Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Free Your Mind from the Herd Mentality
AI: Summary ©
The importance of pursuing spirituality and pursuing a mindset change to achieve success in life is emphasized. The need for guidance and understanding oneself is emphasized, as well as the importance of finding a person to focus on and develop spirituality. The challenges of addiction and the importance of staying true to oneself are also discussed, along with the need for patience and perseverance in helping others to enjoy life.
AI: Summary ©
We need guidance.
Since this is a youth program, the youth
brain is not fully developed until at least
28.
Different sections of the brain of any human
being does not get fully developed.
You see a difference when you become 13,
14.
Aren't you different from when you were 9
and 10?
You suddenly find all this energy.
You can actually now, you think you can
decide for yourself.
You start arguing with your parents about what's
right and what's wrong.
I want to do this and I don't
want to do that.
What's wrong with one extra hour sleeping in
the morning?
Oh, no, no, sorry.
Not one, five extra hours of sleeping in
the morning.
You just don't want me to sleep.
Sayyid al-Habib al-Mustafa salallahu ta'ala
alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa baraka
wa salam tasliman katheeran ila yawm al-deen
amma ba'd.
Qala Allahu ta'ala fi al-Qur'an
al-Majeed wa al-Furqan al-Hameed Qul
inna salati wa nusuki wa mahyaaya wa mamati
lillahi rabbil alamin.
La sharika lah, wa bithalika umirt, wa ana
awwalu al-muslimin.
Wa qala ta'ala fa'lam annahu la
ilaha illallah.
Wa qala ta'ala walillahi al-asmaa ul
-husnaa fadu'uhu biha.
Sadaqallahul Azeem.
So dear brothers and sisters, we're gathered in
this masjid here on this day.
These mashallah, these ulama, they put this program
together and invited you all, invited us all
to be together and to speak about the
spiritual life, the spiritual life as has probably
already been explained to you.
I wasn't here to listen to what my
two esteemed colleagues were able to say.
So hopefully I'm not going to repeat anything
and just bore you or just bore you
in general.
Anyway, the whole concept of spirituality is the
most important aspect of our life based on
what the hereafter is all about.
For this life only, if we ignore the
life of the hereafter, then food is very
important in this life, right?
Because without that you'll die and then you're
not going to last long in this world.
Money is very important to live in this
life.
Otherwise again, we're going to suffer and safety
is very important, security is very important.
But one of the most important things for
us to be successful in the life hereafter,
however capable, however successful or however weak we
were in this world, the real, the ingredient
and the component that is most important is
spirituality.
What exactly is spirituality?
Spirituality is our morality.
Spirituality is what we work for, what gives
us a moral compass which allows to do
things correctly and for a higher purpose, which
allows us to become selfless rather than to
do things purely for selfless reasons, purely for
the sake of enjoying ourselves, meaning purely to
enjoy ourselves.
There's nothing wrong with enjoying ourselves.
The Prophet ﷺ enjoyed this life.
The Sahaba enjoyed this life.
They just did it in a way that
was selfless and for ulterior motive and within
the halal boundaries.
So enjoying life, there's nothing wrong with that.
The deen is not boring.
Religion of Islam is not supposed to be
something that's going to cause you to become
weary and tired and so on and so
forth.
Ask the people who follow the deen correctly.
They're not people who are considered to be
boring individuals who are so dry in their
life.
Yes, you get some people who are dry
whether they're religious or not.
They just, their natural demeanor is to be
dry.
They could be anybody but religion is not
supposed to be boring.
It's actually very exciting.
It's actually very exciting.
There's lots of things to do in the
halal way.
I was in Scotland two weeks ago, approximately
two weeks ago went to Scotland and out
of the four or five days we were
there, there was only one sunny day and
that was on the fourth day, one day
before we're going to return.
Alhamdulillah, we finally got some sun.
So now do I go there and be
miserable and wait for the sun which I
have no control over?
I mean the sun was out but it's
not, there's clouds and it's raining.
So am I going to be miserable now?
Yes, I would be miserable if I expected
the sun to be there and it wasn't
there and then but what am I going
to do with that misery?
What am I going to do if it
creates anger with me?
Who am I going to complain to?
Who am I going to try to push
to make sure the sun comes out?
Nobody.
So it's a what I did after the
first day, as I said, you know what,
the reason why Scotland is so beautiful, it
was very beautiful despite the fact there was
no sun but when sun comes out, it
was even more beautiful.
The greenery, absolutely different shades of green.
Everywhere you go, rolling hills and pastures and
just different shades of green, absolutely natural.
Remember paradise is going to be green, right?
I'm not saying Scotland's paradise in that sense.
But so it was just so green and
so lush and so calm and everything but
it was rain and then that night I
just decided, you know what, I need to
embrace this rain.
I need to embrace the fact that this
is what makes Scotland green.
You couldn't have a green Scotland or green
any place without rain.
So let me embrace the rain.
Let me just put a rain jacket on
and just enjoy myself with the rain and
you know what, the next three days were
amazing because I embraced the rain.
It's like that's part of life that has
to be a factor within it and then
after that it was beautiful with the rain.
It's about perspective.
Everything is about perspective in life.
You have two brothers or two sisters or
a brother and a sister from the same
family.
One is able to wear the hijab and
the other one isn't.
She feels embarrassed to wear it because the
family doesn't.
The other one is quite bold.
I don't care what my family does.
Allah said so, I'm going to do it.
So she goes about everywhere wearing hijab and
the other one, I'm not sure, I'm going
to try, I'm not sure yet.
What's the difference between these two people?
They got the same parents, same family, same
food they've had.
What makes the perspective?
It's a difference of perspective.
I think this is important.
I think it's for the sake of Allah.
That's why I'm going to do it and
that gives, whenever you do something for the
sake of Allah, it gives you the strength
to move on that nothing else can.
Where did the sahaba get the strengths that
they did?
Where they were able to deal with all
the different challenges that they had in front
of them.
Just mindset change.
The mindset change is that I've got a
life that goes beyond the 60, 70, 80,
90 years that this world is going to
give me, the average age of people in
this world.
I've got a life beyond that.
When that hits a person that that's important
for me and that becomes more of a
reality, that becomes stronger in our mind that
that's what I want.
Then suddenly what we want to do suddenly
changes.
We're driven by our motivation.
Human beings are driven by their motivations.
What that means is if you're, let's just
say 20 students enter university or college, some
of them have gone there because they just
want to escape home.
They want something to do because they know
their parents are going to drive them crazy,
like do something, do something.
So they just go college or they go
university.
Just to get away from home, to pretend
they're doing something.
Right?
What percentage of the 20?
I don't know, but it's going to be
some of them, right?
Is that correct?
Then there's going to be some who are
like, I need to go.
I'm going to make it work.
I'll get somewhere.
They don't really have a, they don't really
have a full idea of what they want.
But yeah, everybody goes to university.
So I'm going to go as well.
They're just following the crowd, not to escape
home, but to do something, but they don't
have a big idea at the end of
it.
And then there's some, they've got a big
idea.
They know where they want to be in
five years and 10 years and 20 years.
At least they want to know where they
want to be in five years.
I want to finish this, then I want
to do this and I want to make
this much money.
Whether that's a good idea or not is
different.
Okay, I'm not talking about judging the idea,
but the motivation.
There's going to be, that's at least three
groups.
There's probably other ways to look at it,
but that's at least three groups, right?
And in some cultures, they go to university
so they can get a degree, so they
can get somebody to marry.
There's some countries, they go and become doctors,
the women, so that they can get a
good proposal and they never act as a
doctor in their life, but they've spent seven
years just so they could get a good
proposal from somewhere they thought was going to
be valuable, poor women.
Allah not put anybody in that kind of
situation.
You have to wait six years of your
life just so you can get a good
proposal from who you think is good.
Okay.
Now, you know, there's three categories or four
categories of people, who's going to get something,
who's more likely going to get something at
the end of it.
The one who's motivated, they've got a role
model.
They've seen somebody else that they are following,
that they worked hard.
This is what the job they expect to
get.
That's where they're going to go.
That's the way the dunya works.
That's the way the world works, but if
you have a motivation, you're more likely going
to succeed.
Sometimes you can fluke it in some other
way.
You just got lucky or Allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala wanted to benefit you.
For example, I was in Canada few weeks
ago, about a month ago, and I visited
a person I know, a friend, and he
told me that his older two children when
they were younger, he used to invite their
friends over.
He used to invite their friends over and
in usually in Toronto in that area, they
have big basements.
Every house has, if you have a house,
then you have a big basement.
It's standard kind of thing and they just,
they can do stuff in there.
They can play around in there, play games,
you know, have a computer, have a, you
know, PlayStation, whatever.
See, I used to bring them in so
that I can keep, I can keep, I
can observe my own children and their friends
and I used to talk to my children's
friends.
What do you want to do in life?
Where do you want to go?
What do you want to be?
A lot of them had no idea.
Ten years later, he says that a lot
of those my children's friends come to me
and say, we thank you so much, uncle,
because we had nobody, our parents didn't do
it.
Some people don't have the parents to guide
them, that where do you want to be
in two years?
Why should you work hard?
Where do you want to go after this?
And where do you want to go after
that?
They had, they didn't have that kind of
parents, but he was the one.
So he said, they need, children need mentors.
Mentors means somebody that can guide you, step
by step, step by step, not guide you
every day, but guide you about where you
need to be and what you need to
do now.
They come and thank him right now.
That's so interesting because they didn't have parents
or anybody who would do that and they
just happen to be the friends of this
person, of this person's children and he used
to do that.
We need guidance.
Since this is a youth program, the youth
brain is not fully developed until at least
28, different, different sections of the brain of
any human being does not get fully developed.
You see a difference when you become 13,
14.
Aren't you different from when you were 9
and 10?
You suddenly find all this energy.
You can actually now, you think you can
decide for yourself.
You start arguing with your parents about what's
right and what's wrong.
I want to do this and I don't
want to do that.
What's wrong with one extra hour sleeping in
the morning or sorry, not one, five extra
hours of sleeping in the morning.
You just don't want me to sleep.
You just don't want me to enjoy myself
as though they've been there, done that.
You know, a lot of 13, 14 year
olds.
They think they've been there and done that.
They've experienced it.
So they argue with their parents.
Their parents are at least twice their age.
They've been there and done that and you
think, you know, it's very interesting to observe,
but it's very frustrating sometimes.
Once a guy, he's got children who are
older and he's got younger children and he
saw one of the older children trying to
explain something to the younger children and the
younger child just wasn't getting it because they
thought the way they were doing was right.
The older one obviously knew they were wrong
because they'd already been through that age and
they've had that experience.
So it's getting frustrated.
The older children are getting frustrated with the
younger ones, younger brothers or sisters.
The parents said to the older one, you
know, this is the way you get frustrated
with us because you think you're right right
now as though you've all done it before.
So you think you know, it's right.
That's the frustration you're happening with that.
So among the Arab, among Arabia in time
of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, they actually,
they had a special meeting house, the Darul
Nadwa from before the time of the prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
That's what that was like their parliaments.
That's where the chiefs of the people of
Makkah, they would meet from the different tribes
and consult regarding their main affairs.
They wouldn't allow, nobody could become a member
there until they were 40 years old.
They didn't think that you had enough insight
and knowledge and experience until you were 40
years old, forget 25, until you were 40.
They only made one exception.
They only made one exception in that whole
history of that Nadwa apparently, one exception and
that was for Amr Ibn Hisham.
Amr Ibn Hisham.
He was, he had some special insight that
they felt that they had to invite him
in, the youngest MP, right?
The conditions were they had to be all
40.
He's the only one.
His name was Abul Hakam, but the guy
was a big jahil ultimately for the sake
of the hereafter.
He was very good for this world.
They had to invite him in because even
when he was less than 40, the only
one they made an exception for, but the
problem was that he didn't focus on the
hereafter.
He became Abu Jahl, the prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasalam called him ignorance instead of the father
of judicial insight that he was originally called.
So it's all about perspective and where you
want to go and how far you want
to go to.
So the spirituality aspect is really the heart.
The prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, The example
of the one who remembers Allah and the
one who doesn't is like the living person
and the dead person.
Is there a comparison between a living person
and a dead body?
any comparison left?
that dead person may have been the greatest
person before but now he's dead.
It's finished.
Is there any comparison now with this living
person?
this living person could become bigger and greater
than there's no comparison.
So the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that
the one who remembers Allah and the other
one who doesn't is like the living and
dead person.
What does that even mean?
How can you be so different between the
person who remembers Allah and who doesn't?
reason is that what the prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam is talking about is the heart because
when you remember Allah, remember the spirituality I
was talking about that's going to help us
in the Hereafter.
That's the ingredient and the component that is
the purpose of the Hereafter.
So the one who remembers Allah, his spirituality
is living.
It's not dead.
He hasn't lost his morality.
He hasn't lost his real self that's going
to really benefit in the Hereafter and take
him to Jannah to meet Allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala.
we run a class for women in another
in German.
So the German teacher, our teacher who teaches
in German converts.
She was just talking to her students who
are now women that from different walks of
life and they're studying the deen now that
how did you get into the religion?
Why did you take this course?
Because out of everybody there's only you know,
a handful of people 15-20 people that
are taking the course.
So what's your story?
So this person is a the person she's
talking to is another German converts and she
said she's only 21 right now.
She said that when I was much younger,
I was doing everything there was to do
to indulge myself, to excite myself, to enjoy
myself.
I was in a nightclub, a young woman
nightclub and she said one day I found
myself having lost my shoes and I don't
know what part of a clothing or what
I can't remember the full details and I
found myself completely knocked out, drunk, helpless with
nothing to walk on, nothing to walk with
and so on just completely lost.
That's when I finally realized where this way
is going to take me and it already
taken me to that in that just complete
hopeless state of despair.
And for some reason I had, she's not
a Muslim, but she had heard from a
friend who, yeah Allah, talking about God, she
was not a Muslim, but she just called
out to Allah.
She just called out to God because when
you're completely helpless, everybody has a bit of
faith in them usually because we all come
from the pure realm of Allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala.
So there's always a faith that eventually comes
out when you're about to die.
That's why Allah talks about people who are
out see their rejecters of God, deniers of
Allah.
But when they when the waves suddenly start
rolling and they become as high as mountains
and you just suddenly feel the vulnerability that
you are going to be taken into the
water, you have to call on to something.
Humans have this nature to call on to
something and they call on to Allah then,
even though they've been rejecting him with their
mind until now the heart calls out because
there's always a place for Allah.
Everybody has a place for Allah.
There's a fitrah for that.
So then she went home and then she
remembered that there's a person she was with
in school before who had become much different,
had become sorted out, had become much more
of a decent individual.
Now, she decided to call this guy that
what is it?
I need to change.
I've literally lost myself.
I've killed my soul.
Essentially, she was talking about spirituality.
I have no spirit.
I'm just physical body.
I just eat.
I just enjoy and all of it is
just to make my body feel good, nothing
to make me feel good inside as to
who I really am because we're not just
body because we have lifeless bodies that are
dead.
They're perfect bodies until they decompose.
That's not what makes a human a human.
What makes a human a human is what
gives it life and it's not just what
gives it physical life, but what gives it
life to think and then to go beyond.
Allah has created us for the Hereafter.
Allah has created us and He's created for
us Jannatul Firdaus.
He's created the world.
He's created that wonderful place, but He just
wants to test us.
He guides us, tells us what to do
and He wants us to go into this
place.
So she called out to this guy.
He told her, he gave her something.
Alhamdulillah, she converted.
The teacher is now saying that you can
look at this woman today, 21 years old.
You would never believe that she would be
in a nightclub.
Because of the way she has changed and
she's so much happy that the happiness that
she's finding now in studying, in learning, in
getting closer to Allah, that happiness is nothing
compared to the happiness that she was getting,
which she was getting because clearly you get
happy when you get money, you get happy
when you can buy what you want, you
get happy when you can get the trainers
that everybody else is wearing and you want,
you get excited by these things.
But how long do I get excited for?
They keep making new trainers.
You have to get the new ones.
They keep making new phones.
So you have to keep buying the next
phone, even though you don't really need it.
People buy the next Apple phone, even though
it is just maybe one more megapixel on
there, that you don't really need, but you
have to give your zakat to Apple every
year.
Who don't really need it.
You have to give your zakat, you have
to give that donation to get that new
phone.
So you cannot bragging rights.
That's the only reason, otherwise what else?
So as a side point, I want everybody
to really think about this, that our way
of life, how we decide on what to
do and what not to do, very simple.
First rule is don't just follow everybody.
Don't just follow the trend.
Don't just follow what everybody else is doing.
Until you have analyzed it.
Yeah, that's a good thing.
I need to follow that.
Why am I getting left behind?
But not for bragging rights, not like a
sheep that just follows the sheep, right?
That just follows the leader of the, you
know, you have to be, simple word, remember
this, you have to be functional.
You have to be practical.
You have to do things based on, is
this going to benefit me?
And if it's going to benefit you, then
and you got the money, you got the
resources, then do what you have to do.
If you need a particular car, right?
Because it has what you need, what you
actually need for your work or for your
life or whatever, go get it.
But if you're getting that car because everybody
else, like everybody started buying these Range Rovers,
these big bumbling boxes, right?
And I just didn't see the point.
It's just a status symbol.
Sorry, Joey, but you don't deal with them
anymore anyway.
It's just, I just see things around and
people are just following the trend just because
everybody else.
So within, you guys won't understand this, but
within our first generation, when you got to
a certain level, you have to buy this
big, thick, chunky Rado watch.
You don't have one, do you?
Right?
Mashallah.
You have to buy this really thick Rado
watch, just because everybody else had one.
Don't do that.
If you need it because it's functional for
you, go ahead and get it, you know,
get a better one.
But if you don't need it, then don't
do things for yourself.
That's the simple rule of life.
You need something, you get it.
You need something in your house.
It's functional.
It's going to fulfill a purpose.
Mashallah, spend money.
If you got the money, spend it.
Just don't do it because everybody, otherwise you
will be a slave for the rest of
your life.
Well, what do you mean slave?
We don't have slaves anymore.
Slave of different types, slave of new things
that everybody else has, I feel I must
have it, become independent.
Your criteria should be Allah, your criteria should
be utility of what you need.
Otherwise you kill your heart because then you'll
just be following others because your heart wants
to feel that you also have something that
means you're not satisfied with who you are.
We are not our own people.
That kills our spirituality.
Then we just have to follow everybody else.
Yes, it's difficult to do that, to go
against or to do your own thing, to
have to listen sometimes.
Why don't you have one?
Subhanallah, there's some friends who will tell you
like, why don't you get one as well?
They make you feel bad about it.
Whether you're still a youth or whether you're
an adult, there's some people that would make
you feel like, why don't you, we all
have one.
Why don't you have one?
I don't think it's beneficial for me.
You have to be confident.
You know, what kind of confidence you need?
If there's a guy who is in the
corporate world, he's got a good job and
he has to take different clients and he
has meetings to get big business deals for
his company.
So he takes a non-muslim client for
dinner or for lunch and they come to
order and he says, would you like a
cup of wine?
Now, you're not allowed to drink wine or
beer.
So how do you react to that?
Sorry, I just can't have beer.
He acts like such a bichara, like I
wish I could but you know what, I
can't have it.
I can't have wine.
It's not allowed in my religion.
I feel so bad, you know, you don't
actually say that but the way we react
is you're going to make it seem like
the guy is going to think, what a
poor guy man, like bichara, you know, he
can't drink, you're missing out.
It gives you such excitement, calms you down,
you know, makes you feel good.
It's going to feel bad for you just
because of our reaction.
That's just an example.
It's an extreme example, right?
On the other hand, when it came to
that, you're like, no, I don't drink because
you know, I just don't drink, drink.
You don't have to say you're Muslim.
That's why you don't drink.
You say, I don't drink because drinking is
like what causes all the problems in the
world.
So, you know what, I just don't drink,
drinking, you get drunk and then this and
the guy is going to look at you
in respect like, wow, you know, because everybody
drinks and you don't drink.
So, it's like, mashaAllah, people respect people today
who can abstain, you know, like, no, I
got control of them, people respect people with
control.
Otherwise, everybody else is just normal.
We just do whatever everybody, so they respect
you.
So, we have to have an attitude, but
you can't do that without confidence.
You need to be confident in what you
know, in what you believe to become a
high-valued individual.
A high-valued individual is the one who
has principles.
A high-valued individual is the one who
stands up for his principles, who's willing to
positively, wisely express himself and express the light
that he has among all the darkness.
And we Muslims are so lucky that we
have this spirituality which, believe me, the world
wants.
We just don't present it in the right
way.
Now, when you have access, if you've got
wealthy parents, when I'm talking to the young
guys, you got wealthy parents who have sorted
out a lot of your issues, so we
can just enjoy ourselves.
It's very different now, right?
If you've got wealthy parents who can supply
you with everything, you can get the toys
you want, you can get the shoes you
want, the trainers you want, the clothing and
the jackets and the phones and whatever you
want.
Then you just feel like you can just
get everything.
You don't have a value for these kind
of things and then it kills your heart
because you're not getting it for the right
reason.
You're getting it for the wrong reasons.
I'm not against having good stuff, have good
stuff if it's going to be functional and
beneficial for you.
Don't get it because others are getting it.
Don't get into that race and you will
become such an independent individual that you will
be confident in your own way.
You will have your own course of life,
but you can't do that without learning more
about our religion, more about Allah because Allah
is the only factor that can stabilize us.
Allah, belief in Allah and knowledge of Allah
is the only thing that can guide us,
that can give us the strength and conviction
that we require, without that we can't and
many of us were Muslims, of course.
I mean, we're all Muslims.
We believe in Allah, but we don't know
Allah.
We just don't know Allah.
So what do you mean you don't know
Allah?
I know Allah is one.
I know that but is that enough?
Do you really know what it means that
Allah is one?
I don't think so.
What it means that Allah is one means
that there is no one else, nothing else
that can do anything like Him.
That's what it means.
Just as in fact that it's not just
that, oh, there's no other Allah, it means
that Allah is unique.
Absolutely in, of course, who He is, that
is only one.
That's of course, that's uniqueness, but also in
what He can do and what others cannot
do.
It's absolutely unique.
However, a lot of people are treating money
as though that is what empowers our life,
money does to a certain degree, but only
because Allah made it like that.
But ultimately Allah is the one who provides
a resource for it to happen for some
people and not for other people.
So money is important, but it is not
God.
We can't worship money.
It's like who worships money?
Who puts the worship money as an idol,
put, you know, a hundred pounds there and
just worship it.
Nobody does that.
Nobody does that.
Worshipping money doesn't mean you worship in the
sense of pray Salat to it or make
some signs and gestures towards it.
It's what we believe as to who's going
to help us.
Give you an example.
My wife used to teach younger children in
America and there's these new two children that
came, seven, eight years old.
They've never been in a school before.
They're from a Muslim family.
My wife was discussing Allah that day.
Allah is the greatest.
He is the mightiest.
He can do whatever he wants.
Nobody can stand in front of him.
He's the most powerful.
Suddenly one of these kids shout out, power
Rangers.
Because for them when the description of the
greatness for them, their mind went to power
Rangers because that's what they haven't been taught
about Allah, though they're Muslim.
That's what I mean that when you are
in need, are you going to think of
your money?
Are you going to think about Allah along
with your money?
It's only Allah who can empower us to
do anything, who gave us the money in
the first place, who gave us the ability,
capability in the first place to do whatever
it is.
That's the spirituality is consciousness of Allah.
The ultimate is Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala who
gives everything, who's given us the money.
Of course, he uses money.
Money is used in this world to do
good things and to do bad things.
But ultimately everything is from Allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala, but without knowing Allah, we can't understand
his true oneness.
We can't understand that he is behind everything.
He's the only one who can source anything
for us and provide the resources, provide the
power, provide the ability and provide the success
and he's the one we're going to need
fully in the hereafter because we'll have nothing
in this world.
There's a world we have where we feel
that you can help me and he can
help me and my money can help me.
But in the hereafter, we're going to have
nothing, you're going to be naked.
So they say on the day of judgment,
the way we're going to rise because what's
going to happen in this world when we
die is that our body decomposes.
Our body decomposes, if you know what that
word means, decomposes and you're just left with
like a small particle somewhere of our body
from which Allah on the day of judgment
will recreate as a fresh body.
Our soul will be the same, our soul
will be the same but we'll have a
new body, the soul will be the same.
It will be a new body on that
day.
So now then Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala will
ask us.
Right, Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala will question us
and then Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala will send
us to wherever he needs to send us,
Paradise or *.
May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow us to
be in Paradise so that we can see
him in Paradise.
So Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala will give us
a new body in the hereafter.
But when we're recreated in the hereafter, we're
going to be hairless, beardless, clotheless.
But nobody's going to be looking at anybody
that look at them is that, you know,
when you're in such a concern and worry
about what's going to happen, you don't care
about anybody else.
It doesn't matter, you know, when you're when
you're really worried about something, you can have
the best food in front of you.
I'm not interested today.
Right, classic burgers.
Right, chapli kebab.
I'm too concerned that they don't, they're not,
they're usually appetizing but not on that day
because they're actually really good.
You didn't tell me to promote it but
they're actually really good, your chapli kebab.
Gujaratis can't make kebabs usually but you guys
have done it, man.
Is it because you got enough Ghani working
for you?
Is it because you got patans working for
you or something?
Okay, you got Pakistanis here, right?
They get those cheap ones from the stores
and they just do them at home.
Right, Gujaratis have a lot of other good
food though, don't so don't think you're better
in that sense, but you know what I'm
saying?
Anyway, that's just to lighten the mood.
So on the day of judgment, that's what's
going to happen.
And then there's going to be the decision
of where we're going to go.
It's the heart that matters.
It's the heart that matters on that day,
the spirituality that matters on that day.
What did we do?
Why did we do it?
These are the kind of questions.
So now what we want to do is
one of the biggest challenges that we're having
today that parents are just especially with teenagers,
the parents are just absolutely at their wits
end is the social media, the phones, like
phone is a necessary evil.
Is the phone a necessary evil?
Is the phone necessary?
But is it an evil?
Not sure.
It is, right?
It's just what do you do with that?
So I want to tell our young brothers
and sisters that the problem with the phone
is that it's too addictive.
Human beings never were programmed.
So let me give you an idea, right?
Simple thing.
How many TikToks do you see in one
minute?
Usual person, if you start on TikTok, how
many TikToks will you watch in a minute?
Just a rough number.
Give me a rough number.
Okay, safely 10.
It's probably more than that by 10, right?
10.
Do people just stay on TikTok for a
minute?
No.
Half an hour just passes in no time.
Let's just say somebody spends an hour on
TikTok.
That's 60 minutes.
Well, let's just say half an hour, 30
minutes.
So if in every minute you see 10
TikTok videos that are all different about different
things.
So in 30 minutes, you would have seen
how many?
300, 300.
I just want to show you that this
is not human.
Which human being in history, the whole of
history of thousands of years since Adam Alayhi
Salaam focused on even 10 things within an
hour or within 30 minutes.
We're talking about 30 things here.
Millions.
No, sorry, 300, 300.
Your mind is looking at one thing, then
another thing, then another thing, then another thing,
300 things in half an hour.
Is that, can the mind even do it?
Do you remember?
How many of those 300 do you remember
at the end of it?
Maybe one or two that were like a
bit unusual.
But yet you just want to do it.
That's not natural.
Our ancestors, human beings never did that.
The most you can focus on is the
most the human being, there'll be one person,
another person.
He's like a very busy person.
He's a maybe, you know, a person in
a council or a person in charge position
of something that he has to deal with
one person, two people, three people, but you
just don't look at 300 things in half
an hour.
Humans have never done that.
Can that be natural?
Can that be beneficial?
Can it be useful?
You would know because you're watching 300, you're
not getting anything out of it.
And that's even if you stay on there
for 30 minutes, two hours easy for a
lot of people.
Okay, forget that.
In history, have you, has, how many, forget
history now, today how many, how many times
does a regular, some general person look at
themselves?
Of how they look?
Men or women?
How many times do they look at themselves?
Today, we've never had a generation.
We've never had in our history that people
who looked at themselves and what they look
like as many times as people do today,
because it was too complicated.
You'd have to go to the river edge.
You'd have to fill a bowl with water
to look at yourself or get a polished
metal or steel or something, right?
A polished silver and then find this weird
picture in there because it's not so clear.
Right?
Until glass and mirrors were invented.
But even though the mirror somewhere, unless you
carried on with you like a crazy guy,
you know, if there was a person putting
out their mirror all the time, you think
they're crazy, right?
People do that with their phone, but you
don't think it's crazy because it's become normalized.
Now people are looking at themselves.
They're not just looking at them, actually taking
a picture of themselves 20 times a day.
Is that healthy?
Is that human beings?
Has humans ever done that in, ever done
that?
Okay, what's wrong with it?
You might think, well, what's wrong with it?
Why can't I take a picture of myself
20 times a day?
The reason is that if that was going
to be useful, Allah would have created a
long time ago.
The idea, the only thing you're doing is
you just keep focusing on what you look
like and if you know, maybe touching up
your makeup, making sure it's all straight, putting
yourself out there.
We have people today who can't have a
relationship.
They've broken all of their relationship.
They can't have a relationship with anybody.
They're drinkers.
They are addicted to drink or drugs, but
they still have the most followers online because
they just can, they look good.
They attractive because they put a lot of
perfume on and they dressed in provocative ways.
And they can maybe sing, so they have
more followers than other leaders of the world.
Okay, do you and I want to be
part of that same following?
These are same individuals and then yet there
are parents who think that some of these
singers are really good examples and role models
for their children.
All they're focused on is that they're going
to make a lot of money by the
way, they look or by the way, they
can prance around or by the way, they
can jump around.
Is that a career?
Is that an end all?
But this is what I'm just trying to
say that this is just going to expand
itself.
This is just going to become more easier
with the way technology is and mashallah, there's
some really good uses of technology, but this
stuff is just very difficult for us.
So my simple message at the end of
it is let us develop our spirituality, which
means our ruhaniya and that means let us
understand who we are and why we are
here and let us focus on the Hereafter
that we're ultimately as all human beings, we're
going to have to meet with Allah and
there's a great world out there.
There's a great Paradise Gardens that Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala has created, where you will never
get bored, where you'll have whatever you want.
Simple example, in this world, if you enjoy
something, right?
Let's just say you enjoy a certain fruit
like mangoes.
And you get a box of mangoes, ultimately,
you'll have to wait for the next day
to eat the rest.
Otherwise, how many honey mangoes are you going
to eat?
You know, you can eat two boxes, but
ultimately it's like chalo, choro man, that's enough.
Let's eat the rest tomorrow.
In Paradise, you think that if you're going
to live forever, then what are you going
to get in Paradise?
Are you going to get bored because it's
just too much good?
The way Allah has designed it with our
psychology in mind is that you will never
get bored.
If you want to literally eat mangoes for
20 days or for a month or for
20 years, you will keep eating them.
Every bite you take, every slice or every
piece, however, you want it, it will be
presented to you and served you.
It will have a different experience.
It will have a different experience.
Every bite you take, every morsel will have
a different experience and there's no end to
experience.
In this world, nothing stays forever.
Everything gets worn out, expires, gets old, rots,
ages, nothing remains forever in this world.
Nothing, soil corrodes, mountains, they also, you know,
lose their surface area, everything.
That's just the nature of this world because
the world is eventually going to end.
So everything on a small level always, that's
why but in Paradise because it's forever, everything
in there is for is designed to be
enjoyable as many times as you want.
But ultimately we're going to have to be
patient in this world to get that and
this is proven by the angels when they
enter, when we go into Paradise.
So when we enter Paradise, Jannat Inshallah, from
every door, the angels are going to come
and they're going to say to us, as
Allah says in the Quran, The angels are
going to enter upon them from every door
And they're going to be saying salamu alaykum,
salamu alaykum, salamu alaykum.
This is not that greeting we do like,
asalamu alaykum, How are you brother?
It means peace be upon you, well-being
for you, happiness for you, safety for you,
all of the means of salamu alaykum.
Why are you saying that?
to try to reassure us that this is
not temporary resort you're going to that you've
paid for a week and you're going to
have to eventually go.
It's going to end.
No, to tell you it's now forever.
salamu alaykum, salamu alaykum.
Can you imagine?
I just can't wait, may Allah give us
that Tawfiq that the angels are coming and
saying, look, you can just be relaxed now,
you know, just relax, just relax, take it
easy.
You're in here forever.
You're here forever.
But then it tells you why and they
tell everybody why, salamu alaykum bima sabartum, because
you were patient, because you had fortitude, you
had endurance, you didn't do what everybody else
was doing wrong.
You did, you persevered for the right reason.
Yes, it was a struggle, you struggled to
stay on the right path, stay away from
addictions, you struggled away from what everybody else
was doing to enjoy themselves and it was
wrong.
So you didn't do it.
You had to listen to a lot of
criticism.
You had to feel left out.
You had to feel like I don't have
the friends anymore because I'm thinking differently.
All of that is the sabr and the
patience, used to wake up for prayer, used
to focus on life in the right way,
used to focus on Allah and you'd realize
what Allah was.
That's your patience.
That's your perseverance.
What a wonderful abode now you have one.
So there's something at the end of it.
I just wish we could see a brochure
of it.
Some pictures of it, get a taste of
it.
Then it would make life easy.
We can't, there's a description of Jannah, of
Paradise in the hadith and the Quran, right?
I put them all together.
I've done a series on the delights of
Paradise.
You can check it out on ZamZam Academy
just to get an idea as realistic as
that can be, right?
But nothing can actually create.
How can you create something that's going to
be a new delight?
So if I look at something beautiful eventually
I get tired of it.
Right?
I have to give my eyes a rest
because that's just the nature of the world.
But in Paradise, you won't get tired of
anything.
I'll give you a simple example.
I have some cousins.
They went to our village in India and
they took one of our extended relatives who'd
hardly been out much to any big city.
They took him to a five-star resort
in Goa or somewhere.
Okay.
They took him to a five-star resort
in Goa or somewhere.
That guy, they said he did not speak
for one and a half days.
He was just dumbstruck.
Which world have I come into?
never seen anything like it from a village
to a not just a city, but a
five-star resort where it's just he was
just speechless because that's what happened to you
and that's when people enter Paradise is going
to be speechless.
What's going on here?
Right?
That's Paradise for us.
Allah has with a lot of thought, for
Allah it's easy, but his thought of everything
is prepared it from centuries before and he
updates it even though it doesn't have to
be, you haven't even seen it yet, but
he's so happy that he wants to host
us.
He can't wait to host us.
In this world, we're his slaves.
In this world, we're his slaves.
So we just have to do what's as
a slave of Allah, we have to do
what he tells us to do.
in the Hereafter, though we are still slaves,
but we're actually his guests and he's the
host and you know when you get good
host, have you ever had a good host?
You really enjoy it because they know how
to host you.
They know exactly what a good host is
the one who hosts you with things you
like, they know exactly what you want and
they give you the best of what you
want and you really enjoy yourself and Allah
knows exactly what we like, what every human
being likes.
Can you imagine his hospitality?
We're going to get that as the angels
tell us why is because you had some
struggle in this world, but you persevered.
There was difficulty, but you know what?
You had the conviction to carry on.
May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala give us that
strength.
It's difficulty because we got just so many
challenges and distractions that make us heedless, that
make us go astray, turn our focus away,
mislead us.
Ya Allah help us.
Ya Allah help us.
We're tired of fighting against the shaitan, grab
us by the forelock and just enter us
into Paradise, just right that we supposed to
be in Paradise.
Allah make it easy for us.
Ya Allah make it easy for us.
May Allah accept this program.
May Allah accept from our Mawlana's who masha
'Allah set it up from the masjid and
allowing the facility.
May Allah bless everybody here and everybody who
is listening to be one day insha'Allah
in Paradise so that we can go and
meet Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala.
That's the whole purpose of it.
May Allah make it easy, Allah give us
the strength to deal with the difficulties here.
May Allah make it not difficult.
May Allah make it all easy, change our
paradigm, change the way we think of things
so that we enjoy doing it despite the
struggles, that we enjoy doing it and it
gets exciting just like despite the rain, I
was able to enjoy the place by just
changing the perspective of what I wanted.
If you have false expectations, wrong expectations, unusual
expectations, you just don't get anything out of
it.
Let us do it in the right way.
May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala accept.
The point of a lecture is to encourage
people to act, to get further, an inspiration,
an encouragement, persuasion.
The next step is to actually start learning
seriously, to read books, to take on a
subject of Islam and to understand all the
subjects of Islam at least at their basic
level so that we can become more aware
of what our deen wants from us and
that's why we started Rayyan courses so that
you can actually take organized lectures on demand
whenever you have free time, especially for example,
the Islamic Essentials course that we have on
there, the Islamic Essential Certificate, which you take
20 short modules and at the end of
that, inshallah, you will have gotten the basics
of most of the most important topics in
Islam and you'll feel a lot more confident.
You don't have to leave lectures behind, you
can continue to listen to lectures, but you
need to have this more sustained study as
well.
Jazakallah khair.
Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.