Shadowing Practice: Are Hardships My Fault, or a Test from Allah? | Khutbah Highlights | Nouman Ali Khan - Learn English Speaking with Video

In the moral world, you missed a salah.

You woke up late.

You didn't pray, Fajr.

And now you're praying it late.

And then that day you had a job interview.

And the job interview didn't go well.

And you're like, this is because I missed salah.

Now the answer to that is, it may be and it may not be.

And there's no way you will ever know.

There's no way you or anyone else will ever know.

But the thing that will help you

Is The thing that will help me Is

that Allah says I will be as you assume me to be

If you're assuming Allah took revenge from you And put this on you Because you missed Fajr

Then that's who Allah is to you now But the thing here That I wanted to highlight

Is what is the role of our Iman

The fact that we're believers That we believe in Allah And our ability to deal with calamity?

And how are we supposed to respond to calamity as believers?

You know, for a lot of people who's, and this actually depends on our level of understanding of what it means to have a relationship with Allah .

On the one hand, the first thing I'd like to explain to you that the Quran is very wise about,

is to make a separation between two different kinds of bad situations.

There's a bad situation that looks like a bad situation that was completely out of your control.

You could do nothing about it.

You got stuck in a flood, you didn't cause the flood.

You just happened to be living there, there was no way for you to escape or you happened to be traveling, you had no idea it was coming, it wasn't on any reports or anything else,

that's not you, that's entirely planned by Allah, you had nothing to do with it, there was no way you could have gotten out of it.

This is not the same as someone who reads the news report and says, hey there's a major storm coming,

please evacuate the city and there's a tsunami heading our way and somebody says, you know this is a good time to check out the beach.

And they head towards the beach.

And then something bad happens to them, they don't get to say, oh Qaddar Allah, what can I say?

Allah had decided that I was gonna run into this, you don't get to say that.

And Allah is very clear about that.

He says, فَمَا أَصَابَكُمْ بِمُصِيبَةٍ فَبِمَا كَسَبَتَ اِذِيكُمْ There's not a calamity

that strikes you and there's any manner of calamities that strike you or something that hits you

is because of what you earned with your own hands you brought this on yourself now that's

if you only thought of it that way

that would also be a problem because if you're going down the stairs and you slipped and you fell

then you start thinking to yourself I must have done some sin

and that's why Allah made me fall down the stairs

This is a sign from Allah that I have committed some evil

and Allah is teaching me a lesson by You know breaking my arm on this in the hotel lobby

or something You know you start reading into things

that happen to you and you start thinking there's some ghayb cause and effect and That can go into an extreme

So the thing that I'd like to highlight here human beings believers in Allah can go into two extremes

One extreme is everything happened because of Allah.

I have nothing to do with it Whatever happened,

you can't blame me This is قدر of Allah ما أصابكم من مصيبة فبيإذن الله Whatever calamity strikes to you, it comes to you because of Allah's...

He said that in Surah At-Taghabun He said it directly It happens by Allah's permission This was Allah's plan, what are you going to do?

So some student can not study for their exams

And not do any of the assignments And get fail and fail And be kicked out of the school And then say, what do you want me to do?

قدر of Allah

They get to blame Allah On the other extreme There is

the believer who blames everything on himself Allah is doing this to me

because I'm a terrible person This happened to me

because I'm a horrible human being And then it doesn't help

when other ignorant people around you

And sometimes a lot of ignorance comes from your own family They come

and tell you You know why this happened to you?

Because you're a bad daughter You know why this happened to you?

Because you're a bad son You know why this happened to you?

Because you're not good to your in-laws or whatever No, I just got in a car accident because a truck came and hit me and he crossed a red light.

That because I argued with my wife or something, that's not the reason.

But other people will come and tell you this is happening to you, Allah is doing this to you because of that, because of that.

Like they got an email from the ghayb that told them that this is the reason why this happened, cause and effect.

So there are these two extremes that are possible.

What does the Quran do?

The Quran in everything gives us balance.

In everything we understand in life it gives us balance.

And by the way, If you don't have this balance, you lose a lot of peace in life.

You know it gives another meaning to بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنَّ الْقُلُوبِ By remembering Allah, hearts become calm.

The ultimate remembrance of Allah, the ذِكْرُ اللَّهِ is actually the Book of Allah.

And the Book of Allah clarifies how Allah deals with us in this life.

So I would argue that if you're just saying سُبْحَانَ اللَّهُ or الحمد لله

your understanding of what Allah wants you to under you know

how Allah deals with you is flawed you still might not find peace even though you're inshaAllah you will

if you're sincere

but the intent here is to be clear in how Allah deals with us

so I'd like to share some things about that with you

as far as blaming myself is concerned

and you know where do we draw the line between this is from Allah

and this is my fault where do you draw

that line you know in the physical world it's very easy to understand What do I mean by the physical world?

In the physical world, if I put, instead of putting gasoline in my car,

I put water in my car and it didn't work Then you don't get, clearly you don't get to say this was Allah's plan,

that was you So physically speaking, or if you're eating junk food and you're constantly eating all kinds of sugary foods

And then you get a diagnosis for diabetes at the age of 45 then you don't get to say, Ya Allah, this marad has come to me,

it's a test from Allah.

No, it's a test of your bad appetite.

You don't eat cucumbers, you eat Swiss rolls or whatever you eat.

You've been downing junk and that's why this happened to you.

You understand?

So in the physical world, the cause and effect, it's something that all human beings with common sense understand.

In the moral world, you missed a salah, you woke up late, you didn't pray, fajr, and you're praying it late.

And then that day you had a job interview, and the job interview didn't go well.

And you're like, this is because I missed salah.

Now the answer to that is, it may be, and it may not be.

And there's no way you will ever know.

There is no way you or anyone else will ever know.

But the thing that will help you is, انا عند ظنّي عبدي بي.

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The thing that will help me is that Allah says, I will be as you assume me to be.

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If you're assuming Allah took revenge from you and put this on you because you missed Fajr, then that's who Allah is to you now.

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If you assume, no, this This is better, this job, I tried my best, I did a good job at the interview, but this was not a good job for me, had it been good for me,

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Allah would have let it go.

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Allah would have given me this job.

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If you have that attitude, that is who Allah is to you, despite all of your mistakes, despite you missing, waking up late.

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Our job when we make mistakes is to make istighfar, not wait for Allah's revenge.

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Please understand that.

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Our job is not, oh I messed up, now Allah is going to get me somehow, it's going to happen.

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No, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what Allah does.

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Which is why Allah says, مَا أَصَابَكُمْ مِن مُصِيبَةٍ فَبِمَا كَسَبَتَيْذِكُمْ Whatever calamity struck you, whatever difficulty you find yourselves in,

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a lot of it has to do with what you did yourselves, with your own hands.

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You brought this on yourself.

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And even in the spiritual sense, sometimes there are difficulties that come on us because of our deeds.

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If you are for example, continuously horrible to your parents, and then bad stuff comes to you in your life, that probably there is some connection.

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There is some, and then in those kinds of cases, what does Allah do?

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وَيَعْفُو عَن كَثِيرٌ He says, He pardons a lot too.

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In the physical world, if I jump off of a second floor building, there are going to be consequences.

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Allah will not say, no, this time I'll forgive you.

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I won't break your leg.

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No, no, what's going to happen is going to happen.

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When you put your hand in a fire, it is going to burn.

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Allah is not going to say, well, you prayed Fajr this morning.

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So no, not for you.

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It won't burn for you.

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That's not going to happen.

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But when it comes to spiritual consequences, He says, وَيَعْفُو عَن كَثِيرٌ When you do a sin, then Allah says, actually, Allah lets a lot of it go.

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He doesn't just avenge immediately.

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He doesn't just take immediate account and then make you suffer in this world because of the mistake you made.

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He doesn't do that.

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That's the nature of Allah with us.

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وَيَعْفُوا عَن كَثِيرٌ This is something you have to internalize for yourself.

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I would argue the reason I brought up this particular subject is because one of the greatest crimes,

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spiritual crimes, that occurs every day in the ummah is at the hands of loved ones to loved ones.

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Parents, spouses, husbands, we have sometimes the worst things to say to our loved ones.

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And sometimes we say those things in the name of Allah.

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Allah will punish you for what you just did.

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There will be justice on you.

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Allah will not forgive what you, you know.

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And mother can say that to her child.

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Wife can say to husband.

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Siblings can say to each other.

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Like invoking like Allah is some Angry weapon that you can invoke Because you're upset,

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Allah must be upset And you can just use Allah like that That's not our place

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And you know for a lot of people They've heard this kind of thing

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So many times over and over and over again That they have become Far away from Allah Himself

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They heard from their loved ones They heard from their A child heard from his father

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Or his mother all the time Allah will punish you if you don't pray

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Allah is going to get you if you don't pray Allah is very angry at you Because you ate that cookie

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Constantly Allah is angry Allah is angry When that young boy becomes a 16, 17, 18 year old He wants nothing to do with Allah

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And when he hears Allah is merciful

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And Allah is forgiving He has a hard time believing it Because that's not what he grew up with

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He did not grow up with an Allah who is forgiving Or an Allah who is merciful

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As a matter of fact Every time he got in trouble It's because of Allah he got in trouble

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That's how he got in trouble

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And then those same parents say We taught this child about

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Allah from the beginning I don't know why he's running away from deen Yeah but which Allah did you teach him about?

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An angry Allah?

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An Allah that seeks to punish?

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ما يفعل الله بِعَذَابِكُمْ Allah says what's Allah gonna get out of punishing you?

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That's what Allah says Himself What is He in just the business of coming after you?

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Going at you?

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So what happens with people?

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They are in a difficult situation and what do they do?

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They're constantly thinking Allah is getting them, Allah is hurting them, Allah is doing this to them.

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You know I was reminded by a colleague of mine, when I was coming here to Malaysia, out of nowhere this has never happened.

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I developed this crazy bacterial infection thing in my tonsils and it swelled up and half of my neck was completely blocked.

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and I felt like I was drowning in one nostril

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and I'm still on the plane

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and I get halfway through Abu Dhabi on the way here I run over to a clinic

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and say you have to you know take these heavy medications I come here the recommendation is I should go to surgery.

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I was like what is going on?

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This is and even told me this never happens like this is really crazy This is yet.

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I've never in my entire career of 30 years.

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I've seen like one other case of this and

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I'm lying there in the hospital bed waiting for a surgery to take place and I'm thinking, and I was reminded by a colleague, this is the best place you could have been.

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There's no better place than this hospital bed for you at this moment.

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That is Allah's plan for you.

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Here I am thinking, I have to cancel this program.

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I can't go over here.

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I can't go over there.

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How are we going to manage this situation, that situation, that calendar, that meeting, all this way.

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I came all this way, and now look, I didn't get to do this, that, or the other.

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And then all of a sudden, just that little reminder, You're just like, yeah, this is the best place I should be.

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There's no better place because this wasn't planned by me.

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This was planned by Allah Azza wa Jal.

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This is entirely planned by Allah.

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We have to have a closeness to Allah that when He plans something for you and me, even when it's painful, He doesn't do it for anything except love.

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That Allah Azza wa Jal loves His ibad.

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That He loves what is best for them.

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He loves us more than we could ever love ourselves.

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He cares more for us than we can ever care for ourselves.

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He provides us more than we could ever provide for ourselves When we forget that When we forget that,

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guidance goes away Allah says وَمَن يُؤْمِن بِاللَّهِ يَهْدِي قَلْبَهُ In Surah At-Taghabun, on the same issue Whenever calamity strikes you It comes from Allah

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It came by Allah's permission And whoever can have Iman in Allah at that time

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You have Iman in Allah anyway You believe in one God But when you're in a difficulty

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That's when you start questioning Why is Allah doing this, right?

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That's the time when Allah puts the words وَمَن يُؤْمِن بِاللَّهِ Whoever can truly believe in Allah then Yeah,

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you always say Allah is Ar-Rahman But do you really feel Allah is Ar-Rahman right now?

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Nah, right now he's probably ذُن تِقَام

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Right now he's probably the one who takes revenge Right now he's probably Jabbar Not Ar-Rahman right now See, your Iman went away Your Iman and Ar-Rahman went away When you were in difficulty

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Allah says if you can have Iman In Ar-Rahman at that time

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The best of Allah's names The best of what Allah is to you What he described himself to you At

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that moment Then what gift will Allah give you?

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And this is the conclusion to my khutbah What is it that Allah will give you?

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I want health I want recovery I want a job I

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want money I want a better family situation I want escape

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Some people just want escape I just want this other person

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to stop hurting me I want people to stop talking about me Whatever it is There's something that's bothering you

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and it's eating away at you.

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And if you think if that problem went away, you would have peace.

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What does Allah give you when you can trust Him?

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He doesn't end your problems.

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This life, problems will not go away.

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If problems were going to go away, they would have gone away for Ya'qub a lot sooner than for you and me.

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If no problems would have come because we have Iman, then Maryam should not have had problems.

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Rasulullah should not have had problems.

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You study the people that are closest to Allah and all you're studying are problems.

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Really big ones.

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Their entire life.

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That's all you're studying.

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You're just learning about one problem to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next.

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That's all you're learning.

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Yusuf a great profound messenger of Allah and I mean from childhood there are problems.

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From childhood there are problems.

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So I keep asking that question.

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What is it that Allah has given you?

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What do you get when you completely put your trust in Allah in the middle, in the thick of a difficulty

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when everybody else is telling you on the one hand people

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are telling you Allah is angry at you that's why this

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is happening Allah hates you that's why this is happening on

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the other hand you start thinking Allah is punishing me that's why this is happening at

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that moment when you can have the best impression of Allah and maintain your love and reliance and bond with Allah

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that Allah has not let you go He hasn't what does He give you?

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يَهْدِي قَلْبَهُ He guides this person's heart He gives their heart guidance.

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I can guarantee you, when your problem goes away, if it's a money problem, if money comes in, if it's a health problem, and health comes back, if it's a family problem, the family problem goes away.

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None of the good things in this life are worth anything compared to that one gift.

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I hope you guys enjoyed that video clip.

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My team

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and I have been working tirelessly to try to create as

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many resources for Muslims to give them first steps in understanding

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the Qur'an all the way to the point where they can have a deep, profound understanding of the Qur'an.

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We are students of the Qur'an ourselves, and we want you to be students of the Qur'an alongside us.

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Join us for this journey on Bayinatv.com, where thousands of hours of work have already been put in.

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And don't be intimidated.

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There's lots of stuff available on YouTube, but it's all over the place.

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If you want an organized approach to studying the Qur'an beginning to end for yourself, your kids, your family, and even among peers, that would be the way to go.

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What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: Are Hardships My Fault, or a Test from Allah? | Khutbah Highlights | Nouman Ali Khan - Learn English Speaking with Video

Context & Background

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