Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honor of the prophets and messengers.
Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and companions, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon many, many.
Today I thought let me quickly share with you some thoughts and then request Sheikh Abdullah to speak to you.
In that context, I want to talk to you about, there were a bunch, even now it's there, but there was a philosophy called Stoicism.
So the people who followed that and believed in that and lived by it were called the Stoics.
S-T-O-I-C.
And it's something very worth studying and worth thinking about.
This was roughly about 2000 years or something ago.
That's when it seems to have started.
And among the many, many very famous people in history who were Stoics,
and one of the very famous ones was Marcus Aurelius, who was one of the Caesars of Rome.
So a very famous Stoic philosopher.
The thing about Stoicism,
especially the reason I'm saying, I'm talking about Stoicism,
because Stoicism is something which seems very close to Islam and to some of the principles of the Quran.
So I'm not saying that the Stoics were Muslims,
Allah knows best from whatever we have records of, I don't think they were Muslims.
But irrespective of that, they had some very wonderful wisdom, which we can all learn from.
So here are some,
of those principles.
First of all,
first one he says is,
safeguard your innermost anxieties and doubts.
Safeguard your innermost anxieties and doubts.
Voicing intimate struggles can undermine resilience.
And resilience is the ability to recover from loss.
The ability to struggle with, you know, especially emotional things and to come back.
He says to make these things public.
Now, just think about this in the context today of social media.
Think about what people post on Facebook, for example, or what people post on, especially Facebook.
Instagram is not that much of this stuff, but especially Facebook.
People really sort of pour out their hearts on Facebook.
The Stoics say that this is the most damaging thing to do.
They say never, never do that.
Your innermost thoughts and your innermost anxiety,
your innermost anxieties and doubts, believe me, everybody has it.
First and foremost thing I want to say to you guys is,
you might think that, oh, you know, we are teenagers, we are in college,
we are in high school or whatever, middle school,
and we are all kinds of thoughts and, you know, feelings and counterfeelings and,
you know, all sorts of things and anxieties and fears.
So believe me, this is not, join the club.
Literally join the club.
Everybody has it.
So, believe me, this is not, join the club. Literally join the club. Everybody has it.
Everyone and his grandmother has it.
The only thing which differs is the kind of doubts.
Some people have some kinds of doubts.
Others have other kinds of doubts, right?
I am 70 years old at this age.
I'm at the top of my profession in terms of business consulting.
I don't consider my Islamic thing to be a profession,
but alhamdulillah, I have an international standing there also.
But every time I stand in front, I stand on the mimbar,
I stand on the mimbar, I stand on the mimbar,
every time I stand in front of people to talk to them,
every time I lead two rak'at of salah,
there is doubt in my heart.
Not doubt about Allah, but doubt about,
can I do this job properly or not?
Will I make mistakes?
Will I say something which might not be beneficial?
Will I say something with the best intention, right?
But it has a different effect on somebody else.
Maybe it raises a doubt, right?
Maybe it raises a doubt, right?
Maybe it raises a doubt, right?
But it starts to reach out in the mind of that person,
or maybe it causes that person to think something contrary to what I am trying to help them
understand.
And you know,