Making the Changes

Making the Changes - Sh. Omar Suleiman

Opening

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Was-salatu was-salamu ala rasoolihi al-kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam tasliman kathira.

Dear brothers and sisters, I'm going to try to inshallah ta'ala make it short. I'm not going to go longer than maghrib, so I won't go more than 30 minutes inshallah ta'ala.

And, you know, honestly I wanted to just kind of leave everyone with some practical tips. Because I know that one of the things that usually happens is when you go to a convention, when you go to a conference, wow, that talk was mind-blowing. That was awesome. Did you hear what Brother Nu'man said? Did you hear what this speaker said? Did you hear what Brother Umar said? Did you hear what Brother Qasim said? Did you hear that? Did you hear what Dr. Arif said? But at the end of the day, we really don't make much change. There isn't really much practicality. Sometimes that's the fault of the speakers, sometimes that's the fault of the listeners.

The Need for Personal Change

And here's the thing, I know that this topic has probably been regurgitated hundreds of times under the guise of different titles, different khutbas, how I can change now. But you know, Imam al-Ghazali rahimahullah, he said something very powerful. Because Allah azzawajal tells us in the Qur'an that those who seek huda, guidance, will be guided.

Those who seek it will be guided. So essentially what Allah azzawajal tells us is that if you really want to change, then the first thing is that you have to recognize that there is something about you that needs to be changed. Looking at yourself, recognizing those things, as Brother Nu'man said, not blaming anyone else for anything.

Not looking at the world and suffering from analysis paralysis, you know, where we'll just sit around and complain and whine. And the same brother that's talking about how terrible everything is in Gaza, and how terrible everything is in Pakistan and Africa, is the same one who won't put forth even an hour's worth of volunteering towards his masjid or towards any Islamic cause. But I want to really focus more on the individual.

I think Brother Nu'man covered very well the idea of a society, you know, how we can change as a community. But if a person is changed, then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala insha'Allah, through that person, would change many things in the community. So it starts with each and every single one of us.

The Power of Deep Intention

Here's the thing. If you want to change, Imam al-Ghazali rahimuhullah, he says something beautiful. He says:

When a person is really deeply in some sort of thought, when something is heavy on his mind, heavy on his heart, then everything around him will be a guide towards that thing.

Let me put it to you this way. How many of you guys have met annoying newlyweds? Raise your hands. How many of you guys are annoying newlyweds? Nobody? No, I don't think so. I was about to call you out. Good call. None of you are annoying? You know the people that go around and all of a sudden, you put like a thousand pictures on your Facebook the day after your wedding, and I'm like, shouldn't you be doing something else the day after your wedding? Uploading a thousand pictures, and it's like you've got these cute little shirts that point to each other, and there's thing one and thing two, and I'm hers and I'm his and all that kind of stuff, and it's like people really don't care that much about your life.

But anyway, the thing is that whenever you fall in love, or whenever a person gets engaged, let me tell you what happens from a guy's perspective. One day, the same guy wants to play basketball all the time, wants to always hang out, annoys his married friends because he's not understanding enough to understand that the married guy has to get home by midnight, wants to go hang out all the time and every, you know, at any time of the day. Then all of a sudden, he gets engaged and he never answers his cell phone again until a year later whenever he wants to run away from his life and he wants to hang out again, look for an excuse to hang out, right? But the point is when that person is in love, when that person is overwhelmed, when that person is overcome, when that person is really in that mood, subhanAllah, everything they look around, everything they see around them reminds them of love, right? Like, oh, that empty paper cup in the parking lot. It's so beautiful. Look how it just goes with the winds. I wish I could be that paper cup in her house and just float around and all that stuff.

You know, like, all that. Here's the thing. You love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, everything around you has meaning all of a sudden. Every single thing. You really have a sense of urgency, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will show you the way to change because you know what, at the end of the day, it's different for everybody. All of us have our different demons, including me, including brother Oman, including brother Qasim, including Dr. Arif, including all of us.

We've all got our own set of problems. And every single problem has its specific solution. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who guides you to that. But the first thing you have to have is a sense of urgency. Don't worry about anyone else. Don't worry about what other people are doing.

As Imam Hassan al-Basri rahimahullah said:

May Allah have mercy on a person who is too busy with his own faults to be worried about anybody else's faults. A sense of urgency. I've got to make my relationship right with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I'm going to meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, maybe tomorrow. It could be very, very, very soon. I need to make sure that when I meet him, I'm prepared for that interview.

Five Practical Tips for Change

So here's what I'm gonna give you because I know that we all have practicality issues with some of the lectures. So I just typed up five things. These are five tips. If you want to take notes, you can. If you don't take notes in lectures, then you waste your time in most of your lectures.

1. Eliminate the Poisons in Your Life

The first one. Eliminate the poisons in your life that aren't allowing you to change. How many of you guys have ever seen a person... I know I deal with bums all the time, right? Anyone who deals in relief work or any Imam or something like that. You'll always have the guy that, you know, that was a loser from a dunya perspective.

And usually when you're a loser from a dunya perspective, you're also not very disciplined spiritually. Walks into the masjid, reeking of alcohol. Brother, you know, I thought we agreed you're gonna make a change. I thought that something was gonna happen. Oh, I'm a changed man. I go home more now. I go to work every single day. What's he not recognizing? The alcohol, right? The same way spiritually. You have to recognize the poisons in your life that will prevent you from coming close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Do you really think Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to give you khushu' in your salah when your eyes have been all over the place all day and all of a sudden you think you're gonna go to salah and salah is gonna be okay? You really think Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to allow you to enjoy that relationship with Him? If right before salah you were sitting on Gchat and Facebook or whatever and you're chatting with whoever it is and then two minutes left in salah time, Asr is at 4:38, it's 4:36, BRB, gotta go make salah, right? Then you put a smiley face or something like that. You go hurry up and rush to make your salah and come back and you write FML, almost missed my salah or something like that. Alhamdulillah the uncles don't understand that one.

Don't work on that acronym, okay? The point that I'm trying to say is you really think Allah is gonna give you change like that? You really think your khushu' will mean anything? That you'll be able to get any khushu' out of that? And essentially what that teaches us is that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), he taught us about this heart, this qalb. Imam al-Qayyim r.a says what? Your qalb is a space. You fill it up with anything else, you're not gonna have any space for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in there.

So the very first thing, the very first step to making that change as an individual, eliminate the things in your life that are a hindrance to you excelling in your relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Get rid of those things before you go do good deeds. You know what? Like Imam Sufyan al-Thawri r.a said a very beautiful statement.

He was asked, where's the priority? Istighfar or Tasbeeh? Doing good deeds or seeking forgiveness? And he said if you have a dirty thawb, you don't accessorize it, you clean the stain. You clean the stain, you wash the stain off. If you got a big old brown stain on your white shirt, and you go and you put $200 cufflinks on, people are not gonna notice the cufflinks. People are gonna look at the stain. Get rid of the stains. Then you can start talking about all these things that you can do.

And unfortunately, you know subhanAllah, spirituality, the notion of spirituality. So this concept of progressive Islam slash just spirituality and ignoring the commands of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is essentially the same thing that the Christians did. Essentially what Paul proposed. It allows you to act as a fool your entire life. Not do anything in accordance with the Quran and the Sunnah. But to do like something super spiritual so that you can feel good about yourself.

So essentially what you're doing is you're giving to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala what you want to give Him, not what He wants you to give Him. You know, I'll go and I'll pray, and I'll do this extra qiyam. The problem is not the qiyam. The problem is that you're doing the things that will stop your qiyam from being accepted. The problem is not your du'a. The problem is what you do after du'a and before du'a. That's the problem that you're having. Eliminate the stains from your life. And then you would find that you naturally would start to come close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Because once your heart becomes clean and honest, your heart starts naturally inclining towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Your fitrah is to incline towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So eliminate the things that corrupt your fitrah.

2. An Ounce of Prevention is Better Than a Pound of Cure

Number two, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. You know some people subhanAllah, they wait for really really really bad things to happen. They wait to see the consequences of their sins before they change those things.

An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. What happens is that shaytan claws, he digs you into this hole. Or you dig yourself into this hole. It's a lot harder to climb out of that hole than to have taken care of it in the first place. And Imam al-Qayyim rahimahullah, he says, and I want you to think about this, prevention, before you commit mistakes. You know some people subhanAllah are just very weak.

We're all weak, right? But some people just wait to mess up and then I'll try to figure it out. Put aside the flaws you already have, don't go any further. Imam al-Qayyim rahimahullah, he says that every single action that you commit, every single sin that you commit goes through the following stages:

Number one, it's a fatrah, passing thoughts. Number two, after it's a passing thought, it becomes a fikrah, settled thoughts. You start thinking about it. Hey, what about that? You know, shaytan caught your gaze with something. He got you with some sort of interest. Let me start thinking about this. You start to entertain that thought. You were not strong enough to cut off yourself before you could entertain that thought. You know some people subhanAllah, immediately the instinct, because their iman has become strengthened, it takes a long time to really raise yourself, to purify yourself.

The minute that something walks by or the minute that they see something and that they're approached by something that's haram, immediately they go into istighfar. There's no time there for that. I mean the amount of time, the time that lapses before they do istighfar and go back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is very small.

Some people, passing thought, then I start entertaining the thought. After I've entertained the thought enough, shaytan has told me about how great the benefits of this action are going to be. And essentially we commit sin because we think that it's going to serve some sort of benefit to us. We think it's going to give us some sort of pleasure. And it usually does for a temporary time. Then it becomes a niyyah.

I have the intention to commit that sin. After I have the niyyah, the intention to commit that sin, once I've made the intention to commit something, nothing is going to stop me. Then it becomes azeema. I'm determined to commit that sin. No matter what stops me. At first I was very hesitant. Now I'm full force. I'll give you an example. There was a sister that I knew that wanted to take off her hijab just to rebel against her father.

That was the only reason she wanted to throw off her hijab. She was telling my wife, she was saying the first day she went to school, she felt so uncomfortable without her hijab that she threw her hoodie on. She didn't wear hijab, but she threw her hoodie on. Next thing you know, the hoodie came off. Few days, right? I have the intention. Next thing you know, then the tank tops came, then the cleavage came, then the short skirts came too.

Why? Because you start becoming determined then to commit that sin. Your heart became hardened to that. That sin has become humanized to you. Hey, this isn't so bad. You became an addict. And that's why once you have azeemah, it becomes amal. It's surfaced. It became action. Once it becomes action, it becomes adah, becomes a bad habit.

Once you have a systemized sin in your life, trust me, that will kill your dua, that will kill your salah, that will kill your opportunity to get close to Allah SWT. That's why from the dua that we make:

We ask Allah SWT to purify us from the sins and from the mistakes that block our dua and from the sins and mistakes that cause the anger of Allah SWT to descend upon us. If you keep on with a bad habit, if you keep on with a sin, I want you to think about this, Rasulullah SWT tells us that at one point you become defined by your sin.

Just like at one point you become defined by your good deed. In Bukhari, the Prophet SWT said that a person would tell the truth so much, he would be so truthful (حَتَّى يُكْتَبَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ صِدِّيقًا - ḥattá yuktaba ʿinda l-lāhi ṣiddīqan) (Bukhari) till he's written with Allah SWT as a siddiq. Not that he told the truth one time. This is a truthful person. This is someone who's truthful in his iman. And then a person would lie so much, not that he told a lie here or there, until he's written with Allah SWT as a kaddhab.

Your name with Allah is a liar. Subhanallah. You become defined by your traits. You become defined by your deeds. So the second thing dear brothers and sisters, again, is that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. Stop yourself before you fall into those situations.

3. Keep It Simple, Sunnah (KISS)

Number three, I just typed these up by the way, so I'm using my iPhone, I'm sorry. Number three, anyone ever heard of the acronym KISS? Nobody? Keep it simple stupid. That's what it means.

Now, because some brothers always get offended whenever I say that in khutbas, I changed it to keep it simple sunnah. Just to make it okay for everybody. Some brothers are like, Brother, you should have said keep it simple smart. Don't insult your brothers. Okay, keep it simple sunnah. We can all agree upon that.

Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam tells us that when a person goes to his grave, in Surah An-Nisa, it's not that he's going to want to come back and he's going to want to establish khilafah. He's going to wish he would have a moment to come back and establish khilafah and liberate Palestine, those types of things. Or build a new masjid and those types of things.

Yes, those are great things. I'm not saying those are bad things. But when you go to your grave, what are the things that you're praying for? What are the things that you miss? What do you really want? He would come back and wish he could just offer two rak'ahs. Just two more rak'ahs. So that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la might forgive him with those two rak'ahs. Find something small in your life that you're capable of doing and stick with it.

Eventually that will accumulate. Eventually that might be the cause of you entering into Jannah. SubhanAllah, when a person finds something small that he can do. I can't change the situation in Palestine right now. I can at least try to change it right now in my own community. I can at least do something here.

You know, SubhanAllah, most masajid, whenever there are the new board elections and the new committee elections and things of that sort, you have like 30 committees that are formed. Right? And brothers bring out their nice agendas. I don't know the politics of any masajid here by the way. None. So you can't accuse me of being involved in anything here. But usually what happens in every masjid, brothers bring out their long agendas. Three months later, wait, I'm on a committee? What are you talking about? I didn't know that. People completely forget what they committed to. That's why the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, what is Aisha radiAllahu anhu narrated? That the most beloved actions to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala (أَدْوَمُهَا وَإِنْ قَلّ - adwamuhu wa in qall) (Bukhari).

You know, the most consistent of them even if they're very, very, very small. I'm gonna give you guys a story. Actually, do I have time? I have time to tell the story inshaAllah.

The Story of Imam Ahmad and the Baker

I'll give you guys the story. Imam Al-Jawzi rahimahullah, he wrote a book about Al-Imam Ahmad ibn Muhammad rahimahullah, Manaqib Ahmad, the virtues of Imam Ahmad rahimahullah ta'ala. Imam Ahmad rahimahullah at the time of, at the peak of his life, before the fitna started, even after the fitna started, was the most famous man in the Muslim Ummah.

Hands down. The fact that Imam Al-Zahbi rahimahullah says, this was the largest janazah that took place. In a matter of one day, he died and he was buried and the same day, you had 1.3 million people come and pray janazah on him.

That's more than the Pope. More than Pope John Paul with all the media and holding his body out. Imagine how popular and beloved he was. Imam Ahmad rahimahullah used to go around to his students' halaqas, used to go around seeking knowledge from other people, wrapping his face so people wouldn't notice him. Very humble person because he didn't want people to put him on a pedestal. One day, he was traveling to a shawm, to Syria. What you would call Syria today, but of course, it's Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. A shawm. And he tells this story.

And of course, back then, Imam Ahmad rahimahullah didn't have a Facebook page. He didn't know how he looked. He walks into a masjid to spend the night. And the hadith, the guard of the masjid tells him, get out. Masjid is closing. He said, but I have nowhere to go. I don't know where to go. He said, get out. Ukhruj, get out.

Masjid is closing. He didn't sit there and say, by the way, I'm Imam Ahmad. No, he didn't play that card. Just get out. So Imam Ahmad rahimahullah picked up the stuff and he slept on the steps of the masjid. The hadith came and started, hey, move. Go, you can't even sleep here. Go, move away. Imam Ahmad's like, where am I gonna go? I don't know anything.

This man, not knowing who he's messing with, picks up Imam Ahmad rahimahullah by his legs and he drags him to the middle of the street and drops him. Imam Ahmad rahimahullah is like, okay. Then what happens? A baker who owns a bakery right across the street, he comes to Imam Ahmad, he says, you can come sleep in my bakery tonight. I'm gonna be doing some work. You can come sleep here. So he opens the way for him.

Imam Ahmad rahimahullah observes this man. He's sitting there and he's putting the dough together and he's putting in the oven and everything that he does while he's kneading the dough, he's going, subhanAllah, alhamdulillah, la ilaha illallah, Allahu akbar, subhanAllah, alhamdulillah, la ilaha illallah, Allahu akbar, subhanAllah. The entire night, he's making tasbih.

Imam Ahmad is shocked. Usually people get tired of tasbih after two minutes, three minutes. Shocked. This guy is constantly making tasbih at his workplace. He's not sitting, just at his workplace. He has nothing better to do, right? Back then they didn't have Little Wayne or Umm Kulthum, you know, or Junaid Jamshad pre what we know he is now, right? He didn't have his iPod or anything.

SubhanAllah, alhamdulillah, la ilaha illallah, Allahu akbar. Constantly. Imam Ahmad rahimahullah goes, how long have you been in this situation? He says, what situation? Making tasbih to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He says, my whole life, this is what I do. Imam Ahmad rahimahullah, he says, what have you seen from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as a result of all this tasbih that you make? All these days that you make tasbih, obviously Jannah. Imagine Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam tells us each one of these is planting trees and mansions in Jannah.

You can imagine what this man has with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Talk about change, right? But he says:

I never made dua to Allah for anything except that He answered it. Imam Ahmad rahimahullah said, subhanAllah, مَا دَعَوْتُ اللهَ لِشَيْءٍ إِلَّا أَعْطَانِي إِيَّاهُ You never made dua to Allah except He gave it to you? He repeated, I never made dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for anything except that He gave it to me. He said, except for one thing. Imam Ahmad rahimahullah said, what is that? He said, أَنْ أَرَى الْإِمَامَ أَحْمَدَ. To have a chance to see Imam Ahmad.

Imam Ahmad rahimahullah was brought to tears. He embraced this man. But then he said, subhanAllah,

ها هُوَ اللهُ، قَدْ جَاءَكَ بِأَحْمَدَ يَجْرُّهُ بِرِجْلِهِ إِلَى مَخْبَزِكَ He said here is Allah. He brought you Ahmad, dragging him by his feet to your bakery. If it wasn't for you, I could have slept in peace at the masjid. SubhanAllah, think about that.

Tasbeeh. He made use of his time. How much time do you kill at a red light going to work? How much time do you kill in front of the TV? How much time do you waste of your life that you could be planting trees and palaces in Jannah? That's change.

Keep it simple, sunnah. Have a wird. Have a wird, not one of these wirds that's made up by some shaykh somewhere that you're going to be doing. No, go to the sunnah of the messenger and that's sufficient. Find the things that he used to do on a daily basis sallAllahu alayhi wasallam and incorporate that in your life. So that's number three. Keep it simple, sunnah.

4. Think Progress

Number four. Think progress. Why do I say this is so important? How many times do we see a sister that says, I don't think I can wear hijab anymore or I'm not going to wear hijab because I feel like a hypocrite because I don't even pray right. Yeah, I've seen it a lot. I feel like a hypocrite. I feel two-faced when I wear hijab because I know that I'm not really what people think of me. We've seen that a lot. I don't even pray my five times, my five prayers on time. I just, I can't do this. I'd be a hypocrite. Look how shaytan gets you.

He makes you think backwards. The brothers in my community who always do this. Let me tell you what the greatest cop out of not going to hajj is. But shaykh, I work in haram. How can I use my money and I can go to hajj and then come back and work in haram? So instead of getting rid of haram, I'm just not going to go to hajj. Convenient thinking.

Instead of fixing my internal life, I'm just never going to wear hijab. Right? Or how many times have you heard this question? Is it halal to fast if you don't pray? And have you heard that question before? A lot of times. A lot of times. I hear it all the time. And you know some shaykh, they'd say, no, that person should fear Allah. He's not even a Muslim. He shouldn't be fasting. He should start praying first. These types of things.

Why don't you start praying and add that so that your fast can become validated. SubhanAllah. Think progress. Don't think backwards. Shaytan always pulls you this way. I didn't mean you by the way. It just happened the phone happened to be coming at the same time. Shaytan always pulls you this way. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala always calls you forward.

Make progress. The most profound lecture I've ever heard in my life, Arabic or English, I was going through my old tapes, cassette tapes. By the way, I don't listen to lectures in English anymore. Honestly, I can't. SubhanAllah, I love listening to lectures in Arabic. That's my own personal inclination.

There's one person who always does it for me, Imam Siraj Wahaj, hafidhullah. One lecture I found, he did this khutbah in the 80s called Islam means progress. It's my cassette. I popped it in my car. Alhamdulillah, I don't drive a new car. So I still have a cassette player. Popped it in my car. Islam means progress. One of the greatest lectures I've ever heard in my life.

If you can find it online, find it. I don't know if it's been transcribed or it's been put in the MP3. Islam means progress. Number four is to think forward.

5. Don't Become a Terrible Person on Your Way to Becoming a Good Muslim

Number five, and this is my last thought, inshaAllah ta'ala, because I promised you I'd finish on time, and I've been trying to be good with that recently. One time, a convert, two years ago, he converted to Islam in the Emirate actually, in the UAE. A British convert. And subhanAllah, he was reflecting on the manners of the Muslims. And he said something very profound, and I saw it repeated on Facebook a few times and things of that sort.

He said, on your way to becoming a good Muslim, don't become a crappy human being. SubhanAllah. Becoming a more religious person should not make you a jerk. It should not make your character worse. It should not make you more condescending towards people. It should make you more humble. It should make you more loving. It should make you more compassionate. It should make you more caring.

Don't become a terrible person on your way to becoming a good Muslim. It starts off just as I was saying with your parents. You know, subhanAllah, Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam tells us what? What's gonna be judged on the day of judgment? Your khuluq. That's the heaviest thing. That's the heaviest thing. Your character.

And when you have nasty manners, that is a reflection that on the inside you are actually devoid of iman. Because if we look at the woman who the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned, who prayed a lot of prayers, fasted her fast, did all the rituals, did all the good things. But she was abusive to her neighbor.

Let me put this in perspective for you. And we shouldn't be judging other people. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was making an example of this woman. It's not our job to do this, but let me put this in perspective for you. You know, a person who is extremely religious and foremost and coming to the masjid all the time and doing all the halaqas, if they have bad manners, if they have a bad attitude, the most you would say is, you say that person might get called out on the day of judgment for their bad attitude. But you know, alhamdulillah, they still do this, they still do that. And we're supposed to make excuses for other people. That's our job. We make excuses for other people. We just don't make excuses for ourselves. But the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said what about this woman? What did he say? Someone tell me. No one remembers this hadith? The woman who abused her neighbor? Who was abusive to her neighbors with her tongue? She didn't go beat them up, she just was abusive to her neighbors with her tongue.

She prayed, she fasted, she did what she was supposed to do from a ritualistic standpoint. What did Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam say about her? Brothers or sisters? She's in hellfire. He said something else too. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said:

(Bukhari)

There is no good inside of her. She's in hellfire. Think about that. لَا خَيْرَ فِيهَا. There is nothing of that's good inside her. هِيَ فِي النَّار . All of that was superficial. What really counts is when your inner beauty

Closing

changes. That will reflect with your outer beauty too. That's why Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taught us when we look in the mirror, we say, we ask Allah for change. Every time we look in the mirror, when you change your clothes, you ask Allah for a different type of change.

What do you say? (اللَّهُمَّ كَمَا أَحْسَنْتَ خَلْقِي - Allahumma kama ahsanta khalqi)? The way you beautified my appearance. You gave me these clothes. You allowed me to change into this new pair of clothes. You created me with some form of symmetry. What do you say next? (أَحْسِنُ خُلْقِي - ahsinn khulqi) Correct, beautify my inside. So we ask Allah SWT to make us amongst those who experience real change, who search for guidance and who are guided by His mercy.