Abdul Nasir Jangda – Purpose Of Life
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of guidance and support from Allah for individuals to achieve their personal and professional goals. They stress the need for individuals to be mindful of their behavior and intentions when faced with unexpected situations, being attentive of others' actions, fulfilling God's family dynamics and personal obligations, and setting clear alarm to wake oneself up from slumber and stay on top of their busy schedules. The speakers also emphasize the importance of fulfilling God's family dynamics and personal development, setting clear alarm to wake oneself up from slumber, and fulfilling God's family dynamics through fulfilling God's family dynamics and serving his father.
AI: Summary ©
InshaAllah, we're going to spend a few moments
here,
probably about 20 minutes or so,
reflecting on the book of Allah
these are
the nights
where we dedicate and devote ourselves to the
worship of Allah
These are the nights where
and the days and the nights where we
spend as much time as possible
with the Quran in the book of Allah
But we need to understand what exactly is
the goal, what exactly
is the objective, what exactly is
the result
that we are looking for
from spending this time in the house of
Allah, spending this time in the worship of
Allah, spending this time with the book of
Allah,
what is the
outcome, or the goal, or the objective that
we are looking for?
That's what we need to think about.
And so based off of that, I wanted
us to spend a little bit of time
reflecting
on the Quran, on the book of Allah
about
that. And in regards to that, so that
we can reach
that
goal and that objective.
And Allah
talks to us about this in the Quran.
In surah number 20,
surah
Taha,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
gives us that understanding and talks to us
about this.
And Allah addresses this
reality, this issue that we all face.
We're all trying to figure out
what we're supposed to be doing,
and why we're doing what we're doing.
Allah addresses this through the framework
of one of the great prophets of Allah,
who is the most frequently
spoken of prophet in the Quran.
And that is none other than the prophet
Musa
And Allah
tells us about Musa
Earlier in the Quran, Allah
has told us or earlier in his life,
other places in the Quran, Allah has told
us
that when Musa alayhi wasalam was a baby,
when he was an infant,
he was protected
by Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala. And Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala arranged
for his protection,
That his mother was
inspired
by Allah,
to take care of him,
And then when you are worried
that they're going to come for him,
then place him in a basket
and float him down the river.
And Allah
promised that we will bring him back to
you and we will make him a great
prophet and messenger of Allah.
Then Musa alayhi salam,
as he grows up,
living between these two worlds, there's a man
from Bari Israel, but living in the house
and in the court of the pharaoh,
because of the love
that the wife of Fir'aun had for him,
the motherly kind of affection that she had
for him. And he's growing up there.
And he finds himself in a very difficult
situation where a terrible accident occurred and a
man died.
And they were hunting him down, and they
wanted to make an example out of him.
And Musa alaihis salaam escaped from there.
And he found himself in the middle of
nowhere
with nothing but the shirt on his back.
No food, no money, no support, no friends,
no family, no nothing.
And he turned and plead to Allah and
he begged Allah, Oh Allah, please provide
for me, take care of me. And Allah
provided for him. What did Allah provide for
him? We see in Suratul Qasas.
Allah says that
Allah provided him
with family.
Allah gave him a wife.
Allah gave him a home.
Allah gave him a job.
And according to the narrations, Allah even provided
him with a mentor
in the Prophet Shuaib alaihi wasalam.
Allah provided
everything to Musa
He had a mentor. He had a job.
He had a house. He had, you know,
money. He had a wife. He had family.
He had everything.
But then
Allah
engages Musa alayhi salam once again.
And Allah tells us about this in a
couple of different places, but
the place that we'll be looking at is
in surataha surah number 20.
Allah tells the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
Musa. Do you know the story of Musa?
Ibrah Anaran.
He was traveling with his family.
And they needed to stop on the way.
This is a time and a place in
the world where they didn't have hotels,
rest areas.
There was no Buc ee's.
There's nothing.
So where do you do? What do you
do? You just camp out under the stars.
But he has a family with him.
So he says, Okay. How do I take
care of them?
And he sees like a fire in the
distance. He sees some light in the distance.
So he told his family,
y'all stay here.
I see a fire in the distance.
Maybe I can bring some fire back for
us.
Oh
Or I might find some directions.
There there's somebody there who I can ask
for further directions.
Very fascinating.
The verbiage of the Quran is so profound
and so deep and so eloquent
that Allah uses the word huda, guidance.
And this
is foreshadowing what is to come.
That he said, I might find some guidance
there.
Then when he got there to the place
where he saw that light, that fire,
that light emanating from, when he arrived there,
He heard a voice
speaking to him,
calling out to him,
said, Oh Musa,
oh Moses,
Indeed
I am your Lord.
Remove your shoes.
You are in the sacred valley of Tuwa.
Remove your shoes.
This is the first note that we should
make here.
When we want
guidance,
when we need guidance,
enlightenment
from Allah
we have to come correct.
I want guidance from Allah.
I need to come correct.
I have to clean myself, I have to
clean my clothes, I gotta make wudu,
I gotta be dressed properly, I gotta like
cover myself.
I can't
be without clothing on properly.
I gotta cover myself properly.
I come.
I pray,
ideally.
I've
I fall on my knees. I stretch my
hands out and I beg. You have to
come correct.
You can't be arrogant,
or careless,
or lackadaisical.
Yeah, whatever.
Allah help me or whatever.
What?
What does that mean?
Sure. Why not?
Maybe.
Who cares?
No. But you have to come correct. Allah
told Musa alaihi wasalam, Remove your shoes.
So this is a reminder of the fact
that when we're coming before Allah, when we're
sitting before Allah, when we're begging before Allah,
and we need Allah, Allah doesn't need us,
we need Allah.
That we have to
approach
that situation properly and appropriately.
We got to be mindful.
And so Allah says, Remove your shoes, you're
in the sacred valley. And then Allah says,
I
have chosen you.
And this is something that we have to
understand. Allah says, I have chosen you.
Nothing is by accident.
Why are we here in the masjid, in
the house of Allah, in the middle of
the night,
during the middle of the week,
on what's called a Tuesday night. Why?
Because Allah chose us to be here.
There are no accidents.
There are no coincidences.
Allah chose us. Allah literally says in the
Quran,
strive
for the sake of Allah as He deserves.
Allah chose you.
If we're sitting in the masjid, if we're
reading Quran, if we're praying, if we're making
dua, if we're worshiping, Allah chose us.
And so we have to recognize that.
So what do you do when somebody gives
you a special opportunity?
When somebody gives you an honor or a
privilege?
Do you just brush it off? Disregard it?
No. We would never do that in the
world.
If somebody gave me
a cherished opportunity,
worldly wise,
in terms of
money, in terms of material things,
I would be so attentive.
I'd be on top of it.
I'd show up early. I'd
be grateful.
So similarly,
that is the response response that we need
to have, that is the reaction, that is
the behavior that we need to have,
that Allah chose us. So Allah tells Musa
I have chosen you.
So pay very close attention
to what is being revealed.
Pay very close attention. Be attentive. Be alert.
Be mindful. Be respectful.
Be present.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, I and only
I am Allah.
The only one worthy of worship, Allah says.
And then Allah tells Musa alayhi salam,
so worship me.
That is your purpose.
That is why you are here. That is
why you exist.
That is why you have been granted this
life.
And establish the prayer to remember me.
For us, that's why we exist,
That's our purpose,
not everything else.
My purpose is not
to work and earn money and then spend
money.
That's not my purpose. That might be my
need or necessity.
That might be a part of my reality,
but that's not my purpose.
But Allah tells
us, Allah says, I created you to worship
me.
We were created to worship Allah, to obey
Allah, to live a life of obedience to
Allah.
That's our purpose.
And that's what Allah
is telling Musa alayhi wa sallam.
And again,
now there's another issue.
I can say, my purpose is to worship
Allah and obey Allah.
Okay, excellent, great.
But then,
I don't actually live my life according to
that.
Some of us are struggling to even say
it.
But even when we say it,
how do we ensure that we're not just
saying it, what we call lip service, empty
words,
but we're living it.
And
Allah gave us a way to prove it,
to live it,
and to stay on top of it.
The 5 times daily prayer.
It never lets
forget what our purpose is.
It never allows us to forget.
It never allows us to forget what our
purpose is.
We wake up in the morning. I know
in Ramadan we might already be awake,
but think about it year round.
You have to set that alarm that jars
you,
jarringly awakes you from your slumber, the deep
slumber of your sleep,
to remind you
what's your purpose.
And then
around noontime,
when your day is so busy and you're
in the middle of a 100 different things,
and you got to think about all these
different things, and you haven't even had time
to eat yet properly,
Then again
that adhan goes off, that alarm goes off
to pull you out of everything else. Your
job,
your business,
your livelihood because
that's not your purpose.
That's a job.
Whoever told us
that a job
is purpose?
What a sad existence if our job is
our purpose.
And then
in the afternoon time,
when it's the transitionary time of the day
and we got a 1000000 different things to
do and we gotta drive and we gotta
pick up the kids and we gotta do
this and do that, and a million other
things.
And again these are all obligations,
responsibilities.
There might be obligations and responsibilities and they
can be noble,
but there's still a difference. Allah is reminding
us there's a difference between
responsibilities
and purpose.
Even responsibilities
do not equal purpose.
And then in the evening time,
when that's the time with the family,
oh subhanAllah with the family.
Family is sacred.
Family is sacred.
Like the hadith Qudsi says that Allah
says,
Like I derived
the name of family from my own name.
Ar Rahman.
Because it's sacred.
Allah says, You will be asked about your
family relations
on the day of judgment.
It's very important it's sacred.
But
this is where we thread the needle.
The family relationships
are not for the sake of the relationship.
They are sacred because Allah said they are.
And so if we are fulfilling them because
Allah said so, then it has to do
with purpose.
If it has no consideration of Allah in
it,
then it's a relationship and it's personal, but
it's not
purpose.
So even that evening time
that is spent with the family,
We gotta step away from everyone and everything.
And hopefully, we do it with everyone.
But worst case scenario, we got to step
away from everyone
and say, because
that's purpose.
Right? To elaborate a little bit on the
family dynamic thing.
The father,
The pleasure of god
is in the pleasure of the father.
That's why we serve our fathers.
He's
the middle door of paradise.
That's why we serve our fathers.
It's a weak narration but it talks about
The paradise under the feet of the mothers.
It's a weak narration. But the Quran says,
talks about the mother.
But why?
To please Allah.
Our spouses
because every
nice thing that we do for our spouses
is a Sadaqa, rewarded by Allah.
Because Allah said so.
We nurture and raise and care for our
children.
Why?
Because they are
for us.
It's pleasing to Allah.
Purpose.
And then night time,
when you're tired and you need to sleep
and you need to rest.
True. We're human beings. We have these needs.
But again, we got to put everything on
pause and hold
while I go fulfill my purpose.
And that's what Allah is telling Musa 'alayhi
wa sallam,
Allah says, by the way, you don't have
forever.
There is a deadline.
We, you and I, all of us, we
have to figure out our purpose. We gotta
live by our purpose. We gotta be committed
to our purpose, and we don't get forever
to figure it out.
There is a deadline.
It's an it's an expression or a saying
that says that when a human being dies,
their personal
begins.
The hereafter begins.
We have until
we breathe our last in this world.
And the whole world
has an expiration date, the day of judgment,
yomulkiyama.
So Allah says,
By the way,
there will be people
and there will be things that will try
to distract us from our purpose.
There will be people, there will be things
that will distract us from our purpose. But
again Allah says,
Know your
purpose.
Don't be distracted.
No matter who it is, no matter what
it is,
know your purpose.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala teaches this
beautiful example
through Musa alayhi salaam, and I'll be quick
with this,
What's in your right hand, O Musa?
And he said,
This is my staff
because I'm a shepherd.
Shepherd is your job, not your purpose.
What is the staff?
I use it for my job. It's a
tool.
I can lean on it, I can knock
down leaves from the trees so that the
animals can eat, and everything else.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, No.
That's its function.
And function is not purpose.
Something can have many many functions,
but that might not be its purpose.
Understand what the purpose is. And what was
the purpose here?
Allah said,
throw down the staff.
He threw it down and it became a
raging serpent.
A snake.
Now what does a snake do?
It bites. Dangerous.
But Allah again says,
understand purpose.
Now grab it.
And don't be afraid.
We'll return it back to its original form.
And it became a staff again.
And then Allah
tells him one more thing,
Place your right hand under your left arm.
And when it comes out, it was glowing
brilliantly.
Like you couldn't look directly at it.
And then Allah
says,
It's a sign.
See all the signs of Allah
all around you.
See the signs of Allah all around you.
That staff, that stick is a sign.
Understand the purpose.
Every single thing is a sign
that points us to the creator Allah
Allah says,
We created the sky,
We placed the sky
over you as a ceiling,
and Allah says the sky is protected.
That hafidah,
Allah did not say a ceiling protects you,
right? Allah said that this ceiling does not
protect. This ceiling is protected.
Because even when you look up at the
sky, do you just see the sky?
Or do you see the sky as a
sign of the creator?
Purpose.
Understand the purpose. And then Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala concludes by telling Musa alayhi salam,
now go live
your purpose.
Now go to firaoun,
for he has crossed the line, he has
lost his mind.
Go to Firaoun.
That's your purpose.
So as we gather here tonight and all
throughout these nights,
in these last blessed nights of the month
of Ramadan,
let us all think
and reflect
on what is our purpose.
Why are we here?
Why were we created?
Why were we given this life? Why were
we given this time?
And let's really figure out our purpose.
And then make a commitment
that from here on forth,
I will have
needs,
necessities.
I will have responsibilities.
I will have functions.
That's a part of being a human being.
But none of that
is my purpose.
And none of that will ever supersede my
purpose. But the purpose always comes first. And
my purpose is I am a slave of
Allah, I worship Allah, I am obedient to
Allah, I obey Allah,
I serve the deen of Allah, I follow
in the footsteps of the prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam. I revive and live the legacy of
Rasulullah
I serve the ummah of the prophet sallallahu
alayhi wasallam. I call people to Allah. I
establish the deen of Allah. I establish
justice on this earth and to bring dignity
to humanity, and the ummah of the prophet
That is my purpose.
And anytime
the job,
the necessities, the responsibilities
come into conflict with it,
I will always put my purpose first.
May Allah
grant us the ability to live a life
of purpose.
May Allah
open our hearts to our purpose in life.
May Allah
forgive us for our negligence in the past.
And may Allah
keep us on our purpose. And may Allah
protect us from ever losing our purpose.