Depression & Worry Prevents Gratitude _ Shaykh Hamza Yusuf
ALLAH IS ONE
Category
๐ ๏ธ
LifestyleTranscript
00:00One of the worst things about modern times is ingratitude is cultivated in people.
00:05They're ungrateful for the police, they're ungrateful for government, they're ungrateful
00:11for their educations, they're ungrateful for everything.
00:16People just complain all the time.
00:18And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
00:20ููุชูุฃูุฐููููุง ุฑูุจููููู
ู ููุฆููู ุดูููุฑูุชูู
ู ููุฃูุฒููุฏููููููู
ู ููููุฆููู ููููุฑูุชูู
ู
00:25ุฅูููู ุนูุฐูุงุจูู ููุดูุฏููุฏู
00:27Your Lord has declared, if you're grateful, I will increase you in blessings to be grateful for.
00:34But if you are an ingrate, if you lack gratitude, in fact if you show ingratitude,
00:40I will give you more reasons to be ungrateful.
00:43I will give you more reasons to be ungrateful.
00:45This is a metaphysical equation.
00:48Gratitude equals increase in blessings.
00:52Ingratitude equals decrease in blessings.
00:56This is a law.
00:58It's a metaphysical law that's as true as the Newtonian physics that you learned in high school.
01:04If you're ungrateful, then Allah will give you more to be ungrateful about, more to whine about.
01:10You think it's bad now?
01:12You have no idea how bad it can get.
01:15Read history to know how bad it can get.
01:17You think Syria is bad?
01:19Read about the Mongol invasion.
01:22They didn't have any place to flee to.
01:26You think the Muslims are having tribulation in America?
01:30Read about Nazi Germany and what happened to the Jews.
01:35We have to be grateful because if we're ungrateful and always complaining,
01:39Allah is going to give you more to complain about.
01:41I was in one of the Gulf states and somebody was complaining about the price of gasoline.
01:46The taxi driver, 25 cents at the time.
01:51Now it's a lot higher. Why?
01:53Because they keep complaining.
01:55Go ahead, complain all you want.
01:59Because if you love to complain, Allah will give you plenty to complain about.
02:04But if you want to show gratitude, Allah will give you plenty to show gratitude about.
02:09They did a study at Davis.
02:11It's called the Gratitude Study for Depressed People.
02:14They had them write down every day, every morning, 10 things they were grateful for.
02:18Over a period of a month, people's depression started being lifted.
02:23ููุฅูู ุชูุนูุฏูููุง ููุนูู
ูุฉู ุงูููููู ููุง ุชูุญูุตููููุง
02:25If you start counting the blessings of Allah, you'll never come to an end.
02:29And you can count blessings like just eyelashes.
02:31People don't have eyelashes. They fall out.
02:35Eyelashes are a wonderful blessing.
02:38Or some people have dry eyes.
02:40So if you have moisture in your eyes, what a blessing.
02:43If you have teeth, what a blessing.
02:45If you don't have teeth, if you have dentures, what a blessing.
02:49There are people that don't have dentures.
02:51If you lose one arm, what a blessing.
02:53You didn't lose both arms.
02:54If you lose both arms, what a blessing.
02:56Now they have prosthetic devices that enable you to do things.
03:00Ibn Abbas said, in every tribulation in dunya, there are three blessings hidden that you have to recognize.
03:06The first is that it could have been worse.
03:11The second is that it's in your dunya and not in your deen.
03:17And the third, in your worldly affairs and not in your religious affairs.
03:20And the third, it's in this world and not in the next.
03:24And you should be grateful for that.
03:26People now are complaining.
03:28Allah said,
03:32He's going to try you to see who of you are the best in actions.
03:37We're going to try you.
03:41You will be tried in your wealth and in your lives.
03:51Allah told us, you're going to hear all these people telling how horrible you are and how terrible your religion is.
03:56Allah said that.
03:57What does he say? How's our response? What's our response?
04:01And if you show patience,
04:04And show piety, restraint, control yourselves.
04:11Because that is at the essence of this matter.
04:14That is at the essence of this matter.
04:16This is our deen.
04:18Allah said,
04:40Allah strikes a similitude for you to think.
04:43A similitude.
04:44Allah strikes a similitude for you to reflect.
04:49A township, a city, a hamlet.
04:52That was peaceful.
04:55It was tranquil.
04:58It had provision in abundance coming from every place.
05:01Like we have today.
05:02We eat berries from Chile.
05:06And we drink tea from China.
05:09And we have rice from India.
05:11Basmati rice in your homes from India.
05:15You get all this blessing from all over the world.
05:19So what did they do?
05:20Instead of saying,
05:27They were ungrateful.
05:29This is the meaning of kufr.
05:30Kufr is ingratitude.
05:32You can be a Muslim and be a kafir in the meaning that you're ingrate.
05:37Right?
05:39This ingratitude.
05:41That's the essence of kufr.
05:42The essence of Islam is gratitude.
05:44Shukr.
05:45A feeling of blessing that Allah has given.
05:48The biggest blessing is that we exist.
05:55The blessing of giving us our existence and then sustaining our existence.
05:59He could take away that sustenance at any time.
06:02So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that he enveloped that city in hunger.
06:08Look, of the blessing of food.
06:10In hunger and terror.
06:13Hunger and terror.
06:16Why?
06:19What's the cause?
06:20Because of their ungratefulness.
06:23And this is what we've lost an understanding of our religion.
06:27We look at all these events and we don't see the real source of these events.
06:31Ingratitude.
06:33If we want to change the world,
06:35we have to change our state and our attitude about all these blessings that we've been given.
06:40Government is a blessing.
06:41Even the worst form of government is better than anarchy.
06:46Even a tyranny is better.
06:47This Malik ibn Anas said this.
06:49These weren't ignorant people.
06:50These were genius people.
06:52Because he lived through civil wars.
06:54He saw what happens when things break down.
06:57The people of Damascus, six years ago, were eating beautiful food.
07:03They had good clothes.
07:04It was one of the few countries on the planet that was actually self-sustained.
07:08And now, all of this tribulation.
07:13And if you say, you know, why is it happening to them and not us?
07:17Maybe because Allah loves them more.
07:19Because we know Ahl al-Sham have a maqam.
07:23So Allah will put all of the torment of the akhira.
07:29He'll put it in the dunya for a short period.
07:31And then they go back to Allah completely free of any tribulation or punishment.
07:36Maybe it's the places that aren't being afflicted, that deserve to be afflicted, that should be worried.
07:42This is the way Muslims traditionally looked at things.
07:44When the maghul came down, when the Mongols came down,
07:47they didn't say, these evil Mongols.
07:50They said,
07:53This is a punishment God has sent to us because of our wrong actions.
07:56That's how they looked at it.
07:57Muslims don't look at that anymore.
07:59Evil America, evil Israel, evil.
08:02Okay, good.
08:06Allah put them in power.
08:08He says he gives power to whomever he pleases.
08:10Muslim had it.
08:11If Muslims had nuclear weapons right now with the idiots that we have,
08:17we would have nuclear conflagrations all over.
08:19Allah knows what he's doing.
08:22Allah knows who he gives power to.
08:24Yes, they abuse their power, but to what degree?
08:27Who would be worse?
08:30People want the destruction of America?
08:33Well, let's see what happens when China gets the world power.
08:37See if there's going to be an Abu Ghraib that you hear about.
08:41See if there's going to be any way, recourse to redressing any wrongs.
08:45Allah knows, I don't know.
08:49But sometimes the worst things are answered prayers.
08:56We don't know.
08:59It's a different way of looking at the world.
09:01People don't want to look at it that way, but I read the Quran,
09:04and the Quran, it comes back to me.
09:10Where did this calamity come from?
09:12Allah says,
09:15It's from your own selves.
09:18It didn't say, oh, it's from those evil Quraysh.
09:22Those evil Quraysh.
09:24No, Allah wanted the Quraysh to become Muslim.
09:29What do you say about me?
09:32My dear brother, my dear son.
09:35You're a noble son of a noble.
09:40You're free today, I forgive you.
09:42He said what?
09:44He said what Yusuf said to his brothers who threw him in a well,
09:48and left him to die.
09:53Because that's the state of believers.
09:56When they get angry, yes, we get angry.
09:59But they realize, what am I really getting angry at?
10:04At a test that God sent me?
10:07Who am I really angry at?
10:09See, you can be humanly angry,
10:11but who are you really angry about?
10:13If everything is a test from Allah,
10:15then who are you really angry at?
10:18That's a question.
10:20Allah said,
10:26These are days of shukr.
10:32You have two joys.
10:38He has a joy when he completes,
10:40he breaks his fast because he's completed the ibadah,
10:43and then the light of the food,
10:45most of the big ulema said,
10:49it's completing, that's the farha, it's not the food.
10:52It's actually finishing the ibadah.
10:55High maqam.
10:56Allah says,
11:02The Prophet was shukur, but he told us to be shakir.
11:05One of the arifeen said,
11:13So, that's a high maqam,
11:16it's where you're always grateful.
11:25This is what all the ulema taught,
11:28and Muhammad al-Musawi said,
11:32is the meaning of shukr, real shukr.
11:35Shukr is to utilize what God has given you.
11:40To utilize what he's given you out of gratitude.
11:43He gave you an eye to see,
11:45not to look at pornography.
11:48He gave you a tongue to speak the truth,
11:51not to lie, not to cheat,
11:53not to backbite.
11:54He gave you a hand to work,
11:56and not to steal, or to embezzle,
12:00or to take things that aren't yours.
12:02He gave you feet to walk in righteousness.
12:08The servants of the merciful,
12:10who walk, tread lightly on the earth.
12:13You know, they talk about carbon footprints now.
12:15Carbon footprints.
12:17Ibadur Rahman don't have a carbon footprint.
12:21They tread lightly on the earth.
12:26Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
12:34We revealed this book on Laylatul Qadr,
12:37and what will convey to you what Laylatul Qadr is?
12:42It's better than 83 months of worship.
12:45The Prophet was,
12:47because he was so covetous about solicitous for his ummah,
12:51he was concerned that his ummah would not have a lot of rewards,
12:54when he knew that the ancients had much longer lifespans.
12:57So, this is,
13:02This is a specific gift to this ummah,
13:05that they have a night that is worth months of ibadah.
13:10And so in a lifetime,
13:12you can literally get years added on to your ibadah.
13:16This is a great gift from Allah.
13:18And this is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
13:21the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
13:31Whoever stands doing extra acts,
13:34tahajjud and the taraweeh,
13:37stands doing extra acts,
13:39he has his sins forgiven of what passed.
13:47And whoever fasts the month of Ramadan,
13:54believing in Allah and believing that the reward is from Allah.
14:02Fasting is my own and I reward it myself.
14:05That's what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says.
14:11In the hadith sahih,
14:17ุบูุฑ ุงููู ูู ู
ุง ุชูุฏู
ู
ู ุฐูุจู ูู
ุง ุชุฃุฎุฑ.
14:21Or, as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
14:23Whoever stands on Laylatul Qadr,
14:25in belief and expecting a reward from Allah,
14:28he will have his sins forgiven.
14:30The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
14:32in the hadith,
14:42That your prayers, each day you pray,
14:47as long as he avoids major wrong actions.
14:52The prayer, the five prayers that you do,
14:55and then Jum'ah to Jum'ah, praying from Jum'ah to Jum'ah,
14:58Friday prayer to Friday prayer,
15:00and then Ramadan to Ramadan.
15:04These will remove your sins.
15:07They will remove your sins,
15:09as long as you avoid major wrong actions.
15:11That needs a specific type of tawbah.
15:13ุตุบุงุฆุฑ get removed from wudu, from prayer,
15:16from fasting, from Jum'ah, all these things.
15:18But the major wrong actions,
15:20and the ulema differ on them,
15:22but the major ones are well-known.
15:24ู
ุนููู
ุฉ ุฏูู ุทุฑูุฑุฉ, drinking, stealing, cheating, lying,
15:29fornication, adultery, all those things
15:31that Allah has declared foul, fahsha.
15:35So, this Ramadan is a great gift of this ummah.
15:38It's a time of special gratitude.
15:41One of the hallmarks of gratitude
15:43is that you share your blessings with others.
15:46You share your blessings with others.
15:49ูุงู ุฑุณูู ุงููู ุตูู ุงููู ุนููู ูุณูู
15:51ุฃุฌูุฏ ุงููุงุณ ูุฃุฌูุฏ ู
ุง ูููู ูู ุดูุฑ ุฑู
ุถุงู
15:58ูุงู ุฃุฌูุฏ ู
ู ุฑูุญ ุงูู
ุฑุณูุฉ
16:01The Prophet ุตูู ุงููู ุนููู ูุณูู
16:03was the most generous of men, always.
16:06But he was even more generous in Ramadan.
16:09In Ramadan, why?
16:11ุฒูุงุฏุฉ ุงูุดูุฑ
16:13The sense of blessing.
16:16The gift.
16:18It's a great gift.
16:19ุฃููู ูููู ูุฐุง ุฃุณุชุบูุฑ ุงููู ูููุฑูู
ุฑุณุงุฆู ุงูู
ุณูู
ูู