Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Textbooks, Temptations and Takeaways
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Alhamdulillah
Alhamdulillah Hamdan cathedra on the uban Mubarak and fee Mubarak
Canady coma your Hebrew buena we are the general Agila who are
Manuel was Salatu was Salam ala se Udall. Habib Al Mustafa SallAllahu
Taala are they who are either Lee or Safi or Baraka are seldom at
the Sleeman got here on Eli Iommi, Dean Amma bad.
So my dear respected sisters and brothers, I
got a little peek at your university. First time I'm here.
I've been to Cardiff before, but not the university. At least, this
building is quite impressive, because I like architecture. So
it's quite impressive. It's a nice old, old fashioned nice stone
building. And I know it takes a lot more to keep it up. But it
looks nice from outside, compared to those cladding buildings that
you have nowadays. Anyway, I guess, did you guys ever worry
about them,
what the building looked like, and so on.
So anyway, let's let's make some sense of why we're here. I mean,
you should already know why you're here. This talk today is not going
to be in any kind of very organized format. I've got several
points. Because what I was doing is I was actually compiling
together a set of 40 Hadith from the Prophet salallahu Alaihe
Salam, along with a few verses, that I thought would be relevant
for us.
relevant for students, especially for university students. So the
last time that I gave this talk, or a similar talk to this was in
University of Warwick. And at that time, I remember brainstorming
some ideas, because I don't want to come here or anywhere, for that
matter, and just give you some speed about something and it's
totally irrelevant to you. So I thought making it relevant. My
university journey was probably very different from your
university journey. So I've done you know, been through the BA and
the masters and the PhD and postgraduate and all the rest of
it. But I was I've always been married. Since I started my BA, I
was actually always married, so I always had good foods.
I had a home to go to I had a place to deal with any fitna there
was Alhamdulillah. I mean, so what I did though, was I teach a number
of students or adults, students who have a lot of who have gone
through University. One of them right now is he's doing the Mufti
course with us. He's actually he's actually at the same time at LSE,
London School of Economics, I'm not going to talk about which
university is a better university. Whether Cardiff is better than LSE
or so. So I mean, I think so is is the best, but
Cardiff does some kind of like Cambridge. And that mistake can be
made.
Where you didn't you keep saying Cambridge, I was like, No, we're
not going to Cambridge, Cambridge is only one hour away from from
me. Cardiff is three hours away. Right? So
whatever the case is, whatever you're here for now, let's let's
look at that. The first and foremost thing in anything is
in normal armor orbignya actions according to intentions. This is
like one of the crux and one of the basis one of the foundations
of why humans should do what they do in the world, anything that
they do. And for Muslims, that's so important. The reason is that
for Muslims, we just don't have this world to worry about. We've
got a very important future ahead of us. What I mean by a future is
both in this world, for as long as God has written for us to remain,
whether that be 50 something 30 something 70 something, maybe even
80 or 90, something. The there is a narration which says that the
Reaping of the crops of my ummah, is between 60 to 70 hasard the
almighty bein a city in West submarine, generally people go
between 60 and 70. That's why the Prophet salallahu Salam, Abu Bakr
the hola Juan Romero, the hola Juan and Ally really alone all
four of them except Earthman with the hola Juan they all fall winter
6262 63 Around the age
Omar was on your throne and that stayed until at something
mashallah so wherever that is, we're going to stay in this world.
But then we've got this massive, endless, eternal
world to go to which is the hereafter that is what forms our
belief as a believer, because the crux of a Muslims faith is mankind
you may know biller he will you will ask him when the Prophet
sallallahu Sallam wanted to describe what how a believer
should be. The description he would get he would say is whoever
believes in Allah and the Last Day they should do this. Whoever
believes in Allah and the Last Day they shouldn't do this. That was
his description. We have to believe a number of other things
as well in between but this is the the beginning and the end. You
believe in Allah and you believe the last day
and they are so enriching ideas. If a person doesn't believe in the
last day, meaning a world to come, then to be honest, if this world
was then bad for you, then you'd be very very depressed. If there
was no other world to go to, if there wasn't a yo ml hisab, a Yom
with Dean Maliki yo me, Dean a day when
you will get your due, from whoever oppressed you maybe, then
can you imagine how that would create so much depression in the
minds of people who may feel that they are oppressed in this world
that they don't have their rights in this world that they don't they
haven't had a good life. So while they say you only live once, yes,
you do only live once in this world, but Alhamdulillah we do
have another world to go to. So we don't have to think that we must
just entirely only
enjoy ourselves in this world. Enjoyment is a relative term. The
Prophet sallallahu Sallam used to say that Korra to INFJs salah the
coolness of my eyes is in prayer. When you say coolness of your
eyes, it means What do you enjoy doing? What is it that you look at
and makes you feel glad? It satisfies you. Because the eyes
are a source of great
happiness and joy. And basically though in solid, you're not
looking at anything. It's a metaphorical term. It's a
figurative expression saying, I'm really this is something I really
enjoy. So he would make his salad now
ask a lot of people do they enjoy their salad? I know we're supposed
to. But do we enjoy a salad? I mean, those of us who pray? I
mean, I'm talking about myself as well. Sometimes we just pray
because it's an obligation at least I shouldn't be punished.
Right? How do we get it to that second level, that ultimate level
that it's actually an enjoyment? That's why enjoyment for different
people is relative? It depends on what you enjoy. For some people
studying is an enjoyment Alhamdulillah I love doing that.
Right? But for some people like what's your problem? That's not
enjoyment? Let's go watch a movie. You know, that's enjoyment. No, I
mean, this was one of my downfalls in a sense that I didn't like
football in madrasa when I was studying, I used to be studying,
and everybody else playing football. Now I feel bad that I
should have played at least because that helps you keep
physically fit, right? It's just not an obsession with football,
but at least a way to go and keep fit. So everybody enjoys different
things. And the student, or the human being anybody who Allah
guides,
towards that which Allah is pleased with,
is the most successful one.
And there's a variety of things that you can that Allah could make
you do and be pleased with us.
It shouldn't be thought of as some kind of dry acts. There's so many
different things. Enjoyment is possible, not just in dry acts of
study and worship.
But even beyond that it's there's Halal forms of enjoyment, one just
has to be careful in how they do these things. So intention is
extremely important for us. What do I mean by intention? Why are
you studying what you're studying? There's thinking in your nice
green and gray seats? Why are you studying what you're studying?
Is it really what you want to study? Is it just to get a job? Is
it just because maybe that field gives you the first line you can
land a job at 40,000 is your first job whereas others they give you
24,000?
Why are you studying what you're studying? Your parents want you to
be that doctor or that lawyer or that whatever it may be engineer
or accountant or whatever it is that you fancy? Do you want to do
it? Do you want to do it to help people you want to do it to help
yourself? Nothing wrong with helping yourself? But wouldn't it
be more enriching? If your intention was to actually help
more than yourself? When you're helping others, you're helping
yourself. The most satisfied people in this world are those who
help others study studies show that. And Allah subhanho wa Taala
mentions that for those who do good in this world, Allah gives
them an atoll and rare homage Ruth, a continuous reward, an atta
and our thought means giving. And many have looked at this and said,
I thought means
he gives to those who are giving to others, you give unto others
and God will give you that's the nature of this world.
So now why are you studying what you're studying? I will leave that
to you. I'm not going to ask you questions. We don't have time to
do interview. We don't have time to do interviews. But everybody
should just think, what am I doing? And really think for
themselves? how beneficial is it? Is it a dead end course I'm going
to take what happens if I'm not successful in that what happens to
others? Have you thought about how you can contribute to society? Do
you want to just remain consumers
Do you want to just remain consumers? Or do you want to be
contributors? A good believer, a good person is somebody who just
doesn't consume, consume, consume, what other throw their way. And
there's a lot of capitalists out there that would like to throw a
lot of things away, day in and day out. Are we just going to be one
of those who will make lots of money and just consume, consume,
consume, and just basically grease the machine, the capitalist
machine? Or are we going to be those who are also going to
contribute? Who are going to maybe bring about watershed moments who
are maybe going to change narratives, who are going to
change perspectives, who are going to challenge things?
You may think that's way beyond you. That's Einstein stuff. But
you don't know. It's all based on intention. And Allah says in a
hadith and Cuzzi, which means it's a hadith, but it's not Quran, but
it's from Allah. Allah says, I am with my servant as they think of
me.
If you think Allah can give you and make you the Einstein, and get
you a Nobel Prize, if that's what takes your fancy, then
Hamdulillah. That's not an impossibility on Allah. But you
have to work those kinds of people who want those kinds of things.
They have to work hard. You can't just have thoughts and ideas and
ambitions, empty ones. As one of the one of the great scholars said
he says, He's talking about jurisprudence, here's his handle
in law.
Let T be Tammany Hall will be Taraji will be sofa later, well
Allah, that this knowledge, if you really want to master it, it's not
going to come by saying perhaps, maybe, I wish, I hope, I desire or
soon, but it's the one who rolls his trousers together and who
really puts his sleeves up. And as they say, work your socks off,
you're going to have to work hard. And that's what's important.
So pick something that you want to do. And then you must enjoy your
study. If you pick what you want to do, then you will enjoy it,
when you enjoy something, then you will do better at it because you
put your heart in there. Otherwise, you just like finishing
assignments, because you must do them just to pass. You just I
can't wait when these till these three years are over, or these
four years are over. So think about these things.
How should you pick your topics? How should you pick your studies?
Maybe it's even irrelevant for me to even discuss this now, because
you're already into your course. But it's never too late. I mean,
it's quite expensive. You don't want to be wasting your money,
right?
You decide by thinking about your ideas and your likes, go to
somebody who's in the field advanced in the field, and go and
see what they suggest. But now have another idea in mind, how can
I allow this to also be of benefit to others? Is this a dead end
courses is something just for me? Am I going to be sick of it
tomorrow?
So think about that, go and consult with others. Number two is
time management. Once you get into whatever you're doing in anything,
time management is extremely important. We got a great scholar
who died in 1111 Gregorian, which is several centuries ago, Imam
Ghazali 505 Hijiri Keling, calendar 505 Hijiri. He said in he
says in his book called be dieting Hida, which is the beginning of
guidance, he discusses something very interesting. He talks about
time. And this is relevant to anybody who wants to do something
with their time, how do you get the most out of your time.
The way you get the most out of your time, he says is by having
something for every moment fixed, I'm going to sleep from this time
to this time you have time for sleeping, by the way, right? It's
not at it's not haphazard, that you just stay up all night or
whatever. And then you try to catch up in the weekend, right? By
messing around each night or putting each night you have to
have a time for everything. So the point is, he says you should have
a time for everything. And you should stick to that time with
rigidity. You should never let one thing go over to the next and the
other thing go over to this you should manage that well, because
and then he says something in Arabic, he says will be he taught
how to borrow capital O cards by this by this appears or manifests
the blessing of time. Otherwise, you know it's the same clock that
ticks the clocks aren't going any there's no conspiracy that the
clocks are going faster. And they've all decided to synchronize
themselves I will all go faster. So nobody will be able to tell
that we actually because the sunsets at the right time, if
that's a conspiracy than the Sun is gonna have to be part of that
conspiracy. Right. It's the same but I have noticed that depending
on what activity that you do a person experience
Depending on what activity you do, and how you approach things, you
can do some days, achieved much more in that day than you can in
other days, some weeks are a lot more productive than other. And if
you actually study these weeks and you think about them, you assess
them, what you'll actually notice is that in one, you actually very
organized, you were very particular, you were very regular
about something in the other one, you kind of just left it Okay,
I'll do it this now I'll do it here, I'll do it there. Baraka has
to come through organization, and number two, through the vicar of
Allah through the remembrance of Allah, because that helps you to
get more out of your time because time is in the hands of Allah.
Now, that's a metaphysical aspect, right? That time is in the hands
of Allah, Allah opens it up for whomever he wishes, I remember
when I first stopped studying, and I went and became an imam in
America. And I just figured that I don't have any time anymore,
because I had a lot of time to myself, I was doing different
things, and I just couldn't get anything substantial done. So I
call one of my teachers. And he says, You need to include some
vicar, some remembrance of Allah in your time, as busy as you may
be. And subhanAllah when I did that, I realized that actually do
more. With my other time. I'm a person who's always working,
right, I like to just be productive.
And I used to think that spending time reading Quran, and spending
time doing some test be hot, or some kind of meditation was
actually wasting time because I had no time for what I was already
doing. But then something happened. And I was, I felt very
encouraged to go and start sitting just for half an hour,
doing some vicar remembrance of Allah and so on. And you know,
what I found that the rest of my time, another 23 and a half hours,
the rest of my time that I had no time in, I suddenly was able to
achieve much more. Because time is in the hands of Allah. And Allah
gives you blessing and Baraka. So two things, managing time and
asking Allah for blessing in time, by doing the remembrance of Allah
give Allah some time, and he will open up your time. And if you
don't believe me, just try it for two weeks, and you will see a
massive difference. If you don't believe me, I can say this is
empirical.
I'm challenging you. Try it. Like you would do a laboratory study
like in science. Try it, and you will find that this will work for
you, Inshallah, as long as you got the organization right.
Now,
don't just be here to enjoy yourself, because most of you are
youth. Does anybody know when youth begins? And when youth ends?
By age, I don't mean when you can stop partying or whatever. But
when does youth begin? When does youth and what's the age? Does
anybody know? Islamically speaking.
It starts when you become mature, right when you become barley, as
they call it, which is around 1314 15. That's when your youth
begins. And it ends when you're 35, according to some great
Islamic scholars who say, until 35, is when you are still a youth,
right? So when you're a youth, the youth is your productive time,
it's the time of development, it's the time when you basically take
in for whatever your life is going to be later. And if that time is
wasted, when you have the most vigor, when you have the most
flexibility, when you are most versatile. Because once you get
older, then generally people get married, they settle down, they
buy a house, so they are settled in a particular area, their
commitments increase, then you can't run around as you used to,
before, it gets more difficult. So this is the time to be productive,
to try to get as much as possible so that basically it will inform
the rest of your life, it will benefit the rest of your life.
One has to be very careful about this. Because what happens then is
in universities, for example,
if we are not interested in our study, and we're just looking for
a nice time, a lot of people are probably here because they I mean,
how many of you live in Cardiff, meaning are from Cardiff?
Right, which is a minority. The majority of you are live from
elsewhere. You've just come here to study. And I guarantee you that
there will be somebody because I know a lot of people like that who
have come here, and they didn't want to study in their home town
because they wanted to be far from their family and parents. Do I see
some nodding heads here? Some hands up maybe? Right? That's a
possibility. Right? It's not unheard of.
I know one person who does who did that or tried to do that I know
where he ended up but it definitely tried to do that. Now
what we have to understand is that while you're here, everything that
you do is going to affect your future. Because this is
formulation when you when you are now trying to make it for
yourself. You're trying to stand on your own feet. You are studying
you're cooking, or buying food or eating at restaurants or
scrounging less
dose of whatever it is that people are doing, right at the end of the
day you are fending for yourself, may Allah make it easy for all of
us. Now, students get bored sometimes. So you know what they
start doing, they start joining all of these different societies.
Now, one is the Muslim society, I can understand that. But then they
start studying all of these other ones, because they want to fit in
somewhere. And all these random societies you're joining, and then
they have these evenings. And one of the ingredients, essential
ingredients for these evenings is what
is alcohol. Now, you may start off by saying, I'm a Muslim, I don't
do that kind of stuff, right, I'll just go but I'll just maybe buy an
orange juice, I'll just stay on the side. But slowly, slowly, that
wears out slowly, slowly or resolve goes, the taboo breaks.
Any environment, generally, is very powerful. And it generally
wears you out until you become part of the environment. That's
just the norm. That's how human beings are we are. According to
studies, we are social beings. We're not individual individuals,
but we're very social beings, we have to interact with one another.
And as our great scholars tell us, that human beings they take from
others. In fact, what he says he's they steal behavior from others
without even realizing, when you're with somebody for a long
time among certain groups of people for a long time, you will
actually start taking things from them without realizing. And
tomorrow you start speaking like that lingo. And people will say,
you know, how come your people who can tell you to go back home, hey,
you started looking different started dressing different, you
started speaking different, even, right? It's just you can't help
it. Right? It's just very difficult to that's why you should
always find the best company for you. So the problem is that when
the alcohol flows, then you get carried away with that. And then
eventually, you end up losing your iman, you end up losing your
faith. And you actually end up being worse than because who wants
to be who wants to be dependent on alcohol, who wants to only find
satisfaction in alcohol, who wants to find bliss in something that is
so artificial, that everybody knows that when you see a drunken
person, nobody respects the drunken person. That's what
alcohol does to people. And forget all of that. That's just from a
social perspective, right? That's just from a social perspective, in
Islam, what we have as Muslims, and I'm speaking to you as
Muslims, right? We have Subhanallah alcohol is one of
those things. Among you know, there's a lot of sins in the
world. But alcohol is one of those particular ones that have been
singled out to be
very incriminating. What I mean by that is that it is one of those
sins that prevent a person from being able to c'est la ilaha
illallah at their deathbed. And that is a massive problem. Because
if you can't see like Leila on our deathbed,
then where do we go? How do we go us? That for us is a loss moments
are very important. And alcohol is set to prevent that from
happening. In fact, there's a scholar that's mentioned. He was a
student of the dean, he was used to study under one of the great
scholars, and he was a very good student. One day his teacher is
invited or called over quickly in a rush that come over your
student, this particular individual, he is on his last
breath, meaning he's about to die, we're trying to make him say La
ilaha illAllah Muhammadan rasul Allah, there is no God except
Allah Maha Allah's Messenger, but he's refusing to say it. And he
was such a knowledgeable person. I mean, I'm talking about a
knowledgeable person. And he went to him and he refused to say it.
In the end, he actually said that I disbelieve in what you're trying
to make me say.
That's what he said. Now, this caller is stunned. My student, I
didn't know anything. I mean, he is a student of the dean is not a
guy who's out there doing weird stuff. So then he decided to
investigate. So I think he talked to his wife or somebody in the
house. And what they discovered is that sometimes because of a
certain issue that he had, he would sometimes take
alcohol of some sort, for a particular reason.
What we see from here is that this can create this kind of an effect.
I know this has to be taken on belief. This is, you know, this is
this is a story I'm telling you, it has to be taken a belief,
because the, the other might have mentioned this really detrimental
effect of alcohol. So one has to be very careful about that. Just
just really stay away from that.
Another thing is, how many of you came here from Islamic schools,
who spent their life in an Islamic school, and then they've come
here? It must be quite different for you, then the experience that
you're having here of adjustment is going to be very different for
somebody who's been in a non Islamic school environment from
before. So that's another challenge. And what happens with
certain people like that, right? Is that why it's been wonderful
that you are in an Islamic school if the Islamic school hasn't been
paired you for a mixed environment life, then that could be very
challenging. Some people then just find it very difficult. And other
people, it opens up so many opportunities that they just get
lost. So one needs to be careful, the best solution for that is to
stick with people who you see around you that know how to manage
themselves, well who are dignified people of integrity are the
students or the classmates of integrity. Always try to find good
friends like that. Number two.
The other thing, if you've been in an Islamic school, generally, it's
probably been a single gender school. Right? Generally speaking,
Islamic schools are going to be Gen single gender at the higher
level. Now you've come into a very mixed environment, not just a
mixed environment, but a very mixed environment, very different
environment. And there's a lot of fitna, now somebody comes to and
this is, this is just quite normal that somebody comes to Hey, that's
a really nice dress you got, you look so wonderful. In your hijab,
a guy tells you that I'm talking to the women, obviously, not to
you guys. Right? So
what do you do with that? How do you deal with that? Maybe it's the
first time you're getting comedies, because you were in an
all girls school until now. Now these guys in your class who are
like, looking at you,
you know, maybe giving you remarks Muslim or non Muslim? Regardless?
How do you deal with that?
You know, we get affected by praise. There's no doubt about
that. The first person that's praise me Wow. Must make me I
mean, you get your ego bloated up. What is behind that praise? What's
going on here? You understand? One needs to think of these things
very carefully. One thing one needs to think of these things
very carefully.
For guys, you're not supposed to be sitting with sisters in the
canteen and thing I'm giving dower
some kind of dow I don't know like, you know what kind of dow I
mean, you need Dow brother if you're doing that. So
these are again, I'm just throwing things for thought here. I'm just
starting, we're all mature enough to understand these things.
Somebody just has to bring them up. Let us think about them. In
the right way to understand these things.
This is a time of youth it's a very it this is going to be a make
it or break it time for a lot of people do you really want to do
three years again, four years again, have a degree. It's
ridiculous. Right? So do your best while you're here.
Now, if we get into the real nitty gritty stuff, when you're
studying, you better take notes. A levels were very different to
GCSEs. GCSE is everything was found in the books, A levels, you
had to look beyond books. And in university, the professor will
come in the lecture will come in and give you a few notes. And
you're supposed to go and read up on them. Otherwise, if you rely
generally, from my experience, if you just rely on
what the professor tells you just what's notes in class, that's
sometimes not enough here requires you to get additional textbooks
I've actually read up, because I don't think everything can be
taught in the in the teaching time that you have. So it's very
important to take good notes, because notes act as a VISTA point
towards the rest of your knowledge that the rest of your science that
you need. So in class, take good notes. Now, one of the secrets of
any good students success is this. And I've I've tried and tested
this, before you study the neck before you're going to be taught
the next lesson. If you have the book or notes or whatever go
through them, you may only understand 50% or 60%, or even
30%. But that's fine. At least you've understood that much. It's
like me coming to Korea for the first time.
If I kind of just look at a map, Google Maps or whatever, and I
kind of go around and get an idea of the main landmarks. I don't
know the intricate places, I don't know the special places, but I
know the main places. So I've got an idea, then one of you who
really knows Cardiff, right? Takes me around and shows me a lot of
places, because I already have some awareness. I'm not starting
from scratch, I can build on what I 30% I know, then if I go and
take another ride myself around and then go and check out what I
want, then I'll I'll really understand what Cardiff is all
about. Likewise with your lesson, if you prepare it beforehand by
just reading it through. When the teacher comes in, when the
lecturer comes in, and they give you the
the teaching, then you make sure that any questions that come up,
you make sure that you ask them and you resolve them. And then
after that you go and this is the most productive
is that you go and teach somebody else.
Every day after my lessons in the evening, I was in charge of
teaching. I had a group in my class, and I would go over today's
lesson they don't we'd all been taught the same thing but I would
be the one to repeat it. When I'm when I know that I have to teach
something that they I'm going to study it much more differently
than if I don't have to teach it. And it was one of the great Scott
of the Indian subcontinent. I met him, his name was more than a
mercy hula Han. Right, he was in up. And we asked him for advice.
He said, When you study, study as though you're going to teach that
lesson tomorrow, you will just study it much more thoroughly, you
will try to look for any objections, any possibilities, any
questions that comes about, that's the best way to study. And then if
you actually after you've done your class in the evening, you get
you come together and you go through your notes, you revise
with others, you probably don't even my experience is that if
you've done that, then our exam time, it's easy. There's things
that if you have taught, like I said, you've studied and then
taught, and then you haven't revised them an exam, I remember
sitting in exams, and a question came up, and I hadn't revised that
pot, you sit down for a while. And he used to come back. Because
you've taught it when you teach something. That's how you solidify
something. So that's just some basic ideas. Now, how would you
take notes, some people take notes on computer, some people write
notes, some people do a hybrid where they actually use the the
iPad or the some or the whatever pad is tablet to actually write
on. However you are, just do it in a way that you don't lose them.
Because there's no point in writing loads of notes, and then
you've lost them. So to have a backup system, that's very
important. And I'm telling you some really simple stuff, but it's
just a reminder.
Finances, number four finances, okay, I'm just throwing different
things about different relevant things, finances. Now, what do you
do with finances? You better manage your finances? Well, I'm
sure nobody has an endless supply unless you have some really
wealthy kids. Right? You probably are already in debt of 9004 for
250, or whatever it is. Right? And that's carrying on. And then you
get a bit of extra money that maybe your parents gave you a you
do some work, maybe? What does that call kangaroo now?
Deliveroo. Do you guys have that here? Yeah.
It looks like a kangaroo in it. So anyway, whatever it is that you
have to do. What the Prophet sallallahu sallam said something
very interesting, he said,
an IQ disorder often nephropathy in this full Marysia moderation in
spending is half of your livelihood. Now you see, in terms
of finances, you have an incoming and you have an outgoing. That's
basically what find its incoming and outgoing. How do you manage
that incoming, you don't have much control over because you don't
know what you're gonna get tomorrow. You can expect certain
things but you don't know. But what you have is solid, right? I
have 500 pounds in my bank, that's I know for sure how much I get
tomorrow, God knows, I may lose that grant, maybe inshallah you
won't if you're getting one. But what I'm saying is that, you know,
you have that much I can manage that. There is something solid I
have, that is something that I know and I can deal with. So the
prophets are awesome, said moderation in your spending is
half of your livelihood, it's a very wise statement. That because
you have control over that, if you're moderate in the way you you
spend that, then that that works out to half of your livelihood,
then inshallah Allah will provide the other half. So be very careful
in your spending. I know it's very easy, it's very easy just to
always keep going out. But going out requires extra money because
restaurants don't make you make money by sending you things like
cost, right? They make money because they're putting a profit
on it, you can make that same thing. It just takes a bit longer
maybe it takes a bit more management and maybe it's not as
enjoyable. But I don't know what you do if if you're bringing food
from home and freezing it and then putting in a microwave I don't
know what you guys do Arabia cooking, who cooks here by the
way, and he good cooks here, Mashallah. MashAllah wonderful.
Be careful of don't rack up too much debt. It may seem easy to
rack up debt right now. But when you actually start have when you
actually have to start paying off, then you will realize and you will
cry, because imagine that you've just finished university, you
found a job, but you are 30,000 in debt.
And you still have to buy a house and your father's on your case,
your mom's on your case, you need to get married, you need to do
this and I've got 30,000 to pay off.
Or whatever it is that you have to pay off.
So have clear long term goals. Don't just think for today. Think
about it for yourself. You know, right now if you've got two years
left to study, three years left to study think one year after I
graduate, where do I want to be?
One year after I graduate? Where do I want to be?
Five years after I graduate? Where do I want to be if you have those
kinds of goals, you will then orient yourself
in that direction. If you have no goals, then you will just do
whatever comes along because you don't have a goal. You just live
for today. Don't live for today because we have a tomorrow. We
have a massive we have an endless infinite tomorrow of the hereafter
as well. So always think what
Am I going to be doing in five years? What am I going to be doing
in 10 years? And then actually beyond that, what is my hereafter
going to look like? What is this paradise that I want to have?
Okay, some other mundane things.
As, as we said, University is a very social place, you're going to
have you socialize with people, whether you like it or not meaning
what I don't mean, purposeful socialization. I mean, you just
interact with people in your class, and wherever else that you
go, have a lot of tolerance for others. Don't be extreme, have a
lot of tolerance for others. Be careful, because you're going to
have two universities or that one place where all sorts of ideas are
investigated, practiced, displayed. And there's some crazy
stuff that you will see.
How do you do tolerance? How are you? How can you exercise
tolerance, but at the same time not be affected either? By crazy
stuff? Not everything that happens is sound is it? Right there are a
lot of there is there's a lot of crazy stuff that goes on wherever
you go in the world, and universities the same, have a lot
of tolerance. So one needs to be careful. As I said, if you've been
in Islamic school, this may be the first time that you see some
really strange things that are quite the norm here. Whereas they
were abnormal in the Islamic school, you have to get used to it
doesn't mean you get become part of it. Keep your keep your
principles.
Okay, forget about dealing with people of other faiths. University
is probably a place where for the first time you are going to be
dealing with other Muslims have other methodologies, other
persuasions, right, you may have been from a very particular
Hanafi, Shafi, Maliki Salafi, whatever it is, yes, that was your
local mosque. That was your scholars, that was your family,
you didn't see. And in fact, you criticize everybody else, you are
condemning everybody else. Now you're here. And the guy who is in
your Isaac, or, you know, they, they are from another group, and
he's actually a nice guy, right? You know, they're nice people. How
do you deal with that? Again,
one has to understand that you must be open. To find the truth.
You have to be open to find the truth, you must always take from
reliable scholars. And you must never waste your time in just
useless endless debates. You, we have to be tolerant of each other.
We can't be condemning one another. It's not the place for
it.
Leave that to the scholars, if that's what you want to do, go to
a madrasah study and learn your deen properly, and then you go and
teach people. But if this is where you think that you know, you have
to go and be militant, and go and you know, put people down and do
take care of people, which means basically calling other people,
cafiero
innovators or whatever the case is, this is not the place for
that. You just got to cause the wrong kind of attention. We have
to find the way to work together for the common goals. Because
we've got many challenges. The Muslim community has huge
challenges, and we can all share in those common goals. And this is
the best way, you know, the Prophet salallahu Salam when he
came to Madina Munawwara
he had he started to deal with the two tribes that had been fighting
for decades, if not a century, the two Arab tribes that Olson has
allege were actually from the same original ancestors, the blue
Taylor they were called. They had a rift between them because
somebody had been killed other person had been killed and it was
going on for decades. They became Muslim the process and became
their leader. How do you manage such a people? Fresh from the time
of the disagreements, the quarreling, the disputes, they're
fighting their violence, he has to manage that. The way he did it was
that he brought in a few initiatives, like the building of
the masjid was one of them.
What initiatives do is that it occupies everybody into doing
something of substance so that you don't have an empty mind that
wanders and starts basically picking at each other's brains,
you know, because you don't have anything to do. So successful
Isaac's eyes are those which have these initiatives and don't just
do what other Isaac's are doing. Like okay, because they're doing a
fast guys do a faster form. You heard that concept, okay. That's
an American concept maybe because Isaac in you know, London is doing
this or in Birmingham or Louisville is doing a you must do
the same thing. Now you think of what you know, somebody come up
with ideas. What can we do as an Isaac? And if it's a bit of a
controversial then then have it passed through some scholars or
whatever the case is and do something for the benefit of
people. Don't just be followers, be original thinkers.
So think of these things.
Many students get really fired up about certain very particular
issues, right, that are not really for the mass, and they get
involved in a scene.
resolves disputes within and what that does is that then they have
to go on research. Do I raise my hands up to here Do I say Amin
allowed, whereas Allah, you know these kinds of things and then
they have to use all of their time to research those particular
issues. They don't study the arcade and flip in general, to
practice, they only study these points to go and argue, just to be
better off. They're even when they're praying Salah they're
thinking of evidences, they're thinking of arguments. I'm telling
you, it's I've been there, it's really very, very detrimental. Do
what your studies, learn your deen for the sake of learning your deen
to practice and then hopefully to guide others, but not purely to
argue because that kind of knowledge is useless.
If you do need help with something, if you're suffering,
somehow something is too difficult. Somebody's troubling
you whatever the case is, don't ever suffer in silence, get the
bravery to, you know, get the courage to go and do something
about it. Otherwise, you just go deeper and deeper into a hole. I'm
not an expert on that topic. But I can just tell you that much.
Right? That don't suffer in silence, whoever it may be, go and
get some help. Find somebody that can help you. Make good friends,
stay in good company, as I already mentioned, try to find the most
dignified person that you can see around you and try to be different
observers before you put your hand before you give yourself up to
somebody because remember, friends can either be your your success to
Jana, or they can be your your basically your failure to *.
The reason is that if you are and most people are following types,
they are followers. They're not original thinkers, they're not
leaders, they don't have leadership capabilities. Right?
You know, you know who they are, everybody knows who has leadership
qualities, because everybody can kind of gravitate towards them.
Right? When they come in a room, then everybody just looks at that
person, do you understand they look towards that person, they
seek assistance, seek advice from such people, whereas others are
followers, majority of us are followers, by the way.
Now, do not sell your akhira for somebody else's dunya for somebody
else's? Well, what that means is, you've gotten yourself with
somebody who is not a very good impression, not a very good
person, meaning they do a lot of wrong things, you become obliged
to do what they do, because you're part of their clique, you're part
of the group. And if you don't do what they do, though, you don't
want to do it, you have much better knowledge and
understanding, but you can't help it. So then you slowly slowly you
get involved in the same thing. And then after that, you end up
missing your dunya and your hero for their dunya. The what they're
getting out of it is the is the is the fact that they've got a lot of
followers. And you know, everybody does what they say. So be very
careful about that this happens at all levels. It happens even in
adults, to be honest. So be very careful with that.
You are a product of your friendship. Okay, another point.
Don't neglect your families.
I know you may have had maybe a suffocating lifestyle at home,
where you're micromanaged about everything, you had no opportunity
to do everything. That doesn't mean that now you can come here
and just have license to do everything and whatever to your
harm says to yourself different detriment as well. And don't
forget your family. A lot of families actually, a lot of
parents actually complain that after my daughter, my son has gone
to university, they don't even call much they just about coming
the holidays, but they stay on the Xbox and they just keep watching
or whatever, they don't have time for us. This coming to university
doesn't mean that you must divorce your family, you can't divorce
your family. It's who Allah gave you, however good or bad they are,
that's your challenge, make the best out of that.
And sometimes being apart for a while actually helps build. You
know, when you stay away from something, you're and when you go
to sleep, your body lends itself. So sometimes staying apart
actually is a therapy. It actually increases the love you start
actually valuing people after you've been away for a while
because when you're too close, you can't see the value, you see a lot
of the harm, but when you stay away, you actually start and then
you can actually retrain yourself to do things differently. So do
not neglect your families.
In a lot of people, they will be making friends for the first time,
like solid friends at university because it's in university is that
place of survival you need to survive, right? You need to do a
lot of things for yourself. At home, you may have been pampered.
Your mom may have done everything for you. Including making your
breakfast in the morning ironing your clothes, cooking for you, of
course and everything else, even getting your school bag ready
because you forget stuff. Right? Now what we want to do here is we
want to make sure that we don't neglect our family because of new
friends. We make new friends, our friends, family is family. Just
keep those two
in their own places. Perseverance and of course, I mean, as I said,
I can't be exhausted. There's lots of stuff but hopefully this has
been good for food for thought. And when we come back, I will take
your questions. Inshallah. If you have any questions
On this related perseverance, don't ever give up, especially
when the going gets tough and it will get tough. Just expect that
it's not supposed to be easy, any subject to take it, there's a
curve a learning curve, certain parts are easy, certain parts are
difficult. You just have to get yourself through them, then
Inshallah, at the end, you will feel elated, you will feel like a
champion Inshallah, that I've been able to accomplish this, always
try to be the best that you can be all be always tried to be the best
that there is not competing with other than necessarily just that I
want to be the most superior. For example, they say that one of the
biggest differences between Apple and Microsoft, and I'm an apple,
I'm not an Apple user, I only have an iPad, right? I don't like Apple
phones, I don't, I'm not into them. And neither do I have an
Apple Mac, I work on a PC. But they say that the reason why Apple
is so great is because they don't care about what anybody else is
doing. They just want to be the best. They just want to be the
most accomplished. There's no competition, it's just I want to
be the utmost best. Whereas there's other companies that are
always comparing themselves to other they're trying to outdo
another, then you're always playing catch up, always do what
you always be the best at what you do for yourself that I just want
to be for myself, that's just much more worthy than to be competing
with anybody else.
Take your university a year at a time, when you look at three
years, I'm going to be here for three years. It sounds a lot, two
years, just take it a year at a time you got options, just do it a
year at a time. And Allah will make it easy for your time will
fly gap years, sometimes a good idea, right? But sometimes the
very detrimental if you're saying you want to take a gap year
because you want to earn some money, you may actually end up
squandering all your money just depends on how disciplined you
are. So be honest with yourself, is it better for me just to get it
out of the way, the three years? Or should I take a gap year, make
some money, take it easy. I know somebody who's take his he's doing
he's just finished one year physics of physics at UCL. But
he's taken a gap year, so that he could focus on his art in class
and make some money. So while he is trying to make some money, he's
also doing art in class and really increasing his knowledge in that.
So there's a benefit either way, do you understand there's a
benefit. So be very particular in the way you think of these things.
Number seven, be realistic about your future. I told you about your
five year plan 10 year plan, be very realistic, have realistic
prospects about your graduation, your mind shouldn't be that I'm
only studying all of this because I want my first job must be
50,000k a year. If it does come about well, Hamdulillah. But if it
doesn't, then are you going to sulk and cry? Are you going to be
depressed? Are you going to think all your years have been wasted?
So be realistic? Like what does the person in this field actually
make? Be realistic about it. And then if you get more than
Hamdulillah, you're not going to give it up? You're not going to
throw it away? Get you you'll enjoy it, but you'll enjoy it more
because it'll be more if you had unrealistic expectations, you
could be end up being depressed helot unhealthy? I mean, you know,
I have to say, I have to say, this has been one of the best topics
and titles, the titles that I've ever seen for a university program
like this. It just I don't know who thought of this.
You did a very good job tech. I only saw it yesterday. To be
honest, I had no time to even think of this. But I know how to
program. And as I said the smarter kept telling me is in Cambridge,
right? But I knew I had to come over because I've been teaching
several hours a day, we just started a new institute. I'm
teaching multi class students, right. But yesterday, I saw this
on Twitter. I was like, hey, this sounds really good. Understand. So
textbooks, temptations. So let's talk about takeaways. Minh, eat
healthy and halal.
I mean, this is a big city. There's a lot of Halal places
here, I'm assuming. Right? So eat healthy and halal is a lot of good
Yemeni food here.
Because there's a lot of Yemenis here, right? in Cardiff?
Well, you probably know the places, all I know is avoid too
much Red Bull, and energy drinks. The reason is that they're just
not good for you. They have too much of certain chemicals and so
on, they keep you awake, yes. But train yourself to manage your
sleep and be fresh, okay, a cup of tea or coffee is okay. It's
understandable. But when you go beyond that into these things, and
you think they're useful for you, they're actually very different.
If you become addicted to these things, they're actually very bad
for you. And you can read the study the studies on this. There
are many professional healthy natural products actually to help
in concentration. I can give you a few ideas if you want. There's
I remember once I was going to take a test, and I've got a friend
who's a naturopath. So he suggested a few things right. One
of the things he suggested was a thing called it's a supplement
called L theanine.
You actually get it in tea and small, but you can actually buy it
from proper good health food shops. l theanine, it helps
concentration. So if you've got a test and you need to concentrate,
then get some l theanine.
You can get it in different formulations, right? So go and get
something like that that's natural, make sure it's not weird
stuff. It's natural stuff. So there are alternatives to these
things. These are just mainstream gimmicky, capitalist promotional
ventures, that they come around with these big red bull cars and
so on. Right, they get you into it. That's not what it is. Go and
get the stuff that nobody knows about, that is healthy for you,
that works with the proper natural system of your body.
And finally, maintain your religion and your principles. Yes,
you've come here, you've come here to learn, right, you need to be
open and accommodating. But there are certain principles that you
know that you've learned from your family, you've learned from your
community, they must not go there are good. All the way from things
like being generous, being content, right? being modest, that
shouldn't be lost here, just because you're in an environment
where that stuff may not be there, but others are not doing the same
thing. Keep your principles, keep your good things that you have
learned. And you need to be able to discern those things. And the
way to discern those things is by listening to scholars by reading
the Quran. By
reading the Hadith going to Drew's they keep making, they keep making
us think otherwise we get lost in whatever our environment is. So in
finishing, I'm going to give you
a five point plan, because that's how things work. And this
particular point, I'm telling you these five things if you do them,
I guarantee you that you will maintain your iman has anyone has
anybody felt lowering Iman in university? Is that even a
question to ask? Has anybody felt a dip in the emaan at university?
Right? I mean, that's, it's I mean, it's inevitable. How do you
maintain yourself? Obviously with some difficulty but at least we
can show Allah we're trying his his grace will come upon us. And
these are five things. Number 100 is still far in the morning and
evening. I'll take you about five minutes in the morning five
minutes in the evening. A stuffy hola or a stuffy hola Robbie
minimalism being a to LA I seek forgiveness in your Allah from all
sins, and I returned to you. What do you get out of that any sin
you've committed from the night to the morning until you do it, they
get forgiven, then you do it again in the evening, anytime after
sunset, anything you've done during the day, you looked at
something you're not supposed to, you've said something, you've
whatever, all of that gets forgiven. And likewise, you stay
clean. When you stay clean, and you don't have the evil jinx of
sin on you, then you just can function better, you actually have
more Tofik to do the right things. Otherwise, since they weigh us
down, then you don't even feel like praying. So 100 is too far
morning and evening. Now we purified ourselves. We just had a
shower. It's like taking two showers. Now we want some
blessing. We want to adorn ourselves gonna put some perfume
on and you do that by sending blessings on the Prophet
sallallahu sallam. So 100 Salawat in the morning 100 In the evening
Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad were either early see
that Mohammed already go Selim, you want a shorter one Allahumma
Salli ala Muhammad Sallallahu Eleison 100 times morning 100
times evening. So you are getting blessing. The Prophet sallallahu
sallam said whoever sends one blessing on me, Allah will send 10
blessings on him. Don't you want the blessings of Allah? Right in
one blessing of Allah if it comes upon you, it's more than enough.
We and of course we just have to say it in a way that those
blessings do come upon us. So 100 100 That's two things right?
Number three, do not neglect the Quran. So everybody think to
yourself, how much Quran Can you regularly read every day? And I
don't mean if you can't read a juice a day like one Sebata as
they call it, read half. If you can't do half, read a quarter if
you can't do a quarter then read one page. No joke. If you can't do
a one page then read half a page. Half a page a day. There was one
sister once the shakes told her. She goes I don't have time I got
to I got my children too. I just don't have time. Finally she
agreed I'll do one either.
I'll hang hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen. One I said fine. And
when you pick up the Quran, you're just not going to do one ayah
you're going to do probably half a page one page. So look, if you
can't do anything, do half a page. But Quran is your life. The
benefits are we don't have time to explore going to the benefits of
the Quran. So that's number three. Number four
is something very special. That is find five to seven minutes for
yourself. Where there's nobody, no TV, no phone, nothing. It's just
you. Right? It's just you for yourself. You look down, close
your eyes in your room, and you just do a meditation. You just
imagine that Allah's mercy which is everywhere, it's coming down on
your heart.
Right I mean the Mercy of Allah
is everywhere you're just thinking that is coming down your heart,
you're just in training you're just tuning into, that's what
you're doing. It's nothing weird. The whole reason for this is you
just want to start thinking about Allah, then you just imagine with
your mind that your heart is just a coating on Allah's name. Oh
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah. Right. So it's just your heart calling
out to Allah, to give you whatever it is. So that mercy is taking the
darkness and all the worries, greed from your hearts. If you can
do this with focus for for five minutes, I guarantee you, you will
get focused in your Salah. It's just the training. Because Allah
says in the Quran with charisma, Arabic, remember the Name of your
Lord. And that's what you're doing here. Instead of your tongue, you
just doing with your heart, when you're doing with your tongue, if
I take at the speed out, and I say Lai, la La, la, la, la, la, la,
la, la La, and I start thinking about everything in the world. And
I'm still saying Lila Hill, Allah, I can do that. But you know, when
you have to do it, say it with your heart, then you know when you
are not doing it. So you may get distracted in five minutes.
shaytaan will distract you.
But you just do it for five seconds. Because even if you're
distracted, you're still getting reward, just keep coming back. And
eventually, in three, four or five weeks, you will actually get more
concentration, you can then read with more concentration, your
studies will be more continuous learning in our distracted world
where every bleep have a phone or every light that comes on on the
phone, we have to check. By the way do you know recently there was
an article that I just read that you know, the guy for Facebook who
created the like button,
the guy who created the light concept in Facebook, he's not with
Facebook anymore. Him and a number of others who have worked for this
industry to create the addictiveness of these social
media platforms. They have just given up those platforms.
The guy has a phone that he's when he gave to his guy, he said you
gave to his secretary or whatever, and said, put an apparent to lock
on there that I can't download any apps. I just want a phone.
And yet we're all stuck in it. And these guys who created they said
it's it's designed to be addictive. And you know what that
means? I know what that means. So in our time, you need that five
minutes. So let's just quickly reconcile.
First one was what?
Stick for seeking forgiveness number two us? Salah Durood
Sharif, right Salawat for blessing number three was Quran. Number
four was meditation, right? This is just your time with Allah,
nobody else. Number five, how you going to? When you hear a lecture,
you get inspired, right? You do it for a few days. And then it's
like, Okay, I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it
tomorrow, and then you get lost. The fifth thing must be that once
a week, you must attend a reminder gathering something that reminds
you about the hereafter something that reminds you of EMA not a, an
Isaac management meeting, you do those, that's a separate issue.
Right? I'm talking about something that reminds you now of course, if
you don't have that ability, if you don't, can't find anything
locally, where you can get that look online, listen to a lecture
on YouTube or whatever, I'm gonna show you a tool at your
fingertips, any shape that you want. Find one that inspires you
that really talks about makes you feel guilty, makes you feel that
you want to do something once a week that will then keep you doing
these four things. That's the fifth thing. And I guarantee you
again, empirical, if you do this for three weeks, you will probably
sleep better. You will be much more clear headed, and you will
actually feel loved by Allah and you feel like you love Allah,
without the feeling of loving for Allah. Then the Eman is not proper
Iman, if a person is only doing that because he's born a Muslim,
he's got parents who are Muslim, and she just feels that it's just
part of that and you don't really understand or love Allah, then is
no enjoyment in that the enjoyment comes when you actually start
getting connected to Allah. We ask Allah to allow us to connect to
him. We ask Allah that he makes obedience, beloved, in our heart,
so we want to do it. And the he makes disobedience hated in our
hearts. So he makes it easy for us because believe me, it's a it's a
difficult, it's a difficult test for us. And Allah allow us give us
immunity to the temptations.
You know, one is that you have immunity to a flu, you have
immunity to template, they're around you but you're not being
affected back then because you're focused and inshallah doing these
five things will benefit you. Just like Allah Hi, Ron Baraka Luffy.
CO May Allah bless you all, and may Allah allow us to join
together in Jannah. One day, if not before that somewhere, we'll
pray and then I'll come back and take your question. How do you
know that your DUA has been answered in Istikhara prayer
is the Hara is a process. There's a dua involved, but it's actually
a process. While I answer a lot of these questions, I'm actually
going to be referring a lot back to zum zum Academy because a lot
of these questions I've actually answered in detail on zum zum
Academy dot
Come. So, because we don't have too much time to go into great
depth I'm gonna answer the more briefly, but I will then refer
some of them back to that. So that would be for the more detailed
answers. So how would you know if your dog has been answered
Istikhara prayer Istikhara prayer, you must look at it
simplistically, that it's just you make a doll, and then you're going
to see a dream. It's the whole if you think of the meaning, it says,
Oh Allah, you know, everything, I know nothing. And if you know
this, to be good for me, for this world and the Hereafter, then give
it to me, if it's somebody you're marrying, interested in marry, if
it's bad for me, then turn it away from me, turn me away from it, and
give me the best wherever it is. So this is the corridor can be
used for two things, it can be used to make a decision about
something good about Yes or No, him or her, you know, whatever,
whichever way it goes, right.
And the way that works is you keep doing the DUA every day. And you
can do it more than once. You don't have to just do it at night.
It doesn't have to always be after Touriga prayer. So if you're not
praying, you can actually do just the DUA just carry around with
you, whenever you are like overwhelmed with distorts,
then just read the DUA. And slowly, slowly,
you will go in the right direction. So even if it's
somebody you're obsessed by the store is very helpful. Because it
says, if it's bad for me Take, take it away from me.
It may be taken away from you, but you may still emotionally be
attached. So it says take me away from it as well. And give me the
best wherever it is. So if you do it properly, then that's the idea.
Another meaning of istikhara literal meaning of a seeker is to
seek the good. So it doesn't always have to be done just for
choice. It can also be done where it's a monumental task, very
important issue in your life. And you're making that decision.
You use this Dr to ask for goodness in it.
So you're blessed in it. So if performs that function as well.
If you see a dream Alhamdulillah and you can understand it and get
it interpreted Alhamdulillah but I don't wait for dreams. The way I
do is the Hara is I carry on reading. And even if that takes
three months, because you know, if you're getting engaged, engage
with somebody, you're probably not going to get married the next day.
It could take some my Sheikh actually told me to keep doing
istikhara every night every day until the day I got married. And I
think there was only benefit in that because I was asking for
goodness, even though I decided I'm going to marry her. Do you
understand? So you need to get the narrative right about what is the
Hara is about and not try to make it what it's not. And again, I
have a very detailed answer about that on zamzam academy that you
can. It's probably a bit more detail than what I've just
mentioned here.
How can you manage to do his memorization of the Quran while at
university without a hips teacher, there's no hitch hips teacher
available every day. I don't want to, I don't want to discourage
you. But it's not easy. And it's extreme time management. There
have been people who've finished that I remember I was I was
teaching Buhari to the final year Island class students and in the
middle of the one of the students comes to me with a gift said I've
got a gift for you. I said what happened, he said, I've just
finished my memorization of the Quran. So it is a possibility that
while you're at university, you can memorize the Quran. But it
requires a lot of personal diligence, a lot of dua to Allah
subhanaw taala. And then you have to have a routine of how to
memorize, a lot of people fail because they don't know the
methodology. There's many ways of memorization. And again, I'm going
to refer you to some some Academy, there was a very interesting, very
dignified individual who's a friend of mine who asked me, he's
trying to be a half as or he's about 10 years older than me. So I
wrote for him a method of how to be a half as
basically you're learning fresh lesson, everyday, like where maybe
one page or half a page. But what you can't keep doing is keeping
learning Fresh, fresh, new pages. What's more important is to
actually refresh what you've learned yesterday and the day
before, because that is generally the fastest thing to be forgotten.
So there's three things you have to focus on. Once you get beyond
one juice. You learn a new page, maybe page, half a page, two
pages, but you also every day refresh and make sure you revise
the last five lessons, the immediate five minimum or half
pages. If you don't do that, you'll forget them and it's
sometimes actually more difficult to revise them later. So every
day, so every day a new lesson is going to take the place of the
oldest lesson. And then every week you must have revised all the
part that is behind there. So if you've done seven years, then you
will be learning a new page, plus your five last lessons every day,
plus one juice a day so that in seven days, you can actually
finish all the previous if you don't do that, slowly, slowly, you
start forgetting forgetting it and it becomes more difficult. So that
is the crux, but I've got it hold detailed in there. It's called
what is it?
How to memorize, just look for memorization or heads, you'll
probably find it on zamzam Academy. Otherwise, send us an
email if you can't find it, I'll send it to you.
How do you deal with being different as a student or in the
workplace as in hijab is notably noticeably different, and how to
integrate?
Number one, the main thing for everybody in anybody is that you
have to recognize that we are different. Like if you if you just
want to say I'm the same, but I'm different. It doesn't like just
recognize you are different.
But you're different. Now how do you integrate, despite your
difference?
The thing which will keep you confident is the fact that you
take pride in who you are, you believe in it, it's not forced.
My hijab is me, that's my identity, because that's I'm
satisfying a much higher authority, which is Allah,
regardless of what anybody else thinks. Once you do something out
of confidence, personal conviction, then it becomes much
easier to deal with things because then you're not as sensitive.
Within conviction, there's a built in,
there's a, there's basically a built in immunity to sensitivity,
you've taken a calculated decision to do that, there are going to be
difficulty. So number two, accept and acknowledge that you are going
to be challenged, there will be places where it's just not going
to sound nice to be there with a hijab on.
So you just have to then have to avoid certain places maybe, like
maybe certain social places where people are going to look at your
whatever, unless you're confident enough to go in there. build
yourself up having number three, having friends that are also doing
the same thing as you that helps usually, because then you don't
feel alone, you feel part of a group that helps as a human being
that helps a lot. And ask ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala for assistance.
Now, if you gave me a practical scenario, I mean, you can
verbalize it if you want then maybe I can deal with it. When I'm
when I'm asked a question that's generic like that, I have to give
generic answers.
But if you got a specific scenario, which is difficult, then
they will be better you bring that to me. Do you understand like this
is the exact scenario probably because this is very general
discretion. So whoever asked this question, if you've got a specific
scenario scenario you want to bring up please feel free to do
so.
I know a few of my friends who are so smart and have the ability to
go to prestigious universities. So they're not here that means
or they are here.
However, they have decided to not go to university or to not
University at all because student loan is haram What is your opinion
on student taking loans when it's haram due to interest even though
degree can benefit the ummah?
You don't know if your degree is going to benefit the Ummah to be
honest. Inshallah you will. But that's a possibility. Whereas
interest is a definite haram. So remember, one thing I know this is
has to be taken on belief. But what you have to understand is
that work,
maybe take a year off and find a good job in the London Underground
or something they're paying for two nights train driving, they're
paying 25,000 pounds. It's not a bad job, is it? Right? Find a job
maybe for two years by sorry, borrow money from relatives or
whatever the case is? Do something that you can do I know this all
sounds not very easy to do and not very practical sometimes. But a
person who's got integrity for themselves for their Deen, then
they're going to people who have decided for whatever reason to
take a loan that's up to them, they've decided that but if you
are deciding I'm not going to tell you to go against that personal
conviction that you have that is haram. Do you understand? It is
not my place to do that? I have to tell you the way it is. So just
find other ways pray to Allah subhanaw taala to help you out to
find a way for you and he will find a way for you. If you are
sincere in your asking.
I know somebody who paid the first year by borrowing money. Now he's
he's got a job in the underground. He's just waiting for training he
will be making is taken a year off because the training lasts for
about 1215 weeks and you can't do it with the university. So he's
taking it off when the training begins. But then he'll have a job
that pays him 25,000 It's actually a 50k job.
Really, but prorated it's 25k for two nights train driving in
London, right and you only get that when you make a lot of dua
that kind of stuff. So Allah Allah says in the Quran woman yet
tequila, you got to zoom in hater layer. Whoever fears Allah Allah
will provide from where they would never have thought.
I remember when I was in California, there was a Moroccan
student who had come from Morocco to study in Texas. Then he moved
over to California became our community in our community. He
told me a story of his. He came from a good family, religious
family, but not very wealthy. His father used to send him a bit of
money.
He came a time when he didn't have any money left here to pay his
tuition, money, fees, and to survive.
And the money coming from home wasn't enough. So even the only
religious person he had access to was his eyes up president the MSA
president, even he told him he was a decent guy is in his like, you
are allowed to work, the only job that you could find was in a local
gas station, petrol station. But the petrol stations in America
they actually sell wine as well. So he will have to serve wine.
So he just not something he could do. So he was even the in a
situation when you have absolutely no other way and you're going to
you're not can't survive, then you are allowed to do something like
that. But be always looking for something halal. So if you are in
a job, and that's the only thing that sustains you right now and
you'd be on the street without it, then you are allowed to keep it
but be actively genuinely looking for something halal. That's the
ruling because Allah doesn't want to see your day. Right in that
sense. But he just couldn't even the MSA president gave him a fatwa
that it's okay for you. But he refused.
Allah was testing and clearly
within a few days or so he got an offered for a job at the
university. And the benefit of that job was
that he his fees get paid because he's a staff member. And the
salary he gets his extra. had he taken that petrol station job, it
may have just been enough to pay the fees. He'd still have to do
more. So Allah gives you a sweeter deal, but this has to be taken on
belief. Otherwise, it sounds mythical. Right? Like, okay, When
is this gonna happen to me? You understand? But I have somebody
has to tell you these things. So that's that's what I would say
to that.
You just ask Allah Oh, Allah accept me somehow, for the service
of your deen make this easy for me, facilitate this for me crying
tahajjud. And then you can't just do that you must try as well. And
there are certain well levers, there are certain things that you
can read haspin Allah, whenever Milwaukee lies sufficient for me,
he's the best patron. I was told to read that a certain number of
times for a task that seemed impossible, like very difficult.
And within three weeks, it became so easy. I'm a firm believer in
it. I'm not joking. I had to do something that was I couldn't I
didn't have the courage. I had no way I can't do that.
Shake of mine. He said, you carry on trying to do your you know,
your prayers and everything. But at this, he said I think, you
know, do this Husband, husband alone and we're lucky. I think
it's a 308 times maybe sounds like an arbitrary number. Right? And I,
it's a very powerful dua, and things just opened up like magic.
Almost obviously, through means nothing happens by magic in this
world, but things just fell in place. So I swear by it.
When serving when working in a shop, sometimes we've told to
serve customers who's buying alcohol is that, in that sense, is
selling alcohol or skin selling alcohol is a sin. Yes. But because
a lot of our jobs are in supermarkets and selling things
were part of it. You're not in an alcohol selling shop, you're not
in an off licence. You are it's just a fraction. So some scholars
have said that
you don't like doing it, but because it's just part of the
deal. And you can't find a better job than that would be allowed
until you can find a better job. Because they technically say that
you're just being paid to serve somebody and that's just part of
the deal as such. So you won't your money won't be haram because
it's a fraction. But if it's 50% you're in a beer shop or you it's
a big pot, for example, then that would be you have to avoid that.
But if it's a minor pot, then you should avoid it as much as
possible. But some scholars are allowing it always look for
something better. If someone who has not brought up in a Muslim
Islamic background example attending boarding Christian
school, probably Christian boarding school would be better
from an English perspective.
How deep know how does one push
stem cells to become better Muslims. You need an environment,
you need an environment, I think that would be the best to find
that environment of good people to attend lectures. You can go and
start learning more about these things because the more you know,
the better you know how to function without knowledge where
ignorance right? You know, you just need to know more, learn
more. So you need to learn more in theory. And you also need to see
the practice through good people and eventually get married to a
good person. You know, that gives you the right environment. So this
is insha Allah and always ask Allah, one of the best choices you
can make when you're confused about something is Allahu Arenal
haka. haccombe was looking at the bar, what I didn't know about till
about and I was looking at NAB, do you know what that means? Oh,
Allah, show me the truth as the truth. And allow me to follow it.
And show me the wrong as wrong. And let me stay away from it. So
you don't get confused? It helps.
How do you deal with Muslim non Muslim guys who speak to you
unnecessarily?
See, a lot of this is based on behavior behaved on it's based on
reaction is based on how you are? Are you constantly smiling at
people and inviting them?
Without realizing I'm not saying you're doing it on purpose? Are
you constantly smiling at people like in an inviting way without
realizing, I go look at yourself in the mirror.
And I'm just joking. But you know what I mean, it's just a lot of
time. A lot of this is to do with body language. And of course,
there's guys that will just there's there's people that will
guys and gals that just hit at you, regardless whether you want
it or not. I mean, there's that as well. So number one, you need to
mitigate it from yourself. So that when people see you, they know
you're a serious individual, you're not just a walkover, you're
not person that they can just woo into something. Right? When you
react, it needs to be a decent but firm reaction.
A decent but firm a polite, but firm reaction where you're cutting
it. See the way things start is by flotation.
And any inch, sorry, any millimeter you give, it just opens
up more doors. That's the nature, that's if you want to know how to
flirt, then that's what you do. Right? You just have to make
certain body gestures, certain movements, certain things you say.
So just don't say any of those things. Be polite. So you're never
going to be you know, be polite, but be firm. And of course, if
somebody is really being aggressive, then you may need to
really shut the door. Right?
They say that you can never protect yourself by indulgence. A
lot of people like they're emotionally attached to somebody
that they can't get married to. But they're trying to be their
therapist.
Do you understand what I'm saying? Oh, she's going to feel so bad.
She's going to be a wreck, she's going to be so depressed. So I'm
trying to wean her off that you are her problem, man. Do you
understand? You can't be the therapist when you are the
problem. So sometimes it just means changing your phone number.
You know, I'm saying in more general, just changing your phone
number. As bad as that as difficult as that seems. Cutting
off all ties, that is sometimes the best rectification for
something when it gets too serious. It don't let it get to
that be firm, look at the body behavior of somebody?
Or how they deal with this look for a role model like that? How do
they reflect? Or how do they deflect unwanted attention. And
I'm sure there's lots of articles online about that as well of how
you and I haven't done a talk on that, by the way. So I continue to
go some some Academy. But there's a lot of articles on there of how
to deflect unwanted attention.
And I think this whole subject is coming more to the fore now.
They're never going to nobody's going to ever accept segregation.
But they are realizing that this just does not work.
Men are just who they are. That's why in was it Sweden recently,
they actually had a festival only for women. And they said until men
don't learn how to behave themselves. We're not going to do
a mixed festival. Welcome.
Do you see what I'm saying? It's just a natural reaction understand
is the natural reaction that's going to be there. And you just
need to try to mitigate it. And you're rewarded every time you try
to do that. And you're rewarded every time you you know, for those
who are tempted by something, when you don't take the temptation,
you're rewarded by that.
May Allah subhanaw taala make it easy man. May Allah make it easy.
May Allah make it easy, because it's not difficult. It's not easy,
it is difficult. And in sha Allah if you pass by, you know the day
you get married, and you can say I have never committed Zina that
I've never fornicated
How would you feel? What an accomplishment? What an
accomplishment, but those who may have committed it. Toba is the
Toba is there for us a day
We will let them become enlightened Buddha. The person who
has who repent from sins ends up being like the person who has no
sin. That's the wonderful Deen that we have. Allah loves it when
a person seeks forgiveness.
If you've never done something, then don't do it and ask Allah for
protection. And if you have done something, seek forgiveness, and
don't do it again. That's the beautiful part of this life. There
are many criminals in the past who became the greatest lovers of
Allah. They were highwayman. They were robbers. They were playboys,
they came became some of the greatest I can mention a few names
Abdullah hidden and mubarak for the Lunar yard until further
learning how they actually became known as the worshipper of the two
harems. That's how much work should be done when did in MK
Kumbakonam. And Madina Munawwara. So it's not difficult, but it
requires a zeal and it requires your doors and somebody else's to
us. That's why if you can get your parents who should make the offer
you anyway, but if you can get some teachers to make the offer
you you know some righteous people to make dua for you, then that
really, really helps. We believe in all of these other methods.
May Allah subhanaw taala make it easy for all of us. And Allah
grant you the best in sha Allah in what you're studying, may Allah
allow you to, to study the best thing for all of humanity, that
you can be contributors and not just you can be producers. You
don't have to just be consumers. And May Allah facilitate this
journey for you, and may Allah unite us in general for those that
want to and hamdulillah