Bilal Assad – I am as my servant thinks of Me – Manifestation- Part 2-2
AI: Summary ©
The importance of letting plants grow in a cool, sunny place and not overdoing them is emphasized in various context. The "weholder" concept is used to indicate a person being a good person and a good person. The importance of reliance on Prophet's teachings, forgiveness, mercy, and forgiveness is also discussed. The importance of trusting in Allah's plan for one's life is emphasized, and the importance of living it out and not letting it go according to one's plans is emphasized. The importance of belief in Islam and not relying on material resources is emphasized, and the difference between the laws of attraction and the laws of manifestation is discussed.
AI: Summary ©
My brothers and sisters, Assalamu Alaikum.
My brothers and sisters, I wanna start with
a question.
If you had a plant
and you put that seed in the soil,
and the plant instructions told you you have
to keep it near the sunlight, you have
to keep it in a cool place, and
you have to water it in the morning
and in the evening,
and you have
to,
get this type of soil or that type
of soil and constantly look after it until
it grows, and then you have to prune
the its branches and its leaves and so
on and so forth.
And then I come to you and I
say to you, Listen,
don't listen to those instructions.
Don't worry about watering it, don't water up
putting it next to the sunlight or doing
any of that.
And I told you plants
have a sense
that if you talk to them
they'll grow.
There's some science about it, but if I
just told you, listen, because they can hear
you,
just sing to them, talk to them,
and show some love.
Just have the intention and keep thinking very
hard,
and the plant will sense
your thinking,
and you don't have to do any of
the watering,
and it will grow in front of you.
It will grow and it will blossom and
give you fruits.
Would you believe me?
Would you go?
And because I gave you some signs that
plants can feel,
and you just talked to them and then
thought about it,
will that make the plant grow?
No. What will eventually happen to the plant?
It'll die. It'll die.
What if I said it and felt it
and talked with a passion?
Passionately
and very strongly, but I didn't water it,
I didn't give it the means.
Will it still grow? No, it won't grow.
We all understand the answer to that.
If you wanted to apply for a job
and you didn't give the right qualifications that
are needed,
they asked you to go and do a
course, you didn't do that course, you don't
have the experience.
You didn't go and ask
about how an interview works, you did not
do your studies, and then you go for
an interview
by merely making a dua.
But you don't have the resources, you don't
have the knowledge, you don't have the experience,
and then you went to that interview,
and you said,
I have no qualifications,
no experience, I've done nothing,
but I just made a dua,
and I passionately passionately passionately have wanted this
job all my life.
What is the likelihood of you getting this
job?
Maybe 0.
Maybe a few maybe 1 or 2%.
Would it make anyone with their own sane
mind, would they tell you, yes,
you can go get a job just by
passionately
desiring it?
No.
I'll tell you another example.
You wanna become a surgeon, a neurosurgeon,
and they tell you you've gotta study for
it and do and so on.
And you never studied, didn't go to any
of the courses,
maybe you got accepted into the course, no
studies, no reflection,
just doing whatever you want, partying,
going and doing your desires and hobbies, just
living life.
And then the exam time comes,
You're not going to pass at all because
you don't know anything about it.
The body, if you passionately, passionately want to
become a neurosurgeon, can you become one just
by not putting the effort in it? No
sane person will tell you that.
Let's say you fell in love with someone
and you passionately, passionately, passionately want to marry
them,
but you saw all the red flags, you
saw all the signs, they mistreated you, but
you love them.
You passionately want them.
Everybody told you stay away.
You don't decide to
think about the means and the causes.
But because you passionately want that person,
and then you married them anyway,
and your marriage became toxic
and *,
but you made a dua and you made
a stikhara,
Who do you blame?
If I made dua and istikhara, and I
made it passionately,
but I knew this person was toxic and
bad, everything about them.
But because I made dua and istighara and
put my trust in Allah fully with absolute
passion,
what's the likelihood of my marriage working out
in that way?
Thinking common sense here.
Is the dua and istikhara gonna be enough
in that way?
It's not, is it?
Because dua and istikhara has conditions.
And istikhara means,
oh Allah,
if you know this is good for me
in my deen,
in my hereafter,
and in my livelihood,
then grant it to me. If you know
it's bad for me, keep it away from
me. For you know and I do not
know. Taib, I know this person
in every way, shape, and form is not
good for me. And then I do the
istikhara.
And then I hear the hadith of the
prophet
saying,
Whoever comes to you of a man who
is satisfied with their religion, their deen,
and their khuluq, and their character,
then marry him. Why would the prophet
tell us
these ingredients,
and then I sit back and I ignore
it all,
and say I will make passionate du'a,
and insha'Allah I will get what I want.
Do you think that's correct to think that
way?
No.
There remains
and there is du'a.
There are processes
and
then there is the intention, the passion,
and the outcome.
They go hand in hand.
So why did I open up with this
question?
Because the hadith which we have reached now,
insha'Allah,
can cause a bit of confusion
to some people.
And especially from our last class last week,
we talked about the law of attraction
and the law of manifestation,
and we explained already that the law of
attraction has got to do with putting a
person's trust in some kind of energy force
in this universe
which you can attract
or repel,
and you have the power
to think really hard and have a strong
intention and passion, and then
manifest
what you want.
Of course some people will give a different
definition but that's their own definition. The real
definition of this law of attraction from ancient
times is that there is an energy force
in this world and you have energy frequencies
inside of you, and if you do affirmations,
you draw things, you think about them, you
have the right mindset, you don't have to
do anything.
So working is not a condition.
You don't have to do anything.
But then they'll tell you, but if you
do, of course, you work for it, but
it's not a condition.
And then if you think about it hard
enough, you can manifest what you want.
So
we wanna
relate to your hadith which
some of these people
will use as evidence
for the law of attraction and manifestation.
And this hadith also confuses some
Muslims
between understanding it and qadr,
they can't differentiate between the 2,
and between this hadith
and action.
So let us, insha'Allah,
go through it together. We are reading from
Riyad
As Salihin.
That the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said
that this is in Bukhari and Muslim.
I am just that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
said.
Allah says, I am just as my slave
thinks of me
when he remembers me.
I am just as my slave thinks of
me when he remembers me.
By Allah,
Allah is more pleased with the repentance of
his slave than one of you who unexpectedly
finds in the desert his lost camel.
He who comes closer to me one span,
I come closer to him a cubit.
And he who comes closer to me a
cubit,
I come closer to him a fathom,
and if he comes to me walking,
I will come to him running.
Allah,
how beautiful is this hadith.
This beautiful statement which is called Hadith Qudsi
that Allah spoke
on the tongue of the Prophet
gives a Muslim hope,
ease, and comfort,
And it moves us away
from stress
and helps us to deal
with the good and the bad that happens
in our life,
no matter what happens.
In essence, this hadith
is directing you as a Muslim
from relying
on material resources in life,
putting your trust in material resources
for your future and your livelihood and your
health and all that stuff,
to putting your reliance and trust in the
Creator
of all these materials, resources,
Allah.
This hadith is the strongest evidence
of telling us clearly
that your dealings and your relationship,
and your going and coming, and your entire
mindset,
whatever you want,
and whatever you
anticipate,
keep all of that
between you and Allah
in dealing with it.
And that material resources,
they don't have an intelligence, they don't have
an intellect,
they have no power to bring or to
take away anything from your life.
So keep your connection with your creator Allah
from whom
all good comes from,
and who
is the only one who can prevent harm
from you,
and whom
brings to you only what is best for
you when you rely on him,
trust in him,
call upon him,
and believe in him.
The example that I asked you before about
the plant and getting a job
and your exams,
falling in love,
Remember I said,
if you don't do the means, you don't
do the action,
passion and intention and desires
mean nothing.
It's what they call wishful thinking.
That's how a person lies to themselves
and can go into obsessive compulsive disorders as
a result.
Because their brain will think so deep into
things
that some people get driven to craziness.
So
this entire hadith,
a lot of Muslims misunderstand
it.
They take it the opposite way. Here is
the meaning of it.
Allah says I am just as my slave
thinks of me when he remembers me. What
does this mean?
It means
that no matter what happens to you
while you rely on Allah,
then you assume of Allah
that it is only good for you in
some way,
even if it doesn't appear that way to
you.
It means
that if you ask Allah and make dua
to him for something that you want,
and you passionately and zealously ask for years,
and then Allah gives you something else or
doesn't give you that dua,
you still assume of Allah well,
that what He has willed for you or
denied from you is better for you.
It also means
that when you repent to Allah from sins
that you've done,
truly from your heart,
and you truly say it to Allah
to assume of Allah that He will forgive
you because He told you if you return
to me I will forgive you
and so you assume He will
Allah doesn't want you to roam the world
continuing to not forgive yourself over
sins of the past and thinking that Allah
has doomed you to *
or people telling you or reminding you of
your past sins till they gaslight you and
and and make you feel that you are
worthless.
Allah doesn't want you to fall into that
problem and he wants your self esteem to
be high so he says to you if
you repent to me
honestly
I will forgive you
and I will exchange your sins into good
deeds even, you don't have to worry
So that people don't play with your brain
and say,
listen, there's this thing called law of attraction.
Every bad thing you've ever done, you're going
to cope it one day, you're going to
find it's gonna get you.
And every good begets good, like begets like.
In general,
good things do attract good things in general,
and bad things can result in bad things.
That's in general. But it's not a law.
Also,
it's not automatic, it doesn't mean it has
to happen that way.
For example,
if I do good to someone,
Allah says
is the reward for good anything but good
in its return?
A people may say, well, there you go,
it means like for like. No, no, it
doesn't mean like for like. Number 1,
Allah will reward you more than what you
deserve.
That's the first difference. It's not like for
like, it's more.
Allah gives you more. Number 2,
if I do good for someone, who is
the one that rewards me?
Energy,
the universe,
or Allah?
It is Allah.
So why do I keep my mind on
energy and laws of attraction, manifestation, and philosophies
which someone made up?
Why can't I keep my connection with Allah
And know that Allah is the one that
rewards me.
Number 3.
Doing good deeds.
Yes, Allah will reward you for it in
goodness.
But there are also circumstances which may destroy
that good deed.
Such as a person
becoming a disbeliever.
Allah says a person who leaves the din
and disbelieves in Allah, his actions are destroyed.
You can't use the law of attraction and
say
but Allah owes me, He has to because
that's the law of attraction. That's making the
law of attraction supersede
and be as if it has more authority
than Allah.
Also,
if I do bad things,
generally Allah
may give me consequences of bad, and that
is true, sometimes when we do sins,
a sin
can result in bad consequences in this life
and in the next.
For example,
if I am really bad to my parents
and I grew up that way,
and I'm bad to them when they didn't
deserve it,
or I develop a habit of badness and
I don't stop it,
eventually
I will have children
who will naturally see me that way
and most likely continue that behavior. They will
treat me in the same way. Maybe they'll
see me, this is how I treated my
parents, so they will copy me.
Maybe they
inherit that behaviour because there is scientific evidence
that people do inherit some behaviour from their
parents.
That's another story.
But you can change it.
Bad does not always necessarily
attract bad later on because you can repent
and change your ways.
You can do good deeds where Allah
pardons you and says I'm not going to
give this person the same bad.
The bad may not happen in this world,
it might happen in the hereafter.
In fact I'll quote for you a verse
in the Quran
where Allah
he says
whatever
harm and tragedy comes to you,
then it is the result of your own
doings.
Meaning,
some things that people do,
if you find a bad thing happening to
you,
then know that Allah doesn't do bad things
to you,
you did something
that resulted in this consequence.
But listen to the other part of it,
Allah says, wayafu ankathir,
but he also pardons
so much. What does that mean? It means
not every bad will receive the consequence of
bad. Allah pardons people, if Allah were to
hold upon every single person, every single bad
that they did,
nobody will stay on this earth
in goodness at all, everybody will be in
* immediately.
There's no point of going even further.
Because the amount of wrong that we do
is nearly every minute.
Unless it is bad that you have done
unto others.
The rights of others, Allah does not forgive
because those are their rights.
And if they are not dealt with in
niswah, they'll be dealt with in the hereafter
unless the person forgives you or you make
it up and fix it.
But Allah's rights,
sins that we do,
Allah pardons Allah. He doesn't have to
give you a consequence for every bad. So
there is mercy, there is forgiveness,
there is pardoning.
The law of attraction
and also another name for it which is
similar is called karma,
which is a Buddhist terminology in Hindu.
Jnani Karma, a little bit of it kind
of agrees with Islam,
and that is that in general good things
do attract good things and bad things
attract bad things, but not necessarily, like it
doesn't have to happen that way.
In karma, there is no escape.
Whether you repent, whether you forgive, whether you
have mercy, if it doesn't happen in this
life, you're going to get reincarnated,
and in the next life, you're going to
be created into something else, eventually you'll
you'll get it.
But in Islam,
Allah forgives
if you repent, if you fix your ways,
and also He has mercy.
When you call something a law,
it doesn't care about compassion and mercy.
There is no forgiveness in law.
It means that it has to happen regardless
of how you feel.
But in Islam, Allah says no.
I can forgive,
I will pardon, it's not all gloom and
doom.
Take it easy.
Allah created us
with the tendency to make mistakes.
Dear brothers and sisters,
what does it mean therefore?
I am as my servant thinks I am,
meaning
when things happen to you, when you repent,
when you pray to Allah, when you do
good deeds,
when you die,
all of this means
assume well of Allah that he will take
care of you on one condition,
on the condition that you do the action
necessary for it.
It doesn't mean
that whatever you want
just assume it about Allah and he will
give it to you. It doesn't mean that.
It doesn't mean that I Allah is saying
I am the way My servant thinks of
me.
It doesn't mean
that if I want something,
I just have to think of Allah well
and He will give it to me.
That is false and all the scholars have
spoken against it.
So for example,
if I think well of Allah
yet I don't obey Allah,
I don't do my 5 daily prayers, for
example, which he commanded me.
And he told me that 5 daily prayers
are a course to enter paradise.
Or I don't fast Ramadan without an excuse
or a reason.
And Allah tells me the people who fast
will enter paradise.
Or I continue to do major sins
and I don't care.
And Allah has told me major sins can
lend you can lead you into hellfire, can
land you into hellfire.
I Allah ordered ordered, you know, for example,
she's a woman. Allah ordered her to dress
in her hijab.
But she says no, I don't have to.
I assume, mal of Allah.
Or a man, Allah ordered him to look
after his family and to spend on his
family within his means.
But he goes and oppresses them and he
says, I assume well of Allah. I go
to the mosque 5 times a day. Brothers
and sisters, it doesn't work that way.
I can't sit there saying, I assume well
of Allah,
and I'm airy fairy about it,
but I will not obey Allah.
Half of my life is living in disobedience.
I don't do what needs to be done
in order to earn Allah's pleasure.
Otherwise there's no need for anybody to worship
or do anything.
When I say that I assume of Allah
well then I will get whatever I assume
and then I say
if I think it so much and if
I assume of Allah well, He will manifest
it for me.
That's what they say.
If I think well of Allah, this hadith
means I will get my manifestation, I'll get
what I want. No, that's not how it
works.
Oh but they say sometimes but, you know,
it happened to me. Habibi,
this is what you think.
There are so many things that don't happen.
In that case everybody will just get whatever
they want.
Life will be bliss, this is it, this
is paradise.
So to think of Allah well means that
it has to accompany action.
Action.
Those who believe
and then follow it up with the righteous
actions.
Not just believe without action.
Of course, there are people who believe sincerely
and wholeheartedly,
they don't do the right actions,
and may go on a day of judgement,
Allah will judge them and they may be
punished, but eventually
they'll be taken out of the punishment and
placed into paradise if they had sincere tawhid
and monotheism and never made partners with Allah.
But after the punishment,
after the consequence,
and after Allah's discretion.
So brothers and sisters, please do not make
this mistake
because this is how the shaitan will delude
you from becoming a righteous person and fulfilling
the purpose that Allah created you here. Allah
will not tell you, Pray 5 times a
day, and say, I commanded you, and then
say to you, There is a punishment for
doing major sins, and then He says to
you, Just assume good of me and you
don't have to do it. That is a
contradiction, that's not what it means.
So we can't take one hadith and leave
the rest out. We can't take one verse
of the Quran
and ignore the rest. It all is a
package, it comes together and each supports the
other.
Allah says in the Quran,
in relation to
connecting
thinking of Allah well and qadr
some people
also have another confusion.
They might think
how does this make sense?
How do I assume of Allah well and
he will be there for me as I
assume?
But then
Allah also tells me that whatever he has
written
for me or against me will happen.
So how can I assume well of Allah
and he'll be there as I assume,
yet if he has written something else for
me,
then what's the point of me assuming well
of Allah?
If Allah wants the punishment is written, why
would I assume well of him?
The answer to that brothers and sisters is
again very simple.
Allah does say,
Allah says in surah number 9 verse 51,
say, nothing will befall us except what Allah
has decreed for us, He is our protector.
Let the believers then put all their trust
in Allah. The meaning of this commentary is
this, therefore if he is satisfied, the believer,
that he has done his best to perform
his duty,
He believes that he has come out successful
by the grace of Allah.
Though he might not have been able to
accomplish anything from the worldly point of view,
meaning you didn't get what you wanted from
this world while you did good work,
For he believes that his Allah in whose
cause he has expanded,
his life and wealth will not let go
waste
the reward of his efforts.
Not expanded expended, meaning he used all his
life to do good works, Allah will not
let go waste the reward of your efforts
as he does not depend on the material
resources only.
What am I saying?
The qadr of Allah
works hand in hand
with the actions that he knows you're going
to do,
and so he gives you the qadr,
he determines and decides what you're gonna get.
And assuming of Allah well,
goes hand in hand with the qadr as
well. What is qadr? Qadr is Allah looking
into your future.
And then he knows what you're going to
do before you were born.
And then Allah decides
what he will destined for you and what
he will not.
And he will look at your actions and
he will be fair to you and just
and merciful and forgiven and then he writes
it.
And everything Allah has written is beautiful, merciful,
wise, perfect,
fair and just.
Now,
when you think of Allah well, and you
do the actions for it,
and you don't sit there with wishful thinking,
and lie to yourself,
and then you believe that Allah will only
write what's good for you, that is the
package
of goodness in believing in Allah, trusting in
Allah,
knowing that Allah will only choose what's best
for you and that He already knew what's
best for you. All you have to do
is live it out and do it now,
and it really is all your work. So
brothers and sisters, I repeat,
assuming well of Allah means
that you couple it with the action needed
with that intention.
It is not just passionate thinking, it is
not just wishful thinking and then I disobey
Allah in everything and then I say Allah
will still put me into paradise and forgive
me,
you will only receive what you work for.
It also means that whatever I assume of
Allah, the actions that I do have already
been decreed by Allah before He created me
because He knew what I was going to
do and He made it a reality for
me. But at the same time, some things
Allah will not let happen in my life.
So I'm gonna now ask you a question,
brothers and sisters.
If Allah plans for you something
opposite to what you planned,
You planned
to say
reach a certain destination.
And you made the dua and you put
your trust in Allah and did all the
means necessary.
You did the action.
But still,
it didn't go according to your plan.
Everything seems logically logical
progression and and everything, but you didn't get
what you planned.
Now the question is what will you think
of your creator?
How would you take it?
There was something that I didn't Sorry? There
was something that the Creator knew that I
didn't know. That a Khalafik
brother is saying, it's I will think that
it's something that my Creator knew about me
that I just didn't know.
Excellent.
We don't know what's gonna happen, we don't
know our future. Had we known what Allah
knows,
we would thank Him night and day for
what He did.
Isn't that correct? Allah knows we do not
know. What's another way of thinking about it?
It didn't go according to my plan even
though I du'a and I did all the
means, I did everything I obeyed Allah and
I worshipped Him night and day, and this
is what He gives me.
Some people, unfortunately,
think negative about Allah
when things don't go their way or they
perceive that what happened to them was bad.
Again,
how do I know what's good and bad?
In front of me I think it's good
for me,
but if I knew 10 years later,
sometimes I wish I can turn back time
and say, If I knew that earlier I
wouldn't do this. Haven't you ever been through
this situation?
We all have. And that's the nature of
humans. But Allah is giving us a formula
of how to remedy
psycho our mental health and and keep ourselves,
insha'Allah,
afloat
and in good health because not everything's gonna
be according to plan. So what's the solution?
The solution in Islam is put your trust
in Allah and believe in qadr that Allah
has predestined and pre measured everything and that
what He pre measured is perfect.
The only way that you then
bring misery to yourself is you.
How you start reacting to it, how you
start thinking of it. So for example,
ibn al Imam al Hassan al Basri, he
says,
there are people
who do bad deeds
and then they say we assume well of
Allah.
But if they had assumed well of Allah,
they would do good deeds
in that presence.
And there are people
that hope and wishful thinking
took over their mind
until they left this world
without a single good deed that they've ever
done.
And then he said, and they say,
my assumption of Allah is good, my lord.
But he has lied. If he assumed well
of Allah, he would have done good and
well by Allah.
And Ibnul Qayyim says
there is no doubt that assuming well of
Allah
requires good treatment
of your actions to Allah.
Thinking well of Allah's plan for you.
For thinking well of Allah,
it means that Allah will reward you with
goodness for your goodness.
And that Allah will not
betray his promise to you
if you do
what he guided you to do.
Not making up your own wishful thinking.
So
assuming well of Allah
for a believer means that whether good or
bad happens to them there is always good
in it.
Example,
I got sick
and I got a terminal illness, let's say,
I'm giving an example.
I might turn around
and my natural reaction and the shaitan may
whisper to me and say
All my life,
all my life
I've been doing umrah,
I did Hajj so many times,
I never hurt anybody,
I earned my wealth in halal,
I spent it in halal,
I looked after my wife. I looked after
my children, taught them Quran and deen and
education, protect them.
I prayed in the masjid.
I read the Quran. I did, I did,
I did. And this is how Allah repays
me with a terminal illness.
You can think that way if you like.
But Allah tells you something else.
He says to you, you can think that
way,
but if you think that way, you
and your thinking are on your own.
Because Allah is not like that.
Therefore, your thoughts about Allah is wrong
and therefore
you are on your own. That's why Allah
says I am as you assume of Me.
So right there, Allah is not going to
be because that's not who Allah is.
Then Allah tells us in the Quran, or
you can assume of Allah in goodness.
Here are some examples of goodness that a
believer can think about. Number 1,
perhaps Allah
has made the end part of my life
an expiation
of all the accumulated
sins
that I have done in my past
to use it as a reason in the
hereafter
to forego all my sins
and to compensate me for the pain that
I finally went through because Allah is merciful.
Or
I heard my Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam tell
me, foretell me
that not a prick of a needle
that hurts me, or a fever,
or any small thing that happens to me
that hurts me except that Allah washes away
my
guilty
sins of the past until I meet him
fresh as if I was born today.
And so,
on the day of judgement when I stand
before Allah,
and I fear hellfire, and I fear the
punishment,
Allah will bring my sickness to me and
say you were patient,
you persevered through it,
and today
everything is forgiven for you, you deserve paradise
forever.
Or I can think of the hadith of
the prophet
that on the day of judgement there are
people
who went through hardships in this life
but persevered
and did not lose their way and relied
on Allah, they enter paradise flying.
And people will say,
I wish that I can return back to
this world and be cut up with the
scissors into pieces
to receive what they have received today.
Allah compensates you. Or
it could be
something else,
it could
be that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala
is raising your rank
higher than what
you would have gotten because Allah wants you
to be even higher.
Whatever the case is brothers and sisters. Or
it could be that a person has lived
a life of sin and this will return
them,
and they will meet Allah the way He
would love them to meet him. I'll give
you an example.
In Surat Al Kahf
we all know Surat Al Kahf.
When the story of Moses comes in and
with al Khadr,
some say it's al Khadr,
others they say it was a righteous man.
The point is, Musa
meets this wise
man, and he tells him, can I follow
you to teach me of the wisdom which
Allah has taught you?
Because Allah told Musa, Moses
there is a man we have given knowledge
which you don't have. So he wants to
learn from him. He went to him and
says, Can I follow you to teach me
of the knowledge
which Allah gave you?
Immediately the man said to him,
You will not be able to bear patience
with what you're about to see with me.
You can't. This knowledge is too much for
you.
He said, You will see me patient, and
I nannyan, and if I say anything, you
can tell me to go, and so on.
The point is he went along with him
and several
things happened.
One of the things that happened was that
he passed by a young boy,
hulam.
Hulam is about 10 to 11, 12, 9
years old. That's a hulam
Boy.
He sees him
and he goes and kills him.
When he kills him,
Musa
immediately
responds,
how could you have killed an innocent boy?
He's done nothing.
You have truly done something outrageously
outrageous.
Evil.
The man said to him,
Did I not tell you you will not
be able to be patient and bear with
what I do?
And Musa
said to him,
Forgive me
for what I
forgot about.
And please don't give me a lecture about
it, I understood my lesson, let's just move
on.
A few more things happened and in the
end,
to cause his parents tyranny
and disbelief
and to himself and his parents a good
people.
So Allah wanted to take this boy now
in his innocent state
and replace the his good parents with another
child whom Allah knew will grow up to
be a better child.
The result of the whole thing thing, the
the commentators say, is that all the parents,
the replaced child, and the innocent child who
was gonna grow up to be a tyrant,
all ended up in paradise.
To Allah,
the end result
is what's important and to a believer, it's
the end result. What is this life, brothers
and sisters? Look how quick it passes.
Allah says Wama amruna illa wahidatunqalamhimbilbasur.
Our
word and our command is nothing but like
the blink of an eye, meaning this world
ends like the blink of an eye.
So what really is going to matter? A
temporary short enjoyment. Look at us.
My friend here, myself, over here, over here,
all of us are starting to grow white
hairs. Just yesterday
we were all, masha'Allah, very young,
running together,
walking together,
feeling like we can take over the world,
mashAllah.
Some of you here weren't even born one
time, look at you now, mashAllah, you're replacing
us, we're on our way, you're replacing us.
How dare you come and take our lives,
boys,
all you youngsters.
Of course I'm joking.
Your parents one day, how they were? Yes
brother, just yesterday you and I, Masha'Allah, were
talking,
tabarakallah,
strong bodies,
everything.
Of course we still are there, alhamdulillah, I'm
not saying that we're finished,
we're just saying that alhamdulillah,
time runs out quick, quick, like that, like
the blink of an eye.
So brothers and sisters, for a believer, we
don't see it that way, we see
Allah is looking after us here and for
the future in the Hereafter. But unfortunately majority
of people tend to think of this this
just their mindset is within the boundary
of just this life.
Expand your mindset, brothers and sisters, expand beyond
this world.
The consequences, the good and the bad don't
only just happen here, they can extend. And
Allah says
Allah says, the hereafter
has more greater rewards than what you see
here,
and greater
honor and favoritism for you
than what you see here. So a believer
thinks very differently, that's why al Rasoolzazam said,
be in this world as if you are
a stranger or a wayfarer. So the believer
is a gharib, stranger, in that way. We
look at the hereafter,
the others don't, and so on.
My brothers and sisters, however I've got a
couple of more things to say because we
have to answer this question.
Thayib,
if there's no law of attraction and manifestation
as we said,
then what about
the fact
that Allah and His Prophet in Islam teaches
us to be optimistic
and not to be pessimistic,
and that if we are optimistic,
it does bring about good,
and if you have an optimistic mindset
and a hopeful mindset
then it brings about goodness.
And the prophet
did say
superstition
and pessimism
superstition
is shirk,
and pessimism is wrong, and I love optimism.
And when he used to visit sick people,
Rasool salahu alaihi wa sallam used to say
don't worry too much,
It is an it is a purification, insha'Allah.
It gives them optimism, even if the person
is dying.
Why then
do we say
that
manifestation, law of attraction is wrong, and and
what are we talking about? The fact of
the matter is, brothers and sisters, there is,
there is a principle in life which Allah
created
that if you're an optimistic person,
then most likely
you will also
choose optimistic people around you.
If you're an optimistic person,
research has shown
by Perneal Faber, he is a PhD
psychologist says, when we align our thoughts, feelings
and actions with our goals,
it directs a particular part in our brain
called
the reticular
activation
system,
to sift through millions of sensory information
to focus on the goal.
But there's no
energy
force outside of us that we're talking about
here. We are talking about a real
physical
thing inside of our body which Allah created
in our brains, in our parasympathetic
system, called the reticular activation system,
which
hormonally
and neurologically
directs
your thought processes,
gives you motivation,
helps you to free your mind,
and to think more clearly.
For example, when you're full of stress,
can you think straight?
No. When you're around people who are constantly
pessimistic
and make you afraid, don't you feel like
everything is just
useless and everything is just a failure?
But when you're around people who constantly
tell you, Listen, it's not all bad, Insha'Allah,
there is goodness, just do what you can.
Then you feel motivated. Isn't that correct? But
that has nothing to do with outside forces
and energy, brothers and sisters.
And we call it that. But the whole
idea is that, alhamdulillah,
mindset and optimism does have a role
in part of your success, but we say
part.
Now
what a Muslim does is that he doesn't
rely on it completely.
You don't say just by being optimistic everything
comes. No, that's not true because then you'll
be very disappointed.
What you need to do is to leave
an element together with your optimism, with, you
know, having
positive friends around and so on.
You have to have also the idea that
qadr,
qadr, Allah's destiny and pre measurement, and what
he has written
may not
agree
with what you anticipate.
And what did we say about that? We
said it means you say, Alhamdulillah,
Allah had a better plan for me.
Imam al Hassan Basu used to say, When
I ask Allah for something,
and he gives me what I wanted, I
say, Alhamdulillah.
But when He doesn't give me what I
wanted,
and it goes other than my plan, I
say, Alhamdulillah,
10 more times because the first one was
my decision, the second one is Allah's decision,
Allah's decision is better than my decision.
This is how we look at it. Now
with people who follow this manifestation stuff and
those who believe in energy and those who
interpret the hadith, I am, Allah says I
am the way My servant assumes of me,
to mean
the way they see it is like this,
that
what I want,
Allah will make the qadr
manifested for me, the way I want.
So it's about you.
The meaning of it is the opposite.
It means
I may want something
but if Allah wants something else, he will
make the qadr manifest into something other than
what I wanted.
If Allah sees goodness
elsewhere,
He will manifest the qadr in a different
way than what I wanted to be manifested.
And then I say, Alhamdulillah,
Allah manifested something else, no matter how much
you think about it. So I repeat again,
a Muslim's belief in qadr
and goodness in Allah means
that while you hope for something and you
anticipate something and you think about something and
you make dua for something, you do all
the means for something,
and then
you hope for a manifestation
as you wish and hope for, then
something else happens, then know that this is
the Qadr of Allah
manifesting something else for you, which is better
than what you wanted.
And so you sit down, you say, qadrallahuwamashaafaaad
Allah has pre measured for me, and what
he wills, he does. I accept it, and
I'll give you a very quick example.
Do you know the mother of Maryam alaihis
salam, the mother of Mary? Mary, peace be
upon her.
We all know about Maryam alaihis salam, the
mother of Jesus Christ of Asa alaihis
salam. The mother of Maryam,
Mary alaihis salam,
she became
pregnant
with Maryam.
But she didn't know whether she was carrying
a boy or a girl.
And ever since she, the mother of Maryam
in the Quran, ever since she wanted a
baby,
she always asked Allah
for a boy.
She wanted a
boy.
And not only did she want a boy,
there was a purpose for the boy. She
said, my Lord if you give me a
boy,
I vow to you I vow to you
that I will devote him
to your service.
In those days,
men became
pastoral carers for the community, and they did
nothing else but devote. So there were men
who you can devote them to the communities,
pastoral care and spiritual care and serving the
community. And khalas, you say, I've devoted him
for Allah. And usually it was the men
who did it, not the women. The women
did it in different ways, but the men
went out. The women stayed inside. So she
wanted the boy to do that. Not only
did she have passion for it, she vowed
all her life to devote him for the
sake of Allah. Now you tell me, brothers
and sisters, if the law of attraction manifestation
was true,
then
the mother of Mary
would be the most
likely person in the world
to get what she wanted.
But
when she gave birth to her, Allah says
in Surat Ali Imran,
Listen carefully and I'm I'll end it, Insha'Allah,
with this with a conclusion.
She said Allah said, Then when she gave
birth to her, meaning Mary, her mother gave
birth to Mary, she said, Oh my Lord,
oh my Lord, I have given birth
to a female.
And Allah knows
what she gave birth to anyway.
And then she said,
and then Allah says, and the
and the male is not like the female.
And then she said,
and I have named her Maryam,
and I seek refuge in you to protect
her and her progeny from the shaitan, the
outcast.
There's 3 things to learn here. Number 1.
She anticipated and wanted a boy, Allah gave
her a
girl. She was surprised.
My lord,
I vowed and I devoted my son, and
I had this big big big ambition for
Your sake.
But You decided to give me a girl
instead.
That's surprising to me.
So number 1, Allah gave her different to
what she anticipated and she was surprised.
But
Allah says, and Allah knows what she gave
birth to. And this is the evidence that
she was truly surprised because she knows Allah
knows, but why would she say it? Why
would I say, Oh Allah, it's a girl,
when she knows that Allah knows she's a
girl? This is a form of human surprise.
It's a normal natural reaction that, hold on,
I I anticipate, My Lord, I need an
answer.
So the next part she says,
oh, and the boy is not like a
girl, meaning, My Lord, please forgive me. I
vowed to you that I was going
to devote, you know, the boy
for you, but you know, now I can't
do it because
in our society
men women can't do what I promised.
It has to be a boy.
So forgive me, I can't do this anymore.
So now my vow is gone.
Then she says,
but I'm going to name her Maryam, the
Honourable,
the Pure,
and I make dua to protect her, my
Lord.
So what does this mean?
It means in other words like this, she's
saying
Oh my lord,
your qadr was different to what I
anticipated
and my dua was not accepted in the
way that I had asked you, you gave
me something different.
Let me think about it. But my lord,
the only problem I have is that I
vowed to you and now I have to
go against it. I feel so bad because
I would still wanna do it but now
I'm stuck.
And then she says, and I'm gonna name
her Maryam. What does that mean? It means
my lord, your qadr is better than what
I asked for and I now love this
gift which she has given me, and I'm
giving her a name, I'm gonna make dua
for you, and I'm going to dedicate her
to you, to your service but as a
female now. In other words, this is a
big lesson for us,
When you want something from Allah
and Allah gives you something else,
then take that gift as more beloved to
you than what you wanted,
and embrace it because it's a gift from
Allah. It's up to you now to turn
it into pessimism or goodness.
Don't be delusional about it, don't be wishful
thinkers,
and know that we are
people who don't know much, just what do
we know? Allah knows better than us and
this is the evidence of you truly relying
on Allah, truly trusting in his Qadr, his
pre measurement predestiny,
truly
trusting that Allah gives you better, truly knowing
that Allah knows more than you.
But when you rely on energy and forces
in the universe and I don't know what,
even if you combine it with Quran and
Dua,
you're doing something wrong here.
You're putting your trust in 2 things here
which contradict each other.
And then what happens, the danger is you're
going to start leaning towards
material resources too much. Then you're gonna start
you'll find yourself obsessing over it and then
doing strange things which they tell you to
do like drawing art, and drawing the picture
better and writing affirmations, this is delusional.
It can drive you crazy.
And your children and your husband and your
wife and your family and everybody.
My final comments, my dear brothers and sisters,
is this.
In conclusion,
assuming well of Allah
means that no matter what happens to you,
rely on Allah and do the right action
for it.
Relying on Allah means also doing the right
action. Assuming well of Allah means do the
action as well. Number 2,
if you do the good action
as Allah had told you,
then assume of Allah well that He will
reward you for it. If you had done
wrong and you repented to Allah, assume Allah
will forgive you.
If you have if you're towards the end
of your life and you are a believer,
and you worshipped Allah, assume well of Allah
that He will look after you.
Number 2.
There are 4 main differences between believing in
qadr
and believing in the law of attraction and
manifestation.
Number 1, the law of attraction relies on
automatic
definite process.
Automatically. You do this, you're gonna get that.
Verse kadar is discretionary.
It may happen, it may not. The only
one who decides it is Allah. It may
happen, it may not. Number 2, the second
difference between law of attraction and qadr is
law is that,
law of attraction
does not require action.
It's not conditional on action.
Qadr
and believing in Allah
requires action.
Number 3,
the law of attraction ignores Qadr,
ignores qadr. And lastly,
the law of attraction ignores Allah's rules.
So whether you worship Allah or don't,
by thinking you'll manifest something. That doesn't work
that way.
And Allah's rules for a Muslim, you have
to fall within His rules first in order
to achieve the reward from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
My brothers and sisters,
the only thing I really left out was
just to explain dua and how it works.
So very quickly,
when you make dua to Allah, my brothers
and sisters,
keep your expectations
a little bit open.
Law of attraction is
expecting
to get what you want.
Dua
is
accepting
what Allah decides for you.
I repeat, law of attraction is expecting
what you want.
Relying on Allah and Dua is
accepting
what he gives you.
And the Dua will be responded to you
in one of 4 ways. The prophet told
us the hadith is in Sahin Muslim. Number
1. Either he gives you what you want,
or he delays what you want, or he
replaces what you want,
or
he
preserves it for you for the hereafter.
Why? Because Allah knows what you're asking for
may not be good for you right now.
Maybe in another time it will be better.
What you're asking for will not be good
for you all your life so Allah gives
you something better or replaces it.
Or he wards off something bad.
Or
it may not be good what you're asking
because you just don't know so he leaves
it for you for the Hereafter. The point
is he will give it to you, insha'Allah.
One person I finish with this beautiful this
beautiful hadith, I have to. We said in
the Quran that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
halajazaal
Ihsaani
illal Ihsaan
is the reward
of good,
anything but good.
Beautiful hadith of Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that
I just want to share with you, it's
so amazing.
Hadith is in Bukhari
3480.
That on the Day of Judgement
there will come a man, so a person.
He has never done any good in his
life.
But he died on tawhid, on true monotheism.
But he's never done any good other than
in his life, meaning
99% of his life was not good.
But he used to give money to people
to lend them money.
And he would say,
take
this loan,
and if the person who lent off him
money
was in a bad state,
he would tell him don't worry about it.
If you're poor, you can't pay it off,
halos, I'll let it go.
And if the person he lent the money
to
didn't have the money yet,
he would give him more time.
That was the only thing he did.
When he died,
Allah
so talking the Prophet as I'm talking the
future now,
that Allah
said
has he done any good deed in his
life?
Now of course Allah knows if he's done
good deeds or hasn't done good deeds. The
reason Allah says that on a day job,
I know a lot of people confuse that,
because Allah likes the Angels and the people
to bear witness to this goodness.
He includes everybody so that you can feel
that this is an open court system.
So Allah says, Has He done any good?
And He knows of course, but He wants
everybody to. So the angels come and they
have written everything,
and they say, No, Our Lord has done
no good, we didn't see any good action.
Except that,
he used
to give people money and if somebody was
in hardship, he would give them time, and
if somebody couldn't repay, it was poor, he
would just forgive them.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
Because you used to
pardon people and let them off for what
they owed you,
today I will also pardon you and let
you off for what you owe me.
The people may say, Well if he hasn't
prayed, he hasn't
fasted, and all he does is, does that
mean I can just do that and go
to paradise? No. The answer is no.
The meaning of that is he died first
of all on monotheism, he wasn't a disbeliever.
And number 2, the hadith doesn't say whether
he went through a punishment first.
But usually it means that eventually
Allah pardons him or it could mean that
Allah for this man decided,
I'm going to pardon him for the rest
of his bad actions.
So my brothers and sisters,
no good is lost and no bad
is also lost, but Allah may forgive for
the bad that we do if we repent,
or He may pardon us because of good
deeds that we do.
And remember the rights of people will not
be forgiven unless you fix it. And remember
that the good deeds that you do, Allah
rewards you multiple folds.
And remember to not rely on material resources,
rely fully on Allah
And remember that the Qadr of Allah is
an iman, a belief inside of us, you
cannot be a believer if you don't believe
in it. That Allah knows what's best for
you and has written it. And when it
happens
against the plan that you had, it is
better for you and you need to keep
going with it and say what Allah wills
is better.
And to keep moving forward insha'Allah
and keep your connection with Allah. Make du'a
to Him, and do the good deeds as
He told you, and don't just sit there
as a wishful thinker and misunderstand
and interpret
the words of Allah and Prophet SAW's hadith
in your own way without seeking advice
from those who are learned.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless you and
reward you and give you what is best
for you and me. And may Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala forgive your sins and mine. And
may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guide our hearts
and minds to that which pleases him, and
that which gives us goodness within our health,
our mind, our iman, our heart and our
bodies, our families and everyone around us in
this world and in the next. May Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala relieve our brothers and sisters
in Gaza and Palestine from the atrocities that
they fall into. May Allah
return this Ummah to his path in goodness.
And may Allah
help us,
and help this Ummah
in ridding hypocrisy from it, and the oppression
that exists within it. Amin.