[SPEAKER_00]: Be honest, your phone gets more eye contact than your wife, your kids, the most half combined.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, let's be honest, you check it when you wake up before you go to sleep in the bathroom, before the Salah, after the Salah, and you wonder why your heart feels dry in Ramadan.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your attention is being taken and you're letting it go for free.
[SPEAKER_00]: This episode is for the brother that hates how much his phone is consuming him, but grabs it anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tachliah here means minimizing the level of digital stimulation that makes his worship feel slow and heavy because the distracted man is a man that has no straight path for the weakening his implementation of his purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: A distracted man is easy to defeat.
[SPEAKER_00]: shade bond can't pull you into the haram, but he can easily keep you locked into a screen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today in Shalaam we're going to address some of your phone habits that you may be having that chip away at your blessed beneficial Ramadan.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to present a challenge to you that can open a door for you to where you'll see what your mind is like when it's not pulled away every couple of seconds because it make no mistake.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are many brilliant minds out there that are paid millions and even billions of dollars to create algorithms that call you towards spiritual and attentiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, some of us men will become home from work or become home from a long day of being mentally consumed by something in whatever realm that we're using to obtain money to provide for ourselves and our families.
[SPEAKER_00]: We start scrolling and we call that doom scrolling.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's interesting because it's an endless scroll.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that scrolling keeps you occupied in many different things.
[SPEAKER_00]: This time it's this type of knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's this real.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what's going on politically.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what's going on socially in your country.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you start to watch reals that maybe Islamic, but it's pulling you every which way.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're choosing all of this content and there's no deep study or focus.
[SPEAKER_00]: You watch this because you want to excite yourself with dopamine.
[SPEAKER_00]: You start to get excited by watching these things that maybe interesting, you may get a laugh here, you may be intrigued there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a number of emotions that are happening all at one time, but when you look at the end of the day, how you've benefited, there's still a question mark.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that question mark is there because you're about to say, Allah, He ﷻ and you feel this fatigue of dopamine being depleted from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no excitement, there's no energy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather, it was all consumed in your car before you walked into your house, scrolling on your phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is exactly why we talk about the pit stop.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every time you choose distraction over reflection, it's another layer that is in your mind and sometimes on your heart further taking you away from mindfulness and contemplation and things that will benefit you for the giving you clarity on how to live and how to act.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's important for you to understand that attention is capital.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we talk about ads in these social media sites, they want to grab your attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is as though Instagram and Facebook and these platforms it's like a big house party.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if there's a lot of people that are over at their house party, if that one company, that one business can stand in front of all of you at one time and get your attention to further sell you something or to consume you into something to or you will be a consumer,
[SPEAKER_00]: That is where the scatter comes, that is where the distraction comes, that is where the focus that you had has been taken away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you look at the word distraction, it is taking you away from traction, distraction for the distributing your mind here and here and in different places and directions in different things to further cause your heart to be diluted with so much information.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of it may not be hot on and some of it definitely is not beneficial to you living your goals.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what's beautiful in this month of Ramadan because Ramadan reminds you that you are depriving yourself voluntarily for something much greater, you're depriving yourself voluntarily in order to focus not eating and not drinking in order to focus when you ponder over that reality.
[SPEAKER_00]: that a loss of pain and with data is telling you look stay away from bare necessities in order to focus on something that is much greater for you in the long run.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why we're talking about this in the month of Ramadan because it is a month of spiritual voluntary deprivation on a much grander scale, a much more macro level, but looking at those things that still distract us from being focused that we are not depriving ourselves from.
[SPEAKER_00]: From them is social media, from them is the phone, particularly when we're doomschooling in those times of transition.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you're coming home for work and you're sitting in your car, it's your pit stop.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not let the pit stop be consumed by distraction.
[SPEAKER_00]: The pit stop should be there for you to sit in silence or in the glass of a glass of water to focus on what you have done.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you are currently doing and what you plan to do in the name of a lost Japan without it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You do not need your phone to do them scroll for that reason Really focus on silence because when you have silence you're able to listen to your thoughts and to understand where your mind is to further have a deep
[SPEAKER_00]: deeper conversation with yourself, understanding what your heart lies, where you're currently at.
[SPEAKER_00]: From there, you're able to determine what do I need to do, and that is the Mojasiba.
[SPEAKER_00]: Reaching that level of self-accountability requires you to do away with all of those distractions that are holding you back.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the thing that's upon a lot when you're inundated with so much stuff and so much garbage.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't even realize that you were distracted until you have the moment of silence to hear yourself your thoughts and to distinguish those influences that have taken you away from your ultimate goal.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the month of Ramadan, it is to be mindful of Allah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mindful of Allah not mindful of what's happening in this state or in this city or with this person or with this Couple with this new technology It's totally irrelevant when it comes to you focusing on what you've done and who you are how to become a better man That is measured by your connection with a lawsuit behind on with data the dopamine We always need to supply it and that's from the shape bond that we always want a quick fix some temporary thrill
[SPEAKER_00]: by getting some news that ultimately won't benefit us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of seeing how much of the news that I watched and what are the numbers that have went up in this particular whatever news it may be or what's happening with this person.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to ask ourselves a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: have I read the Quran today in the month of the Quran, how much have I read, have I helped myself physically, have I worked out at all, have I taken a walk, have I sat with my family, this starts particularly with your phone by putting it away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you want to take a slower approach to take away those apps that are distracting you, such as the Instagram, the Facebook, those apps, whatever the apps are that are taking you away from focus, that are taking you away
[SPEAKER_00]: what distractions really are and looking at what is really going to help me in his beautiful month of Ramadan.
[SPEAKER_00]: So one thing you can do is to schedule the times that you use your phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for example, you know, you use your phone to pound a lot, a little after your pleasure, after you place a lot of pleasure before you go to work, you look on your phone, you look at the news, whatever it may be, and then you put your phone away.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll never
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I haven't seen him in a while and he asked He said give give me a call give me a miss call.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said in Shala.
[SPEAKER_00]: I call.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said do you have your phone And he looked at me dead in my eyes and no, no, no, no, I don't bring my phone in the mess shit I don't bring my phone in the mess shit or lie.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said it as though
[SPEAKER_00]: It was something that should be known, and it's regularly something that he doesn't do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mind you, this person was a professional athlete and very disciplined, a retired professional athlete that was, and I'm almost sure, is still very, very disciplined.
[SPEAKER_00]: So understanding that this phone is a mechanism that can take you away from those things that are very beneficial.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it starts by, you know, you have to look and audit yourself, asking how much time have I been on this phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I was on this phone, what was I watching that was beneficial for me in Ramadan?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not reals, because those are short news that really doesn't help you go into deep thought and contemplation to further lead into introspection.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thinking about what's happening around you, to further audit and look at and hold yourself accountable by looking what's happening within you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's where Lossi Pana with Talis is in the beautiful verse, and Haku Muttika thought, Hattas Urtum al Makogur, that you have been distracted by gathering things in abundance, until you visit the graves.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Pana, Lossi Pana with Talis says in another verse, yes, in the name of Allah, in the name of Allah, in the name of Allah, in the name of Allah, in the name of Allah.
[SPEAKER_00]: They know the apparent things of this earth, of what they know, the worldly affairs.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But when it comes to the afterlife, they are heedless, scrolling on your phone on things that are not that beneficial or you're watching Islamic content, but you're not really obtaining knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is getting information to further share with somebody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: The next day you will forget about what you've sent.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not beneficial knowledge when it comes to your implementation of something.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need time to have deep thought, deep work, deep connections, and scrolling on your phone for an hour on in 30 minutes on in can take that away from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That 30 minutes could have been to read the Quran for 30 minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're proficient in reading Arabic, that could have been to just just every single day in the month of Ramadan is the whole Quran.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you see why I'm going with this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Auditing your time on the phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: The best situation is to put it away in a room to where you will not have any interaction with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is how you reach the level of sitting in silence and maintaining that discipline and fighting yourself for the betterment of the self in the month of purification of the self in the month of Ramadan.
[SPEAKER_00]: May Allah SWT make you blessed and allow this month to be a month of purification by deprivation of those things that are not beneficial for you, looking at what is most important and sticking to that because we know that that is what will make us better, men, fathers, leaders, and shawlah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I want to come back with a lot of hope and a lot of hope.