What does success look like?

hiren had you had the Mohammedan sallallahu alayhi wa sallam?

Or shall we move on to our cold? desert invader? coolabah, datum, dada, dada, that if you're not a mother, mother's brothers and sisters,

if I were to ask you all, what does it mean to be a successful person?

How do you define success? Who do you think of?

When you imagine or think of someone successful? I'm sure that I'll get many different answers, we'll all have a different understanding of what it means to be successful. But then I would ask,

Is there some way in the poor on that we could go to

and read about what it means to be successful coming directly from our maker and create a loss of handle that is the one surah in the Quran? That answers this question for us in a very clear, easy to understand manner. The answer is actually Yes, there is.

A mama chef era from Allah, he said, lo to double on nasil we have in Surah, la Seattle, people of humanity rather, are to only reflect over this one surah it will be more than enough for them.

What does that mean more than enough, it means it's enough

to give people the understanding of what it means to be successful in life.

And before I tell you the surah, I'm sure every one of us wants to be successful.

We don't like to think of ourselves as failures. As people that are no good. We want to be successful, we want to progress in life and to achieve things.

And that is why it's so important as a Muslim to understand.

What does success look like?

this surah is one that I'm sure many of us have memorized

and read in our Salah. But we've never really appreciated it for its message. This is Surah Al Asad.

One of the shortest chapters in the port on

his answering one of the biggest questions in life.

Allah Subhana Allah says at all to be learning in a shape ontology, well asked her in the insert a few closer, I swear by time, humanity is deep in loss. This is how it begins.

Matter of fact, Allah says that most people are heading towards failure, loss, destruction.

Many of them do not even see that they are deluded.

But then Allah says there is an exception to this rule in the levina admin, while I'm inside the heart, but also we'll have to wait a while, so be sober.

And then Allah gives us a four point criteria as to who will be successful, who will succeed who will not be from the majority who will fail.

except Allah says, Those who have a man those who believe

those who do righteous deeds,

those who encourage other people towards the truth, and those who encourage other people to being steadfast and patient.

If you

can take all these four boxes in your life, you are successful, by the word of Allah subhanaw taala.

It's interesting that the definition of success inside the surah has nothing to do with this world has nothing to do with material possessions. How much savings you have, how educated you are, how wealthy you are, how famous you are. It has nothing to do with that even though there's nothing wrong with being successful in those areas of life. But the focus is on what

how good is your relationship with Allah?

And how well do you treat his creation?

So the four things aren't number one at the very top that defines if you are a good person, is how much a man you have in Allah. May Allah creases in a man as first thing, the most important thing the thing that when you wake up in the morning, you should think to yourself, how is my Eman today? Is it high? Is it low?

Is it strong? Is it weak? And the last thing before you close your eyes?

How is my man right now? So panela today when we meet each other, we say How you doing? How's your day? Did you know that in the time of the compounds, they'll say kita. Eman? Luca? How is your Eman? Subhan? Allah? What a beautiful question. How is your Eman today?

The second is about how you practice that faith in your everyday life. Are you living as a Muslim, your work, the way you treat your family, the way you conduct yourself with your friends?

Is your behavior that of a Muslim?

And now you might think, well, these two things are more than enough to be successful. If I believe in Allah, and I behave as a Muslim, I worship Allah, I should be successful.

But no, that's only half way to success.

The third is what what have also been hacked,

that you encourage, and persuade the people in your life to the truth of Islam.

That is a minimum requirement to be successful in the sight of Allah subhanaw taala. And that should be news to many of us. What does that mean, though also we'll have that means that you can't carry around this mentality of I mind my own business, when it comes to my religion. I keep my religion to myself, I don't talk about my faith to other people in my life.

And it's very easy to have this mindset because this is the prevailing culture that we live in is a secular state, meaning this is a place for religion, which is private, and and home. And then there's a place for everything else. And the two should not mix.

But is that the way of the Prophet said alarm, word or syllable?

Keep the message stamped himself

and never speak a word to in public. It was the opposite Subhanallah

what does that mean for us?

What that means for us is that if we don't want to be a failure, we need to learn to share the beauty of Islam with our non Muslim neighbors and our non Muslim colleagues. That's what it means to be someone who's proud of what they believe in and able to articulate what they believe in with those that Allah has placed in their life. Those that are yet to believe in Allah subhanho wa Taala.

And before I speak more about this, I want you to understand this take a step back here.

The enemies of Islam are very busy right now trying to destroy the image of Islam.

The Islamophobia industry is a multi million maybe billion dollar industry, involving the biggest media giants out there. Some politicians and other people in authority from the education sector, or working towards wanting, which is to destroy the image of Islam. We know this we see this in our everyday life.

It's no secret, but they are busy in this. And that is the case from the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Allah says the sort of stuff you read on early you tofu or Allah who we have, why him will love Martin Manu, he will carry healthcare Sharon, law says that they wish to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths. But Allah will perfect his light. Even if the disbelievers despise it Subhan Allah, Allah says it very clearly in the Quran, they are some people.

They are driven with a desire to make the message of Islam fail.

But it's like Allah says, somebody who looks at the sun, and he's trying to blow out the light of the sun with his mouth. How useless is that? For a lower perfect that light

in spite of every other person's attempt to bring it down. And this is why we see that the Prophet sallallahu wasallam was successful in his life, and successful in propagating the message of Allah despite the attempts of the courage to try and kill him to try and thwart his efforts. Having said that, then my brothers and sisters, if the enemies of Islam are so busy trying to preach against Islam, should we, the friends of Allah, the believers in the followers of the prophets, Allah certainly not also be busy trying to spread the light of Islam.

Should we not be busy to? Of course we should. But we are not.

We are not many of us. And I include myself in this have non Muslim neighbors who we have never spoken to about Islam never. Even though we have lived next to them for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years.

Is that right?

That Amal Muslim could live next to you? And yet he has no idea what Islam is because you never started that conversation.

What do you think is going to happen to those people? I want you to think about somebody right now in your mind. A normal thing that you know, maybe a friend, somebody you work with, think about the right now. What is going to happen to them on the day of judgment? What is going to happen to them? A lot closer, what is going to happen to them? Well, I will turn off his walkie for Allah be him. Paulo

Paulo Bella Bella,

Paula fazool colada.

Allah says,

If only you could see them standing before the master, meaning on the Day of Judgment.

Allah will say to them, Wasn't this the truth?

They will cry out, we swear by you Our Lord, it is the truth.

Allah will say now go ahead and taste the punishment of jahannam

no sort of laws and our motto our female lon protect us. It's not a joke. It's not a joke, to think about those people that you do care about. Having to suffer on the Day of Judgment.

being interrogated by Allah and being told your destination is the hellfire.

And even before that day comes, when they die

when the curtains have drawn back, do you know what happened to them all.

You got to birth you to ID him off, redo undo circum Allah says if you could only see the wrongdoers in the throes of death. The aims will come to them extending the hand and saying, Come out You wretched soul. That will be lemming Derrick, may Allah protect us.

And the moment when they die, they will realize man I failed.

But you know what? They will also think about all those believers in their life who were so quiet about their faith, and never once shared with them. The key to success panela

This is a reality my brother and sisters, and it's something that we must change. My last one the grant is understanding what all of all the other stuff but a lot of the work on my assignments. I mean, first of all in the Hall of Fame

smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen salat wa salam wa ala sherlockian bR mousseline Nabina, Muhammad Anwar, earlier Samuel remain in my bag?

How should we see ourselves towards non Muslims?

The Prophet has said,

he told us of a beautiful,

parallel or simile, describing himself

and his relationship with humanity.

Is it

my likeness,

compared to humanity

is like a man who likes a file.

And then as soon as that file begins to kindle, the maths and the flies dark towards the light of the fire, not knowing that there will be scorched.

And then the Prophet says that I'm said, and I am there, trying to pull them back Allah. Allah.

He say that, you know, I see people who don't realize it heading towards the whole file.

And I can't sit back and watch that happen.

I can't twiddle my thumbs and just think you know what, it's up to them their decision. I must do something to help them. I must show them care love

by trying to prevent them from entering the fire. That is how we should see ourselves

when it comes to non Muslims,

that we should aspire to save people from the Hellfire that is part of being a successful Muslim.

Now many people here may be thinking Look, this is it.

This is not something I can do. I'm not qualified. I don't have the knowledge. I'm not any man. I'm not a scholar. And you want me to go out there on the streets, set up a store, invite people to Islam.

But we're not saying that, we're saying that you have some ability to talk about Islam. You know something about Islam that you can share with somebody else? Isn't that true? Of course, we all know something about Islam

is about starting those conversations.

And this is where I wanted to give you some practical tips. Things that I do myself, and I've seen other people do.

And it is a start.

For example, when you meet someone, there's some

go to questions that people ask, and then they are those go to replies. For example, you meet a normal simmer, they say, what do you do?

And usually you respond by saying, Oh, you know, I'm a bus driver, or I have a business or whatever else.

That's a missed opportunity.

When somebody says to me, oh, what do you do? I could say, I'm a pharmacist. So okay. But actually, now I like to say, I work as a pharmacist, but I also work as an Imam in the mosque. Oh, I also write, I like to write. And now I know that they will ask me, okay, what do you write? I say, oh, recently, I was writing a book about the life of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and I know that the conversation is going to go towards what Allah

raise.

somebody asks you, what do you do? You could say, Oh, I'm a bus driver. You could think actually, there's a way I could make this compensation head towards Allah. Maybe I could say, I'm a bus driver. But you know, I like to travel recently, I went to Saudi Arabia to perform the pilgrimage. That was an amazing experience. And they will say, Oh, really? What was that like?

And now you're open the door to a conversation that may lead them to Islam. Was that difficult? That is not difficult. Okay, another question. Somebody, when you go to work tomorrow, people will ask you, how are you doing today?

And you usually say, I'm fine.

last opportunity.

Next time somebody says How you doing? Say somebody like, you know, today, I woke up, feeling very blessed. I thought to myself, I woke up, I have a roof over my head. I have like five cereals to choose from when I eat breakfast. And I feel like God has blessed me.

And they will think to themselves, wow, this guy is connected to his God was interesting. Maybe they will say Yeah, actually, I, I find a very ungrateful sometimes this has happened to me. I've spoken to people I say to feel very blessed today. And they either they will say, yeah, you know what? It's true. I don't really count my blessings that much.

Or they will say Yeah, actually, I was looking at somebody yesterday, you couldn't walk properly. I thought to myself, you know what? I've been blessed with legs that work. small adjustments on how you interact with people can lead to a conversation that could make them in sha Allah. accept Islam.

something so simple. But here's the thing I want to leave you with my brothers and sisters.

Every single one of us should have an ambition to bring one person to Islam. Yes, every single one of us before you die, one person begins to worship Allah because of you.

You can do it. Did you know that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that for one person to be guided through you, is better than you having the red camels. The red cameras were the most luxurious cameras that you could own in Arabia at that time. It is like somebody saying you could have

the most expensive car, the most expensive mansion or Palace in the world is all yours.

For what just one person being guided Subhan Allah is wouldn't you want that on the Day of Judgment. It also Paula Thea recently I was speaking to somebody is a brother. He works for a very big company. And he has a senior position in this company. He's been there for I think he said 18 years.

He said I was sitting with three of my non Muslim colleagues. And it was a social event.

And ask them a question. I said, What do you guys think is the purpose of life?

The question, so one of the non Muslims, he said, I think that the purpose of life is, is to be happy and to find happiness.

The other person said, you don't want I'm not really sure what the purpose of life

is, what do you think?

He said, I know what my purpose of life is my purpose of life is to worship the one who created me, and to live a life trying to earn his pleasure. So panela the other people there, they were like, you, you got to figure it out. I mean, you. He was like, No, this is what we are told, in our book, The Quran, we are told our purpose. And so whatever I do with my work, or my family in my life, it follows that path to try to please the one who created me. And if I'm doing it, I know, I'm fulfilling my purpose in life. One of the three people there, came back to him and said, You know what, I need to read this book that you're reading.

He gave him a copy of the Quran.

And then

one month later, that person said, you know, I'll be reading this book is very interesting.

And he said, Okay, what do you feel like when you read, he said, You know, I feel a sense of peace come into my heart. And then he said, but you know, I've stopped reading because my family thing I'm going to become a Muslim.

Subhan Allah, this brother, is not an either him or not any mom or chef, no, just like me any ordinary person. But what he has the right mindset, or not in this dunya for myself, I mean, this dunya for Allah and I need to help as many people find Allah as possible. So this should be an ambition for every single one of us. But we in sha Allah, will guide one person to Islam say, mean

May Allah Subhana Allah make us courageous and brave to speak about our deal in public alarm. I mean, may Allah make us proud of this Dean along mean mellows powder makers ambassadors of Islam along mean robina vollum nanfu sana ye lambda Phil Nana or there have been a cold in the middle class hearing. From vanilla to Joe Lubin a bad headache will happen. anomala dongara in the candle hub, from Ghana, you know for dunya Hassan

Hassan Rocklin walking