Ramadan 2019 #08 – The Beauty of this world

Salam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh hamdu Lillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah adios Javi h ma E. We begin by praising Allah and asking Allah to Cindy's Peace and blessings upon the final prophet Muhammad, even Abdullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, all those who follow his way of righteousness until the end of time. So today in Sharla, I just want to take a look at one of my favorite verses from Surah, Al Kahf. And some lessons from there. And the explanation that I'm giving is from one of my own books, best of creation and Islamic guide to self confidence, you can get it from the link below. So this book of mine, basically I discuss the Islamic model of confidence, right, our

confidence comes from Allah subhanho wa Taala. And from our understanding of this world, and how Allah subhanho wa Taala made us and made this work. And one of the early chapters in this book is called the nature of this worldly life. And really, this chapter is an explanation of this verse that I want to discuss today, which is verses number seven, and eight of surah Kahf, which allows you to handle that says, the translation of which is definitely I have made whatever is on this earth beautiful, to test which of them are best in deities, and I will turn all of it into j soil. So in this verse, Allah subhanaw, taala is telling us three things about this world. Number one,

this world is beautiful. Number two, this world is a test. Number three, this world will end. So this world is a beautiful, temporary place of testing. So what is meant by this will be a test? Well, you can see that there's multiple ways in which this world is a test.

Most of us know the most obvious form, which is the difficulties and calamities and challenges that we face during life. So every single human being at some point in their life or another faces some kind of calamity or difficulty. So some people, sometimes we have to deal with deaths in the family, sometimes you have to deal with financial problems, sometimes you have to deal with health problems, sometimes you have to deal with family members who are like cutting off ties with you, or the challenges and the test are many. And each and every one of us have different tastes in that manner. But that's not the type of test I want to talk about today. Because most of us are familiar with

that kind of test, we recognize it, we deal with it, we have struggle, we ask Allah for help we get closer to electrometer kondalilla. The other type of test is one way many of us don't even recognize it to be a test from Allah, Allah tala. And many of us fail that test because we don't even recognize it to be a test. And that is what this verse is talking about this first lush mantra says, he made this world beautiful to test us. Right. So the test of the beauty of this world, the test of the nice things of this world, the good things of this world. And what does that mean? Well, there are different types of beauty in this world. And each of them is a test in of itself. So in my book,

I mentioned three types of worldly beauties. And how each of these three types is a different test to us. The first type is the halaal beauty of this world. So Allah subhana wa tada tells us in the Quran, that he has made beloved to us, the opposite gender, and children and money, and you know, possessions These are things Allah has made beautiful towards these are the test of the world that are beautiful that we want that we chase after that we look forward to this is the holiday beauty of the world. And the halau beauty of the world is in of itself a test. Why is it a test, because we need to enjoy it in a way that Allah has allowed, and not to allow it not to allow these beautiful

things to become so

overtaking our lives to overtake our lives in such a way that we start disobeying Allah for their sake. For example, it is completely hollow, to have a beautiful spouse that you love. But when you start disobeying Allah in order to please that person, you have now overstepped the bounds, you are now feeling the test of this beauty that Allah has placed in your life. It's the same with your children. There is nothing wrong with trying to give your children a happy life as long as these Hello but now when you start doing things which are prohibited, what Allah subhana wa Taala in order to please your children without overstepping the bounds, and so this is the test of the halau beauty

that we keep it in balance that you enjoy it in the way the loss of a handler wants us to enjoy it. And we do not fall into

you know into this will being a love for the sake of this thing that we love. The second type of beauty in this world, which is a test for us is deceptive beauty. deceptive beauty means something that looks beautiful. It seemed beautiful on the outside, but it is extremely harmful. It is extremely dangerous. It is very, very bad for us. It just looks like

An example of deceptive, deceptive beauty in the modern world is the way that casinos are built. So almost every Casino in the modern world today is designed to look absolutely beautiful, right? The architecture, the design of the building, the flashy lights, all of it is designed to look beautiful. But it's deceptive. It's deceptive, because it's really masking a lot of pain and addiction, right? They're trying to attract you India with this beauty. And underneath this beauty is nothing but pain and addiction. And so many of the tests of the world today are like this, they look beautiful. But in reality, that beauty is only surface level. And below that is nothing but

pain. And a lot of young Muslims fall into this trap today. So they see the deceptive beauty of the Zener lifestyle of the atheist lifestyle of the materialistic and liberal lifestyle, they see all of this flashy beauty on the television, and in movies and TV series and they want it they want to be like them. But what they don't see is all the pain behind it. The depression, the loneliness, or the lack of purpose in life, the frustration of not knowing what to do with one's life, all the the heartbreak, the diseases that come along with with some of these lifestyles, and the addiction problems, you don't see all of this, all they see is the deceptive beauty. Right? So the test over

here. And the way of passing the test over here is to recognize this deceptive beauty, and to recognize what it is hiding what it is masking. And so to stay away from it. Once you recognize that this is just surface level beauty and below it is pain and misery and difficulty and sin, then you'll be able to avoid it and you pass this type of test.

The third type of test, which is based on beauty, is what we would call tempting beauty, the kind of beauty of this world which tempts us towards self. Right. So we said the halau beauty, for example is your spouse, or a holiday business, or your children, or a nice home. All of this is halaal beauty of this world all of this beautiful things that Allah has given you to enjoy in alway, right? deceptive beauty is something which it looks good, but underneath it is a lot of pain and misery. tempting beauty is something which is in between the two, right? There is a halau way of getting it in a harami or getting it but the harami is very tempting. So for example, becoming a millionaire.

This is very tempting, it's very, it's something beautiful in terms of dunya it's something a lot of people want a lot of people enjoy other people get happiness out of. So it's definitely part of the beauty of this world. But the temptation to find a shortcut to do it to scam people to con people to steal, you know, to to do something that's unethical and Haram in order to reach this level. This is a test that many people fail. So yeah, the test of life is to avoid the temptation, and to find the hallowee instead, to satisfy your desire, whether it's the desire for the opposite gender, for sexual fulfillment, whether it's the desire for, for money, for for some kind of status, for people

to respect you, all of this can be very, very tempting. And all of this can lead people into different types of sin. And so the test over here is to recognize that you are being tempted towards evil through this beautiful thing, and to try and find an alternative that falls under the category of halau beauty. So for example, a, a Xena type of relationship would be tempting beauty, but a nica would be Hello, beauty. Right? So this is a very difficult test for some people to deal with. And once you recognize it, inshallah becomes easier to deal with. Now, at the end of the day, you know, many people go to the opposite extreme, and they think that, you know, we should shun everything of

this world. But that's not what Allah subhanaw taala tells us to do in the Quran, that is not the way of Rasulullah slowly, some are the Sahaba. Rather, we should enjoy what Allah has made her out for us. And we should abstain from what he has prohibited for us. And in this, we get to enjoy the beauty of this worldly life in a hallway, while keeping our eye on the ultimate prize. Remember, the verse you mentioned mentioned three things about this world, that this world is beautiful, his world is a test. But number three, this world is temporary, it will end. And so we have to always keep that in mind that this world is going to end. And so we need to prepare for the afterlife that is

far more important than chasing after our immediate desires and trying to attain our immediate desires. So that's it for today. I hope that you found it beneficial. If you want to learn more, please get hold of the book, click on the link below to get it. This is really one of my favorite books that I've written. I read it all the time myself. It's really a very important topic. And when did we really need to study from the Islamic perspective so on

We meet again to Dhaka Pharaoh Salam alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh