The one who remembers Allah versus, “one of the swearers.”

We were stopped at a traffic light, and all of a sudden, we got struck in the rear by another vehicle. 

There was a sudden moment of panic between me and the other brother next to me, and there were 2 different reactions to this accident.

One person said a form of dhikr, either "La Ilaha Il Allah!" or "Allahu Akbar!" (I can't remember which one.)

and the other person said, "Mother f***ker!"

My goal here is not to boast or anything, but I was the one who said a form of dhikr, and the person next to me was the one swearing. If this had happened back when I was a lot younger though, I would also have been, "one of the swearers."

Imagine being known as, "one of the swearers."

What if we had died that day? One of us would have ended with the dhikr of Allah, and the other one would have ended his life with an expletive. 

Subhan Allah!

The question we have to ask ourselves is, what will we say on our death bed?

It is easy to say that I will say the shahadah on my death bed, but what guarantee do you have that you will die a slow death in a hospital bed, where you know the end is near?

How do you know that you won't just go suddenly in an accident, just like so many people have gone?

The irony of this whole situation is that we were actually on our way back home after a funeral burial!

Not only that, but the person who passed away was a close relative of mine, who died unexpectedly in his own home. 

Once again, Subhan Allah!

We have the blessing of always remembering Allah throughout our day, and we don't need to be in the state of wudhu to remember Him. You can say all the dhikr you want, at anytime!

Keep your tongue moist with the dhikr of Allah, and get rid of the filth that you have been saying. 

The sooner you start, the better you will become at remembering Allah.

Think about it, when you restrain your tongue, that action in and of itself is a remembrance of Allah! You're doing it so you don't displease Him and accumulate sins.

Remember, it takes years to condition yourself to say dhikr at moments of sudden hardship and pain.

It will not happen overnight! I am talking from experience. 

Just like the questions in the grave. We all know the answers, but our actions and our level of faith will determine whether or not we can actually answer those questions when we are 6 feet under. 

Saying dhikr at times of difficulty and at times of ease is a Sunnah, and it is an easy one that we can implement in our lives. 

Imagine dying while swearing, acquiring a sin and displeasing Allah at your last moment.

Audhubillah..

Now imagine the opposite, where you die remembering Allah as your last words. You will die doing a Sunnah and remembering Alllah at the same time!

Allahu Akbar!

The choice is yours, and it is up to you to work on yourself so you can have a good ending to your life. 

The more you strive towards Allah, the more you will remember Allah, the more dhikr you will do, and when life hits you with a ton of bricks (or with the front end of a car!), then in sha Allah, you will be conditioned to praise Allah instead of displeasing Allah.

Remember what the Prophet (peace be upon him) said about the consequences of the tongue:

"O Messenger of Allah! Shall we really be accounted for what we talk about?" He replied, "May your mother lose you O Muadh! People will be thrown on their faces into Hell on account of their tongues."

Sunan Ibn Majah, 3973

At the same time, the tongue can lead you to Paradise: 

It was narrated that Mu’aadh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) say,: “If a person’s last words are Laa ilaaha ill-Allah, Paradise will be guaranteed for him.”

Narrated by Ahmad, 21529

May Allah allow all of us to have a good ending to our lives, Ameen.

With the power of A.I. how can you verify your loved ones are alive?

Sarah Jeong from The Verge:

The persistent cry of “Fake News!” from Trumpist quarters presaged the beginning of this era of unmitigated bullshit, in which the impact of the truth will be deadened by the firehose of lies. The next Abu Ghraib will be buried under a sea of AI-generated war crime snuff. The next George Floyd will go unnoticed and unvindicated….

We briefly lived in an era in which the photograph was a shortcut to reality, to knowing things, to having a smoking gun. It was an extraordinarily useful tool for navigating the world around us. We are now leaping headfirst into a future in which reality is simply less knowable. The lost Library of Alexandria could have fit onto the microSD card in my Nintendo Switch, and yet the cutting edge of technology is a handheld telephone that spews lies as a fun little bonus feature. 

Having AI to alter photos is great for when you take a family photo so you can remove some inappropriately dressed people in the background.

Like all new technologies though, the most obvious danger that Sarah alludes to is using AI to start new wars, cause mass distrust from people, and just the overall mass speculation of society about anything.

Who can you trust, when any image can be created and altered to your narrative?

Here are some sample photos from the article, in order to avoid looking at some of the impermissible ones:

Could AI be the next thing that brings back old-school lifestyles, where people will cherish having the in-person experience, versus assuming a video or a person they are talking to is a real individual?

Will we reach a point where actually traveling to meet your loved ones will be the only way we can verify their existence?

With how false chatGPT can be in giving you answers about Islam, will you trust any AI source with your religion?

There are just so many questions that need to be answered, but no one can deny that living the experience will be something people will cherish more than anything.

Having a mufti that you study under will be more valuable than a remote experience.

Visiting family will be a reassurance that yes, they do still exist, and they are alive!

The wonders of technology will make us once again “regress” to old ways of in-person experiences, and perhaps to a certain degree, that may be a good thing.

The path to that point however, might not be so easy.

Less than 1 percent of what you say can change people’s lives forever…

Last weekend, I was driving and watching a YouTube video, and I got a notification from my substack app. I don’t remember exactly what the notification was, but all I remember was that the notification banner mentioned something about...istighfar.

I realized at that point that while I am alone in the car, with no one to talk to, now would be a good time to talk to Allah and ask for forgiveness. Surely you can never ask for too much forgiveness, since we are perpetual sinners!

It also reminded me of the blessings of istighfar, one of them being that it will increase your wealth. That is exactly what the people of Nuh (AS) were told, that forgiveness will give you abundance:

I said to them: “Ask forgiveness from your Lord; surely He is Most Forgiving. He will shower you with abundant rain, and will provide you with wealth and children, and will bestow upon you gardens and rivers.”

Surah Nuh (71:10-12)

Subhan Allah, look at what forgiveness can bring your way!

All these thoughts were going through my head, all from just a quick banner notification that I dismissed so quickly so I could continue to watch YouTube.

Even though I dismissed the notification as fast as I could, I saw the notification long enough that it made me pause the video, take a few minutes to be as genuine as I can about my sins and ask Allah for forgiveness, and then continue with my day.

I am not even sure who wrote the substack post because I can’t even find it 🙃, but it just shows us that as long as we have a sincere intention to please Allah and to bring people closer to Allah, we can get rewarded for those small actions.

This person who wrote this post got good deeds from JUST the notification sent to my phone, without me even reading the article in detail, and allowed me to write my own post about istighfar and its benefits!

Most of what we say online, or even to our families, may be dismissed and not even seen by most people, but there might just be that 0.5% of what you say that touches someone a certain way, and that causes them to make a small change in their life or just reflect and connect with Allah for a few minutes.

Those are the moments that will matter at the end of the day, because if we have helped someone come closer to Allah even for just a few moments, Allah will take note of that.

If Allah has liked what you have done, it doesn't matter what kind of engagement your post gets, because the one who can change your life has already liked what you have done!

The like of all likes!

You’re not wasting time if you’re doing stuff with your kids.

Yesterday, I had a plan.

I was going to workout after work, no matter what.

I just had to.

It has been a few days and I knew I needed the workout.

Did I want to do it? Of course not.

But it has to be done.

After Asr prayer, it’s time to hit the “home gym.”

I got back home later than usual from work, and the next thing I know, my driveway has turned into a giant bike repair shop.

My 7 year old’s training wheels weren’t working properly, so I had to fix them.

My 12 year old’s bike handles were loose and swinging up and down which should not be happening, but we were able to tighten them up with a simple Allen wrench.

My 10 year old didn’t have any serious issues with his bike. Yeah, his rear brakes are completely shot, but his front brakes worked well enough to compensate. It’s not like he’s running the Tour de France anyway.

Anyway, he wanted to put on new brakes for his rear wheel, and he got me involved in this project. I thought this would be a good father and son time, fixing things together, and it was.

Did it take exceptionally longer than expected?

Of course it did.

There were moments where I just wanted to stop and tell him to just forget about it right now, but I wanted to show my son that quitting isn’t an option, especially when it is something that is achievable. We kept on pushing and running into roadblocks trying to find the right balance between the brake spacers and the length of the brake wire, but after what seemed like a few hours, we finally figured it out.

There were moments where my son had to hold onto the brakes at a certain angle while I tightened the bolts, but his grip was not strong enough to keep the brakes in place and we would have to keep making adjustments. I could see the expression on his face, that expression of wanting to accomplish the goal, but also not wanting to disappoint his father who has told him several times to hold the brakes in place.

Seeing that expression on his face just made me calm down a few notches, and gave him more encouragement to keep pushing and having him feel that sense of accomplishment after we finally solved the problem.

It was great teamwork from the both of us to finally get the brakes on correctly, and he had a test drive to confirm it was a success.

We both had a nice bonding moment, just working together and fixing the bike.

Was it a waste of time? Of course not, because I was hanging out with my son, and I was able to help my daughters have a good time riding their bikes in this nice fall weather.

After all was said and done, it was Maghrib time, and I just didn’t feel like working out. I was exhausted from my 9-5 (or 8-4 in my case), and I just hustled out 40 pushups so I can say that I at least did some physical activity.

Sometimes things don’t go the way you want them, but you can always turn a chore into a learning and bonding session with your kids.

Lessons learned:

1. Don’t give up when it comes to things that are actually achievable. Struggling is a part of life, and will eventually lead to success.

2. Don’t always assume a new project will be over quickly. Always budget extra time.

3. Be patient with your children. They look up to you and want to please you, so don’t let your anger ruin those special moments and turn them into regretful memories.

4. If you can’t do a full workout, do something quick and fast to get some physical activity in for the day.

Reaching the delegation point in your family life.

You need to prepare for your kids Islamic lesson, but you also need to buy groceries.

What do you do??

You do both, at the same time.

Use the power of delegation, especially for eager kids who want to do the shopping for you.

I was able to prepare our family lecture, while the kids made the shopping list (which I had to approve of course), and the 7 and 10 yr old went together through the store on their own and got the items on the list. My son gave me a report of what he was not able to get because of height limitations on his part 😁.

It was also an act of discipline for me because I knew I had to finish prepping my lesson before they got back to me.

It was a moment of hyperfocus for me and for them.

And a reminder to not belittle what our kids can do, especially if they are eager to learn and do it on their own.

Remember, when you start teaching your kids, it will be tough and they will make many mistakes,

But this is exactly how the early Muslims learned about Islam.

The Prophet ﷺ taught the sahaba, and he had to be patient and endure the mistakes of his people. 

Follow his example, follow his sunnah, and be the best teacher to your kids. 

Will you have this regret when you are gone?

We have all seemingly missed out on so much.

We didn’t give any importance to cryptocurrency and especially bitcoin, and we were not able to capitalize on it as much as we would have liked, when it was only literally pennies for bitcoin.

How about the housing market? Maybe we were tempted to buy a house with a riba based loan, but we said NO, and now that opportunity to save in cash for a house keeps dwindling away since the prices are out of control. We “missed out” on that opportunity.

We could have bought a car for much cheaper before the pandemic, but now car prices are just ridiculous. We missed out on that opportunity.

There are just so many opportunities that we have seemingly missed out on, but we have to remember one thing:

When we are in our graves, the only opportunity that we will care about at that time is:

Did we miss out on our Islam?

Did we miss out on our religion?

Did we miss out on our real purpose in life?

We as Muslims already have the best thing that no dollar, no house, no bitcoin, no exotic car can buy.

We have la ilaha il Allah.

We have Allah on our side!

We have the truth!

We have guidance to Paradise!

There will be so many people who would have wished they had Islam, crying to the point where they would be willing to sacrifice everyone they know and all the people in the world in order to save themselves.

“To save himself from the torment of that Day, the culprit shall wish to give his children, his wife, his brother, his kinsfolk who gave him shelter, and all the people of the earth, just to save themselves.”

(Surah Ma’arij 70:11-14)

They will be crying with so much regret that they didn’t invest in their REAL life!

They will cry, “I wish I had sent forth ˹something good˺ for my ˹true˺ life.”

(Surah Fajr: 89:24)

Whenever you feel like you’ve missed out on something, or an opportunity has passed you buy, then always remember that you still have the best gift of all.

Islam!

The earlier you start, the better.

The earlier you start something, the quicker you will get better at it.

This is especially true with homeschooling.

When you have just one child, it is very easy to homeschool them, and you can accelerate their learning since the teacher to student ratio is 1:1.

Or even 2:1 if both parents get involved!

Just like you adjusted your time and priorities when you got married, and again after having your first child, you can adjust once again by homeschooling them.

When child #2 comes along, you can adjust again, and prioritize your time differently.

It is a gradual process and you will notice how much you can actually accomplish.

You will even look back at when you only had one child, and how “busy” you thought you were with just one brain to feed 😅.

If you already have 3 kids that are in public schools, and now decide to start homeschooling them, it can still be done, no doubt about it, but the challenges and initial shock will be much more difficult.

This is what keeps people from even getting started, until it gets far too long in the tooth and the opportunity has passed you by.

How boys and girls think differently about money.

The other day, my daughter comes up to me, very nonchalantly, and just tells me,

“Papa, I think I lost my money.”

There was no emotion or panic in her tone whatsoever. I was more in shock of how calm she was because I knew she had a decent chunk of change for a 12 year old (about $500 from gifts and Eid money).

So naturally I asked her, “how much money? Do you mean your purse?” Her purse usually has like $20-$40.

I was like there was no way she lost ALL her money.

She replies again in her casual voice, “No. I lost all my money.”

So now I’m a bit concerned and freaking out a bit inside, and we go on a mission to backtrack her steps and search her room, and eventually she finds it fairly quickly.

Once she finds it, it’s just a, “Oh there it is.” and there’s just the tiniest sign of relief on her face.

After this ordeal, I was just taken aback by her attitude and how losing the money didn’t make her freak out. When I thought about it more, it didn't really surprise me.

We have been homeschooling them since the beginning, and we have been teaching them proper Islamic principles, including how a household is run, who is in charge of what, and who brings home the “dough,” and who cooks the dough.

It’s a system that Alhumdulilah works amazingly well, and brings benefit to everyone.

My wife doesn’t have to worry about money, and naturally, my daughter has picked that up from her. Having a lot of money isn’t a priority for my daughter, and being thrifty with money is one of her qualities.

Frankly, it should be a quality for all of us.

Her carelessness with money isn’t spending too much, but just misplacing it in her room 😂.

My son, on the other hand, is the opposite. He is much more meticulous with money, always trying to find ways to earn money, mainly because he tends to spend more money. If he had lost his wad of cash, he would have turned the whole house upside down trying to find it. He would definitely have been in a more panicked state. 

The way my son and daughter react emotionally to money is part of their fitra that is inside all of us as Muslims, and something that our house has reinforced:

Men are the providers of the household and have to worry about money and providing, while women are the maintainers of the household and have to worry about caretaking and maintaining. They are different roles for men and women, but in the eyes of Allah, they are noble and equitable positions that can take you to Jannah. 

Someone who stays home isn’t a worse person because they take care of the home vs the one who has to go out and work.

If your kids grow up without the influence of social media, and without the influence of anti-Islamic lifestyles that they see all day and are fed through the school systems, they are more likely to grow up on the fitra and you will have to spend less time trying to detox their minds.

You will see the fitra flourish in the actions of your kids, from the obvious to the more subtle, like finances.

Good news for New Yorker bound international flyers.

Gaby Del Valle from The Verge:

"A federal judge in New York ruled that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can’t search travelers’ phones without a warrant. The ruling theoretically applies to land borders, seaports, and airports — but in practice, it only applies to New York’s Eastern District.

That’s not nothing, though, since the district includes John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, the sixth-busiest airport in the country. Nationwide, CBP has conducted more than 230,000 searches of electronic devices between the 2018 and 2023 fiscal years at land borders, seaports, and airports, according to its publicly available enforcement statistics."

The Headline is a bit misleading, but for now this only applies to New York's Eastern District, which includes JFK and I would assume LaGuardia. Of course if you're Muslim, this is good knowledge to know, unfortunately.

Doing the bare bones consistently, can lead to Jannah?

The Prophet ﷺ said:

وَمَنْ سَلَكَ طَرِيقًا يَلْتَمِسُ فِيهِ عِلْمًا سَهَّلَ اللَّهُ لَهُ بِهِ طَرِيقًا إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ

Whoever travels a path in search of knowledge, Allah will make easy for him a path to Paradise.

This translation doesn’t do justice to the word that is used for “seeking,” which is “iltimas.”

I’m no Arabic scholar, but I was watching a Righteous and Rich episode, and Br. Imran explained the word “iltimas.” It is commonly translated as “seeking,” but it actually means someone who does less than that.

How much less? It is one of the lowest levels of seeking knowledge, where someone might spend once a week, or even once every two weeks, trying to seek just a little tiny bit of knowledge.

No rigorous studying, but very passive knowledge. 

Even for THIS person, the one who isn’t trying hard at all to seek knowledge, but if he is consistent, Allah will make a path to Paradise easy for him. 

Allah hu Akbar!

After hearing this, there really isn’t any excuse for us not to seek knowledge. Even if it means reading a post on social media (that is authentic), or watching a few short videos (dare I say reels or shorts!), this could be your ticket to Jannah.

Consistency is key though!

Of course we should always strive higher than the bare minimum, and the benefit you will get from seeking knowledge will literally change your life. 

Not only your life, but the lives of those you are responsible for.

Your children, and your spouse.

Imagine spending just 5 minutes a day teaching your children about something you learned. It doesn’t even have to be directly related to Islamic knowledge, but maybe something happened in your day, and you can relate it to your kids by showing them how such and such a situation was a blessing, how that incident was a trial, how this situation reminded me of the Prophet ﷺ during this phase, etc. 

These 5 minutes will add up over time, and they will organically lengthen the conversations you have with your children. They will ask you questions, and the conversation will keep going while you bond with them. 

The knowledge discussions will be something they will actually look forward to, and before you know it, these discussions will become longer without seeming like a drag. 

And best of yet by Allah’s will, your path to Paradise will be easy!

Check out the video clip here.