Success from the Lens of Quran

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in Alhamdulillah number two who want to stare into who want to start a funeral whenever we let him in surely unforeseen al Amin say RTR Marlena Maria de la HuFa la medulla one minute little fella heard yella wa Chateau a la ilaha illallah who is the hula shedding color? Why shadow Ana Mohammed Abu rasuluh Amma bad we'll see Kumar FCB Taqwa Allah Vercammen and Allahu Taala think Kitabi hidden Karim bIllahi min ash shaytani R rajim Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. Yeah, you're Latina. I'm an otaku. Lucha Kulu colon Sarita. You slept la coma Omarama hola como Fiddler comes on. Oh, back home, while Manuel de la la Rasulullah who forgot the Pfizer frozen Aldi in my bag.

Before we begin our today's goodbye

I want to begin with a basic,

some basic job of Joomla.

From the job of Joomla is that a person when you come to the masjid that you prepare and you do LTSR you wash yourself up, you freshen yourself up, take wholesale, and you put on not the best clothes, not the newest clothes but the best clothes that you have on that day.

Then you should put on some bleep some

it doesn't have to be rude or you know word or something that is, you know, Arabic or Middle Eastern. It can be anything that you're accustomed to post that you should put on. You should pray to it or cause nothing.

After you put on the altar or that scent, and then you should come to the masjid, preferably if you're live close enough Mashie and walking. But if you don't live close enough, the car will suffice. You come

parking as far as possible so you can get that steps counted towards your ledger. And when we enter the masjid and you are entering the masjid, you fill the masjid to the best of your capability to the front without crossing over other people's shoulders. Without having your leg go over the other person trying to find the one spot in the front that is empty and you came in the end and now you're going to walk all the way to the back and the front. The last of your Mazuma is at the core of mental Iman to sit as close as possible to the Imam as Hadith the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he mentioned he says that a person as prophets who said he mentioned and I again more than

one a hadith about this particular subject but Prophet Salah Salem he says that a person when you enter the masjid he says Enter and benefit from the vicar what the nominal Imam and get close to you. For if you fall behind getting close to the Imam you will fall behind in entering Jana.

So one of the jobs of the Juma is that when there is nobody in the front and you enter to sit all the way at the back is against the other of your melodrama. You should be the closest to the Imam you should fight and another narration it says if they knew what there is in reward for a person to be close to the imam for the hotbar then you should feel you will fight one another for that.

So these are some basic adab just a general reminder, we're going to carry on our discussions on correcting concepts. Today's concept is going to be something that touches every person's life. Each one of us has thought about it, thinks about it and will always think about it.

It's something that we all

are striving to looking after. And it is something that not only touches your lives as Muslims, but our lives as Muslims but it touches every single person

and if we do not have a definition for this, then the society and the big corporations will end up deciding what this particular word means to you in your life.

You have a person recently I've been traveling I met varying different individuals Masha Allah and somebody will introduce me they're like oh mashallah, my name is so and so. I have two sons who are doctors

Mashallah.

My name is Sol Sol. I've been in the community for 29 years.

By the way, one of my sons works in NASA and the other one works in Facebook.

My son is doing PhD in Yale, my daughter just got accepted in John Hopkins.

And the list goes on and on.

The concept for today is what is success?

What is success

in the absence of a Muslim definition, or a Quranic lens definition,

this is society around will tell us and many times because we come from lands that were colonized

by the Brits, or the French or the Belgians or whatever. So when we come to these lands, a lot of the definitions that we have for success

is the definitions that have been placed in our minds by our colonizers.

And as science will tell you that it takes almost three generations for the trauma and the concepts

that we inherited subliminally without even knowing for those concepts to leave

us.

So the question happens is what is success in the Arabic language the word

word success

is doing it denoted by two different words

it's either Naja

or Fela.

We'll get to that there are two words Nyjah and Fela amongst other words, but the primary ones are Naja and Fela

Allah subhanaw taala he says in the Quran vitae bIllahi min ash shaytani R Rajim for I'm in sino either ama but Allah

either Tala Hora boo for Africa Rama who I know who fail ball or a be a good omen

when a human being is tested for millions I know that my Batala when Allah tests for I Khurana who And if Allah tests you and Allah honors you with generosity and blessings

when our armor who Allah gives you an aim

and a Kurama who Allah honors you and is generous to you via coal

we end up saying

rugby occur on my knee, our be a common

Maya Rob who has honored me I've been honored by my god my Rob

then Allah says what I'm either

further irony here is gone. And when Allah decides to test by limiting the provisions that he gives us, the clearer is

fair whole that person says a rugby fan and

my Rob has humiliated me.

And in these verses Allah is

telling us something that the concept that we have that Allah gives abundance to someone Allah gives worldly success Allah allows your daughter your son yourself, your wife, your relatives, your dad, your mom, your grandpa, any of them to have momentary Falah momentary and Jah momentary success in dunya is not a sign of Allah being nice to you.

Neither is that if Allah has constricted your risk is a sign that Allah is not happy for you and that is a failure.

If you look at the word

Nyjah and loha now Naja basically means very simple. Allah Frobisher when you found something, you got something you were trying I mean thieves they enter a house and they were successful. They were able to steal the things that wanted

that's the first Bishi you just got something

that's it you got something that's all Naja is it's a singular event.

You are after something you got it.

As for fella

it is

number one Alpha toes being victorious one Naja and to be saved while back ah and it's permanent. Finn name and this permanence is not in challenge and difficulty and calamity and trials but this permanence is in bounties

and higher and abundance.

That is why in the entire Quran Allah subhanaw taala not once used the word Nyjah.

It's not used once.

Rather 40 times Allah has used the word Fela and its derivatives.

You flee home if Lucha from the first page of the Quran when you open. Hola eco homophone. These are the successful ones, the ones who succeed. So, a victor, somebody who's victorious.

Somebody who's a Niger person

is a person who may be absolutely successful in his school but a failure in his life.

That is not a person who is more flair. He's an agile

he's just a victor in one sliver of his life.

On the contrary, a person could be a CEO of a company. He made it to the C suite.

But everybody around him hates him. Is that success is that Naja.

Is that what we're after?

So if you think about it,

if you if we go and understand the Quran and the Quran ik perspective, Allah subhanaw taala describes fella

in four boxes.

AlFalah a person whose if you say, This person is a more flat person, he is truly a successful person in the eyes of Allah.

What does he have, he's got the four boxes and in each box, he is a victor.

And the culmination of these four boxes, makes you a successful person in the eyes of Allah. The first one is that you must be successful malah

you must be successful with Allah subhanaw taala

you must have your relationship and your act together with Allah.

Every single one of us knows, do good, good will be done.

If you don't do a good

right,

they will be tricky for you at the end. Krishna kotoba we all know that

if I do good, good will be done to me for eternity if I do bad falaka there is gonna be something in akhira and we all are aware of it. And if Allah Allah is that we actualize and internalize this belief of ours. And this is what we suffer with as human beings we are in son, our fifth draw is this. This is It's tainted with this one thing. And it's a test for us that we forget. Every single one of us knows becoming angry, or anger is bad as a seven year old and a seven year old. They'll give you an answer. Anger is not good.

But most people don't have control over their anger.

What happened? It's that disconnect that people have from knowing what is important, but then actualizing that important thing as important in their lives. There's a difference.

Right, if you know it, why is it not in your Amel? If we know it, why are we not acting upon it? Because it has not truly taken the level of importance it should have in our life.

So success in the first category in the boxes for LACMA law.

The second level of the second category is Fela surah.

walborn Well, that he he Annie and the people in the community, your family and the community around success with them.

And that is denoted by you are a person that harms no one and nobody harms you and you are willing to rectify and solve things and everybody around us happy with your existence.

Then,

fella, that. How many of times we know people that are super successful in the economy, socio economic status, they're super successful in family, everything is going well for them. But they're extremely horrible about taking care of themselves.

Their unkempt hair, you see this you'll go to a doctor and he doesn't look like he's a doctor at all. He doesn't know he doesn't have a relationship with self. His personal growth has stagnated ever since he graduated

how many of us have taken a chance to pick up a book and read after we graduate so that I can grow myself my relation mark that.

And then successful there Elon Musk, Illman family

heirloom enamel with knowledge

and practice. If we succeed in all of these

only and only then are we successful in the eyes of Allah.

But if we fail in all but succeed in one over here, then that would be that your relationship with Allah

and then coupled with that is your family and your community.

The rest if you're with your that there is some deviances no problem Allah can take care of that. But the first two are essential relationship with Allah and relationship with the that.

How long is an exam? Three hours, four hours. If your daughter or son is taking four courses, 12 hours.

We have so much focus on that 12 hours of that person's life.

That 12 hours times for you know 48 hours that person's let's say two weeks

of their life when they have to give all of those exams compared to their seven years of life that they're going to live.

To will add 75 of people get offended 75 Right 75 Compared to that, two weeks, what's more important those two weeks?

Are they entire life?

And now take this entire 75 years of life and compare this with Akira.

How long is that? Eternity. And those of you that know basic math, anything over infinity is zero.

Your life in akhira is infinity. It's in finite, there is no end. So whatever you do, and you and I, we do in this life, whatever we do, this particular life is finite.

And within this life, those 22 weeks or three weeks, that we have so much importance that we are willing to sacrifice our child's eemaan So that he can get a piece of paper.

If you have success in one, but you lost Allah and you lost your family, you lost your community.

Is that really a success? Is that really Falah?

We need to reevaluate that. And on top of that,

you paid 20 3040 $50,000 for your son or daughter to lose their Iman.

And then after that, when everything is done, then they will come to the Imam or the community leaders and say what do I do? My son or daughter is going through this situation?

It's a very we all as a community need to wake up?

What are we after?

Is this success that your daughter graduated? And now she doesn't want to get married? And she's 45? Is that success? And that parent now comes and says, Oh, what do I do? Mmm, she doesn't want to get married.

Is that success is this success that you have literally men who are in their 40s and 50s that are focused so much on career because their parents focus them on that. And they have left everything and they're having haram relationships left and right

to fulfill their desires and failure to commit.

It's very antithetical to our existence as Muslims. Because we have misunderstood the concept of success. We're willing to sacrifice everything for that document. But the piece of document that you will be given a one piece that one document each and every one of us, our lives revolve around us. You start off with a document, a birth certificate, you come out and you get a document, your immunization certificate, you come out and you're given your first graduation certificate from kg, and then they're there onwards, document after document after document. And then we send our kids off for four years for another document and they're not done. They're still in the second year. So

much pressure, you should get a master's degree got another piece of document, they keep on getting these accolades and accolades and your life is spent collecting these documents not knowing that when you leave this earth, there is a document that will be here in this world that will be issued to you but you will not see it and that document is your death certificate that will determine the end but also your infinity.

It will determine how your infinite life is going to be.

As Imam Suraj said, My son, I'm more happy that he is a sweeper in a cleaner in a school with his eemaan intact

than a graduate of any Ivy League school but when he loses his Iman

wake up before it's late.

As a community we are sleeping and our enemies are at work.

We had few footballs and LGBTQ and then everybody was like oh, the Imam supports LGBTQ you can hide from these realities.

You can close your eyes like ostriches and put your head in and say mashallah, in sha Allah, everything is gonna be good as long as I read the four pole on my son.

This is not how Islam works.

And it is important for us to wake up now before it is too late.

There is

is no JOAs in Islam for a parent to send their daughter off to

a dorm

there's no Joe as for him

like I spoke to so many Scott there's no like this you can't flip the Quran upside down and make an excuse that Oh this was this there is no Jawas for that insulin

you should go and check out some of the times these you know, houses and all the dorms you will understand what I'm talking about.

So as a community, we really need to go back and correct our definition of success. Success is not

these papers

ask any of these kids who's the most successful person Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, all of these names. The most successful person in this world today is the one with whom Allah is happy.

That is success. A call only had our stuff for Allah howdy welcome Elisa in the muslimeen first of farofa in the whole world of water Rahim.

Salah Al hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala Mallanna via bada.

In the end, we ask Allah subhana wa Tada that he gives us a trophy to truly understand and face these challenges.

And understand that how we work around these challenges. If there is a way for us to send our kids safely to school do so.

But being completely disconnected from their lives and not know and absolutely no involvement in what they're doing and where they're going is not acceptable in today's time for parents.

And more importantly, connecting them to the messages and the houses of Allah. Even when it is difficult.

Even when it is difficult even when they are resisting you. This is where you're going to protect their Amen

hamdulillah we've been doing our Friday family HELOC has, for almost 12 weeks now eight weeks, eight to nine weeks Alhamdulillah we had come out to the community in Ramadan. And we as we had asked that we had created a particular tab, which was called community and youth programs. And I promised that you know after eidl Aloha, I will give a quick feedback or update to the community and hamdulillah over these this particular time, as overall as a community, we have served over 2500 meals in the last eight weeks, to the coming seven weeks to the community Al Hamdulillah, we've had an average of over 350 plus people visiting the masjid on a Friday night that has almost two thirds of a Jomar

crowd. That is something that you all should be proud of because it wouldn't happen if that is if you would all not support these causes. And more importantly, Alhamdulillah from from some of the donations that we collected in terms of the media and all the streaming and sound systems, we've had an increase of over 531% in our subscribers were short of like 40 subscribers to hit the first milestone on YouTube. And over 15,000 people have viewed our content in the last three months.

15,000 unique viewers have seen the content. And in total, we've had over 72,000 minutes

close to around 1400 hours, roughly of consumption, people have consumed that much content that has been put on on our YouTube channel. And this is something obviously that as a community but again, as I stated and the board, we stated that this masjid, we want the effect of it beyond just these four walls.

We want to go beyond that. Inshallah, we have a very exciting next three months plan. We have visiting scholars, some of the known names in the community that will be coming once a month inshallah to the community, we have two of them confirmed we're confirming the third and we'll put out that for all of you. And all of this activity is so that we can protect our children with variety of programs. If they don't want to come to a weekly they'll have once a month if you don't want to come to once a month they'll have something to do with the youth if they don't want to like at least some form of activity, so that there is no excuse for anybody saying there's nothing

happening. Where do I take my kids? How do I protect them? Your Eman of your child is not protected by sending them to a one week intensive program, but rather bringing them to the masjid once a week for 52 weeks. It's that slow drip approach that will eventually change their heart some

More sometimes someplace in the masjid, something will be said that Allah will open the heart of your child and they will change.

And that you have to wait for, you have to be patient.

So as we leave today in sha Allah, I ask all of you Insha Allah, as you're going out today, if you get a chance, please support the community and youth tab. We have hamdulillah over $14,000 in our account, but they will deplete soon if we're going to start bringing in those speakers. And my purpose is that you know, we want to bring in as many of those influential speakers as possible so that Hamza becomes the hub for all of these speakers whenever they're traveling because they have to travel to Atlanta anyways, that they can come out and be part of our community in our Masjid. Insha Allah so we ask Allah subhanaw taala that he blesses those people who have supported the IT project

mashallah so much hate has come out of it. And those of you that have asked me that they were they were not there on that Hotbird that day and it's not fair for them. There is an opportunity coming for you guys. If you come to the Friday night I will talk about it in sha Allah. But in the end please as you go out, support the masjid support the masjid operations, because this is all supported by all of your causes. And in the end, we ask Allah subhanaw taala that he puts Baraka in every person who has supported this project and Baraka in every person who is working in supporting this Masjid from the board to the volunteers to every single person. In the end we ask Allah

subhanaw taala to send salutations and Nabil Mohammed Salah who will send them Allahumma salli wa salam ala Nabina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam to see when we ask that ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada grants every single one of us who was sick, she felt and Camila. We asked her brother Asha, who is suffering from fourth stage cancer, that Allah subhanaw taala it alleviates his pain and removes the cancer and makes him successful makes his surgery and all of the chemo successful. We ask that Allah subhanaw taala grants us a true understanding of our deen and asked us to reshape our concepts with the understanding of the Quran. We ask that Allah subhanaw taala connects every single one of

us to the message of the Quran and to the love of Nabina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, we ask that every single one of us if we had done any wrong Oh Allah subhanho wa Taala that wrong that you know that we did with intention or an intention that Allah you are aware of it and you forgive us for those mistakes, and you do not hold us to account for those mistakes. And you make those mistakes into Hassan out for us because of our Toba Oh Allah we have no one else left in this world except for you to ask. Who else are we going to go to? We raise our hands in front of you. Oh Allah except our Toba. Oh Allah accept our Toba Oh Allah accept our Toba Oh Allah do not return us empty

handed from your bureau Bob and your agenda, your agenda Diwali, kromm or SallAllahu Murtada highly healthy him handmade or other early he was happy to sell him the semen cathedra Joaquin salah, insalata and honey and fascia, you wouldn't want it well. You're either coming to Allah come to the Quran.

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