Bilal Philips – 7 Habits Of Truly Successful People Part I
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The importance of pursuing success in the material world and not losing one's portion of success is emphasized. The seven Habits of success, including achieving the ultimate success of believers in the church, achieving their nationality, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the church, belief in the
AI: Summary ©
Indeed All praise is due to a law and as such, we should praise Him, seek His help seek refuge in Him from the evil which is within ourselves, and the evil which results from our deeds. For whomsoever a law has guided, none can misguide. And whomsoever a law has allowed to go astray, none can guide and I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship, but Allah, and that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is the last messenger of Allah.
As I mentioned earlier, the topic of the lecture is seven habits of truly successful people.
And this work as i, this presentation that I
put together,
is based as a concept on a book by Stephen Covey, called the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And there are a number of other books like that, on the market, where people who are into motivating
others in companies and various walks of life, you know, have made it a business, to study the lifestyle, the way of thinking etc, of the successful people of the society, and then extract from their behavioral patterns, certain guidelines, which people would take and then utilize in their lives, to achieve the kind of successes that they achieved. However, these various books are based on a particular world outlook, one in which the material world is all that is being considered. So these principles, generally speaking, will benefit people in the material world, it will help them to be successful, etc. However,
for those who believe that there is a life after this, and that one will have to stand to account for what one does in this life. A number of the principles and habits and traits and characteristics, which have been identified are unacceptable.
They're unacceptable, because they involve deception,
aggression, exploitation, etc, etc.
As for those whose goal or whose understanding of this world is that it is a stepping stone to the next, and that the goal is actually the next life and not really this one, then their criterion of success or what constitutes success is not a material one,
but one in the life to come. Success and ultimate success is success in the Hereafter, not necessarily in this life. If one is able to achieve success in both this life and the next, then of course, this is the better
situation or the better way to go. However, if success in this life means failure in the next, then it's better not to succeed.
It's better not to succeed, it is more important that we succeed in the next life than in this. So what may be deemed what may be
concluded as being failure in this life, which in fact, produces success in the next life is not really failure. It only appears to be failure based on the material standards of this world.
But in fact, it is ultimately success.
And a loss of a handle to Allah has told us in the Quran that we do, or we should strive for that balance between the two, telling us to pray Ravana Tina for dunya Hasina often has an open debate not that all Allah, Lord grant is good in this world and in the next and she lives from the hellfire. And we also have another
verse, where Allah says, Therefore us too, as a reminder to us will attend nnessee back Amina dunia that is Don't forget your portion of this world. However, people oftentimes
use that as an excuse to spend all of their lives getting that portion of this world. And that is only a piece of the verse actually, the verse begins with web Ducky FEMA attack law, a doddle ashira. That is, seek from what Allah has granted you. The next life
are the things that Allah has granted you in this life. Seek the next life, but don't forget your portion in this life. So we have to keep that within the context of the verse and not take it as an excuse to spend all our times trying to get our portion of this word. And as I said, ultimate success is success in the next life.
What is that? In simple terms, it's paradise. That is the ultimate success. And in order to achieve that, there are a number of principles which have been given to us by the prophet Muhammad wa sallam I've mentioned been mentioned to us by Allah in the Quran. And among them, for example, is that this world is a prison for the believer and paradise for this believer, this is a principle,
a general principle,
I do national movement, to agenda to capture
it means that we should have a particular outlook, when we look at this world and how we approach it, we should approach it as a prisoner approaches prison life, he is restricted or she is restricted in this life,
because they are looking for release from this life ultimately, in the next life, the paradise will be there, but for the disbeliever Of course, there is nothing coming afterwards. So, this life is all that there is. So they will seek to get from it, everything they can at any means or by any means necessary. So we have a situation of
this believers looking at this life basically or materialists looking at this life basically as paradise. Now
what we're going to be looking at
the Seven Habits of truly successful people.
As I said, the truly successful are those who attain paradise.
Prophet Mohammed Salim, based on divine revelation did mention some of his companions
as being among those who would be in Paradise, he told them in this life, that they would be among the people of paradise. There are 10 of them, commonly referred to as Elmo Bashir, una de la basura bilgin.
The 10 promised paradise but actually the number is more than that. The 10 include Abu Bakr, Omar Abdullah hottub la Vina, Vitaly Bosman, even a fan Abu Zubaydah Abdel Jara, Paul heibon Obaidullah as zubiri bin
Abdul Rahman now Saudi Nabila cos inside the bin Zayed these are the well known 10 however, problem was our solemn did mention a number of other companions, some of them by name, some of them on occasions where even their names have not come down to us.
On one hand, one might say, well, if prophesied Salam told them that they're going to paradise so that they would end up in paradise. Wouldn't that discourage them from efforts here? In fact, they didn't. They strove even harder. Because of their level of Eman. They're striving that knowledge did not deter them or weaken their desire to strive to do what the Lord had commanded in this life.
Now, what I have done in preparing this topic is I've looked at the lives of these companions, those whose names are mentioned as well as those who haven't, his name's happened, and I tried to extract from them certain characteristics and principles that they live their lives by,
which hopefully would benefit myself and yourselves in guiding us
towards the kind of future
characteristics, traits or habits that we should have, if we want ultimate success, the ultimate success of paradise.
Now,
the first
the first principle would be, to correct
your world outlook to correct your beliefs.
This is the starting point.
Prophet Muhammad wa sallam had said, Whoever sincerely believes from his or her heart,
and says, There is no god worthy of worship Baba La, La ilaha illAllah
they will enter Paradise. So that's a general promise to promise from a law. Now, that promise,
is basically a statement of
the foundational belief which everyone must have in order to attain paradise, it was the same foundation, which was given to Adam,
and was given by all of the prophets of Allah, down through the centuries, belief in a law first and foremost, and that he is the only one worthy of worship. Now,
what we're starting with, then, is the concept of God's existence.
For those people who are not believers, then or they're non Muslims, or whatever. This is the first question that has to be asked, Does God Exist, and they need to come to the conclusion that he does exist, and that it is not only
a belief, thought, by
the world's leaders, spiritual leaders throughout history, and the true prophets of God.
It is also a logical belief, arrived that by philosophers, Greek philosophers of the past through reasoning, etc, came to the same conclusion.
And when we look at the alternative, the alternative that this world came about by chance, and modern science now speaks of the Big Bang,
everything starting with the Big Bang, and nobody speaks about what was before the big bang.
The point is that if we think of this world, as coming into existence, with this big bang, Big Bang is like, what does an explosion it's an explosion, matter exploding out into the space. Think about this.
To arrive at this earth, with all of its complex life forms, the ecosystems and everything, this planet revolving around the sun at the right distance, and everything from the sun, to sustain life and all the different factors that are involved to say that this was a product of an explosion, in which involve matter expanding,
without any kind of direction and programming. That is like saying,
I will drop a bomb in a junkyard, and when it explodes, I'm gonna find it a car. When I can get in and drive off with, you know, or a toaster that I can put my bread in and toast
or anything a refrigerator.
Just as common sense tells us no matter how many bombs you drop in a junkyard, you're never going to produce a car or a refrigerator or even a toaster from a bomb dropping in a junkyard. That is as stupid and as foolish as it is to say that this world was a result of the Big Bang.
No,
scientist scientists who are open minded, admit that that early
compressed matter that was there, before that big bang actually took place, or it within seconds of it's taking place within nanoseconds is taking place. Already each and every atom was already told where it had to be, to produce what we have it had to already have no
where it had to be. That is the reality. Otherwise it couldn't happen
anymore, as I said, then a bomb in a junkyard, producing that modern sciences told us a couple of years back scientists researching in mental cases, people have schizophrenia and other mental illnesses,
experimenting, putting probes into people's brains, right, they would bore holes in the skull and stick a probe in and wiggle it around and see what happens, maybe to cause a change in western experimentation. What they found was that there is a spot in the front of the brain, which each and every person that they put the probe in, and they wiggled it around there, that person would have these massive religious experiences, in our sense of God being present kind of thing. So then they named it and this was in an article This is produced by scientists in America, they call it the God's spot, the big article, I have the article and if you want it, I can fax it to you. It says
God's spot found in the brain.
They put it another way, once one of them was saying the brain was is hardwired for belief in God. These are the evidences. Modern Sciences is finding itself.
And if we look in the Quran,
there's a recent fairly recent discovery,
which I think is worth reflecting on for a minute.
And that is Surah. Al Haddad, the 57th chapter of the Quran.
In verse 25, Allah says there when zelner when Zelma al Hadid fee, but soon shadid woman after earliness NES, that is, I have revealed
assaults usually translated, I've revealed why I've sent down iron
which has
great force in it strong force and benefit for humans. Now the term and zelner was translated as revealed, interpreted as revealed
from the early generation of interpreters because the word and Zelda does also mean reveal.
But even when a law uses the term, you know, einzelner alayka vichara. For example, the Quran is referenced above homosassa Allah that Allah revealed the Quran to him, it did actually involve a coming down the Quran was sent down from the low helma fools, down to beighton aza in the first heaven. And from there, JJ, Gabriel used our jabril use to take verses according to Ally's instruction down to the prophet SAW Selim. So there was a process of coming down. Now modern science, in looking at the issue of iron in the world,
they came to the conclusion
that the origin
of iron was from the core of the Earth, because the core of the Earth is approximately 35%, iron, and then nickel, this is the core, the molten solid followed by molten core of the Earth. And as you go farther away from the core, you get less and less iron until you get
in the crust of the earth, some 5.6% iron still it is amongst the highest elements in the crust, percentage wise, but still, it appears to come from the inside outward. So where does the idea of the coming down of iron fit in?
Again, the conclusion was, it was revealed that his knowledge of its use was revealed to human beings. Allah gave them the capacity to understand and to utilize iron. This was the explanation given, however,
more modern research
came to the conclusion that in fact, iron couldn't have begun in the core of the Earth. It couldn't have begun there. Why? Because the sun of our solar system, which is the hottest location in the whole solar system, in its own core, it only reaches according to their calculation, approximately 15 million degrees.
Celsius 15 million degrees, I mean, of course, it is quite hot. However, it is not hot enough to produce iron.
The most common element in the universe is hydrogen. And that's number one on the periodic table. For those of you that remember your physics and science, that's number one, first element, hydrogen, helium is number two.
And everything else is a combination fusion of the atoms of hydrogen, helium,
to produce the other elements. Iron is way down the line.
It's way down the line.
It is 56.
And as such, the heat which was necessary had to be in the billions of degrees, they estimate someplace around 5 billion degrees to produce iron. So our sun could not produce the iron. So then where did the iron come from? This was a question puzzling researchers in the 80s, the late 80s. Studying stars, they came to realize, of course, that the stars, huge, much greater stars, and our stars did, in fact, in their degeneration, and their evolution, their development, produce the kind of heat which would produce in fact, iron, when they turn into novellas and what they call supernovas. Then iron is actually produced, they exploded, and iron is shot out into the universe,
in the form of meteorites, etc, most of the meteorites we teach the earth here, they are made up mostly of iron.
So in looking back, scientists, then in the late 80s, they began to re examine their view of the development of the earth. And they came to the conclusion that, in fact, what happened is that the Earth, which came off from the evolution of the sun, was like a ball of ash, and that the meteorites hit the surface of the earth. And in hitting the surface of the earth, it increased the heat of the earth. Because with the impact, there's energy released, so meteor showers hitting the earth, increase the heat enough to melt that iron, not to produce iron, but to melt that iron, and then it would then sink through the surface towards the center of the earth, and became concentrated in the
core of the Earth. And that's how they explain it. Now. Hawkins, you can find it in the Hawkins book, you know, as well as, as his book is called a brief history of time, there's one of the biggest atheists out there, you know, he, he argues against beginnings, there's no beginning and no end, you know, he has a whole set of his the crippled individuals, as I said, one of the leading atheists out there. There's also another book called The first three minutes by Steven Weinberg, both of them, present the exactly the same picture of how iron came to the core of the Earth.
So from that, we have iron actually coming down as Allah described, the T sent it down to there. And of course, it is the most stable element, the bonds, which holds its atomic structure together are the strongest bonds of all of the other of the elements.
So, it does have that bass shadid.
And of course, its benefit is that being in making up most of the core, it produced the basis of the gravitational pull of the earth, which holds the atmosphere and the biosphere around the Earth. Without that iron core to produce the gravitational field we would not have any atmosphere on the earth, they would no no life would survive on the earth critical. Furthermore, when you go into human beings, hemoglobin, when you go into plants, chlorophyll, all of these are the essential elements which transform energy, it from, from material sources, from the sun, etc, to chemical energy in our bodies, which allow the cells to grow and everything both human beings and plants,
iron is essential for their development.
And this was described in the Quran some 1400 years ago, these are among the science, you know, for those who would reflect that there is in fact, a god.
One of the problems which people are faced with,
who ended up in a state of atheism. They may have started off traditionally as believers, but then they ended up in atheism because of the
issue of what they call evil in the world. And where does the evil come from? And I've had discussions with atheists before. And usually, the atheists will come up with this very powerful kind of arguments in the beginning, but when you listen and listen carefully to what they're saying, usually they will end up saying, I'm an atheist, because my best friend died when I was a kid.
My mother died.
Hawkins, I'm born crippled, this is evil. Why?
So, what appears to them to be evil? This is what has led them to say there is no god meaning that as atheist used to argue, or they do argue,
if God is all powerful,
and God is all good,
then why is there evil in the world? Because if it's all good, then he must and is all powerful, then surely he can create an A world without evil.
And if he's all good, that's what he's going to create. So the fact that there is evil means according to them, there is no God.
This is, this is the line of reasoning used by many of the atheists. However, one thing needs to be pointed out, get this point clear? Why is there evil in the world? First, we need to realize that
we only recognize things
through their opposites.
As they say, in Arabic, what we did
last year,
we don't know sweet, unless we know sour. If you don't know what sour is, you can't know what sweet is. You don't know left unless you know right.
Left only has validity because there is a right. Similarly with up and down if there is no down then up means nothing.
This is the reality. And similarly, we only know good by knowing evil.
Knowledge of Good
comes through knowledge of evil.
The second point to note is that yes, a law is all good. And whatever he has created is good.
However, the things which are law creates, they may be good in and of themselves, that they're purely good.
The intent of their creation was good. And the actual thing which is created appears only to be good. There doesn't seem to be anything evil from it. That's one aspect. Then there is another aspect of things which are law creates, not for itself, but for the good that it causes. Meaning if you look at the thing itself, that thing may appear to us to be evil, however, it causes certain good which is far greater than the evil. So a lot created it for the ends, not for the means.
And we function like that in our lives.
If you go to the dentist, right, and the dentist pulls out that syringe, she's going to give you that shot of cocaine right to deaden you're
not cocaine, what do they call it? xylocaine or whatever they give it to you to debt in your gums shouldn't be giving you any cocaine. Sorry. Okay. Anyway,
xylocaine or whatever this deadening. Now the needle that they give you, it's about this long, right? You see him he pulls it out of his train, he puts the stuff in his head, oh my god, you know, that's the worst experience. You know, nobody can get over it. Go into the dentist, okay?
Now, we bear it. Why? Because as a result of that pain of that injection, it deadens the pain and he can extract that tooth. If we didn't remove the tooth, the harm to us was so great.
So, for the sake of removal of the tooth, the greater good we accept that needle because if anybody came along with a needle that long and said I'd like to stick you with it. Please don't. You know, you will not accept anybody sticking with this thing, except in that circumstance. Same thing with medicine.
You're sick and the doctor pulls out some castor oil. You know, castor oil is the worst one I can think of right? I don't know if they still have it or not. When I was a kid that was that was the nastiest medicine out there right. castor oil
Just when he opens it, the smell of it just makes you, you know, but the doctor tells you take this, you're going to get well. So in spite of how nasty they appear that smells and tastes, you're going to take it, why? for the greater good that you're going to get from it. So similarly, a law has created certain things, which relative to our point of view may seem to be evil. But there is a greater good behind it. Sometimes the the good is very obvious.
There may be very obvious, sometimes it's not. But the point is, we believe that a law has created nothing, purely evil.
Nothing, we as individuals, we may commit to what may be called pure evil, meaning we have an evil intent. And we do that evil act that is pure evil relative to ourselves.
A law does not have any evil intent.
And whatever act we see, that may contain something of evil, there is a good aspect to it that maybe we cannot grasp. So even that evil, pure evil act of that human being with that evil intent, the fact that the law allows it to take place, it means that there is some good behind it that we can see. So you'll see, for example, just recently, in
the Gulf, Gulf air, who had a crash, flying to Bahrain,
many Egyptians were on it, teachers coming back, they died. Everybody on the plane died. That's about a month ago.
The next day, there was a picture in the newspaper of this Egyptian, right. His father was kissing him on one cheek, and his sister was kissing him on the other cheek. And what was the caption on the air, the caption was, he had a big smile on his face. The caption was that he was supposed to have been on that plane.
When he went to the airport, he didn't have his visa stamp in his passport. Now, this meant he was going to be late to go back to classes, maybe he might lose his job or whatever. He was upset screaming at the officials that they're at the counter, you know why, you know, I should be able to get on the plane, I have to get on a plane, you know, this is wrong, you shouldn't very upset.
But then the next day the plane crashed. And there he was on the front page of the paper, big smile from ear to ear, right? His father kissing in one cheek sister cousins. Because at the time when he couldn't get on the plane, he thought it was a great evil, he might lose his job, he's going to be late, terrible situation, then
the next day, it turned out to be the best for him. That's life.
That's the reality. So we don't have a problem with evil in the world. Now, the next point is that okay, if there is a God, and you have people will say, Okay, I can accept there is a God, but profits.
No, no, God didn't reveal anything to any profits. All this stuff is just fairy tales, you know, it's not really true. Well, the point is, again,
if God created this world,
if God was wise,
then he would not create this world, put beings in it, and not tell them what they need to do. That's not wisdom.
This is ignorance. Just like you, for example, if you send your kids to school, and you don't tell them what they're supposed to do at school, they don't know I'm supposed to go into the class, when the bell rings, sit down in my classroom in front of my teacher, get my books out and just do what the teacher tells me to do my homework everything. If you didn't tell the kids to do that, do you think the kids would go and sit in the classroom? Oh, then head straight for the playground that'd be on the playground, swinging in the swings and sliding on the slides all day, to the final bang real rings on the goal. As reality, they had to be told what to do. Similarly, in a company. If you
hire people to work in your company, and you don't tell them what they need to do, what are they gonna do? They're gonna go into the offices and just find out what to do and just go and work. No, no, they go to the lunch room. They go to lunch, chat and eat and you know, they'd spend the day in the lunchroom. You have to tell them what to do. Otherwise, it doesn't work.
That's very basic.
So don't tell me that we have enough sense to tell our kids what to do when they go to school, or tell our workers when they work in a factory or whatever. But Allah is going to create us and put us on the earth and not tell us what to do.
That's stupidity. That is nonsense. No, if there is a God, and God created us, then he told us what we are supposed to do here. So therefore, the purpose of our creation, the purpose of our being here, had to have been made known to us. And that is, of course, through the prophets of Allah. They're the ones who conveyed that purpose to us. Now,
with regards to this,
correcting our beliefs, we can only do that with knowledge. So it means that the first habit of first principle that
one who hopes to attain success, the ultimate success,
out of this life has to develop is that of seeking knowledge.
Because we have to know who God is for us to do what we're supposed to do in regards to him. If we don't know who God is, then we can end up
worshipping God, as a man, as Christians say,
or we worship Him.
As Hindus believe God became carnate incarnate, in the form of a fish
have a frog.
You know, they have the elephant head, God, Ganesh or whatever. And where do you stop? Cow.
If you don't know who God is, then that's where you end up. So it is essential that we know who God is. So we have to have knowledge, knowledge is essential, and that we have to be in the process, we have to be in the habit of seeking knowledge. And when we look for example,
with looking looking at Omar Abdel hottub, right, who was one of the people promised paradise,
and
specifically, in a hadith narrated by Jabir ibn Abdullah, he said that he heard problems. That's all I'm saying, I entered paradise in a dream. And I saw in it a house, when I asked who it was reserved for, the angel said, it is for Omar been a hubbub.
This is this hadith is found a Muslim, authentic. Now, in another narration of the lineman, Omar, he relayed to the prophet SAW Solomon said, while I was sleeping, I saw a cup of milk offered to me in my dream. I drank from it until its freshness was reflected through my fingernails.
Then I gave the remainder to Omar, even
the people asked, or messenger of a law, how do you interpret that dream?
And he said, referring to the milk which he gave to Omar, it refers to knowledge,
knowledge. This is what Omar one of the things that Omar was noted for. Omar Malhotra was noted for his knowledge. He advised Professor Salim in a number of different occasions.
And though the prophet SAW Selim didn't take his advice, revelation came confirming the advice of Omar, for example, in the prisoners after the Battle of butter. When the prophet SAW Selim asked his companions, what should we do with them, Omar said, kill them all. Let each person take a prisoner who is from his family, his relatives, maybe his uncle, maybe his father, maybe his brother, and killed them.
That was Omar's suggestion, to make clear our break with Cofer disbelief.
Our backers suggestion was
freedom for ransom or whatever.
And of ourselves. lm took our backers suggestion. Our backer said there are relatives, perhaps if we treat them kindly, maybe they'll come up, come up over to Islam afterwards. So the problem was asylum being soft hearted person that he was made the he had here and chose the suggestion of Abu Bakar. However, Allah revealed in the crime that it was not befitting for the prophet
to take prisoners until he had established himself in the land. Because these people that they were fighting were people who killed Muslims in Mecca.
The only thing that would bring them to their senses is like for like
This is wars battle. They're caught execute them they killed how many Muslims in Mecca before.
That was the better choice.
Also Abdullah bin Salaam, a Jewish rabbi and scholar from the pink pay no car tribe, who converted to Islam when the prophet SAW Selim first came to Medina, so I did not be waqas relate to that he heard a lot of messengers say he said that he didn't hear a lot of messengers say about anyone alive and walking the earth he will be in Paradise, except in the case of Abdullah bin Salaam.
So this individually was noted for his knowledge again,
he was knowledgeable, as a Jew, the rabbi scholar amongst them. When the truth came, he accepted it. And in increase the knowledge he got the reward of having followed the religion that he was exposed to of Prophet Musa and then double that reward by accepting Islam.
So
the first principle is that of
knowing a law,
knowing about a law, believing in Him testifying to that belief, that is the first step to paradise was annoying Allah
we know what a lie is not
the confused ideas which are out there, like the belief that a lie is everywhere. This is one of the confused ideas that people have. And although it has become very widespread, it is a confused idea. It is not from the teachings of Islam,
not the teachings of the prophets, Allah, mores companions.
The correct belief is that alized beyond this creation, because when a person says okay, allies everywhere, allies in you allies in me, you have problems because somebody was gonna come along and say to you, yeah, lies in you and me, but lies more in me than he is in you.
So what does that mean?
That you should worship me. And you've got people who have made this claim throughout the ages, people inviting others to worship themselves. You have 8 million people in India, believing that this guy by the name of Sai Baba, they believe that He is God walking the earth. 8 million people, including some of the people in the top echelons of the government, and even some Muslims.
And also, issues of intermediation. You have people who are promoting the idea that we can pray to others besides Allah.
We can pray to Prophet Mohammed Salah. Or we can pray to the saints and ask them to carry our prayers to allow for us. They have people teaching this. But this is the wrong belief about Allah is the belief of ignorance. Because if we can pray through individuals to others besides the law, then what is the difference between us and the Catholics who have a saint for every occasion, you lose something you pray to this saint, you want to get married, you pray to that saint, you want to, you know, get a big house, you pray to this saint, you got a saint for everything. And unfortunately, there are amongst Muslims who have a similar thing going, they have these saints that they pray to
saints who are human beings who died on the earth are buried, the places of their burial have become shrines where people make pilgrimage to 1000s and 1000s of Muslims.
This is all misguidance. So we need to believe in a law and believe in him, as he deserves to be believed in. So first step is correct. Your world outlook, you need to have the right one. The second is to commit ourselves emotionally.
If we've established this belief, we know what it is. We have knowledge of it, we know what's right about it, then we need to commit ourselves to it emotionally. What happens is that people usually have this backwards. People are committed to something emotionally without having knowledge about it.
The average Christian, you know,
Hindu and others, they're committed emotionally to their system. I was born or whatever, my parents or whatever my grandparents or whatever, there's no way I'm going to be anything but that that is that strong emotional commitment to the thing but no knowledge
So when we commit ourselves emotionally to something without having knowledge First, we then get locked into misguidance.
This is satanic traditionalism is a satanic force amongst us, where people hold on to traditions, traditions which don't have their origin in divine revelation. So they become sources of misguidance.
So, we have to be committed emotionally, but following knowledge.
And when prophesied Sallam said, no one truly believes until a lion is messenger becomes more beloved to them than this world. We're talking about an emotional commitment, one of loving a lot.
Of course, loving a lot is messenger is manifests in obedience in action in terms of obedience, but it is fundamentally an emotional commitment. And we find for example of a law, one expression of it is love of the Quran.
There is a particular narration found in Sahil Bukhari
in which Anna's narrates that a man from the answer used to lead them in prayer in poobah mustard mustard coupon,
whenever he began to recite a chapter in prayer, after the fact that
he would first recite the whole of Surah ikhlas poldhu Allahu Ahad.
And then he would recite the other chapter from the crime.
When he finished the prayer, those who were praying with him told them, maybe you shouldn't be doing this, you know, they advise them not to do it.
But he continued to do so. Eventually, when the prophet SAW Selim came to visit Cuba, they told him that this man was doing it. So the prophet SAW Selim called him and said,
What prevents you from doing what your companions asked you to do? Those who are praying along with you ask you to do
and what is causing you to recite surah leafless in every single
Raka every single unit of prayer, the man saw some man said, O Messenger of Allah, I do it, because I love it. I love loss, and Russell Sallam said to him, Your love has put you in Paradise,
your love, of swear loss has put you in paradise.
So that love this is that emotional commitment
to Allah and His Messenger, expressed in the love of the word of Allah,
the Quran, that where it is sincere and solid Of course based on our foundation of knowledge of Allah can put us in paradise.
So
we have that commitment that we have to work on.
committing ourselves emotionally.
connected to that
is the concept of
crying for the sake of Allah.
When I looked into the lives of number the companions were promised paradise, Earth man for example, right below on who
it was said that Earth man whenever he stood at the grave, he would cry until his beard became wet. And on one occasion, he was asked why he didn't cry at
statements from the Quran or from the Sunnah which spoke about heaven and *, but he cried at the grave. He said, that the prophet SAW Selim had said to him, that the grave is the first abode of the Hereafter, if one is saved from it, then what follows is made easier and if one is not saved from it, then what follows is more severe. So he would cry whenever he stood by graves. We also find amongst the other companions, Omar ignem, hottub.
It was mentioned by some of the companions who prayed with him, that they could hear him crying in his prayers, all the way to the last rows of the Salah.
Whenever he recited the verse, Allah in a school Betsy well Hosni in a law, so the statement of profit Yaqoob when he found out that his son, use of you know, had been
Killed according to what the
his son said the other sons that claimed
I only complain of my grief and sorrow to Allah.
So whenever Omar used to recite that it used to lead him to tears.
Similarly, when the prophet SAW Selim was on his deathbed,
he instructed Ayesha to go and tell her father aboubaker to lead this Allah, I she said to him, on messenger of Allah, if Abu Bakr stands in your place that people won't be able to hear him due to his excessive crying. It was known to be crying all the time when he was praying.
But the prophet SAW Selim said, Tell Abu Bakar to lead the prayers.
So Ayesha went to hafsa,
the daughter of Omar, wife of the Prophet Moses, Allah,
and told her tell the prophet SAW Selim, that he shouldn't choose Abu Bakar because if he leads the prayers, nobody's gonna be able to hear Him in prayer because he cried so much. So hafsa went and told the prophet SAW Salah, and the promises Allah said,
Stop.
You are like the women of use of women around prophet Yusuf, tell Abu Bakr to lead the prayer. So
ibaka was told and hafsa then told Ayesha, you've never done any good for me. You know, you got me in trouble with the prophet SAW Scylla.
Not knowing that the same thing happened to her. So anyway, the point is that
abubaker
Omar Osman, all of these illustrious companions promised paradise all of them were known to cry in their prayers.
And we have a number of statements from problems asylum to that effect. The fire for example, narrated by Abu huraira found in Santa Ana Timothy, the fire will not touch a person who cries out of fear of a law until milk returns to the *. And another narration also by from Abu huraira equals process elements saying
two eyes have been forbidden
to the Hellfire,
an eye which wept out of fear of Allah and one which stayed open throughout the night, standing guard for Islam and for the family from cofra.
We also have another narration from Abu huraira, in which he said, seven people are shaded by a loss thrown
on the day when there is no shade.
The seventh one was one whose eyes fill up with tears when he or she remembers a law in private.
So this is one of the qualities
that those who are going to be successful in this life must have
a soft heart, a heart which when it hears the cry and recited, tears comes to their eyes.
When they reflect in their prayers or when they remember Allah privately, tears come to their eyes. These are people, people who,
like Omar and abubaker, who are involved in jihad, having to make very critical decisions. But at the same time, there was this other balance, a balance of softness with regards to Allah and His messenger and with regards to the words of Allah,
the remembrance of Allah.
So it is very important for us to develop this is again part of that emotional commitment, where the faith is real, and the hearts are soft. And allow warns us and so many verses in the Quran, you know about those whose hearts become hardened. We have to be very careful about that. Because the hardened heart
the hardened heart will not make it to paradise.
Now how to develop that.
We develop it by working on taqwa, fear of a law, consciousness of Allah, as Allah said, and Soren Baqarah verse 22. It took a law or you're a limo, la limo, como la, a taco LA. We are limo.
Law, federal law and a law will teach you
fear law and allow will teach you
and also answer an Kabuki the 29th chapter, verse 69. A law says there were levena jaha, Davina, Lana, Deanna home Solana. And for those who strive
in worship,
for our sake, we will guide them to our paths.
So,
we work on our taqwa
by striving to obey Allah because taqwa is obedient, so ultimately doing what Allah has prescribed and avoiding what Allah is forbidden. We build a taqwa by
seeking to please a law, in our in all of our actions, we also build it.
We also build softness of the heart and emotional commitment by knowledge by listening to the Quran.
Listening listen to it regularly reading the Quran regularly.
By reading about the different statements of the prophet SAW Selim with regards to crying for the sake of Allah,
by remembrance of death is another way. Remember the death because as Adam said, the remembrance of death will destroy these feelings of great pleasure in this world.
And also visiting the graveyards go into the graveyards.
When somebody dies, usually,
we don't think about going to help to wash the body.
If we have the opportunity to do so, we should do so. Because this will help us get closer to the realities of our own lives.
A reality which ends in our death.
We should seek forgiveness from Allah.
Do it regularly recognize our sins repent.
Because real repentance can only take care take place when there is
remorse, sadness. So these are among the routes to soften our hearts.
One of the companions Abu but said that a man came and asked the prophet SAW Selim to teach him a few brief words. And he said to him, when you stand in prayer, pray a farewell prayer.
Don't say words you will later regret and don't wish for what others have. But when you stand in prayer, pray as this as if this is the last prayer you're making in this life.
So by
trying to be more sincere in our prayers, making it real is going to help to soften our hearts.
And the process lm it said in a hadith narrated by Abu huraira Don't laugh too much.
Because excessive laughter kills the heart.
It's not to say we don't laugh at all. But of course, some people you know, do kind of promote that the process of never left
or his laugh was no more than just a smile. But no, in fact, his wives and companions narrated that he laughed in some occasions so much they could see his back teeth so yeah, he did laugh. And laughing is okay. But not all the time you have people who everything is a joke. We always you know, people will say just joking, joking joking like this with a whole life becomes a joke, this is no good. A destroys and deadens the heart.
And the prophet SAW Selim and told us in a Hadith, which is say from inside
or people cry
and if you can't, then make yourself cry.
If after all, that we still can't cry, then we need to make ourselves cry.
In other words, we force ourselves to cry.
And if we do that, enough times of course, it may feel very artificial initially, but if we do that enough times, then there is this barrier that we break that we go past and then when we should be crying inshallah, we will be crying.
The third habit, that those who seek ultimate success
The success of Paradise must develop
is
complete trust.
We need to have complete trust in Allah, stoical.
There's a companion of the prophet SAW Selim by the name of Akasha cache bin Merson.
Now
he was promised Paradise by the Prophet Moses Allah, but he was promised paradise as a part of a group, who had this characteristic of trusting in the law of the life that bass narrated that he heard the laws, messengers say, the nations were presented before me and I saw a prophet with a small band of followers, and another with only one or two people, and yet another with none along with him. When I saw a large group, I thought it was my nation, but I was told it was Moses and his people.
Then I was told to look at the horizon where I saw a very large group, and I was told, this is your nation.
There are among them 70,000 persons who will enter Paradise without any reckoning, and without any punishment.
And when they pass a solemn was asked, Who are they, he responded, saying, there are those who do not make
incantations, on themselves, nor do they ask for it to be done for them. Nor do they read bad omens into events. And they placed their trust in their Lord.
When the prophet SAW Selim said this, that Akasha had been Merson stood up and said,
Pray to a law, that he makes me one of them. And the prophet SAW, Selim said, You are one of them.
And then another companion jumped up and said,
O Messenger of Allah, I pray that I'm one of them also. And he said, Akasha beat you to it.
The door is closed.
But that group was a group of people 70,000, who put their trust completely in Allah.
I bizarre
had said, is another companion who was promised paradise he had said, a lot of messenger call to me on one occasion and said, will you make a pledge for paradise? Would you make a pledge for paradise? Oh, gosh, I boozer said yes.
And he said, I stretched out my hands to take the prophesied salams hand in the pledge bear for paradise. And the prophet SAW Selim added this condition, he said, that you will not ask anyone for anything. And I said, Yes. And he added, even if your whip falls, if you're on your camel or your horse and your whip falls, you will dismount and pick it up yourself. You will not ask anybody, for anything. And that's what a Buddha was known for. He never asked anybody for anything.
Another company by the name of Saul bang.
He called the prophet SAW Selim and said, who will guarantees that a group of them who will guarantee me that he will not ask anyone anything, and I will guarantee him paradise? And he said I will.
And he also never asked anybody, for anything.
Okay, this is a level. It's not to say that. That's what everybody has to do. Now. If you feel you're ready for it, then go for it.
aboubaker did ask people. Omar did ask people. I was minded as people I needed as people you had leading companions were the top they did ask. But some among them chose this route. There are other routes, this route, which was that they didn't ask anybody for anything.
Or the other one is trusting in a law
in the sense that we don't read bad omens or do anything this is part of trusting in a law
that we don't see anything and think something bad is going to happen because that happened, you know, which is widespread in various societies, we have omens and amulets people get tallies these type of things to protect them from evil.
And as the law said and sort of talaq
chapter 65 verse three, well maiya tawakkol Allah law from what has bu and whoever trusts or puts their trust in a law, a law is sufficient for them.
Now the question is, if we don't take the route of never asking anybody for anything, how else can we develop this sense of trust in a law?
One,
we have to start off again, with correct belief in Allah and knowledge of Allah.
Knowledge of things which Allah has informed us about this life and about ourselves. First and foremost, it is knowledge that Allah knows best as a lot of settings. So in Baqarah, verse 216, rasa and Takahashi and wash hydralic lakum wasa and to help Boucher and overshadow Lancome por la jolla, la Mola, anthem, la talla Moon, perhaps, you will dislike something which is in fact Good for you. Or you may like something which is in fact bad for you. And Allah knows, and you don't know.
So we have to believe that Allah knows best.
Or whatever happens is for the best, whatever good we wanted, that we didn't achieve. It is for the best that we didn't achieve it. Whatever evil befalls us there is good in it, we have to believe Allah knows best.
Also, we have to believe that Allah is just that whatever befalls us is not beyond our capacity. It is not unfair. When a law said Well, I have rabuka hadda unsual calf. Verse 49, it means what it means that our law is not unjust. Your Lord is not unjust to anyone. That's a long statement. Also, in a law said, law, you can live for long enough son in law, a law does not burden any soul greater than its capacity. This is the promise of a law. We have to believe that a law is fair, he's not going to put a burden on you. Which is really too hard for you, but I could handle it. No, whatever burden he puts on you is what is suitable for you. Whatever burden he puts on me and for others is
what is suitable for them. A lot tailor made for each and every individual, the burdens that he puts on each person in this life. And this is why suicide is haram because suicide is a person saying God is unfair. unjust, it's too much it's life is just too much for me to bear. I can't deal with it
is not the case. And this is the basis of the cover of Satan.
Because a lot of people think that Satan became a Kaffir. But Allah said we're kind of middle caffeine, because he didn't bow to the angels. I'm sorry bow along with the angels to Adam. But this is not true.
Yes, he was disobedient and not bowing. But disobedience doesn't make you a disbeliever because if he became a disbeliever, then every act of disbelief of disobedience that we do would make us all disbelievers.
A lot told us don't do this and we did it that we then become Kaffirs is not the case. We don't believe that an act of disobedience makes a person a disbeliever. Know
what made Satan a disbeliever. Why a law called him who can emitted caffeine was because of the fact that he attributed to a law injustice.
He attributed to a law in his arrogance he attributed to a law, injustice. He said Allah you are unjust, how? He said it by saying, I am better than Adam. You created me from fire, and you created him from clay. Meaning what? Meaning that I'm not supposed to bow to him, I'm better than him. It's wrong for you to tell me to bow to him.
So isn't attributing to a law, injustice and error, and that is the essence of his disbelief. So
to put and to develop the correct trust in a law, we have to know that a law is just and that he doesn't burden any of us greater than we can bear. And further that with every difficult
It comes easy in the malleus, Yusra, that whatever burden we're facing now,
it's not going to be forever. It goes on for a period of time. And then it goes, there's a break. Because if there was no break, we couldn't handle it and Ally's fair and he's just, and he's merciful. So he gives us a break. And support
is patience and perseverance,
patience, and perseverance.
We usually associate patients
with calamity, that's the most obvious time for patients.
And there are a number of occasions in the time of the prophet SAW Salem, where people who suffered
were promised paradise for patients with that suffering. One of the well known examples is that if a woman known as own suffer, her name was Swire.
I thought even Abby raba related up the life that boss once asked him, may I show you a woman of paradise? And when she said yes, if not boss said, this black woman pointed to a woman came to Allah's Messenger and said, I'm suffering from convulsions, which knock me down and cause my body to become exposed. Could you pray to a law for me? And he replied, in Chitta, OMG de subharti, we're lacking gender, if you wish, you can be patient with it, and paradise will be yours. But if you wish, I can pray to Allah to cure you.
She said, I will be patient. But I become exposed. So can you ask a law that I not be exposed, and the prophet SAW Selim prayed for her.
But she accepted that trial, the trial, which appeared to be something like a possession, but actually it was something which had a medical origin to it, a biological origin, it wasn't possession, because whenever cases of possession were brought to Parliament, sasami dealt with it directly. It didn't tell people to bear it. He dealt with it.
So in this case, knowing that it was biological, he told us she can be patient, and allow give her paradise, she chose that.
And
she was also promised paradise.
When the promised land was going out with the Companions for the Battle of bother, she asked permission to go with them, so that she could treat the sick and wounded that perhaps she may be granted. martyrdom, Shahada, drumazon Salim said stay at home, for Allah will grant you the Shahada that you're seeking.
She freed a young female slave of hers and a young male,
but she did it by them, earning their freedom means they would pay their way out.
And it was taking some time for them to get free. So they got impatient. And one day they conspired together, and they wrapped the cloth around her head suffocated her and strangled her to death.
Then they fled
Omar and then
brought them back
and said, Allah's Messenger used to visit on waka and say, Let's visit the martyr.
And then he instructed the to be crucified.
How to develop patience.
Patience
is developed again,
based on knowledge.
But before looking at other issues of patience, I just like to mention also another narration
of a woman known as aloha media.
This woman was one married woman who
committed adultery and
she got pregnant. She went back
Arsalan asked him to purifier.
So he instructed her to go back. First he told her, you know, just to go home, you know, don't say this just go home. But she told him, No, I'm pregnant, and I want to be purified.
So I told her