Ali Hammuda – German & Japanese Discipline

			Jim Collins has a book called from good to great. And he speaks of a question that preyed on his
mind for many years. How is it that certain companies make the leap from being good to great are
there are certain universal characteristics that if you apply, you can make the same leap into
greatness. So he brought together a team of experts, and they identified a set of elite performing
companies that were sustaining good results for 15 years plus, and then they compared them against
another set of companies that only ever stayed at good. They never became great. And after five
years of dedicated research to answer this one question, and sifting through mountains of data, and
		

			going through 1000s, of pages of interviews, they came to the conclusion that there are certain
determinants of success. And he writes that at the core of it all, is the following to foster a
culture of discipline. What is discipline? I speak of the discipline that was defined by Abraham
Lincoln many years ago who said discipline is your ability to choose between what you want now and
what you want most or in other words, you can say it's your ability to say no. When deep down you
really want to say yes, exemplified so clearly in the life of Ibrahim salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, he
is one of the greatest of all creation, and then in whose footsteps humanity follows every year
		

			during the season of Hajj, the exemplar worship, the saline, the Intimate Friend of Allah, the
Ummah, the one man nation, Ibrahim alayhi salam, after all, was instructed by Allah to migrate on
numerous occasions. And with discipline he migrated, he was instructed by Allah to engage in manual
labor to build a building in a scorching heat desert. He did that in discipline. He was instructed
by Allah to slaughter his own son, who couldn't do that yet in discipline. He upheld the
instruction. He was instructed by Allah to leave his suckling son Ismail, and the mother of Ismail
in an uninhabited, lifeless desert. And with discipline, he upheld the instruction, Allah instructed
		

			him to circumcise himself at the old age of 80. And with discipline he did just that and that is why
Allah praised him and he said Abraham a lady was Ibrahim Allah said the man who fulfilled His
Promise Allah said when Italia Ibrahim Abu became the merit in Tana Han when I Allah tested Ibrahim
with commandments, and he fulfilled them with perfection. Then we turn to Hajj, what is Hajj, but a
yearly celebration of the disciplined family of Ibrahim and every one of the rites of Hajj is a
vivid training ground to produce Muslims like you who are disciplined, no sexual intimacy, no foul
language, no argumentation during Hajj. Allah said, discipline, despite the clash of cultures,
		

			different languages, hot temperaments, scorching heat, chaos adminer Chaos must deliver. What do you
see there other than unity, and togetherness and people moving in a set motion, one voice, one
uniform one a bad one Lord, who was glorified in a national spectacle of discipline that is second
to none. And the intention of the Sharia is for this ethic of discipline to overflow from the
boundaries of the Haram and into the life of every Muslim. In conclusion, there can be no success,
no happiness, no accomplishment, no flourishing in dunya and the hereafter for those who live on
disciplined lives, Muslims or non Muslims. And I share with you examples from the non Muslims before
		

			we turn to our own tradition. The first is a Japanese case study who would have thought now when you
come into the city of Hiroshima on one of the modern contemporary bullet trains, that this was a
city that was devastated by tragedy, who would have thought that just two minutes after the American
V 29 Nuclear bomber dropped its bomb on the city of Hiroshima that the city simply cease to exist,
everything incinerated, flattened to the ground 120 seconds or so. But despite this tragedy, despite
the loss of hundreds of 1000s of lives, despite Japan possessing hardly any natural resources, with
the exception, perhaps to fish despite them having problems with volcanoes 100 active volcanoes in
		

			and around Japan more than any other country despite them suffering 1500 earthquakes every single
year more than any other country that are resurrection
		

			Hey, Hiroshima began just a few hours after the bomb was set on them. The very next day, the lights
came back on in some of the regions of Hiroshima discipline,
		

			people who wanted to build their nation, then about 30% of power was restored to the surviving
homes. Then four days later, the water pumps were restored, there were 30 people who were
incinerated vaporized by the nuclear bomb in the Bank of Japan. Just a few days later, that very
same bank reopened with no roof working under the open sky and using umbrellas when it started to
rain discipline such that the word Holiday in Japan they hardly ever feature in the same sentence.
The trains that leave at 12am Taking people home at midnight from work are just as busy with the
trains leaving at five. They've in fact used a term in the 1970s in Japan called Karachi, which
		

			literally means death because of work. And I don't endorse this, but it is discipline, they overwork
themselves to a level that some of them die in the workplace. Companies are now offering financial
incentives to the Japanese workers to leave at 5pm Go home. But even the money is not working. They
stay till nine and 10 ethic of discipline. In fact, the author of the book man in Japan, who said
that after World War Two, the average Japanese citizen was working 16 hours a day in return for a
cup of rice. And they did that without complaining.
		

			In order to rebuild the nation. We are worthy of this ethic of discipline. And the second case study
is a German case study Germany who suffered losses of two world wars hardly within the span of 20
years, or just after World War Two 6 million Germans were killed five millions held in captivity, 2
million German women raped by the Soviets and others 500,000 Children born because of this rate, who
don't know their biological fathers, the Allied bombing had flattened almost every city in Germany
and the male population declined severely. They were dead or in captivity. So what happened, they
didn't give up discipline. The women came down to the streets and they had two objectives. The first
		

			to clear the rubble, the debris and with their own hands with no machinery, they cleared 400 million
cubic feet of rubble 400 million meters squared of rubble with their own hands.
		

			And the second thing they wanted to do was to find the schoolbooks to reopen the education system
and to continue teaching their children.
		

			Just 10 years after this devastation, every industry in Germany was operational medical industry
building industry, transport, communication, it was all working just 10 years then just 20 years
after it German products now have the greatest reputation in the world. You say Aldi, you say
mashallah, Germany now 20 years later has the biggest national industry in the whole of Europe, and
is the biggest capital exporter in the world than just 30 years later, after the war, Germany is now
one of the seventh leading and advanced economies of the world. They call it the g7. I'll list any
of these ticular examples relate to us. These were examples of discipline. These are examples of
		

			people who preferred what they wanted most over what they may have wanted now, and I want to say
that we as Muslims, we as ambassadors of Allah, Jalla Juliana who are ambassadors of the final and
only true religion that Allah accepts for humanity, us as Muslims, we are worthy of this ethic of
discipline than anyone else. As believers in a life that shall come after this fleeting one. No one
has a greater duty to live by discipline in the masjid, or in the workplace, or at home or with
their friends, or on the weekends. No one has a greater duty to live by the ethic of discipline than
us. No one should be in better control of their emotions, their speech, their behavior, their
		

			desires, their reactions than us. No one should be able to delay pleasure delayed gratification than
us. No one should be more focused on the task ahead of them which is entering Jannah than us after
all, didn't our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tell us of the reward of those who are
disciplined? And he said in that calendar I shall only lie.
		

			Allah who emailed who was lucky, I mean, anything you leave purely for the sake of Allah law will
send you a replacement that is better than that is the outcome of discipline, choosing between what
you want most and what you want. Now Yusuf alayhi salam was he not seduced by a beautiful high
ranking woman? And he said, no, harana Allah, I fear Allah. So what did Allah give to him to thank
him for this discipline, he established him on the land, he gave Him authority space on the earth
that he was deprived of in jail than in a bizarre turn of events. The very same woman who should use
him came back to use it, as the scholars have touched him said, asking for the use of in marriage
		

			and on there
		

			Wedding Night. Yusef says to the woman had a hero Mina continue to redeem this is not better than
what you wanted from you all those years ago. This is the Promise of Allah the hands of the
disciplines will never go without fail. So a man when he saw his horses, his marvelous parade
distracted him from solitude. Still the sun had set and he'd missed the prayer. He behaved with
discipline, and he sacrificed the horses in repentance, and Allah who was grateful. So instead of
horseback, he gave him the back of the wind, you mount that instead, and you go to wherever you
wish, using the wind, the hands of the discipline, Never Go Without Phil had the Muslim businessman
		

			behaved with discipline and stayed away from the Haram and doubtful sources of money. Allah would
have given him the halal equivalent, it would have made its way to him anyway, had our sister who
may be compromised in her hijab, behaved with discipline and held on to it stubbornly and defiantly,
Allah would have sent to her all of the wholesome things in life that she wants a happy marriage and
healthy children and mental well being and others but just behave with discipline and believe ALLAH
had our brother, who had not lowered his gaze, who did not avoid a lustful appetite had he behaved
with discipline, and forced his gaze to the ground and protected his private parts and ended the
		

			conversations, deleted the photos and made an effort to fix his ways. Allah would have to help him
pill Not a trace of sin remains in his life. This is the outcome of discipline. So dear brothers and
sisters, discipline is not about punishment. It's not about restricting your time for pleasure and
occasional play. No discipline is about choosing between what you want now, do you want most it's
about saying no, although deep down you may really want to say yes, discipline is essentially a
bridge that connects between where you are now and where you want to be tomorrow in Jannah. This was
the bridge that was crossed by Prophet Ibrahim so many times during his life. And perhaps this is
		

			the secret why the topic of discipline is repeated every year during the discussion of Hajj because
this is the same bridge. Allah wants us to remind us all and this is the same bridge that Allah
intends that we cross every day of our life to arrive agenda