why do I say most of the time and not always? Because as a human, you are not like angels. God created angels with a mind but no desire, and animals were created with desire but no mind. But you, God distinguished you with both. He created desire within you and created a mind within you. He made the mind connected to your soul and the desire connected to your body. So, have you never thought about why your soul, when you die, ascends to heaven, and the body is buried in the earth? Because, simply put, the soul was attached to God in this world, and the body was attached to this world and its desires and pleasures. And this is your composition as a human. Therefore, God opened a door for you that He did not open for anyone else, and it will not be closed except on the Day of Judgment, which is the door of repentance. Because He knows that you will make mistakes and that you will fall and be delayed. Because He knows and understands your composition, He knows that there will come a moment when you will falter. Prophet Adam himself made a mistake, and he knew God and heard Him say, "Do not eat from this tree." So you are not an angel or a devil. You are a human being, and this is your composition that you must accept. And by the way, this is not an invitation for you to continue worshipping your desires and following what your soul tells you. But I want you to understand to what extent that what you are going through is normal. It's normal for you to make mistakes. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said in a hadith: "If you did not sin, God would have brought a people who sin, and they would seek forgiveness from God, and He would forgive them." Can you imagine? If God created us not to sin, He would have replaced us with people who sin so they could seek God's forgiveness when they sin. What I mean is, don't try to be perfect, don't try to be unnaturally or illogically perfect, because that's contrary to the nature within you. In short, don't hate yourself because you made a mistake. Don't be hard on yourself because you weakened and fell into error. You might just not understand how to deal with yourself and how great God's beauty and mercy are towards us. God said, "And [by] the soul and He who proportioned it and inspired it with [discernment of] its wickedness and its piety, He has succeeded who purifies it and he has failed who corrupts it." So God created wickedness and piety within your soul, but you feed which one? Do you nourish it or corrupt it? For example, the mobile phone in your hand can nourish wickedness within you, and it can nourish piety within you. Your friends, whom you are friends with, can nourish wickedness and nourish piety. So, any action you take will either nourish the wickedness within you, which is desire, or nourish the piety within you, which is the mind. And if you continue to nourish wickedness, you will wake up one day and find that there is no longer any control of the mind, and it will be very difficult for desire to let go of the control it has taken, or for the mind to regain control. I want you to know that at that time, you have moved very far away from God, and you are among those whom God described: "Then We will make ease for him of the path of hardship." This ease of hardship is simply that you start to live comfortably with forbidden things, and you are happy when you do forbidden things, and you don't care. In short, your conscience starts to die at that time, so you ignore the existence of God in your life. There is no longer that part that moves you from within. If that part doesn't move, understand that you have moved away from God. So, I want to ask you a question: who are you feeding in your day, piety or wickedness? Meaning, are you feeding the mind or desire? The human soul is very weak, I swear to God, to an extent you can't imagine. But you know what strengthens your soul and makes the mind take control? First, your environment. Make the environment around you nourish piety and the mind. Because it's so clean, meaning instead of the environment around you pulling you down while you're trying to go up, they pull you down. Make it an environment that pulls you up when you fall and try to repent. In short, make the environment around you help the mind to stay in control most of the time. How does this happen? First, let's start step by step. Let's agree that your soul, if you occupy it with truth, it will occupy you with falsehood. In most cases, desire will take control when the mind doesn't need to work, when it rests. And the first path of falsehood is for Satan to whisper to your soul to disobey God. When? When you are sitting alone, when you are idle, in short, when no one is watching you. How can I reduce this? Simply by occupying yourself throughout the day, trying to reduce sitting alone as much as possible. Because the more you sit alone or with yourself, the more you leave room for the soul that incites evil and for Satan to prepare the mind and let desire take control again. Second, simply clean the environment around you, starting with the mobile phone in your hand, because it's stuck to your hand all day. So, every time you open it, you find something that stirs your desire, meaning every time you open it, you find something that makes you disobey God. It's normal that you'll never be able to wake up because desire is in control. So, any pictures, any accounts that feed desire, remove them from you. Personally, I unfollowed any girl I felt would tempt me or stir my desire. I unfollowed any account that displays things that might stir my desire, because all of these things feed the centers of desire, not the mind. "And he has failed who corrupts it." I'll tell you again: "And he has failed who corrupts it." Following these accounts is what poisons your brain. It's what makes desire take control, so you become among those whom God described as "he has failed who corrupts it." And there's an easy way you can do for the shorts that appear to you and say, "I'm not to blame for them appearing to me." No, they appear to you because they know you like this type of video. But every time a video appears to you, or a video appears to you that you feel stirs your desire, click on the three dots on the side. You'll find something called "Not Interested," whether it's on YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok. The important thing is that when a video appears to you that you feel might stir your desire and you don't want it to appear again, tell them "Not Interested" for this video, because this will make the algorithms understand that I don't want to see this type of content again. And then I start following people who remind me of God, people who talk about diet, people who talk about religion, accounts that publish the Quran and talk about God. And it would be great if they were young people close to my age, so I feel like I want to be like them. Like, why you? Why you at 24 or 25 years old, and God willing, you have all this knowledge? No, I want to be better than you. I want to, you know, understand the idea. So you'll find that they encourage you to develop yourself, just because you've surrounded yourself with them. After that, I start looking at my friends, with whom I spend most of my time. What do they talk about most of the time? Is their conversation all about girls, drinking, and I don't know what, or is their conversation all about projects, the gym, and sports? And when the call to prayer is made, they say, "Guys, leave what you're doing and let's pray." If you find that your friends are helping you, meaning they're pulling you up, then stay with them. But if not, then withdraw from them, boss, politely. You'll ask me, "Okay, why wasn't I the one helping them pray and pulling them up?" Well, it's a beautiful thing that you want to help them, but the majority always has priority. In most cases, they will pull you down, not you will be able to pull them up, because you will exert a lot of effort with five people. So it's better to replace them with people who will pull you up when you fall or go down. Meaning, instead of wanting to be the best of the worst, try to be the worst of the best. Cleaning your environment is the most important and biggest factor that will help you transform from someone following their whims and desires to someone who is developing themselves and caring about their health. But if you find that most of your environment, all your conversations are about girls, where we're going tonight, who we're going to, what we're going to drink, or if you find that every time you open social media, you see dancers, people at the coast, people who are not praying, people who are drinking, and people who are not praying, and the kind of talk that is constantly feeding the centers of desire, then your mind will never be able to take control again. Because throughout the day, you are constantly feeding desire. So, it's natural that it will take control. So, the first thing you must do is simply clean your environment. Clean anything you feel will give time or energy to desire, or will let desire take control. Second, after cleaning this, you will find yourself getting closer to God. Because cleaning your environment will greatly help you get closer to God. It will open a door for you, and you will find yourself surrounded by people who all know God and people who pray. You will find that they are the ones who actually pull you. You open social media, you find the Quran, you find those who teach you more about God and give you advice and guide you to health. So this will help you start getting closer to God. It will help you start praying and reading the Quran. It will help you reconnect with God. But I want you here, when you come to prayer and reading the Quran, to pray with a little bit of humility. Meaning, when you come to pray, try to feel God's presence in front of you. Try to imagine that God is standing in front of you right now. When you come to read the Quran, try to ponder the meaning of what God said. Man, when you read a book about self-development or any book that talks about money, you focus on every letter, and you think, "I want to know how he reached this point," and you are interested in every word he said. God's words, which are greater than any human, when you read them, you read them just because they pass by you. So, try when you read the Quran to contemplate and interpret every verse, its reason for revelation, why the verse was revealed, and why God revealed it to Prophet Muhammad. Purifying the self with this part will greatly reduce the likelihood of desire taking control. You will find that most of the time, the mind is in control. You read books on self-development, you read books that help you get closer to God. You open social media, and you find it all clean and helping you get closer to God. You open it, sit with your friends, and you find their conversation is all about God, work, business, and I don't know what. So you find that your life is almost entirely... meaning there's no room for you to sit with yourself and be tempted and say, "What if we do this?" After that, I want you to ask yourself if you are able to get married. If yes, then intend to take a step in that direction and start looking for a righteous woman. Why am I telling you this? Because Prophet Muhammad said to you, "O young men, whoever among you can marry, let him marry, for it is better for him to lower his gaze and guard his chastity. And whoever cannot, then let him fast." In short, if you are able to control yourself, get married, because marriage protects you from falling into forbidden things and protects you from the evils of your soul. It protects you from, in short, the soul that incites evil from commanding you to do evil. And if you are unable to get married due to circumstances, then work on yourself with the intention of marriage and try as much as possible to fast. Fast on Mondays and Thursdays, fast every other day. And that is because, simply put, Prophet Muhammad said, "Three are a duty upon God: the one who fights in the way of God, the one who pays off his debt to become free, and the one who marries to remain chaste." So, when you intend from within that you want to work on yourself with the intention of marriage, God will help you on that path so that you can remain chaste. And God will honor you on that path. In this way, you will have greatly reduced the chance of falling into error or forbidden things, or following your desires. But this will not guarantee that you will not fall, because, as I told you at the beginning, you are ultimately a human being, and it is possible for you to weaken and fall. At that time, all I want you to do is to invest the sin or the fall you have fallen into. Meaning, make an agreement with yourself that, okay, you committed the sin, fine. But after every sin you commit, you will read, for example, 10 pages of the Quran, or you will seek forgiveness 1000 times, or you will give 500 pounds. And if you repeat the sin, then you will invest more, meaning you will read 20 pages of the Quran, or seek forgiveness 2000 times, or give 1000 pounds. And always have the prayer: "O Ever-Living, O Sustainer, by Your mercy I seek help. Rectify for me all my affairs and do not entrust me to myself for the blink of an eye." Meaning, in short, "O Lord, do not leave me to myself, or do not leave my soul against me, because I am truly weak." So, in short, "O Lord, do not leave me to myself, or do not leave my soul against me, because I am truly weak." And always try, after every sin you commit and feel you have fallen short, to pray the prayer of repentance. I will put the prayer here. You can take a screenshot. God said, "Say, 'O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.'" So, do not despair of God's mercy upon you. Meaning, no matter how many sins you have committed, and no matter how big you feel the sin you are committing is, do not despair of God's mercy upon you. Because as long as you do not associate anything with God, and as long as you have God within you and consider Him, then God is capable of forgiving your sin. So, do not be ashamed to stand before God again after sinning. Do not, when you do wrong, say, "I have no right to stand before God and pray, or read the Quran, or all that." On the contrary, that's when Satan makes you close a door that was supposed to help you be forgiven for that sin. Because, be aware, it's normal for you to make mistakes. As I told you, your soul will be tempted to follow your desires from time to time. When you find yourself idle and not doing anything, you'll find yourself falling into error. So, try as much as possible to occupy your time, but occupy it with what is beneficial, not with what feeds desire. In other words, even if you make mistakes, don't stop trying again before God. If you make a mistake, repent. If you make a mistake again, repent again. If you make a mistake a third time, repent a third time. "And Allah will not tire [of forgiving] until you tire [of seeking forgiveness]." But be careful, because you are in an exam, and the paper could be taken from you at any moment. In the end, I want to tell you that you are human, and none of us is infallible, because we are simply human. We have good within us and bad within us. Meaning, Dr. Walid, whom you see as not making mistakes, is actually a human like you. He makes mistakes and sins, not because he is bad, but because he is human. Perhaps he is just covered by God. It doesn't mean that because I appear to be good, I don't make mistakes. It doesn't mean that because I appear to be righteous, I am among the righteous. I am perhaps among those whom God described: "And others have acknowledged their sins. They have mixed a righteous deed with another bad one. Perhaps Allah will turn to them in forgiveness. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." So, I make mistakes like any ordinary person, but I repent after every mistake. May God guide my soul. So, let this always be your prayer: "O God, guide my soul." Let it be between you and yourself. Even after every mistake, always try to pray like this: "O God, guide my soul." But it is enough that you are trying every day before God to improve yourself, and may God help us with our souls and with the temptations that have become all around us everywhere. Because, unfortunately, we have entered a time when people are living the life of foreigners and want to die the death of prophets. So try to purify yourself, but without being hard on yourself. Meaning, don't forget to love yourself.