Code of Conduct #4 Ihsaan

Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh hamdu Lillahi wa Salatu was Salam ala mon Lana Ba, ba ba.

So we now in our fourth lesson on a caller's code of conduct, where we will be looking at principle number three, which is

the pursuit of excellence striving for perfection.

And it certainly is a topic that is very close to my heart. It's something I've spoken about many times in many different areas. In fact, the whole concept of Islamic self help came about from the idea of helping Muslims pursue Ersan excellence in everything they do.

Someone

means to seek perfection or excellence in everything we do. It comes from the word husband, which means that which is good. SR means to strive for that which is even better. Right for that which is excellent and which is amazing. It means that

if there's a better way to do something, that's what you're going to chase after. And this word is used in many different ways in the Quran and Sunnah. The most famous usage of the word Hassan in the hadith is in describing the levels of piety of religiosity, in the famous hadith of Gibreel, where the angel Jibreel alayhi salam came to the prophets of Allah, who are they he was alone in the form of a man to ask some questions so that the Sahaba could learn from the answers. And from those questions were, what is Islam? And the five pillars of Islam was mentioned? What is Iman and the six pillars of Imam you mentioned? And then what is it sir, and Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam

reply Hassan is to worship Allah as if you can see him. And even though you cannot see him, you know that he is watching you.

The scholars in the commentary on this Hadees, this state that Hassan in this context, means achieving a higher level of piety, seeking excellence in how we worship Allah, that the average Muslim worships Allah in ways that are deficient, right? Sometimes we are negligent, sometimes we are distracted, sometimes we do it ritualistically all of this is human, this is part of us striving to do our best. But if we wish to achieve Hassan in our worship, we need to build ourselves to a level that someday inshallah women reach a level of piety. When we worship Allah. It is as if we can see Allah. And we worship Allah in a state of consciousness that we know Allah is watching us. And

so we worship Him with a much stronger sense of faith, a lot more concentration, a lot more quality in our worship. This is a lesson in worship. Now,

the concept of a son that we are going to discuss today is not necessarily the essence of worship. But it's the usage of this word in a more general sense,

linked to our Dawa and this is from a different Hadith where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam stated that Allah loves what he servants that in anything they do,

they do it with Sr. In anything they do they do it with Yeah, so one of the versions of this narration states that to such an extent, that if you have to kill you kill in the best of manners, if you have to slaughter you slaughter in the best of manners by sharpening your knives to the animal does not feel any pain. So this Hadees teaches us that the believer is supposed to strive for excellence in every pursuit.

My teachers used to say that

striving for excellence in every pursuit means to such an extent that even if you're washing the dishes, you do it in the best way possible. Even if you cleaning the house, you do it in the best way possible. You don't consider any action to mundane, to lower the bar of excellence, right? Because many of us, when you look into our lives, we have certain things where they are important to us, and the things that are important to us, we may strive for excellence in those things, but things that are not important to us, we may just do the bare minimum, right just to get by.

And what my teacher said is that striving for it, Sam, when he says that Allah expects Assad in everything, it means you don't treat any

aspect of life as you know, I'm just going to do the bare minimum. No, you try to be the best at everything you do. And so in every aspect of your life, this pursuit of excellence should be reflected. The example given in the Hadees is slaughtering an animal, or killing someone in the case of, for example, executing the murderer. In both of these cases, excellence is to do it in a way where the person or the animal feels the least amount of pain. Right? So, again, Islam does not encourage us to be vigilante and anti violence and as as the Islamophobes may claim, but the hadith is simply stating that if you are in a situation where you have to write, and he gives a more

practical example, slaughtering animals, which historically Muslims had to do all the time, right, most people in history didn't live in a time where you have meat already packaged and available at the shop, you have to slot your animals. But it's saying that when you have to do this, do it in a way that causes the least amount of pain. So you notice when we slaughter animals on a day, you know, look at the way that Muslims do it, we put the animals, at least to me, wasn't supposed to do it. And humbly like my community, they still do it like this, but we put the animals in good conditions, right, where they do not feel overcrowded, they do not feel mistreated, we feed them

well, we slaughter them away from the other. So none of the animals witness the slaughtering of the

of the fellow animals.

We use the sharpest knife possible, and cut those specific veins. So it is the least amount of pain possible, as the blood drains out and the meat is as healthy as possible. All of this is extra. This is showing how Islam

pushes us to have a sun in everything, even in something that other people will consider mundane, where they just do the bare minimum, right? Modern society when it comes to the slaughtering of animals, they just do the bare minimum they will crowd them into a pen and they will just you know electrocute them or whatever, whatever is the bare minimum to just get it done and overworked. Without thinking about how does this impact the animal? How does this impact the healthiness of the meat? No, they don't think about all these things. All they think about is this do as much as possible. So we can make as much money as possible, right? Because they only think in terms of

money.

But in Islam, there is a lesson even in the treatment of animals that you are going to slaughter even at the moment of slaughter, there is still this pursuit of a facade. So if someone is required of us in something as mundane as slaughtering an animal, which historically humans have to do every day for meat,

what about in something that is part of the religion, something that is part of spreading the religion, which is Daraa

Hassan is definitely required in Dawa, that the person involved in Dawa needs to be a person of excellence, a da a par excellence, a DA II, who is focused on doing things in the best way possible.

And there are many levels and layers to this. And the Amber's understandings of this that we wish to go through.

So in everything we do, we must pursue excellence. Allah subhanho wa Taala says in the Quran in Allah, you're able to see Nene. Allah loves the people of SR. Allah loves those who pursue excellence, those who try their best. Now, yes, exon in this verse could mean a son in worship, but it could also mean in the general sense of doing everything to the best of your ability because you know that that is pleasing to Allah subhanho wa taala.

So a person of knowledge a DA, a scholar, a student of knowledge must hold himself to a higher standard of sun. This means excellence in everything that we do. If you write a book, write it in the best possible manner. Think deeply researched thoroughly. Choose your words carefully. Make sure it's the best possible book that you can produce. If you are preparing a lecture. Again, do it with ASR, research it well rehearse it properly. Choose your wordings, choose the right topic.

Make sure that you're doing it in the best way possible. If a PowerPoint presentation will enhance it, do that, if certain multimedia forms will enhance it do that part of Assam to me is also preparing for the q&a. Anticipating what possible questions may come up and how you will answer those questions. This is also part of your search so you're not unprepared for the q&a. You are prepared for most potential questions that will come up

likewise, if you're teaching a class, you prepare you research, you anticipate the students questions, you prepare the crowds in the most interesting and interactive way possible.

You try to figure out the best techniques to ensure that your students learn what you are teaching. And this means also, that part of your son is learning the skills required to be the best. So if you are planning on writing, you need to study research methodology, you need to study writing skills, you need to learn these things. If you are teaching a class, you need to be always sharpening your teaching skill set, you need to be learning the latest teaching techniques and the latest research in the field of education. This is all part of yourself that because knowledge of worldly skills is always evolving. You're always staying up to date so that you can be the best at what you do. Not in

competition with anybody else, but in competition with who you were before, that you are a better teacher today than you were yesterday that you are a better public speaker today than you were yesterday that you are a better author today than you were yesterday that you are a better day today than you were yesterday. Part of Assange is the pursuit of always being better than you were in the past. So you are continuously growing closer and closer to achieving your full potential. So you're not wasting any of the skills and intellect that Allah has blessed you with. Because you're always aiming higher, you're always trying to be better. You're always trying to be the best in the world

at what you do, not in competition with anybody else. But with your own past self. You always look in the mirror and say, How can I be better.

And when we look at the early Muslims, we see many examples of SR. In fact, the early generations were a time when the sun was the norm, especially with the sahaba. Look at the Sahaba they were like the best at everything. When Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi. Salam described the Sahaba Yahweh describes it as the best right not just the best of generations, he does call them that clay rune right the best of generations. But he also called individually, you know, the one who is the best of judges, the one who has the most hire, the one who is most trustworthy. These are different labels he gave to different Sahaba. And so you will find that the Sahaba they strive for excellence in

everything they did. As soon as Khalid eventually became the commander of the Muslim army, became one of the greatest commanders in the history of this world. When the whole lava regime were given power, he became some of the greatest leaders in the history of this world, with Abdullah ibn Abbas and Aisha with the Abu Bakr. And many of the other young Sahaba pursued L, they became some of the greatest scholars in the history of the world.

And this is because they lived with ESSA, they sought to be the best at what they did,

that they would seek knowledge on a level that many of us today wouldn't that they would find ways to increase their skill set and get better at what they are doing to every means possible.

And we see this even with the generations after them. And we look at how the sciences of Hadith and fiqh. At have seen evolve over time, we see Hassan at every level, from those who compiled the narrations to those who shifted between sifted between them, to those who came up with the categories of fic and the category that also will fit those who classify knowledge. Look at the example of the compilation compilation of sahih al Bukhari. That is an excellent example of a son in work, that Imam Al Bukhari did not just want to put together a book of Hadith, but he wanted to put together the biggest book of Hadith that he wanted to put together the best book of Hadith

that he could do. And so he tried his best to compile only that which was authentic, only that which was on another level. And because of this, his book became the greatest book of Hadees, right until today, over 1000 years later, his book is the best book of Hadees because he put complete sound into the compilation of that book.

And we see that the early Muslims did not just pursue Hassan in their religious work, but even in their worldly affairs. So this is why we see that when the Muslims became a superpower in the time of the Romanians and the Abbasids. They did not just become a superpower, but they became global leaders in every field. That the fields

maths, and science and medicine, and technology and agriculture and geography and all the different areas. Muslims became the global leaders in this in this field. And the best scholars of each of these fields for hundreds of years came from the Muslim world. Why? Because they had a culture of Assam, they had a culture of producing the best of the best, whether it was in religious sciences, or in what we would call today, the worldly sciences, they had this culture of producing the best of the best. Unfortunately, in the past few centuries, this culture of Ehsaan began to fall away. And Omar unfortunately became complacent, became lazy, became willing to just get by with bare minimum.

And this has held us back. And this has pulled us back this has caused the power is one of the many different things that has caused power to be taken away from the Muslims. Of course, there are other factors as well. But this is one of the factors that the Ottoman Empire went from being the most powerful empire in the world, to one of the weakest empires in the world. And one of the many reasons for this, is that they became complacent, they stopped really trying to be the best, they stop trying to compete with all the other nations and other nations overtook them, and became more powerful than them.

So complacency is a enemy to success in any sense of the word. And we, as Muslims, need to in our times have revived the concept of SR, we need to revive the concept of pursuing excellence, of doing everything we can to the best of our ability of being the best in the world at what we do, no matter what it is, we do, we try our best to be number one. And really, if we can do this, there, we see a new generation, where the best of doctors are the Muslims. And the best of scientists are the Muslims. And most importantly for us in this regard, and what comes with what we are discussing in this course, the best of the preachers and the quality and the scholars are the Muslims. But in our

times, we will find that they are two

extremes in terms of mistakes that people make in the pursuit of science.

Right. In the end, he comes to the issue of Asana excellence, the actual opposite extremes that people fall into that get in the way of SR. One extreme is most understanding what Hassan is. So they focus on the wrong things. The other extreme is not caring about it at all, and just being lazy. And ready, that is the opposite of a facade, the opposite of Ersan is laziness. If you are not pursuing excellence, you are pursuing mediocrity. And this is just laziness. This is just someone who doesn't care enough to try. And this is a big problem in the dollar. I know personally, so many dollar organizations that have the money, and the network, and the potential to truly make a

difference in the world. But unfortunately, these organizations are run by people who just don't care, they run by people who get by on doing the bare minimum and by Bare minimum meet the bare bare minimum.

Like

if they have any Islamic event coming up

their marketing will the bare minimum bare minimum, the venue they will choose will be wherever is available cheapest even though they can afford something bigger and better. The treatment of the guest would be bare minimum, right, whatever they can get by word, and even in terms of accomplishing their goals. So if their boss tells them, you need to bring down one international speaker this year, they will make sure right at the end of the year before the year ends, they bring down just one international speaker, even though they can afford to do more. Why? Because there's a sense of laziness, like I'm getting paid. And it doesn't matter if I do more or not. So I'm just

going to do the bare minimum.

And I have seen so much of the resources of the Ummah squandered because people just don't care to make an effort. You know, they do art out there who don't prepare the lectures, people who show up without any research done, without any anticipation of what the questions will be a completely butchered the presentation. And the end up chasing people away because they are so sloppy in the presentation and the research and the answers that it is off putting to the audience.

And so, on one extreme, we have to be very weary of laziness in the Dawa. In fact, one of the two hours that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam taught us is to seek protection daily from lazy

Here's why. Because when you become lazy, you will never live up to your full potential, you will never achieve

that which is best for you, you will never put out the best results possible. And I have seen this too often I have seen this in so many different organizations, individuals, people who just don't want to put in the effort, because they can't be bothered. Because they feel like what's the point? Either way, you're getting paid the same? You see, if you're only looking at your salary and not the pleasure of Allah, and not how do I ensure that this Dawa reaches the most people possible, then you're going to be lazy. But if your goal is the pleasure of Allah, and you know that Allah loves democracy, and the people of Hassan, then you are going to do your work with your son, you're going

to strive to be the absolute best at what you do. And sadly, in the past, I've met people who would actually try to stop others from ASR. They actually tried to stop others from being their best and doing their best. Why? Because they will say, Oh, you're making us look bad. What do you mean, making us look bad? You said, you're gonna get people to high expectations, you've done a lecture on that level, you're going to expect that from us, you done a presentation like that, they're going to expect that from us. So in order to keep things mediocre, in order to maintain the laziness, they tried to discourage others from working with Sr.

And they'll tell them. And by the way, I know of many situations where this happened to me, where people literally told me that you set the bar too high.

You know, you shouldn't have done that to the job, why I should try my best, you should try your best if we all do it for the sake of Allah, then we should be proud of each other's efforts, we shouldn't be trying to pull somebody else down. And this is one of the dangers of not having a son, that you become

almost intimidated by those people who do have Yesod. And instead of trying to raise yourself to their level, you try to drag them down to your level.

And this is something I've seen happen many, many times.

So that's one extreme in our times as many people put in the bare minimum, and they expect incredible results.

So I've seen people who just put together a website that barely has any beneficial content on it. Most of the time just copy and pasted from other people, without doing any real research without really putting any effort into the design of the website.

And they expect that website to be like

the best. In terms of the results. They think that they assume that if they put in the bare minimum effort in Dawa, they're going to get the best results out of the doubt. Now again, remember the point you meant it in the video on a class.

That success is the pleasure of Allah, not the amount of people who accept Islam at your hands or who learn from you, right? That we aim for the pleasure of Allah. However, this doesn't mean that we don't try our best. Your job is to try your best not to put out a mediocre effort and expect gradual results. That's just being delusional, that people do that. They do that with their websites, they do that with their content. They do that with books, I've seen books that are so sloppily written and researched that wonder why will anyone publish this?

They do that many different things.

And this needs to change. If you are involved in Dawa make a commitment today that you are going to work with SR that you are going to pursue excellence in everything that you do that you are going to try your absolute best to produce the best quality work for the sake of Allah because Allah loves the people of SR. And when you do work that is done with excellence for the sake of Allah, they will be Baraka in what you do. And that work will be blessed and that work will inshallah be a means of guidance for people. Now let's go to the other extreme. The other extreme today is people who must understand what Hassan is.

And they restrict Hassan primarily to very materialistic aspects of the Dawa.

So I have, especially over the past 15 years, in the past 20 years, have seen many do art, who in the name of Hassan de became obsessed with very materialistic, but secondary aspects of the Dawa.

So

Instead of ensuring that they have the best researched content, the most well presented lectures, the

most well thought out answers to q&a. Instead of doing that, they focus on having the fanciest background for the videos,

explain expensive,

overproduced stages for the conferences.

Make sure that everything looks as fancy as possible.

And in of itself, if you can afford this without it really affecting your income in any way, if this is just, you know, you can afford that level of fanciness. It's not a problem in itself. But if you think this is your son in the hour, then you have misunderstood what he said in that hour is your son is not having the fanciest background. If someone is not having the, you know, best looking person on stage. I've actually seen this there's the one incident I dealt with a few years ago, there was a Dawa organization, there will only hire handsome men

and good looking woman.

Because for them isn't isn't beautiful face on the poster. I was a biller. So they would actually discriminate against some of the best two hours of our time, because they weren't good looking.

Ridiculous. Like this really shows you how shallow and superficial people can get when they focus on dunya aspects of Dini aspects.

So if someone is not having this massive conference with a fancy stage, and the best looking speakers, and everything looks all shiny and multimillion dollar in terms of presentation, yes, Sun is a well researched argument

well presented for the sake of Allah, sincerely from the heart, well articulated. This is SR.

And this is why you will find today that you may have some 18 or 19 year old, who

is just sitting at home in front of their laptop, recording a video. They don't have any fancy background, they may not even have the best of microphones or cameras, or lighting. But they're sitting at home. And they sincerely

doing a presentation on a topic that they have researched, and they're doing the best job possible. And that video may go on to change people's lives and call people cause people to convert to Islam.

And he may have a far deeper impact than someone who has the fanciest stage and the fanciest of clothes and the best looking of people. But they didn't research the lecture well enough.

Because the end of the day, the Dawa is not about how fancy everything looks. That's a misunderstanding of SR. The DA is about the sincerity of the heart and making sure that you have done your work properly.

That you know what you are talking about that you speak

from thorough research and well thought out words and not just, you know, going in there and whatever happens happens.

So these are the two issues in our times that we have people who assume that Dawa with Hassan means being fancy in a materialistic sense. And we have those who are just lazy and incompetent and just doing the bare minimum to get by and collect a paycheck.

Both sides are wrong.

Our role model when it comes to Dawa is Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he loved the simple life. He wouldn't be one who cared about how fancy the background is or anything like that if we lived in our times, Allah knows best. His Masjid was the simplest of Masjid. His homes are the simplest of homes. Yet his message transformed the world.

Omar Nahata Abdullah who the same famous story of when he entered Jerusalem, looking as the most simple of people, and when some of the other Sahaba tried to get him onto this fancy bandwagon of dressing fancy and saying that's what it means to to, you know, to to impress people, he reminded them. We are a people who Allah on a true Islam. If we seek honor to anything else, Allah will disgrace us. And yet today, Omar Rajan, who is known as amongst the greatest of the Sahaba, only after Abu Bakr. He was the simplest of people. He wasn't someone who pursued fancy clothing or fancy must keep the fancy home so he was very simple. That simplicity is what blesses

To the dollar.

So nowadays, you may have someone who only flies first class and only stays at five star hotels, and make sure that the stage is fancy, and that they'll have only the best of cameras and the best of microphones. Yet they may not speak from research, they may not have thought out what they're going to say they not may not be articulate enough in terms of having researched and thought out how they're going to work themselves. And they may just be focusing only on everything looking fancy, I traveled first class and I stay in a five star hotel, you've lost the plot, if you think that's what the hour is all about. gawa is about the pleasure of Allah. And very often that simple person who

lives a simple life, and he just focuses on pleasing Allah and calling people to Allah, purely for the pleasure of Allah. That person's Tao will make me have far more Baraka than the person who is obsessed with how things look.

Again, there's nothing wrong with having high quality, Islamic material.

There's nothing wrong with it, having the best quality camera that you can afford the best quality microphone that you can afford, or dressing well, or having a nice background is nothing wrong with these things in of themselves.

But if this becomes the obsession, at the expense of the content, then it is a problem.

If how things look becomes the obsession, at the expense of the quality of the content that you are producing, then this is a problem. It is far better, to keep things simple, but ensure that your content is powerful and beneficial, that you have all the fanciness in the world, yet your message is hollow.

So we end the session with a reminder that Allah subhanaw taala has told us in the Quran, which is our Sonic Eulalia.

That is the reward of Ehsaan anything less than yourself. Meaning if you live a life of Hassan, if you pursue axon in everything.

Your reward will be a reward of SR, Santa Allah is beyond our imagination.

And so this is what the Sun is about. It's about the pleasure of Allah. Allah loves the Masini and he's going to reward them with Exxon. And so we live a life of Assad for the sake of Allah. It doesn't matter what the worldly

results are at the end of the day, Allah decides who is guided at whose hands you may spend your whole life doing Dawa sincerely for the sake of Allah with your son.

And feel like you didn't achieve anything in this world. But if you get to Jana Alhamdulillah. That's all that matters.

So how do we have a song? Let's end with a few simple points. How do you have a son number one, love what you do. If you love teaching, it will come across when you are teaching. If you love writing, it comes across in your writing. If you love conveying the message of Islam verbally, one on one to people in conversations that comes across, love what you do, make sure that you are doing it from this position of enthusiasm. It's not like you a burden to do it.

Number two, make sure you gain the skills to be the best in the world at what you do. Not in competition with anybody else but with your own past self. So if you are a public speaker, keep on studying new and better techniques to improve public speaking. If you are a teacher, keep learning new ways to get better and better at teaching. If you are a writer, keep finding ways to improve at writing.

The part of your son is continuous improvement, continuously trying to be better than you were in the past. Another important aspect of Ehsaan is effortless, every spoke about if last two videos ago. So go back to that video if you need a reminder on it. Plus, another important part of Hassan is that you have productive habits, that your habits facilitate a son.

So I have entire books written on time management and self confidence where I talk about these topics was actually some of my early books. And really the whole project of Islamic self help is to help people become people of Ehsaan in their habits. So I'm not going to go into details about that in this video. I have many other videos and articles and books on that topic.

But just to putting simply, every one involved in Dawa should ensure that they have productive habits in how they manage their time and how they research and how they prepare in how systematically they love. This is part of so that you do things in the best way possible. If your lifestyle is haphazard, if you write when you feel like it if you research if you get the time.

If you're just waking up late and playing video games and watching television and then if you get time in between, you're going to do some Dawa. If you have that kind of mindset, you're never going to achieve a Hassan, you might do something basic, you might get some results. But that's not Hassan. Hassan is having a vision, having goals,

continuous self improvement, productive habits. All of this helps us to achieve a son.

So we end with a reminder

that the third principle of Dawa is SR. Thou must be done with a glass sincerely for Allah subhanho wa Taala L, and you know what you're talking about, and yes on, that you pursue excellence in everything that you do.

So let us be people of excellence. Let us be the best speakers that we can be the best writers that we can be the best teachers that we can be the best do art that we can be the best students that we can be. Let's strive for excellence in everything that we do. So when we meet Allah subhanho wa Taala on the Day of Judgment, we may inshallah be included amongst the most in in

and from amongst those whom Allah said about them, how does our own son in law

is the reward of a Hassan anything less than a reward of ESA

that is what we pursue. That is what we desire. And that is what we work towards.

Hope you found this beneficial hope this motivates you to be a person of ESA and to do Dawa with Assad and to study with yourself and to make this a live philosophy that you aim to be amongst the most in in

so that you will be amongst those whom Allah loves.

We ask Allah to accept our efforts to grant us last week sun and to set what we have said and to forgive us for any mistakes we have made. While Diana and hamdulillahi rabbil Alameen