Bilal Philips – Never Give Up
AI: Summary ©
Speaker 1 discusses the importance of fasting Mondays and Thursdays for building family connections and pursuing knowledge and awareness, as well as the need for community support for students. They also mention the availability of free courses and educational courses, emphasizing the importance of finding one's own success in pursuing these activities. The segment also touches on the importance of community support for pursuing a career in learning and networking.
AI: Summary ©
In sha Allah, we will be able to share with you some thoughts under the general heading of the talk on never giving up,
never giving up
based on the idea that Allah subhanho wa Taala
has not burdened any of us beyond our capacity. As a law said,
law you can live for long enough son in law.
A law does not burden any soul beyond its ability.
So it means there is no excuse for giving up.
If what you're doing is good, of course, is what we're talking about. If we're talking about bad, evil, etc, then give it up.
We should give up.
But we're not talking about that side, we're talking about the good side, where we have made the intention to do something good. We should try our best our utmost to stick with it. To stay with that good because ultimately, the benefit, the reward is for sticking with it. It's not for just doing it on occasion. Of course, we're not saying there's no reward for doing something good on an occasion, but the real reward lies in continuous good,
where we are steadily maintaining that good.
Based on the general Hadith, which Prophet Muhammad sallahu wa sallam
shared with us
as recorded in both Sahih al Bukhari and Sahih Muslim where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was quoted as saying, a humble family Illa Allah, at one Maha were in call that the most beloved deeds to Allah
are those that are continuous, even if they are
of a small nature a small level, even though they are not huge deeds. If they're good deeds, and they're consistently done, then this is far greater and reward than to do a huge deed and then stop
the doing of something really good for only a
short period of time and then giving it up. This is something that the prophets also lamb advised against.
In one narration, from Abdullah live in Ahmed and alas
melas Peace and blessings via may Allah be pleased with both of them.
He quoted the prophets of Salaam Abdullah and Amber quoted him as saying Yeah, Abdullah o Abdullah latoken, mithila funan Fulani, in Kenya como Lael Fatah, Katia mala, don't be like so and so who used to stay up at night in prayer.
And then he abandoned it.
He used to get up at night for prayer, and then he gave it up.
So the fact that the Prophet sallallahu wasallam advised them to live in a hammer, not to be like that shows us that this is not a good practice in Islam.
Consistency is what is really needed.
And that's why, you know, if we're off, we're off the track. We're off the path. We're struggling to get back on the path. The best way is to start with our basics and to build on those basics step by step as opposed to trying to do everything all at once or even somebody comes newly into Islam. They want to do everything that is required of a Muslim every last thing that can possibly be done, it will overwhelm
It is better to start gradually. I mean, there are basic things we
We all need to do,
we establish those, and then we build step by step. In this way, we're able to be consistent. Otherwise, we're just like the match you like the match, it flares up and then
goes out, it only burns for a minute, and then it is gone. So when we come, because this talk are never giving up, is within the context of C seeking knowledge, setting out on the path,
to gain knowledge.
Knowing that the act of seeking knowledge itself is a bother
and a bother when we do it, we need to be consistent with it.
So when we set out on this path,
we don't want to give up we don't want to drop off, we don't want to stop, we want to stay on that path. Because it is a path which is blessed. It is a sacred path. It is the path which Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam, based on instructions from Allah subhanaw taala, told us is a path to paradise.
It is a path among the paths to paradise seeking knowledge. And that's why he made it compulsory and every Muslim
because it will carry us to paradise if we are sincere in seeking that knowledge.
So
in this context, having set out having joined the Islamic online university, and of course, those of you that are watching, who have not joined University, you come to the IOU page, or my various pages on Facebook, and you heard about this, or through Twitter or the blog or whatever, and you're sitting in for this talk. That's good. Welcome, Ireland was Ireland, we welcome you. But
if you're really serious, then you need to engage yourself in structured study. Because you can sit with this lecture of mine, you can go on YouTube and watch 100 more lectures from here and from there talking about various topics, etc. And after a year, if we asked you, could you teach a class on how he'd unfit on heavy
on Tafseer?
You're gonna say, No, I can't. I mean, I heard the lectures. I like them, I enjoyed them.
And if I hear the lecture again, I will remember, but I can't teach it. Well, that means you really haven't learned it. Because if you've learned it, if you have really absorbed it, then you should be able to give it up.
And that's what we're encouraged in the whole process of gaining knowledge, we're encouraged to give up that knowledge,
the zakka
the zakka, of knowledge is teaching it.
And that is why the Prophet sallallahu wasallam had said to Pharaoh comenta, Allah for Allah Allah, the best of you are those who learn the Quran, and teach it to others, not just those who learn the Quran, others those who learn fic
Yes, it is a blessing to have sought the knowledge and to have gained it and to have understood it. But the ultimate blessing comes in applying it in our own lives, and teaching it to others.
So
in this context of seeking knowledge, remembering that once you set out on this path,
your enemy, your avowed enemy, Satan, will be striving to block your way
to put hurdles to discourage you, to weaken you to cause you to fall from the path.
So, in spite of the opportunity, which is presented by the Islamic online university, for you to gain knowledge, we still have about 30% of our students every semester dropping out. I mean, those who actually end up enrolling from those who first come and registering is like a 10th one 10th
People came on with the intention, let me register to do this course, they weren't registered and so on. So, but then to go get their certificates to upload it to, you know, certify their certificates, even though we've made certain concessions for them, they don't have to certify right away, you know.
And just the, the functionalities of the online study and program, you know, becomes daunting for some people, they end up dropping out
before they even get started.
So, this is Satan. Satan has one.
He has one,
only 10% of those who register actually enroll and start classes. And then from that 10% 30% dropout, actually, our dropout rate is not bad in comparison to many other universities. I've spoken to other heads of, you know, online studies, and they say, you know, we average about 50%, maybe more 60%.
So 30% is excellent. But we would like to see zero,
or only 1%. That's what we would like to see people coming in committed and hanging in there, not giving up.
Why? Because it is for your benefit.
The fees that we're charging are so small, obviously, we're not going to become millionaires from this. It's not about money. It's about spreading the knowledge, getting authentic Islamic knowledge,
on your laptop, on your PC screen,
in your hands. So
you have to commit, you have to commit yourself to holding on firmly and sticking to it. And when we listen to the Prophet sallallahu Sallam talking about the good things, the important things, he always says, hang on there, stick to it, cling to it.
Even the last month, Allah tells us in the Quran, water seems to be heavily language me and hold on firmly to the rope of Allah. That's the Quran and Sunnah.
All of you together, hold on firmly to that rope Don't let it go. And the prophets Samira Salam further elaborated on that saying, Dr. Fie Kumar moraine. I've left with you two things in Temasek. tomiyama, if you hold on firmly to them, then to the loo lilu Ababa, you will never go astray. If you hold on firmly to them, you will never go astray.
So this idea of clinging, holding on firmly to what is true what is known to be true, what is righteous, what is good. This we have to train ourselves to do. And that's why
we are encouraged, you know, to to set patterns for ourselves in our day to day lives, to start things that we can be that we can try to hang on to and to check ourselves when we fall and come back, you know, to train ourselves to hold on firmly.
This requires a positive view.
We have to be among those who look at the glass as being half full.
Yes, you can look at that glass as being half empty.
But the way we need to approach it is half full, we see the glass half full.
That means we're looking at the positive side.
There are never negativities out there there is no end of negativity is out there. But there are as many if not more positive things that we can hold on firmly to. So
with that positive outlook,
we should realize that as long as we're still alive,
we have a choice, we have a chance to do good.
We have a chance to get back on that path. We have a chance to redo whatever we failed to do.
Some people get discouraged because of exams. They didn't do well or as well as they thought they should or they hoped they should. But this is
learning process, I know that most people who start something for the first time, they are not perfect at it, they don't become perfect is the very first time you're doing it, the likelihood of you being perfect in it is very small, only a fraction, a very small fraction of people start things for the first time and perfect it right from the very first time. Most people, you get some of it, and then you try again, you get more of it, you try again, you get the most of it.
That's how it is for most people. So we have to be realistic. Don't be disappointed, because we didn't achieve what we thought we should achieve.
Don't be disappointed. Many of you are starting to study again, after having left studies years back, you haven't been in a classroom, you thought online study was now something relatively easy, it's online, you can do whenever you feel like doing it, you know, so much flexibility, there should be easy. But no, it's not. It's just as hard as being in the classroom at fixed times. Because it even becomes harder, because you're not forced to be there on fixed times. So you have to discipline yourself to be there. So it means it's harder. In the other case, the classes are this time, if you missed that class, you missed it. So you have to be there. And so there's pressure on you, people
are going to classrooms, they're pressurized to be there for that lecture. But now you don't have to, you can turn it on, turn, get into your computer, access it whenever you like. So now what's gonna make you do it today, and not put it off until tomorrow.
Or tomorrow, day after tomorrow, and putting it off for the day after that, what's gonna stop you from doing that? Because it's easy enough to do it. I'll do it on the weekend.
And then all your classes pilot that we can Oh, I can't do all of this, I'll do some. But now you've
got a pile of classes that you didn't do. You go into the next week, I do the next weekend. Now you have the pile from that new week, plus half of the power from the previous week. Oh, I can only do half of that. So then you go into the next week, you can see what's happening here. Eventually, you're going to be so overwhelmed. exam time rolls up. And all of these bits and pieces of classes have piled up that you didn't complete. And you said how can I do it, I can't do it so much.
When it was so easy from the beginning,
to be consistent, this is how we're going to be able to do it. If we do it steadily.
Taking a small amount each day or every other day, we just set a pattern. The key is that we have to have a system
as our sister explained in for those people who are attending our session online for the new students, you know, she explained that you have to plan you know, as they say, in the world of business administration, if you fail to plan you plan to fail. So you must have a plan. You must organize your time, you must fit your study time in a particular place in your schedule. If you don't do it that way, then you are likely to drop out, you're likely to become inconsistent. So
you need to organize yourself so that you'll be able to hold on firmly to your commitment to learn this deal.
As the Prophet sallallahu Sallam told us to
gain the necessary knowledge, primarily for ourselves to know the religion.
Because how do we attain good deeds? How do we achieve success in doing the right thing? We have to have knowledge of what that success is. We have to have knowledge of what really the right thing is. If we don't have that knowledge, then we'll be engaged in things which are not the right things. And we will not achieve success though we might have put a lot of energy and time into it. So, it is important that we have
this knowledge and it is something that we made the intention
For all we dreamt about, we wished for, we wished we had this stuff and it is achievable.
Because Allah is not burdened any soul beyond its capacity, and the prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him had made this compulsory, he would not have made it compulsory if it were not doable. So the fact that it is compulsory means we all can do it.
And, you know, of course, each and every one of us, we have people who are looking at us, watching us, if we fail, they say, this is something
nobody can do this too much.
So our failure becomes their failure.
As our success will become their success, we are having chosen the path of knowledge, we are examples, even if we say we don't want to be I don't want to be example, don't take me as an example, people will take you as an example. If you have taken that step, committed yourself to study, then people will be watching you. And their future may depend on your ability to hang in there and to do the right thing. So,
we have to
recognize that if we have been chosen, among the many, who are called
when the Prophet said seeking knowledge is compulsory for every Muslim, he called the oma.
But of those who actually responded to that call, there are a few
those few are chosen by a law, a law has chosen you put you in this position, to gain knowledge.
It is a blessed position, and it can be a curse at the same time.
It can be a curse, if we seek this knowledge for the wrong reason. We seek it to be famous, we seek it just to make money, we seek it
because it represents power. So we can have power over others
in the wrong reasons. And they will destroy us in the end.
So
that's the negative side that we have to be cautious of have to be conscious of. But at the same time, the positive side is it's the path to paradise.
It is a way of worshipping Allah,
the path to paradise. So
we have this commitment that we need to make to Allah subhanaw taala when we say that our religion our Deen is for Allah. Well, Mount Meru Illa de agua de la Mola, Sinhala hodin, Allah said, that we are only commanded to make this religion sincere for him, that we're doing it truly
for the pleasure of Allah.
Because in the pleasure of our law,
we succeed.
If Allah is pleased with us, it means we're doing the right thing.
And those right things that we do benefit us ultimately.
That's why we should seek to do it.
Because of course, the concept of doing things to please our law, when we as human beings, we like to do things to please ourselves, but no, ultimately, when we please a law, we will please ourselves, we will be pleased, because if a lie is pleased with us, then we will attain what is ultimately pleasurable, and that is paradise. It may have difficulties on the way but ultimately, the ultimate pleasure of Paradise will be ours. In pleasing a law, we do so in order to attain what He created us for He created us for paradise.
Why Adam was in paradise.
That's where we belong.
But due to our own failings, due to our own inconsistency is our negativities. Satan busy pulling the rug from under us, tripping us
putting potholes so we'll stumble, fall in hurt ourselves.
With all this struggle, that is there
We ended up
falling off the path. So if you are among those who have fallen, and those who fall are many
know that it's not the end, you're still alive, you still have a chance, you're still in a better position than many other people who fell off and just kept falling. They didn't turn around, they didn't try to get back.
At least you have made something of an effort. So don't give up.
Don't never give up.
As long as what you're trying to do is good. It's worth never giving up.
The prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, in order to stress to us how little things can earn us great rewards if we're consistent. He said, in a hadith narrated to us by Omar Habiba
that the prophets ally solomid said, Mom in Aberdeen, you suddenly lie to Allah
callejon it's not a ashrita Raka
there is
no servant of Omar,
who
prays every day. This is the consistency prays every day 12 units of prayer
tawan voluntary prayer
little felida not from the obligatory prayers Illa ban Allahu Allahu beighton from gender
except that the law will build a house in paradise for him or her.
So everyone
who prays 12 voluntary
Sunnah prayers.
These are before and after the obligatory prayers as the Prophet sallallahu wasallam recommended.
Anyone who does that
consistently colome every day
a law promises to build them a house in paradise.
So simple. Such a simple act
was such a great reward. But the key is consistency colome every day.
So
brothers and sisters,
as we said, in the very beginning,
our motto should be, never give up. As long as what you're doing is good. Never give it up.
Strive to hold on. If you have given up good things in the past,
you can bring them back to life again. But do it gradually. Don't go to extremes, find that modern, moderate, middle path,
take on things step by step and build brick by brick.
an established practice of additional righteous deeds above and beyond the obligatory never give up.
So this was, as I said in the beginning, a talk
and advice for those students who are studying in the Islamic online university but it is students studying in anything. It's not just Islamic online university, it's any university or any institution, you're doing Tajweed you're learning Arabic whatever
any of these efforts to gain knowledge, knowledge, which is going to be beneficial to you in both this life and the next, then you have to have that never give up.
attitude. That should be your basic motto. Never give it up.
Because when you do you have in fact, been checkmated by Satan.
That's exactly what he was setting out to do. And you are among the fallen, the wounded
The dead,
the destroyed.
So
brothers and sisters,
look into your personal lives.
Look for those things that you used to do
that you chose to do at one point you thought was good. Fasting Mondays and Thursdays.
And start again, start with Monday, maybe don't start with both, but just start with Monday, established Monday. Once Monday is in place, your whole family's doing it, you know, you get your neighbors, get your friends, break fast together, make it something which will help you to be consistent with it, you know, break the fast different people's homes, everybody gets a turn, you know, our to encourage everybody, bring them all to your home, you know, that's your commitment, for sure. You know, you're not going to miss fasting the day when you know everybody's coming to your house. So if you particularly want to make sure you're the one that's on it, then have them in come
to your home.
And break that fast together.
reestablish it in your life, the sadaqa that you used to give
you started at one point.
And then you got lazy, you got lacs, other considerations came up, and you didn't keep it up.
Whether it was a charitable donation, you were given to an orphan somewhere,
somebody to be able to get schooling,
digging wells,
the third world, whatever
that righteous deed that you used to do,
you no longer do.
Life got overwhelming, as you saw it. Although there is nothing overwhelming.
It may be a lot.
But a lot doesn't put you in a position where
you're overwhelmed, you put yourself in a position where you're overwhelmed. Ultimately, when you overdo it, you go to extremes etc. So
try to pick up some of those last deeds tahajud night,
the additional prayers, volunteer prayers before and after your obligatory prayers.
Try to revive these, bring them back into your life and into the lives of those around you. Because the more people who do it along with you, the easier it is for you to do it. When you're doing it all by yourself. Of course, it's a much greater challenge.
It's much greater. But now, if you get your family to do it, you have friends, you get your friends to do it with along with you, it's a lot easier.
It's a lot easier to remain consistent.
we as human beings, we need help and support from others. That's why the Prophet sallallahu wasallam said nikka and his feudin marriage is half of the religion. That's because of the help factor. The wife is supposed to help the husband husband supposed to help the wife. That's why I said it should be based on the dean because it was based on the dean then you're helping each other
to worship Allah. But it was not based on the deen, then
it's not half. It's just a relationship, our relationship, which is not helping you get to paradise, it may be one taking you to *.
So
as I said,
Never give up.
As long as what you're doing is what is pleasing to Allah. Hold on to it. Continue to do it. We never know when this life will end.
We don't know the future. We don't think we don't try to think we'll pass it on. later on. I'll do it later.
Next week, next month, next year, soon. No. Do it now. Started now. Because no one knows what a law has destined for tomorrow.
So with that my brothers and sisters. I'd like to thank you for being with us.
In this use stream presentation, which is fundamentally an IOU, Islamic online university present presentation. And for those of you that don't know about the Islamic online university, Google it, and go to the website and find out about it. There are free courses here, free courses, diploma courses,
with no requirements, you can join as you wish, without any prerequisites, etc. and just get the knowledge. There are over 100,000 students around the world
who are registered and engaged in this course, in one way or another. We also have a BA in Islamic Studies.
Online in English medium with Arabic is a subject which you have to take. And that
has a cost to it. But it is a minimal cost.
If you're from West Africa, or East Africa, poor nations, so only $40. If you're from the richer nations, US, UK, Canada, it's $120 per semester, not per course.
So either your degree is $320, for a BA degree and our degrees are accredited. We have accreditation from Somalia, Mogadishu un recognized, meaning that one who gets a degree with us should be able, if he wants to do masters, or PhD in any university in the world, he has that opportunity to do so to join it. Of course, universities can accept or not accept if they wish, but we are amongst the globally accredited universities
for $320. or at most, it's $960. That's 430 for the first world countries $960. You know, that's like a pittance. It's a drop in an ocean
for what courses normally involve. And we are a Sharia based
program. Our program or syllabus curriculum is Sharia based, but we have critical modern subjects, acquired knowledge subjects, which are complimentary that go along with it, whether in psychology, in education, in economics, and Business Administration, in it,
you name it, we have included a number of other courses and continue to include other courses, which we require our students to take that will round out their knowledge and make them effective in applying that knowledge in different circumstances when they graduate, we have minors, if one wants to go into teaching, we have the equivalent of a certificate in education, certificate in economics, Islamic economics, in business, administration, etc. So this opportunity of the Islamic online university is one which is uniquely available to the world today. We have the most diverse student body of any university in the world. We're the only university in the world that can claim we have
students from every single country on the face of this planet.
And all of that was achieved within five years time because of the miracle of the Internet,
and the desire of Muslims to gain knowledge and the spread of Muslims to virtually every country on the planet. So we have students from everywhere. join this global community, share with us this good
and worship Allah along with us, seeking knowledge.
The compulsory the required
commitment, which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam placed firmly on our shoulders.
I pray that Allah help each and every one of us succeed in this
succeed in finding our way onto this path, the path of seeking knowledge and awareness
Holding on firmly to it being consistent, never giving up.
Salaam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh