Sheikh Uthman Hadi - Reflection that Changes who you are | A Journey to the Divine - Ep. 5

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Does Fasting do anything? Does my fast really count? Why do I have to restrain myself from eating and drinking? Does Allah Really care? My fasting feels empty, Without meaning, Purpose Or love. Why Fast if it doesn't do anything?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sheikh-uthman-hadi--6689369/support.https://sheikhuthmanhadi.beam.lyhttps://open.spotify.com/user/315hadqmwxllibu6ubi5us2cbn2y?si=572b4d8898284e9ehttps://open.spotify.com/show/3MQHfrpjj3XXcqoPbN5Dl8?si=v6YQ42kpSx-VONBFhT3CzA

Bismillah, Rahman and Rahim, al-hemulah, Godi, and Salat, and Salam, and and al-Rasulah, and allah, and hishahe, and hishābe, and Aishabi, Ais and Aishe, my brothers and sisters, ask Allah, to forgive us by our sins of our shortcomings to accept our fast from us, to grant us his special mercy not only in this life,

but mainly in the next. My brothers and sisters, Jazakam Allah, and for joining us for another episode of our beautiful and blessed Ramadan series. My love, brothers and sisters, I pray that, inshallah Allah, Allah, Allah, Sufhanahua-a-a-a-a-all allows us to make the most of this Ramadan

and try to use this Ramadan and utilize this Ramadan to become better people. And among one of those things in a way to become better people is reflection, right? And Allah suhphanahu Tada tells us in the Quran. He says, Bismillah, Rahman and Rahim in Surta-Suffat, he says,

Afa la Tadakarun. He says, will you not then be mindful? So, this a year engages in a deep, and meaningful contemplation of our lives, our actions, and our relationship with our creator, and those around us, actually. You know, but the essential question arises when it comes to us. Like, what should we reflect upon?

And this is a question that I have asked myself as well. Like, what do you reflect upon possibly that is going to help better your faith? It's going to help better you. Because we think that reflecting upon, oh, how is my day today? What did I do? Did I control my anger? Okay. But actually, these are really good things because just like I mentioned, when it comes to reflecting upon your actions,

it helps you build a closer relationship with Allah, subana-ho-a-ta-da. And reflection is not merely just a thought, right? It's not merely just an exercise in thinking, right? But rather, it is a transformative process that connects us to our creator and the world around us. It compels us to look beyond the surface of our daily lives, our jobs, our family, our loved ones,

and to seek a deeper understanding of our existence. It is about recognizing the signs that Allah, Sapa'u'u'adha has placed for us and acknowledging his presence in every single aspect of our lives, which is why when we are reflecting, we are not just pondering over circumstances, but rather we are engaging in a dialogue with our souls, right? So instead of us just saying, oh, okay, I'm just thinking whatever, you know, certain circumstances, oh, maybe I did this, or, you know, maybe this could possibly happen, you know, or how am I going to do this or, you know, what's this going to be? Instead, look at yourself, and it's actually introspection.

right reflection and introspection looking at yourself looking at your soul looking at your actions and this is where i go over to the next part which is introspection which i want to speak about here for a second and that is how when you end when you you you know introspection allows us to assess our character and our actions right so are we you know the questions that we have to ask ourselves are we living in accordance with the teachings of islam right in the sunnah of the prophet allah alexu isle Are we following the character and the prophetic, you know, the qualities? Are we embodying the qualities? I'm sorry, are we embodying the qualities of the Prophet of Allah, Allah, A.

Hew'Sem. Whether that be compassion, whether that be honesty, whether it be humility, whether that be, you know, kindness and love for others, which is the same as compassion. But nonetheless, you know, trying to ensure that we're asking ourselves these questions, and especially the last one. Are we showing these characters? Are we embodying them? Just like the Prophet of Allah a. who was suddenly exemplify, which is why reflection serves as a mirror, right? It serves our mirror and it also reveals our strengths and our weaknesses, our faults and our

mistakes and our goods and our bads, right? Which is why specifically in episode three, we spoke about our tests and how these tests help us build a closer relationship with Allah, Sufana, and how tests help build our character, our achlac. And it's the same when it comes to reflection. Reflection also helps build our achlac. And I like to use the example here as a mirror, because we, When you look into a mirror, what does it give you?

It gives you a reflection. You get a chance to see yourself. But this reflection, introspection I'm speaking about is not outside, right? It's not outwardly. We're not looking, oh, wow, it's a beautiful face. And, al-hambri-da. But instead, we're looking internally, right? We're trying to look internally and see what the problems are.

You know, once I had a question that was asked by your brother, and he said, in the last four months, I have been to three different jobs and I've gotten fire from all of them. Why? And the real reason is because of your character, right? And it might be how you're treating others. He's like, well, I'm getting all my work done. I'm ensuring I am, you know, kind of people and things of that, things like that. But sometimes it might not be that.

It might be how you carry yourself. It might be what you're showing and what you're not showing, right? So if you're working at a Muslim company, if you are, you know that you're working at this company, you're supposed to be doing, you know, something that's halal. But instead, you're doing something that's haram. then the right to fire you is absolutely permissible, right? And I'm not saying that, you know, the person could have been doing haram. But I am saying the fact is that when it comes to anything that we do,

my brothers and sisters, we have to look at ourselves. Because just like I said, reflection is like a mirror. So reflection is like a mirror. When you look in, you're looking at the mirror, except it's for your heart. It's for your actions. It's for your achalach. It's how you are as a person, how you carry yourself. And it encourages us to strive for improvement

and to seek the forgiveness of Allah, upon or how it's out of our shortcomings you know when we engage in this process this beautiful process we find that it is far from a waste of time because there are many questions of is it a waste of time to just reflect and no it's not right it's not a waste of time but rather it is actually a very vital component of our spiritual growth right and we talk about spiritual growth as well and a lot of our episodes so far and it helps us cultivate a deeper connection with a loss ofana huaata it helps us foster a sense of gratitude and awareness of our blessings, which is why reflection can profoundly impact our relationship with others. So if you're having problems with your family, if you're feeling as though

your family's not around you, if you're feeling those, your family's, you know, harming you, which they might not be, but let's just say they are, you know, or you're having these certain problems with family, with loved ones, with people outside the home, people you don't know, people you do know, like that. When it comes to this, it might be introspection. You have to introspect. You have to say, okay, what am I doing? That's wrong. Because if you're looking at everyone else and you're blaming on everyone else and you're not blaming it anything on yourself, then you've been gotten by the Shaitan. Because what does the Shaitan do? The Shetan blames on others, right? So when the Shetan was the one who decided to disobey Allah, who do he blame it on? He blamed

it on Allah. Oh, Allah, you have guided me wrong, right? You have put me into wrongdoing. So, and try to ensure that you are reflecting upon yourself. Because the true movement reflects upon themselves, they introspect, they ensure that they are trying to better themselves. And among one of the other things I want to mention, my dear brothers and sisters, is when it comes to introspection and reflection, it helps improve our relationship with our communities. It helps improve the relationship with community, with friends, with family, with people around us who may be in our lives and the interactions that we have with them. And it allows us to approach conflicts with empathy and to communicate with kindness.

So in this way, reflection not only enhances our character and our halak, but it also enhances our connection with those around us. So while we're navigating through the beautiful and blessed Mother Ramadan because we are already in the Mother Ramadan, al-a-a-a-a-h-a-h-h-a-h-law. We have to dedicate time each and every day, right? It doesn't have to be three hours to sitting here dedicating time to reflecting upon ourselves

because at that point we probably wouldn't get the real benefits out of reflecting. But just dedicate at least 10 minutes, 5-10 minutes, even if it's just two. Try to dedicate some time at your brothers and sisters to reflecting upon yourself to trying to remember who you are, looking at yourself,

trying to better your relationship with not only people with Allah, Sufana, how it's a because the biggest thing, my dear brothers and sisters in the month of Ramadan, is reflection, is improvement, is forgiveness, and it's trying to ensure that we are eliminating the things that are blocking connections between us and Allah, us and family,

us and friends, us in our community, and the people around us. My dear brothers and sisters, ensure that you are asking yourself this question. And it's a very important question. It's actually kind of, two, but how can I be a better person and how can I serve my community? Three, sorry, and how can I draw closer to my creator?

These are the questions you should be asking yourself on a day-to-day basis of how can I build a better connection with Allah Safanahua? And this is something we have to ask ourselves every single day. Because if we don't, then we're going to end up becoming like the satan where we start blaming it on others, right? Oh, something happened. You know, this family member got upset. We got into an argument. That's all there. That's their fault.

We rather look at yourself, right? because, yes, in most cases, relationships play both sides, right? It's supposed to be both sides. But sometimes if you feel as though one person is making all the effort or, you know, something like that, then you have to look at yourself. What am I? What effort am I making? Which is why you find nowadays so many marriages fail.

And the reasoning why is because it's one-sided, right? So trying to ensure that you're reflecting not only just upon your spiritual state, but upon your dunya state is what, your physical state, realize that, yes, your spouses, your family, they're on a mana because Allah, so Allah, Sufana, He could take them away if he wants, but also Allah's blessed you with the family when he hasn't done many others.

So my dear brothers and sisters, ensure that this Ramadan, you are trying to ask yourself these three questions. How can I be a better person? How can I serve my community and serve this Ummah? And how can I draw closer to my creator? Because among the most important things, this Ramadan, my dear brothers and sisters,

is trying to better yourself. And not only just in the Ramadan, but inshallah, out of it too. My brothers and sisters, reflection and introspection are not just practices, but they are essential pathways to spiritual enlightenment. They guide us towards a more profound understanding of ourselves and a relationship with Allah, Sufana-Hu-Tadha. And it's a very hard journey sometimes because reflection is not always going to be simply waking up, knowing that you have certain problems and then you fix them, right? Sometimes it's going to be through tests of family, sometimes it's going to be through test of wealth and, you know, like different things. So if you have aspirations, if you have the things that you're trying to do and they're not working or whatever,

then it could be just because of maybe a sin that you committed or maybe Allah, supanah, which is blocking you from something. Because you need to reflect upon it. You need to better yourself. But the brothers and sisters, ensure that this Ramadan you're trying to better your achlac. We ask Allah, Sufanao T'u, to grant us the ability to reflect sincerely and to act upon our reflections. Amin. My brothers and sisters, Jazakamu al-Hairn for joining us in this beautiful and blessed episode. of adjoining to the divine.

My dear brothers and sisters, we ask Allah to grant us all peace and blessings. And my brothers and sisters, with that, inshallaha-a-a-a-a-a-a-l. I will see you all in the next episode. We ask, d'awana'a'u'u'llhulah, we ask Allah, to bless us all. and alaqa and a lot of my brothers and sisters