Muhammed Ali

Motivation comes from proper contemplation. When the subconscious is convinced that it must act, then it will drive you to act. If it has doubts (or is forgetful) then it will falter. You must teach the subconscious through exhaustive contemplation. You can also teach it through action that removes it's aversion to performing that act. BTW listen to David Goggins. He swears a lot but you will benefit from him. His life-story is extraordinary and it will make you feel humble. He shares that view with you about (not benefiting from) listening to the motivational speech of others.

Should a rookie need to be making these videos? The bigger problem here is that the clerics do nothing. The internet has been around for a long time with multiple anti-Islamic and anti-Shia websites and I have seen very little work done by the clerics to counter any of this (especially the former). The laypersons have had to spend their time learning and trying to defend their faith because those who have the greatest responsibility, shun it. I think they should be ashamed of themselves. I used to think they didn't know much about the Internet (especially the older ones) and then I see them spending time on Facebook and Twitter making a few comments and uploading pictures. It's like the soldiers of a nation were too feeble or lazy to do anything, so the ordinary civilians went out to fight the wars. Then the soldiers demanded tax money to build barracks and then they fought little battles within those safe places (I.e. gave lectures about the same subjects for decades to their dwindling followers). BTW I am assuming that the individual in the video is not from the hawza. Even if he is, my critisism about the clerics still stands.

In the afterlife, he has probably settled on the latter and will be happy with it.

Why the need for such a 'plan'? Did God think like this: "I have a great plan! I will create humans who will be born as sinners even though they have never sinned. Then I will kill my son who also happens to be me and thus not really my son. Then the humans will have their non-sins erased. That is a brilliant plan!" How does killing yourself erase the of sins of others? Doesn't any of this make you uneasy? Or are you intellectually totally at ease with it?

A God that cannot find any way to forgive humans for crimes that they did not commit, except by killing his son/himself? You would not accept that sort of reasoning in any other area of life?

Has anyone been buying recently? I think it is a good time to buy. It's better than being like those people who were oblivious to crypto over the last several years and then bought at the peak prices. The same will happen again. But do much research first and use hardware wallets. And only buy what you can afford to lose. I am only posting here because I want the good Shia to consider taking this subject more seriously because I believe there are big opportunities available in this field.

What if God didn't want you to take a certain path but instead wanted you to take another? Then no amount of praying would help. I believe this notion that we should keep performing huge amounts of dua whilst weeping is harmful. It will make the mind associate prayers with sadness and disappointment. Perhaps the better way is to think deeply about the alternative options and use your brain to make the best decisions, whilst supplicating to Allah without excess and constant sadness. Do your best and feel good about it. And make use of the good things in life that Allah has given you. E.g. go and do something fun. Go to some beautiful natural location and think about all the great things in life to balance out the sadness. BTW I know there is much more to it than what I have said.

Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris, Harvey Weinstein etc. Yes I chose those names intentionally. A lot of people hide what they know. You could tell the man had issues long before any of the other controversies.

Without any doubt, some of the unreasonable and troubled individuals from the past. They are more intriguing and perplexing than the decent members. Especially those that have a mixture of seemingly admirable and troubling traits. Especially if they are intelligent. I would even pay them money for their time if they let me interview them.

I missed these posts because I was rather busy. Give me a few days to respond.

You know that some scholars think that it is only haraam within the context of gambling? I have no problem with accepting seemingly benign laws (and this is one of them) without knowing the specific benefit of those laws, but I wont rule out the possibility that the reasons have been lost to history or have been left for us to discover with the progress of time. Anyhow, we can derive generic benefits from such laws. E.g. character building, discipline etc. If any law appears to be significantly harmful, then I would make efforts to find traditionalist evidence to disestablish it.

I was hoping for a meme and I am not dissapointed

Why accept that it is haraam? Why not hypothesize that it made sense in a particular context?