Ali Hammuda – The Life Series #2 – The Empowered Life
AI: Summary ©
The "empowered life" concept is discussed, including the "teen year old's accomplishments and the importance of fulfilling these accomplishments to achieve success." Five principles for those who want to lead an empowered life include avoiding excuses, not blaming oneself, finding a way to create a positive future, setting goals and reaching them, finding the right opportunity, aiming high, and never missing the boat.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah he early he was so happy him and Allah
Good to see you again. Dear brothers and our sisters of course who are in attendance
Alhamdulillah we have Subhanallah or about a third of the month of Ramadan that has elapsed already.
And I trust that each and every one of you is making every opportunity of every hour that this treasure of a month office.
Imam him to Josie, he said that to Allah He I swear by Allah that if the inhabitants of the graveyards had an opportunity to come back to earth and to make one final wish, that wish would be to experience another day of Ramadan.
So may Allah Jalla Jalla Allah who inspire us with the ability and the tofield to make the best use of this month, and to not make us amongst those who regret its departure. But we want to make eight. This ain't worth celebrating having felt inside that this Ramadan was an incomplete one, and accomplished one, whilst also feeling that we could have done better
on that topic of accomplishment. This is a good segue to move into lecture number two for our series, this Ramadan that we've titled The Life series
that is comprised of four lectures, the first which was last week, the gangster life. Moving on to this week's lecture, which is the empowered life. Next week's lecture will be the goodly life. And then finally, it will be the final life.
Last week's lecture was, to a large extent, quite dark.
Parts of it were grim.
Other parts of it, perhaps were a little bit harsh.
And if you remember the last heading that we covered, was the way forward. What next?
And this is a question I'm asking you, my dear brothers and my sisters, what next?
Whether you are a person or we're a person who ascribe to this thug life, or whether you were like the majority of us a normal Muslim, but perhaps a little bit too normal.
And you feel that your life has been by and large, characterized by lowly, mundane, petty, day to day routine, like behavior.
And you want to do more with your life, the limbs, the senses, the kidneys, the organs, the strength that Allah Jalla Jalla Allah has given you are clearly there to fulfill a higher purpose. He wouldn't have given you all of these tools and these sophisticated apparatus for you to just live, to work and work to live and just to live for another day. Impossible, there must be more.
So what is it
about the accomplished life, the empowered life? I say to this, my dear brothers, my dear sisters, if there is an enemy in your life that is, on your back, I say to you place your reliance upon Allah subhanho wa Taala and then fulfill the 1000 principle.
If you want to succeed at work, or you want to succeed in your studies, place your reliance upon Allah Jalla Jalla Lu and then apply the 1000s principle.
If you want to move out from the confines of misery to happiness,
and laziness to productivity,
and a meaningless life to a life of meaning and value and achievement, I say to you place your reliance upon Allah and apply the 1000 principle. So now the question that maybe you are looking to ask what is the 1000 principle?
There was a
academic in the field of Leadership Studies His name is cop cop Meyer.
And he authored four books
on the topic of success, and each one of those books has within it 250 principles of success that he's compiled throughout his life as an expert through coaching experiences through study through personal experience 1000 principles for success divided over four books.
Then he was once asked the question during an interview, which one of these principles in your estimation is the most important?
And he gave a very crystal clear
Answer.
He said, All of the 999 principles that I have included are absolutely useless. If this one principle is not present in your life, it's the principle that says,
do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.
Take note of this, please do what you should do, when you should do it. Whether you feel like it or not, now shelve that thought in your mind for just a moment. And I want to zoom back with you 1400 years to an event that took place just after the Battle of Ohio.
News was conveyed to the Prophet alayhi salaatu wa salaam that there was a man by the name of Harley Davidson, Sophia and Hoda Ali,
who was gathering the Arab pagan forces to create a coalition to bring them to the city of Medina and put an end to the Muslim presence once and for all. Khalid Ibnu, Sophia and Hotelli
and our prophets Allah Allahu alayhi wa sallam in his bid to avoid the bloodshed of war and to minimize casualties. He wanted to neutralize this threat. And how can this be achieved? This is by exterminating this man who was gathering the forces.
So the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam calls a man called Abdullah he be known as a Sahabi. I know both zahavi and he gave him very simple short yet clear instructions. He said yeah, but Allah O Abdullah balgonie Anna Khalid and Yajima on NASA liangzhu Money news has been conveyed to me that Khalid is gathering the people to invade Medina wa who will earn inocula will be a foreigner and at this very second hadith is found in a place called Nacala, or a place called Aurora Anna further had a lady from Toulouse so make your way to him and kill him.
Abdullah Hebron Oh nice, he said to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
in it Julio rasool Allah He had the
Messenger of Allah please describe him to me. So I recognize him when I see him.
He said to him to the Nikah whether you know who Annika either or you tell who, teller who Kosha Riera, the sign for you to recognize him is that the moment you see him, you're going to feel a shiver going down your body.
He said, so I made my way to Nacala or Aurora net where this man was based.
And this was around the time of awesome
and then I saw him
and the moment my eyes fell upon him, I felt a huge Shiva covering my body so I knew he was the target.
And I feared that I was going to miss my awesome Salah because of what I was doing. But the opportunity was there. So I started to pray my answer to Salah as I was walking, moving my head up and down gesturing for bowing and frustration, but we'll go on to do it
till when the time was right, and I was near Khalid Ignacio Theon and he was with his wives. He was taking them to their homes. I pounced at Khalid and he was on the ground, bleeding and breathing his last and his wife's were all around him, sobbing and weeping.
So I came back to Medina
and the moment the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saw me, he said, A flathead watch. This is a face that brings with it success. I said God cartel to who you are rasool Allah I killed him or messenger of Allah. He said to me, so that you speak the truth you did.
And then the Prophet Alayhi Salatu was Salam gave Abdullah he'd been known as a stick. He gave him a stick. And he said, I'm sick. Yeah, Abdullah, he has he he and the keep the stick with you. Oh, Abdullah.
He didn't ask him why, or what is the stick for? So he kept it with him the very next day, Abdullah, he been on Asus walking around the city of Medina carrying out his day to day duties, and he has his stick in his hand. So people they say to him, What is the stick?
He said, I don't really know. The prophets. Allah I sent them gave it to me. And he said, Keep it with you. They said didn't you think about asking him what the stick is for? He said, I will ask him. So he went to him and he said Messenger of Allah, what is the stick for? He said to him, I have to know the Neva INEC al Mal, Pa not
In Atlanta SILMO Takasu.
He said this stick will serve as a sign to help me recognize you on the Day of Judgment.
And the majority of people will not have sticks to lean on the day of reckoning.
So it's something for the Prophet alayhi salatu salam to recognize Abdullah, he been on asin perhaps give him the treatment he deserves on that day SubhanAllah.
Now, I don't want to focus on the actual details of this account, and the background story behind it.
I want to take from a completely different lesson that for me, is a blindingly obvious one. And I have asked this question to so many of the brothers when they hear when I relate this story to them. What do you take from this story? No one shares this one.
For me, what is the most profound element of this whole encounter is what
how little the conversation was?
And how significant and enormous the outcomes were.
The column the speech was so little, the instructions were basic, and there was no objection. He did what he should do at the time that he should have done it whether he felt like it or not, there was no Kedem no conversation. Khalid is gathering the people to invade Medina, this is going to cause bloodshed. So go on, neutralize him.
He's his description, messenger of Allah. Shiva. That's it.
He comes back, I've killed him on Messenger of Allah. Yes, you certainly did. And of conversation.
He gives him a stick, what is it for He doesn't ask.
So this is a key lesson, that the more you find yourself speaking, talking,
usually the fewer your actions will be. Do what you should do, whether you feel like it or not, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.
With this introduction, dear brothers and sisters, I want to share with you now, five principles for those of you who want to lead an empowered life.
What is the empowered life, a life of proactivity a life of vision setting a life of meeting Allah, and you are confident to say, I carried out my function as a Muslim human being in the life of dunya, the empowered life. Five Principles. If you're feel that your life is characterized by laziness, or too much sleep, too much socializing, moving from one room, to the other room, in your house, looking for someone to talk to looking for something to do, looking for something on social media to consume, and you're not really achieving what you feel you could be achieving, as a Muslim. You're not a person of growth, I share with you five very simple principles. Please take out your
phones. I recommend you to take out your phones, take note of these five headings. And then when you're finished, put them in a place in your life when you can see them.
And I promise you,
you will begin to see changes in your life and you will see results. What are these five principles? Principle number one,
put an end to excuses, no more justifications.
People are very creative ilaha illallah when it comes to giving themselves excuses, to wiggle out of difficult situations, and to prove to people why they were inactive and why they haven't sacrificed why they haven't attended why they haven't learned why they haven't planned very creative La ilaha illallah when it comes to creating excuses.
But you know we have a saying in the English language, they call it an idiom that you can't have the bun and eat it
or you can't have your cake and eat it and you can't have the penny and the bun.
Meaning it's one or the other. You can't have both. You sacrifice one you get the other but the other will go if the the other one states you can't have both.
And similarly I say to you, my dear brother, my dear sister, it is impossible for you to lead a successful and empowered and an accomplished life. If you are giving yourself excuses. It can't happen. You need to keep momentum you need to keep moving. It is a sink or swim situation either you swim or either you sink because the third option of standing on water
I cannot apply.
This is principle number one. Put an end to excuses. No more blaming your circumstance. No more blaming the inactive Masjid. No more blaming the streets, no more blaming social media, no more blaming your family. Put an end to excuses. This is rule number one. Those of intelligence and you are amongst them in sha Allah, they realize that
excuses are rules
that weak people hide behind
is a temporary painkiller that they take in order to mask an internal pain to convince others And worse still, to convince themselves why they aren't doing anything with their lives as Muslims.
And worse than this,
excuse excuses is our tools that were used by some of the worst of creation. They are the hypocrites. The hypocrites of Medina used excuses to get themselves out of difficult situations and to participate with the Muslims.
You remember when the coalition arrived at the city of Medina, 10,000 of them.
And the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam through recommendation from Selma decided to dig a trench in the north west entrance to the city of Medina to prevent them from entering.
And so all of the Muslims needed to participate in the digging of the trench. And it was a life and death situation people were afraid. There was, however, a third column, a fifth column of people, they were the hypocrites, and they refuse to participate. They said Our homes are vulnerable. We can be here digging a trench, we've got to go home and be with our wives and children. Our homes are exposed. But Allah exposed them.
And he told the Muslims that these were just excuses. Allah subhanaw taala said, while your renal failure can mean hormone Nabhi, a group of their meaning the hypocrites, they gave the sought permission from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to leave
your coluna enable you 10 hour, they said, Our homes are vulnerable.
Allah said we're not here be able to but their homes were not vulnerable in UD do not interfere or they just wanted to Philly.
They just wanted to escape. It was an excuse. That, by the way,
is the textbook definition of what an excuse is, they say that an excuse in its reality is to shift the blame
of an internal problem onto an external circumstance.
That's an excuse to shift the blame of an internal problem. We have an issue here you feel that you have an issue here you're not confident you can do it. I'm not ready. I am scared. I don't have the talents. It's not me. It's not my society. I'm not used to it to shift the blame of an internal problem. On to an external circumstance, it's their fault.
But realize this is a slippery slope.
And so if you find yourself my dear brother, my dear sister, always explaining away why you couldn't do something shouldn't do something wouldn't do something hadn't done something, then realize you are upon a slippery slope of failure. So pack your bags and leave
the giving of excuses and justification. And now take with me principle number two,
what is principle number one,
put an end to excuses. Principle number two.
What you do today
is an illustration of who you shall be tomorrow.
The same way that your marriage it cannot survive on the love of yesterday.
Your business it cannot thrive.
On the profits of yesterday. The same thing can be said about you yah can carry you cannot be a successful Muslim of growth. If you are just singing about the righteous person you used to be once upon a time in the past. There has to be activity today.
The person you are going to be in the future. If you're interested to know who he or she is and what they look like I say to you, there is no magic needed. No horoscopes, no palm reading
and certainly not reading into the stars or a crystal ball. All you need to do is look into the decisions you are making today. Because that will be the person you shall be to
borrow.
The intelligent person realizes that every unit of sacrifice and pain and nannying and going out of your comfort zone will translate into a proportional unit of the happiness and well being and contentment and bliss in the future.
It's a proportional exchange.
And similarly, the opposite is true, every unit of laziness.
Every unit of procrastination delay, every unit of excuses, every unit of time that is wasted, will translate into a proportional unit of regret, and sadness, and pain.
What you do today is a very accurate depiction of who you shall be tomorrow, every one of us is highly interested to know what he or she will look like in 10 years time. Have you not asked yourself this question? I wonder what my business will be saying in 10 years time. And I wonder how practicing I will be in 20 years time and what project I would have set up in 15 years time is not a complicated question. And the answer is within reach.
The same way that the decision you took yesterday has become now the reality of your today. So you made a decision yesterday to come to the masjid. So today it's become a reality you are in msgid. Similarly, the decision you make today will become the reality of tomorrow.
So create a vision. What does your future look like? It looks like the decisions you are making today. What are they?
What is principle number one? Put an end to excuses principle number two.
What is it?
Your future will look like the decisions you're making today. Principle number three, take note Yahshua.
Aim high because the lower levels are congested with people.
Thomas Edison you've heard of this name, right?
We've all covered Thomas Edison during our GCSE education, the famous inventor of the incandescent bulb, the first motion camera, Thomas Edison, the greatest inventor of his era.
Thomas Edison, he narrates an amazing story. When he was still a child. He comes home on one evening after school, and he hands his mother over a small letter that had been folded. And they told him don't read it. Your mother will read it out to you.
And so she opens the letter, her name is Alba, mother of Thomas Edison. And she says to him, after reading the content herself and weeping.
Mom, what is it say? She said, The letter says that your son is a genius. And the school doesn't have the facility and the talents needed to educate a boy of this caliber. So please take him out of the school and educate him yourself.
So she took the responsibility upon herself and she gave him homeschooling and he became Thomas Edison, the genius of his century.
And then many years passed by
and Thomas Edison passed away.
And his mother, I mean to say Alva passed away and on one particular day when he was rummaging through his old family belongings, he opened up a desk, and he found a small paper that was folded at the back of the drawer. He took it out. And he opened it and what did it say? It said, Your son is mentally ill. He has no future. Take him out in the school. He's not welcome here.
So when he read this, he understood what happened.
And he wept for several hours.
And when he had managed to gather his thoughts, he pulled his diary and he wrote within it. Thomas Alva Edison was a mentally ill child, but by the efforts of a hero mother became the genius of his century.
Aim high. That's what his mother she did aim high because what the lower levels are congested with people.
Survey results suggest that the majority of people have not set for themselves any goals in their lives. Are you part of this statistic? They say 80%
don't have a population
have not set for themselves any goals is just 20% who have goals.
And of those 20% of people who have clearly identifiable goals that they are working towards from that 20% 70% of them failed to achieve it.
See Brothers Sisters the issue is not that
we aim high and miss the issue is that we aim low and we hit that target. The issue is that most of us aim at nothing in our lives and we hit that target with amazing accuracy we receive nothing in the end.
What is your target Aim High as a Muslim you have every reason to aim high. When you know that this life is not the end but death is just the beginning.
Thus our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would say
in hola hola Isla you have Munna Ali and more while Ashraf haha why Accra himself Safa, Allah loves the high matters, the lofty matters, the noble matters, and Allah hates the nollie * Matt is aim high because the lower levels are congested with people emerge from that deck and go to the upper deck that people have high aspiration.
And when you set yourself a goal, make sure it has two ingredients. They say the scholars of leadership studies they say this is what will bring optimum performance in the life of a person and this is the ingredient of a giant, two qualities for your goal that you said number one, clearly identifiable. It's clear, not vague.
Something that is clear. And number two, make it ambitious. They call it a stretch goal, something that will stretch you like an elastic band when you stretch it and you let go. It's not the same length, it is longer. That's the human human being when he gives himself a goal that requires him to be stretched. When he comes out of the other side of that goal. He's a he's a stronger person, he is a bigger person.
A goal that is clear and a goal that is what ambitious
and I love to hear the words of Omar Abdullah Abdul Aziz Rahima hula who said in early enough center work.
I have a restless soul by my nature. He said My soul is restless. Maha talked to che and V hayati, Letta Lesiba who every time I achieve something in my life, I find my soul yearning for what is above it. And then he gives examples. He said, I set myself a goal of marrying my cousin Fatima being to have dinner, Abdul Malik and I married her.
Then I set myself a higher target of reaching a position of political authority. And I I achieved it. And then I set myself a higher target of becoming the greatest political authority of the Muslim Khalifa. And he became the Khalifa and he said, As for now, My soul is yearning for gender, Allahu Akbar, and I hope Allah who will make me amongst his people.
So aim high because of the lower levels are are congested. What was principle number one?
We're going to keep repeating them.
Put an end to excuses principle number two.
That's it. Yeah, your future will look like the picture. You're painting it today. Number three, aim high because lower levels are congested. Principle number four.
Most people search for what is easy.
The Giants however they search for our challenge.
An Arab Bedouin came to the Prophet sallahu alayhi wa sallam and he pledged allegiance to him and he took his shahada became a Muslim.
And then, a few days or weeks later, the booty of war was distributed between the Muslims and they came to this Bedouin and they said, This is your beautiful beauty. He said, What is this? They said, this is your portion of the booty of war.
He didn't like this. So he carried all of it. And he brought it to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and he said what is this? He said, This is your portion of the booty of war. He said My Allah has a Tabata look, I didn't become a Muslim in search for this. Money dunya I didn't become a Muslim in search for this. Wala key Anita Barra Touka Allah Norma visa Amin ha ha sha Allah healthy for me with our whole agenda. But why I followed you was in the hope we're receiving an arrow here in my throat, causing me to die and that's Allah who will allow me to enter Jannah
amazing aspirations. This is what he wanted.
shahada martyrdom. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said to him into stopping their highest dose. If you are true to Allah, Allah will be true to you.
If this is your intention, and it is pure Allah who will help you fulfill it.
Not long after this, the Muslims found themselves in the heart of a battle.
And when the dust had settled, they began to search for who was dead and who was alive. And they found this man on his back. He had become a corpse with a arrow coming out of his neck.
They call the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, they said, Messenger of Allah, look at this.
And so he went to his knees and he said, who are who? Is it the same one? He said him. They said, Yes, it's him.
So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wept, and he said, Sadat, Allah for sadaqa who he was true to Allah, so Allah was true to him. And then he carried him and now when he suddenly Allahu alayhi wa sallam was a strong man, the finest of men in terms of his physical construct. And in terms of his o'clock, he carried him, man, on his forearms, and He lifted him
and they shrouded him,
and they prayed the prayer of janazah upon him, and they heard the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam making a dua to Allah for this righteous man saying Allah Houma, Inna HA,
HA Raja Maha muhajir, en fi Cyrillic for cootie la Shahid and under Shaheed on La, he said, Oh Allah, this servant of yours, he migrated to Medina,
in search for your pleasure, and he was killed as a martyr in your path. I am a witness for Him, Oh Allah, I witnessed for him, Oh Allah.
Most people search for what is easy.
The greats they search for a challenge.
And this is the attribute I hope you will define yourself with dear brother, dear sister,
whatever that challenge may look like in your personal life, in search for the pleasure of Allah, and each one of us has his personal challenge and has his personal personal obstacle he or she wants to overcome.
Comfort is easy.
But now the modern day trend in the Western thought is what the importance of moving out of your comfort zone. This is the principle we are speaking about. Most people search for what is easy the greats they search for a challenge. They don't live in this horrible dark zone called the comfort zone, they are always on the other side of it, because they realize that every good in this dunya and success in the hereafter is available. But it's on the other side of the comfort zone.
There was a man called Bill Eckstrom.
And he is the co author of a book called The coaching effect. And he studied over 100,000 coaching interactions between coach and coaching mentor, mentee,
teacher and student to try to understand what is it that brings success and growth in people?
And after this long study, he concluded the following What did he say?
He said that growth cannot happen only in a state of discomfort.
And then he says
your success in large is determined by your willingness and your comfort in making yourself uncomfortable
than others. They took this theory and they made what they called the comfort zone framework. Have you heard of it? You've seen maybe that diagram of circles going out and then there's enabling each. It's an amazing diagram.
This framework suggests that for you to grow as a human being, you need to go through three distinct stages at least.
What are those three stages and you will see Subhanallah how it links to Ramadan actually and fasting, but our life as Muslims, generally speaking, there was hardship.
The first of these zones is called the comfort zone.
Most of humanity live and die within this zone comfort zone.
It's a great place to be why? Because it's a place of familiarity.
When you're within your comfort zone, you're with your family. You're with your close circle of friends. You're not challenging yourself to be somewhere or to do something that's outside of your custom. You're comfortable. Because you can control the factors. There's no surprises. You're not being mentally strained. You're not being physically challenged. You're on autopilot like driving, like watching
TV. This is called the comfort zone.
And here your brain will produce happy chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. It keeps you buzzing, there's nothing scary to expect.
So the comfort zone is a great place to be. But the only problem within it is that nothing ever grows in that zone, things only deteriorate.
And there was a study that was conducted on 2000 participants.
And the results were amazing. The results suggest that over half of Brits 55% To be specific,
are stuck in a day to day routine with nothing different there yesterday is a mirror reflection of today and there today is a mirror reflection of tomorrow day today, that's over half of the population.
And just under a third of the population 31% To be specific, can't even remember the last time they did something uncomfortable
or challenge themselves to walk out of their comfort zone.
That is the that is the comfort zone. So the moment you choose to sleep, instead of going for a run, for example, or going to the gym, you have chosen comfort,
temporary, immediate comfort, but not for long. Because discomfort will catch up with you sooner or later.
The moment you press your snooze button on your phone to delay solitude failure, and you're praying at nine o'clock 10 o'clock when the sun is fully risen.
You've chosen comfort, but not for long because if tilde is not met,
there will be discomfort eventually that will catch up.
A sister of ours who's maybe struggling with her hijab. Either she's not wearing it, or it's a hijab, but she knows is not really a hijab. She has chosen comfort, but not for long because discomfort will follow if this isn't changed. You know someone who left employment a perfectly legit source of income, although it's maybe minimum wage,
or someone who left study. Why because of the word comfort. They will tell you that was only temporary. Now we are weeping the tears of bitter regret. Were very uncomfortable now because of those decisions.
And let me tell you another problem with this comfort zone. Remember which heading Are we speaking about here?
Which principle
number four? Correct? What is it titled?
Most people search for what is easy. And the giant search for a challenge. And we're talking about zone number one the comfort zone. One last thing about the zone before I share with you a zone number two, on your way to growth. The other issue with the comfort zone, my dear brothers major sisters, is that it doesn't stay the same size, it shrinks
and get smaller.
And the more you stay inside of your comfort zone and you don't challenge yourself to grow as a Muslim. Your Comfort Zone actually gets smaller the walls begin to close in on you. What does that look like? Say for example, you're only comfortable hanging out with 10 people 10 Brothers, you don't like to hang out with anybody else. If you stay like that, it gets smaller your comfort zone. So now you're only comfortable with eight of them. And a few years later, it's just five of them. And then next thing you know you're complete. No, no you cut off.
No one wants to talk to you. You do want to talk to anyone else. The Comfort Zone doesn't get doesn't stay the same size, you get smaller.
You only go to the masjid once a week, right? For example, only once a week.
Because you're comfortable with that. Anything more is uncomfortable fine, but that's gonna get smaller. And even going to the masjid once a week becomes a little bit difficult now when you're trying to find your way out of that obligation,
but the opposite is true when you find new challenges. So you muslim new challenges of growth. You meet new people, you plan for your religion, you learn something new, you're uncomfortable guess what the borders of the comfort zone grow to meet you to catch up with you.
Till what was uncomfortable yesterday, becomes natural today. Keep doing it. What is natural today becomes comfortable tomorrow. It also grows don't live within the comfort zone. that comfort zone therefore is your worst enemy back your luggage and coming to the second zone. Now what is the second zone on your way to growth? It's called the does anyone know?
Yeah, the fear zone.
You've now managed to convince yourself to do something with your life.
To learn a new craft, to learn the new trade, to improve your Tajweed to change your address to reshuffle you're you come into now the the fear zone.
All of a sudden you you can't control
Hold the variables here.
There's things that will challenge you physically challenged you mentally. And your brain therefore starts blocking those happy chemicals of serotonin and dopamine. And instead it starts producing stress related hormones like adrenaline and glutamate. You're not afraid you're distressed. You're anxious. So most people, what did they do? They quickly scurried back into the comfort zone.
Every time they kind of walked, they want to walk out, they say, It's time now I'm not a kid anymore. You come to walk out this huge indoor debate ensues inside of you. And you start hearing things like, I can't, and I won't. It's impossible. Like, I don't have the talent. How will people say, No, I'm not used to it. It's not me. He's getting all these error messages cropping up in your mind.
But the good news is, and hamdulillah here's some reassurance for you, brother, sister is that if you are patient, this fear zone, as we just said, doesn't stay forever.
You find your feet, it becomes natural to be there actually becomes comfortable the borders have grown. Now you're coming into the third zone.
What is this zone called?
The growth zone.
So how does you finish now with the comfort zone, you moved out into the fear zone, you were patient you didn't throw in the towel when you got scared or bored. And now you are into the growth zone. That's where the most remains to be. Success is bred their growth is bred their happiness well being is bred there for those who are looking for happiness. We will speak about this next week. It's found within the within the growth zone. And one bit of advice to keep you there, my brother,
my sister, keep learning.
Keep learning. Keep reading. Minimize TV Wallah minimize Netflix. Junk food is not what you consume through your mouth is what you consume through your eyes and ears. That is the worst form of junk for allowing into our system. Keep learning read, even if you don't like it, even if it makes you uncomfortable. We said you got to get out of that zone.
If you have to watch what's something useful that will help you grow, add to your information and knowledge. Attend the Halacha like this, a weekly halacha outside of Ramadan, watch a beneficial YouTube lecture, learn a new language, learn a new craft, learn a new trade,
keep learning this is a salient characteristic of the giants.
So you have the comfort zone. Then you have the fear zone. Then you have the the growth zone. And here's what is interesting. You have two decks of people, you have a lower deck. May Allah protect us from these people. They are the people who live in comfort
and laziness and no objectives, no aspirations, that's the lower deck. And then you have a deck above them. There they are the people who live in discomfort, but they are accomplished, they are growing, they are fulfilled.
And subhanAllah both of these people have these decks. They are both mocking each other.
They both wonder at why you are there. You should join us.
So listen to the conversation between them.
The lower deck that people have comfort and no ambitions. They look at the deck above them. And they say what are you guys doing that?
I mean, haven't you seen how comfortable our couches are? We have Netflix stream. We've got food and snack at our fingertips. We have Uber Eats you've got deliver all join us. What are you doing that? We sleep long hours. And our minds they never ache. Our bodies. They never sweat our muscles or they never ache. Join us. This is the life and for them. It's inconceivable that there could be a life better than There's comfort. There's your drink, there's your snack and there's your TV and there's your phone and there's your back massager. It's all there.
But the guys on the upper deck that people have discomfort, but high ambitions and growth. They look down at the lower deck and they say What are you talking about? You want us to join you hold on a minute. Show us your arteries Please
show us your veins. Show us your cholesterol levels. Show us your blood pressure levels. Show us the ever shrinking brain cells that you have and your ever shrinking muscles in your body. Show us your Eman that is only getting weaker and your knowledge that is getting looser show us You want us to join you
know you should join us come see now the deck of ambition, the deck of growth, the deck of accomplishment come and join us this is life here we are the happy ones.
Show us your citation of the Quran. It hasn't grown your tweet it hasn't grown your circle of Muslim friends they haven't grown your level of Allah your Eman none of it has grown. You're the same person I
met 10 years ago, if not worse, we are the people of ambition and happiness. Come join us here. And after all your discomfort, your comfort, that's temporary.
Discomfort will catch up with you.
And our discomfort that's temporary. And comfort will catch up with us very soon.
Be a plan to come out of your comfort zone. Most people they search for what is easy, but the Giants, they search for a challenge. So make a plan to come out of the comfort zone, make the phone calls,
make those connections with those righteous brothers and sisters.
It's a sin that apparently gives you peace, comfort, it's giving you comfort, make your plan to come out of that comfort, a certain hijab that you are abusing, it's giving you comfort, make a plan out of that comfort, a business transaction that's bringing you high returns but you know it's a shady business deal. Make a plan to come out of that comfort.
And remember, as we said they a ship enjoys being on the shore because it's safe there. But that's not what the ship was made for the ship was mailed made to sail in the sea and to battle with the waves.
And success and failure had a cost by the way, we are constantly told that success you want to be successful you got to pay the price. It's not just success that has a price heavy failure has a price as well. The only difference between the two is that the price of failure is far higher than the price of success.
So you choose which of the two you want to pay.
What are the four principles so far? We're going to conclude now quickly with the fifth number one.
Your les Asami number one
put an end
to excuses number two, your layup me
yeah, what you do today is an illustration of who you shall be tomorrow. Number three. Yeah.
Unless someone helped out our young brother
aim high, because the lower levels are congested. Aim high. Yes, correct. Number four.
Most people search for what is easy the giant search for a challenge please value these principles. Yeah, brothers and sisters. The fifth one is
never see that you have missed the opportunity.
And never say it's too late. As cliche as that may sound if we are able to summarize life with one word, that word would probably be continue.
plow on. Keep going. Never say that you have missed the boat because as long as your eyes are yet to fall on the face of the Angel of Death, realize it's still a free for all.
Look here, for example, the likes of Henry Ford.
When he invented his revolutionary Model T car in 1908. He was 45 years old. He wasn't his prime at all. 45 Joe Biden, President of the United States How old was he when he became president? 78 years old. Margaret Ford here in the UK. Her debut as an author her first book that she wrote she was 94 years old.
Never say that you've missed the opportunity. Then you look into our own tradition as Muslims Allahu Akbar. A Cydia Abu Bakr Radi Allahu Allah and who
becomes the eminent most eminent and scholarly figure in our Muslim heritage. After the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he is first place and he only started at the age of 40. It was around that age when he became a Muslim.
And then you have the likes of Imam YBNL Josie Abu Faraj. He mastered the 10 modes of resuscitation when he was 80 years old. How can you say you've missed the opportunity?
And Imam Al Bukhari he said, Matt, I learned also habit Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Illa Kibera, the companions of the Prophet alayhi salatu salam only learned that religion when they were older, they were moving they were getting on. They were older when they started learning the religion. The Shabaab at that time weren't that many.
And then look at our scholars like email people who has an
imam Abdullah Ravi al Maliki for the in Lebanon yard,
and others. He became scholars of the religion later on in their lives. They weren't young when they started Algebra I have to say
Same thing.
And then you look at the political front, and some of the things that were achieved in our history at old age, Josefina, Natasha fina Rahima hula who defeated one of the fiercest kings of Europe the Castilian King, Alfonso, the sick.
It was a devastating encounter a gruesome * encounter between the Muslims led by use of Natasha Fein, and this man Alfonso the six, who had gathered an army of 100,000 men, and he said with this army, I shall defeat the inhabitants of the heavens and the angels and the spirits and Muhammad and his men. I will crush them all, a stuffing Allahu wa jal really, and they meet in this grueling encounter a battle that lasted nine hours and so much blood was shed from both sides that is that it was titled does anyone know the name of the battle?
As allarakha as the lava it literally means the slippery plane
because so much blood was spilt, people were falling all over the place.
And Alhamdulillah you will be surprised to know that by the end of it from the 100,000
combatants led by Alfonso the six, only 500 remained,
including Alfonso himself who retreated back to his empire with one leg missing.
Why did I narrate this story to you? Because how old was used to fib Natasha Fein when he led this campaign. He was at the ripe old age of 80 years old way past the contemporary man's retirement age. Look at what he was doing at the age of 18. So he will say you've missed the opportunity.
And conclusion brothers and sisters.
Do what you should do,
when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not. And realize whenever you get lazy, there is a bit of reality. And that reality states that there is a pain that you and I have to experience whether we like it or not you choose which of the two but there is no third option you have to experience one or the other. The first pain is the pain of sacrifice, and waking up early and vision setting and growth, discomfort. Either you choose that pain, or you have automatically chosen the other pain if you don't and that is the pain of regret
and sadness and misery for not being the best version of yourself as a believer.
We ask Allah to allah God Allah Who to guide us to the best of those two decisions. Salah and enemy now Muhammad haven't been anatomy