Bilal Assad – The key to abundance and contentment
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of gratitude in life, including thanking people for good things, being thankful, and being thankful. They stress the importance of gratitude and the need for people to do small things. The speakers also provide examples of how gratitude can be used in life, such as sharing good things and being thankful. The importance of gratitude is emphasized, and individuals are encouraged to ask for help in making payments.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen, praise, gratitude and thanks to
Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
And there is a secret in saying the
Lord of the worlds, the worlds of the
bacteria, the worlds of the animals, the worlds
of the jinns, the angels, the humans, your
makeup, the atoms, the universe, the subatomic matters
and everything beyond.
Things that are seen and things that are
unseen, the hidden, the future, the past, the
present, all of that encompasses Lord, Allah, Lord
of the worlds.
So you can see praise, thanks and gratitude
applies to any circumstance for a believer.
And that's why the Prophet, peace be upon
him, did say, عَجَبًا لِأَمْرِ الْمُؤْمِنِ I find
it very strange yet fascinating, the state of
a believer.
إِنْ أَصَابَهُ خَيْرٌ شَكَرٌ If good comes their
way, they are thankful, meaning they recognize it
and they acknowledge Allah's blessing.
وَإِنْ أَصَابَتْهُ ضَرَّاءً صَبَرٌ And if something that
harms him or her comes their way, they
remain persevering and patient.
وَإِنَّ أَمْرَهُ كُلَّهُ لَهُ خَيْرٌ All the matters
and the affairs of a believer somehow are
always good.
They have a mindset where they see the
world different to everyone else.
What is the opposite of gratitude, shukr?
Who knows in the Quran?
When Allah says shukr and He wants to
say the opposite, people who are shakireen, people
who are grateful, then the opposite is the
people who are, so shukr, the opposite is,
it actually rhymes, kufr.
The opposite of shukr is kufr.
Now some people may misunderstand the word kufr.
Kufr has two levels, two meanings.
Kufr means to deny and reject Islam altogether,
to go out of the fold and disbelieve
in Allah and His message.
That's called kufr.
When a person does an act of polytheism,
shirk, you become, when a person has disbelief,
they become a kafir.
But the kufr here, the opposite of shukr,
merely means, kufr means ungratefulness, denial, rejection, dismissiveness,
disacknowledgement of blessings.
So two types of kufr.
Denial of Allah's message is the big kufr,
and kufr denial or dismissive of Allah's blessings.
It's called kufr.
And kufr comes from the root word in
the Arabic language of a farmer placing a
seed under the ground and drawing the soil
over it, and so you cannot see it
anymore.
Kufr means to hide the innate nature of
belief inside of a human's heart and then
deny the truth.
And here it means denying the blessing.
So we want to be shakireen.
Allah says in the Qur'an, وَسَنَجْزِ الشَّاكِرِينَ
We shall truly always reward those who are
thankful and grateful.
My brothers and sisters, a Muslim, when he
or she studies Islam and is trained and
raised on the teachings of Islam, they will
become a type of Muslim who looks at
this world through a different type of lens.
The lens of a knowledgeable, trained Muslim in
Islam begins to look at everything in this
world from a different lens to everyone else.
What is this lens?
A Muslim looks into the lens where every
bad or good they can see somehow a
blessing and a good in it.
Always.
In richness or poverty, in sickness or in
health, in ease or in hardship, they are
able to sift through it and still see
the blessing.
In modern day terms, in business, because most
people think about money as a blessing these
days, unfortunately that's only one of hundreds of
the blessings which we have and surround us,
such as knowledge, love, a good family, children,
Iman, a loving spouse, a good house, ability
to speak, ability to read, ability to research,
skills.
All of these are blessings.
Looks, strength.
But unfortunately when it comes to wealth and
money, they use the word which is true,
you must have the abundance mentality.
Don't have the scarcity mentality.
From the beginning, Allah has always taught us
through his prophets and through the Quran that
a Muslim can always see abundance in everything.
That is something that only a few can
reach.
For example, if a person is on their
deathbed and their health is gone, even their
family is gone, their wealth is gone, everything,
they can still see a benefit.
They remember the words of Allah that your
patience and perseverance will not go lost.
Not even an atom's worth of patience except
that it will be rewarded.
And they remember the hadith of the prophet,
peace be upon him, not a single prick
of a needle, sadness, grief, worry, hurt, harm
that a Muslim receives, except that Allah expiates
their sins due to their patience.
Why a Muslim, not a non-Muslim in
this case?
Because the non-Muslim does not believe that
Allah expiates sins.
They believe in some other God, they believe
in some other thing or they don't believe
in God at all.
So, the prophet, peace be upon him, told
us that the reward is the same as
the belief in actions that you have.
You get what you believe in and what
you do.
My brothers and sisters, so, gratefulness.
In order to have gratitude, Allah, subhanahu wa
ta'ala, reminds us of the blessings that
we do not see and take for granted.
For example, one of the verses I'll quote
in the Quran among many is where Allah
says, Allah is the One Who has made
for you the earth a place of rest,
and the heaven a building, and has formed
you, and has made your forms better, and
has provided you with good things.
That is Allah, your Lord, so blessed is
Allah, Lord of the worlds.
Surah 40, verse 64, Allah says, Allah, it
is He who made the earth a dwelling
place for you and made the sky a
canopy.
Probably referring to earth's magnetosphere.
It's the thing around the earth, the magnetic
field that deflects the sun's energetic radiation.
So, Allah says to protect you, a canopy
to protect you, who shaped you, and shaped
you exceedingly well, and gave you good things
as sustenance.
That is Allah, your Lord, blessed be Allah,
the Lord of the universe.
Some people don't see the blessings they have
in their features, in their health, in their
face, in their eyes, in their arms, in
their legs.
The fact that you can walk, the fact
that you can talk, the fact that Allah
gave you, fashioned you in a good image,
that Allah gave you things other people don't
have.
And that is why Rasulullah gave us a
beautiful formula of how not to get into
a serious case of depression or grief, even
though we experience it a little bit.
One of the key antidotes he gave us
was, look and observe those who have less
fortune than you, less fortune in blessings, whatever
it is.
And then recognize the blessings you do have
that others don't, because then if you don't
think like that, you will begin to deny
and to dismiss the blessings that you already
have.
My dear brothers and sisters, Allah says in
the Quran, وَآتَاكُم مِّن كُلِّ مَا سَأَلْتُمُوهُ وَإِن
تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ لَا تُحْصُوهَا إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ
لَظَلُومٌ كَفَّارٌ In Surah Ibrahim verse 34, Allah
said, And who gave you all that you
asked for?
Meaning that in this world, the humans have
everything from which they can get their resources
and live their lives.
Were you to count the favors of Allah,
you shall never be able to encompass them.
You can't count them.
Verily, man is highly unjust, exceedingly ungrateful.
All you need to do is look into
your cell.
Just go to chat GPT and say, give
me an image of the most up-to
-date image of a cell.
Can you count how many features there are
in there and organisms?
You can't.
And what they do and how you survive
through them.
لا إله إلا الله My dear brothers and
sisters, once you recognize the blessings that Allah
has around you and within you and for
you, then comes this reward from Allah.
When you recognize and acknowledge Allah's blessings and
you are grateful for it, the abundance of
blessings will burst out for you.
Allah says in the Quran, وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَا رَبُّكُمْ
لَإِنْ شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ وَلَإِنْ كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِي
لَشَدِيدَ Surah 14 verse 7 Allah says, Also
call to mind when your Lord proclaimed, If
you give thanks, I will certainly grant you
more.
I will certainly grant you more.
But if you are ungrateful for my favors,
my chastisement is terrible.
This actually came down reminding the Prophet, peace
be upon him, about the verses in the
Bible that were sent down upon the children
of Israel at the time of Moses and
Jesus, peace be upon them all.
And that Allah made a covenant with them
and he said to them, I will give
you abundance of blessings.
But if you turn your heads, your faces
and you start to deny and dismiss and
disacknowledge the blessings which we have given you
by doing forbidden things, going away from the
guidance that I have given you, breaking and
penetrating all the boundaries which I have placed,
then you are no longer true believers and
true submissive Muslims to Allah.
You have denied, you are not grateful.
My brothers and sisters, what does this mean?
So therefore, how do we understand gratitude to
Allah SWT for his blessings?
My brothers and sisters, gratitude to Allah SWT
comes in three forms.
Memorize them and if you have any notes
to write on, please write them down.
Gratitude and thankfulness is first and foremost to
Allah and it comes in three ways.
You have to show your gratitude to Allah
in these three ways.
Not one, not two, but three.
The third one is the hardest, but Allah
is forgiving and he expects from you within
your capacity.
What is the first way we show our
gratitude to Allah as Muslims?
Number one, by acknowledging in the heart and
in the mind that Allah is the one
who has provided us everything we have and
everything around us.
When you exit your home, you look up
into the sky, which is by the way,
an abandoned sunnah that a lot of Muslims
today have forgotten about, is that the Prophet,
peace be upon him, every time he exited
his home in the morning, he would look
up at the sky.
And he used to tell us that looking
at the sky gives you serenity, gives you
peace, lowers your depression, lowers your anxiety, gives
you spirituality, calms you down, gives you clarity
of thought, all of that.
Looking at the sky and he would say,
سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِهِ How perfect is my Lord
and praise and gratitude is to Him always.
So, acknowledgement of Allah.
And I want to make a little point
of this first one.
Acknowledgement in your heart and mind that Allah
is the provider of everything.
So some people, they will mix.
Remember I spoke about the law of attraction
and how people believe in energy forces if
they have powers.
They believe that they have powers outside of
that.
And then they mix it with Allah, they
put the deen into it by saying that
there are laws which God created called energy
forces and frequencies, which have no evidence to
it, really, it's just opinions.
And pseudoscience and definitely in the sunnah and
in the Quran, this is not true.
Just interpretations of people according to the way
they want to interpret.
No scholar of the past has shared this
opinion.
That they say that, you know, be grateful
to Allah and acknowledge His blessings and then
the laws of the energies of frequency will
come your way, will attract them.
No, don't mix the two.
Allah says in the Quran, وَلَا إِن شَكَرْتُمْ
لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ If you are to be grateful, I
will provide you.
Then they tell you, yeah, He will provide
you through the laws.
Again, they have to twist it around.
They have to bring somehow the energy forces
in there.
Yeah, yeah, Habibi, only Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
He is the only force in all of
this, inshallah.
However, acknowledging and being grateful in your mind
and heart does have an effect in a
different way.
We don't call it the law of attraction.
In psychology and science, they call it the
mental radar.
So Allah has created intrinsic radars within ourselves,
not outside of us, within ourselves, that if
you start thinking positive and you have this
abundance mindset and thank Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala and keep a positive mindset and set
your goals, then you yourself will channel yourself
into a more positive direction.
You don't attract forces towards you like a
mirror.
You, because of that, your mind and you
channel yourself to walk and choose the more
adequate and positive directions, inshallah.
And if they don't go your way, you
choose another positive direction.
So that's the first thing.
Acknowledgement in the heart and mind of Allah
and only Allah alone.
Not a star sign, not a zodiac sign,
not an astrological sign, and saying today I
have fortune because the planets have aligned in
a certain way.
Audhu billah.
This is not acknowledgement, nor is it gratitude.
This is shirk, making powers of Allah.
So number one, acknowledgement in the heart and
the mind that Allah is the provider of
everything and blessings come from Him.
Number two, showing gratitude to Allah is saying
with your words, words of remembrance, praise and
thanks with the tongue.
For example, you say alhamdulillah and you say
it meaning it.
You say subhanallah wa bihamdihi.
You say words that the Prophet ﷺ taught
us.
Subhanallah wa alhamdulillah wa la ilaha illallah wa
allahu akbar.
The Prophet ﷺ said to say these words
are more beloved to me than what the
sun has risen upon.
And many other beautiful words that we repeat
as dhikr constantly and regularly.
Not only when you think something good has
come your way, you say them regularly.
We're thanking Allah night and day.
Have your dhikr words in the morning, in
the night, in the evening.
If you don't know them, download a dhikr
book, Fortress of the Muslim.
I always say it onto your app and
start to learn the different daily dhikr, remembrance
words, always say them.
And this way you are proving and showing
your thankfulness to Allah.
And the third way is using the blessings
which Allah gave you in the right way.
This is a difficult one.
Your blessings are your eyes, your mouth, your
tongue, your mind, your heart, your body, your
skills, your money, your family, your time.
All of these are blessings.
Thanking Allah means acting upon them and using
them in halal.
And avoiding what displeases Allah with them.
So if I acknowledge that this eye that
Allah gave me is a blessing from Allah,
and I say alhamdulillah, now I've got to
show it.
How do I show it?
By trying my best to let it avoid
looking at what displeases Allah and looking more
at what pleases Allah.
And if I do look at haram, I
say astaghfirullah and I start again.
I try my best, my hands, I don't
hit with it, I don't steal with it,
I don't do things with it that Allah
is displeased with.
That's showing gratitude to Allah.
I've got salat, my prayers, my body, my
mind, my life.
I do my five daily prayers.
If I don't do them, I am lacking
in my gratitude to Allah and it's a
very serious situation to be in.
My hair, my body, my beauty.
If I am a woman, I do what
Allah told me.
I trust in what He told me to
cover in myself.
Otherwise, I'm not being grateful.
Otherwise, I'm doing what I want.
If you're a man, what is the awrah?
What is what you should show, what you
shouldn't show?
Your interactions.
All these brothers and sisters are blessings from
Allah.
So how are you going to use them?
There was a story from Hassan al-Basri.
He narrates a story about a man.
He came to him and said, give me
a way to disobey Allah and do what
I want.
He said to him, you can do what
you want if you can break away from
one of five things.
If you can break away from these five
things, do whatever you want.
So what's the first thing?
He said, get out of Allah's property.
Don't disobey Allah while you are in His
world which He created for you.
Would you go into someone's house and start
to be rude and disrespect their belongings?
No.
So he said, get out of Allah's property.
Go into your own property and do what
you want.
He said, I can't.
The whole universe is for Allah.
He said, okay, let's go to the next
one.
He said, go to a place where Allah
cannot see you.
He said, I can't.
Allah sees me everywhere.
He says, okay, if Allah cannot see you,
at least go to a place when the
angels cannot see you.
He said, I can't do that either.
He goes, that's the second one gone.
He said, all right, what else?
He said, when the angel of death comes
to take your soul, tell him don't.
Do what you want.
He said, I can't prevent death going back
to Allah.
He said, okay, what's the fourth?
He says, when you are standing before Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, refuse to be judged.
He said, I can't refuse to be judged.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to
judge me.
Subhanallah.
Number five, he said, give me something of
this world.
He said, don't eat or consume or use
any of Allah's blessings.
Don't eat his food.
Don't drink his water.
Don't wear the clothes he gave you, which
come from the cotton and the land and
the animals which he created.
Go get your own.
Go get it from your own source.
He says, I can't.
I have to eat and drink and survive
from Allah's blessing.
He said, since you can't do all five,
I can't give you a concession.
My brothers and sisters, therefore, once again, gratitude
to Allah are three.
Number one, acknowledgement in the heart and mind
of Allah's blessings and only from him.
Number two, saying it with my words, in
praises and thanks.
And words of remembrance.
And number three, using the blessings Allah gave
me in the right way.
Now, we understand how to be grateful to
Allah.
In summary, the hadith now that we mentioned
in the beginning.
Whoever does not thank people, does not thank
Allah.
What does this hadith, this authentic hadith mean?
It means three things.
Number one, Allah will not value.
Listen carefully.
Allah will not value the thanks a servant
expresses to Allah.
You know when you say Alhamdulillah, and you
do all those three that I mentioned.
They won't have value to Allah.
Your acknowledgement of Allah's blessing, you're saying Alhamdulillah,
and using his blessings in the right way,
won't carry much value.
If at the same time, that same servant
does not have an attitude of thanking and
showing appreciation to people who do good services
for him or her.
Why?
Because the two are interconnected.
The reason people are doing good for you
is by whose permission?
Allah.
Is that not one of the blessings?
Did we forget that the fact that a
person intrinsically was given the nature of doing
good.
Where did he get that nature from?
He was born with a mind and a
moral intellect.
The fact that he was able or she
was able to give you that goodness.
The fact that Allah facilitated the qadr, the
whole circumstance for that person to choose to
do good for you.
Is it not interconnected with Allah's will as
well?
It's hand in hand.
Therefore, a bit from the person and its
origin and sources from Allah.
That person could not do it without Allah.
And that person had choice to do good
for you.
Therefore, you owe two thanks.
One for the person and two for the
person.
And by doing so, you are thanking Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
It doesn't mean you're saying that person is
Allah.
No.
You're thanking that person because it was because
of Allah that person had the nature to
come and thank you.
And of course, we've got to acknowledge people's
goodness because they had choice to do good
as well.
Do you understand this part?
The second meaning for he has not thanked
Allah, who does not have the habit of
thanking people is those who do not have
a habit of thanking or showing gratitude to
others who do a good favor for them
will most likely not have a habit of
showing thanks and gratitude to Allah.
People usually who do not have a habit
of wanting to thank people, it means they
got a little bit of arrogance in them.
And usually, the person who has arrogance in
them, you will find that in their life,
they're not usually thanking Allah that much.
Their words of remembrance are not many.
And if they say them, they're quickened.
They're not thinking about it.
It's robotic.
Their prayers are robotic.
Their Quran is just, you know, parroted.
And if they pray, next minute, they're backbiting
people.
Or they're not really enthusiastic about it.
Therefore, a person doesn't have the habit of
thanking people who do good favor for them
generally won't really have the habit of thanking
Allah properly.
And the last meaning is whoever does, right?
Whoever does thank Allah.
The meaning of the hadith, whoever does not
thank people has not thanked Allah.
It means, whoever does thank Allah but does
not thank people, then his or her thanking
of Allah appears as if they're thanking Him,
but they're not.
So very similar in meaning.
It's just a show.
Alhamdulillah is a show.
Alright?
An example of that is probably funny.
It's like you and your mate, Astaghfirullah, going
to steal something from a shop.
And your mate devises a plan.
And you agree.
And the plan works out.
And you end up with more from that
shop.
Then you come out and your mate goes,
Alhamdulillah.
And the other one says, Alhamdulillah that Allah
gave me the ability to plan it, eh?
It looks like you're thanking Allah.
But you haven't.
Because you used Allah's blessing in a way
that He does not allow you.
So you haven't thanked Allah.
You understand?
Some people will oppress other people and take
their rights.
And then they will make their own interpretation
on behalf of God to justify their action,
to turn it around, right?
Gaslight.
To turn it around.
Manipulation.
Alhamdulillah that Allah took my right from you.
And you know that you are the one
who took their right.
It happens all the time.
Many examples like that.
Thinking and showing gratitude to others who do
good to you, does not mean that they
are the source of that good.
Did we explain that part?
Do we understand that part?
When I thank someone, it doesn't mean I
believe that person is the source of the
good.
Yeah, they are a means but they are
not the source.
So who is the source?
But that the source is Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
We explained how that is.
That through His creation of the means and
resources of facilitation, this has happened.
For had it not been for Allah's creation
of such intrinsic nature in man to want
to do good, it would not exist.
And had it not been for Allah to
create the means for the manifestation of such
goodness, no one could do any good, which
opens up a question.
But people do bad.
Can't we apply the same principle to that?
That they couldn't have done bad if Allah
did not will and facilitate and allow for
the bad to happen.
Bad cannot happen if Allah did not create
the bad.
The answer is, yes, Allah created that there
is bad in this earth and people can
do it.
But Allah also created the intrinsic nature to
shun the bad and feel guilty about bad
things.
Look at the little child.
A little child, are they naturally evil?
Are they intrinsically evil?
Are people created intrinsically evil?
No.
Babies are not evil.
If you let them go, babies will be
naturally instinctive in good nature, innocence.
So Allah doesn't create us bad.
He creates us good.
But He put into us a test.
We can choose to do the bad.
He allows it but He forbid it.
So when you do the bad, He takes
no part in it.
Why is there bad?
Bad exists in order to serve other purposes.
You see, bad is in perspective of what
you see bad.
Sometimes, something bad can happen to me where
something good comes out of it.
Isn't that true?
And for example, pain, we often think it's
what, good or bad?
Pain.
Pain is bad.
But if I change the context and I
put it into the gym, is pain good
or bad?
Good.
An Olympian, the pain is tremendous.
But in the context of an Olympian, is
it good or bad now?
It's good.
Do you understand?
So Allah put bad so that we can
know the good.
And bad has goodness in it, but it
depends how we use it.
So, bad is our responsibility to stay away
from.
And Allah doesn't want it from it.
And He forbid people using His means and
resources for bad treatment of others.
So Allah rewards the good, not the bad.
And by the way, thanking too often just
with a word can lose its meaning.
So be a little bit smart with it.
Here are some ideas, for example, in the
family that you can use to enhance the
idea of gratitude within the family.
Within the family, brothers and sisters, gratitude can
serve as a powerful tool, as you know,
in addressing feelings of something called undervaluation.
Undervaluation within your family.
Sometimes you have children, members, siblings, spouses, who
feel undervalued in the family.
What's the solution to that?
Increase the attitude and habit of gratitude among
you.
What do you do with that?
To enhance the overall well-being in that
area, number one, have family meetings.
And in that family meetings, every now and
then, get each member to mention something they
appreciate about someone else in the family.
Make this a habit.
We already have the habit of ridiculing and
saying what a person doesn't do.
That's easy.
How about when we try and say, you
know what, you know, Fatima, my sister, I
appreciate that you do this and that.
And then she says, Mohammed, I appreciate that
you do this and that.
Mom.
So try to sift through all the 100
things you don't like and find one or
two things you like.
And watch how the appreciation will rise and
the services for each other will come even
more.
And how much of the bad attitudes and
bad actions will become less because a person
feels valued.
What is it about people when they become
bitter?
It's when they feel undervalued, unappreciated.
So what's the key for it?
Gratitude.
Show the appreciation.
Have a meeting and get it used to
in your family.
Number two.
Some people might find this a little bit
cheesy, but I think it works a lot,
especially with little kids, especially with girls, it'll
work.
Gratitude journals.
You know, if fathers, you want to feel
a bit more masculine, you don't write a
journal.
Or the brothers.
It doesn't matter.
For the sake of Allah, do it.
And maybe write something on a piece of
paper if you like.
Boys, they like to rip things out and
just write it.
Okay, grab a Kleenex tissue.
It doesn't really matter.
The point is write it somewhere.
Write it on your hand.
Write it with the permission of your sister
on her hand, with something that can be
wiped off.
But don't force her.
Do something.
But write.
And then say, you know, let's say it's
a little boy, brother who doesn't like writing
things, and he just scrunched up a paper
from a piece of toilet paper.
Just bring it out.
Okay.
My sister.
Today I like them.
What?
Say it out louder.
I like that you, you know, you fixed
my bed.
I should have done it myself, but thank
you.
It means the world to her.
She says something about him.
She probably would have lots of colors and
things.
That's nice.
So gratitude journal.
Sharing what you write about other family members
or on a card.
Every now and then put it under the
door, under the pillow.
Why not do that in families, brother?
Where's the love gone?
Number three, one-on-one.
Father and daughter, father and son, mother and
daughter, mother and son, husband and wife, brother
and sister, brother and brother, sister and sister,
walking together, sitting together, watching something together, playing
outside together, looking at social media together, you
know, within reason, doing sports together, going in
the car together, going to school together, whatever.
One-on-one.
Use that time to try and mention something
that you appreciate about the other person.
You know, brothers and sisters, if you're not
doing any of these, you're not going to
see the beautiful value of gratitude that could
have been among each other.
The parents can lead the way, and the
older siblings can teach.
The younger ones love it, and they'll get
so much into it.
My dear brothers and sisters, and so gratitude
and shukr is a huge topic, which is
a core part of the values of Islam
and the teachings of the Qur'an.
And our patience and perseverance against calamities and
tests is a form of showing gratitude to
Allah and to our blessings.
And when we do have blessings coming our
way, the way to show them is to
be grateful to Allah, to acknowledge that they
come from Allah, and to use them in
the way that pleases Allah.
And to thank people for favors that they
have done for you, whether it was their
duty or not, is a high value, and
something that brings a better outcome within your
family, your community, your society, your well-being
and theirs, whether it's in the employment field,
but especially in family.
And whoever thanks people for favors or duties
has thanked Allah, because Allah is the source,
and they have chosen to do good, therefore
thank them.
My brothers and sisters, I thank you.
وَجَزَاكُمُ اللَّهُ خَيْرٌ For listening, I will give
you a couple of words that you can
say that are beautiful, which the Prophet, peace
be upon him, taught us, when you want
to thank someone.
So the Prophet, peace be upon him, told
us, if somebody does a favor for you,
you don't have to go overboard in repaying
them.
Do what is within your means and something
simple.
And of course, depending on how big the
favor is, the favor you do back gets
bigger.
But even if you can't repay the favor
in its same way, and all you can
say is, جَزَاكُمُ اللَّهُ خَيْرٌ The Prophet, peace
be upon him, said, if a person, a
brother says, جَزَاكُمُ اللَّهُ خَيْرٌ or a sister,
to their brother or sister, then they have
said enough and a lot.
May Allah reward you with goodness.
This means eternal, unlimited abundance of goodness in
this world and in the next.
So the word جَزَاكُمُ اللَّهُ خَيْرٌ carries an
unlimited meaning.
Also, بَارَكَ اللَّهُ فِيكُ May Allah bless through
you.
That hits two birds with one stone.
You make the person feel blessed and you
make a dua for that person to do
more good things so that blessings can come
out through them.
And how beautiful is that to say to
your family members, بَارَكَ اللَّهُ فِيكُ The Prophet,
peace be upon him, used to say it
a lot to his younger companions and the
older ones.
You can make dua for someone.
That is a form of gratitude.
Give sadaqa on behalf of someone is a
form of repaying a gratitude.
Doing a small favor for a person the
way they did it for you is a
form of repaying a favor.
And remember, brothers and sisters, there are three
needs in our life.
Number one, you are either a عَبْد You're
a servant that owes someone.
Or you are a master.
Or you are a peer.
Servant, master, peer.
What's the difference?
When someone owes you something, you are a
master.
You have done favors for them.
You're a master now.
Kind of like a master.
When they have done good for you, you
become a servant.
You owe them.
And the majority of our time, we are
peers.
I don't owe you.
You don't owe me.
What's the lesson in this?
The Prophet, peace be upon him, was all
three in his life.
You need people.
People need you.
And you are peers with others.
Don't ever say, I don't need anyone.
I'm not gonna do anything good for anyone.
Nobody deserves it.
Don't get into that toxic attitude.
Because that's an ugly attitude.
And you will only be suffering yourself.
So my brothers and sisters, remember that the
Muslim looks at this world from a different
lens.
We see good in everything.
But at the same time, we don't let
people step on us.
We're smart and wise.
Umar al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with
him, he said, I am not a con
artist.
Nor can the con artist con me.
Do you understand that statement?
I am not a con artist.
I'm not shifty.
I'm not a two-faced person.
I don't stab people in the back.
But those who stab in the back, those
who are two-faced, those who are con
artists, those who are shifty, cannot get their
way with me.
So that means it's people smart.
So a Muslim is not just there sitting
there like everyone can just overdo them and
just thank you, thank you, thank you.
No, no.
Within reason, within wisdom, within intelligence.
And it's intentional.
So my brothers and sisters, may Allah subhana
wa ta'ala make us among the shakireen,
hamideen, zakireen, abideen, qaniteen, ta'ibeen.
And may Allah subhana wa ta'ala grant
us death upon iman and taqwa.
I said all these beautiful words in Arabic.
That's your homework tonight to look them up.
Jazakumullahu khair.
What do you say back?
Wa iyaakum.
And to you, right?
Assalamualaikum.
And if you want to do better?
Allahi wabarakatuhu.
Barakallahu feekum.
Wa iyaakum.
Wa feekum barakallah.
Right?
And then you can add the word shukran.
Which means?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah, yeah, that's a good question.
If somebody doesn't like being thanked, should you
thank them?
No.
If they don't like hearing the word thank
you, don't say it because then it has
a reverse effect.
But what else can you do?
Just say to Allah, Allahumma barak lahum.
Oh Allah bless them.
Or may Allah give them goodness.
So you don't have to say it to
their face.
Remember that gratitude can be shown in different
ways.
If a person doesn't like being thanked, don't.
Look, some people say, when they're out of
humbleness, they say, look, it's a duty, there's
no need to thank me.
Just don't thank me.
That's out of humbleness.
Right?
But actually the phrase, there's no thanks for
a duty is not true.
There is.
But if a person says, don't thank me,
I don't like being thanked, khalas, don't thank
him, make a dua for them.
Do it in another way.
In sha Allah.
Okay?
Some people truly, they have their own personality.
They might have had a traumatic experience from
people who thank a lot.
They may have an experience, but this is
an exception.
Some people may have a traumatic experience from
people who thank a lot and get used.
So they might think, if you keep thanking
them, it means you want something from them.
So there are people like that.
And it is our duty as Muslims to
be sincere and honest.
And that's what you have to do, in
sha Allah.
So if you feel like a person is
like that, don't thank them, but make dua
for them, in sha Allah.
Is there a limit?
To thank regularly.
Yes, of course, there's more blessings to thank
regularly.
Remember, we said thanking and being gratitude is
in three ways.
Can you repeat them?
The first one, in the heart and mind,
acknowledging, just doing that is worship.
The second one, with the tongue, subhanAllah, alhamdulillah.
Okay.
And the third one, using your blessings in
good, in the right way.
So, you can see now three avenues of
thanking.
Yeah?
It doesn't always have to be, thank you,
thank you, thank you.
In fact, regularly saying thank you becomes robotic
and loses its meaning.
So that's why we have a diverse way
and approach of thanking.
Right?
To be genuine, to not lose its taste,
to not feel like it's manipulative, we use
it in a smart way, with scarcity, and
we use it in the right time and
genuinely and honestly inshaAllah.
But thanking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
done right now.
Okay, you're sitting here in the masjid and
you are respecting the masjid by not raising
your voice and swearing and doing haram things
in the masjid out of respect for it,
that is gratitude.
You are thanking Allah.
Did you know that?
Saying assalamualaikum to someone in the masjid because
it's the house of Allah, you intensified your
greeting, that is gratitude to Allah.
You're using Allah's blessing which is your tongue
and your iman to send goodness onto someone
else and bring a smile to their face
and a greeting.
Isn't that true?
When you breathe air and you think of
Allah, that is gratitude.
Another way of gratitude is called tafakkur, pondering
and reflecting upon Allah's creation.
There are actually courses that they do now
which we were taught a long time ago
in Islam.
And other religions know this.
And that is how to be grateful.
So what they do is they keep God
out of the equation.
They just say, go outside and look at
the sun, well, look at the moon, look
at the clouds, acknowledge the sun, feel the
breeze on all of your body, you know,
get in touch with all your senses and
so on and be grateful that you are
breathing today.
Be grateful that you are living today.
Be grateful that you are healthy today.
Be grateful that you have another day today.
So these are all actually good.
And we are encouraged as Muslims to do
it.
It's called tafakkur and pondering.
الَّذِينَ تَفَكَّرُونَ Those who ponder and reflect.
But we attach Allah to it.
You know, all of this is from Allah.
رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَذَا بَاطِلًا Our Lord, You
have not created this all for a foolish
purpose.
So yeah, tonight, you guys go out of
the masjid, have a look at the sky.
How often do we do that?
And looking at the stars.
And just ponder with the will of Allah
and say, لا إله إلا الله.
And watch how things change for you.
Have a regular habit of doing that.
This is all part of a sunnah that
has been neglected, which used to be done
with Prophet Dawud عليه السلام, Sulaiman, Prophet Ibrahim
عليه السلام.
In fact, in the scriptures of Prophet Ibrahim,
صحفة إبراهيم, it is said in the old
scriptures that he used to have the following
statement in the scriptures.
وَجْعَلْ سَاعَةً لِلتَّفَكُّرِ وَجْعَلْ سَاعَةً لِلتَّفَكُّرِ Make a
time of the day for your Lord to
just watch His creation and ponder.
It's called تفكر.
And also خلوة, which means to be alone
with Allah.
That's gratitude as well.
When you dress and you wear your clothes,
you say بسم الله.
When you eat, بسم الله.
الحمد لله.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, used to
always say الحمد لله for nearly everything he
did.
He'd mount his horse, mount his camel, mount
his whatever, go out of the home, go
and come, and he'll say الحمد لله.
Thankful to Allah.
So all of this is gratitude, Inshallah Ta
'ala.
Brother is asking good question again.
If he does a favor for me, and
I ask him how can I repay you?
And then he says, it's okay, just make
dua for me.
Is that permissible?
Yes, definitely it is.
Why?
Because there is no textual evidence to say
you can't ask someone to make dua for
you.
In fact, there is textual evidence, authentic, that
the Prophet, peace be upon him, said to
Abdullah ibn Umar when he went to Hajj.
He said, وَلَا تَنْسَانَ مِنْ صَالِحِ دُعَائِكُمْ Don't
forget us in your dua.
They used to go and ask Al-Abbas,
the uncle of the Prophet, peace be upon
him, to make dua for them to send
down rain.
Isn't that true?
I thought that was like, you're wanting something
back from that person, like an exchange.
It doesn't matter.
But the idea is, can you ask that
person for dua?
Isn't that your question?
If I thank you a favour.
Yeah.
That's okay.
You want a favour is to make a
dua for me.
Alhamdulillah.
That's beautiful.
It's among the best actually.
Among the best.
Sahih?
Yeah.
بَرَكَ اللَّهُ فِيكُمْ Beautiful questions.
Now they're coming out.
Jury upon you.
Does it become a jury upon you to
make the dua?
No.
No, it's not a jury.
It's not a jury.
But it is...
It's like what we call in the Sharia,
a lack of muru'ah.
A lack of your good moral character.
A person who does it all the time
will probably develop a sense of selfishness and
entitlement.
Yeah.
So you owe it to yourself to make
dua for them.
And all you need to say is, اللهم
بارك له.
اللهم بارك له.
Oh Allah, bless for him.
Easy.