Inner Peace | Yasmin Mogahed | Islamic Institute of Toronto

I would even let him in a shaytan al rajim bismillah ar-rahman ar-rahim salat wa salam ala rasulina why Allah any Oh Simon rubbish Raja Chaudhary where Siddeley Emery while dr. terminus any alcohol Koli how is everyone it's an honor to be with you tonight it's my last day in Toronto and hamdulillah it's it's a beautiful cause it's a beautiful room and the topic that I'm speaking about today is one that I think is extremely important and that is inner peace why is this such an important topic first of all it's something that every single human being regardless of their background regardless of their religion regardless of what part of the world they live in every single human being wants one thing and that is happiness ultimately happiness it's something we all seek now the problem is everyone has a different definition of how you get it and in the society that we live in right now in the the modern time we live in now we are told that in order to find happiness you need to get stuff you need to be have power or money or status in fact they did a study in which they asked Millennials what is your number one goal what's your number one goal and the majority of them said their number one goal was to make money and then just after that I think was an eighty percent or something and then just after that the answer was to be famous now there is a reason why this is the number one goal the reason is that the belief internally is that this is where happiness is that's where I will find happiness now I want to talk about that for a moment what is happy because for me to get somewhere I have to know where I'm going right if I'm going in the car and I'm gonna drive and I have to put something into my GPS but I'm not really sure what the address is I'm not gonna end up there right so I have to be clear about where it is I want to end up if I'm going to get there what is true happiness and the answer is this there are different types of happiness okay I'm going to put it in two categories there is what I'm going to call physical happiness and then there is inner happiness physical happiness is the happiness that even an animal can have physical pleasure is when you for example eat a really great chocolate piece you know a piece of chocolate cake that's physically that gives you pleasure okay physical happiness is something that is at the level that we can even share with animals but the human being yes there is physical pleasure that exists analyst panel Tyla has made some of it Hallel and some of it Haram so as long as it isn't within the Helen there's nothing wrong with that but the human being has given has been given the capacity to reach a higher level happiness a higher level than just the physical a higher level than just what an animal can feel or what an animal can experience because an animal eats sleeps and reproduces and that's its happiness but a human being has a higher way to live and that is the happiness of the heart and the soul that's the inner happiness or the inner peace and it's that happiness that people are ultimately seeking when they try to find it in just physical happiness but it's it's that's the end goal that they aren't able to get to because they don't know where to find it or what it looks like there are there are so many people who have those things that the Millennials were saying that's their goal right wealth and fame let's look at the people who have wealth and fame the people who have wealth and fame why are many of them committing suicide why are many of them addicted to alcohol and drugs what is it that they're missing if they have the wealth and the fame what emptiness is it that they're trying to fill the reason that happens is because there's something inside of every human being that has to be filled and it cannot be filled with wealth and fame in fact as it McCallum says it can't be filled with anything other than the nearness to allah subhanaw taala so there is a compartment inside of us there is a need inside of us and I'm not just saying us as in the people in this room I'm not just saying us as in Muslims I mean human beings there is a need inside of every human being that can't be filled except in the remembrance of Allah except in being close to Allah Allah basically lieth of mine in the clue that indeed it's in the remembrance of God that the hearts find true inner peace that inner peace and tranquility now what are some of the stumbling blocks what are some of the things that keep us from getting inner peace true inner peace well there's a few things to begin with we live in a world of destruction everywhere we turn were being distracted we live in a world that makes us focus on the wrong things essentially and those things tend to be that which we can see that which we can feel that which we can touch so we live in a world that basically makes you focus on the physical world and forget about the unseen world but unless we can be a people who believe in the unseen and a people who who actually see the unseen as more real than the seen then we can't find true happiness what what do I mean by that see as believers as believers if you look at the prescription that were given by Allah and His Messenger so every single day we're told to do certain things if you follow that prescription what does it do for you if you follow the prescription of Salah five times a day if you follow the prescription of the of God saying the remembrance in the morning and the evening and before you sleep if you follow the prescription of Quran if you stay away from what Allah has forbidden us from going to and only do that which Allah has commanded what does that do internally well what it does first of all is it makes us focus on the unseen until the unseen becomes real to us until because you see when you're praying can you see even the Kaaba that you're facing no not unless you're there when you're praying can you see allah subhanaw taala no can you see the angels that are around you know right now we're sitting in a gathering of thick meaning we're remembering Allah and we're told that anytime you sit in a gathering where you're remembering Allah the angels come down and sit with you and they fill the area between the heavens and the earth can anyone see them I'd be concerned about you if you thought you could so no you can't right so what what we have to come back to doing is training our hearts to focus on the unseen a loss of Hannah Dinah tells us in Surat al-baqarah that when he describes alif-lam-mim Valley Kalki tabularium ofili hood and in Makkah that he's saying that this book is is it's a guidance for those who have taqwa who are they and levena you mean una been like the first description of these people who are going to benefit from this revelation is they must believe in the unseen we cannot be a people who only believe and only care about the physical world about the money I have the status I have the power I have the way I look the way my house looks the way my car looks if that's all we care about we will not ever find that inner peace so when you follow this prescription it brings us back to that remembrance of what really matters and those are things that we cannot see can anyone see Jenna and Gehenna no these are all unseen things but can you see them all come on guys it's not a trick question you can see them all right but you can't see Jenna and you can't see Jenna and so what happens is we we become distracted by what we can see and we forget about what we can't see the other reason why we sometimes stumble in this in this pursuit of inner peace is that we face storms in life right weather happens and we can't always control that weather and some people become very shaken by the storms in their lives and sometimes the storms in our lives they can destroy a person and so part of being successful in this path to inner peace is being able to navigate our storms being able to be resilient in our storms allah subhanho to ila talks in the quran about a solid tree and when he describes this solid tree he says us Lou has sabot well Federer will have his cement that it's foundation is firm and its branches reached towards the sky this is what a believer must be in order to survive this life we have to be firmly rooted because weather happens right you can't make it stop snowing if any of you decided right now you know what I'm tired of the snow I don't want it to snow anymore so stop can you do that no you have no control over the weather not even Trump can control the weather right and you can have all the power in the world and all the money in the world and you can tell people what to do but you can't make it rain right you can't make it stop raining you can't control these things these are things are only in the hands of Allah so Panna Thailand so then what should we do right so my question to you does your life stop every time it snows I grew up in Wisconsin I understand how it is does your life stop every time it snows no you're here today we had a conference Ras it was snowing the whole weekend life doesn't stop tell me how how come we can survive the snow anyone because we dress warm because we have shelter because we have coats you understand and so what this is is this is the ability to be resilient the ability to put stuff on to be able to handle the weather when it hits right we don't become our life doesn't stop as soon as things are not perfect as soon as the Sun is out you know some people it's like if the Sun is out there okay but then if the Sun Goes Away is their life's gonna stop we can't be that way or we won't survive this life so part of seeking or rather reaching that inner peace is being able to create a shelter on the inside because you know what we can't control always the outside can we we can't control what happens outside but what we can do is we can create an inner shelter what am I talking about what I'm talking about is that prescription that was given to us by Allah and His Messenger is actually building an inner shelter the problem is that we don't follow that prescription and that's the reason why we become destroyed by our storms it's like a tree think about a tree that doesn't have solid roots a tree that isn't deeply rooted what happens when the wind comes especially if it's a strong wind what happens to the tree it'll knock it down or all snap and that's because it doesn't have it sometimes actually can be uprooted if the wind is strong enough but you know that the taller a tree gets the deeper it has to have its roots and that's because that's what's keeping it firm regardless of the wind and it can handle things you know there's a forest in California called the Sequoia it's it's it's it's it's a forest of sequoias and one thing that we're famous for in California is wildfires you may have heard about them there they're intense and they spread very quickly and one thing that's very amazing about certain types of trees is that Allah has designed them to somewhat be resistant to fire that's amazing and when I heard that I just thought that was so amazing because this is the design of Allah Allah has made the creation to be able to withstand the trials of this life Allah created the human being in the same way the human being is not actually that breakable the human being is in its fitrah in in his or her fitrah is actually very resilient very resilient now this is this is very deep what I'm trying to say right now in his or her Sutra what does that mean it means that if we have a heart and a soul that is properly cared for that is properly maintained that is properly fed and oxygenated and I'll talk about what that means that is properly cleansed then that heart and that soul actually is very very resilient like the Sequoias it can handle things you wouldn't imagine and I will tell you two examples of people that I have witnessed with my own eyes who to me are like those sequoias but what is it that we do what is it that we have to do to feed and clean and maintain our hearts and our souls and the answer is actually quite simple I'm going to just simplify it and give you guys examples if I were to ask you the question how do you take care of your body you don't have to be a doctor actually a five-year-old can tell me that in order to take care of your body you have to breathe fair enough oxygen you have to eat and you have to have water like sir minimal amount to stay alive right yes or no okay so you need oxygen you need food and you need water to stay alive what is the oxygen food and water of the heart and the answer is it is the remembrance of Allah Salah is the first thing that is the oxygen of the heart when a person neglects their Salah it's just like a body that isn't breathing or maybe the body is just breathing once in a while and the same thing that happens to the body when it doesn't get oxygen happens to the heart when it doesn't get Salah it starts to first become very weak and this is what we call the sick heart and then eventually it dies until it becomes a dead heart and that person will be walking around and they will appear to be alive but they're actually dead the prophesy send'em said the difference between the one who remembers Allah one who does not remember Allah is like the living and the dead and so a person who isn't praying internally is dead even though in the physical sense they are alive they look alive but inside in the true sense they are dead and that's because they have neglected simply because they have neglected their spiritual oxygen what is the food and the water of the heart and the soul the food in the water of the heart and the soul is in the remembrance of Allah beyond the Salah there are things that the prophets I send them have used to say now I'm just gonna put it this way I see a lot of people suffering that I talked to one on one and I believe that there's a lot of suffering right now individually and collectively and as a community and globally and I believe a lot of our suffering is because we've neglected something very very important and that is these of God it is something so small but so revolutionary to the health of the heart and that's this simply put the prophets I send them used to say certain supplications drawers it's a supplication he used to say them in the morning he used to say them in the evening used to say them before he slept in fact there's a supplication for every motion of life right he would leave the house there was a supplication he come back in there was a supplication before bed when he wakes up before he eats when he finishes eating entering the bathroom leaving the bathroom even before intimacy there's a supplication there's a supplication for every motion of life and the more that we incorporate these supplications the healthier we're going to be see if I were a doctor up here and I were talking to you about physical health I would have to tell you folks you got to breathe that's a given right I tell you folks you got to eat so you got a drink and you know what eat healthy take your vitamins right take your you know eat eat raw organic food if I'm gonna tell you how to take care of yourself that's what I would tell you right this is what I'm telling you but this is the spiritual food this is the spiritual vitamins and a person who takes that is not like a person who doesn't they are not the same in terms of their spiritual health and their inner their inner health their inner peace so the more that you can incorporate up these supplications and I'm just gonna give you guys a very practical way to do that there's this this there's this app that you can download on your phone you don't have to do it right now it's called my dog with two A's at the end my dua a it's just Fortress of a Muslim on an app and what it is is it's just a collection of the supplications from the Koran and from the Sunnah that the prophets I seldom used to say and I'm telling you that is gold it's like the best 99 cents you'll ever spend in your life it's gold you download that on your app and you use it especially in the morning and the evening and before you sleep and what I've just given you some day and sha Allah you'll make dua for me because it changes your life it absolutely changes your life now I'm just gonna add a point because one of the tricks of Shaitaan is he tells you all or none okay so when you open up the app and you go to morning supplications and you see that there's like 25 of them and it's gonna take you an hour you're gonna do it once and never do it again I'm just being honest yeah so what you can do on this app is you can actually have this thing called the star U star it and then what that does is you can have your own collection if you guys if you want to do you know just a small amount but you're consistent it will have a very profound effect so you just start and then you do just your list now what else the quarter N this is part of the nourishment of the heart and the soul now like I said if I were a doctor and I only talk to you about breathing eating taking your vitamins drinking but I didn't talk about hygiene I wouldn't be a very good doctor yeah if you guys said to me you know what I'm all breathe take my vitamins all eat all drink but I don't need to take a shower I did that last year I'm good right what would be the problem there anyone come on now there's this thing called dirt and sweat so that builds right and if you don't clean it you will become sick and it can kill you do you understand you you understand it's the same thing spiritually okay we have to clean the heart and that's what it's the forest it's the thought is that that bathing of the heart that shower that you regularly take you know you feel really dirty if you don't take a shower every day it's thick fog is what cleans your heart and when you're not doing it regularly this is repentance and when you're not doing it regularly it's like a person who isn't taking a shower you're gonna become your heart just becomes dirty because we are naturally sinning we are human and just like you get dirt on your body you get dirt on your heart so you have to clean it okay I just gave you guys three things I said the oxygen of the heart Salah I said the earth God I said Kota N and then that was the nourishment and then the cleaning which is the step for now I want to before I close share with you guys two personal stories of people that I know and the reason I want to share these stories is because a lot of what we say up here on a podium often time sounds cliche like okay go make a good quote put it on a meme that's good right but I want to just tell you these stories of people that I know we're living today not in the olden days when you hear all these fairy tales and stuff right today and they're real people about the power of e men and the resilience that one can grow from amen okay the first is a friend of mine I met probably about five six years ago some of you may have heard me speak about her she at the time that I met her told me her story she said that many years ago she had a daughter and when her daughter was around three years old her teacher called and said your daughter to stop talking she's not talking anymore and we don't understand what's wrong so she you know that was strange so she took her to the doctor and eventually the doctor told her that her daughter had a rare genetic disorder called MPs now for those of you aren't familiar with MPs it is a disorder that has no cure and what she was told this mother was told is that your daughter who right now is perfectly healthy is going to slowly lose all of her faculties until she dies as a child she's gonna lose all her faculties slowly you're gonna watch her do that and there is nothing we can do there's no cure so she will lose her ability to do anything and they said to her don't expect that she will live past I think thirteen and then she told me that she had another child another daughter and this daughter was tested and the doctor told her that she also had MPs and then she had a third daughter and she also had MPs and so this woman had three children three daughters with MPs every single one of them she was gonna have to watch them slowly die literally lose the ability even to swallow she swallowed you know you know our ability to swallow something that I never I was never thankful for it because I never even realized it that the ability that your ability to swallow your saliva is an Anna it's a blessing because these when you can't swallow your saliva you choke on it goes in your lungs she was actually having to suction them because they couldn't swallow their own saliva properly so it was making them choke then she had a fourth child with severe autism now why do I tell this story it isn't to tell you you know that this is a really really hard situation and then just leave the reason I tell this story and I'm just gonna tell you that I have I've been to her home I've witnessed how she lives basically her children her daughter's grew into their teens and by the time I met her the three daughters were I think they were all teenagers and they were all completely bedridden she had they were on machines she literally like didn't sleep she was constantly caring for them I can her home was like a hospital there was a section that was like a hospital I also recently she lost two of them one of them lived until she was 19 for 19 some years she took care of this child and and her other daughter and now one of her daughters is still alive may Allah make it easy for them and the reason I tell this story is because of who this woman is I just if I brought her here today you you would say she was the most she's always smiling subhanAllah but the thing that really hit me is that one day she said to me I'm drowning in gratitude that's what that's that direct hole now what amazed me is that she has a trial in her life that I couldn't even wrap my mind around and yet she has this trial and she's saying she's drowning in gratitude and to me that's a sign of God that the power of Eman to allow a person to not just withstand a little bit of rain a little bit of snow but a tsunami and to not be broken by it to not be destroyed by it to the extent that you can actually show gratitude and one of the things that she always says to me is that she always looks at those who have less than her she says she's always the thing about her is that she's always worried about the people who are suffering somewhere else worse than her she doesn't look at her situation and say why me but she actually shows gratitude because she looks at those who have less than her when she first got the diagnosis there was something really powerful that shook me and that is that her husband says to her when he was looking at his three daughters after hearing this diagnosis him you can imagine what that feels like as a father or as a mother he looked at his three daughters and he says I feel like I'm looking at three graves and she said no there's three doors to Jenna but I want to tell you this because these aren't cliches I promise you these are real-life these are people leave living their real life and she recognized that this was her door to Jenna but that's what happens to a heart when it is healthy it is a completely different heart and it doesn't mean that it doesn't mean you have to be a prophet or you have to be perfect no a regular person who takes care of their heart just as it is prescribed can become like that by the help of allah subhanho tada and i'm going to end with this story so about ten years ago or more than 10 years ago I used to teach at a school in Wisconsin an Islamic school and I had a principal at that time one of the best principals I've ever known an older gentleman from Thailand and after like a year or two there he moved and fast forward a decade later so this was just recently a few months ago I was speaking in a community and lo and behold he was living in that community and he was the principal of that school so I basically reunited with my old principal after a decade and he was he's he's older now so he he actually just retired this year but what I found out when I reunited with with with dr. Jill mood is that over the last that decade of time a few things had happened one his wife had gotten ill with with cancer and passed away may Allah have mercy on her the other thing that I found out is that his son he was I think about 21 he was delivering pizzas and wally was delivering pizzas a man slaughtered him just cut his neck just like that and dr. drew the mood is telling me that he gets a call at 3 o'clock in the morning saying your son is no longer he's he's past tense he's passed away he's been he's been killed and now for me I wanted to ask him how did you cope with that I mean that's next level and he told me that you know he was trying to process it and he said he was just kind of pacing and saying in any land here in LA or on your own and trying to process the shock but what really really stood out to me was this he told me that shortly after that he asked the lawyers to meet with the killer so I was like okay why they said you can't they told him you can't you can't meet with the killer because he's in maximum security and he spent two years just trying to meet with him and I asked him why why are you trying to meet with him and he said he said I want to meet with him because I want to forgive him and I want him to be in the same place with my son this isn't a story about a prophet this isn't a story about one of the companions this is these are people on Facebook and these are real and and some of you may have actually feel Google that you can find because what happened is recently a few weeks ago the trial happened and he finally got to meet the killer and it's on video him hugging the killer and forgiving him on behalf and some of you may have seen it forgiving the killer on behalf of his late wife and himself and I'm telling you that it's real the power of a healthy heart Allah subhana Allah has given the healthy heart and ability that's amazing but that heart has to be taken care of ah coolio Kodi hatha was stuck for a lolly welcomed in Nirvana Raheem panic Elohim dag shadow la la la staff required to break Salam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

Channel: Yasmin Mogahed

Views: 262,986

Rating: 4.942059 out of 5

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Id: 1YpSJbblhew

Length: 33min 45sec (2025 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 09 2018