Iqbal Gora – Combatting Laziness
AI: Summary ©
The importance of using time effectively during the pandemic is discussed, including the reinforcement of the Prophet's oath of time and the benefits of taking time out of school. The speakers emphasize the importance of setting goals and creating a clear goal for oneself in the future, as well as limiting oneself and showing one's true values to oneself in order to prove oneself to Allah. The importance of praying for productivity and learning the Arabic language is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
The son of Ali ibn Abi Talib
records that once the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
approached him while he was with his wife
Fatima
and the 2 of them they were sleeping.
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam approached Ali ibn Abi
Talib
and he told his
cousin, he told him that
Allah to saloon, don't you want to pray
Qiyamulayl?
And Ali ibn Abitaali radiAllahu
an despite being the status that we know
him to have among those that are granted
Jannah by Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la from Al
A'Sharul Mubash Sharunabil Jannah. We know the status
of this particular individual.
Nonetheless, when the Prophet
told him to get up and pray, his
response was that if our souls are in
the hands of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, If
he wants us to wake up, we wake
up. If not, we will not wake up,
and he went back to sleep. After this,
the Prophet Sallallahu Wa Salam, he struck his
thigh and he recited a verse of the
Quran wherein Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
Mankind is the most quarrelsome of beings,
and from this particular incident and from this
ayah, there are a number of different lessons
that we can take away from it. One
of it is the fact that there's a
proclivity of mankind that when somebody tells him
to do something else, his immediate reaction instead
of accepting that particular advice is to challenge
the person
and give a rebuttal and refutation of what
the person is trying to tell you to
do. And this is an encouragement towards our
children and the youth as well, is that
when your parents are telling you something that
you know is good for you, don't be
one that is quick to retort and react
back to what your parents are advising, but
rather understand that they have your best interest
in mind. The second point here is that
we also learn from this particular narration, the
proclivity of mankind to be lazy,
And this particular example, whether we have seen
it with our own children or not, we
may have also seen it from our fathers
towards us as well. In which there might
have been a particular day in which they
were trying to encourage us to wake up
for salatul fajr, for example,
and we gave them a response and we
went back to sleep. In this particular example
is one of an optional,
prayer, which is Siyamulay,
which is not that significant, of course, as
the fajr, but the point here is understood.
In today's Khutba, we'll focus on the second
part of what we have mentioned, and that
is to understand
and make it such that we become from
those individuals
that utilizes our time effectively.
And we are not from those, especially those
that are young, that spends the entirety of
the summer or a good portion of it
sleeping
a good amount of it and wasting our
time, and not making effective use of the
time that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given
us. So in today's Khutba we'll talk, we'll
tackle the topic of laziness. What are some
of the particular reasons by which we or
our children become lazy and more important to
this what are some,
some tactics or some advices from the sunnah
of the Prophet Sallallahu Wa Salam to ensure
that we're making most effective use of our
time.
We all memorize Surah Al Asura, and in
this particular surah Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in
this particular surah Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala takes
an oath, my time. And whenever Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala takes an oath by any part
of His creation, you need to understand that
that particular oath is something which is great.
That is a great oath if only but
you know. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, wal-'Asuray
takes an oath by this creation of time
and he says the default position of mankind
is that they are in a state of
loss. And thereafter he mentions the exceptions
that we all know. Apart from those
that believe in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, they
prove that belief through their actions, and they
advise each other to the truth, and they
advise each other to patience. The early Muslims,
as mentioned about them, that there were 2
men from the companions of the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. That when they used to
meet each other, they used to recite Surat
Al Asr to each other as a form
of advice. And we all know the translation
of the surah that was their habit to
encourage each other to make effective use of
their time. And Al Shafi'i as well, he
mentions that if a person was to contemplate
this surah alone, that would be sufficient for
them to understand what they should do in
this life that has been given to them,
and make effective use of their time.
As for the particular reasons by which a
person may become lazy, we'll mention 5 of
them in today's khutbah.
The first of these is having an excessive
amount of free time. We know that when
it came to the school year, especially for
those that have children, their days were filled
with going to school, after school activities,
homework, and things of that nature, and on
account of that they were not lazy. But
when you become a person that has an
excess amount of free time, that you're not
filling it up with useful things, whether it's
things,
sports even for example, or coming to the
masjid, reciting the Quran, or doing things
that will increase you in terms of your
academic well-being and your future or working, when
you have an excess amount of free time,
you are going to waste it. Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam he tells us in a hadith
that we all know.
That there are 2 blessings that people, they
squander
when they have them. They have these great
blessings and when they have them many people
don't take advantage of them. One of them
is a suhah which is good health. Imagine
that moment in which you did not have
that good health or when you get older
and your health starts to be compromised. Then
you start to realize the value of the
health that you had when you were younger,
and many people don't take advantage of that.
And in a similar manner, when a lot
of people have that free time especially in
the summer months, there is so much that
you can actually do. How much Quran could
you potentially memorize? How many skills could you
potentially acquire? How many additional beneficial things could
you do in the summer months? But for
a lot of the youth they end up
spending their time either wasting it online, endlessly
scrolling TikTok and playing video games, or it
could be also that they're wasting their time
excessively sleeping and waking up at 2 or
3 pm, and wasting this great niramah,
that Allah SWT has given us of time.
So the first cure to not wasting a
lot of your time is to not have
a lot of free
amount of it. The first cure the first
cure to not be lazy in respect to
your time is to ensure that your schedule
does not have a lot of free time
in it.
The second point is to have a clear
goal in mind, because as human beings we
are goal oriented. If you don't have a
clear goal in mind, what is the purpose
for a person or a child to understand?
I'm studying this, but what's the end goal
of this?
A lot of times kids would even say
when they're studying math, for example, I'm never
going to use this, or they might make
a reason because they understand that when they
are learning something there needs to be an
end goal behind what they are doing.
And from this we need to look into
establishing goals for ourselves in the dunya as
well as the akhirah.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he tells
us in a hadith. He says
that, 'Aizul mumin istikhna uhhu anin nas That
the honor of a believer is to be
independent of others. And this is particularly
an encouragement for those that in their teens
that instead of asking your parents for everything,
and instead of the parents giving the child
anything, everything at the same time, then make
it or make a point to encourage your
children to work. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
is telling, he says that is the 'izzah
of a mumin that you work for your
own money. And in another narration the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he tells us
that, That there is no food that is
pure and more better for you to consume
than food that you earned through the work
of your own hands. Meaning you have a
job, you work, you make money
through laborious
work, in fact, and then you purchase whatever
you need to purchase with that, and sustain
yourself in that way. That is the best
type of food for you. And the Prophet
and the Prophet
continues and goes on to say that, Ghanan
Abi Allah, that the,
the Prophet of Allah Dawud alaihis salam was
one that used to work and eat from
the work of his own hands.
In another narration it is also mentioned that
there were some elderly from among the Sahaba,
and they noticed those that were young and
had a lot of energy, and they said
what is wrong with these people that if
we were in this situation, we would have
spent our time fee Sabeelillah in the path
of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. When An Nabi sallallahu alaihi wasallam
he heard this, he said don't say this
For if these people are working in order
to earn for their elderly parents, then they
are fee sabilillah, they are in the path
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And if these
people are earning for the sake that they
can provide for their young children, then they
are also fisa billillah. And if this person
is also earning for the sake of being
independent of others and earning his own livelihood,
this person is also
fee Sabi Lillah. However, if this person is
earning for the sake of showing off or
to compete with others in terms of this
dunya, as the youth or the kids of
today's time would say, to flex, then this
person is the Sabeel shaitaan.
They are in the path of shaitan. So,
the understanding here is that have a motivation
for yourself, be one that is striving to
be independent
in this way.
Another way by which a person needs to
have a motivation is to understand that you're
only going to be in this light for
a short while, and you want to try
to build for yourself passive income
in terms of good deeds. As we know
in the famous hadith of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, that
when the son of Adam passes away, their
deeds are cut off except for 3. One
of them is sadaqatuljariyah,
an ongoing charity. Work towards that, and this
will be a means of you making effective
use of your time. And similarly the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam goes on to say
wa'ilmunyantafirunna
subin
leaving behind any type of knowledge which is
beneficial to others. And this category is actually
aam, it's general. Meaning if you leave behind
knowledge of medicine, which will be beneficial to
others, is also contained in this. If you
leave behind an engineering feat, again this is
this this particular encouragement is general. Any knowledge
which is of benefit, the primary one of
course is religious knowledge, but any knowledge which
you leave behind which will benefit people, this
will be an ongoing charity as part of
your legacy. When you live by the standard,
there's no way that you could possibly
be from those that is lazy.
And there are many examples in our history
of our scholars spending their time to the
point where we benefit from much of their
work. One of the scholars, Imam An Nawi
Rahimullah,
You can hardly find a Masjid which will
not contain one of his books. The famous
Arba'un of An Nawawi is something that which
most Muslims know about. Or his famous book,
Riyadu Salihin, you cannot find a Masjid without
this particular book found therein.
There are many other works that he wrote.
For example, the most famous explanation or Sharh
al Sahih Muslim is written by him. He
wrote a work on, a fiqh called Majmoor
and many many other works. He was a
person that only lived to the age of
44.
He lived till the age of 44 and
the entire Ummah is benefiting
from this particular individual's
work. And this also tells us that a
person that has a particular vision in mind,
that person is not going to be lazy.
He was one that slept very little. He
would sleep 2 or 3 hours a day
sleeping on his books and then continuing again,
and we benefit from his works up until
today's time.
So, and then also,
This by default when a person has a
child whether they are Muslim or not, righteous
or not. Once you have a child this
will give you a particular motivation because this
child becomes part of your legacy. And when
you think about this and you envision yourself
that I want to leave behind children like
this and work towards that particular goal, this
is going to make it such that you're
going to spend your time effectively trying to
work up until that particular point.
And also, most importantly
is work towards the goal of Al Akhirah.
When you have a particular goal of Al
Akhirah, you're going to work effectively towards it,
and you will not waste your time. You
understand the value of performing 2 raka'at for
Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala. You understand the reward
and effectiveness of even reciting subhanAllah once. You're
not going to waste your time when you
understand this. Compete with each other, not for
the sake of the dunya, but rather for
the sake of Al Akhirah. Wasari'uilalalalafiratinirambikumwjannatinaarduhasamawatwalardatalalmatakeem
that compete with each other for the sake
of Al Akhira and a Jannah whose width
is that of the heavens and the earth.
Imagine just performing 2 rakaat before Suratul Fajr,
Khayru minadunya wamafiha.
Better than the entire world and everything that
it contains, and if you have this particular
vision in mind, you're going to spend your
time effectively.
The third reason by which a person may
not be as motivated is that a person
does not have a high self confidence in
themselves.
A person does not have high self confidence
in themself and they have a limiting belief
in what they can achieve in terms of
this dunya or in the akhirah. And sometimes
your worst enemy is actually your own mind.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that,
O you who believe, abstain from much suspicion
and negative thought in general. Because your thoughts
will effectively become your words, and those words
will effectively become your actions, and those actions
will effectively become your character, and your character
will eventually become your habits, and your habits
will eventually become your destiny. So what you
think about is where you're going to eventually
end up. Now a thought experiment for you,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he tells us in a particular narration
that there will be sabaroon alphan,
there will be 70,000
individuals.
70,000 people from this particular ummah that will
enter Jannah Bilghayi Hisaab without any without any
account.
Now, most people when they hear this hadith,
they're going to say it's not me, it's
somebody else, but it's definitely not me. How
do you know this? How do you not
know that one thing that you did in
your life was not so pleasing to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that you're counted from among
this category. And this is a self limiting
belief which makes people lazy, and they think
for themselves that I cannot achieve, I cannot
become a hafib, I cannot become a person
that's good for Islam, I cannot become a
person that is going to be good in
this dunya, and they limit themselves in this
way, and they squander away all of their
potential. You have one chance, one life to
prove yourself to Allah
Why are you limiting your own story? This
is your story. So you need to be
encouraged
to be from those that tries to do
their best in this life and in the
next life. The only one limiting yourself, you
is yourself. And when you have this self
limiting belief, why would you bother to study?
You've already made your own destiny for yourself
that there's nothing more that I can accomplish
in this world, and this will be a
means of your detriment in this life, and
perhaps even in the next life as well.
The
4th reason for which a person might exhibit
traits of laziness
is that a person has a love of
sleep, a love of eating, and a love
of luxury. When a person has these three
things, you are going to exhibit traits of
laziness by default.
Because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has written
a hadith that many people they hear, but
they don't practice. We all know this hadith,
but very few Muslims in fact actually practice
it, and there's a lot of wisdom in
it as well. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
tells us that
that there is no vessel that the son
of Adam filled which is worse than that
of their belly. Leave 1 third for food,
leave 1 third for drink, and leave 1
third empty because you will find when you
see a lion, for example, when a lion
is full, they are sleeping. When they are
hungry, they are hunting. If a person wants
energy, then don't eat too much because you're
going to need to rest in order to
digest this food. So,
one of those ways by which a person
becomes lazy is becoming one that eats excessively.
And similarly, one that sleeps a lot, this
is going to waste a lot of your
time. In fact, one of those things which
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala loves excessively is when
you leave your sleep for the sake of
'ibadah. We all understand how difficult it can
be to wake up for salatul fajr, but
giving up your sleep for the sake of
Allah is something very beloved to him. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he mentions in the Quran
that
That the nafs or the soul does not
know what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has in
store for them on account of what they
used to do. The Ulema in the translation
of this for the Mufassirun,
they say
In Jannah are things the eyes has not
seen, the ears have not heard, and the
heart has not felt. What is the ayah
just before this? Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes
the quality of those particular individuals by saying,
tatajafajunubuhumalmadajiryahdoon
rabbahum
There are those that leave their bedside for
the sake of worshiping Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala
in fear and in and in hope. Be
one that does not sleep excessively, this will
make you want to rest from your sleep
and build this negative habit as well. We
mentioned the story of Imam An Nawawi, he
used to sleep very little. In 44 years,
he did more than many people would be
able to do in multiple lifetimes. So become
one that is very cautious of the amount
that a person is sleeping.
And the 3rd point is in regards to
being one that has a love of luxury.
Sometimes people that are born into wealth, they
end up being lazier than those that perhaps
were not. Because the one that was not
born into wealth needs to work for their
money harder than the one
that was born into it. And if you
find yourself in this situation,
then look to no other example than that
of Musa'aib Nur Umayr
Musa'aib Nur Umayr
one of the great companions of the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was one that was
born into the lap of luxury. He was
an idle youth that used to enjoy
the blessings of this world, whether halal or
haram used to enjoy everything this world had
to offer. And he was one that gave
up everything for the sake of Islam, to
the point that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
now gave him a new purpose. He was
one of the first to give a dawah
to the people of Madinatul Munawwara. He was
one that gave his life in the battle
of Uhad, eventually becoming a shahid in that
particular battle, and today people they name their
children after Musaab Bina Umayr
If he was one that simply enjoyed the
luxuries of this dunya, nobody would have remembered
him, and this is something to consider if
you find yourself in this particular
category.
The 5th reason by which a person may
exhibit traits of laziness, and this particularly is
in regards to a person that is lazy
with respect to their worship or their Ibadat.
Is a person having
a weak belief in Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes a
category of people as being lazy in the
Quran,
and those particular individuals
are those that are lazy when it comes
to their prayer. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says
that regarding Al Munatiqoon, the Hypocrites.
He says, When they stand for prayer, they
do so lazily. There are some people that
are forced to come to Jum'ah by their
parents. They have no interest in being here.
There are some people that
are forced to perform salatul fajr, they have
no interest in performing salatul fajr. And for
those particular people, the reason why they are
lazy in other aspects of their life, they
might be okay. But when it comes to
their worship, they might be lazy for the
particular reason
that they have a deficiency in their faith.
We'll mention now some of the tiers to
this, just 5 very quickly, that if you
find yourself being lazy, what are some things
you can do to combat this? The first
is that if you are lazy with respect
to your worship,
then the cure to this is to know
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
says in the Quran, That those that truly
fear Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, that have Khashia
of him, of fear and love of him,
are those that know Him. If you know
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you know His punishment,
you know His reward, you know how great
He is, you know all of the blessings
that He gave you, then you would not
squander and waste your time, you would want
to achieve the best by him as well.
Learn about iman before you learn the Quran.
When you have children that know the value
of this Quran, and they understand the value
that they're gonna get in an akhirah and
the dunya, and they want to worship Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala out of out of love
and fear for him, you're going to find
that child wants to learn the Quran. But
if you tell another child simply learn the
Quran, you have to do it as a
chore, they will not be interested. Learn iman
before you learn the Quran, that is the
first point.
And to this effect you'll also make dua
to him. There is one particular dua the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam tells us and
teaches us. Actually in fact there's multiple of
them, in regards to a person that may
be lazy. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he teaches us to say,
Oh Allah, I seek refuge in You from
inability and laziness.
And if a person knows Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, they understand who He is, and they
understand the value of time, and they say
this dua, this could be a means of
them combating this particular weakness. In fact, there's
another dua you can say at the end
of the prayer. You can say it before
you say it, taslim, or after it as
well. The prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, he
mentions the hadith that he told Mu'aal bin
Jabin radiAllahu anhu that that I love you,
should I teach you something to say at
the end of every prayer? Say,
Oh Allah, I seek
your assistance
in worshiping you. Allahumma'aniyahala
dikik to remembering you, and thanking you, and
worshiping you in the best possible
way.
The second way a person can combat laziness,
especially,
for your children as well, is to establish
a goal for them based on their own
abilities.
So establish a goal for yourself in this
dunya, and if you have children, establish a
goal based on their abilities. And the master
of this was the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
You looked at the you used to look
at the youth among the sahabah and see
what traits they were good at, and used
to encourage them in that particular area.
As an example, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
in the battle of Badr, there were many
people among the Sahaba that wanted to participate,
as you can imagine this great battle,
the the first battle of Islam. One of
those individuals was Zayd ibn Thabit radiallahu an.
But Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he looked
at him and he said that you're too
young to attend this battle, and he was
saddened by this fact. He was only 11
or 12 at the time. The prophet
instead of discouraging him, he looked at him
and he said that you have an ability
to memorize and learn language, and he encouraged
him to learn the Jewish scriptures, to learn
the Hebrew language, and to learn the Syriac
language as well.
Eventually,
he became the official scribe of the Prophet
Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, to the point that even
when the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam passed away
and the battle of Yamama took place, in
which many of the kafal lost their lives
and the Muslims were concerned in terms of
wanting to preserve the Quran. If all those
that have memorized the Quran are going to
lose their lives, then how is the Quran
going to reach generations later? So Abu Bakr
as Siddiq and
many others among the seniors from the Sahaba,
they made a,
an initiative to preserve the Quran and and
compile it. And the one that was the
head of this particular initiative was again none
other than Zayd Mu'thabit radiallahu
an. This all started from the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam identifying a trait in that
particular child and encouraging him in it.
The 3rd way by which a person can
combat laziness
is to be one that is constantly active,
even if it is something beneficial. The Prophet
even if it is something just generally for
fun, as long as it's not haram and
it is something generally beneficial.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says,
be one that is eager to do things
which are going to benefit you, whether it's
for your body, whether it's for, again,
brotherhood, or whatever else it might be.
Because laziness brings about more laziness, and activity
brings about more activity. As we can also
understand from a particular line of poetry by
Ashaifa wherein
he looked at a puddle of water, and
he said,
He was looking at a pond of water,
and he says that,
when it is standing still it becomes stagnant
and spoils, but when it starts moving like
a stream it becomes pure and it will
not spoil either. So again,
more activity brings about activity, and laziness brings
about laziness as well. Be one that goes
out to the mountains and looks at the
creation of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, this is
an act of worship in and of itself.
Just looking at the creation and saying,
You have not created all of this in
vain. This is in and of itself an
act of worship. It will give you some
motivation as well and,
dispel many of these traits of laziness as
we have described.
The 4th point here is to be a
morning person. To be a morning person.
Many of us, we end up staying up
late at night, 2 AM, 3 AM, and
we end up sleeping after salatul fajr. And
we sleep until 2, 3, 4 o'clock. The
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam made a du'a for
this ummah for the morning. The
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's du'a for this ummah
was in the morning, and if you become
a morning person there's much more that you
can achieve. There are some people that they
find themselves setting their alarm clock when they're
young, Let's say Fussalatul Fajr, they press snooze,
next thing you know it's 8 o'clock, they
press snooze, next thing you know it's 12
o'clock, they press snooze, next thing you know
it's 3 o'clock, they wake up, their father
has mowed the lawn, he has done the
groceries, he's cleaned the house, he's done his
work, he's achieved so much and they only
woke up in that moment. Is much blessing
to be found in the morning for our
youth. Allahumma barikki ummatifibukuriha.
If He wants you to get things done
in life, become a morning person. And the
final point, and we'll conclude with this hadith,
is that if a person overslept for salatul
fajr, was lazy in this area, the best
thing to do is pray right when you
remember. 8 o'clock you woke up, 12 o'clock
you woke up, immediately pray right then and
there. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the
Quran,
and this actually has 2 translations
showing the, the breadth of the Arabic language.
Allah
says one translation if you consider this Laam,
Laam Wa Ta'aleel for the Nahuyun, if we
consider this Laam, Laam Wa Ta'aleel the translation
becomes we establish prayer, or establish prayer for
the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. That's
the reason why we pray. The second translation,
if you consider this
you translate it as establish prayer when you
remember. Whenever you remember, you missed it, pray
right away. And the reason for this is
in a hadith of Prophet
he tells us that when you go to
sleep, shaitaan will tie 3 knots in the
back of your night, back of your neck
and say the night is long so sleep.
When a person wakes up and they remember
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, Alhamdulillah,
the first knot is untied. When a person
makes wudu, the second knot is untied. And
when a person prays to Allah
the 3rd knot is untied. When you do
this, you'll wake up in a state of
energy
and excitement, and if a person does not
do these three things and these knots are
left in their neck, then a person would
wake up in a state of sluggishness
and laziness. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to make us from those that make effective
use of our time. We ask Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala to make our youth that make
effective use of their time, especially