Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Important Advice to University Students From
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Bismillah your man you're watching
Smilla Rahmanir Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu
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My dear
officials of the university
very inspired to actually be here.
Especially when I hear the officials, the chancellor, the
Vice Chancellor and the president of The Guild, the president of The
Guild is speaking about working with a sister working with
brothers. He wants to be on the team. I was like wow, he's got the
lingo.
Right so it seems like things are going really well here. But I do
feel a bit out of place. It reminds me of my 11 years of in
Lancashire. I studied for 11 years in Lancashire in Barrie, and I
remember the accents. And that's why I hope you even understand me
today. Right? I'm from London. Anybody from London here.
Okay, some friendly faces. Okay. Well, hopefully you can understand
me today anyway, I mean, I really revenue marvel at
the northern exits, very interesting.
Anyway.
What I'm going to speak about today is really just a disparate,
you know, few notes here and there that I've picked up during my
student days. I mean,
I'm still a student, I'm trying to finish my PhD, I have an isolated
studying when I was about 11 years old. Until I was 11 to 22, I was
up in Lancashire. That's where I spent most of my time except one
year out somewhere else. So these are just just some disparate notes
that I found to be helpful for myself. And I want to share with
you, I want to share these notes with you today that Insha Allah,
Allah make it beneficial for all of us.
First and foremost, if I just explained to you the narration
that I read in the beginning,
the narration was that as rated by Imam Timothy from Anasazi, Allah
Juan Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that when Allah
wishes well with someone, when Allah subhanho wa Taala wishes
when when someone is that matter, which means he uses him, puts him
in service.
The Companions who heard this statement of Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam The Prophet said, how does the game for stepmother
who How does he use him? How does he put them in service? So that's
when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said he gives him to
feel it gives him divine providence divine guidance to do
something before his death by which his neighbors and others,
other people become happy with him. Essentially, some kind of
community so
service by which people will remember you, by which people will
remember you. Well, that was a very generous person, that person
was a very
sociable person, a very helpful person, and so on. That's, that's
the whole purpose. What this hadith does, is that it gives us a
reason to do things. It helps us focus why we're doing what we're
doing, it can help to cut away some of the arrogance that may
come by achieving many accolades, or many positions or
certifications or qualifications in you know, various different
fields. The other version of this narration, which is related by
Muhammad, in that it mentions that the word the person loves him uses
is that when Allah subhanaw taala, wishes well with somebody asset
level, which is a very similar word to start motherhood, but the
word acid also means something else. It means honey in Arabic. So
it almost seems like he sweetens the deal for the person. Right?
Almost as if the prophets of Allah ism is saying that, and the way to
sweeten the deal for a person in any field that you're in, and it
doesn't matter whether you're doing social work, whether you are
working as a doctor, it doesn't matter. If you're doing it for the
right sake, with the right things in mind, your deal will be sweet
and your you will have an ulterior motive that will be more
altruistic, as opposed to selfish. Right now, I know in England, the
doctors don't make as much as the doctors do the physicians do in
America. Now whether they stay in America for eight years, every
single Indian Pakistani parents, it was a dream for them to have
their children become doctor.
And poor liar,
doctors or lawyers, they made a particular doctor banana, liar,
banana liar, you know, and I felt really sorry for some of these
children, because I would go to university, meet with some of
these old dead email and they say, Hey, I want to be a doctor. You
know, I don't want to be a lawyer, I want to be something else, you
know, I want to political science computer, you know,
something to do with computers or whatever. Right? And I'm sure some
of you are dealing with that dilemma. I don't think for a
second, I don't think that compulsion to become a doctor is
not such a big thing. Although I'm actually very happy that the
majority of you are not becoming computer science majors. Because
seriously, everywhere I go, what do you do computer science or
accounting? And there are good things. We do need them. Right.
But there's so many people who are doing that. That's the problem
with that, is that, in a sense, that kind of dead end? Right,
called the SEC kind of careers? And I'm really sorry if that's
what you're in. But I don't mean it that way. Right?
What I'm trying to say is that Muslims in this country need to
stop just being consumers. Right? Letting other people make policies
that effect them, because Muslims are in the media big time, or was
it? What what's your favorite word? Massive? Right, in a massive
way? Right? Yeah.
Okay, our great chairperson.
So
the whole idea is that Muslims really need to start thinking that
what fields do we need to go into that can be of benefit, not just
to the Muslims, not just to oneself, but for everybody that we
can be part of the dialogue? I think that's what's missing.
Right. And I'm really happy that there's some level of this
dialogue taking place here. Right. I was just very, you know,
inspired and used by the Vice Chancellor and the prisoner of the
gills remarks today, it seems like people are working together, it's
really good. That kind of harmony is extremely important. But most
of them just need to stop being consumers. They need to start
becoming conscious contributors. They need to think ahead. So if
you're going to become a physician, then think ahead and
see if you can also go into ethics, because policies with
regard to medicine are made by ethicists. Right? I remember when
we published a book on birth control and abortion in Islam, and
we were looking for an ethicist to write something for us. And
everybody pointed me in the direction of University of Chicago
was in America. And
obviously, the person who, you know, was not a Muslim, right? I'm
not saying you have to be in every place. But I'm saying I couldn't
find somebody within the Muslim society that could that could do
that for me. So we really need to start thinking about these things.
Don't just toe the line. Don't just do what everybody else is
doing. But think of what's going to be really beneficial. For
example, a friend of mine, I mean, the last time that I came to
Liverpool was Subhanallah, about probably at least 1012 years ago.
And that was because a friend of mine was studying here was
actually
A colleague of Dr. Hudson, right. I just discovered today's
colleague of Dr. Hansen, we, myself and him had memorized the
Quran together. I've been very and that he came to do His medicine
here. And that's, that's when I met him. Now one of the things
that I remember him saying, I said, What are you studying, he
says, what I'm studying medicine. But then what he did beyond that,
is he took tropical medicine. And his focus for doing tropical
medicine was so that
he's just not a normal GP, but his intention was that I can go and
help Muslims in their countries, and Muslims tend to be in tropical
climates. So let me study tropical medicine with the intention that I
can do something with my degree. That's, that's really important to
think that way to think what more you can do. That's really
important to think that way. Right? Because if you think that
way, you'll be you'll have higher Hinman, you'll have higher
aspiration, you'll be more successful because you've got a
higher goal. For example, in the field that I come from one of our
one of our teachers, he would say, aim to teach Sahil Bihari, which
is the highest book in the curriculum aimed to teach that
when you're studying as a student in the first year, second year,
your aim should be that when I grew up when I finished when yet,
when I graduate, I'm going to be teaching Buhari because even if
you don't get to Buhari, you'll get halfway somewhere. But if your
intention is that I'm just going to teach a little book here and
there, then your your preparation, your focus, your work is going to
be according to that. That's what you should hope for something
really high. Now, if there are people among you who are forced
into careers, by their parents that they don't really want to be
in, right? Or don't even know why they're doing the career that
they're in, even if there's not our first they just happen to be
here. I spoke to one brother, right? And I said, What are you
doing? So he says, you know, I'm doing whatever he was doing. And
he said, I don't know how I got here, though, right? Like, you
need a drive, you really need a drive, you need to know why you're
doing what you're doing. You know, when you're studying you, you must
have at least 10 ideas of what you're going to do after you
graduate. All 10 will not materialize. But at least one or
two, if you come out, and you don't really know. And you just
kind of walk through the course, you know, and I don't know, I
don't think Liverpool is a party school. But where I used to be in
Santa Barbara, California, it was on the beach in California. That
was a party school. So the parties would begin Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday. And I don't think Liverpool is a place like
that. Right? In Sharla. I'm sure there are party places, but you
want to avoid that you want to avoid that's not what you're here
for. Look, that's completely fine to go out with your friends and do
something Hello. Right? I would suggest to you now because I've
seen students who are just so into it, meaning just so into their
work that they just don't know anything else. And sometimes they
lose it. Right? So I don't suggest that that's all you do. But at the
same time, you don't want to just do everything else except study or
just 30 or exam times. You want to do the best that you can, because
you wanted to be the best that you can. And you want to be able to
contribute because you want to be part of this honey, let me take us
back to a very simple example. I went to Egypt and to the to the
museum, the Pharaonic Museum. Has anybody been to the museum, the
Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, it's about 100 years old, built by
the British with the pharaohs, and mummies and it's got everything in
it. So it's about three floors. It's got everything in there from
a needle that was used in that time, all the way to the chariots
of the Pharaoh. I mean, it's all preserved. And when did Pharaoh
live? Anybody know how many years ago?
3000 is close 4000 I mean, don't teach history here.
Anyway, 4000 years ago, 4000. That's 2000 years before Jesus
decides. And we're 2000 years after that. So we're talking about
4000 years ago, but everything's preserved or slave labor. Right by
the baby is right. But what's the interesting thing there was that
you then had to I think it was 14
Egyptian pounds to get into the museum. And then I think it was 80
or 90 to actually go into the mummy chamber, or the mummy room
to see the mummies and so on Allah subhanaw taala says in that in the
Quran, that we will give you respite with your body so that you
will be a sign for the people after you and Ramses the second
bedroom today are preserved. Right one of them was the pharaoh of
during the time of Moses Musa Musa Islam peace be upon him. Now the
interesting thing is this, this man had capability. That's what I
want to get. Right? Why Pharaoh Pharaoh had capability. It takes
some amount of ability to enslave a whole people and to think
yourself as God. That's the negative aspect of it right now.
In Arabic very interesting, the word for ability is Gharbi the
and the root of that is Tov Birla
right. So, he had cabine.
However, he did not have
another word that also comes from the same route to Boulia which
means acceptance. And that is what we will aspire to give you another
example, the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he gay
he made a dua in the first initial period of Islam he made the DA O
Allah support this Deen this religion through one of the two
angles.
And the two cameras that he was speaking about were both leaders
of the Quraysh the Meccans both very able people individuals, one
was
Omar ignorant
and the other one was Omer ignore ignatia. Again, Omar and Ahmed
come from the same route as a neighbor it means to to inhabit to
make a civilization This is very powerful, very powerful term that
is and that's why Romans 10 years martial law with the Allah on he
did what he did, I'm gonna read no he Xiang. His other name that you
might know him by is Abuja. But in those days, he was called Abu
HECM, the father or the father of judicial understanding, because he
was very intellectual, especially in the judicial matters. So from
that today, we know him as a Bucha, the father of ignorance,
the prophets of Allah some said, Oh, Allah support this Deen
strengthened in this thing with one of these two, both with Vidya.
But who got the kuliah who receive the Kabuli, who received
acceptance from our ignorant Hunter, not AmeriGlo. Hisham, he
became a Bucha.
Right now for us, right on a very practical level. You can be doing
what you're doing. And you don't have to be the best student out
there.
You don't have to be the sharpest pencil in the box, as they say,
right.
But if you pray to Allah, and your intention is right, Allah will use
us in some way. And that's what I was. That's what I want to talk
about. Right? That's our focus today, especially for those who
are starting, and those who are ongoing, who are progressing
through the ranks, that we need to orient ourselves as to why we
study, bring them out a praiseworthy motive for your
study, a praiseworthy, sincere, objective and goal and intention
and the same study that you're doing, which you're going to do
anyway, with or without that intention, is just going to be
augmented with the blessing of Allah subhanaw taala. You will
have more Believe me, blessing comes from God, what is blessing?
Right? A simple way to understand blessing is you know, when you've
got a wallet full of money, and you're going shopping, let's just
say you're going marriage, wedding shopping, right? So you go to an
ER which you guys know for wedding shopping. Manchester, where's the
famous strip of, you know, this ugly or whatnot? I'm sorry, what
are this wedding stuff?
All these red golden glitter? I mean, in London, we've got a
number of places. I mean, what ways at least in North
Oh, you guys are too far from getting married yet. Okay,
whatever. So you go and you start shopping. Now, you're not really
looking at how much you're spending, I'll get 20 rounds. Here
you go. 50. Here you go. Here you go. And then after about two
hours, you got all of these bags. And you think, wow, I've got a lot
for the 350 pounds that I had in my wallet. Then you think me open
the meat chicken. And now you check all you got 27 pounds left
now you'd only have 27 pounds left. But until now it just seemed
like you were able to get so much with your money. There's a hadith
to that effect.
Hurry Rhodiola Han was given a little bank right updates, a small
bag of dates by the profit and loss. I mean, he said eat from it.
So he would just keep it with him and just put his hand in. And he
would take out dates and he would eat.
And after a number of days he thought to himself, how many
things are in this in this bag seems like an endless supply been
eating for so many days. I mean, he doesn't finish there's still
some dates in there. So he decided to actually open the bag and check
and then there were only that number and then then they they
depleted. Allah works behind the veil. Allah works behind the veil.
Magic doesn't happen in this world like, hey, presto, you know, he
just suddenly appears if Allah wants to give us something out of
the ordinary extraordinary it will happen through something somebody
will come and give you something. I give you an example.
This is only you have to put your trust in God. I'm gonna I'm gonna
give you some real life examples of people I know. There was a
Brother Mohammed is a Moroccan student who used to be in another
state before he was in California in my community and he
until he, he tells me that when he was studying his father used to
send him some money for his fees, tuition, and so on. And on one
occasion, his father wasn't very wealthy from Morocco, trying to
pay American fees, you know, foreign fees. It's not it's not
cheap, he ran out, he had to get a job. And the thing is that he
couldn't find any Hello job as such, the only thing that he could
find, eventually it was a was a
was a job in a gas station. Right gas station petrol station, right.
That's what they call it. But it's sold liquor right now. And you
know, as Muslims, we can't drink, we can't serve, we can't sell
liquor. So he was like, can't take that job. Now, the thing is that
in his situation where he was event, he was going to be
homeless, in a sense, absolutely nothing. Right, there's no welfare
system, there is a foreign student. So
one of the local kind of knowledgeable people even told
him, Look, it's fine for you to do that you're in that kind of
situation, but he just held on, he kept praying to Allah, you know,
eventually what happened, he got a job at the university, they
offered him a job at something, when you get a job at the
university, your fees are paid. So your fees are paid, which was his
biggest concern. And then the salary that he was getting was
over and beyond that, had he taken that job just a few days earlier,
at the gas station, he would have been struggling with that just to
face fees, he wouldn't have had anything much more than that.
Allah wants to see how much you're willing to do. And our level of
Tawakkol our level of reliance in him, this is a real life story.
It's in doesn't necessarily, it's great, you know, the same thing
doesn't have to happen to all of us. But something will happen if
you place your trust in God. Another example, a friend of mine,
again, who was in my community, he used to work for a, he does, he
works for a software firm accounting software, niche niche.
And he's been with them for a number of years, he's a very good
employee of theirs and so on. And he had a mortgage on his house.
Now interest based mortgage, he's been trying to come out of it for
a number of years, I know, he's been trying to pay off as much as
possible. So he doesn't have to involve himself in this user.
Right? That, you know, we've had so much problems within the last
several years, with the whole economy coming down because of
the, you know, the leverage and so on. Anyway, so he wants to get
himself out of this.
He probably makes a decent amount, maybe, you know, $100,000, maybe
more, I don't know. But he came to visit me two years ago. And he
says, This is what happened.
In Ramadan.
I was really praying to Allah, that helped me really relieve me
of this debt. Right, relieve me of this steps. And it just occurred
to me one evening, one night, that you know, what, he came up with a
crazy idea. And believe me.
It was, I mean, when you hear it, he wrote an email to his manager
to his boss of the company. He says,
I know this sounds crazy or whatever. But, you know, this is
what my proposal is, can you pay me for my whole year salary
upfront, and then I will work for free for the next 12 months?
So if that's $100,000, for example, can you pay me $100,000
within the next week or two, because I've got a mortgage to pay
off. And then I'll work for free for the rest of the 12 months
fulfilling my contract, which boss is going to do that for you?
Right, which boss is going to do that for your brother wouldn't do
that for you? Right? You know, so I don't know, you know, Hola.
Hola. Hola. So he writes his email, there's no harm in it. The
worst he can say is no, he's not gonna throw him out of the
company. Right. So the next morning, he goes to work.
I don't even remember if you remember who he is, you know what
his anticipation was. His boss meets him at the door. He says,
you know, can see the finance department, we've got a proposal
for you. We thought there must be something maybe they give me you
know, 10,000, extra 20,000. Whatever. It goes to them. They
said, Look, this is what we're going to do for you. We're going
to give you your yearly salary upfront.
That's all he had asked for. Right? He got it says dumbstruck
already,
your whole year salary upfront, then, for the next 12 months,
we're going to give you 50% of your salary for the next two
years, which will make up your next year's salary so that you're
not without a salary for any of these months.
So full salary upfront for this year, the next year salary cut
distributed over the two years over the 24 months.
This is something this is not out of. It is not our book. It's not
mythical, believe me this is what happened. This is what he told me
himself.
What I'm trying to say is that as Muslims we call to a higher power
we believe
we are we are occasional lists, which means that everything
that happens in this world, including a leaf that follows God
is behind it. God is not a mundane entity, a passive entity. You
know, some people believe that God, there is no God, then you've
got those who believe in God, they some of them believe that God
created everything, gave each thing its intrinsic ability to do
what it does. And then he's taken a backseat. Out of those, some
people would believe that God can interfere. And yet there are
others who believe that God cannot interfere. But as Muslims, Wallah,
yeah, who do who has the will. Now what are you know, when we just
read the throne verse in the Quran, one of the most powerful
verses of the Quran tells you, Allah is in control of everything,
every movement that takes place, and it doesn't. It's not, it
doesn't wear him out, it doesn't tie him for us, we would think,
well, let's delegate, we get more work done before Allah, He can do
countless and multiple things together at one any one time, and
he can be permitting things to happen. That's just who God is.
And we must not make him any less than that. We must not make him
any less than that. And Allah subhanho wa Taala says, God says
in a Divine narration. And in the Vani app dB,
which means I am as the server thinks of me, I am as the servant
thinks of me, which means that if you think God can do this for you,
and your reliance is there, then it will happen. Now, that does I
mean for higher things to be achieved? It does require a higher
set of reliance, which needs to be learned. But for example, famous
narration Harlequin Walid what the Allah one, how is he able to take
that view of poison that was being offered and saying, I will drink
this and nothing will happen to me. I'm not telling you to do that
at home,
alright, that requires a very high level of Dorko. To say, I can take
this poison, nothing will happen and he drank it and nothing
happens. Yet in other cases, if people are drinking poison, it
will happen. Reliance is a Tawakkol is is is for example,
Ibrahim alayhis salam, the Prophet Abraham, when he's being flung
into the fire, the angels come to him. And they say,
we can save you. We can do whatever you want, we're there for
you. He says, God is watching me he can he'll take care of me.
He doesn't listen to the angels his reliance is on God that God's
watching me he'll deal with me the way he wants to. And thus God says
good, important. Masala Miranda Ibrahim, become cool and a place
of
a place of peace and wellbeing. For Ibrahim, so he goes into the
fire people think he is in the fire, but there's nothing
happening to him in the fire. And that's our forefather Abraham
forefather of the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims.
But that requires a high level of tobacco, there are people who will
come and ask or consult with the scholars about how much the local
they should have, how much reliance they should have. And
sometimes they will do a very high level of token I would know return
that if you talk to these like Ibrahim alayhis salam, or they
call it when we need them, fine, do it. But otherwise, if we are
weak like myself, right, then we need to take the means of the
world because that's what God has told us to do. Adopt the world,
the means of the world. That's why they say tie your camera and then
rely on Allah. That is the ThoughtBot for normal people that
is relaxed to normal people. We can't say we're going to leave our
camera here. We rely on Allah, we just walk away and then we find
out he's not there. Yes, if you are like Abraham, Ibrahim Hassan,
then maybe it will be there.
But there is a level so we wasted learning. And that's what he was
going back to.
There are some of us, as I said, who are maybe not the sharpest in
in this studies. But that doesn't mean that you must feel doomed.
And this is an issue that I had, you know when with my colleagues,
and I think back and I feel sorry that there were a number who just
didn't
do well in exams. So then it almost psychologically affected
them to make them feel that way. Nothing. were useless. So they
were just mess around and pass through the course. And I think
that is just such a waste. Because even if you don't do well in your
studies,
you can do well otherwise you mustn't become a slob.
Just because you can't do something. Ask Allah. And this
hadith is general it's for anybody. It's not just for the
scholars. It's for anybody there was a there was an individual in
Leicester. We used to be very,
we used to be very helpful to people. Right in terms of wherever
people needed help, he will be there, which is well known for
that just totally selfless kind of person. When he died, he was not a
scholar of any sort. Right and of any qualified
He was in, you know, he didn't have any certifications in
anything, he was just a good guy, the amount of people that turned
out to his funeral when he died, right was as though a Greek
scholar had died. I mean, for what, since you understand what
that means that when number of people come to your janazah, to
your funeral, it means you're accepted to a certain degree,
because that's how many people are praying for you. That's how many
people are praying for Your forgiveness when you're going to
the other world, because as much as we're very connected to the
other world, but while we're in this world, we don't want to waste
his time away. Right? We don't want to waste his time away.
Finally, the poem that I read, and I would assume that most of us fit
into this category, right of youth, it's all about youth.
Right? Now, according to ignore Josie, about the model, the
buckden scholar urban foraging and Josie says that youth is from your
teenage years to when you're about 33. So I've just made you younger,
right? So until 33. Now, that's the age of youth, then you get
into middle age. Okay.
It says at this point, it says either bonneval fatta, actually
Nirman. If a young if a youth reaches the age of 21, just the
whole the whole philosophy
and he is not able to achieve anything to be proud about, then
after that he won't be able to achieve anything. It's not an
absolute statement, but it's a sign that you achieved the most
during your days of youth, for example, people have heard of EPI
center, the famous so called Muslim philosopher, Agustina IV
center, right?
He was from both and which is in currently Afghanistan, but he
traveled the trans ox area. He says that everything that he
studied, he's a celebrated scholar in the west today, right for, you
know, as a philosopher, right with the likes of
will you call it
as somebody who redefined reconcilable Aristotelian and
platonic philosophies and so on? Right? He says that I had studied
everything that was of substance to me by the age of 18.
Anything that I used in my life later, that was of some substance,
I had studied all of those things by the age of 80. Some of us are
just starting at the age of 80.
Now, the reason why youth is just such a important part, right? The
problem is, there's a saying, in Arabic, a Shabbat was short, but
to middle June,
right? A Shabbat was short, but to middle June, youth is a degree of
insanity.
Right? What does that mean? It means that when we become youth,
we've suddenly developed our own minds. So now we start looking
down upon our parents, especially if they're from back home. Right?
Well, where's back home? Yeah. But especially if they don't speak the
same way we do. So we start looking down upon them, we start
thinking, they don't know anything. We know everything.
We're on Facebook, they're not. All right. We're on Twitter,
they're not. Now think of this hadith. There's a hadith of the
prophets of Allah. I'm digressing slightly. There's a Hadith of the
Prophet sallallahu sallam, which says,
before the Day of Judgment, a time will come. And it's a sign of the
Day of Judgment, that people will distance their parents and bring
close their friends. I read that hadith. And then
one thing that I understand from that is you're sitting in your
living room, your mom and dad are there, your brothers are all
there. And all the brothers and sisters, they're on their phones,
or laptops, or pads. And they're talking to their friends all over
the world. And the father sitting right next to them, but they're in
a different world. Despite the physical closeness, they are so
far apart. And this is 24/7.
Now, I guarantee you this has become such a big problem. That
glad that there's not much light here and it's all on. It's all
here. But
how many of you have not touched their phone at all to check their
email, an update on their Twitter? Or an update on the
Facebook page? How many of you have done that?
have not checked in the time that we've been here. Okay, that's one.
I'm glad is the vice chancellor.
Anybody else?
I mean, unless you're just very humbling. Someone put your hand
up. There's about five people here. That's her. The rest of us
are checking in. Why are we waiting for an important call out
we're waiting for an important update. Like get out of here? In
Sharla? Nope.
Right
Sharla that's just a joke, right? So it's just such an addiction.
And if that encroaches on our studies that we're studying that,
I mean, I'm going somewhere else. But believe me, what it is, is
that if you're working, and you check your phone, your stream of
understanding and comprehension will be disturbed. So although it
just takes three seconds, five seconds to check your phone, it'll
actually take you another 30 or 40 seconds to get back on track.
Right, it's like you're driving. And you see something, if you just
stop to say, hi, it will take you that much of you only saying hi
for two seconds, but then it will take you so much longer to carry
on, we must minimize our distractions. We use these things,
we're not saying a ban of Facebook, we were saying use them.
They're just a new facility and new way of communication. But
there's other that we need to have with these things. You know,
there's other binnorie universal laws and told us these other for
example, a professor Morrison said that I don't want you guys sitting
on the streets, because people are passing by, you know, you're
looking at them, there's women are passing by, but I don't want you
to sit around on the streets and talk.
The Sahaba said to him, you know, it's necessary for us to have
these gatherings, that's where we exchange ideas, that's where we
speak and sit in the province. And a lot of them said fine, I
understand that. But there are certain rights that you must
fulfill, which is keep your cases down, you know, give the right of
the streets. So he gave them certain other the same thing will
apply now to your Facebook and everything else that we use, you
use it but do not become obsessed with it such that it encroaches on
your studies, and it makes you less than what you could have
been, because then believe me, I would love to go back and study a
number of different subjects that I missed out. Right. Another thing
is
waste speaking about Baraka blessing.
This is just some simple advice on a personal level that I have
benefited from.
If especially if you're I mean this will benefit both those who
are very studious, they have all the you know, this wants to just
fully study, right in a good way. And also those who are not
studying to write they're not focusing, what we need to do is we
need to spend time for Allah subhanaw taala, which means we've
pray off a daily press that will
keep us Morrow, it will keep us connected to spirituality. And
spirituality is extremely important. What one scholar says
is that if you have a very intellectual mind, a very fiery
mind, you need a generous and compassionate heart to balance
that smartness that you have in your head. Otherwise, it will lead
to arrogance. Think about it. Somebody who is just so arrogant,
when he walks in the room, he thinks he's the best out there
that he knows more than anybody else. So self conceited. If he
doesn't have a heart of compassion, humility, then that's
not going to be balanced. You need to balance both the mind and the
heart. And it's extremely important. And the way we do that
is to learn the arc of our forbearers and approximate love
while yourself and to spend some time doing thicker and remembrance
of Allah subhanho wa taala. I give you an example. There was a
student in our madrasa in our seminary, a very studious student,
I mean, didn't play football or anything like that. It was just
always studying, you know, a very smart student, there's always
study.
There used to be a gathering of vigor of remembrance that used to
take place in the madrasa and he would avoid that he would go, he
would say that that waste half of my half an hour of my time, I'd
rather be studying something in there. Alright, Tuesday, just a
proper studio students. On one occasion, he decided to go.
Right, he decided to go. And he sat there for half an hour, in the
remembrance of God, half an hour for somebody who really values
their time for studying is a is a big thing to do. Right? It's like
saying half an hour without checking your email. I mean, how
bad would that be? Right? So what he noticed though, was that in the
subsequent days, he carried on doing that for a week or so he
found that he could get more accomplished in the day. In terms
of his other work. I will tell you from personal when I went when I
finished my spirit world, when I graduated my own started, I became
an imam of the masjid in California, I found that I just
didn't have any Baraka in time, any blessing in time thing that
day was just whizzing past as the Hadith mentions that closing the
Day of Judgment, that's what's going to happen anyway, I called
one of my teachers. And essentially, he says, Look,
time is in the hands of God, to make it seem like you've done a
lot or that you've done less, it's in the hands of God. Give some
time to God he will open your time up for you. Remember these words
these are the these are really powerful, believe me, that you
give some time for God. Remembrance and it will add
to your benefits, how is it possible that somebody like huzzah
Ali, he died at the age of 55. And yet, he becomes such a celebrated
scholar that in Liverpool today we mentioned him and he was a scholar
of bothered and Deus, which is in Iran today. And we're saying, May
Allah forgive him. Because of the work that he did as being the
proof of Islam and the work that he did. We look at Imam nawawi.
And who hasn't heard of him unknowingly. He died at around the
age of 40. And he wrote the Riyadh Saudi him, he wrote a commentary
on Sahih Muslim, he wrote this huge works, he was only 14 When he
passed away. And there are so many other examples, or whatever it is,
the famous hadith is another example he died before he died
around 14 or 15, as well. Allah make them Allah allowed them to do
so much more in the short amount of time that they have because
time is in the hands of Allah, squander your time away and you
will see that it will just fly away and nothing will happen. And
they say that you do citizen the day your time will just go. But if
you spend some time for God, you will see the baraka and the
blessing in your time. You see the baraka and the blessing your time.
And
the other poet, the point that the point says,
If you do not become a leader, which means if you don't gain
leadership skills, if you don't become accomplished, if you don't
get something, Lundestad feel a Orisha Bobby, if you don't achieve
something during the nights of your youth, then fall asleep, the
Mirage the back the hidden, then you will never achieve anything
for as long as you live after that. Right? You know,
hopefully for those of us who have squandered our this is a bit
overly pessimistic, right. And inshallah it's not that bad. I
mean, it's not a saying of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. But
you understand what he's saying. He says, Well, Illa Shabaab. In
fact, he says, that isn't the major part of your time, your
youth in where you will really achieve your foundations and what
you will eventually be who they have them in one atom, Helen,
which means take your portion from it, make sure you use it well. And
take advantage of it. And do not waste Do not leave it do not
procrastinate. And that is extremely important. Now, I want
to just reiterate again, whether you're a good student, or not such
a clever student, Allah can open things up for you. I give you
another example. And I know that I'm giving you these examples.
That sounds difficult. But that's in our tradition. And, and I gave
you examples of things that were recent, right that were seemed
mythical, but they are off today. There's a great scholar called
Lufthansa great theologian. Right? He was not the sharpest student in
the class. And he would be in the class of out of the dinner eg.
Right. And on one occasion, there was a very complex issue of
theology that the teacher didn't even understand properly. So he'd
come to the class, but he hadn't understood it properly. And he
explained it somewhat. And then he said, has anybody understood it?
Now, this particular student suddenly puts his hand up and
says, I know it. And they will looked at, can you imagine like,
the guy in the closet never says anything? He's like, I know it,
you know, what, what are you going to think? Like? What's he going to
look at? You know, what does he know? And this is the teacher
said, Fine, explain. And he gave such an exposition
that clarified everything, even in the mind of the teacher. So the
explanation was sufficient even for the teacher, they asked what
happened to and this is what happens. And again, it sounds out
of the world. But he says, Last night, I had a dream of Rasulullah
sallallahu is Allah, the Prophet Muhammad salah, some I saw him in
my dream. And he put some of his saliva onto my, onto my tank. And
he says, You will be cured now.
And the next day I woke up, I started reading this stuff, and
God just opened it up for me.
And I could understand the reason, because at the end of the day,
there are definitely people who are smarter than others. There are
definitely people who can retain things faster than others, but who
makes them like that? We might say genetics, but who makes the genes
that way? Who's behind it, we have to always go back to the source,
which is God. So essentially, God can change things around. Right?
And who's there to who's there to deny that that's the person's
experience. We can't deny that person's experience. I'm not going
to say that I'm it's going to happen to me. But it can happen to
somebody and you must have your reliance on Allah subhanaw taala
and that is what that is what's important
to things, another thing, which is very detrimental is disputes.
You want to stick with your Muslim society. Right? Firstly,
you know, there may be other societies out there that people
might want to join
mean just, you know for the Bhangra music or something like
that.
Take it easy. That's not what you're here for the benefit of the
Muslim society in sha Allah, right? And I'm quite impressed by
what I've seen so far, right? Is that in sha Allah, it will help
you. Right? Because they're very varied in what they do in terms of
donations, and, you know, collections, fundraising, and
everything else. I'm hearing some really good things. And it seems
like it's a great thing. So I would really, I would really
impress upon you that you really take benefit of this. There are
some people I went to one program in, in Arizona, and this sister
comes up. And literally, she says that this is the place where I'm
first learning about my religion, because her father was a doctor in
some community where there were no other Muslims. And he was the only
guy in town. Right? The American Pakistani doctor, right. Dr. Hahn?
Dr. Hussain, every university has one, sorry, every hospital has one
a doctor hire a doctor will say, all right. So first time she's
learning.
But what you don't want is you don't want disputes disputes,
where you waste a lot of money, you know, to get on with this
section or that faction. I mean, from what I see of the Muslim
organization here, they seem to be very comprehensive in in their
selection in their pool of people that they bring on, right, we just
don't want to become a person of dispute where we start thinking
we're on the Absolute Truth, and everybody else is in the hellfire.
That is a very dangerous way of looking at things. Right? It
culminates eventually into some of the worst things that we've seen
happen around the world for us, which have not been a benefit to
the Muslims. It's only made it difficult for Muslims to travel
and to do things. It's made people, not people hate them, and
so on, we need to be really careful about those kinds of
things, right, we need to be really careful about those kinds
of things. There is a way to invite people, there is a way to
strive for your religion. And you need to get that understanding
from the qualified and reliable scholarship. And you don't take it
from just people who are just hyped up, right, because a lot of
it is just hype. And that's really unfortunate. We need to have a
measured way. For example, recently, we had the whole fiasco
with the images, sorry, with the with the the depiction of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam in the ugly movie.
If we hadn't run onto the streets and made such a big deal out of
it, then maybe the guy who made it and a few of his friends who would
have known about it, and nobody else would have known about it.
But the worst part of it is that this is not the first time it's
happened. We've had the cartoons just a few years ago, we've had
the Rushdie affair before that. We're never going to Weizen up.
Why can't we focus on for example, lobbying the UN, and lobbying the
government to make it a to make an anti Blasphemy Law, just like we
haven't a Holocaust denial, law in place? Why can we be intelligent
about these things? And just be reactionary instead? Why can't we
be proactive? And that's why I'm saying that people who are going
to be doing some people in universities, the students because
they, you know, most of our parents who are sitting at home,
if they're not professionals, they don't know how to do these things.
It's the youth that need to do these things. It's the people who
have studied that need to do these things. Right. So we need to have
a proactive approach. We need to be doing these things before they
happen, especially when we know they've happened 234 or five times
before. Now it's all come down, we will go back to sleep.
Right? So it's really important that we talk about these things
from beforehand. We need to educate people about really
humongous and Larson was I give you my final story.
Everybody's heard about most abnormal May. He was the *
of maca. Makara. Right, who literally have anything he wanted.
His parents are very rich and they really indulged him. He became a
Muslim and his father and mother took everything away from him and
locked him up. He escaped to Madina, Munawwara right to the
city of Medina, his brother during the battle, his brother was
captured up during the Battle of butter. And he's there among the
prisoners. His brother was not a Muslim, his brother relates this
which is related by IGNOU cathedra, in his opinion, when
they hire from employees hug this generation, he says that
his name was Aziz ignore homemade Hypno, Hashem was ignored by his
brother. He says that I was one of the captives, and the Prophet
Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam had told the Muslims who are looking
after the captors, is those who beat him higher on, which means
treat them well. These are prisoners of war, but he said
treat them well. And look, that's very understandable. Because when
you've got your prisoners that have been attacking you for so
long, and now you've you've got the upper hand over them. You can
just expect some people to maybe get really angry in New Zealand
really do some really gruesome stuff like, unfortunately, the
Americans and others have done in in these countries. Right and not
just a very good way to Syrians have hobbies. They've been doing
the same thing, right? It's not just Americans who do this. It's
not just Israelis who do this. It's you got the
is a, you know, so called so called Muslims who do that as well
to the other people and that's just just the human failing
essentially, right? It's not necessarily restricted to any
religion. It's just the human failing. So the Prophet salallahu
Salam said, it's those who beat him who treat them well treat them
with excellence. Now they think, okay, fine, treat them with
excellence. So we'll do a bit of excellence. You know how excellent
he was. This is the prisoner that is relating this, he says
that when they would get the bread, the food, they would give
us the food, because it was just a small supply, they would give us
the food, and they would eat the dates instead of dates was like
stable, that was just around, right? dates were everywhere. But
food was something that was scarce, when they would get the
food because the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu had advised them to
treat the prisoners, well, they would give us the prisoners, the
food, and they will be eating the dates. And I felt embarrassed. He
said, I felt embarrassed, I would push the food back to them, and
they would push it back to me and they will not eat it.
That is what you call the companions of the prophets, Allah
lorrison them and that is what you call the instruction of the
product. That's what you call mercy. But people don't know this.
I guarantee you most of us here didn't even know this particular
story. Right? It's it's related by Luca theme.
This is what Muslims are about generosity. And this is what we
need to be thinking about.
Musa people who made he comes along, and he says he had time off
properly. It's his brother, right? Time, a property. He's got a very
rich mother, and she paid a lot to rents in him. Right? That was on
so we would always, you know, personal thing with his brother,
but the others, they were like, we're going to treat them well.
We're going to give them our food and we're going to say who would
do that? I mean, others would eat in front of them, told them
and this is not a made up story. Subhanallah but there are many
stories like this, and I end here my dua to Allah subhanho wa Taala
is Allah use all of us for the service of his Deen? We don't
know, each one of us has an ability. Some of us know those
abilities that we have. Maybe we put up this that or the other and
some others don't even know because we've never looked for
what we can do. Ask Allah Allah tofield ask Allah for ability. And
believe me, whatever you're studying, it will just become
better it'll be enhanced. You will see that Allah will give you
better in your time. Stick to some sort. You know your your prayers
of the day, read a bit of Quran even if it's a page a day, you
know, read some basic the species have a regimen of vicar, which
means for example, 100 times a stuffy of Allah O Allah forgive me
for the mistakes that we make each day. 100 times is too far. It
literally takes a minute because you can do two in a second but
just think over what you're saying. Then Salawat democratic
socialism 100 times salat wa salam ala wai you send them along so the
other Muhammad
100 times and 100 times Subhan Allah Al Hamdulillah, Allahu
Akbar, Allah when Allah to Allah heal it and Aleem. These are five
of the most powerful formulas for medical right after the degree law
in either law so you just read Subhan Allah he will hamdu Lillahi
wa ala in Lahore, Allahu Allahu Allah what authority and they'll
be laid out in only 100 times a day that will take about four or
five minutes, but that's only five minutes of your day you do that
and inshallah you will be spiritually infused. You won't be
depressed in sha Allah. Anything that happens will not depress you
will not make you down as such, and you will be able to take on
whatever it happens. May Allah give a solid tool for you. Welcome
to dharma nine in hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen. I'd really like to
thank the organizers here and
management for this great event. And may Allah make it a source of
light and inspiration for everybody, you know, for the
coming year. And may Allah give all of us success in our studies
that we're doing, except this whole for the service of his team.
In whichever way Allah subhanaw taala wants us working with
me