Appearances are deceptive

Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

https://youtu.be/KMz56W8C_lQ Auto-generated transcript: As you can see, it's all completely frozen. We had a bit of a snowstorm, not too much of it, but there was some snow last night. So, Munir, show your face. That is Munir. So, it's got snow on top. I don't think it is frozen solid, but don't ask me to prove it. These are the magnitudes, northern hemisphere, where in the winter it completely dies and things are, you know, as if there is no life. And then Allah's to continue to show us His signs and to help us to see His signs. The thing is not just about seeing because as I say all the time, seeing is different from looking. Good morning. Seeing is looking different from looking. Looking is a function of the eyes, whereas seeing is with the heart and with the knowledge. Because when you say I have seen, it means that you have recognized the reality of what you've seen. So, I remind myself to see, not just to look. And when I see this, the sight of snow covering the land is so beautiful. Looks so absolutely pure, everything. Reminds me of Allah SWT as a satar, the one who covers the faults of His slaves. And Imam Shafir Ahmdul Alayh said, if somebody praises you, don't take it to heart. Don't start believing it because the person is praising the satari of Allah. He's praising the cloak that Allah SWT placed over you. The people cannot see what's under the cloak. And when I see these scenes, this absolutely beautiful scenery, I'm reminded of that. Yes, it is very beautiful. Looks so peaceful, harmonious, smooth, level. No dips in it, no bumps in it, no holes in it for anyone to fall into and so on. But it's far from reality. If you walk across that field, then you really know the depth of the snow, you know what's under it and so on. From the… with this phone, it's not so easy to see just now, but it's… there is water there, which is, you know, not yet melted. So, Alhamdulillah, that water is not yet frozen. First, water is not yet frozen. On top here is… it's frozen. In this ice and snow, one of the most important things to make absolutely sure is that it can be frozen. And it's not frozen. It's not frozen. One of the most important things to make absolutely sure is that it can take your weight, because if you fall into a lake, which is… because the snow will not enough take your weight, then it's almost sure death with hypothermia and with drowning, because it's… it's not the same as swimming in warm water. So, talking about this… Oh, there is a flock of… There's some birds coming this way, I think. No, they're going the other way. There is a hawk flying on top. That's why they took off the birds. And they're coming this way. They… They are… Oh, they seem to be terns. Yes, they seem to be terns. Probably see them closer up. And the hawk came up, so they… And this is also the signs for us to see and think. No, these are girls. These are girls of some kind, small girls. And… He showed us this, you know, that… Anas Mahantara teaches us through his creation, through his Kuruvata. And one of the things we learn is that the thing that animals do is they don't take chances. As soon as they sense possible danger, they don't even know whether it's dangerous or not. In this particular case, I don't think that hawk was any danger to them. But as soon as they sense possible danger, they take evasive action. They fly away, they seek shelter. If it's a… If it's a narrow-rided, seek shelter, if it's a bird, fly away. Which tells us to think about what do we do when we sense danger. But the problem is that we have got used to a lifestyle where we have got used to the fact that we have got used to a lifestyle where we have got used to danger, not in any sense of being capable of handling it, but we have got used to not getting alarmed and not panicking when we really should be panicking. The… The example I gave the other day, I was reading somewhere, the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in Russia.