The key to change EVERYTHING w/@ousamaiyadalshurafa

Everybody's trying to find happiness out there. Everyone's trying to find peace out there. You want to know Allah, subhana wa ta'ala? You got to know yourself. Yeah, the mind is the filter of reality, dude. You don't understand how deep this is. And like, I get so excited. This is everything that I laid out for you just now. Allah is saying, "The platform of the test is mind." Dunya is not outside of you, bro. Dude, you know, you understand how literally mind-blowing this is? So you have to realize it's not a game, guys. It's not like PlayStation. You don't have three lives. So this is the time to wake up. I don't even know, bro. Like, but it's a podcast, so we kind of have to respond. We are joined here with a beautiful brother, Osama. Bro, how you doing?

Pretty good, pretty good. Thanks for having me, man. Alhamdulillah. It's a blessing to have you here. So, a lot of people might not be familiar with you, cuz I know you're bigger on Instagram than you are on YouTube. True. Some people just might not have seen you. So, before we just jump right into it, I would love to have a little backstory, little context.

For sure, man. For sure. Yeah, I mean, Subhan Allah, I grew up in, uh, uh, the States, in California. Um, and I studied engineering. I had that, you know, that sit down with Dad. Allah have mercy on his soul. Allah passed away a couple years ago. And, uh, you know, he had that typical conversation that many, many Middle Eastern fathers have with their children, like, "What do you want to be? Let's figure this out. A doctor or an engineer, which one?" You know? So, um, I decided to go down the engineering route and I graduated. I went to Cal State Long Beach. I did my undergrad in engineering. It was like biomedical and electrical engineering. So I was always interested and fascinated in physics and science overall, and metaphysics specifically, and philosophy. Those were things of interest to me. I graduated, and my name's Osama, man. And I ended up working for Boeing. And put yourself in my shoes, 9/11 happens. Subhan Allah. And here's a guy named... attacked you with the name, yeah. Oh, I came, I remember, remember coming back to the office after the event, a couple of days after the event. They had sent us home the day of. And it was El Segundo, by, uh, LAX, close to LAX. That was the, uh, the location there. And I remember coming to the office and going to my cubicle, and someone had taken my name tag and taken it off from the cubicle, cut it in half, and put it on my desk. So, Subhan Allah. Yeah. I, I took that as an opportunity. And I, uh, I went to my boss at the time, his name was Wingly. He was a wonderful Chinese American guy. And said, "You know, this happened." He said, "On my watch, you know, this is unacceptable. We're going to get to the bottom of this. What do you need? Some time off?" I said, "Yeah, sure." He gave me like a month paid leave at the time. So I took advantage of it. At that time, I remember going for Dawah in Argentina, in Buenos Aires. I, I was, I was fascinated with Dawah. I, I had someone visit me. I was far away from the Deen. No Salah, no nothing. Didn't grow up in a very religious family, just the basics, uh, in place. And someone had visited me at home and started talking to me about Allah and the greatness of Allah, and how, you know, the, the fire doesn't burn except with the command of Allah, the knife doesn't cut except with the Am of Allah. And I'm like, "What is this stuff? This is fascinating." And one thing leads to another, and I end up, you know, studying a little and traveling a little, a little bit in the Middle East to learn with some scholars. And, uh, just a lot of reading on my own. And I actually, even though I did a lot of one-on-one Dawah work, and I've been in the space of Dawah for, you know, over two decades now, um, but a lot of my Dawah work, Subhan Allah, was focused more on Muslims. Because I always, I had this, this idea that, um, and it's in the Quran, that, you know, "Until Allah changes what is within a people, they will not change what is within themselves." So, there's obviously the Dawah to the non-believers, but there's also the Dawah to Muslims to become Mumin, you know, to upgrade themselves so Allah becomes pleased. So, and my Sheikh used to tell me, "Osama, you know, you know your tongue is closer to your ear than the, the ear of the listener. So always remember that you're in need of the talk more than anyone else. And never give Dawah with the intention that you're trying to change or fix people, because guidance is in Allah's hands. But do it with the intention to fix your own self." Because Allah, subhana wa ta'ala, says in the Quran, He says, "O you who believe, be God conscious. Be God conscious." And, and speak in the, this is the speaking of negation and affirmation of, and then what is the result when you talk a lot about the Oneness of Allah? That Allah will rectify your actions. How can actions be spoiled? You could do them for other than Allah. You can do them for ostentation, for showing off, for, you know, how it is, we're weak as Muslims. So, you know, I, I gave Dawah with that intent. Mention, Subhan Allah, I had a certain way of talking about Allah, especially when it comes to, it was, it was a, I wouldn't say like unique approach. I mean, it's for us to think that we're bringing anything new to, to Islam is, is somewhat arrogant. I think it's always there, but some of us have a certain style of how we deliver the information. And Allah, subhana wa ta'ala, had blessed me with a little bit of that. And alhamdulillah, you know, I started to see the effect. Hundreds of people, by the F of Allah, came into Islam. And a lot of Muslims changed their lives, coming back to the Deen. And then during COVID, um, Allah, subhana wa ta'ala, decided to, you know, give me a taste of whatever that was, whatever you want to call it. And I, my, my wife isolated me in the basement. And I did my very first TikTok video, and it went viral.

And wait, what happened during, uh, what happened during? I, I got, you know, I, I got COVID, I guess. Oh. And, or whatever the flu was at the time. And I, I remember just, you know, just to be on the safe side, my wife said, "Listen, everything's from Allah, subhana." She says, "Yes, honey, but take by the means. Go downstairs and stay there until you feel better, you know, we've got the kids and all." So I was down there. There wasn't, you know, I wasn't, no responsibilities, nothing, just hanging out in the basement for a few days. And it was, it wasn't easy. I had it quite rough, Subhan Allah. I ended up actually in the hospital for some time. But I decided to make a video. And it was a video about just in general, Allah, and the power of Iman, and, you know, the unseen system of Allah. And it went viral. And then it was like, my wife was expecting, she's like, "Your phone is going off the hook, notification." I'm like, "What's happening?" And I found, you know, over a few days, it was like hundreds of thousands of views. And then she's like, "Maybe this is a sign from Allah, and you should start." Because I was always worried about going online. I'll be honest with you, cuz, cuz, you know, there's that fear of, you know, fame. You know, the Mashaykh always say, "The last thing to leave one is, is the love of, you know, the spotlight." It's not easy, you know, when all eyes are on you, everybody's praising you. And, you know, I was always interested in the Tasawwuf aspect of Islam, the Ihsan aspect, how to purify. Because ultimately, you know, Allah even says in the Quran, "The majority of people, they mix their Iman with Shirk." So this Shirk doesn't necessarily have to be that you, you know, you prostrate to, to, you know, idols. But to believe that other than Allah can benefit and other than Allah can harm, is, is part of it, you know. And, yeah, that's, uh, sorry for for babbling on, but that's kind of a little bit of background about how it, yeah.

There was a lot to unpack. So the first thing, first thing I want to say, do you speak Spanish? Why? Because you went to Argentina to... Oh, yes, yes. No, I, I, I went there. There was a group going there and they asked me to tag along. And they said, "You speak Arabic?" And there's a lot of Lebanese and and Palestinians. I remember one guy, he came up to us wearing a cross. And because some of the brothers were wearing galabiyas and had their head covers and, you know, some beards going on. So, like, we looked clearly different than the average people walking the streets of Buenos Aires. And so we had some people walk up to us. And one guy, I remember in particular, he's like, "Muslim?" And we had a translator. And, uh, later on, we figured out he basically was saying, like, "My grandparents used to dress like you." But he was wearing a cross. And so we took him to the Masjid, and we had a Mufti with us. One of the brothers was a Mufti. And the guy, he took, like, within like three, four minutes, he took the Shahada, alhamdulillah. Took off the cross. Yeah, yeah.

There are a lot of those stories, Subhan Allah. That's beautiful, right? Alhamdulillah. It goes to show that in a lot of these places, people are ready to accept. You know, they just, they just don't know. They have no idea what Islam is. Subhan Allah, man. And the burdens on us, bro. Yeah. Exactly, exactly. You know, it's actually funny because you were telling the story about COVID where you, you got locked down in the basement. At first, I didn't know you got COVID. So I was thinking in my head like, "Oh, his wife just locked him down in the basement, mental breakdown or something." That's funny though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it goes to show, like, when we're sick, when we're sick, that's when Allah forgives our sins. And that's when He opens doors. That's when He's there with you. The Hadith is beautiful. "My slave, did you not know what I got hungry and you didn't feed me?" And then the person responds, "How are you hungry? And how do you get hungry? And you're, you know, the Lord of the worlds?" And then Allah says, "Did you not know that such and such person got hungry? And that if you had fed him, you would have found that compensation, you know, with Me?" But then when he gets to, so it was like, you know, "I was hungry, you didn't feed me." This, that. But when he gets to, you know, "I became sick, and you didn't visit me." Ya Allah, you know, "How can you get sick? And you're the Lord of the worlds?" He said, "Did you not know that such and such person got sick? And if you had visited him..." He didn't say, "You would have found that compensated with Me." He said, "You would have found Me there with him." Subhan Allah. So why? Because usually, there's that softening of the ego. And the ego is what veils. It's what acts as the obstacle between us and Allah. Even some of the, you know, they used to say, "Jannah is two steps. Step on your ego. One step. The second step is in Jannah." Metaphorically, it's all about, uh, taming that ego, you know, that "ana." You know, first, it reminds me of the Hadith. And tell me if you remember it. It's the one where Allah sends down an angel in the form of a, a human. And he goes to three people: one of them has a skin disease, one of them is bald, and the other one is blind. Have you heard this one?

I have. I don't recall the details, but I've heard the Hadith, yes.

Subhan Allah. It's, it's a very, it's a long Hadith, so I won't say it because it'll take up a lot of time. But it, it reminds me exactly of that. Because we don't know when, when Allah is right there, and He's just waiting to see, like, "What is it that's going to happen? What is it that we're going to do in that moment?" Subhan Allah.

Yeah, yeah.

Man, Subhan Allah. We're just, um, for the most part, oblivious of Allah, subhana wa ta'ala. And He's, that's why He sent the messengers, man. As a wake-up call. A messenger after messenger, you know, that we might return to Allah, subhana wa ta'ala. Kind of like, wake up from this Matrix that we're in, you know? Now, most people are in a state of Ghaflah, because "insan," the human being, the word "insan" comes from "nisyan," to be forgetful. And we've forgotten, first and foremost, the, the oath we took with Allah when He said, "Am I not your Lord?" We said, "Indeed, Ya Allah." And then Allah, you know, wiped the memory clean, so to speak, and then sent us in this dunya to test us. Uh, and then, but, you know, can we, should we get into it?

I feel like we've been into it. I was going to ask you something that's that's something that I've noticed big time, right? Yeah. And there's a question that you have brought up. I do want to bring it into it, but before that, what I've noticed is that a lot of Muslims, they do the, what's it called, the ritualistic side of the religion, but then the actual spiritualistic side, they've completely omitted. And it's as if they go to the prayer, they'll read the Surahs while they are doing Salah, they don't even know what the Surah means. And even if they understand the words, they're just repeating words. Yes, yes. In Arabic, we say, "La ilaha illallah." In Arabic, it's beautiful. The difference between the word "worship" and the word "routine" is just one letter. So there's "ibadah" and then there's "adat." "Ibadah" is to worship Allah. "Adat" is to, you know, it's out of routine. It's just something that you do. There's no "ra" in it. And Allah, subhana wa ta'ala, look, what did He say? He says, [Music] "The one who created death and life." "Iyyaaka na'budu wa iyyaaka nasta'in." The purpose of creation, whatever comes after the "lam" it's called the "fa'idah," the purpose. So, so He created it to test you. Okay, Allah, what's the test? "Who out of you." Now, watch. He didn't say, "He said whose action is most." He's interested in the excellence. That is why on the day of judgment, our deeds are, they're not counted, bro. They're weighed. Why are they weighed? Why is there a Mizan? Because certain qualities make the deed weigh. And that's why you won't find, like, Allah doesn't say, for example, talking about Salah, He doesn't say, "In the believers are successful, who are they?" Allah, He doesn't say, "Those who pray." He says, "No." He's interested in the quality of the Salah. "Those who bring into their Salah, presence of heart into their Salah, they are the successful ones." And if you look at Allah's love, anytime He talks about His Hobb, it's always attached to a quality. You'll never find, "Allah loves those who pray." You'll find, "Allah loves those who are consistent on their Salah, they protect their Salah, they're consistent in their Salah, they have presence of heart in their Salah." But always the love will be attached to qualities. You won't find, but you'll find, "Allah loves the God-conscious." Who are the God-conscious? The ones that do the "dos" and avoid the "don'ts" for Allah to find you where He's commanded you, and He's always searching for you where He's forbidden you. He can never find you in His Haram. He says, "Those with Iman that worship Allah as though they see Him, and if they see Him not, then knowing that He sees them." You know, those that are of repenting to Allah, those that are patient. Qualities, qualities. And that's the issue. We, we've lost that. Because, let me ask you a question. Salah. How many Muslims, it, you know, Salah being, it's almost, it's like every Muslim knows that Salah is Fard, whether they practice or not. Would you agree? You agree, right? You know Salah. I know Salah. But what percentage of Muslims pray the five-time Salah? The last statistics, it's pretty shocking, bro. You have, have you ever bumped into this one?

I have not, actually.

Over 90% do not pray their five-time Salah. That's mind-boggling, bro. Can you imagine? It's actually mind-boggling. Over 90% of Muslims don't pray their five-time Salah within the allotted time. Why? Because I'll tell you, we have the knowledge. The issue isn't the knowledge. What did Musa do when he went to meet his Lord? He came back with the tablets, right? What did the tablets have on them? The commandments. The commandments, which is what? It's knowledge. What did he do with the tablets when he saw them worshipping the the cow? He threw them on the ground. And what did he start doing? He started giving them Dawah. You see, when the Ummah is in a state of weakness of Iman, knowledge is important. It has its place in the Deen. It's, you know, I'm not belittling knowledge. But it is not knowledge that, you know, creates the motivation in you to stay away from the Haram or to do what Allah commanded you. It's the strength of your Iman. And this is why, Wasallam, what did he say? He said, "Iman gets worn out, just like clothes wear out. Verily, renew your Iman." They said, "And how should we renew our Iman?" He said, "To revive your Iman, to strengthen your Iman." He didn't say, "Careful here." He didn't say, "It's not a matter of reciting." Is to just say, He said, "You're interested in the meaning behind it." And the Shahada is divided. The first part of the Shahada is divided into two parts. The first part, negation. The second part, affirmation. The first part, "La ilaha." The second part, "illallah." So, why negation? Why does it start with negation? And that could bring us right into the heart of really what I wanted to share with you today. When you give someone the Shahada, what do you tell him to repeat? Let's stop at "La ilaha." What does "La ilaha" mean? "I bear witness." "I bear witness." But it also has another meaning, because, you know, the Quran, the words of the Quran, Subhan Allah. Allah says in the Quran, "The one with knowledge of the unseen." "Shahada" is opposite of the unseen, meaning the perceived world. Okay? So, you're saying, "What I perceive with my faculties of perception, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, it's not happening from where I'm seeing it happening. There's another secret. There's some reality behind the scenes happening." It's not the light is not coming from the sun. The, the rain is not in reality coming from the clouds. "Illallah." It is Allah bringing down the rain. So, so what are the clouds? And this, I get excited when I talk about this. So forgive me, it's very exciting for me. I'm fascinated by this. So, everything we know about the universe, everything we know, in order for you to know Allah, bro, you have to first know yourself and the universe. Allah, He introduces Himself through the signs, the Ayat. Every verse in the Quran is called an Ayah. So, everything we know about the universe is filtered. Listen carefully, brother. It's filtered through our finite minds. Yeah. First, I want to define the mind, because most people think that the mind is the container of thoughts and perceptions, you know, seeing, hearing, thinking, tasting, touching. This is called perception. Perceiving. And then there's thinking, thoughts that we have. I'm going to say, and this is how, you know, science defines it. Mind is not the container of these things. Mind is thinking and perceiving. Let's start with that. And bear with me, because this intro is very necessary to understand the. So, mind is two aspects. Think of it as two lenses: thinking and perceiving. Now, perceiving, we're going to break down very simple. The five senses: seeing, hearing, uh, tasting, smelling, and touching. Okay? When we look out at the universe, when we look out at the world, we're getting a filtered version of reality. How do we know this? Well, science tells us that the visible, what we see with our eyes, we actually see with the Ruuh. The eyes are just the, you know, the medium. But what we see with our eyes is limited to the visible spectrum of light. It's like from some nanometers, I forget, it's been a while since I, I've studied this stuff, to another nanometer range. And, and this is why Allah, when He talks about Jinn, He says, "They see you from where you see them not," because they have an extra dimension above us, right? That fifth dimension that you spoke about. So they see us from where we don't see them. Okay? Can we trust our senses? Allah, what does He say? He says, "At the time of death, He says, we remove the veil." Exactly. It's like the radio station you're, you're tuned into a frequency. The Divine Matrix, right? At the time of death, it's just a fine-tuning of that frequency. Allah changes the channel, so to speak, right? And then, what is changing, bro, after you die? It, it's in the Hadith. You tell the people, like, "Where are you taking me?" You're still seeing. But people can't see you. Which means the faculty of the mind is still there. The perceiving aspect is still there. But there's a shift in the frequency. That's all it is. So, it's a, it's a, it's a different type of seeing, but it's still seeing. It's seeing that exposes a bit more than we're typically used to seeing. So here, the world is filtered through perceiving, which is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. And so when we look out, the, the world, we're getting, we're seeing through the eyes that are limited, the hearing that is limited. We know that animals can, dogs can hear what we can't hear, even within this kingdom. So there's, it's, that's why we call it finite, because it's limited. So whatever that frequency is, thought, then whatever we receive, the version of reality that we receive, there's another layer added on top of it through conception. So there's perception and conception. There's per, there's conceiving and perceiving. Conceiving is just thoughts. So we typically say, okay, we see a tree. The mind labels it, gives it a name, calls it a tree. And that pretty much is the version of the reality we get. So everything we know about the world appears through our finite minds and appears in accordance with it. Yeah. It's not a coincidence, Malik. Think about this. It's so simple, but so deep. Okay? It's not a coincidence that the, the universe appears to us as sights, sounds, tastes, and smells. And what, what's our faculties of, of, uh, perception? Seeing, which, you know, and then there's sights, right? In the world. There's, we can hear, there's hearing, and there are sounds, right? There's tasting, right? And there are things that have a taste. There's, uh, uh, textures, and then there's touching. There's smells, and they're smelling. It's not a coincidence, bro, that the world appears to us in that same way, in alignment with our faculties of perception, because that's how Allah, subhana wa ta'ala, created it. But I'll get to that in a second. So, perfect. There's a direct correlation between our perceiving faculties and the way we perceive reality. So it's not possible, listen carefully, it's not possible to know the nature of the universe if we approach it through the finite mind, the reality of it, the raw version of it. And all we will know of the universe is a reflection of the limitations of the finite mind. It's just a reflection of whatever those limitations are. That's how Allah wanted the world of dunya to appear to us. If I give you green-tinted sunglasses and I tell you, "Look at white snow," how will you see the white snow? It's going to be green. Going to be green. If I give you orange ones, it's going to be, it's going to be orange. Going to be orange. So you're going to view the snow in accordance to the limitations of the faculty or the lens that I gave you. And that makes sense. So the world will always appear in accordance with the limitations of the medium through which you perceive it. It's not possible to know the reality of the universe when you perceive it through the lens of the finite mind, the reality of it. So when we then ask, "Is there any experience we know that is not mediated through the finite mind?" Only that experience will give us direct access to reality. And any other knowledge will give us a mediated access to reality, and therefore cannot be absolutely is trusted or true. And do we have an experience that's not a thought and not a perception? Yes. But in order to get to it, we can't go out there because the minute you're facing... Ah, exactly. Okay. So now, everybody's trying to find happiness out there, is trying to find peace out there. But you're not getting the, you know, the raw version of reality. You want to know Allah, subhana wa ta'ala? You got to know yourself. "Whoever knows themselves knows their Lord." Now, you go in and you go through these layers of feelings and sensations and perception. But if you go all the way back, behind all the content, all the content of experience, the layers of experience, feelings, sensations, perceptions, if you go all the way back, we arrive at one experience: Spirit. Now, the New Agers, what do they call it? You know, the consciousness. That, that's their name for it. You, you know that all too well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they call it, and that's fine. It's fine, actually. The, you know, I've heard other scholars actually, you know, refer to it as such. It's not wrong to call it that, actually. I like the word awareness, actually, because it's something you can relate to it a little. Relate to a bit. Like you say, if I say, "Are you aware of this remote?" You would say, "Immediately, yes." It's a very. But if I say, "You know, are you aware of any object?" You kind of get what that means. But most people, they mistake themselves to be the body, and that they're behind somewhere behind this head, you know, looking at the world through this body-mind. But in reality, just like you're aware of a world that's supposedly out there, okay? You're also aware of your body and mind in the same way. Because you say, uh, you know, "Um, I'm aware of my hand." You say, "I feel my hand." I, um, uh, "I feel my, uh, body." "This is my hand." "My thoughts on the matter." So, if it's your hand, and it's your thoughts, it belongs. You cannot be the hand, because you're saying, "It's mine." So it belongs to someone. You are that which is aware of the hand, which is the Ruuh. And, and that's fine. So the mind, now, now here's where it gets interesting. The mind has two lenses. We've said thought and perception. So Allah says in the [Music] Quran, this Ayah puzzled me, bro, for so long. "Wherever you turn your faces, in the direction of Allah is the essence." Every... I don't see God when I, like, just very, I'm a, I'm a simpleton, man. I turn right, you know, I, I see a wall. I turn here, I see a screen. I don't see God. But God is saying, "Everywhere you turn, there is the face of God." Okay? God is beyond space-time. He created space-time. So He's obviously beyond space-time, because if space or time, if He's contained within it, you've made Him finite. And God cannot be finite. So He's beyond the space-time continuum. And so when you look, the, when you look out through the lens of perception via the finite mind, you see infinity as space. And when you look out through the lens of thought through the finite mind, you experience eternity as time. Mind is the filter of reality. Let me put it in another easier way. Time is what eternity, remember, is infinite and eternal. Time is what eternity feels like when it is refracted through the lens of the finite mind, limited. And yes, and space is what infinity looks like when it is viewed through the lens of the finite mind. Yeah. You're actually, because you have the faculties of perception acting as a filter. When the Ruuh looks out, it's actually all there is is God's in this dunya activity, His, His actions, and His attributes. But those are refracted for you. Instead of seeing God's face, you are seeing infinity because God's, you know, infinite and eternal. Through perception, the lens of perception filters infinity and makes it appear to you as space. Subhan Allah. The lens of thought filters eternity and makes it feel like time. Bro, that's why when you go to sleep, see, dream. Yes. People think that they're closest to their reality when they're awake. You're actually closest to your true self when you're sleeping. In deep sleep, check this out. You're awake. You've got thinking and perceiving active, right? When you sleep, I'm going to first take you through the dream state, then through deep sleep. When you're in the state of dream or dream state, perceiving leaves you. You, you close your eyes, you're no longer perceiving. But you're still imagining, right? Because you're, you're seeing something. But instead of seeing it out there, it's all now in the mind, so to speak. It, it's not appearing the same way because you've shut off perceiving. So the world no longer appears like it's outside. It's kind of, it feels like it's within. But anyways, you drop perceiving, and all that's left is thinking. And thinking is that imagination that creates the dream world. But there's still mind activity. You dropped one lens, but there's still the lens of thought. Then you slowly go into REM, then you eventually go into what they call deep sleep. In deep sleep, something weird happens. If you look at the clock before you sleep, and say it's 10 AM, 10 PM, and then you fall asleep, you go straight into deep sleep. Assuming you wake up, you look, it's 6 AM. According to the clock, you've been sleeping for 8 hours. But if anybody asks you, you're like, "It felt like this. I didn't feel eight hours." Where did the eight hours go? It's because it's thinking. It's the very actual movement of thought that creates the illusion of time. So when thinking ceases, when it comes to a pause, when you go into deep sleep, you no longer have the experience of time in this same way, because all that's left when you remove thinking and perceiving is the Ruuh. But the Ruuh is self-aware. So although you wake up, the mind wasn't there to register deep sleep. So you wake up, and you're a bit confused. But because the Ruuh is self-aware, if you wake up, it's not that you were, it's not that you couldn't feel. It's not that awareness wasn't there. It's, it's that you were not, uh, what, what is the word? It's not that you were, oh, it's not the absence of awareness. It's the awareness of absence. It's not the absence of, most people are like, "I, I, I, there was nothing when I was in, when I was in deep sleep. I was completely gone. I was unconscious." It's not true, because something feels like, "I, I, I was in a deep sleep." What knows that you were in deep sleep? It's not the mind. It wasn't there to register. It was the Ruuh. So you didn't, it's not that you were, it wasn't the absence of awareness of Ruuh. It was the awareness of absence. There was just nothing, just Ruuh. And you're closer to your true nature in deep sleep. And that's why Allah talks, He gives the example. He gives you a hint to what's really happening. Every time you enter the dream world, because the dreamer, if you were to dream that you are someone else, you fall asleep in in Florida and you dream that you are Osama walking the streets of Canada, Toronto, right? From the point of view of Osama in the dream, everything feels like there's a world out there, and there's me experiencing the world. And I see objects and street signs. And, but the minute you wake up, Osama, and his entire world, and his entire experience was just a dream in your mind. That's always made me think that this is like when we sleep, we're going into different realities, like alternate realities, every single time.

Well, it's, it's, it's, yeah, it's you can think of that way, absolutely. It can be thought of that way. There, there's truth to dreams, right? Say, Yusuf was given that, that knowledge of, you know, to understand what Allah is getting at through the dreams. So there is definitely a deep knowledge to the dream world. And I would argue that this is potentially a kind of dream world in a sense, because even the Prophet, he said, "People are sleeping, and when they die, they awaken." You know? Because because death is more of a reality than this world. This world, Allah says, "It's more of a reality than this." What does Allah describe this world as? Allah calls it what? Delusion, mirage, an illusion. He even calls it a, a broadcast. He says, "If you look up the, the word 'ba'ath' is, they translate it as to spread. He spread, you know, males and females. But I, I know, I'll tell you, as an Arab, or look it up in the dictionary. Look at 'ba'ath.' We say the live broadcast. 'Ba'ath' means to broadcast." So, "Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth." Meaning, it is through Allah, subhana wa ta'ala, that everything appears. But it has no standing existence in and of itself, independent of God, because Allah is. But before that, to decipher this Matrix, this Divine Matrix, this simulation that Allah, subhana, created. Simulation doesn't mean it's a game. That's like, it's just for fun. Allah doesn't, you know, play or just, no, it's very serious. How you play this game determines that your end result forever and ever and ever. It's no joke, man. So, game in the sense that it's an illusion. An illusion doesn't mean that it's not real. Be very careful. An illusion just means that it's not what it appears to be. Allah talks about in the Quran, right? "Nur." The light. You'll never find "Nur" mentioned in the plural. "Anwar." But when He talks about darknesses, He mentions "Zulumat." It's plural. Allah is the one who sent His Messenger with guidance and the true religion to take you out from the darknesses to the light. Why is light referred to as one? Because light is "Nur." And this brings back, you see, look at the how we kind of like went in a complete circle. It's like, why don't people pray? Weakness of Iman. What is Iman? Allah tells us in the Quran. Allah says, "You didn't know what the Book or Iman was, O Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam." Then Allah tells us, "Then We made it." "What did you make this Iman?" "The Book of Allah." And what is it, Ya Allah? "It's a light." So, "We guide with it whomsoever We will." For what is the guidance of, when the Nur of, or Iman enters into the heart, ignorance is removed. Pay attention. Ignorance in the English language means to ignore the truth, capital T. "Al-jahl." To ignore the one. Ignorance means to ignore the truth. We do not want to ignore the truth. We don't want to be forgetful. We want to be those who remember Allah, who know Allah. Be aware that there is no god but God. Now, when the Nur of Iman enters the heart, you now, you're not looking with your sight, you're looking with your insight. And when this ignorance drops, you get what Allah is getting at, and you understand, and then you pierce, so to speak, through the veils of multiplicity, darkness, and you get to the One behind the many. The One who, Allah says in the Quran, "We gave him life and We gave him a light that he walks with." "This light amongst the people is like the one in the darknesses." "He will not be removed from it." So this is, I tell you, maybe the hardest part of our conversation today, but I want to get to the juicy stuff. So, to simplify things, think of the perceived world as worldly phenomena or appearances. They're just form. The TV screen, the movie that's playing on the TV screen, veils the screen. Just in the same way as the means and the worldly phenomena that Allah created, the sun, the clouds, all these things that we see, we perceive. The movie veils the screen, just in the same way as the means of this world veil the Ruuh of Allah that is mediated through the Ruuh. So we now going to connect it all with the Quran. What does Allah say? "Hal ata 'ala al-insani." This is the chapter called the chapter of the human being. You want to understand yourself, look at how Allah, Allah talks about infinity here. He talks about eternity. He uses the word eternity. "Dahra." What is it? In what is [Music] it? "Did any time from within eternity come to this human being?" He wasn't anything to be, you know, reckoned with. Mention. He was basically nothing. What happened? "I created him." Allah says, "We created this insan." Watch. "From a," you know, a, what is it like? A blood clot. He's talking about the creation. Now, immediately, check this out. The reason of his creation is to test him. Now, Allah, the immediate words after it, He tells us the medium, the platform of the test. So He gave him the ability to perceive. Meaning, dude, you don't understand how deep this is. And like, I get so excited. This is everything that I laid out for you just now. Allah is saying, "The platform of the test is mind." Dunya is not outside of you, bro. Think of it this way. Have you ever experienced anything without observing it? In order to experience this remote, you have to look at it. In order to experience a flower, you have to look at it and smell it, right? In order for us to say that everything we see that looks like it's outside of us, this world we made out of matter, right? In order for us to say that it exists independently of us, we have to find it without our faculties of perception. Meaning, when all 8 billion people have are in deep sleep, is the dunya still there? We don't know. Is the world really? Nobody's ever experienced anything of this world without the tools of observation. You have to give your attention to the object to experience it. The minute you turn away your attention from the object, it's no longer there. How do I really know that it's existing independent of me if I only ever experience it when I give it my attention? And now quantum physics tells you this: the world acts differently when you observe it versus when you don't observe it. When you're observing the light, remember that experiment where they shot out light and they put these holes and they scattered it? He said, "Light behaves like a wave when you're not perceiving it, and behaves like a particle when you perceive it." Meaning our very attention is, is what... I don't want to say creates the world, but it's Allah's work. He's the one creating. But it's the power of the Ruuh, the Ruuh, which is the command of Allah. So when the Ruuh is directed, the world is not outside of you, bro. It's within you. It's just, how does the movie, like a three-dimensional movie, fit on a two-dimensional flat screen? It's trippy. In the same way, the, the movie isn't three-dimensional, it's two, but it appears as 3D. The world appears like it's outside of you, but it's not, bro. Actually, I have a story for you, just a quick little side step here to completely affirm this, because before I was Muslim, I actually would have agreed with you 100%. There was a time when I was traveling, and I was staying at, uh, this person's house. Went to sleep. And as we were sleeping, their grandma came into the room, okay? Walked in, looked at us, went to the drawer, looked for something, closed the drawer, walked out. Okay? I saw all of this, but I was asleep. With your heart's eye? My eyes were closed, but I could see everything. The Ruuh? Yes, bro. And I remember when I woke up, I told her, I was like, "Oh, did you find what you were looking for?" And she's like, "What are you talking about?" And I was like, "You came in the room, like, you stopped, you looked at us, and then you were, you know, looking through the drawer, but then you left." Bro, her face was pale, like white, like as if she'd seen a ghost. Like she didn't understand. I had just said, I didn't understand either. But I was like, at the time, I, I knew I was like, "This is not it. This, what we perceive, like, this is not 100% it. It's not it. It's a filtered version of." And, and think of it like, if I told you right now, "Do you see me right now?" I mean, I mean, see this handsome man, right? Alhamdulillah. You see me? Yes. You hear me? Yes. Yes. Assume, let's say the Angel of Death, may Allah give you a long life, inshallah, that is one of worship and pleasing to Him. Let's say, assume the Angel of Death comes right now and takes your Ruuh. But you're still able to sit, and let's say, somehow we kept you up and erect, and you could, you know, still look the same. Eyes are there, but can you see me now? When the, when, after you die, after the Angel of Death takes you, can you see me? No. The same ears are there, but you can no longer hear me. Okay, what left the body, so to speak? The spirit. The Ruuh. That's what the Angel of Death does. What is the Ruuh according to the Quran? How does Allah define it? He doesn't tell us much about it, but He tells us one thing very clearly. He calls it something. When they came and asked Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and he didn't say, "Inshallah," and the Angel Jibril delayed the answer for him for some time. He says, "The Jews came and asked him, 'What is the Ruuh?'" They were testing the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And tell them, Muhammad, "The Ruuh is the command of your Lord. It's the command of Allah." Now, listen. If the Ruuh left you, meaning we decide the Ruuh is the command of Allah. So the command of Allah left you. So now you can't, the same eyes are there, but you can't see. Which means by logical deduction, that you see with the Ruuh of Allah, and you speak with the Ruuh of Allah, and you hear with the Ruuh of Allah. Because when the Ruuh of Allah is removed, you can no longer see, hear, speak. Allah says, "It is He who brought you forth from the wombs of your mothers when you knew nothing, and He gave you hearing and sight and minds that perhaps you would be grateful." So that you may be grateful. So these verses, they emphasize that our perceptions and thoughts are limited in nature, and they're granted by Allah simply to experience the world and be grateful to Him. Now, this brings us to something that, for me, when I understood it, it changed everything for me. The power of Allah is not borrowed by creation. What does this mean? The, the raw power of Allah, that the, all that nothing limits it, right? That He's able to do everything. Allah says in the Quran, "Most people, they think that it, it's as if like God started everything, kind of programmed everything, and with the Big Bang kicked it off. 'Kun.' Okay, go. Started. But then programmed everything with its rules, you know, physics rules, chemistry, all that stuff. And then the world is just running on autopilot. And occasionally, Allah, if He wants, may interfere." This is called deism. This is false. It is not that, because it's, it's almost like you're saying that the world is, if it's separate, if it's not connected to God, like He started it and then it's off doing its own thing. It's not the way it works. No. Let me give you an example. Allah created the sun. Most people will say, "Allah created the sun, and the sun gives light." I would say, "This is Shirk." Allah created the sun. Allah gives light. Okay? When you're thirsty, what do you think of? I heard you speak about this on the Unfiltered podcast, yeah. Where the water, you think the water is what's quenching your thirst, but it's Allah. You do the medicine is actually curing you, but it's Allah. Allah says, "Ya 'abdi." So you've heard this great. But the point I'm getting to is, the power of Allah is not like borrowed by creation. Like Allah puts a piece of His ability in it. It never leaves His essence. So in reality, the, if it's not borrowed by creation, creation...

Or what Allah calls as in Arabic means design. It's form, okay? This design is an appearance mediated by sense perception. It's the test. Allah created the world as a veil to His activity. It is Allah that is giving light, but Allah veiled that fact with something called a sun. You see what I'm saying? It is Allah doing everything. There is only in reality Allah, subhana wa ta'ala. Everything else is. And Allah says, "To Allah belongs the form and the command." And so with the play of these two, you get the manifest world.

But it is not the water that quenches the thirst. It has no ability. It is God that quenches the thirst. Most people say, "Yeah, but Allah gave the water permission to quench your thirst." As if you're saying the water has an ability. You say, "As a..." There is no might, there is no power, save with Allah. Same thing. Water can't quench thirst. What are you talking about? Medicine can't cure. But it begs the question, wait a second, brother. If Allah created, you know, something called uh medicine, yes, and medicine is something you can touch and feel, perceive it, yes, but sickness is something you sense. Sensations are a creation of Allah. Why did He create sensations within you? Allah says in the Quran, "We created man weak." Why, Ya Allah, did you make us weak? Because anybody that is weak has needs. Because we're weak, and you're going to naturally want to fulfill those needs. But the only one that can truly fulfill them is Allah, because He generates the need in you to test. Is your heart, not your body, is it going to turn towards the worldly means and agents, or what we call asbab? Or is the heart going to turn towards Allah, subhana wa ta'ala?

So the purpose of medicine is this: this is important. Allah created sickness, yes, okay? But He also created medicine, yes? And it is Him that cures, yes? So it's all Allah, yes? So what's the point of medicine? It's a valid question. Listen to what Allah says in the Quran. He says, "He says, animate and inanimate, we made everything in this perceived world, on this Earth, on in this universe." Say, "Zinah." It's a type of filter. It's a type of illusion. "Zinah" is to when some, when a woman does, she beautifies herself, typically by adding cover-up and makeup. So you're not getting the raw version. So Allah is saying the all the worldly phenomena is a cover-up. Why, Allah? To test them.

The believer, simply by looking with his eyes, he's being tested. What is he being tested? Is he going to believe that these things, these created signs, these asbab, these agents, money, something you sensical or nonsensical, some palpable or impalpable, fame, power, money, numbers, technology, whatever it is, that it can do without the of Allah, that it has any power independent of Allah? No. So Allah, subhana wa ta'ala, created the worldly means for the comfort of the non-believer, but for the test of the believer. We're being tested daily, bro. Every time you feel thirsty, every time you feel hungry, every time you have some type of need in you to you want to fulfill, who's a Allah? What is the meaning of someone? The one who has no needs and fulfills all the needs. So Allah is saying, "I'm generating that need in front in you. I created that need." Food is something you perceive. Hunger is something you sense. Allah created. He's the one who created the sensations in you so that you may perceive. What you're perceiving is also a creation from Allah. It's all inside out. A test simply for one thing: to see, are you true to? And that's why the begins with negation. Everything you perceive, it's not happening from there. It's all a veil.

Just like when you look at a movie on a TV screen, I ask you, what do you see? You say, "Oh, I see action and colors and and there's I don't know if you're watching maybe Mission Impossible. There's Tom Cruise doing this." And I say, "Where's Tom? Grab him for me." And you go and you walk towards the screen. All you find is what? One indivisible screen that is taking on the shape and and coloring the pixels. Take on these colors to give the illusion of a 3D image. That is so basically, it's like the dun is God's motion picture, dude. You don't, you understand how literally mind-blowing this is? It, it's so for me, it's just like, cuz when you understand this, most people think being enlightened like, um, and you see the light. And no, bro, the world still appears the same. It's how you decipher it. The world is encrypted, and the key to the encryption is ill. That's why wasallam said, "When Allah wants good for his slave, his servant, He gives him an understanding of Deen." You begin to get it. Allah says, "Know there's a knowledge." Meaning, be aware. Here is, be aware that it's not your job that sustains you. It's not the numbers in h. When they were impressed with their numbers, removed his victory. And the biggest evidence that you cannot rely on your sense perception for for reality is the, the story of Musa. Musa, what's that in your right hand? Oh, it's a staff. Oh, mashallah. Drop it. What is this now? It's a snake. It goes from being an inanimate object without a r to being an animate with r. From having all these apparent benefits to having all these apparent what harms, cuz it's a snake. So he goes from, "It's my stick" to "I want nothing to do with it." Now he claims this mine. Now Allah says, "Okay, now you're scared. Take it." Yeah, Allah. "What do you take it?" Don't rely on your senses. They're not giving you the raw version. If you rely on your senses, you're going to, you're going to be led astray.

Because what does say, brother? There's only two types of people. There's the people of H, truth, and there's the people of B. You know, Darth Vader and Luke, whatever, the, the light and the darkness, the truth, the, the, the angels and the devils, that that type of duality. There's only one. The people of B, they rely on their senses. Listen to what says. He says, "You're so angry, M. Am I not the king of Egypt? And these rivers are flowing beneath me." Meaning, I control agriculture, I control sustenance, I feed you, I'm your R. He says, "Then he says, what do you not see?" Ah, so for the non-believers, for the people of B, seeing is believing. For the believer, believing is seeing. So what does Allah, subhana, says? There's no doubt in this book. What does He say? "It's a guidance for the god-conscious." What's the first condition of the god-conscious? Those who believe in the Unseen. The unseen system of Allah, subhana, behind all these veils, all these curtains, everything you see around you is one Allah doing, acting. Allah says in the Quran, "All this that you perceive is the of Allah." IM in his, he says, "It's the activity of God. It's God's actions." It's not that it's not God's that, huh? Be careful. You can't say that God's the tree, because then you've made God finite. God can't be within His creation. But we say it's the F of Allah. It's the act of Allah. "Allah created you and that which you do." He says in the Quran, "The essence is untouched. The that [Music] beyond everything you imagine with your mind." Allah is other than that. The mind cannot comprehend the infinite and eternal because it's trapped in time. The mind is trapped in the illusion of time. You can only think of memories of the past or imagine something in the future. You can't be in the present moment with the mind, because the minute you try to grasp, you can't understand the now. That is why you don't, you don't, you know, access the now. You can't understand it with the mind. It's like me telling you, you know, look for your eyes. And you're like, you know, can you see? Can you see your eyes with your eyes? If there was no mirror, how can I? You can't, because you, you know, you're so close to them that you can't possibly see them. Or like me telling you, stand up and take a step towards yourself. Like, doesn't make sense for the mind. That's the same thing to tell the mind, like, be in the now. The mind can't. That's why the mind can't access the r. The mind is the obstacle between you and the realization of your true self. That's why through, through, you come out of this what conditioning, bro? Most people, if you tell them that their shop doesn't sustain them, they'll be like, "What are you talking about, bro? Every time I hear my app, Shopify thing, ding ding ding, I make a sale. I see money go in the bank." Because you've been conditioned like a dog. Like Pavlov's dog in his science experiment. Pavlov had a dog. Dog, and every time the dog, he'd bring him food, the dog would drool. So he decided to test this experiment where he brought a bell. Said, "I wonder if I can make him drool without the food." So he would ring the bell and then put food in front of the dog. Ring the bell, he would, you know, see the food, saliva. Hear the bell, see the food, saliva. Then one day, ding ding ding, but he didn't put food. What happened? He drooled. Because the dog associated, through classical conditioning, the scientists call it associated the ringing of the bell with the appearance of the food. And that's what the worldly means are. They're not causes and effects. They're associations. There's an association between clouds and rain. It's called. And what are we supposed to do with associations? We're not supposed to associate anything with Allah. Allah is the one doing everything.

And what's the role of means? He tells us, "You want to know what the role of means are?" He says, "Leaving as is the way of the Christians." We don't leave the asbab. You know, like the followers of Isa, very simple aesthetics. And he says, "The way of the Jews is to overemphasize means until they got to interest." They would rely heavily outwardly. They'd be very busy with means, the worldly material means, and internally they're heavily reliant on it. Now describes the believer and the Muslim, the relationship with the worldly phenomena and means, like money, for example. He says, "Watch carefully." He says, "And negating means is the essence of IM." He didn't say leaving means, because we don't want the way. We're not telling the the the rich Muslims to like get rid of their riches to get closer to Allah, nor are we telling the poor Muslim that he needs to be rich to know Allah. We're telling the rich Muslim and the poor Muslim, follow God's command as they pertain to being rich. Follow God's commands as they pertain to being poor, and you're both equally successful. So the believer doesn't leave the means, but he negates it. Meaning it has no benefit. Meaning the means are for not for, they're for fulfilling God's command in the means, not for relying on the means.

And I'll end with the story, and I think we would have made the circle here. But there was a Sahabi who opened up a business. And he heard a Hadith of the Prophet s wasallam about dealing with people, that if you're easy on your business dealings, there's a special paradise like house in Paradise built for you. So he opens his business. Sahabi comes, buys something from him. The next day comes and returns it. And although the Sahabi with the business has the right to, you know, turn back the return, like not accept the return, he takes the return, he accepts the return. The following day, the Sahabi pass by, he finds that the shop shut down. And he thought, maybe the brother was upset, maybe. So he goes, checks on him. He said, "What's going on?" He said, "No, everything's okay. It's just that I heard this Hadith of the Prophet, and so I wanted to fulfill it. So I opened up this business with the intention to make, you know, some return process easy." So after you returned the sil to me, and I accepted it, I fulfilled the whole reason I opened a business. Yeah, they did not go into business to make money. Listen carefully to this. The believer doesn't go into tiar to make money. That's that's for the weak of IM, bro. The believer goes into business to fulfill God's commands as they as they pertain to business dealings. What do I mean? Allah says in the Quran, "True men who neither business nor trade distracts them from the Zikr of Allah." Does this verse doesn't make sense at it? What do you mean? You walk into someone by selling stuff in his store, and you're like, "Brother, how much is that sweater over there?" And he answers, "Subhanallah." I'm like, "Ah, brother, you're a righteous person." "How much is the sweater, brother?" "Are you okay? I'm asking you how much. Are you in business or are you here to?" Do you think he's crazy? "Vick" here in this verse doesn't mean "Vick" of the of here. It means obedience. Meaning doing business doesn't distract them from the Zikr of Allah. Doesn't distract them from the commands of Allah that He put into business dealings. Meaning they don't cheat, they don't rob you, they don't deceive you. This is so "Vick" here means obedience. Whatever you find yourself in, you have to be like, like OCD, God's command 24/7. You know how new age people are like, "Living the now." That's nonsense. We're not about living in the now. What is the now? The now is the r. The r is God's command.

If the body is made from the four elements, fire, water, wind, and what is the fourth one? And um, Earth, right? Or metal. Then its nutrition comes from these elements to strengthen the body. You take that strength from the elements. Well, if the r is from the command of Allah, the strength of the r comes from following the commands of Allah. We're not like in the moment, all that nonsense. We're like, uh, the purpose of living in the now, of being in the now, because you are the now. The r is the now. It's another term for the now, by the way. And I'm fine with that term. But what it means is, what is God's command in the now? As you go about your day, Allah is going to create situations, scenarios. It's God's motion picture. He, he's the creator of perceiving and thinking. So He plays with you as He wants. And He creates a scenario to test you. And He wants to see where your heart is going to turn. So the, the, the point is, you're asked in this situation, your wife comes and says something, and you're like, "What is Allah's command in the present moment?" Not to react, but to respond. But to first see that Allah created this situation, my wife to come and yell at me, to test me. And sallu alhi wasallam said, "The best of you are the best to their wives." And I'm the best to my wife. And so now, rather than reacting, now you are responding through muh. What is the response? Irrelevant of how you're dealing with me, to be kind to you, because this is how my Prophet would have acted. To be have this ocus about God's command 24/7. To have enough awareness, be in a state of Vick, enough to always be aware of, in this situation, this is what God would want from me. And then to have enough command over the ego to not allow it to react, but to respond, even when that response is difficult. And that good is the heaviest on the scale on the day of judgment, because it's heaviest on the ego.

And business dealings, you'll find someone praying five times a day, up in his tud, fasts or Mondays and Thursdays, but the minute you do business dealings with him, he cheats you. Because why? Said, "The honest and trustworthy businessman will be resurrected with who?" With the prophets. Oh, with the prophets and the martyrs. Of why? Because the level of IM required to worship Allah as far as praying and fasting is this much. The level of Iman required for business dealings is this much. The level of IM required for M or your dealings with your wife and children is this much. The is it's the world of rights. And is the world of the world of reward. Allah has a right upon you. Oh, do you know what the right of Allah is upon you? No. To worship Him and associate no partners with Him. That's God's right. Okay, what about your nefs? Allah says, "To save it from Janam." Okay, what about the wife? What about the children? What about my neighbors? What, my colleagues? Every single one of them, there's, there's, and there's dealings. And if you fulfill those rights, you're saved on the day of judgment. But if you are a free man here, acting as you desire, when Allah creates the situation, you can go this way, H, or that way. You follow your desires. There's only one letter difference. Or you follow guidance of H. If you follow Huda, you're successful. If you follow ha, you lose.

And I said this on many videos before, you are a slave, a prisoner. The prophet said that he said that it's the prison of the believer and the paradise of the non-believer. And in a prison, you're not free. And if you decide to be free and do as you please, because I want to, because I'm free here, you'll be a slave in. But if you are a to Allah and a slave here, you will be free in in Paradise. [Music] Meaning, have ad with Allah when you're above the Earth, so that Allah, subhana, if you, if you don't, if you lack ad with Allah while you're alive on the earth, Allah will teach you ad below the earth, in the punishment of the grave. So you have to realize it's not a game, guys. It's not like PlayStation. You don't have three lives. It's a one shot. And today is action. And no, you're not take to account the minute the angel of death comes. It's, and no, you can't go back. So this is the time to wake up, to understand reality for what it truly is, to realize on a new level, to understand the work, the world in this new dynamic is perspective. Muh is what is the way you respond to to the situations that Allah creates from that understanding and that perspective. And Allah, subhana, knows best. So that W is what I wanted to share with you. I know it's, it's, it's quite the mouthful. But you know, it really is life-changing, brother madic. You know, when we, this understanding happens, and we get to this point where we see the world in this way, it's just so freeing, man. It's so freeing. And it makes so much sense. And it is just, it is what it is, you know? If, if we were in person right now, I would, I would have no response because it's just like, I get it. I get it. I get it. And my mind is like on a completely different, like, it's just, I don't even know, bro. Like, but it's a podcast, so we kind of have to respond. I tell you, I'll tell you a few things I want to hit on several things that you mentioned. Please. It reminds me a lot of polarized sunglasses. Have you ever seen the example of polarized sunglasses where they show a, a body of water, like, let's say a lake or something that's very dirty, you can't see, can't see it on it. You put the polarized sunglasses on, and then now you see what's underneath the water. And you see this huge giant alligator or crocodile like under the water. It was always there, but you couldn't perceive it because it was, it was, uh, it was dirty in that moment. But when you put these polarized sunglasses, now you're able to see it. Cuz what? Cuz the way that it, it refracts the light. Now you can pierce through the water and see it. So it's like, Subhan Allah, it just puts everything in perspective where through the mind, everything is limited, as you said. But through the r, it's unlimited. Absolutely. Absolutely. Subhan Allah. I'd see. And and that's what Nord is about. That's the encryption key. That, that polarized glasses, that's the Nord, bro. It makes you see things you couldn't see before. That's why do you think Allah mentions like, "All of is darkness." And your actions in this world act as the light. Like, you know, when you're in your, there's a beautiful, if you were a righteous person, a beautiful being of light comes. Always light is used, right? Because the dark, the grave is dark. And if you made wudu, what happens to the body parts where you made wudu? They shine, right? And the Prophet said, "Salah is light." It's as if, bro, you know, Super Mario Brothers? Remember when Super Mario, you know, he'd jump and then he'd hit the brick and then a token, a coin with, and you go, remember that? So as it's like you're collecting the tokens of light that you're going to need on the day of judgment. You see what I'm saying? So every act of righteousness, the Prophet said, "A type of light." And so that is a light. And the theat you pass by through it, the speed of lightning. So we are supposed to collect the light we need through these constantly through this IM. The counts without IM don't count. Allah makes them like, you know, when the light shines, if you ever notice in through the window, and you see these like particles, like very small, kind of like floating reflection from the light. This is the that Allah mentions in the. He said, "They'll find their deeds." The people that did good deeds. But you know, and I had, you know, there was a Buddhist say, "You Muslims are weird. You know, someone is a really good person, and he's never heard of a certain person in his life, but you know, he associates partners with God." And you say that Allah won't forgive that because Allah forgives everything except shik, right? If, if He wills. Uh, but a person that doesn't associate any partners with Allah and does Zena and steals and cheats people, you say eventually that person is saved. I say, "Yeah, brother, you know why is that so difficult?" He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, imagine, imagine let's say you had a choice between, uh, you know, two wives." I said, "One of them, she obeys you. She's every single thing you say. She's like, 'Had, yes sir.' You know, she never argues with you, the least bit. But she tells you, you know, um, 'I love you, Habibi, but I've got like, you know, 5% feelings for the neighbor. Like my love for you is like 95%, but I've got 5% love for the neighbor.'" And you have another wife that's always arguing with you and giving you the hardest time in the world. But you know, when you ask her, "Do you love me?" She's like, "There's no one in my heart but you." Is which one would you marry? Which one would you take? I was like, "Oh, I'll definitely take the one that loves me fully." I said, "So Allah just doesn't like this heart to turn to anything but Him." That's why the prophets were sent, not to change the conditions of people, brother Malik, but to change their hearts. To shift. It's a shift of four things. And I memorized these things because they're so beautiful, and I recommend everybody memorize them. The prophets came to make a shift in our hearts from four things to four things. From to, from to, and from the way of others to the way of Prophet Muhammad s alaih wasallam. From and conviction that can benefit or harm you, or honor and disgrace you, to that only Allah can honor, can disgrace, can benefit, can harm, can raise, only Allah. From what does this mean? From the reliance on worldly means. Like, if you notice the Quran, if you open a business, you could make money or lose money, right? You can either succeed and make money, or you can lose money. Allah doesn't guarantee you that you'll make money. But Allah attaches His guarantee to to the prophetic deeds. He says, "Means." He promises. "Allah promises those who believe and perform righteous deeds that He'll give them over the." Oh, so the promise is attached to what? So when you come to someone, he's like, "Brother, I'm, I'm really tight on money." You say, "Oh, make." What does have to do with risk? Logically, it makes no sense. But Allah in the Quran mentions it clearly. You've heard it, right? With the story of, right? Allah says that how He's going to increase them with Ben and children and and money. So we know. But logically, they're not connected. But Allah says, "My promise is is if you do this, will happen." My promise is is if you're, you know, sick and you give sodaka, you'll feel better. What does sodak have to do with that? In fact, usually IM is always the deeds are always like illogical because IM is a type of test on the Unseen. "Spend and you will make more money." Huh? "If thought save and you'll make more money." You know, but Allah says in the Quran, "No, no, when you spend, when you feel tight, spend, and I will open it." So the, the, the scientists will tell you, 1 plus 1, you know, it's like, or 1 plus 3 equals four. You know, but with us, you know, it's like, you know, or let's put it this way, like 1 plus 2 equals 3. And in the formula with Allah, it's sometimes like 1 minus 2 equals 3. You're, or 3x, you're still making it. It's not logical. But Allah's promise is attached with it. Then the shift from to. Because even amongst the Muslims, Allah says in the Quran, "From amongst you, those who are chasing after." They want, they desire. And there are those that want. In fact, brother, the M we have today in our time, most Muslims, they want to know God and they want religion for their D. Benefit. Oh, if, if I pray, Allah will make my risk easy. If I do, we want Dean for our dun. Sahaba sacrificed their dun for Dean. The difference. This makes me think about this thing that I was talking about with a few people close to me. And that's the fact that when someone, let's say they want to start making money online, or they just want to be an entrepreneur, they want to get into business. They go online, they go on YouTube, and you have all these gurus, and they all talk about hard work. And you have to do this, and you have to do that. And you, you have to go into nightmare mode where you're sacrificing your sleep, you're sacrificing your health, you're doing this, you're working 12 hours, 14 hours, 16 hours. W bro, I believed this for some time. And I kid you not, for several months, as I was doing that, everything was restricted. Nothing was happening. And I couldn't understand. I was like, like, I'm doing everything. I'm doing everything that I'm seeing. I'm researching. And I'm seeing that this is what has to be done. And this is how the success happened. Nothing is happening. And then one day, it just hit me. It's like, Allah never said to research this to the infinite and then get all the information you needed and then put it all to use. And that's how you're gonna. No, He said, "Come to Him." They're people that they want the and they get neither the or the. They're the ones that want the and they get both the and the. The comes crawling to their feet. So I was talking to the people close to me, and I was like, "It sounds so counterintuitive, but what if the missing piece, right? The key to all of it is when you feel like you have to do XYZ in order to succeed in this thing over here, that's when you know you have to go to to Allah." When you think, "Oh, I have to put in X amount of work. I need to stay up for X amount of hours. Edit these videos and put this up." No, actually, I need to go and read the Quran. I need to go pray Salah. I need to go reflect and get closer with Allah. Well, I would say, I'd add one more piece to that. Don't allow the actions that are not clearly to also distract you from. Because remember, it's all God's work. Even the mundane. It, you know, the example of someone that goes in his room to meditate. He follows some yoga instructor. The yoga instructor says, "Do this, this, that." Goes in, starts meditating. Hum. Feeling very in the moment. And then the child comes from the school, gushes, rushes into the. And then the person immediately just like, "Shut up! Can't you tell I'm meditating?" And they get angry. And this is also Allah's work. See, Allah didn't just create, you know, the objects of the world, but the situations and the scenarios are there to test you as well. So why are you oblivious to Allah in the most mundane of things? Like, you said, edit a video. Editing a video, if infused with the right intention, becomes like, you're going to edit this video. You're going to, you know, as you're doing it, don't just do it, he routine. Do it like, "Ya Allah, make this video." And because I'll be honest with you, bro, there's something about you. I don't know what it is. You, you must be really close to Allah. Something. I don't want to say it to your face, subhanallah. The way you see. But the reason I tell you that is never has Allah opened up on me to speak this openly and this fluidly as He did today. I usually, like, even after I finished, I love brother anadi, and he'll laugh when he hears this, because when I did his podcast, the minute I arrived, he took me to the, you know, uh, have some food and coffee at like this, what is it? His famous daa, I think, coffee place. Such a beautiful soul. And brother Yeny, brother, and he brought down the meats and the steaks. And I'm like, "Bro, this is not a good idea." And we killed it with the food coma before going into the podcast. Huh? Pretty much. Going into the podcast, I'm like, "Bro, I don't GNA do this right now." And even like, although he said, and many people like enjoyed it, and there was good feedback, it's all God's work. But like, I wasn't happy with it. I actually went back and said, "No, this isn't." I could tell, like, I wasn't in the zone that day. And inshallah, I promised him, I said, "We were also rushing because I had a flight to catch, and he booked me in the same day and the same day out." But inshah, in the future, we'll have a proper one. But I feel like Allah, subhana, tala, I think your good intention, sincerity, inshallah, you know, we, we have a good opinion of of you with Allah, subhana, tala, that I feel like, Subhan Allah, just everything flowed naturally and easily. But really, man, Allah, subhana, wa tala, is in that smile of a person. Is in the child acting up. His, you know, His, I mean, when I say Allah, you know, He's allowing it with His permission. He's creating these scenarios. So for me, whether I'm chewing on bubble gum, or I'm, you know, having a sip of my coffee, or I'm sitting with my wife, or I'm playing a game of, I don't know, chess with someone, or whatever it is I'm doing, provided it's Halal, whatever it is. And there's a difference of opinion, I think, on chess. But there is a call that it's okay. Whatever it is, as long as it doesn't distract you from Allah's commands, it's, it. When you see perceiving and thinking as God's creations, and emotions, everything, everything, everything is an opportunity. Everywhere you turn, there is God, the essence of God. And when you understand it this way, it's like, wait, nothing can distract me from Allah anymore. I see it all from Allah. My wife comes, she's in a good mood, and she's like, "I Habibi," and everything. I'm like, "Okay, yeah." Today I prayed Fath with j, and I recited y, and I finished myar, and I, everything's good that day. When I, you know, whatever reason I stayed up and I missed something that I was supposed to do, then things start going. I'm like, "Ah, you get what Allah is getting at." Because the language of God, if I give you a book in Chinese and I ask you to read it, you'll tell me, "This is just scribble on a page," because you don't understand the language. Likewise, the universe is God's book, and the language is that of IM. And when the of enters into your heart, you begin to get what Allah is getting at. And nothing no longer can distract you, whether it's a situation with your buddies, your friends, you started a business venture with some people, and you know, it's, it, for whatever reason, it's, everything is God's work. And now everything becomes, because you infuse it with the, you know, sleeping is, you know, what mu in means, it means merely permissible. You're neither rewarded for it, nor do you get any bad deeds. And it's just permissible. But sleeping becomes worship when you, what? When you infuse it with an intention. Well, what's the, the non-believer, he sleeps. Right? To sleep, to rest. The believer doesn't sleep to rest or sleep. The believer sleeps to get up. It's like, "What do you mean?" We sleep with the intention of getting up for, and getting up for, because, and when you, you sleep with that intention to get up to worship Allah, now every moment of that sleep is, is now worship because you've infused it. All the actions are via intentions, and everyone will get what they intend. But if you're just going about your life, God is just an item on your list, you're, you don't get it. You think Dean is just praying and fasting and this, and when I'm done with that, I can turn to my real life here and attend to my problems. And like, how are you disconnecting the two? You can't balance Dean and dun. I tell this, I, I get annoyed. And every time I hear like, even religious people, Muslims would come up, "Bro, can you give us advice on how we can balance Dean and d?" And I'm like, "You can't." How do you, in order to balance anything, two things, they have to be separate and put on a scale, right? But Dean is integrated into every aspect of your D. Dean, Dean is a function of Dean, in a sense, right? There's no balance. Yeah. So now Dean is a way of life. So you can worship Allah through even sleeping, sorry, with your wife, right? Even the enjoyment that Allah, subhana, gave for you. There's aah du. Keep away and keep protect our, you know, progeny from him before you do, you know, J with your wife, and that becomes worship. Can you, maybe it's inappropriate for the podcast, but, you know, your finale, you know, with your family, is you're rewarded for, you're getting, you know, that's an incredible. How awesome is Allah? Everything becomes everything, bro. So now it's like, you know, the, the person that is not heedful of Allah, he gets up and he's like, "What am I going to do today?" He's with the ego. The believer gets up and he says, "What is Allah going to do with me today?" See what I'm saying? And you go, "Yeah, you go by your." "I wonder what God's going to do with me today." And and you plan your day. That's fine. But you're not attached to the plan. You're open. Because there, Allah is the best of planners. And what's going to happen is, and He's going to do this, you're going to go, and you're committed to that plan. And then there's that curveball, right? "Where are the keys? I put them right there." You know, and you have no. Allah could be protecting you from an accident. Do you're so you want to walk with n, bro? What is Allah gonna do with? Okay, this happened. Allah's work. What is Islam? Is to submit to what? To the, what's the, whatever unfolds in the now. Is it before it unfolds? Folds in the now? It's when it unfolds in the now. But you're resisting. Even as an engineer, I'll tell you, like, when we're building a circuit, there's something called a resistor. And current will run through, you know, the wires, and it will get to the resistor. What happens? The current that comes on the other side is less than the one going in, because there's a resistor. It impedes it, right? The mind is like that. It's like a resistor. So you, whenever whatever unfolds in the now, you're kind of like, "No, but if only this happened, then this." No, Habibi, it's all God's work. It's resistance is futile in every sense of the world. Submission is, is the way of the believer. That's the way of Ibrahim. Submitted to everything. Sacrificed everything. J. The most beautiful thing I heard from the Arab scholars, they said Ibrahim, he sacrificed everything. What four main things? Said, his body for the Nan in the fire. So he sacrificed his own life. His, and it rhymes in Arabic, it's much more beautiful. And he said, and his, uh, child, his son, for theban. One is Nan, one isban. Qubani means, you know, qubani, like sacrifice. And his money for the guests. He would never eat alone. He's always spending his money on guests. And his family, he left her in the barren desert. So he became the of the. His best. Why? He sacrificed everything. We sacrifice that. What we're supposed to do is sacrifice our desires for the commands of Allah. But today, we are sacrificing Allah's commands in order to fulfill our desires. So then, you know, dun, money has you. It's like a ship, man. Ship needs water to sail. Dun is the water. As long as you're above it, you get to shore safely, get to Jenna. The minute that D, that water seeps in, then the boat begins to sink, and you never get to shore. So we are not against opposed it. We have to go through it. But we don't. And that's why we say the purpose is not, we say the purpose is not to remove money from people's pockets, but to remove money from people's hearts.