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Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

By: Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center
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 We came to give, not to take. Islam Spirituality
Episodes
  • Be a slave – 7

    Be a slave – 7
    Jan 31 2026
    Auto-generated transcript:Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wassalatu wassalamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kathiran kathira. Fammabadu, my brothers and sisters. We hear this ayat in every Jummah khutbah where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said Ya ayyuha alladhina amanu ttaqullaha haqqa tuqatih wa la tamutunna illa wa antum muslimun. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said which means O you who believe, have taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as it is His right. Haqqa tuqatih. Wa la tamutunna illa wa antum muslimun. And do not die except in a state of Islam. So have taqwa. Taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Haqqa tuqatih. Not any way be like. As it is His right. Jalla shanu. Wa la tamutunna illa wa antum muslimun. And do not die except in a state of Islam. Now as we know, any ayat in the Quran which begins with Ya ayyuha alladhina amanu is an ayah of hukum. It is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's command. And therefore, it is the duty, it is the essence, it is the purpose, it is the sign of being an abd of Allah, of being a slave of Allah, that we obey Allah. The first point. Second point, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying, Ittaqullaha haqqa tuqatih. Have taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as it is His right. Now, we must understand the meaning of taqwa. Taqwa is to fear, to displease the one we love the most. Usually it is translated as fear of Allah. Fear Allah as it is His right to be feared. Fear is a negative emotion. You don't love the things you fear. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. spiders. You fear them. You don't like spiders. People fear snakes, except me and Ibrahim. So people who fear snakes, they don't love snakes. Right? But with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, the fear that we are talking about is not a fear like this, which is you want to run away from them. I don't want to see this person. Children, some children fear their teachers. So you ask the child, do you love this teacher? No, I don't love you. Do you obey the teacher? Yes. Why? Because the teacher will, if I don't obey the teacher, the teacher will punish me. But that obedience is coming out of fear. The problem of obedience which comes out of fear is that the minute the fear is not there, there will be disobedience. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. and may Allah include us among those who He called the believers. Allah said, Allah said, But the believers are those who love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Not just any love. Ashad. Ashad is the superlative form of shadid. Intiha'i. Ultimate. Extreme. Ashad hubba lillah. Their love for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is supreme. They love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala more than they love anyone or anything else. So what is the sign of the believer? That he or she loves Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala more than anyone or anything else. Now, the combination of these two things. The combination of fear, which is khatib, khashiyah, and in some cases khawf, and the hubb of Allah. When you combine these two, then you have what is called taqwa. Taqwa is a very unique concept in the Quran, which talks about something which is very, very, very peculiar and particular to the believer, the true believer of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Because fear as in khawf, no one Oh no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no fear Allah, then if he fears Allah, then why is he disobeying Allah SWT? So just this fear by itself doesn't work. We fear Allah SWT, we are in awe of Allah SWT because of who Allah is, because we understand Allah SWT. We say this is my Rabb Jalal Jalal. When you understand the power and glory and majesty of Allah SWT, it produces a quality in the heart which is called khashiah. It's a different term, qauf. Khashiatullah. Oh no. the greatest khashiyah is an alim, is a true alim. He's not someone who just memorized the Quran or hadith and ulum al-shari'ah and fiqh and so on. No. If that is coming without...
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  • Perspective defines reality

    Perspective defines reality
    Jan 30 2026
    https://youtu.be/H6-JI6ot5_8 Auto-generated transcript: Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wa salatu wassalamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kassiran kassiran. Fama baadu. My brothers and sisters, I'm sitting here in Tadowa National Park, Tiger Reserve. Yesterday we went out in the evening, in the afternoon for a safari. Beautiful. Saw some very good sightings of a young juvenile tiger, one of three cubs, who seems to have got separated from his mother, but he is capable of looking after himself, wandering around on his own beautiful sight. And today then, it's about 4.30 a.m. And in front of me is this bamboo thicket. And beyond this is the fence, and then there's the Tadowa National Park starts there. So we are right at the boundary of the park. There's this resort called Sosara, which is, our experience of it since yesterday is very positive. Seems to be a very nice resort, nice people, nice food. And so on and so forth. So it's, that's what the resort looks like. I remind myself anew that I'm sitting here. I just heard the alarm call of Cheetal, spotted deer. If you go on YouTube and type alarm call of spotted deer, you can listen to that. People have done some nice recordings. So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, The thing that I remind myself anew is for me sitting here in location. Everything seems so beautiful and peaceful. I'm hearing an owl just now. Sounds like a big barn owl. It seems so beautiful, peaceful. The alarm call of the chital, I hear it with anticipation that this means that a tiger is on the move and the chital are sounding their calls. I remind myself and you however that the reality is very different. The reality depends on who is looking at it. And in this case, it is I who is looking at the reality from my perspective. And my perspective is that of a tourist who is safely ensconced in his resort and who is going to in the next hour or so be up in a safari vehicle looking for tigers, looking for leopards, trying to get some nice photographs and so on. But the same reality, exactly the same reality of whatever is happening there from the perspective of the tiger. The tiger is different. The tiger is not interested in me. And I must say that's a jolly good thing. The tiger is interested in his meal. And his meal is the chital, is the spotted deer which sounded the alarm call. And anything else which moves, any form of protein on four or three or two legs. And that's a different reality. And then there's a third reality from another perspective. Now the reality itself, which is the data, is the same. There's a forest, there is a tiger, there's a spotted deer, there's a man and so on and so forth. What changes that reality is the perspective from which it comes. And the perspective of the spotted deer is that of danger, of lethal danger. Especially at this time where it's dark. Spotted deer are blind in the dark. They can't see. But the tiger is very much aware. The tiger can see as clearly in the dark as we see in daylight. One of the guides here, one of the naturalists here was telling me yesterday and I've seen this myself, is the behavior of tigers. And this is true of all predators, whether it's lions, birds, leopards. Their behavior changes dramatically between the day and the night. The same animal you see in the day, he's calm, he's almost to the point of being lethargic. In the summer you see tigers sitting in water. Tigers love water unlike most cats. Leopards don't like water. Jaguars, of course, in South America, you see them jumping in and out to the rivers. But normally leopards don't and jaguars are not leopards, they're jaguars. Leopards don't like water. Lions don't like water. But tigers, they love water. And you see them sitting in the water in the summer. Literally half in, half out. Partially submerged. Cooling off because summer here is extremely, extremely hot. So you see them sitting in the water. Very lethargic, sleeving. They won't move. Especially in places like this where they're used to safari vehicles and people and so on. You find them walking around between. It's like a bad joke sometimes. You see why? You know, 10, 15 gypsy vehicles, jeeps, crowded, almost blocking the path and the tiger sort of threading his way between the vehicles, completely ignoring the chattering of the monkeys who are in the vehicles. Amazing. It's to see how kahaam and so on. The same animal. If you go on a night safari sometimes, if you're going in, I've had the opportunity, of literally walking in the forest in the night, in moonlight. I never used spotlights or torches even because it disturbs the whole environment, takes away your night sight. So just moonlight. I used to walk, me and my good friend, Shivaya. And if you see tigers in that situation where you are in the dark, the ...
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    13 mins
  • Be a slave – 6

    Be a slave – 6
    Jan 29 2026
    Auto-generated transcript:Alhamdulillah I feel that the world is against me. I'm not saying you should say that. I'm saying that there are times when you feel this, that somehow the world is against you. And as I said, you would have evidence for that. You would have proof for that. People showing hostility to you for no reason other than that you are Muslim because people who show hostility to you are strangers. They don't know you at all. And yet, instead of showing friendship, they show hostility. Now, solution is, therefore we need to find a solution. What's the solution? How do we deal with this situation where we live in a world which is apparently hostile to us? Now, Allah SWT showed us and gave us this solution in the Quran. Where Allah SWT said, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَحِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ Allah SWT said, O you who believe, seek help, seek assistance, seek help from sabr and salah. From patience, from fortitude, and from prayer, from salah. So salah is, and Allah said, verily Allah is with those who have patience, who have sabr. Now, as I mentioned many times before, sabr relates to doing everything in your power, to achieve your goals. Sabr refers to determination. It refers to consistent action. It refers to doing whatever is necessary to achieve your goal. Not just to sit and wait for things to happen, calling it patience. This is not patience. This is just laziness. Patience means to make the maximum effort you can in order to succeed. And then, was salah. Allah SWT put salah after that. He said, and salah. And salah because we remind ourselves that success will come from the amor of Allah. Will come from the hukum of Allah. From the order of Allah. Success will not come from simply our effort by itself. The, this, this thought and this understanding that success comes from Allah. Is tawakkul. And this tawakkul is the tawheed of the heart. Tawakkul is the monotheistic belief of the heart. Tawakkul is to completely and totally rely on Allah SWT after making all the effort that is required. After using all the faculties that Allah has given us. After using all the resources that Allah has given us. We then turn towards Allah SWT in complete and total submission. And we say, Ya Rabb, I have done what I have been doing. whatever I could do, and I leave this matter now in your hands, give me success. Help me against the forces that are reigned against me. Help me against whatever difficulty is in my path. Remove the difficulty because for you, there is no such thing as difficulty. So this is something which we seem to lose track of. Now, therefore, today in this world, if you look at it and say, well, Muslims are in so much of difficulty everywhere. There is hostility against them. As I said, varying degrees. In some cases, it is an holistic. In other cases, it is less. But there is by and large, the seems to be hostile people, hostile forces. Therefore, since the solution is given in the Quran, which is, we should be seeing Muslims. Who are hugely focused on their goals. People who are using their resources, using their knowledge, using their strengths, abilities, influence in the right way. And who are united, whoever you need, whoever you are united in their focus, who are united on the. Success of their mission and who are who have turned to Allah . So Muslims who have, you know, cleaned up their act, who are out of Haram, who are not doing anything which attracts the anger of Allah instead of Allah's part of the pleasure, something with they're not doing anything which. Which attracts the enmity of Allah instead of the will of Allah . Protection of Allah. Allah. And who are people who are standing in the night in the hajj. People who are who are protecting and safeguarding their fardh Salat, which is the most important thing that we have. Therefore, all this must happen now, if we've given this framework that there is hostility and the solution for hostility is Sabar and Salah. And therefore, I must therefore be seeing or should. Expect to see signs of Sabar and Salah in the Muslim population. What do you think we're going to see? Now, that's my point. The point is that, yes, we should be seeing these things. But do you think we are seeing it? If you look around ourselves, are we seeing Muslims who are united Muslims who are focused on on a single goal that is beneficial for the entire community and the entire world because we are in this world to help everybody else and therefore our goals are not separate from the. Goals of the good people of this world. Right. Muslims who are dedicated to Allah who are, you know, who are focused on Allah who are submitted to Allah. Are we seeing this? And if you are not seeing this, then we need to ask this question and say, what is what is wrong? So do we really believe in the Quran? Al-Kareem, do we really...
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    Less than 1 minute
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