Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – How to Become a Successful Student
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Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al Hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah Hamden
cathedral a uban Mubarak confusable Bara canal de Gama,
your headboard of Buena ojala. Gelatin Erhu. I'm in a word of WA
salatu salam or others so you didn't have evil Mustafa
SallAllahu Taala already alayhi wa alayhi wa sahbihi wa Baraka was
seldom at the Sleeman Cathedral on Ely with the AMA guide called
along with about whatever Allah Quran, Allah God will for call
Hamid and also below him in a Shatori of rajim Bismillah R
Rahman Al Rahim Rahi in lettino call Rob Boone, Allah whom Mr.
Paul tetanus is inviting him on.
ICA Dennis sidhwani, he wouldn't matter equal to the harmful water
that has a new whatever she will build Jun Atilla T Qu two or goon
nano Elia. Phil hieratic. duniya Woodfill Iran, whatever comfy dish
that he flew so come up during Rouen, new zulum mean how food
Ibrahim, so the color of Navin they're respected brothers,
sisters, nice to be here this afternoon with you very
interesting topic we have which is probably something that's relevant
to people of all walks of life today. Because
the topic which is to attain steadfastness in
the world today, essentially the nature of the world is going to
govern
the level of steadfastness or the difficulty in attaining
steadfastness in this world.
So depending on what the nature of the world is, at any given time,
that is going to dictate how much preparation we need, how much
strength we need, in that how much knowledge we need about we need
about that, and how much fortitude we need to be able to sustain
ourselves. Now, anything that we're dealing with today, though,
there's many things today, which are unprecedented in terms of
modern gadgetry, probably the world has never seen. Your iPhone
six isn't
Nexus six, and, you know, so on and so forth.
But in terms of it being an addiction, in terms of it being a
trend in terms of it being something even sometimes as
infatuating as a religion,
that is quite generic, that's something the world has always
dealt with. So if it wasn't an iPhone six, if it wasn't the new
Samsung, note four, or whatever it may be, then it would have been
something else. So things just are replaced. So don't think that
we're living in times that people have never experienced the likes
of before. Yes, in terms of the unique features, it's very, it's
very unique. But in terms of the human attraction to these things,
it's quite normal. Because we are humans, humans have lived before
us for many, many, many, many 1000s of years. And they've been
attracted to the world because that's just a quite a generic
natural human feeling to be attracted to something. And then
you have the shaytaan has always been around, you have the knifes
which is the ego, the lowly soul, the lowly desire, that greed,
wanting something, avarice,
just this intense need for things that give you pleasure, that gives
you satisfaction. That makes you happy, that makes you feel better
than others, maybe that makes you feel accomplished. This is quite
generic, you think that's new? You think nobody's ever felt like that
before. So we are not unique as human beings, we're the same and
the world is continues to go around. Anybody who lives only for
today in a vacuum, who thinks that everything that's happening, were
uniquely The only people who are afflicted by such a thing, then
they need to look at history, because history will teach us many
lessons. Anybody who looks at history, who studies history, they
will actually notice that everything that's happening today
on a very human personal level, similar kinds of things have
happened before we've had these challenges. When you've got people
who are found in places like Italy, Pompeii, where there was a
massive eruption and people were instantly buried under the under
the debris of the volcano. And they've actually found it's quite
amazing what they've actually found
On the people who've been there will will tell you that they found
people in various different states positions. Not very good states,
but they've been frozen for, for, for eternity for for history now,
in those states. And it's it's quite, it's quite frightening
actually when you when you actually look at that, because
punishments can occur anywhere from Allah subhanaw taala.
However, this is all just to reflect that we as human beings,
we're not new. We've, we've had forefathers, we've come from a
whole
ancestry all the way reaching up to Adam alayhis, salam, many,
many, many generations. And people who have experienced these
desires, we just have something else to desire as opposed to what
they had to desire.
Today, people still desire things like clothing, the desire to look
good, the desire to adorn oneself, the desire to look good to others,
this is quite a
natural human feeling that I'm sure people have had forever. Yes,
it'd be different in different times. Today, it's about being
thin, which means to look good. That's just in the West. If you go
to places like North Africa, Mauritania, they force feed their
daughters when they're 1112 13 years old to fatten them up.
Because that's what the men likely, literally, they will sit
them down for two hours, and they will force feed the milk and some
other porridge. It doesn't matter if they can vomit it out again,
but they just have to eat so much. And it's just oppressive.
In terms of that, I think being thin is better closer to the
Sunnah. Right? Because the one who still is going to eat less,
there's going to be fitter. And the believer who's,
who's fitter and stronger is more beloved to Allah subhanaw taala
than the one who's not as fit. So they have massive cholesterol
problems, and so on and so forth. When it comes to other things,
like for example, he traveled to Europe, they drive on the right
hand side, I was in America used to drive on the right hand side.
Personally, I think that's more similar than England, England
seems I've got that wrong. Alright, so some things you get
right, some things you don't, I mean, allow me to explain what I
mean, when you go into your car. I mean, in Islam, something very
simple is to start things with your right hand side with your
right hand, whether that be eating, whether that be putting
your slipper on you put the right one first. Now this may seem very
insignificant, but when you enter your car, and as a driver, there's
no way you can enter with your right foot.
Unless you do a kind of like a jump, right, which is kind of
weird. Or you enter on the left hand side and kind of shift up to
the right. If you're really wanting to do something in
America, you just open the door on the left hand side of the car, you
get in with your right hand. Yes, you're sitting on the left hand
side of the car, but then you drive on the right hand side. So
it's more similar because that was heavily a meme that people have
the right is very symbolic. Why is this insistence that we have? Or
why is this encouragement towards the right? Why the repercussions
of our values. And he's mentioned very clearly that he said that he
always did things from the right he would love Dr. Murphy cliche,
he would love to do things from the right, which means put on the
right slipper First, put on the right arm arm of the government
first. In fact, once he saw somebody eating with his left
hand,
we've got that one wrong as well. By the way, in America, when you
lay out the you know, a table, they will actually have the fork
on the right hand side, I think in England, we've got on the left
hand side. So you have to go and kind of switch the forks as a
Muslim. Because the hadith is kind of very interesting, you'll
probably still have lorrison said to this man when he was dealing
with his left hand, eat with your right hand.
So the person was a bit arrogant or had some issues. He said, I
can't eat with my right hand. He could but it was just one of those
excuses.
You know, rather than kind of be rude, you make a silly excuse. I
can't even my right. So the prophets of Allah Islam said fine,
you can't even hear right. He made that as a common person was never
able to use his right hand for her right hand for eating afterwards.
As a punishment, the prophets of Allah some said, don't eat with
the left hand because the shaper needs with the left hand. But all
of this encouragement for the right is very symbolic because we
are people of the Hereafter.
This world is a temporary place. And Allah doesn't want us to
forget that. So the prophetic way is of the right. That's why if you
look at translations of the Quran or the Quran in Arabic, if you
understand Arabic, there is a constant theme of the people of
the right side. The highest category in this typology in this
categorization or classification, are the people who are the macabre
been the intimate ones a Serbia Khun, a Serbia kulula, eco Humann,
mocha Ramon, those who are at the forefront, they will want even
half a Nakamura Heejun Anita and they will have to
have gardens in Jannah, then the province of Allah Islam then, then
Allah subhanaw taala speaks about the US herbal Yameen are the
second category which are generally the people of the right
hand side, because gender will be towards the right in the
Hereafter, then you have the US herbal *, the people of the
left.
So, point is that in Islam, we're told to constantly be focused on
the right hand side, and that's why we eat with the right but we
wash with the left, we wash impurities with the left, just
because our focus is on the hereafter. Because this life is a
transient life. It's a temporary life. And the problem is that we
all know that. And as Muslims, generally people have this firm
belief that the hereafter is the real life. But the hereafter
hasn't become a reality yet.
It's not become a reality, in the sense that we believe it will say
it will say absolutely, I believe in the hereafter. But we've never
really like thought what our hereafter is going to be like. And
the biggest example of that, the biggest test of that, which is one
question that was asked by one of the great colleagues of Islam
during the omega times Sulayman Ibn Abdul Malik, he asked one of
the scholars of Medina when he was having a dialogue with him, he
said, Why is it that Nagarahole mode? Why is it that we dislike
the
right? Why do we not like death. So he said, the reason you dislike
your death is because you have inhabited this world, you've
worked hard to build up this world, and you've left the other
world desolate Allah has given you by virtue of us saying La ilaha,
Illa, Allah, Allah has given us a piece of land in Jannah.
But it's like, I've been given a piece of land in somewhere, you
know, a nice place somewhere, I know, I'm gonna have to leave
London one day, right. And I'm gonna have to go there. But you
know what I'm thinking, I just want to enjoy it right now. And
I've got a piece of land there, but I'm not going to build
anything on there, whatever, you know. So the person who's prudent,
who knows they're going to leave, they're going to start focusing on
that place, and they're going to try to build it up. When you build
that place up, then you know that when you go there, it will be
enjoyable. But when we haven't built it up, and our entire
investment is to do this world, the why do we want a day, if you
want a day, then you're going to get a feed, like there's a lot of
things that are lost. So this is a very important concept, you know,
if we can actually start thinking about one day, we're going to
stand in front of Allah, and this life is going to end which sort
ourselves out, if just that thought will come to our mind, not
on a very practical level. Unfortunately, when we're young,
and we've got a lot of energy, and when you haven't been confronted
with much difficulty, especially mashallah, in our generation, our
parents have done all the hard work. Many of the second
generation today, their parents, or their parents, you know, their
grandparents, they did all the hard work, we're enjoying the hard
work of our parents were spending as we wish, we've got the clothing
that we want, you know, we're not in need of anything, we just want
more and more. So what happens is this very less opportunity to
think about mortality.
I mean, be honest with ourselves, how many of us have ever thought
that we're actually going to die, and that's really hit us, like
what happens when they when they you wake up
after a nap, or after sleeping the morning, and it's just one of
those days, and you start feeling
unhealthy?
Or you start thinking, you know, I'm not doing good at school.
Or I'm not sudden realizations hit us about some things of the world.
Have we ever had that feeling about that we're going to leave
this world one day.
If that feeling comes to you, that really helps.
People have changed their entire lives.
There are people who become Muslim after that, when mortality hit
them, they started looking for the truth and they found Islam. Some
of the famous scholars of today that a converts. One of them at
least, came to Islam because they had a major fright, where there
was they were involved in some kind of massive accident, they
could have been dead.
And or they saw something happening like that, that woke
them up.
So that's why if you look at the scholars and what they write, they
constantly remind us what the proxy law said, Remember, death.
That's why you go to the graveyards. When we don't do that,
where people of this world we've got no focus on the hereafter.
We've got no planning whatsoever. Now, if you think about death, it
doesn't mean that you can't enjoy the dunya
You just have to orient ourselves.
We're not very prudent, if we're just thinking about tomorrow.
steadfastness is a very difficult thing.
steadfastness. If you look at what the other marks and I don't want
to bore you with all of the different opinions, they say it's
about staying on the path and the moderate path without going into
the path of shortcoming on all without, without doing anything in
excess, it's to stay balanced throughout your life, to know
where your goal is, and to know where we're going. That's very
important. Many of us who are born Muslims,
sometimes converts overcome us.
The reason is that if I'm going from here to Manchester, but
somehow I got on to
the wrong highway, and I started going wrong. And then I discovered
I was on the wrong, wrong track,
I turned my car around, I'm gonna probably drive a bit more faster
and more earnestly to make up time that I've lost. But when you're
born a Muslim,
depending on what kind of upbringing we had, and what our
surroundings and environment was, like, we're kind of relaxing on
the way we just going. So that's why sometimes converts, they've
really understood their destination, because they got it
after the shoot, whereas we got it given to us. So we have a lot of
potential. People who are born Muslims have a lot of potential.
But that's as long as we focus on the hereafter. Shaytan is going to
come to us in many different ways, and he is going to try to deceive
us some of the common ways that we can look at
justification.
justifying things, this is a major problem. Because I'm studying at
university. And this course is important for me.
Because my life these are people who have studied a bit of Islam.
So they know that when you study at university, you're doing it
because you want to get a vocation so that you could feed yourself in
a halal manner.
And you can feed your children. So now when it comes time for prayer,
for example, and especially in winter gets really complicated,
because the harasser and Maghrib come really close to each other,
then we justify to ourselves that, oh, this is important. And I'm not
going to be able to do this, this is going to be important. So I'm
not going to be able to I'm gonna have to miss my prayer because of
it.
If a person understands that the prayer is linked to what we're
going to get not for the next 50 years, or the next 60 years or
next 70 years, but for what's to come even after that, then our
hierarchy in our mind of what's to come first and what's to come
second, and what's to come third will become more clear. But when
we have absolutely no idea of the Hereafter, or what our Dean
requires from us, that will give priority to whatever comes in our
mind. And she turns all is going to be there to justify to us. So
justification is a major form of deception from the shaytaan
shaytaan comes in justify as many thing for example,
when you eventually start working and or when you have to go out
with your colleagues for happy hours or anything of that nature,
you will justify that I have to do this for my vocation, otherwise,
people people are gonna think that I'm strange and weird, and I won't
get a job that will take you into a bar maybe. Right? And your first
our first line of defense is that we're not going to drink we're
just going to order coke. Or if you're very particular about Coke,
being Zionist supporters, then you say, Well, I'm gonna want to be on
a Pepsi, right? So there's people who go to that level where they do
worry about these things. But then once you get used to that
environment, then you start being on the role of justification in
eventually justify that it's okay to have just a small drink because
I don't want to look awkward.
It's all about how proud of you are, are you about your faith? And
how confident are you about your faith?
The whole crux of being steadfast in this world, I believe lies in
how confident you are with practicing your faith.
So simple as that. I give you an example. I went with a friend of
mine who's quite practicing.
I traveled with him. We traveled from I was in Santa Barbara at the
time in America in California. We went from there to Los Angeles,
Los Angeles to Virginia. I had a program then he came along with
me. So when it was solid time I had I have been constantly going
through lax, Los Angeles airport. So I had places there where I
could pray. You know, there was this place underneath the
stairwell. There were a few other places where in that particular
terminal I knew where to go and pray is a bit secluded.
So when he saw me do now of course there's people passing by but
you're not like bang in the middle of people and preventing people
from going past or anything like that. You know, you don't want to
do that either.
So, after we came back, I asked him, you know, how was the trip,
he says, Well, I learned one thing, you know, he is he prays,
he prays all the time. But he says that I wouldn't be very, I
wouldn't be confident enough to pray at an airport. Right? I won't
be confident enough to pray in a public place. But that's something
that I learned right now. So we're constantly learning, but it's all
about the confidence about your faith that's gonna make you
overcome. Just the other day, I saw this small video clip of this
guy in Dubai, who's from India.
Right. And he's a bus driver.
Right now their buses are more advanced than our buses here. By
the way, Dubai is like all sparkling brand new, Everything's
new. You think you're in dunya? 2.0. Right. That's how that has
anybody been to Dubai?
I mean, I can stay there for about two days. And I'm like, too much
dunya let's get out of here, I will not be aligned is a bit
better. The debate is just like, in 20 years, what have they done,
they've made it, everything is sparkling brand new. And the malls
have all the designer shops from around the world. So you can get
more products than you can get in England, because you've got the
designer shops of America and Italy and all of these places, not
just BHS, right? And Primark and so on. So
he's uh, he's in the Emirates, he's, he's a bus driver. Now they
have huge fines, if they stopped for prayer, because I used to be
traveling on these roads. And I used to see these of honey guys,
workers there who would just pull up on the side, and you're not
allowed to kind of stop. It's not like Saudi Saudi is quite casual.
Right, Saudi India, Pakistan is quite casual. But Emirates,
they've got strict laws on everything. It's like more strict
than in England. In some cases, if you pull up on the side, on a
place where you're not supposed to stop, you can get fined. He says
that I used to see them. Often I'm driving my bus, I'm missing my
prayer. Because I think I'm going to be fined. I've got you know,
200 people in my bus. But I keep seeing these guys. And eventually,
one day, I really felt guilty over the over the course of three, four
or five years, I felt really guilty. I'm missing my appraisal,
this time, you know, this mortality must have hit him this
concept of what am I doing for my hereafter? And he said, Then one
day, what I would do is I started doing I would pull my bus up 200
People Pack bus and I would just give them a little announcement.
Don't mind, I'm just stopping here for five minutes a prayer, I'd
have my wudu from before. And I'd quickly pray in the front by the
door, there's a lot of space. And everything's really clean down
there as when in Emirates, I would pray and he goes, until today,
nothing's happened. And then he decided to make a video. It's just
the normal bus driver who wants to share his experience, that after
seeing others with the confidence in their faith, this is what he
wanted to do. Now we do have challenges. We he says I've never
you know, I've never had a problem. I've never had any of the
passengers, Muslims and non Muslims, I've had them complain,
just depends on your confidence. What kind of confidence do you
have, if you're shaky to start with, and somebody takes you out
for dinner, and they're all ordering, and then you like, don't
want to tell them you're different. That's going to be a
massive problem. Confidence, you know, it will do it. There was a
guy who went for a meeting somewhere.
And they started ordering their beers and stuff. And when he came
to him, he says, I'll have an iced tea or something. And and then
they were like, you know, why not? I don't I don't know if he was
even an overtly looking Muslim. If you understand what I mean, he
wasn't overtly like, you know, big Dopey and big beard. And you know,
I don't think he was even like that. So they asked him why Why
don't you drink? Now look at the confidence he comes across. He
says, you know, to be honest, I've looked at drink and everything.
And it's it's one of the root causes of much of the problems in
the world today. So I'm just, I'm never going to drink. He didn't
come with hidden come from an Islamic perspective, because that
wasn't going to go down. Well, when you give that away. You
don't. You have to come with the most appropriate way. And they
were like, Yeah, that's a good idea. It gave them food for
thought. Right? That's what you're supposed to do that gives Dawa.
You're giving Dawa. Because we're not following Islam because it's
Islam. We're following it because we believe it's the best way.
When you change that, if you're if we're following Islam, because
it's an inherited faith for us that we've inherited from our
forefathers, then we haven't personalized it. Then we can never
have SD calm and steadfastness. But once we have personalized it,
we've made it ours. It's my faith. Now, I'm taking possession over
it. Right, and I'm going to make it work for me, you will see a
massive difference in that. And the way to do that is to study
further is to see what benefits come about it. Because you're
never going to know the benefits of Islam in this current world in
our climate. All you're going to hear about if, if if the only
place we get our information about Islam from is the media. We're
going to read it
is going to push us to the brink and this is a major testing time
for Muslims because the amount of negative media we have around us
unfortunately Muslims killing each other in many countries around the
world you know which country is there where peace reigns yes there
are countries but in so many is constantly people attacking each
other massive problems or somebody else attacking them shutting down
a mission a mission AXA, nobody standing up for that. There's
massive problems. So what does it make a person who hasn't
personalized their faith? What does it make them think?
Am I on the truth? Is this the real faith? Is this the real thing
or not? Or is this just the big facade of something else?
This is a major challenging thing and Allah subhanaw taala says I'm
gonna send challenges to you. Leah means Hola Hola, Hadith, Amina
play Yep. So that the good and pure become distinguished from the
impure. The way we can become impure is get closer to Allah
subhana wa, tada focus on our hereafter personnel, ours our
faith, then we'll understand that this is just a vacuum of 20 years,
where it's been a downhill struggle for Muslims.
If you look beyond 20 years, it wasn't like this. Muslims were not
blowing each other up, or themselves up for that matter.
suicide missions have only started in last 25 years or something.
When we were growing up, we never had this problem. When I was
growing up, I never had this problem. You only heard about it.
last 1015 years. This is an issue now.
And what about this, you know, the centuries that Muslims have ruled
the world have been at the highest peak of civilization in different
countries in the world, it was nothing like this. We're just in a
real bad time in that sense. But that's why, if we're just people
off today,
we will never understand that.
If we start looking at our history, and we see the UPS, the
heights, and the dips, that will understand that this is just the
pattern of this world, we just have to insha Allah do the best
that we can during this time, and stay steadfast, because our death
is very close to us, each one of us. So the first type of all, one
type of deception from the shaytaan is justification. Another
one
is
I had a friend, a friend of mine.
This is when mobile phones were just coming out with a new
technology.
And he was he's an engineer for superconductors. Now you need
superconductors to make the mass for telecommunication. And he was
working in a very kind of a niche industry in Santa Barbara. He was
also the secretary of our Masjid half Palestinian half Egyptian,
very pious, righteous individual. So he used to refuse to go and
study history refuse to go to the annual general meetings at the
company, because they used to serve wine. This is a liquor
liquor at the annual general meetings at ATMs.
Now, they missed him at these meetings. He wasn't just one of
those employees that came in late that kind of just fulfilled his
hours, got his pay was just after his pay, and then went home who
had absolutely no concern about the business. No, he's to work
hard, who is good at what he was doing. And he used to contribute,
and they could see his contribution. So they felt that he
should be at the meetings for two years or three years. He missed
these meetings. Finally, the next year, he the one of his
supervisors came and said to him, you know, we've got a AGM coming
in two weeks or something like that. He says, Yes, but you know,
I can't he's made it. He's made it very clear why he doesn't come. It
wasn't like shying away or making excuses. I've got another party to
go to. I've got another commitment or meeting, you've made it very
clear. This way. You are what you call confidence in your faith, and
being able to communicate that with pride, and with confidence.
And you can get the other person to empathize with you. That is the
trick. So the person said, No, I know, I know you've I know you've
got an issue. But we have just changed our policy that in our AGM
is we're not going to serve wine anymore.
Just because they felt his contributions were important. They
wanted him there. They changed their policy, because of the
confidence of one man. Right? So when you study here, as
pharmacists, you need to make that a vocation that you're going to do
something with, to be honest, whether you're a pharmacist or a
doctor, just a generic pharmacist, generic doctor, generic
ophthalmologist or generic.
Any in any, any engineer, nobody's going to listen to you because we
have so many other people like that. The only way you're going to
be able to make a mock and if you really want to make a mock is
become good at what you want.
what you're doing, become good at it, so that people will consult
you, your name will become more important. And then you can have
more you can, you can have more influence. But the reason for that
is not for your ego, that I become famous and I earn more money
that's going to come anyway, the whole reason for that should be
that I can then make a difference to this world. Because to be
honest, how do you I'm sending in a school of pharmacy? How would
you, as a pharmacist, contribute to the welfare of humanity and of
Islam?
In a way that not in a way beyond what everybody else is doing? How
can you do that?
Have you even thought about doing that? Or is it that we're just
gonna get a vocation, we're just going to become a pharmacist,
which is going to be working IV in a hospital or, you know,
dispensing medicine, giving some advice somewhere? How can you make
a mark in this world through the vocation that you have chosen?
Now, you might say, is it the right vocation for that.
And to be honest, there's very few vocations that are highly
influential, and not everybody can do them. But what everybody can do
is you can be the best at what you do, and the vocation you have
chosen.
And pharmacy is a very legitimate and very kosher, very, very Halal
kind of the job. Right, unless, you know, you have to dispense
certain haram things, right? There are a few gray areas in this area,
I don't want to make it all clear. There are a few get gray areas in
this. But there are locations like this, how do you do something in
this? The way to do it is to become the best at what you're
doing to find avenues to find ways and opportunities, how am I going
to contribute.
And if you ask ALLAH SubhanA wa Tala for toe feet, it doesn't
matter what you're doing, Allah will give you an accept you Allah
will accept you for the service of his Deen.
So, this all helps for steadfastness. Because you have a
higher vision, a higher objective, and you are driven by that. If
you're just gonna go through a normal course, then we will fall
prey to many of the challenges that we face today. But if you're
driven with a high emission that you see that you think to yourself
that this is my formative years, this is when I'm making myself who
I'm going to be in 10 years, everything that I do today is
going to contribute to that, then that is what's going to make the
difference today. And how do you do that? You have to think on a
very wide level on a very universal level, you have to think
on a very universal level. And you also have to think on a very far
level, university, whole of humanity, the world and you have
to think into the future, which means beyond our death into the
hereafter.
How do you combine the two in a pharmacy course. That is something
I want you to tell me about in 10 years.
There is something that you must think about, you may have no idea
how to do this, but Allah does. And Allah can accept anybody. So
we ask Allah for tofi Tofik means for Allah to make somebody's
actions, in accordance to what Allah is pleased with.
So that means steadfastness, you have an ulterior motive, you have
a very high objective, high aspiration. And high aspirations
is what gets person from A to B. If you look at most of the
successful people in the world, they had high aspirations.
They wanted something.
There's a person who I know in in America, who
is the head of one of the
one of the branches of one of the one very famous Muslim Rights
Movements in America.
And I met him once, and a friend of mine who was with me who was
much older than me. He says, you know, this guy, before this
organization even came up.
I met him once in
I think it was Disney Disneyland in Southern California, in Los
Angeles in southern Orange County, or it was in Universal Studios.
And he saw me as a Muslim. And he said, Come on, let's pray. Right?
Let's make our salads, you know, in the middle of the whole
entertainment, theme park. And we found a place to pray and and he
says, You know what, we should tell these people that we need a
place for prayer. So his thought was not about just praying and not
being caught in the act, or not being embarrassed. But can you see
where his thought was? It was how can we campaign these people to
give us a prayer place?
So he's thinking always a step higher than just about
just praying.
And today he is the head of one of the chapters of this major Muslim
Rights Organizations in American doing very well. Look how
fulfilling the job is that every Muslim in trouble that you help.
Look how fulfilling that job is. But our job is to think on a
higher level. And to ask Allah for TOEFL, this will help you Insha
Allah, improving the work that you're doing. The studies that
you're doing, it will help you not to be sidetracked by things that
are of no use because you will be more focused that is that part of
my objective or not? Otherwise, the things that challenge us
today, what are the
one thing is clothing and fashion, that's going to be a constant
problem, to have what everybody else has today? To change your
wardrobe every six months. Essentially, that's what happens
when you go into the shops. It's a constant change to not wear last
winter's there's a new fashion this time. Sometimes women may
have a bigger problem with this than men do. But men are very
easily catching up.
There's there's makeup for women and men now.
I mean, there's makeup that is available for men before it was a
women thing to do.
I mean, I mentioned this before I was in
Emirates. I keep talking about the Emirates. But I went into a shop
and this is in Saudi as well, by the way, went into a shop that
they sell thobes And then there's other shops that sell the shawls.
What they call the shows that they have, you know the red
and you can buy Gucci shows now,
you can buy Kenzo shores before it was the women that used to be
ordering Cartier and Christian Dior hijabs from Saudi when people
went for Amara, Hey, bring me to Cartier ones to Christian Dior
ones. It says Christian Dior on the hijab, it was kind of
interesting. Now the men have the same kind of thing.
So fashion, and clothing. This is a major, this is something that
people have to deal with. I just got an email from somebody the
other day, a sister
practicing says I've got a problem.
My problem is that I can't help.
Going to town.
Going to town is a very northern way of saying going shopping.
Right because they go town. We don't go to town, right in London.
Where do we go?
Go to the city, go to the West End. Whatever. Go to Westfield,
Riverside. Lakeside was the call. I mean, we've been to that one.
Westfield is kind of crazy, man.
I remember I had somebody gave me a gift card.
I left the mother's teachers. They gave me a gift card for Westfield.
So it forced me to go there. 100 palms. And I was like, I go to my
wife. I've come into the wrong place. Man, this is crazy.
But then I forced myself to go and buy a jacket because they want to
go back. I didn't find anything I wanted to buy. Because I don't
want to waste. I don't need $100 given me everything.
I finally just bought a jacket just to spend the money. I mean, I
know I could have just given it to somebody as a gift. Right? That
may have been a better thing to do. But
basically this system is contacting me and saying I can't
help it and constantly browsing online.
And I'm going to town I'm constantly going out to the
shopping areas. So I said okay, fine. Next week, I want you to
tell me how many times you did it. So try to avoid it as much as
possible.
But just tell me next week how many times you did it. So you know
when you have to answer to somebody just makes it a bit
easier. You start people off like that. So I got the email that
I two or three times I browsed online and I went twice to Tom
that's reduced.
So can you imagine it, it's a shopper. People become
shopaholics. You know, the feeling of getting that package at home or
bringing those bags home and opening them. You take it out you
wear it once you look at it once and then all the pleasure goes
then it has to happen again. You know when you get the Amazon boxes
at home and you open it up and you can't wait you open it you take it
out you enjoy it for maybe a day and then you have to do it all
over again. Because the pleasure no longer remains. And the reason
is because our income is very disposable today we have a lot of
disposable income. We are dealing with the fitness
A lot of adversity but of prosperity.
Which means we have too much. And we our problem is of squandering
our wealth and extravagance. How do we deal with it?
So when you're studying, and to be steadfast in this world, we can't
be distracted like that. We can't be distracted like that. And
shopping does have a lot of pull.
Number two. The second challenge we have today is of technology,
and new gadgets. And they come out every year. And we have to have
the next level
of gadget, as soon as it comes out.
How do you deal with that?
Does anybody
how much earlier does a person go for Friday prayer,
two hours,
really push it three hours, four hours, five hours. Because there's
a hadith to that effect that whoever goes in the first hour in
the morning, they get this huge reward. When it goes in the second
hour, they get a slightly diminished reward, and so on.
So when it comes to Friday, prayer, we're just about getting
there in time, on time.
But there are people who will stand outside the Apple Store.
Right? For
sometimes days, just to be the first one to get a phone that they
can probably get after two weeks anyway.
But the bragging rights of having it first. Now psychologically,
what does it give you to have it first? It's just a mental rush,
isn't it? It's just the psychological rush. It's not, it's
not going to improve your life.
It's not going to improve your life immediately isn't.
So why would somebody have to do that?
So technology and gadgets is the fitna for today. I'm not saying
don't use them.
I believe in getting the latest gadgets, but not like a crazy guy.
Not in a crazy way, getting it for its utility.
Right?
If your phone is fine, don't get another one. Just because there's
another one. The problem is that nowadays people are going to be
saying, Hey, man, there's no phone, why don't you move up? This
is the new phone, everybody's flashing their iPhones,
everybody's flashing their new phones.
So then you feel people looking down upon you. How do you resist
that you can only resist that. If you become your own self, and you
don't become a follower. If you know what's right for you and your
ulterior motive, and you're very confident about it. You're
confident about where you're going, then you know what you
have, and you know what you're doing, then I'm not going to
follow the crowd. People follow the crowd to the majority of
people or followers. Give you an example.
I was invested in Uber way.
The Prophet's mosque in Madina, Munawwara Salalah voluson. So
after Salat, everybody is everybody is trying to come out of
the same door, the main door, there are so many doors in the
masjid, at short intervals. So what it is, is that everybody is
trying to get out there. And if you want to get out of that door,
you have to wait for about five minutes in that crowd to get out.
Nobody looks around, thinks for themselves, they just follow the
crowd. This is the way people are getting out. This is the way I'm
going. They don't look around, hey, there's another door there,
nobody's using that door. Let me go to that one, and get out
faster. Right. Same with going into mice, it was nice to be in a
mercy for a bit longer. Right. But the point is that people follow
the crowd today, what everybody else is doing. That's what we're
doing. That's a big challenge. That's the third challenge just
following the crowd in these things. Number three, conforming
to certain trends, which is following the crowd conforming to
certain trends. If we become confident in what we want for
ourselves, and we're only going to get things based on utility.
Because we know Allah is going to ask us for every penny that we
spent.
Then, if we're not going to think that way, then we will be lost
with the crowd.
Today Alhamdulillah many Muslims in this country are enjoying a lot
of bounties
and hamdulillah we're not oppressed. Yes, we have problems.
There's constant media attacks on us. But in general, we can buy
what we want. We can wear what we want, and we can enjoy the gadgets
and clothing as we want as we wanted. How many times have we
ever thought that how long is this going to last?
Again, if we look at history,
not every civilization remains prosperous forever. Especially the
reason we have got a lot to worry about in this country.
Is that our economy
is a balloon at every level. There's no real money.
If you study economics, you'll actually recognize that on every
level, there's massive borrowing taking place
at any one given moment, even if you're not in debt.
If they took the national debt and split it according to everybody,
it will. Everybody's debt would equal to
6070 80,000. Because the country's in debt. They're spending way
beyond what they're making. How long is this going to last?
It's just very clear, very clever economics and fixing books. Can
you believe a major company like Tesco, a monolithic company like
that, that just took over everything. It's in your face,
wherever you are. It's a brand that has a massive success story.
Because I remember Tesco was like a cheap place 20 years ago, right?
We used to go in for the Tesco cheap brands that they used to
have the lines the blue lines, still remember that? Sainsbury's
was considered to be you know, up class. Right? Well, decent. But
Tesco Tesco got 28% of the market as the and
Sainsbury's have 17 and 16.
Huge, but they've just lost 80% of their profits for the first half
of this year
80% of their profits down.
That's a massive problem. Why? Because the system is just the way
it's based.
That's where we're living in. You must be thankful to Allah subhanaw
taala Believe me, every time I sit down for dinner and I see the
nettement that Allah has given me, I thank Allah because if you don't
think Allah,
he'll take it away.
The way to increase your sustenance, what Allah has given
you is to constantly thank him as Allah says in the Quran, what
Allah says Allah insha Allah as Eden Nicole,
if you thank Allah, Allah will increase, you look at any meal
that Allah subhanaw taala has given you today. And you will see
that your fruit will be from a different country, the rice that
you're eating will be from India or Pakistan or something like that
the basmati stuff, right? The spices will be from a certain
country, the meat, you know will be wherever and so on. Allah has
brought us all of these things together.
And this is in comparison to what other Muslims in other places are
dying for.
We can get what we want, you go into as the now as that was
totally different from what it used to be 1520 years ago, today,
and as the you can get food from all different countries, they
cater for everything. There's a foreign aisle, you got lemons in
from Egypt, you've got Polish food, you've got Moroccan food,
you've got Indian food, you've got everything. Allah has opened it up
for us, but how long is this going to last?
We have to learn restraint. We have to learn thanks. And we have
to be ready to suffer. If the time comes for that. Otherwise, we're
going to be in major trouble. And number four.
The other big problem today, big challenge today that goes against
steadfastness is things that have to be watched or read.
So certain movies that come out, which are highly influential. So
everybody's watched them, they're talking about it. So it makes you
feel like you're not wanting to watch them as well. Whether it be
something as
as mundane as The Lego Movie.
I mean,
we know that this is totally artificial.
But we still can suspend all reality when you're for those two
hours, we can suspend all reality and start even empathizing with
the small Lego creatures, though we know they're made up, but we
can suspend our reality move out of the real world and get into
this and enjoy it.
It's very different from what it used to be 50 years ago, one of
our teachers tells us it was the greatest entertainment you could
have is that you'd go out into the marketplace and then be a clown
doing some tricks, some magic tricks or something like that.
That'd be the most entertaining thing you could see that's as
sophisticated as it got. Today. There is no today's Subhanallah
you don't even know what goes on in these things.
What does that do for us is what we need to ask. Is it just a bit
of harmless funny maybe, but where does it put us? What does it get
us used to? It gets us used to living
An artificial life of suspending reality, moving away from what's
really around us from what's really going on. And it's not
about conspiracy, this is clear cut. This is not a conspiracy
theory, we get used to living in an artificial means forgetting the
real world, and what's really gonna happen to us.
It's just all. And it's not as if there's an evil intent behind it,
it's just making money. For more for a lot of people. I'm not a
conspiracy theorist, necessarily. But how healthy is it? Regardless
of that,
that's what we need to start thinking about. So to conclude,
if we have a high aspiration in mind, and our motivation, high
aspiration, high humor, is what's driving us, we have confidence
about our faith. And we want to remain a steadfast as possible in
this world, away from all of these polls and attractions, and these
things that want to drive us away, and waste our time, take us into
an artificial world.
And the artificial world is only going to get stronger.
In fact, today, they're working on providing
real light, well, how do you how do you say this, they're working
on providing. And it's the technology is already here, to put
you into a virtual world where you not only see, but you actually
start sensing. So you can then touch things in that with your
body. And because of the specific same sensors that they've
developed, you can actually have experiences. And that means
Subhanallah
the * industry is going to change massively.
Where people will be able to have * without really having * and
have the entire
This is the new industry. This is what saying that it's going to be
a massive turnoff for this. Now imagine the level of the level of
indulgence that many people have into just normal * today.
Where's that going to take it? Now you what this is going to take
people to is living alone as a loner, but enjoying the pleasures
of the world from home, not wanting a family, why take the
hassle of the family?
Why take the hassle of a family?
I mean, I don't even want to start talking about the sexual deviant
sees that we're dealing with. But these are just some of the things
that we need to think about that curtail that influence the
steadfastness. steadfastness is a very difficult thing. That's why
when somebody asked the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
give me some advice. He says, going to be learning from Mr. Kim,
say I believe in Allah, and then remain steadfast. And Allah
subhanaw taala says, Verily those who say our Lord is Allah. So Mr.
Khan, and then they remain steadfast, they try their best to
remain steadfast. The angels will descend upon them, that
unnecessarily human mother Iike. Allah the half of what a dozen
many of the commentators say that this refers to on your deathbed,
you will start seeing the angels that come to welcome you that
enters the door, the human melodica Allah the half who do not
fear what doesn't know and do not grieve what appeal and accept the
glad tidings of Jana will Jana or appsero. Will Jana that used to be
promised? And then it says
in the Levina, cholera Boon Allah Semesta combo tetanus, no other
human muda Iike alerta half a dozen were absolutely legitimate
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Woodfill. If you're, we were your close associates, we were your
close friends, both in the dunya in the world and in the Hereafter.
And then Allah subhanaw taala says, Nana oleochemical hire to
fill zero, whether confy hermitage the heat and Fuso calm now for you
in the hereafter is whatever your heart pleases, whatever your heart
desires, whatever your heart once when a configure method, their own
and in it is whatever you call for. That is what's going to
happen. And Allah subhanaw taala will give us there, but the only
way this will become a driving force for us is if it becomes a
reality away from all of the artificial things that we have
become engrossed into in this world. And once a person switches
over and becomes focused on this hulless that is when he starts
living the true life. Otherwise, we are literally just robots, just
walking the walk, following people and we just hope for the best May
Allah subhanaw taala give us stay calm. May Allah subhanaw taala
grant us you
steadfastness and acceptance all for the service of his Deen allow
us to become the best for what we're studying and what we're
doing. And Allah allow us to use it to be of benefit for all of
humanity and the Muslims to make a change for everybody agree with
that one and it hamdulillah here
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