Ismail Kamdar – Code of Conduct #2 Intentions
AI: Summary ©
The Hadees stress the importance of understanding the deeps and avoiding suffering from spiritual challenges. The importance of renewing intentions and staying true to one's values is emphasized. The speaker emphasizes the need to be wary of spiritual challenges and find a consistent effort every day. The potential impact of the coronavirus on the US economy is discussed, with a decline in virus cases and a slowdown in cases in China. The US and China have shown strong virus cases and deaths, but the virus is still a challenge.
AI: Summary ©
Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala Nabil green. So welcome back to see the second video in our series on equality code of conduct. And today of course we are going to discuss the concept of F last a class or near sincerity of intention. And I know many people are going to say, you've heard lectures about this topic too many times.
This is like the one thing we are the lectures about the most. And and there's a good reason for that, right? Because this is, number one, this is the number one priority for anyone involved in any kind of Islamic work. If your intentions are corrupt, then there is no reward for what you do. But if your intentions are for Allah, then this will benefit you in both worlds right? It becomes a source of baraka and success in this world, but more importantly, it will be added to your scale of good deeds, and be a means of success in the Ophira. So I know that this is a topic where you've probably heard the Hadith before you've heard the verse of the Quran before you heard warnings about
RIA before, if you haven't, if you haven't done before watching this video, I highly recommend just doing a brief primer on this topic.
And one resource that I would recommend on this topic is the video by rather Hamza Xerxes, right by the hundreds Razzies has a video on his channel is actually the first video on his channel. It's about one hour and 10 minutes about a class. And in that video, he goes through all the basics, the meaning of the word, the root letters that are Hadees, the the concept of reality to automate all of the basics are covered in that video. So I don't think I'll repeat myself on that. I've spoken about it many times I have talked about it many times. I've written about it many times, many others have done so from the beginning of our tradition. Imam Al Bukhari has written about Islam. And now he has
written about this, even the NEA has written about this. In our times, there are many videos you could watch or articles you could read, or
books that you could read the entire books about in class, Nia, that's how important this topic is. I want to take a more practical approach to the topic today. I want to speak more about some of the trials that you may face as a die
that could lead to the corruption of your near and how do you navigate these trials? Right. So this is going to be a bit of a different approach to the topic. Now in the book, I do go through the Hadees and the definitions. And just very, very briefly, you know the opening Hadees of sahih al Bukhari Enamul armado Binya that
for enamel armor Lavinia that every action is judged by his intentions, every action is judged by its intentions. We know that this Hadees makes up 1/3 of our religion, right we have the entire fake category of judging deeds by the intentions, the maximum Fick derived from this hadith. This hadith has value to us in vec, in Aqeedah, and in spirituality, and of course, you're in Dawa, we are looking at it not from the fic perspective, but from the spiritual perspective, from the fic perspective, your intention decides the reward, right. So for example, if you are praying for Raka of Salah, if your intention is Sunnah, you get the reward of sunnah. If your intention is the fourth
Salah you get the reward of the peninsula, right? Your reward. What kind of Salah it is, depends on the intention. We're not looking at the fifth Today we're looking at the spiritual side of things because this is what affects the Dawa. The spiritual side of things. And by the spiritual side of things we mean that when we do our good deeds, we must do it for the sake of Allah. Whatever it is, if you are starting a YouTube channel to talk about this Deen do it for the sake of Allah. If you are writing a book about this Deen do it for the sake of Allah. If you are writing a blog post about the deen do it for the sake of Allah. If you are posting on social media about the deen do it for
the sake of Allah. That should be number one for every believer in everything that we do. This is the spiritual side of things. And of course because if Lawsonia is correct spirituality, its opposite is a spiritual disease. What is the opposite of a philosopher Nia, the opposite of a philosopher Nia is Maria, showing off doing things for sure. Now today I'm going to go a bit deeper into that to show you the different ways that you could end up in rehab. Right there are actually different parts that I have seen people fall down the need to do it's not just a one way street. Now they say the straight path is one way
But in many ways to go off the straight part. So many of those parts read to lead to real and you may be unaware of it and may unintentionally fall into it. If you do not study this beforehand, the other Hadees that I discuss in length in the book is the one
about the three types of people who would be judged first and the Day of Judgment. All of them were people who fell into RIA but one of those categories is the one who is doing Dawa, the one who is spreading knowledge about the deen. So the Hadith states that someone who did jihad, but they did it for the sake of name and fame and not for Allah. They will be thrown into the hellfire, somebody who gave charity but they did it for the sake of name and fame and not for Allah they will be thrown into the hellfire and somebody who preached knowledge about this deen and taught Quran, but they did it for fame and not for Allah, they will be thrown first into the hellfire. It is that third
category that applies to us in this setting. Right there. We are talking about Dawa. We are talking about spreading the deen of Allah teaching the deen of Allah unstandard everyone who is reading this book or studying this program is in some way or another involved in Dawa. And so that third category should apply to us and we should be terrified by those Hadith. Because these are these we should be thinking all the time. What is my intention? Am I doing this for Allah? Am I Am I slipping up? Am I going straight.
But understand that your intention is not something that is static. It is something that changes over time. Right, just like your Eman goes up and down your intention we visit. So if you are not monitoring it, if you are not on top of it, if you're not always checking it, then you could unintentionally fall into real. You could start your life moving in one direction and before you know it you somewhere else completely because you never stopped to check if you're moving in the right direction. So it's very important that we understand the importance of lasagna, that this is the essence of what we do. Without it. There's no reward for our deeds. In fact, they become sins,
doing thou with the wrong intention. Not only is there no reward, it is actually a sin. It is actually a sin a major sin to some extent depending on how corrupt your intention is, it can actually become a major sin. If you are doing Dawa according to Islam, but in reality you call into your own ego you according to your own self. And we'll look at how dangerous this can be when we look at how people go straight.
So yes, most of us we know this Hadees. And we know that.
Ria is something that Rasulullah salAllahu alayhi wasallam feared for us, he called it the hidden shock, the hidden shock. This is where you don't even realize your competition, but you made yourself a partner with Allah by calling to yourself instead of calling to Allah.
Now, here's the scary thing that many teachers who teach about this topic don't mention. Right? Are you ready for this point?
The reality is that almost every single one of us, at some point in our lives, we will fall into reality.
This is a reality. Almost every single one of us except who Allah was except to Allah has chosen except Allah has given a pure heart, almost every single one of us may at some point or another fall into VR. So for example, if you start doing Dawa, at the age of 20, and you do Tao for the next 50 years,
there may be a point somewhere down the line for one, two or five or 10 years where your intention goes off.
Right. This can happen to anyone. And it's something we have to be aware of. And because we are human, because we are human because we may not be prepared for the spiritual challenges along this path. It is highly likely that at some point or another, we slip and we slip multiple times. But Allah is great. Allah is Most forgiving. Allah is Most Merciful. As long as we are alive, there's always a way to come back to Allah. As long as we are alive, there's always a way to rectify our intentions and to bring ourselves back to the straight part.
So be very wary about this. That yes, you may stop as the most sincere person and Angel 15 or 20 or 25 whatever it is, but you may lose your way.
Do not despair. If you lose your way. There is always a way back to Allah subhanho wa Taala there is always a way
Back to the middle part back to the street part back to the part of the Philosophia.
But we also need to be aware of what are the ways to go off the street but
because this is shade ons number one trick to lead a dark street
when the devil knows that he cannot stop you from doing Dawa, you love the work of Dawa, you enjoy making videos or writing books, writing articles and debating people, or talking about religion in the park or talking about religion and social media, whatever it is, you love it, you enjoy it.
The devil has given up hope that you will ever stop doing it.
So what does he do? He says, If I can't stop him from doing it, I will corrupt his intentions, I will corrupt his intention. So there's no reward in what he does. And if you are not aware about this, if you are not constantly checking your heart and renewing your intentions, the devil will catch you. And he will trick you and he will lead you astray.
He will catch you, he will trick you. And He will lead you astray and you won't even know it, you will still still think of yourself as this great die, you will still think of yourself as someone who is doing so much for the sake of Allah. But you are unaware of the fact that it's no longer for the sake of Allah, because you're not checking the heart.
And this is number one, number one for fighting Ria, and for maintaining it last, checked your heart and renew your intention every single day. Make sure you are doing things for the sake of Allah. To me, one of the main signs that something is done for the sake of Allah is whether there is five people attending your lecture. And 5000 you still deliver the same quality lecture, because you're not doing it for the people. You're doing it for Allah.
Just to give you an anecdote about us.
A few years ago, there was a popular day that was supposed to come to our community.
And
this day, he had lectures in a few different cities in our community.
And he,
at the last minute, cancelled only one of those lectures, saying that his father is sick. So he has to cancel the tour. But he came for the other lectures, but he canceled only one saying his father is sick.
So I went to one of the organizers of the program. And I asked him, why was it canceled? Because the mind mind is not making sense. If his father is sick, he will cancel the whole tour. You won't travel halfway around the world, go to four or five cities and skip one. If his father is sick, something else is up here. So you're asked to organize and I trust him about the values are telling me the truth. Tell me honestly, why did you cancel? And he told me, it's because he did not make a profit with that leg of the tour. He didn't sell enough tickets to make it profitable. So he felt rather just cancelled it.
So hello,
Darlene, internationally renowned that he canceled his lecture, because it wasn't profitable from a financial perspective. And on top of that, he lied to the people about why he canceled his lecture. Now Allah forgive him and forgive us. This is not the first time not the last time to adulthood, something like that.
And the sad thing is, I wasn't even surprised. Because when I saw the message about who canceled and why. In my heart, I knew that this isn't adding up. And that's why I asked
and I've seen stuff like this so many times, someone will be heading out on a Dawa tour.
And last minute you realize that oh, there's only 200 people in the audience. I won't give a lecture on this is 1000 Do you know who I am?
Why would I speak to only 200 people?
See, this is ego. This is real. This is not doing things for the sake of Allah.
Do you realize that when you talking to 200 people, you are talking to more people than even Rasulullah sallallahu some are speaking to in the modern era.
Do you realize there are so many prophets of Allah who had less than 200 followers? Do you realize there was a time when Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was teaching in Davao outcome in Makkah and the five or 10 people with him, but he would still teach with the same sincerity and the same quality as you would many years later at the hospital without when he's preached over 10,000 people that same quality that same passion was there.
You know, in my own life, I have this personal travel. Right. That's why I call it that when I deliver lectures in other countries. 500 people will attend 1000 people will attend
And then when I deliver lectures in my local community, I literally get five people, sometimes 10.
And
it can be disheartening. But then I remind myself, that this is for the sake of Allah. And whether they have five people in the audience or 500, the quality needs to be the same because these five people sincerely showed up for the sake of Allah to learn about his Deen.
And so sometimes you watch my videos, you will not realize this, but there's only five people in the audience. Sometimes there's 100 people in the audience, but I still make sure that the quality is the same.
And it's not easy because the reality is we all have egos. We all have to struggle with our egos. I have to struggle with my ego. Sometimes my ego tells me it's not worth delivering any lectures in this community because nobody attends. And then you have to talk to yourself, you have to fight us. I know I'm talking about my own personal weaknesses here. But I think it's important that anyone doing Dawa realize that we all struggle with this. Right? Sometimes you may think other people are just in see all the time. No, we all struggle with ego. We all struggle with keeping our intention sincere. We all do. That's why I said we all would slip on this at some point or another. And I
myself, I believe in many points I slipped up. Because in my early 20s, I was I reached the level of fame that really no one should have reached in the early 20s, right, until now in my 30s are not as famous as I was in my early 20s. So life's a bit more relaxed now. But my early 20s, there was a lot of fitna from being too famous for that age. And
I may have slipped up during that time, in terms of intentions, but Hamdulillah I had friends who reminded me to do things for the sake of Allah who called me out and made sure I came back to do things the right way.
So this is something that we need to ensure that when we are teaching, we are teaching for the sake of Allah, the income is secondary, the number of attendees is secondary, the number of people who convert is secondary, you are showing up to do an act of a bada for the sake of Allah. It doesn't matter if there are five people there are 5000, you will still do that act of Ibadah for the sake of Allah.
Now, in the book, I mentioned that to lead you down the path of Rhea shaytaan. We use many different methods. But I've noticed primarily five things I've noticed, primarily five temptations that cause people to lose their intentions or to end up with the wrong attention or doing Dawa. Right, so there may be many others. But for me, these are the Big Five, five things that if you're not careful about them, shaytan will use one or more of these five things to lead you astray, and to corrupt your intentions. And these five things are the desire for fame, the desire for the opposite gender, greed, or money, jealousy and self amazement. Right? Let's talk about all five. One more time, the
desire for fame.
The desire for I'd say woman but rarely worked both ways. I've seen it happen both ways, right? That even a female Daddy can be led astray by the desire for men. And
I don't go into the stories about that right? You wouldn't be appropriate to mention some of the stories I've heard on this topic. I will actually sit you all day just talking about those those stories, but it wouldn't be appropriate. The desire for money and a bit of nuance on that one because I actually believe it's important for the art to have money, especially in this day and age. Number four, is jealousy, jealousy of others in the Dawa field. And number five is South amazement, Eagle. dinky thinking you better than everyone else. And by the way, salt amazement is different from the desire for fame. These are two separate traps of Sridhar the desire for fame is where you
set out, wanting to be known wanting to be famous wanting to have many subscribers and many followers are many listeners and you want people to know your name. You want people to know your face. This is the desire for fame. Self amazement, is where you think you are the most intelligent person on earth. You think you are it you think you are the data you are the best, the most skilled, right? This is ego.
And yes, they are linked, but they could also be not linked. Right. They could also be different ways of leading someone astray. It could be that somebody is already famous. They don't desire fame. But then shaytan catches him in a different way. And that was self amazement that they become self obsessed.
So let's break this down. Let's talk about each of these five things and how shaytan uses them to lead people astray. And
what to do about it. So certainly, if you're aware of the
traps of shaytan
you can fight it. If you are unaware. It's easy for shaytaan to lead you astray. So fame, right? This is the one we hear about most often don't do Dawa for fame and this is true don't do Dawa for fame.
Now,
the reality is if you are doing Dawa, it is possible that you could become famous, especially in this day and age, you may not have been the case that the 40 years ago.
But right now, one of the easiest ways to become famous, is through Dawa. You could write one article or one book or make one video that goes viral,
you famous. So there's two things to think about your number one, if Allah makes you famous, that fame is now a test. And it is now a resource, and you should use that resource for the pleasure of Allah. So you should use that resource to reach as many people as possible with the Dawa for the sake of Allah.
So you're not focused on becoming famous, you're not focused on gaining so many followers, your focus is the pleasure of Allah. But if Allah made you famous, you will use it to please Allah, you will use it to ensure the Messenger of Allah reaches as many people as possible. That is
one side of it, right? The other side of it is your intention. So it may be that you start off doing that, well for the sake of Allah. And somewhere down the line, you notice that you feel really good, you get that dopamine hit when people praise you, when people recognize you in the streets, when people want to stop and take a selfie with you.
You know, them the first one of the person just happened to me, I was traveling to a country in North Africa. And when I got out in the airport, people came to kiss, my hand had to take selfies with me. And I wasn't accustomed to people treating me with so much respect. Anyone knows me, people normally don't respect me, they don't like me. So
I didn't know how to react to that. And I did feel it affecting my ego, because for the first time in my life, I was being respected in a way that I didn't even know was possible.
And I began to think about my body like, what if people treated you like this all the time, it could really mess with your mind, this could really mess with why we do what we do. And this is something that happen all the time. Right? Like wherever you go, people are taking selfies with you where people want to kiss your hands, and people want to shake your hands and people want the record, they recognize you. This gives you a dopamine hit, it makes you feel good about yourself. And it may be that instead of chasing the pleasure of Allah, you start chasing this, this pleasant this feeling of pleasure. And so maybe in the beginning, your focus was I'm going to do that for the sake of Allah.
But once you break through and you start reaching a larger audience, suddenly wherever you go, people recognize you, they want to take a selfie with you, you know, they they want to shake your hands, they want to talk to you, they everybody wants to know you. And maybe this starts to become your intention you become it becomes such that you begin to think that this is something I need. I need this feeling. Why is no one wanting to take a selfie with me today? Why is no one talking about me today? Why is no one mentioning my name today? And you begin googling your own name. Right to see how many people are talking about you. How many people are mentioning your name. And you get excited
everyone's talking about you or you get angry. They're not. Now what happens when you desire fame. When you desire fame, you may stoop to an Islamic tactics to boost your fame.
And we see this happening today. We see this happening a lot. Many do art to fast track their way to fame. They will post something that is ridiculously outrageous, that they know is going to be sensitive and is going to hurt people's feelings and make people angry and make people you know, lash out they may post something really controversial, but they do it for one intention. They know by doing this, it will go viral and they will get famous. That's the intention that they are posting the video not for the sake of Allah not to spread the deen and spread the Dawa. But knowing if this video goes viral, I will be famous.
And so the dollar begins to morph it begins to move from these beneficial videos for the sake of Allah into these outrageous weird takes for the sake of going viral.
So beware of this trap. Understand that if you are obsessed with video going viral or post going viral, if this is your number one concern is this viral content. Then you have lost your way. You are no longer doing it for the sake of Allah you now do it for the sake of faith. Be very
We have this I'm not saying that you should never have content that goes viral or content and is controversial. The route the reality is, if you do in Dawa, you are going to say something controversial, because the truth is better. And people don't like to hear the truth. So it's highly likely you're going to say something controversial.
And
there's nothing wrong with a video going viral, or improving your wording, so it reaches more people. But when this becomes your priority, when this becomes your focus, when this becomes your main obsession, that this must go viral,
and not even think about Allah subhanho wa Taala anymore, all you're thinking about is how many people viewed it, how many people liked it, how many people shared it, then you have lost your way. And you have fallen into the trap of reality and seeking fame.
If you avoid the trap of fame, you may fall into the trap of jealousy. Right. And I have seen this happen so many times in our people who are capable of such great things
completely falling apart because of jealousy.
One of my own experiences when I was very young, I
was brought in to be a substitute teacher for somebody else's class. And it turned out that the students liked me more than the teacher. And that teacher became jealous of me and tried to sabotage my reputation and my Dawa.
And he became really Bucha really obsessed. Because while I was there just to be a substitute teacher, hopefully for the sake of Allah, only Allah knows our real intentions were to keep renewing it. He really wanted it to be all about him. Like he became obsessed and everything was be all about him. His pictures will be on the posters, and his name should be front and center. And his name should be the first thing that pops up on the website. And anytime that students would say that I'm their favorite teacher, or they would like me to teach them often
in blow up.
And it wasn't the last time there wasn't the last time I had to deal with jealousy from others. And of course, the truth is jealousy can come on both ends. You have to beware of others being jealous of you. There's nothing you can do to stop them. Make sure you're reading your goals and make sure you're leading your eye to go seek to protect yourself from jealousy, but more importantly, to focus on our own hearts. Because Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that jealousy destroys good deeds to a fire burns through wood.
And even historically, you will find that
many times scholars became better at the terrible things because of jealousy.
So, the story of the slander against Imam Bukhari
if you haven't studied this highly encouraged studying the biography of Imam Al Bukhari, I actually have another video on this topic, the full biography Manuel Buhari, we are going to details about this lambda. But long story short, some of the scholars in the community, it seems that they became jealous again, we don't know people's intentions, but it seems that they became jealous that he had more students than they did. And so they concocted a slander against him, claiming he was in what does he like very similar to what happens today. And people stopped attending his lectures and people began to spread the slander and to believe in it, and this negatively impacted him in a major
way.
So Heinola what happened to Imam Al Bukhari we see it happening so many times in our lifetime, that someone is getting more popular and famous and others, and then they concoct a slander against that person, they begin to character assassinate that person, and that person loses the following.
Happens all the time.
And we have to be very careful that we are not the ones doing the slander. The reality is if you are doing Dawa, at some point in your life or another, somebody is going to slander you, somebody's going to refute you, somebody's going to try and put your character down.
That's just the way it is. Make sure you're not the one doing that. Make sure you're not the one going after other people's reputations going after other people's lives. So what happens is, when you become obsessed with other people and their success, you stop doing Dawa for the sake of Allah. And your Dawa simply becomes about putting those people down and you become better. You become self obsessed. You become obsessed with that person. You become completely distracted from your original goal, which is the pleasure of Allah subhanho wa taala. We ask Allah to forgive us and to guide us and to protect us from being jealous of others or being on the receiving end of jealousy.
That takes me to the third one.
The third one that I want to focus on is self amazement.
Right
Right, so ego, beware of ego, beware of thinking that you are better than anybody else.
And this can happen to any of us at any time. Because the reality is that most of the people doing Dawa. They are hamdulillah they may be very skilled speakers, very skilled writers, very skilled teachers, very skilled debaters. They may be very intelligent, they may have a lot of knowledge, mashallah,
it's fine if other people think that about them.
But when you start thinking about yourself like that, when you look back and say, Wow, I have a lot of knowledge, I have a lot of wisdom. I'm really intelligent. When you start thinking like this,
then you risk becoming self obsessed, you risk becoming the kind of person who thinks they are it, you are the man. And everybody must follow you because you're the most intelligent person on earth.
Now, historically, I have noticed many, many times when a new sect or a new
deviation, or even a new religion or cult came about
the roots of the new set of cults was a self obsessed man who thought that he was better than everybody else.
And we only need to go and research the history of any famous sect or cult, you will find at the at the heart of it, a man who starts off as a die, right binary, even many of the false prophets of the past century, started off as dies as dou x. They started off as people doing Dawa, and debating and doing comparative religion. And then they began to think I'm really intelligent. I really know a lot. I'm better than these people. I'm better than these more designs than Islam better than them. And they begin to think about themselves in these high levels. And then they begin to make bigger claims about themselves, they may claim to be the, the Messiah did the reformer or revival of their
time, they may claim to be imaged ahead, they may claim to be the man, he may even claim to be a prophet.
And I've seen this,
when you study history, you start to notice cycles. And I've noticed this throughout history, that do art will become self obsessed. They stop calling to Allah, and they start calling to themselves. And when they stop calling to themselves, they begin to build a religion around themselves. And before you know it, it is a new religion. It's no longer the religion of Allah, it becomes a cult built around the personality.
Avoid being amazed by yourself, do things purposely to humble yourself. How do you humble yourself? Well, number one, think about your own sense. We all have sins. As long as you know your own sins, what's there to be proud of should be ashamed of yourself. You should be humble. You should be seeking Allah's forgiveness, you should be doing more dour for the sake of Allah to make up for your sins. You don't have time to sit around thinking how good you are. Right, make time to sit and think about your own sins because this humbles you.
Think about the times you messed up. Think about the times when you made mistakes. Also, it's important to have good company to have good friends, because they will keep you in check. They will let you know when you are going astray. They will let you know when you are getting too big headed when you begin to think that I admit I'm better than all these other people.
Make sure you have righteous company. Right, because your righteous company, they will keep you in check. They will let you know when you're when you're getting too big for your boots. So let's see why it's also important to have a righteous spouse to have a righteous husband, or man or wife, right? That you have someone you're married to who knows you because the person who you're married to knows you better than anyone else. And they will be the one to remind you and let you know that
you need to humble yourself right now you're starting to think too much about yourself.
It's important that you have the kind of relationship with them where they can tell you that and you're willing to listen. Because if you become self obsessed, that will destroy your data that will destroy your marriage that will destroy you. So beware of self amazement.
I left the other two for last. Because there's a lot to save all these two and I've seen
so many people go astray because of these two and that's money and woman.
Right money and lust.
So on the topic of money.
I find this to be a hard one to talk about because on one hand, I firmly believe, especially in this day and age when we don't have a fuel output and we don't have an oak off system to fund the Dawa. I firmly believe the best thing for every day
aim is to be self funded, and to be financially independent. I truly believe this. I mean, even when there was a healer, but many of the great Allama of the past still believe that it's better to be financially independent. Abdullah ibn Mobarak believed this Imam, Abu Hanifa believe this, these were individuals who even though they live under the law, but they didn't want anyone else having power over them because of money. So they had their own businesses, they made their own money, they funded their own data, I believe that this is best that you can find your own data. Therefore, you don't have to depend on others for anything.
So on one hand, this is important. And this is why I have businesses, this is why I have multiple sources of income. This is why I sell my books and sell my courses so that I can become financially independent. So I don't have to rely on anyone for money. Because when you rely on others for money, there's a chance you may at one point be called upon to compromise your message for the sake of money. Meaning if you are a doc II, and you have sponsors, and you are relying on those sponsors, and you say something that upsets the sponsors, they could pull that sponsorship and then you are in trouble. So really, I believe it's important to work towards financial independence. However,
there's a very fine line between working towards financial independence and becoming greedy for the dunya.
And sadly, I believe many of us, we crossed that line without even realizing it.
So here's some good advice that my grandfather gave me. And I'm sharing with all of you. He said, he said, there's no limit to how much money you can make in this world. Once you figure out the tricks of business and investments and how to make money, there is no limit to how much money you can make in this world. So he says, figure out how much you need to live a comfortable life, to be free to not have to worry about money and worry about these things. Figure out what that number is, work towards it. And stop, stop around you be content.
Right? So he says that figure out how much you need to live a comfortable happy life, work towards that level. And then stop, take a step back, stay at that level, see Alhamdulillah and focus on other things. And I've taken that message to heart I live by this, that yes, I am working towards a certain financial level that once I reach it, I can just focus on making videos like this writing books like that, without needing to work a job without needing other sources of income and working towards that. But the goal there is that the money should fund the Dawa not be a distraction from the dollar.
Now, I think having a financial goal in mind, something realistic, something that is while it gives you financial freedom, it's not a greedy number, right? It's not a ridiculously high number. If you have that goal in mind, then you avoid falling into greed.
Because really becoming greedy about money.
It can completely destroy your intentions. Like I said in the example I gave in the beginning, the chef canceled his lecture because it was not profitable. If you are canceling Islamic lectures, Dawa, that is supposed to be for the sake of Allah because you did not make a profit, then you have lost the plot. Your intention is no longer Allah your intention is now the money.
And by the way that Shaq was rich, he was already rich, but he was now greedy. Allah forgive him in us. By the way, notice I don't mention names in this video. So that is the sooner we don't mention names, mentioning names the fitna its own. Rather, I am mentioning examples of mentioning any names. So we learn the lesson without looking down upon any individuals. That is the correct way to talk about these things. You mentioned anecdotes without names without any necessary
description that can make people realize what you're talking about. So that people focus on the lesson and not on the individual. So you don't want to dishonor your Muslim brothers and sisters. No, we want good for everyone who Allah to forgive all of them and all of us.
But it's important that we derive lessons on the story so we don't repeat the mistakes of others.
So yesterday, yes, as a da e, you should be striving for financial independence, if you can, or if that's important to you, for some people is not important. Some people equate content living a simple life and living or sponsorships or living off a small salary, but hamdulillah good for you and hamdulillah everyone is different. But I personally believe it's important to be financially free. Right? It I believe it is important that no one can control you and control what you say through money. I learned this the hard way at a very young age when I was 22 years old. I was working in a school
I have a wife who was pregnant with our second child. And I got fired from the school for not toeing the line when it came to my Islamic opinions. And I had to leave the country to find another job. That was when I realized, I don't ever want to be in this position. Again, I had to leave the country and be away from my wife and children for a few months.
Because I couldn't even get a job in the country, because of the slander about me at that time. And that's when I realized I don't ever want to be in this position. Again, I will work my way up to financial freedom. So no one can ever put me in this position again. And so for me, this is something that's important that we work towards financial freedom. Anytime a young student of knowledge comes to me and asked me for advice, this is one of the first things I advise them on and show you are working towards financial freedom. So nobody can control your opinions. Nobody can force you to have specific opinions. And I'm very intentional about this, in every aspect of my
life. I'm very intentional about this, like even
even when it comes to my employment positions. Over the years, I have been doing employment positions for free. In some cases, I will do the employment and the Holocaust for free and even pay rent for the office in the Islamic center, so that I am financially free. And no one can say we given you this we given you that we expect you to have these opinions. Now, I try my best to maintain financial independence. And I'm saying this because many young people, they enter this field naive, thinking that I'll just become an imam. And people will take care of me financially, and everything's going to be rosy, no people are going to try and control you. People are going to
try and control you. So unless you truly blessed with an amazing community, that love you and respect you. For many people, this becomes something difficult. So yes, work towards financial freedom, work towards a specific goal, have a goal in mind that I want to have this amount of money by age 30, or 40, or 50. And I'm going to work towards it. But do not make that your number one obsession, that is still secondary, primary is the pleasure of Allah subhanaw taala. And one of the ways that I tried to force myself to ensure that I'm doing this for the sake of Allah, and not for the money is that even though I sell my books and courses, almost every week, someone who messaged
me saying they can't afford it, and I'll give it to them for free. Right, if they can't afford it, I'll give it to them for free. And for me, this helps me to reestablish my intentions. And also it helps me to,
to ensure that
I'm not doing it solely for the money, that you understand that money is from Allah. So you have these businesses, but the primary intention is the pleasure of Allah subhana wa taala. So yes, I am someone who encourages working towards financial freedom, I believe this is important, it is necessary. But beware of greed. We live in an age of materialism, we live in an age where nothing is ever enough where billionaires want to be trillionaires. And this can really be a an obsession that can just overtake your whole life, your whole life, you've just become about making more and making more. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam warned us that the human being is such that if they
have one mountain of gold, they want a second mountain of gold. So ensure that you know what your goal is and work towards that. And then once you get your mountain of gold, don't look for the second one be contained to that one. For the sake of Allah.
Bytes. tool is going to be a bit different from other presentations on a class.
May Allah grant us if loss and protect us from ourselves.
We are our own worst enemies.
And the biggest jihad of the knifes for people involved in the Dawa is fighting our own egos and our own temptations and to remain committed to doing things for the sake of Allah.
So I saved this topic for last.
That's the topic of temptation of the opposite gender.
And yeah, recent times how many scandals have they been of this sheer conduct Shekhar falling into temptation and getting up to nonsense? And
may Allah forgive them and arson? And I'm sure that we all do things the right way. How does this happen?
How does this happen? And why does this happen?
So I believe this happens because when people go into the work of Dawa, they are not prepared for this. They are not the average brother or sister gets involved in Dawa work
is not thinking about this issue. Most of them are really naive and think that if I'm going to dedicate my life to teaching Islam, then there's not going to be any temptation to go let's face it, right. In my case, when I started studying Islam full time at the age of 13, I was studying to become a Molana. It didn't cross my mind that when you become a bodega woman are going to try and seduce you came across
To my mind, over the years, I suffered a lot the amount of woman that tried to seduce me, may Allah forgive them.
But what I don't know is that if you are that, just put it simply, some of our dads out there are religious, good looking, wealthy, famous, and good husbands, good fathers, meaning other women look at them and say I want him.
And they know, Jack can have up to four wives, any man came up to four wives, right? And so decided to pursue him.
And a young chef,
a young die. young student of knowledge
is not prepared for this fitna.
Because no one told him this is going to happen. Right? In many cases, a young nerdy kid woman didn't even give him attention before. So he doesn't know how to deal with the attention of woman.
And suddenly, he's got all of these sisters DMing him telling him are you looking for a second wife? Are you looking for a third wife? And I've seen this like Shrek would come to town and the system, Masha, Allah is so handsome, he speaks so well. And other people will tell him my stuff for you that he's married. And in assistance, they saw what he saw the two slots open, he still got one slot open. I mean, the woman are looking at him as someone unless he has four wives, which very few shakes do they do? They look at him as someone who's still available to them.
And sadly, I've seen this from experience that a woman will message a chef or a daddy and ask him, are you looking for a second wife?
And he may say, No, I'm not content.
Then she will say but if you take me as a second wife, I'll do this that stuff that your wife doesn't do. Right? Now it becomes fitna becomes temptation. And then she may say, how about we just have a secret mica the amount of times that many people think it's only the men who want secrets because the amount of times I have seen women ask why don't we have a secret niqab
way more times than you can imagine.
And sadly, I've seen cases where when the man said no to the secret Nikka Nessie What about just one night? What about just Xena over what nobody will know.
I've seen this happen the other way as well. By the way sisters if you if you are a sister involved in Dawa, especially if you are doing it
publicly with videos and things be very wary of this fitna see what happens right? If you are a young sister involved in the Dawa, men will look at you and say, masha Allah, and then they will try to slide into your DMS. And they will tell you, you know, if you marry me, I will support your Dawa. And I will make sure that I write your lectures and I will make sure that I take care of the kids while you travel the world giving lectures. And they'll make all of these false promises. Oh, maybe it's true promises, but many times these false promises. And guess what? Even if you're married, you still gonna get these DMS. Even if you're married, you still gonna get this temptation.
Doesn't matter if you're mad. He didn't tell you I'll do a better job than your current husband.
I'll support you more than he's supporting you. This is the fitna and the temptation that comes with Dawa and no one talks about anyway, it's taboo to talk about these things. I just want to talk about the fact that there are women out there trying to seduce shacks and that they are men or they're trying to seduce shakers or we talk about is you know when they fall in temptation or when the gossip and backbite about them saying things like stuck with Allah what kind of chef is this he he took a secret second why was suffering Okay, I'll share guys that she divorced her husband and married her fan. Boy we don't talk about it all the fitna and temptation that leads to it and how to
avoid that fitna How to Avoid the temptation. So we don't talk about so understand that people involved in Dawa are human. And humans may mess up they make mistakes and may Allah forgive them and us it's a very dicey issue. It's a very
it's a really difficult topic to talk about.
But this is a reality you need to be aware of if you are getting involved in Dawa.
Do not be sidetracked by all the members of the opposite gender trying to slide into your DMS.
And reality is if you are a powerful public speaker, and you're good looking and you famous.
Then people think of you as a catch and they want you
and they will try to seduce you
either into a divorce and then marrying them or into a secret marriage or sometimes even into Zina. I have seen cases of Xena
I've seen cases where people would slide into a chef or chef or die or dahlias, DMS with only the intention of scenario and the other person wouldn't be thinking about the adverse but the temptation gets so strong that knows the biller they slip and fall. Because the human
May Allah forgive them and us for any sensitive anyone has that.
So how do you protect yourself from this? I want to talk to about protecting ourselves from this because I believe that this current generation, nobody talks about these topics. So no one's prepared for these issues.
How do you protect yourself? Number one, maintain boundaries with the opposite gender.
Maintain boundaries with the opposite gender. Don't get close to anyone of the opposite gender, make sure that if they're not your mom and your spouse, don't get close to them, if you have to work with them, keep it professional. Keep it professional. You shouldn't be chatting after work hours about all other kinds of things. No, keep it professional, keep it to the point.
Do not have friendships with members of the opposite gender you think we shouldn't have to tell people involved in Dawa all of this. All of this is obvious. Sadly, nowadays.
Suffering, the amount of things I've seen happen at our centers and our organizations, we have to talk about us. Don't get close to members of the opposite gender. And this applies to online as well.
Don't be DMing people of the opposite gender.
Don't. Right They
it's it's just opening the doors of fitna.
Now yes as a share can share for people of the opposite genders will message you about the advice for the dean and about fake or Aqeedah or comparative religion or whatever. Keep it short. Keep it simple, keep it focused on the topic. And if you find that you are someone who is easily seduced into fitna in these areas.
My advice is to ensure that your spouse has access to these messages, or maybe even that they answer these messages on your behalf. Because that adds an extra layer of protection against falling into fitna.
And the obvious advice.
If you are involved in Dawa, please get married, please get married young as early as possible. Because having a young, handsome or beautiful die your Dahlia out there giving lectures who is not married, who is single is an even bigger fitna for the community. Right? Because if some young handsome chef shows up and starts giving lectures, all the single sisters say I want to be his wife. Same with the chakra, right? So get married young. And make sure that you you honor your marriage and you're committed to your marriage and that your marriage becomes a value between you and pick. Now people don't realize the power of these fitness. Right? They think that oh, I can handle it. I'm
pious. I will fall into something like this. I'm pious. You know that bias
is a reason why in our religion, anything that leads to Zina is haram. Because majority of people, once they get past all those things that lead to Zina and they are in a
situation, they will slip up, the power of attraction is too strong. This temptation is too strong for most people to handle.
So be very, very wary of the fitna of the opposite gender, I have seen so many people, good intentions go completely off, when they realize they're getting the attention of the opposite gender, we're doing that. And yeah, the adult brothers who when they realize that they're getting the attention of the opposite gender, when they talk about certain topics or don't talk about certain topics, they hold our shifts in that direction. They only start seeing the things that make women happy. And they never talk about the topics that are controversial to women.
Because they enjoy the the attention that they get from women.
And they don't want to lose that attention.
So the whole Tao just becomes female centric,
because they enjoy the attention of the opposite gender.
And this is again he goes back to last year Nia do your Dawa for the sake of Allah do your Dawa for the sake of Allah. This is number one. If we lose this,
if we lose this, then
nothing else matters. But yes, if you've lost this in the past or even now, that hamdulillah as long as you are alive, there is a chance to do doba there is a chance to return to the middle part, there is a chance to balance out your intentions. Now it may be that Allah has made it such that you are watching this video because you needed it most. And then now is your opportunity.
Need to fix your intentions. So hamdulillah for that. So I want to end with just some advice on how to keep our intentions for the sake of Allah. Because remember, this has to be a long term consistent effort, not something you do words off. It's not that you sit down at the age of 20 and say, I am doing Dawa for the sake of Allah and you'll never think about it again for the next 50 years. No, this has to be a consistent effort that you do for the rest of your life. You have to renew your intentions and check your intentions every day, for the rest of your life. Because right to the very end, she Dawn will try and use one of these tricks to mess up your intentions. fame,
money, the opposite gender, self amazement, jealousy, you will try to use these things to mess up your intentions.
You need to be constantly in jihad against radon by focusing on fixing it. So how do you fix your intentions? Number one Maha Sabha check yourself. Check yourself every day. Ask yourself everyday Am I really doing this for Allah? Am I really doing this for Allah? Ask yourself have an honest conversation with yourself. Am I honestly doing this for Allah subhanho wa Taala or has something else diverted me because you'll be surprised to learn that somewhere down the line you messed up and you ended up doing it for fame or doing it for ego or doing it for money or doing it for the opposite gender. We have to have honest conversations with ourselves.
Number two, renew your intention every day. Renew your intention every day, every day. Tell yourself I am doing this for Allah.
I am doing this for Allah.
Make sure you tell yourself this every day.
And yes, of course sometimes you'll forget, but try your best to do this every day. Number three, remember the dua for protection from RIA and recited offer. Oh Allah, protect us from committing shirt knowingly and forgive us for doing it unknowingly. Make this dua as often as you can.
Number four,
accept the advice of the people you have chosen to be close to you, your husband, or your wife, your close friends, your teachers, they are the ones who will notice hold on this guy is getting a bit egotistical this this this person is getting a bit fame seeking they're getting a bit greedy now they being distracted by fitna and they'll call you out for it.
See Al Hamdulillah for that dank Allah did you have people in your life who care about your iman and care about your afterlife, so they call you out when your intentions are going straight? Don't Allah for that these people are one of Allah's biggest gifts to you, because they are a protection between you and fitna.
So accept the advice and thank them for the advice and tell them anytime in the future you see me string on this issue. Make sure you let me know.
Number four.
Number four,
to make sure your intention is for the sake of Allah. Ensure that you have secret good deeds that nobody knows about besides Allah.
Make sure that there are secret good deeds in your life that nobody knows about besides Allah said in sha Allah. The sincerity of those secret good deeds can outweigh any mistakes or lapses in intention in our public good deeds. Because the reality is when we are doing good deeds in public, whether it is a lecture or a book or a class, or playing Salah in German, or whatever it is, when we are doing our good deeds in public, it is highly likely that we may mess up our intentions unknowingly. To make up for this we make the DUA and also we have secret good deeds. Because if there are secret good deeds that nobody knows about besides Allah, not even your your spouse, nobody
knows about it besides Allah.
Then you know, at least for those deeds, there is a class that those deeds are for Allah and for nobody else.
So please, my brothers and sisters when you are doing our when you are seeking knowledge when you were teaching Allah's Dean, and show a classroom near a class or near is the foundation without it, whatever we do,
whatever we do loses its reward.
Not only does it lose its reward, but it becomes a sin. And we could be amongst the first people thrown into the Hellfire
because we use Allah's religion for personal gain.
So this is a very simple
One topic. So very important topic. I know, I went way over time with this, I was expecting to keep these videos at 30 to 35 minutes, this was one hour. But it's important. It's important. I've seen so many people stray in my lifetime. I'll guide them back in May Allah forgive us and keep us guided. I've seen people who are like the most
sincere our brothers and sisters at one point and another point in their life to become the most egotistical or greedy, or you just fall into the temptation of the opposite gender and just completely went off the rails.
And it can happen to any of us. We have to be humble about that it could happen to any of us so we seek Allah's forgiveness. We ask Allah to keep us sincerely on the straight path we ask Allah to make us from those who know whenever we do we do it for his sake. And we ask Allah to forgive us for any lapses in our intentions. And then whenever our intention to do go off the OLA brings us back to the straight part. And we ask Allah to accept our Dawa and to accept our good deeds and to make it all purely for his sake it will Baraka in it and to make it something that brings about here in this world, and even more reward in the afterlife, is also here for your time and attention or salam Wa
alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh it