What is The Barzakh? | OCD Fiqh & Facts | Eid Mubarak | The Rendezvous Meetup - | Mufti Abu Layth

Heat. Hey, Heat. [music] [music] [music] >> [music]

>> folks. Allah Allah. Let me just get this. Make sure the audio is coming through. May Allah bless you with an amazing

uh Eid moving forward. May the whole year uh be blessed for you and your family. Allah keep you all safe, sound, smiling and positive. Allah abar. Right. I thought let's have our rendevu, our meetup. Let's um Right.

I'll just see that I've shared out the the link and allow some people to just tune in. Let me just till then I'll see who we have here. Salam cla Jones. Allah Allah Mubarak Ch Allah Kazi hi Kazi G Imam Kazzi how are you?

A very blessed aid Mubarak to you. I hope uh yeah the family is all well. Yeah, I have, you know, [clears throat] on and off, I suppose, of the preoccupations and just life, I guess. Sometimes, you know, one also wants to um just realizing my glass looks a bit alieny on there. So, wow.

I wonder why that is. So from the of this so it is I tell you the heat wave has reduced it but it's left a very um you know like a a lot of humidity.

If you guys know definitely all of you in the UK know what we're talking about. other people thinking we're just being drama queens. [laughter] But, you know, there was a fascinating uh video, short video I shared once on my socials on why does the heat in the UK hit much heavier even for people who are used to a lot hotter climates.

Like when people come from Spain or other places, they still feel the heat. And part of it is to do with the humidity because uh the UK is an we're an island. So uh no man is an island. Allah but I guess the UK we are an island and and then also the homes have been decide designed and buildings to retain heat which makes it [snorts] so much worse as you can imagine.

Look at this. We have a question by can you explain bar world? Allah Allah. Should we jump straight into that? Right. Before that I have to acknowledge somebody saying I am your big Allah. Allah Allah keep you always smiling and blessed [snorts] and love from.

Oh wow. Shehhat gee as well give my extend my love and salam to Shehani always you know some amazing work he's been involved in that you've been involved in shikh if you're watching this recently especially in line with uh the whole atheism and the kind of challenges to faith so Allah keep you blessed and smiling I mean shukran and likewise uh uh Islamic video clips.

Allah from Oman. What a place, huh? Oman. Allahbar. Right. So, what's this? Um [snorts] it's clear saying taking a break from fighting cuz he that's our imam Kazi from uh a different end of Birmingham.

Allah you know what it is Kazi G I think um [snorts] yeah you know there's an age and a stage in life and then things just you know a person wants for the noise to just drown out you see and let there be more substance meaning to life.

Let there be, you know, let things take up more value in that purpose, you know, like with a purpose propulsive sense. Look at that. So yeah, but you're still young yet. Hi. So unlike us who are now, what are we reaching 50?

So uh yeah as they say in life huh you know what's life if not lived and as the poet says uhal he says uh oh actually I think it might be shakers thisal

that yes there are regrets but there aren't that many regrets. You know says it's not that this eye has turned red from kind of remorse or crying over things that that you know everybody is

in it for themselves. That's what the poet is saying. But then this second line he's tapping into that does anybody care for anybody else? Tapping into a deeper fundamental of Islam.

I would say at its core that really that is what the whole faith is about that afam. And you know this ash salam this hadith of Medina the first um directive in Medina the what to do the protocol is to feed the poor and to spread salam salam didn't just mean to them how we understand it today to say like or saying going around saying

assalamu alaykum that wasn't What a salam meant it meant spread actual peace. Let people feel safe. You know al-Muslim that people feel safe from his his tongue and his hand. And this is the message really of Islam that to be able to help that that

the that the best of you is those who can benefit help other people that and in line with that a poet had said that you know if you can like what's the greatest action to help to come to somebody who is in need their help and to a person who is drowning that you raise them up that

Allah That that you have that they have cut the wings before the takeoff before flight. is, [laughter] you know, this overprotective controlling.

Um, it's not really it's it more than anything reflects an insecurity that he says that the wings have been cut before the bird could take flight. That this is a fear of abandonment. This is not that you are this is not about a deep passionate intimacy or a kind of being at one a union.

This is more about the self the ego. It is a fear of abandonment that you've you've kind of this control we exert over people that You see now this [clears throat] what an amazing motive once again that to tap into

the deeper realities of existence That that even if you have lost, you still remain joyous, laughing, smiling. See, because it is a state of mind.

It is a perspective. You know, some things are perspectival. Perspectival. they come back to how we engage them. You see, we there's many things we can't control in this dunya. But but what we can learn to control is our reaction to them.

that [laughter] you know is it what kind of what kind of achievement is that that you always win you know somebody who always wins they something's rigged you know that that's not [snorts] that's not true existence

There's no perfection. Now look at the irony that the poet the paradox of life that the poet has tapped into there that so I to lose is a completeness a perfection. So the imperfection is the perfection.

For insan you see that the other kamal the other absolute holistic is we say you know in Islam that that perfection is for Allah alone. But our perfection in our realm in the dunya realm in the bzak in this kind in our existence in in the cosmos it is the imperfection the kind of kinugi effect that things are broken

yet in that frailty shines its perfection. that the last line the the poet says that he has the fine. I think this is Shakar actually that here one must have to paradoxically dive submerge before flight.

[laughter] That is just a that the sunset does not mean or something setting does not mean that it is extinct or it has been destroyed or perished because when the sun sets it rises again and and one could take this a level deeper that a play on words of shams was a shams you know which is has another meaning more the zenith uh in or the mer you know the meridian uh meridian sorry in um you know the sun

is just at its thing and then zenith point and then moves in Arabic they call that zawal zams in udu zal is then used to mean uh the decline that the sunset is not the decline but the play on words the that one could look at if you understand Arabic as Allah some reflection in that.

What a I think yeah you know sometimes I I feel the the what poetry captures for us is just I I read this thing. It said that that [laughter] [gasps] really caught between he was speaking about life and death

that life doesn't let one die and death doesn't let one live. And between the two lies poetry that is there is a beauty to that. Allah I wanted to there was a question um there was a question about the the bers.

[snorts] So the I I love the way you see this is such a fascinating not only question but it really ties into our our kind of understanding of cosmology how the world how the entire world existence exists.

So to me the models that have been inspired by the likes of uh the great sheh Muayn Arabi are so powerful and somebody asked about the bers right so the bah everybody to some extent understands the bz but there's so much more that they miss about People assume that when we die we return to the state of the bar and although that may

have and although that is true but that's missing the splendor of the ba the barak is much more than something you return to after death. We are always connected with the barak. Right now we are actually perhaps more in the bers than we are here or we are equally in both planes.

The bersa is almost think of it as almost an analogy that it is almost like the console from which this game is being projected of this dunya this simulation. So it is the boundary. It is almost like you know you take a look at a gaming console or a little and it's like what the hell is that?

you know, a person looks at it and I'm sure you could get some very tiny flat even. I mean, you get I I'm not really into gaming, but I know you can use the PCs or PlayStations or whatever nowadays people are into, but you could take even the, you know, you you look at it and it's something running in a way operating in with a code that resembles nothing like the actual game.

There is no actual locality situated within the console. But it beams a reality onto let's say the monitor which continues to render and you can connect with people, you can play all sorts. You can play almost like an endless version of games online.

Now this world as she says is a manifestation like a holographic manifestation and he uses the term maja and mudhar of the barak. So the bzak itself would operate in a very different way would use a very different language it uses just as the console the character that you see that you are playing that is your avatar in the game you won't find that character if you open up the console inside the you know whether it's the chips or whether it's

the discs or whatever people are using or now they're just downloading directly from the internet because there it uses a code which looks nothing like the character but they are deeply one could say they are one and the other but just from not from the human perspective because that would be code and this would be a kind of digitalized um you know graphical figure.

So similarly the the buzza is like that where we all are. It is where our you could understand our deep unconscious mind is is all in the bar. This mind that is operating in this duny is the conscious mind not the uncon. So the unconscious is operating as well but every time the conscious is trying to block it and be operant.

Now that's why they say a lot of our decisions are actually unconscious that are retrospectively engineered or reunderstood because through the buzza our reality is seeping through. So this is why in the Quran it mentions that when you sleep you return Allah takes your soul.

Meaning it goes back to the deep unconscious to the bar because the conscious mind is the avatar in this world. The moment the conscious mind switches off, the unconscious is seeping through, right? The baraki realm. And in the barak, the barak is like a barrier as explains between the world of what would be pure consciousness or spirit which we don't understand how that totally works at all.

And this is a world that appears to us made of matter. Although physics now teaches us that that is somewhat of an illusion because and the mystics knew this all along that it is an illusion but we now know it is an illusion because as you go deep into stuff is not really made up of anything that you know it's Neil's BS very famous that everything we call real is made up of stuff we can't call real it's just force fields quantum wave fields.

You know, this this is what it is when it goes so deep into but it's made up just as the image on the screen is made up of tiny pixels. Pixels kind of don't mean anything. But so similarly, the bers realm is in between being immaterial. So it's not non-material, non matter, but it's not dense like this world.

So imagine it to somehow be almost 2D and this world being 3D. That's an analogy. So it's very different. But we are at all times connected there. And in the barak realm, things are happening. Allah's divine decree is influencing things. So everything that happens happens there and then it manifests here like a shadow.

It's like you know I could look at for example this. Now this is projecting a shadow onto the let's say it's projecting it in this case it's projecting it there. Now when I move this the shadow moves the shadow could look different at times to the actual object that it's mirroring and that's how in the bara things are happening.

So when a person's risk Allah increases it in the bar here in this world it manifests as for example another job another income another something but in the barak it's manifesting in a different way. almost like and the shadow it casts on this world if you like appears in our worldly and this is why dreams don't communicate in always the language that we use in this world dreams often are symbolic that in a dream you just apprehend

meaning even though the thing may not mean that it's like the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam saying in the hadith that he when he gave milk to drink to his companions Abu Bakr and Omar he understood the milk to mean knowledge at the time now milk in this world does not mean knowledge by any means it's just milk but in the world [clears throat] of dreams it communicates It's me on many occasions it will or perhaps

even mostly it will communicate symbolically. Sometimes in dreams it might communicate how we communicate here. You might meet somebody who tells you something but often it's symbolic and it's very separate to what it's like how a white dove symbolizes peace.

Now white dove has nothing to do with peace per se but it's become a symbol. I mean you could take the swastigger uh right the the Nazi symbol right now that symbol means nothing you I mean in fact it was taken from Hinduism and Sanskrit kind of

um symbolism in the past but it was reappropriated and repurposed for Nazi uh ideology. Now today you see it automatically I mean it's just a cross with the kind of uh edges coming out but today automatically when you see it you understand so much hatred racism um bigotry uh fear you you you like how does a shape carry these things?

This is the power of the symbolic order that humans are invariably a part of. So dreams communicate in that way. So you may see for example you may see the death of somebody. Now that may in some occasions to people like I said it may mean oh the person actually died or something happened.

It may mean a symbolic death that maybe all the challenges that they were facing in life have now died and the person has born is born Aresh. It may mean that a certain version of him that was holding or her that was holding them back may have died. Like dreams may communicate to you in ways that you in this version the conscious mind of you does not [snorts] fully understand because we don't communicate in that

way. You see you could take for example take autism. Now people who are on the spectrum and some more than others and I think to some extent all humans are on these spectrums. So we're all somewhat we have some traits of autism in us and that [snorts] would be somewhat if I use the word normal or natural but when it goes beyond a threshold it becomes clinical.

So now you take this hence the spectrum definition. Now you take autism like somebody who has a reasonably strong sense of autism uh you know quite on the spectrum they won't understand not naturally how we most of humanity communicate especially when it comes to social non-verbal communication reactions

you know, smile, sarcastic smile, tense, worried. They can't read that. They don't understand what that they they try to learn it, but they don't learn. You see, to us, we read it intuitively and naturally. When a person's smiling, a person's sarcastically smiling, we can tell the difference.

They can't. Not those that are like they may try to read it, uh, try to learn it, but to us, we don't need to learn it. We just know it. Now explaining all of these things, how we communicate with sarcasm for example, how does sarcasm work, how do jokes in our sense of reality work?

Now autistic people do learn jokes, but they have to try to learn how we are understanding them. Now what I'm trying to show is there is a gulf a gap between the communication of let's say most of us especially nonverbal and they say that perhaps 90% of our communication is non-verbal.

You know, it's how a person is looking, how the cadence of the voice, the stress. If I was to say, "Oh, you're here." Say, "You're here." You see, it changes the meaning, the message. The words are the same. Now that gulf between us and let's say somebody quite farther down the spectrum of autism and how difficult that understanding is.

It's like that and much more for us in the dream world in the barak realm. We don't understand because we don't communicate mostly symbolically. We don't communicate in symbols. A person to us is a normal is an actual human. He's not a metaphor for something.

Do you understand? Whereas in a dream a person may appear to you. Let's say your father appears to you. Now it may appear meaning father. It may appear to be a symbol of for example um to to to mirror a kind of um maybe a taking care of or a particular role or a particular thing like people can equally be modes of communication.

Objects can be just as a dove can mean peace. A person in the dream world can mean something. A whole event can mean something, not the actual event it is. So just as a we're using the example of things like doves or whatever just as those things can meet concepts an entirety of an event like an allegory like Plato's allegory of the cave is not really trying to speak about some people in a cave.

It's an allegory which is meant to mean something. So in the dream in the dream space an entirety of a vision or a dream could just mean something symbolic because that's how the bers world communicates and so we are always connected to the barak and it seeps through and the bers you see in the bers world time isn't quite like how it is here it's more like a block universe so in many ways the past, present and future are kind of happening simultaneously.

Hence sometimes our unconscious self from the bzak will come to know things and influence our current self. And sometimes it will come through intuition. Sometimes it will come through visions. Sometimes just a sense of knowing like you don't know how you know but you just know something.

So and sometimes people see things in dreams of their future. Sometimes in daydreams, daydreams, the imagination, I don't just mean the fantastical imagination, the fantasy imagination, but when you go off, like let's say a person's daydreaming, like I'm just sitting here and I go off in thoughts and I'm when it goes off, it connects back to the imaginal realm, which is the connection.

So Hari had used the term whenever it was to do with this. You know the imagination is ultimately connected is the imagination is one of the most powerful things we have as humans in this day and age. We've lost the identity of imagination. Like we think oh imagination is just fantasy imagination. That's only a tiny part of it.

But the imagination is the image creating modality of the self, of the brain, of us, of the mind. And part of the image is the image of us. Our ego is part of the imaginary. See, when you look in the mirror, you see, oh, that's me. You, the image, you comes to life.

That's very different to the symbolic view of the symbolic order. So, and that's in and that's something maybe well you know another time it's interesting how Lan picked up on that with Daycart's famous Kito urg. He [snorts] showed the weakness in this argument and the assumption that I think as in even if I doubt everything I can't help the fact that thoughts occur to me and because thoughts occur to me I am.

He said this I am is your ego. The ego as in not ego in the English word ego but the psychology ego self as in the avatar us the image of me but the thoughts occurring to me is not that ego the thoughts occur to us uncontrollably they are the unconscious self.

So the unconscious self is the one that kito but erggo sum I am is the ego the image self like the avatar in the game. Oh that me is the the part of the imaginary order the image me.

But the deeper unconscious me, the one that thoughts occur to uncontrollably, that is not this image version of me that although they're connected, that one contains this one. The image is contained within that one. The image is like the game manifestation of that self. And that's I I I find that a very profound I was actually going over that on a separate note recently once again with the whole Lakans.

I thought what a powerful insight he made to that. That was Jacqu Lakan but in psychoanalysis but coming back here. So really this is such a powerful um coming together of the burak world and how think of this world as it manifests like a hologram and then it has signals just as Wi-Fi is permeating this room.

Bluetooth may be another signal that's permeating but they may radio waves are another signal that are permeating but they do radio waves do something very different to what Wi-Fi would do. So similarly is the the name for the bak that extends onto this world with with imagination and the symbolic order or the symbolic world is the name for the bz that extends onto this world with the symbolic order which includes the signal for things like

language, rules, patterns, uh culture, These kind of things that emerge are very different to the imaginary the image and language you see because there is the image me in the mirror. Ah that is me but then there is the I am the language that becomes to define the image of me.

This language is not something I created. I kind of tap into this language. It's a shared signal. Therefore, it carries constructs, ideas, and concepts that are given to me. Colors if you like that are given to me that then become the lens by which I define my subjecthood.

I am So the I am is not it's part of the symbolic order. It's different to the ego. So and all of these they tie in. So I know that's quite a lot to uh maybe you can replay it and watch it again with some other um right so I hope that makes some sense.

Right. And somebody had said about intrusive thoughts and I think that beautifully ties on to this because intrusive thoughts really is like at the level of the unconscious mind the burak side of us the out of the game us because there's the inside the game avatar us that is the ego and the subject.

So if you like the ego is the image of us and the subject is how we come to define ourselves using words and language and concepts and that is so it kind of merges if you like now but what about the us outside of the game as in outside of the monitor the avatar so that is the deep unconscious where we are all connected by the way we have connections there's networking.

You could imagine that um the hadith that the prophet said that that's the soul or a yeah or the a a kind of entangling of the soul. Now there there will be some kind of negative interaction.

There will be negativities. There will be waswasa. What we are told is waswasa by the shaitan or it is almost like turbulence in the signal. We will get negative thoughts at times. And the amazing thing is to understand that this is not me. This is why the hadith teaches that this is a shan.

It is not me. And in fact today that is what is taught in certain uh cognitive therapeutic practices. That the first thing to handle intrusive thoughts is to identify that it is not me the thought. It is me who is having the thought and therefore and they even say name it.

In some therapeutic practices some kind of offshoots of CBT they will say name it. I was listening to a therapist um in G advising on these things in the past and they mentioned oh uh a person it was a lecture and they were saying well they were training giving training on these practices and they were saying well name it name it Henry name it anything they were giving it a name now I remember thinking wow we already it's amazing that our hadith literature the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam already taught us that

that he taught us. That is a shan who has been given the we will refer he has been referred to as g give gave him a name see once you name something you can control it and that's also the power of the symbolic order with language Allah teaching Adam the names teaching him language anguage because language brings a certain amount of power and control.

So, uh I think that's very helpful as well, right? Somebody said philosophy is only understood with good weed. I would say with a good cigar actually, you know, and cigars I think cigars for they're for men and women. There's no gender discrimination.

But I feel for men become an essential companion once a man is in his 40s. I feel that they they are essential. They bring that refined sophistication of thought. The zone a person goes into I do not believe at all they are addictive.

Um I feel that is a misunderstanding by people. Cigars definitely I cannot imagine people being I can't imagine people ever being addicted to cigars. They're very different in nature. They're not like cigarettes you see. And I feel also it is a myth that the cigarette companies have been uh dangerously propagating and that is nicotine is dangerous.

The true danger is not in nicotines. It's in the additives that they add which are called pyroines which are heavily toxic. And and there's no doubt that look constantly breathing in smoke into your lungs will eventually harm the lungs. There's no denying that. But that's not necessarily the nicotity. I mean even if you just sat by a fire and you kept breathing in the smoke into your lungs, it will hurt you.

Now fire isn't you know uh toxic in that sense. Burning wood in that sense isn't. But so one of the key differences is you don't inhale cigar smoke. I mean that would be way too you nobody inhales it. So it has a very it just kind of rests and then you exhale from the mouth. And what it does and the other thing is it's any right so any reasonably good cigar reason and I don't even mean they don't even have to be premium but unquestionably premium cigars but

anything relatively good you know you could be going they are almost entirely organic and this is another thing people don't realize that they are just a leaf that has been rolled up they're not uh you artificial or industrial. They are hand rolled. And for any look at the fabile of cigars, people for any cigar to reach a person any reasonably good to premium and premium may be more for that cigar to have reached you it's taken on average 5 to seven years.

Now compare that with cigarettes which are being turned within the minutes. mass-industrialized that a reasonably good cigar by the time it's reached you. It's entirely organic, handcrafted and it's taken on average 5 to seven years from when this leaf was plugged. It had to be fermented for they ferment the leaf for years like 5 years they ferment them.

Some premium ones even more. So it may be up to 10 years the cigar has taken to reach you. And each of that I feel the consciousness is connected to it. And hence a person enters a very pensive reflective very focused state of mind where reality it's almost as if it becomes clear.

That's enough of the shall we say of these things. Um, no. I I don't smoke cigarettes. I've never smoked cigarettes. I find cigarettes very uh very toxic. Obviously, they're up to people do what they want with their lives. But to me, you see, a cigarette is a person needing a quick fix.

They're on edge. They're on It's nothing like a cigar is refined. I've never heard a person ever say it takes like an hour and a half to smoke a cigar. you know, an hour. They make for great conversation. You have to sit with great company Saha and you discuss the depths of reality. You don't I've never heard a person say, "I need a cigar as a fix." [laughter] That just never happens ever.

Uh so it doesn't really work in that way. But cigarettes now and cigarettes are very um there is also undeniably a refined class I think rightly so afforded to cigars there's something very refined about them whereas cigarettes are just like messy classless classless things but each to their own um writes

Allah. Amen to to Cuba, huh? Viva Kuba. Let me share a link. I How long have I been? I'll share a link and then let's see maybe a brief little chat and if anybody wants to jump on and then I'll wrap it up till um somebody's saying I don't know what

[gasps] right somebody [clears throat] right yeah a lengthy question I have answered it before look what makes you choose Islam over dism to me things like dism are a joke they don't really you know what it is they are they carry no substance I could go into it at great length but ah I would need a cigar and right now I just took so you know I went into the depths of explaining the unconscious and the conscious mind the imaginal realm the uh the bzark the

holographic uh simulation uh theory the imaginary order symbolic order how it ties in to you know dreams interpretation of dreams the meaning of dreams I mean I went in quite deep there I'm sure so let's let's have that for depth for today if I give too much then people nobody will understand anything [laughter] let's leave it to to that Um, hi hi hi.

Enjoying the Hi, hi my hi hi with my father. Hi. Look at that tala. A man of class. See? Hi. Hi. Hi. Sitting there enjoying coffee and his cigar. What more from the delights of this dunya people. Um, and I there was some super stickers that I missed.

Uh Allah keep you blessed. A very blessed Eid Mubarak to you. Zalah you'd asked a question. Um first time joining you live listening to you for a while. Cannot express my gratitude. Allah bless you my brother. Keep you always smiling. I really appreciate the love honestly. And you know really I mean what we find really in this world is that connection is everything.

You know the the bond that we form along the way. These other things are just you know sure we I guess we all kind of go through the dunya and its iterations but what really matters is kind of bond along the way.

So Allah keep you blessed. Enjoy that coffee. Enjoy the cigar. You see this is my case right here. Oh, these are absolutely amazing. I should be I mean, look, wait, unless they support me or sponsor me. I love these, by the way. El Gaucho. These are my par I keep this for my paraphernalia in the just absolutely awesome. Right, El Gaucho are um an absolute favorite of mine.

But we have here >> [snorts] >> uh right, oh, you know what? I have to bring on Tala there. Right. Tala, I see you've joined the Talahum. How are you? >> How are you? >> Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Uh just enjoying the park with uh I don't know if you can see that a coffee and a my father.

It's right at the nub. >> You know what you need is the the pin. I actually have come to one now. See, now I'm at a mam where a cigar truly only begins when about 30% of it is left. >> 100%. >> And and then the whoa, you are going to get catapulted into a realm. >> Yep. >> Where you are just deep pensive thought and that final part that you're on is just gold dust.

>> Yeah. >> This is so this is why the nub, you know, that that kind of pin becomes essential because it otherwise starts burning >> burning the fingers a little. Uh, a lot. Where are you? How is it sunlight? >> Oh, I'm in uh I'm in Toronto. >> So, it's about 6:45 p.m. right now. >> Wow. Yeah, because it's approaching midnight here. >> Oh, wow.

>> Yeah. So, I'm seeing the sunlight thinking, "Wow, that's beautiful." >> You know, there is something about enjoying the cigar coffee and having the sunlight there as well. Um, >> wow. You know in Canada we get very very nasty winters. So especially for the mood it's I find it very important to have that direct sunlight as well. Um, >> you know, there was there was one study that uh I mean the the studies show and this is for the people out there that they found that a person not that >> I tend to do that many but like a person who even smoked up to they said three

and in some cases four cigars a day were negligible >> to people who entirely didn't smoke. And but there was one interesting study uh [snorts] that doesn't get pushed around that much where they found people who smoked cigars actually lived longer than people who didn't smoke. And what they they now they they re they had to read that and think well so one of the interpretations they came up with is that it may not be the cigar but because it puts a person in such a relaxed state.

the relaxed states boost their immune system and their health. >> Yes. >> So it may be like an inverse. Uh so but there was a study where they found that the people who were smoking let's say a few like let's say definitely one a day but they were doing two three a day up to four that either it was negligible they appeared as somebody who didn't smoke or it was tiny and minuscule or they found in a study that actually those people lived longer than their non-smoking counterparts.

>> Yeah. And because that sounded so counterintuitive, they had to that made sense in the end that perhaps even if it's not the nicotine and it may be the nicotine because there's some studies showing people don't realize >> neutropic. Yeah. >> So much Yeah. It's part of the nightshade family and it's in potatoes, tomatoes, or jeans. In fact, the largest amount of nicotine beyond obviously smoking is in orans eggplants and then in and then in tomatoes.

Yeah, tomatoes. So, >> and then potatoes and and even in chilies. And nobody ever becomes addicted to uh you know tomatoes or to oene. Oberene has the most amount. Yeah. You never hear anybody saying I want my bing and where's my bing? [laughter] >> They go bingan bingan guy. I need benan. So, and it has high level. I mean, there's like a good intens. I mean, >> no, it's the highest just after cigarettes and stuff like that.

So, yeah, I thought I'd share that for people that may be thinking that but sorry, I was saying is in many ways actually taking care of his health. one [laughter] one hop and you know they make for great conversation. They do >> great. Like I sometimes I I would indulge upon occasion, but it's rare sometimes like maybe just on my own.

But really I there has to be company, you know, like I have to >> that's why I'm on the stream. [laughter] I found a virtual company. >> I should I I should have my humidors over there. I should have lit [laughter] one up the other would make everybody go mental. >> Crazy. >> Yeah. But >> yeah, so shukran for uh joining us. >> Well, I I had to right. It felt the it felt like the moment was set up for it soon as we started talking like can you see me somehow that he's speaking about this.

[laughter] >> I did connected. >> Ah, there we go. Allah >> I did have a a question. >> Sure. Um, so I I think we we've spoken in the past maybe a couple years ago and um, full disclosure at that time I was enjoying a cigar as well and uh, I felt embarrassed coming on your live stream as well. So I actually when you put me on I put it down and like hit it when I was talking to you.

>> At that time I don't think its benefits had dawned on me if it was good few years ago. >> Yeah, >> this took a while. >> Fair enough. But um >> so at that time we were talking about um you know I was leading the Jumbas and the salah in my local masid and all of these things and um we talked about topics and all of that. Recently I had somebody approach me and um they asked you know how do you make your woodoo?

So I told them I said you know generally I follow the uh and you know this is how I make my woodoo. And their point was that if you are leading in a diverse community [clears throat] where there are people from different mahib praying behind you, you need to make sure your woodoo andul is acceptable by all the mad that are of the people behind you.

Now I found that strange because I this was a person who maybe didn't know much about and I told him I said well you know the Malikis for example have in theul where you do the actual uh like the rubbing of of all the parts um like you know is that something you think every imam does that doesn't follow that mudhab or if somebody wipes over the socks and you know there's other people that believe that they don't wipe over the socks like how do to even enforce this, right?

Um, and it got me thinking about, you know, the reality of your Islam being true to your reality. Like, if you've made wudoo in the best way that you know to make it and you've, you know, you've done it the best way, then that is your reality acceptable in the eyes of Allah in front of that person and if the person behind you did it in a way that they felt there can be multiple realities that all lead to that same truth.

I just wanted to get your opinion on that. >> Yeah. No, I think >> it was a it was a it was a I guess a a surface level question that got me thinking a little more on the deeper um kind of uh I guess decentralization of of Islam, right? That different people could have different paths and they all lead the same way. It's just like the companions.

It got me thinking of uh when the companions you know some of them uh stopped and prayed and some of them didn't stop to pray and the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam said both of you are correct because you were both following to the closest that you could uh could understand right? >> Yeah. So it's a very good question and I was thinking about it recently. I think I was uh discussing with one of my you know like one of my patreons I do a one-to-one consultation with and so we ended up discussing this kind of theme it wasn't precisely

this woo question but this theme >> of uh and a good way to see this is Islam imagine it is this incredibly precious artifact or essence or entity and then it is housed, one could say protected or housed by this edifice, this building, this structure.

And over time, some people have become so immersed and solely concerned with the the bricks, the pillars, the mortar, the cement, >> the marble of the structure >> and thereby almost lost sight of the actual entity that the structure is simply there to preserve.

It's not or to house. It's not actually it was never about the you know that is essential because this couldn't be housed without it but it was that was there to house this and not the thing in itself. So Allah says that that the key matrix the key the litmus test for any act of ritual or worship or meaning to God is going to be the sincerity.

That is it. There is nothing beyond that. Allah says you the meats you sacrifice do not reach us. The the you know or it's blood you know the blood that you shed does not reach God it is the conscious God conscious devotion that reaches Allah now the ficky rulings on how we read something like I I read a verse you understand you you take a slightly different nuance on

it I take a different nuance on it. The dynamic nature of the Quran is to do that. Allow that because humans are dynamic. So now I say you know I for me to get bogged down with oh I must satisfy every single individual's conditions of and is now the you know the supreme is amazing to understand how to practice Islam and I love the aspect of learning the diversity learning the but beyond that let's not mistake That's God.

>> It [clears throat] is not like is not Allah. We are not worshiping. We are worshiping Allah. Now we will along the way disagree on our interpretation of things. Like you said in the hadith, some people chose to pray the salah and some people didn't and the time for salah went out. >> Yeah. >> That was their entire salah. That was their >> Yeah. >> of the the thing. And it wasn't diametrically opposed because one is saying we're not going to even pray it and this is in Bkari and the others prayed it.

And so the prophet said, you know, he never said either was wrong. He just said, look, when a person tries, Allah rewards them. And whether they get the interpretation right or wrong, they get it. They're always rewarded. And to some which in more later years I've inclined to there is not even a necessary wrong that every is always right. Uh now so no the answer is you don't need to be doing voodoo according satisfying every single mhab because then my question is why stop at the four?

Now they might say well oh >> no because these are the four that are praying behind you. Look, every person carries their own salah. >> Yeah. >> You know, every person is worshiping themselves like they're not and for themselves. You're not carrying the entirety of the and a good example of this is that to to avoid OCD level of thinking is the Quran allows for us >> to eat the meat from the people of the book.

Yeah. >> And let's momentarily zero in on Christians. So the Quran says that if a Christian, especially at that time when the Quran was revealed, >> Mhm. >> let's say, let's say a Muslim was traveling to Byzantine Rome and a Christian had made some chicken. >> Yeah. >> I don't think there were many chickens down in the Arabian Peninsula, but they were in Rome. So let's say they'd made some chicken or turkey or lamb or you know mutton beef they and they offered it to a Muslim.

The Quran teaches you can eat it if they were Christian. Let's say a sahhabi went now or a >> now keeping in mind let's say they cook this at home. The Christians according to their religion they can eat pork and they were eating pork >> in the time of the prophet. The Christians were they were mainly in Byzantine Rome. They did used to eat pork and this is why pork was then made haram for Muslims because other people were consuming pork.

It's not that they weren't and amongst them Christians were as well. Now the Jewish people don't but this is why I said let's zero in on Christians >> and the Christians were used to drink wine. They used to drink alcohol and they used to cook with alcohol sometimes. And because back then wine uh because like beverages, alcoholic beverages were less likely to be contaminated and toxic because uh water drinking water was sometimes contaminated.

So a lot so especially during the Roman time a lot more people would drink beer because if you watch the videos on it or the research the reason they drank more beer was because the water wasn't safe. So beer fermentation kills off the bacteria. >> Now that's a low level of ABV only you know a small level of alcohol but >> the the the cooking with wine and doing stuff the you know people have always done it.

Romans used to do it and in Byzantine Rome they would have still done stuff like this. So the question here this begs the question that if a Christian offered you some beef or mutton or chicken uh you decide to eat it. Let's say this Sahabi or member from the Salaf went the utensils the cooking pots the home in which that person has cooked this they are using the same things to cook pork they are using the same vessels for alcohol they are using the same in fact Immalik's and Imam Ahmed the reason they weren't so keen on people marrying women

from the book is because they used Immalik clearly said and Imam Ahmed that Immalik's response was she is allowed to have pork and wine in her house and you are not allowed to tell her not to have it. So he said so by doing this it's very likely your children will just grow up eating pork and drinking wine. So this is why which is really at odds with our culture today because we would think oh it is your right to assert dominance >> and even though you could suggest it but if she insisted she had a right this is what I imam Malik says.

So here coming back to the fick of OCD that you see you would imagine that the fick ought to dictate that wait a minute how can you eat from them they've cooked in the same pots it's not like they were using fury liquid to remove all the fat and you know like that got caught up in the pots and when they used to cook you could definitely assume some kind of fat stains would still stay in utensils you know we're talking 1 1200 years ago yeah in Byzantine Rome it's not going to be.

So yet the Quran says no, you can just eat and you don't need to question. >> Mhm. >> As long as they're not feeding you pork and the people of the book. So if a was traveling there, he could have just eaten. >> Yeah. So that is a great model to take back to kind of from that you um kind of induce this uh and and other teachings this principle of saying well we don't need >> this level of and kind of OCD behavior.

>> Yeah. >> Yeah. Because the dean is really one of ease. And this is how the and there's a great uh hadith in the uh m of IM Malik that ties to this and then we'll wrap this that im uh IM Malik transmits from Omar that he was traveling with a group of companions and they came and they were thirsty and they came across I mean they weren't dying thirsty but they were just >> they came across a pond a a you know slightly I mean it was yeah

just a pond like but it had enough water so the companions went and they started kind of you know just refreshing themselves washing their face washing and others started to from this pond they started to fill some water because the water looked clear it didn't look dirty so they just started to you know and the owner is just walking by so and that's fine you know in the past they had no objection if you just from and stuff.

So one of the companions suddenly gets this intrusive thought and he says he says you know he calls he says uh he says excuse me you because the owner he says the owner of this he says do predatory animals who often go hunting and like you know vicious wild do they come and drink from this pond?

Because the pond water is stagnant. It's not going anywhere. So it's not being cleaned. >> Mhm. >> So like now think about it. In Islam, a dead animal, a carcass if it's already dead is impure. Like in in the Maliki, all life is always pure and death becomes impure because life is no longer there. So no animal whilst it's alive is ever impure according to the school of Medina >> and Immalik and the Salaf who lived in Medina.

So you know even a dog or pig or anything is not impure. It is just haram to eat the pig that's all. It's not haram to touch it. Uh this is what I imam Malik and the whole school of Medina understood that life always makes everything pure. But a dead animal like let's say a roadkill or anything is impure. >> So you could get dead animals and then you'll get predatory siba like any kind like you might have had some uh wild cats.

You might have had other kind of like animals that that were very predatory. You had hyenas >> around [clears throat] those areas as well. Let's say they've picked up a dead carcass and they're chewing it and what now they've got all the blood and thing on their mouth. >> Now let's say they've gone to drink water from this hold. Now that impure blood would then mix into this pond.

So, let's say, for example, a hyena or any of these animals has been uh natural. They've all been urinating and everything everywhere, but they let's say they've still got some filth on them. Like, let's say when these animals clean, you know, they take a leak or they take a dump, they let's say not all of the extremities are removed, >> right? >> Now, let's say they've gone into this pond. >> Mhm. [clears throat] So that drops of urine or a bit of whatever it is fecal matter may have >> right >> may have.

Now this is a question that we don't know the answer to. >> Do they come here or not? Is this so he he and he uses the word. Is this visited now? Yes. When an animal visits like it obviously is to drink but sometimes it's to cool off. It goes in, it comes off and comes out and all the dirt.

>> Now before he could answer >> apprehends the situation and Im Malik, this amazing hadith he brings in the he says before he could answer he says >> do not answer that question. And then im then said answers

says we go where animals go. Animals go where humans go. Do not give us the specific to that thereby contaminating our thought process >> of intrusive thoughts. As far as this water is clear, looks clean, >> smells reasonably clean, tastes reasonably clean, those are the three principles according to the school of Medina, water is always pure, >> right?

>> So long as it looks clean, tastes clean, smells clean, >> right? >> Relatively speaking, I know some water can be salty, can have that taste, that's fine. Any natural taste that water has is fine. Obviously if it tastes total chemically or something then that's off but >> and this water looked clean. Now this is a principle to take away for our lives that Omar is teaching us he's teaching the companions around him that are with him and then this is being transmitted in Medina and Im Malik is teaching us this through his ma.

So I would say that is a beautiful uh principle to take away. I hope that's of some help. Also, I just wanted to make a little footnote there and I will wrap this up on intrusive thoughts. By the way, I mean, I'll circle back to that in a moment about my sessions if people want to onetoone on that. But I was going to just make a quick point on Dulk because you mentioned it in Malik which really means you know Dulk means like contact and kind of like a wiping over >> right >> now.

I feel that uh and there are some Malika in the past and I've cited it in my Risalah course as well who do disagree with this being a condition and I disagree with this. You see to me this is a description not a condition. So like what we're looking at is what's happened is Imam Malik was asked a question and he was asked many questions but you see and it's a linguistic I mean it ties into a linguistic zone that when we wash ourselves for wood like let's say I'm washing my face now for voodoo so I

get water and I go like this >> naturally. Yeah. >> Yeah. Now, what if water was being poured down like let's say some pipe or a roof and I kind of stood under the thing and I just wet my face. >> Mhm. [clears throat] >> Now, in both occasions, water has come all over my face.

Or I could say the same thing with my hands. is does this satisfy that element of doing voodoo >> right >> so and another example is Imam Malik is asked in the mud as somebody is sitting let's say riverside and they're sitting on the on the kind of bank river bank and they've got their feet dangling in the water >> right >> so let's say they kick their feet in the water they're fully submerged now they get up like let's say they did They start to do voodoo but they don't wash the feet.

Their feet are already in the water. Like let's say I'm sitting down in the river and then I just do this with my with my feet now and I get up from the is that does that satisfy washing the feet? M >> so what I Malik points to and highlights this that there is a linguistic variation between the word and >> so is to submerge in Arabic

is to wash. >> Now he even in English to submerge and to wash. So what is the understanding you pick up when I say he washed it? >> You have an understanding that he's kind of washing it with his hands. >> Yeah. >> And it doesn't have to be rubbing like rubbing like I could wash the but it's almost like a you are using the hands to wash it like I'm washing dishes, >> right?

uh that that the main image is even if not every dish I wiped my hand over but I'm using my hands dominantly in the most process it is descriptive so I im Malik highlights and shows this there is a distinction between the verb and >> and when we Allah says he didn't say >> so we so we wipe over because you use the hands Now some said, "Yeah, well the wiping over they use the word dulk in Arabic, a kind of wiping over to distinguish it from mas,

which is like a dry wiping." >> Yeah. >> And then some became very OCD with this dulk. Like, oh wait, you got to rub. Now, what does rub mean? Rub means with a certain amount of force. And rub means like I'm forcing like this. And does it mean I drop every every kind of minuscule millimeter of skin needs to be touched by? And I feel this is the same challenge that we've been discussing, >> right?

>> That they confused what is housing the essence, >> right? >> And they got preoccupied with this shell rather than the actual essence of it. >> And so just to touch up on that that Dulk is not in that sense mandatory. It is just a description >> of how we wash, >> right?

>> It is a linguistic subtext understood in washing. And even if that means in some things it wasn't used, but dominantly throughout the entire act, it usually will be. >> Yeah. >> Hands will naturally be involved. So yeah, so that's the um I hope that's of some help. Shukran quite an engaging uh amazing dialogue.

See >> bless you. Shukran likewise >> most of the time I'll let you get back to that [laughter] relaxation that you're at. Allah bless you and speak >> people that was taha Allah Allah who had joined us from Canada. Oh, I forgot what part of Canada. Did he say Ontario or But from Canada nonetheless enjoying the blessed sunshine and just some quality you could say me time there going on.

Allah keep him smiling. Allah keep all of you smiling and blessed and positive. uh Toronto he said. Yep. Shukran from Toronto and uh this was a very important discussion on OCD waswasa intrusive thoughts and how to really navigate through that. Um those of you struggling and do want a more personable and a more um just tailored to you specifically discussion and to help navigate through these challenges of life.

They could be other challenges as well. You're more than welcome. You can go to patreon.commal and it's tier two. You can book a one-to-one, it's an hourly consultation. Uh, and it does allow you, it does have a cost to it, which is averageages around £100. Um, it does allow you to have access also to the Discord. There is just there is a lower tier that just gives you access to the discord as well, but that enables the monthly one-on-one which can just be a one-off event or it can be recurring as uh many of the other

people that do that do that. And that's a great way I have kind of termed it a mentorship program because really it's like mentoring an individual through growth. Um they circle back once a month to you. They've during the month been reflecting, thinking challenges, uh, and really just unpacking that in a dialogical dialectic, a in a discourse, a dialectical, um, dialogue where we are packing, unpacking to and fro and allowing the growth to take place and navigate.

I think it's a for whoever needs it. It's a definitely a beautiful opportunity one for me as well to engage with you. Right. Other than that and yeah, you know, it's always uh helpful. It helps helps with my cigar habit. [laughter] I'm joking. That's not where it's going. All the funds. But but sure, you know, it helps with the delicacy of high high.

But the realizations that have come to me during cigars honestly some of my thoughts and the new landscapes that I have traversed in that dialectic in that sba is something else but people um if you're new to the channel do like do subscribe uh you can connect with me on Instagram follow me there you can I do answer very brief questions there you got to excuse me I'm not going to really go into much detail You're always more than welcome to search my YouTube uh or you can join the discord.

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I tell you even it's hidden in plain sight. Smiling is healing. We need to heal as people. Smiling is healing. Allah bless you.