Ismail Kamdar – Self-Development-The Sunnah Way
AI: Summary ©
Shy Smile Geoffrey introduces educational lectures and workshops on personal development, emphasizing the negative impact of social and materialistic pressures on personal development and the need for a balance between father and son. He discusses the benefits of using the Islamic paradigm to filter negative ideas and achieve one's goals, including finding a balance between father and son, reading and analyzing books, and finding something beneficial for personal development and business. He also emphasizes the importance of setting goals and boundaries to achieve success and offers tips on achieving it.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome, everyone
in our first global webinar from code Institute, we are highly glad to have our respected and beloved Shy Smile kaamdar you know, your guest speaker today. From the relaxed first I'm going to introduce shake his smile comes to all of you Although shake is a very renowned and well known person in Bangladesh, but as this is a global winner, I think it's better to have a short introduction as well. So shake smile Canberra.
A began his startup slump at very early ages of 13 and he competed seven year alim course and he joined Islamic University as a senior lecturer as well as the faculty manager. And he worked there from February 2010 till October 2020. And currently, he works as a research manager at the UK Institute. And over the past decade shake his mind has served as a school teacher and administrator in multiple schools in South Africa and India. He has also delivered lectures and workshops in many locations locally and globally, and appeared on many radio stations across the globe. He has also served as radio presenter at radio announcer for several years, and in November 2016 in 2011, check
smile discovered the importance of personal development and notice the lack of Islamic literature dedicated to the speed after
getting out for the researchers on this topic, he decided to start his own work and he still decided to work collaboratively on this topic. Among the most famous books of Shrek Smiley's the having fun, the Halloween love this book has been translated in Bengali and there is a very good response among Bengali speaking people regarding this book, also getting Baraka and Islamic guide to time management. This has been also recently translated in Bengali and published some days back and based of creation and Islamic guide to self confidence, homeschooling on your own and we all know that shake smile is doing very good and making good resources or homes or homeschooling. And he has
written a productivity principle of Omar do that is Omar, Abdulaziz and some other books as well. So today, now I want to
share my do take the slot and yesterday's valuable lecture on self development, the tsunami, sure.
Salaam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
hamdulillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala nabina, Karim, Allah, Allah, he was happy Ah, mine. So inshallah I assume everybody can see my PowerPoint presentation. That's important because this
this presentation is going to be rather content heavy, right? I'm taking a very different approach to how I usually present this topic. So the topic of personal development, self development, self help.
In general, when I presented this topic in the past, I would only cover what is the Islamic perspective. And what I'm going to do today is slightly different. I'm first going to discuss what's wrong with this field. And this is something I, I didn't discuss much in the past, what's wrong with the current approaches in the west towards personal development. And I've been doing a lot of research in this area over the past two years. So a lot of this may be new for many of our listeners here today. But I believe this is very vital and important for us to understand why an Islamic approach is necessary. But if you don't understand what's wrong with the Western approach, we may
not be able to see the need for an Islamic approach. And I've had people approached me and they've told me things like, why do we need Islamic self help? You know, the, the information in the regular self help books is good enough? And the reality is no, it's not, it's not good enough. There are some things obvious and something subtle, that are an Islamic, and that's really what I'm going to focus on in the first half of today's presentation. In the second half. I'm going to present to you my model and my methodology for deriving an Islamic Islamic sized curriculum in personal development. So how did I develop my my paradigm for self confidence, the Islamic way of time
management, the Islamic way of personal productivity the Islamic way, I have a set system that I use, and I will present that in the second half of this presentation.
Again, this presentation will be in two parts. Part one is what's wrong with personal development? And Part two is how do we maximize it and do it the right way. So to begin with a few definitions, what is personal development, and what is self development? Well, there are two commonly used terms in this area, which are, in some ways synonyms and in some ways, slightly different to each other. Those two terms are personal development, and self help. So personal development is, you know, any activity that helps one to improve on capabilities or achieve one's potential, or become a better version of oneself. So generally, anything that you do, to grow into a better version of yourself is
categorized as personal development. So then what is self help with self help basically means helping yourself to do this, right, where you get your own books, or you get articles or videos, whatever it is, but you find a way to help yourself achieve your life goals. So these two terms, they overlap, but they also have slightly different from each other. Personal Development is not always self help. Sometimes it's through a life coach. Sometimes it's through a set a system of study under a teacher, sometimes with a mentor, sometimes it's an apprenticeship of a variety of different ways to go after personal development. And self help is one of those ways, which is you
are helping yourself to grow by
reading books or working on yourself or self counseling, self therapy, something of this nature. So
on the surface, this looks like a very good thing. Obviously, I mean, we all want to grow, we all want to achieve our goals, we all want to achieve our dreams, we all want to grow into the best versions of ourselves. So what's wrong with the field? Why do I feel this need to Islam is this field? Well, many people may not realize this, but the current model of personal development stems from a variety of Western ideas, many of which are an Islamic. And if you aren't aware of these ideas, you may not be aware of how they affect the field of personal development. So one of these ideas that is an Islamic and that affects our understanding of personal development, is the concept
of
individualism and this is really the big one.
I actually want to go further into this inshallah, in the future, this is one of the areas I'm researching at the moment, individualism and its impact on the oma. So what is individualism, individualism, as it has evolved over the past 20 to 30 years is this idea that it's all about me, life's about me, it's my goals, my dreams, my rights, you know, my passions, my whatever, it's all about me. And this started off as something, okay, you know, where maybe parents were forcing their kids down career paths they didn't like, and they say, what about my goals? What about things I'm interested in? Okay, that's understandable. But now, it's reached a point where people say things
like, well, I don't need to respect my my parents that, you know, I didn't ask him to give birth to me, I didn't ask him to raise me. It's not what I want to do. You know. So it's become a kind of worship of the self. This is really what it's becoming in our times. And this is very problematic, that a lot of a lot of the concepts in the world today stem from individualism, a lot of the problems in the world today stemmed from individualism, the high divorce rates are the amount of people who don't want to get married, the amount of people who don't want to have children, if you look at the reasoning behind it, for a lot of people, individualism is the root cause. And it
affects personal development as well. So if you look at personal development, the western idea, it's all about me, it's all about my goals, my rights, my ideas, who I want to be what I want to accomplish, and anybody who gets in the way of that is evil. Anybody who gets in the way of that is bad. So it becomes a, a sense of worshiping yourself of conflicting your ego. And many people don't realize this, many people don't recognize this, they view this, you know, as just the way the world is always was. Now this is a lot more problematic in the West than it is in the east, in the east, particularly in Asia, for the most part, most cultures are still centered around families and tribes
and community which is the Islamic way. But as you move further towards the west, as you as you move towards Europe and the USA, individualism is becoming a major problem, and many of the books that reach you on personal development, reading from this perspective, and this is very, very dangerous for a man and even for the oma because you lose that sense of humor and you develop a sense of it's all about
To me, the second major problematic mindset that affects personal development is capitalism. So in capitalism, success is defined by wealth. If you open up a Western book on personal development, and you look at what his success is defined as being a millionaire or a billionaire,
there is a lot of focus on material success, and islamically. There's nothing wrong with material success. But when it becomes the purpose of life, when it overrides one's relationship with Allah subhana wa Tada, when it causes one to choose haram methods, when it becomes an obsession, all of this is problematic for the Muslim. So Muslims are not capitalists, nor are we communists, we are Muslims. And Islam is somewhere in between the two, where on one hand, we do believe in the free market, we do believe in earning hello world, but we also believe in serving the community, we also believe in giving back. And we also believe in a sense of, of a sense of contribution to society. So
it has its own unique paradigm towards wealth. And many of these books that we read, they come from a capitalist perspective. Number three, link to capitalism is materialism. So what is materialism? materialism is the idea that, to enjoy life, to have fun, you need to
you need to, you know, have nice things. So if you don't have a nice car, you can't be happy. If you don't have a big house, you can't be happy. And so materialism is all about ownership of this world, owning lots and lots of dunya. And again, this is not the mindset of a Muslim, that a believer is supposed to be content. A believer is supposed to accept the color of Allah, a believer is supposed to be happy with Allah subhanho wa Taala has given him or her. So you know, this materialistic mindset, it's found throughout many of these Western personal development books, that they talk about owning the special cause and, and owning huge houses and owning your own private jets. It's a
very materialistic idea of what is success. Number four is post modernism. Now, this is a new idea that many people are unaware of. But it finds its way into many of these personal development books. And post modernism is the idea that, really, it's a very broad idea, but the part of it that affects personal development, is the idea that there is no such thing as truth, there is no such thing as purpose, there is no way of finding the truth. Everything is just up to you. You define your own truth, you define your own purpose, you define your own life. And I think for anyone who's a Muslim, you can obviously see the problem with this mentality, right? Because we as Muslims, we know the
truth is from Allah, we know there is definitely a set truth and falsehood. We know that our lives have a purpose. So a lot of these books that we read nowadays come from a very pessimistic, postmodernist mindset that nothing matters. You just decide for yourself what you want to matter, you just decide for yourself, you know what your purpose in life is going to be? Because there is no truth and there is no good and evil. And all of this nonsense, really to believe all of this is nonsense. It is found in many of these books. A final problem that we have with personal development today is pseudoscience. Basically, a lot of these authors just make up their own things that have
not been proven in any way. And people read it, and they believe it. So it's not science, and it's not proven. It's just somebody writes something and everybody believes them. And this again, is problematic because Muslims are supposed to seek out through knowledge, authentic knowledge, not just believe anything that reaches us. So these are five ways in which the modern personal development field is problematic for Muslims and many of us who pick up a book on time management or self confidence or achieving your life goals. We don't realize that these different mentalities are affecting the author of that book that automates be maybe a postmodernist may be a capitalist may be
affected by individualism, he may be making up his own ideas of how the world works, and we read it and we absorb it, and we think it should be the truth. And this is a problem. Let's look at some examples of that. Right. So there are some examples that I can
give you about how these things affect the believer. So number one, they inspire greed. So obviously, any personal development book that comes from a perspective of materialism and capitalism is going to make you greedy, right. They will tell you that you are not successful in life unless you are a millionaire or a billionaire.
Whatever you decide to be artists got their own definition of success. And so someone who may have, up until that point, been living a happy life worshiping Allah contributing to society providing for their family, suddenly, they feel like they can't be happy unless they are millionaires. And this opens up the door to creed, which we know in Islam is something that is frowned upon, and something that opens up the doors to many different types of sin.
Another problem with this field, is that it causes us to feel inferior to other people. Right? So what does that mean? It means like many people who may have otherwise been content, or when they look at the field of personal development, and they read these books, they may begin to think like, Oh, I'm not good enough, I'm not doing enough with my life. You know, I'm not as good as this guy or that guy, look how much he's done, how much she's done, and you begin to feel like you are lesser than them. And this can really make a person depressed, it can make a person feel like, you know, they have to be doing something grand, otherwise, they wasting their lives. And in reality, not
everybody is meant to do something granted, not everybody's meant to be on a big stage. Really, our lives are about Allah, it's about worshiping Allah, it's about doing things that's pleasing to Allah. So you know, we should be careful that we don't fall into this mindset of thinking that unless we're doing something grand, you know, we are wasting our lives, that's not true. You could be doing something very small that nobody in the world sees you doing. But Allah could put Baraka in it, and it could affect and benefit millions of people without you even knowing that's really where the believer works. It's not all about, you know, being on the grand stage, or having a lot of
followers or anything like that. It's more about doing things that are pleasing to Allah, and to have Baraka in it.
Another problem with the personal development field today, is that it distracts us from the true purpose of life. So when people have this idea that it's all about, you know, achieving my goals, achieving my vision, that so for example, maybe somebody's vision is to be a billionaire, well, that now becomes the purpose in life, that becomes the obsession, that's all they think about everything they do, is now geared towards becoming a billionaire. The problem then is, you're not actually fulfilling the real purpose of life, to worship Allah to agenda. Right now you fall into the trap of aloha como de casa COVID, that this competition to pile up the things of the world distract you
until you die. That's what happens. So this is one of the problems that happens when you when you go too far into this field, without an Islamic paradigm is that the purpose of life becomes mixed up, instead of the purpose of like being to worship Allah, it now becomes to get rich, or to set up this or to do that, or whatever it is that a person derived from that book.
And finally, it creates unrealistic expectations. Because if you read many of these books, and they say things like, everybody can be rich, and everybody can be famous, and everybody, you know, can have millions of followers and Facebook. And that's never been the way the world was. And that's never, that will never be the way the world ever will be awash with a handout Allah even states in the Quran in many places, that he distributes his risk amongst the people as he works, he gives some more fame than others, he gives some people more honor than others, he gives some people more money than others, it gives some people more influence than others. And that's the way the world has
always been. And that's the way the world will always be the idea that anybody who picks up a book on how to get rich quickly, is going to get rich quickly, is absolute life. That's what it is. It's a life. It's it's not going to work. Everybody has the potential to get to gender. Everybody has the potential to please Allah, everybody has the potential to pass the test of life. As for getting wealthy, well, our money, the amount we are going to earn from the time we die till you pass away, unless you have a handle that has already pre determined it, how hard we work, that really decide on whether the money has been in it or not, whether it is blessed by Allah or not. But the idea that
everybody can be wealthy, that has never happened, that has literally never happened in the history of this world. There's always been various levels of society. And whichever level we are at, in order to live a life that's pleasing to Allah is what's most important not to be obsessed with wealth. So these are some of the problems that come with the field of personal development. Firstly, from the mindset of the authors, they may be individualistic. They may be caught up in
post modernism or modernism. They may be material, materialistic or capitalistic. Then there's the problems that it has on us. It may make us greedy, it may distract us from the purpose of life. It may make us feel inferior.
to others. So what's the solution? And that's really the core of today's discussion is the actual solution from my side. And this is a paradigm that I put together for Islamic self help. This is what I use for writing my articles, preparing my lectures and writing my books on personal development, I use a paradigm and Islamic paradigm for personal development. So number one, we have to have to always remember that the purpose of life is to worship Allah. And anything that helps us to worship Allah is good for us. So this is why you will find in almost every book I have written, I have a chapter, or at least a sub chapter on the purpose of life. It can be a book on time
management, or self confidence, or productivity, always try to include a chapter on the purpose of life. Why? Because this is the most important thing for a Muslim, we cannot be distracted from this by anything else. Anything, everything else is secondary to this, again, whether we get wealthy or not, is secondary to whether we achieve the purpose of life, or whether we have a large following or not, is not even secondary. It's like not important at all. Right? What's important is that we worship Allah, and that we live a life that helps us to do that. Now, anything that helps us to do that is good for us. So for example, financial independence, financial independence helps you to
worship Allah, does it not? And so that's why we have a lot of Heidi's encouraging financial independence. There is a beautiful Hadith in which the Prophet solo Some said whoever seeks to be financially independent, a lot will make him financially independent means whoever seeks to earn enough that they are not dependent on others, Allah will open the door for him. Or there's another Hadith where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam taught us a beautiful law, which we are supposed to recite every morning and evening. Part of the dua is Allahumma. In Nia odb camino gouffre Well, fuckery Oh Allah, I seek your protection from disbelief and poverty. Note, the worst thing of the
afternoon, this belief, the worst thing of the dunya poverty, we ask Allah protection from boats. Why? Because financial independence helps us to worship Allah. When we are worried about money, it's very difficult to worship Allah, it's very difficult to focus on the purpose of life, because we want you to be going to get our next meal from the worried how we going to pay our rent, and all of that takes over. So anything that facilitates the worship of Allah is good for us, whether it's financial independence, or whether it's time management skills, whether it's self confidence, whether it's personal productivity, all of these things are only good for us, when they help us to
worship Allah, not when they take us away from that. Number two, excuse me for second.
Apologies, it's summer year, so it's really hot.
So
point number two, our desks are the soul of our purification of the soul should be our second priority after the worship of Allah. And of course, the worship of Allah is how we purify our souls. But worshiping Allah is the primary goal. And the benefit of that is the purification of our souls. And so as Muslims, if we are not, when we are not focused on the worship of Allah, what's the secondary focus of our lives, purifying our souls and improving our character. So anything that helps us to do this is good for us. Anything that takes us away from this is bad for us. So if a personal development resource is inspiring greed, or jealousy, this is against the purification of
the soul. This is damaging to the soul. So we have to be careful of this. But if it is teaching us to be good to people, if it is teaching us to have good character, if it is teaching us integrity, this is good for our soul. This is good for our character, how we can incorporate this into an Islamic paradigm. Number three,
serving the oma is more important than chasing one's own goals. And this is where Islam goes against individualism, individualism, it's all about me, it's my goals, my life, my rights, you know my time I can do what I want. That's the individualistic mindset, the Islamic mindset. Allah has created me as part of the oma the oma has rights upon me, what can I do to benefit this oma? And so you will see the big difference between someone whose attitude is I need to serve this oma as compared to someone whose attitude is I need to achieve my goals. As a believer, we should always be more focused, not me focused. Right. So this again, is a very different paradigm for how we will approach
personal development. So while investing book may have, you know, it's setting your goals, a lot of things to do with yourself, what do you want to do? Or which countries do you
You want to travel to? A what kind of house do you want to live in? Right? It's all about you. But within Islamic book, it will be more about how can I benefit this Omar? You know, can I do work that's constructive? Can I teach something? Is there something I can do for free? Is there something I can do to volunteer my time? Can I sit up for a walk of Can I set up a non profit? What can I do to benefit the oma, the oma is more important than me, this is one of the key parts of the Islamic paradigm when it comes to self development. And number four, the Islamic paradigm of personal development is finding a balance between father and son, Father, believing that Allah has already
written out our destiny, if sun working to the best of your abilities, regardless of that. So we already know that Allah has written everything that will happen to the Day of Judgment, still, we will work for Jenna will your son, we will work for this dunya with your son, we will work on ourselves with your son, we will serve our families with your son, we will serve this oma with your son, we will do everything to the best of our abilities. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Allah loves that you whenever a servant does anything, he does it with his son, right? His son means excellence or perfection, it means to do the absolute best job that you can do. So we have to
find this balance. We, on one hand, have to accept that whatever happens happens to us is called the law. So if you write a book, and only 100 people buy that book, called the rule of law, I served the butcher that book, that book is beneficial. That book helps people to achieve the purpose of life, I put in a sign in writing that book, how many books gets sold is now God Allah. So you do the absolute best you can, and what is beyond your capabilities, you leave it to Allah. So these four things make up any Islamic paradigm, that when we focus on developing ourselves, it's not developing ourselves for materialistic reasons, or for the sake of our egos. It's to help us to worship Allah
is to help us purify our souls, it's to help us to refine our character is to help us serve this ummah, and he's to help us live a life of your son. If we can do these five things, then we can become the absolute best versions of ourselves in a way that benefits us for dunya woodfill, Akira, in this world, and the next. So
in light of that, I put together a four step plan, write a four step plan to help us to,
to read anything written by non Muslims on this topic, and to analyze it to an Islamic filter. So obviously, I'm not going to tell you don't read the non Muslim books on this topic, there's a lot of benefits we can take from the books, right. So there are a lot of non Muslim books on this topic, or these topics are beneficial. But what I would say is, read them through an Islamic filter, read them critically, analyze anything you find in these books, the Islamic way, and I myself use for things to analyze any book on personal development, and I'm going to share all for that with you today. So inshallah you can start doing so as well. So again, I do not discourage you from reading books, I
simply encourage you to read them through an Islamic filter. What is that Islamic photo for things, our aqeedah, our fake, our dead skier, and our o'clock, our beliefs, our laws, our invocation of the soul, our character, these four things must be used to filter out the good from the bad, from books written by other people, so we can take what Islamic and leave what contradicts Islam. Right. So number one is our Akita. Whenever you read a book on personal development, make sure you first analyze it from an aqeedah perspective, because there are things in there that contradict our aqeedah. Like what, like the idea that you are in charge of your own destiny, you will find this in
many books on self confidence. You'll find this in many books on wild that you are the captain of your own ship, you are in charge of your own destiny, you decide what's going to happen with your life as Muslims, we do not believe this. We believe in God or Allah. Allah is the one who's in charge. He gives us all a area of free work. And what we do in that area of free will will be we will be rewarded for it or punished for it based on our choices. But we are not in charge of our destinies. We don't decide when we are born. When we die when we die.
You know what kind of families or countries we are born into. We don't decide how much wealth we are going to have, how much intelligence we are going to have. What you know what we are good at what we bad at all of this is called arola all we get
To decide, is what to do with whatever Allah has gifted us with. Right. And that's what we are either rewarded or punished for. So we have to use an Islamic paradigm here, we have to use our aqeedah to filter out these kinds of ideas, which contradict our beliefs in order our belief in Allah or anything of that nature. Another example of something that contradicts the Islamic Akita
that you find in books or personal development is the idea is, oh, if you just think that I am rich, you will become rich, if you just think I'm successful, you will become successful. This is a very problematic, and this goes back to what I mentioned earlier about pseudoscience. Someone just made this up, and lots of people copy them, and people begin to think it's true. In reality, this cannot be proven, is
true science. This cannot be proven to psychology, and this contradicts Islam as well. So Islam should not have anything to do with such an idea. It is not an Islamic idea at all, right? Rather, we believe in God or Allah. And we believe in harshness, Zhan, Billa, to think good about Allah, and to make dua to Allah, but also to accept the color of Allah. So our aqeedah plays a very important role in separating what we can and can't take from these books. Number two is our fake.
So you have to analyze the advice given in these books from a perspective of halal and haram number most obvious example, almost any personal development book, which has a chapter on finance, will tell you that the easiest way to get wealthy is through compound interest, that if you just keep piling up interest in your bank account, you will get rich beyond your dreams. What's the problem here? It's wrong, it is haram, maybe you will get rich, but there'll be no better kinds of money and the Day of Judgment, you have to answer to Allah, for how did you earn it? And your answer is not going to be one that leads to paradise. So we have to be careful of these kinds of books that you
will find many of these books, because they are written by people who are from a capitalist mindset. They don't they don't have any idea of halal and haram. for them. It's all about what's the fastest way to get wealthy. And for us, it's how do I earn blessed wealth? How do I earn risk that has Baraka in it? How do I ancestors that has Baraka and that is that is what we should be focused on? Not how do I get wealthy? But how do I get wealthy, that is blessed by Allah and blessing to Allah and pleasing to Allah. And so on the Day of Judgment, when Allah asks us, how did you earn it? And how did you spend it? We can answer both of those questions in a good way. So we have to be very
careful here, that when we read in these books, what they ask us to do, we have to check, is it halal? Or is it haram and we have to use our fic to filter out any advice that is wrong, like the advice to accumulate compound interest. Number two is our desk IATA. So without purification of the soul, and this is very simple. Any advice you find in a resource on personal development?
Ask yourself, is this going to improve me spiritually? Or is it going to negatively impact my spirituality? This is a very important question. Is this going to improve me spiritually? Or is it going to negatively impact my spirituality? So for example, if a book on personal development is making you greedy, that is bad for the state of your heart. And you have to find a way to get rid of that. Right? If a personal development resource is making you jealous. Jealousy is one of the worst things for our personal development in terms of Islamic spiritual development. So we have to be very careful with that as well. So we have to be continuously doing Maha Sabha. Right taking stock of
ourselves that this part that I'm going down, is it having a good or a bad impact on the condition of my soul? Because if we open the door for something that has a bad impact on the condition of our soul, then we are now slowly heading down the path that is displeasing to Allah. It begins with greed descends into jealousy, it ends in a major sin. Or sometimes it even ends in Kufa because we know that the COVID of shaytan began with jealousy that he was jealous of other Malays Allah. So we have to be very careful here that the impact of these books on our souls, the impact of these videos on ourselves, and I'll give you an example, a lot of the personal development YouTube channels,
right, They feature a lot of them have this cliche feature of a guy in a huge mansion, who owns a jet and oh,
A private boat. And he's always boasting about all of this and showing off his art collection and showing off all these things. And if you're watching these videos every day, you may begin to get jealous of this person, you may begin to want what he has. And this is not good for our spirituality. So we have to take a step back and ask ourselves, hold on, is any of this even necessary? Do I actually need to own a speedboat? Do you actually need to own a private jet? Why am I jealous? Now, because this isn't the party agenda, this isn't something that's pleasing to Allah. So maybe it's better if I don't watch this person's videos, and are watching someone else's videos
instead. So we have to be constantly looking at things through the filter of purification of the soul. And finally, our lock, our character, our manners, anything that causes us to go against the lock of Islam, we cannot follow it. Right. So for example, if a book comes from a individualistic mindset, the ultimate tell you like, oh, what your parents think, doesn't matter. No rebel against your parents, prove them wrong, you know, chase your dreams, no matter what. And that may inspire a person to break ties with his family, to disrespect his parents, or something of this nature. This is an Islamic, right, this is an Islamic, we have to if even in pursuing our own goals, we have to
maintain Islamic luck, maintain good relationship with our parents, maintain our family ties, take care of people be good to people. So if this books inspiring you to to mistreat someone inspiring you to cut corners, if it's inspiring to put somebody outside of business so that you can do well in your business. All of this goes against the lack of Islam. And if it goes against the lack of Islam, then we as Muslims, we cannot accept it. So these are the four filters I use, whenever I analyze anything, for me, you know, in putting together Islamic resources on personal development, whatever it is, I'm analyzing, I look at it from the perspective of Akita, fake deskey, and o'clock and of
course, you have to at least have basic knowledge of these four things to be able to do that. But the good news is, you don't really need advanced knowledge of these four fields, to be able to recognize the mistakes in personal development books, we just need basic knowledge. inshallah, I hope all of us at least have the basic knowledge to be able to read these books with a critical mindset.
Have one more slide to present it, and inshallah we will open the
lines for q&a. So
to conclude, let's look at things from an Islamic approach. The Western approach to personal development comes from this idea that life has no purpose, and you have to invent your own purpose. And you have to,
you know, do your own things, and come up with your own ideas and make your own destiny. And it's all about you, and you only have one life to do whatever you want with it. Our approach is very different. Our approach is grounded in the Ye, it is grounded in the Quran and Sunnah. It is grounded in the purpose of life, that we have these filters that allow us to separate the good from the bad.
So the first thing that we have to do as Muslims, when it comes to personal development, is that we have to filter it through these four lens. Right, so the first step of the Islamic approach is that anything that we study in this field, and by the way, you can use the same thing for other fields as well, like business, psychology, or any of these modern fields, which are beneficial. The believer takes the good, but he also analyzes it through an Islamic filter. So all of these things, we can analyze them to aqeedah, we can analyze them to fit, we can analyze them to a HELOC, we can analyze them to descale. And using these four lens, we can take what is good and leave what is an Islamic.
And this is something we need to be doing all the time.
With every resource that we interact with, even if it comes from a Muslim article. Unfortunately, unfortunately, I have read too many books and articles by Muslim authors where they have just taken ideas from from non Muslim books and dress them in an Islamic garb without actually thinking about whether this is something that's acceptable according to our aqeedah our faith. And so even when reading resources written by Muslims, we still have to use these filters. Because it may be that the author did not do so. Right so we can't always take it for granted. Every time
is taking a similar approach. Many of them simply just take things from the non Muslims and just dress it up as Islamic without changing anything. And that is very problematic. So, number one, use these four things for filtering any knowledge that we take from other resources. Number two, focus on something on things that benefit you in both worlds. So we go back to the definition of personal development, it's about being, it's about growing into the best version of yourself. Now, the western paradigm is the best version of yourself for the dunya. But as Muslims, what's the duality the Quran teaches us to make robina Arjuna dunya Hasina? What will our herati Hasina Allah give us
the best of this world and the best of the next world and save us from the Hellfire, the best of both worlds. That's what we make to offer. So the Islamic approach to personal development is grounded in the idea that anything I do must benefit me in both worlds, I cannot compromise if I have to compromise, I will choose the next world over this, I will never compromise the next world for this world. So ideally, we will look for things that benefit us in both worlds. So for example, give you ideas of this, if you start a business that's beneficial, and helps people. So the business on one hand, you're benefiting people, you're helping people. On the other hand, you're earning
halau risk. And on top of that, on the day of judgment, when you are asked about how did you earn your wealth, you actually have not just a halaal answer, but it's an official answer. So your business actually becomes a good deed on your scale of goodies because you were benefiting people with every transaction. And so this now benefits you in both worlds. Likewise, things like writing books, or teaching classes, these things benefit us in both worlds.
And there are many other things like this, that can benefit us in both worlds that they are worldly rewards for it, and they are all here rewards for it as well. So when we're looking at personal development, from an Islamic perspective, there are levels to it highest level, try to find something that benefits you in both worlds. If you can't find something that benefits you in both worlds, then focus on what benefits you in the era. And if you find something that benefits you the third level is you find something that benefits you in dunya without affecting your ophira. That's fine, too. But once you find something that benefits you in dunya, and it negatively impacts your
Acura, that's where we draw the line. That's when we say no, I'm not going to take that even though there is some Junior benefit to it. Right. So that's where we draw the line. So our offer is always number one in our minds, that whenever I take whenever I
whenever I try to benefit from, it must not compromise my accuracy in any way to again, four levels. Number one benefits as in both worlds Alhamdulillah. Number two benefits us in the archaea only Alhamdulillah. Number three benefits us in the dunya only. Okay, that's good as well. Number four, benefits us in dunya harms us in Africa, a stark federal law, no ways we're not going there. So keep this order in mind when filtering things that you have to deal with in this dunya.
Number three is to analyze things from a embakasi perspective. Right? So what do we mean by a maqasid? perspective? So democracy to Sharia?
The goals of the Sharia is this is a concept in fick that everything has either benefits or harms. Or it has both actually, most things have both. And in my conscious area, we call this the Messiah and the muffs that are the benefits and the harms. And the purpose of Islamic law is the attainment of benefit and the reduction of harm. So when we want to decide on whether something is halal or haram, we look at what outweighs What if the benefits outweigh the harms. It's usually considered halaal. If the harms outweigh the benefits, it's usually considered heroin. Right for examples in fick Why does Islam allow Jihad because the benefits outweigh the harms? Right? in specific context,
which specific rules, etc, etc. You guys know what I'm saying? Right? I will mean it in terms of all of that haraam that some people are doing these days where their harms actually outweigh the benefits, but the actual legitimate one done through a colleague virtue and Islamic system. Why did Islam allow it because the benefits outweigh the harms? what people are doing today in some countries, why is it haram because the harms outweigh the benefits? Right? Should we wait on the benefit and harm scale? We see this and other things as well. Why is smoking prohibited? Because the harms outweigh the benefits. Someone will say Oh, but smoking
helps me relax, yeah, but it's going to kill you. So the harms outweigh the benefits. Right. So this is a scale that we use, in fact, for figuring out when something is appropriate and when something is not appropriate. And it helps us do this to decide what's valid and what's wrong. And we can use the same scale for personal development, that if you want to pursue a goal, if you want to dedicate your life to a mission, if you have a dream, if you have something you want to work on, you will need to look at does the benefits outweigh the harms, and of course, benefits we are talking about as Muslims benefits with dunya welaka. Right. So sometimes something may have done your benefits.
But after a harms, we don't want to go there. Rather, ideally, we're looking at something that gives us the best of both worlds, or at the very least, it benefits us in this world without affecting our era in any way. So always ratings on a scale of muslera and website, our benefits and harms. And anything that is more harmful than beneficial, stay away from it. Now, it's not always easy to figure out sometimes we make mistakes, or sometimes only after we do something, we realized that it was harmful to us. You know, so we ask Allah for forgiveness. And we try again, the beauty of our religion is that Allah subhanho wa Taala, he forgives us, and he does not hold us accountable for
what is beyond our capabilities as long as we tried our best. So weightings on a scale of benefits and harms. Number four,
if you are taking knowledge of dystonia. Now, this is very important not just for personal development. But even now, for example, with this COVID-19 crisis, a lot of people are just following conspiracy theories, and you know, wacky things that people are saying on their blogs, and going forward, what's happening messages. So as Muslims, we suppose to go after knowledge that is grounded knowledge that is tested knowledge that is proven, when it comes to our religion, then we go for authentic hadith and we go for the Quran, when it comes to our dunya as well. We go for science and psychology, we don't go for pseudo science, we don't go for four myths, we don't go for
conspiracy theories, even when it comes to dunia, we have to make sure our knowledge is authentic, what is authentic dunya knowledge, it is proven science, it is proven psychology, these things that can be proven, not things that someone is just making up. So it's the same with personal development, that don't just believe anything you find in a personal development book, rather, if it is not contradicting Islam, and if the author can prove it through a psychology test, or through science, or something in this method, that's even better. And that's something that we should consider following, right. So if someone's developed a system for growing a business into a
successful business, and it is a proven business model that works, and it is halal, and then you take it and you apply to a business that is beneficial for this oma, hey, Bismillah go ahead and do so. But if somebody else is hatching a scheme to get wealthy, and you get caught up in that scheme, because you didn't check, whether it's grounded, you didn't check when it's proven, didn't check how it works, then, you know, you become a victim of that scheme, you it is your own fault, for just following anything without actually checking whether it is proven or not. So as Muslims, we should not be foolish, even when taking knowledge of this dunya we must take knowledge that is proven, and
knowledge that is tested, and not just things that people make up. Having said that,
I'm actually going to contradict myself a little bit here, and I'm gonna explain why. So on one hand, we have to take things that are proven on the other hand, we should also leave room for experimentation in areas where it's allowed to experiment. So in general, something that's proven to work should take preference over someone's theory. On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with experimenting with new ideas as long as they are hallel. What do I mean by this? So I'll give you two areas in my life where I'm always experimenting with new ideas. A number one is time management. And number two is education. So I'm always trying to find ways to maximize my time and get the most
out of my day. Is there anything haram about that? No.
Is this something that's proven by science? Well, that's what I'm doing. I'm trying to prove it by doing experiments. Right. So I'm basically, you know, experimenting until I find something that works, and then I write about it and share it, share it with others. The other area where I do that is education. So I believe that the education system we have in place these days is terrible. It doesn't work, right. It causes people to memorize things. For example, forget things after exams, I believe it has. It doesn't have practical value. So I am always experimenting with new methods of education. Now does this go against the slump
No, Islam doesn't have a set method of education. It's left up to people to develop their own ways of teaching and studying and learning. And Muslims in the past have done this Muslims were the first ones to establish universities and madrassas, and educational medical colleges, you know, so Muslims experimented and came up with a good model of study that worked. So why can't we do the same thing today? So, yes, if something is proven to work, if I find an education model for a specific subject, that's proven to work, I will take it, and I will follow it. But in another subject, we I feel that the way people are teaching you today, it's not working, I will experiment and experiment until I
discover a way that works, even if nobody else has ever done it before. So on one hand, we need to take knowledge that's grounded. On the other hand weights allowed to experiment. There's nothing wrong with doing so. Because,
you know, we want to be leaders, we don't want to just be followers. In the in the golden age of Islam, Muslims were the ones who came up with some of the absolute most amazing ideas that change this world. And they did that to the experiments where it was even a Hayden's discovering of objects, when you have a reason means advancement of of algebra, whether it was a was a double kiss, concept, or on depression and anxiety and how to deal with them. They had to do their own experiments. And that's what led to these great and amazing discoveries. So we should do the same today. So we aren't just people who take from this field, but we are people who contribute to this
field as well.
So the final point, which I will drive home again, and again, you may notice this point repeated in all of my books and all of my lectures because this is the single most important thing to every Muslim, do not allow anything to distract you from the purpose of life. Whether it's a goal, whether it's a dream, whether it's a job, whether it's a money, whatever it is, our purpose in life is to worship Allah and that takes precedence over everything else. And that is the ultimate paradigm from which we approach this entire field and every other field. So with that, I come to the end of my presentation and inshallah, we will now open the doors to q&a to bahagia Robin is there mosey
forward Salama, borsalino hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen
Alhamdulillah there's like a little handshake for your really beneficiary.
beautiful nature.
lashes beautifully presented the problems of modern personal development theories and the Islamic paradigm on this theme as well as the Islamic features on Islamic approach. Masha, Allah, Allah,
we pray to a lot of us selfing to act upon these valuable words visa light Allah. Now we'll go for that question as a session. Okay, so I know it is being delicate both in zoom and Facebook Live. So we will take questions from both juman from our Facebook Live. Okay, shake. So there is the first question selalu shy in case of a case of doing in case of doing corporate jobs, oftentimes doing extra work is treated with praise. In this case, how do we apply that concept of a sign from Islamic perspective?
Okay, I didn't hear the whole question. So you said when doing a corporate job, the extra work is treated with with praise that sometimes the boss becomes pleased, pleased with someone who works, okay. If people just do extra work so that the boss will be pleased with them. So putting with your son, well, that easy. I mean, that he that is his son itself, it means that whatever you do you the best ideas are the assignees. So
I mean, if you're doing a job, if your boss is not pleased with you, you're not doing your best. Right. So there's nothing wrong with that. I think, you know, one of the problems we have today with when it comes to our intentions, is that we don't understand what it means to have a classroom near right we think if lasagna means that even when it comes to dunya we only do things for Allah. So we think we only work for Allah. So we feel bad, when we trying to please our boss or trying to please our spouse or trying to please our parents. We actually shouldn't feel bad about this. This falls under a classroom near as long as our main goal is the pleasure of Allah, the pleasure of our boss,
the pleasure of our parents, the pleasure of our teachers, the pleasure of our spouse is included in that because Allah is happy with us when we are fulfilling the rights of our employees, our employers, right. So, remember, in Islam, a job is a trust. It's an Amana. So if you're doing the best possible job, and your boss is pleased with you for that you are fulfilling your Amana that's something that's pleasing to Allah. So there's nothing wrong with that. And that actually is
part of your son or daughter that is your son when it comes to working in corporate job.
Shake. Next question, what is the relation between self development and purification of soul?
Okay, so self development generally focuses on Tunisia, right. So normally focus on things like managing your time building your self confidence, achieving your goals, becoming the best worker in your workplace, these kinds of things and purification of the soul descaled. So wolf that's focused more on the pleasure of Allah. So cleaning your heart, improving your Eman, improving your taqwa improving your tawakkol improving your sugar, improving your sober, all of that electrification of the soul. So there are two different fields. That's why in my website, I normally refer to that schema as spiritual development, not personal development, right? Because that's cleaning the inside
and trying to get closer to Allah. Now, Islamic self help or Islamic personal development is a merger between the two. So I believe there are many things that we can do that will benefit us in both worlds. So for example, time management, the Islamic way, includes praying all of your soul out on time. So that is on one hand is a it's a spiritual development, because you are paying all your soul out on time. On the other hand, it's personal development because you are getting better at time management, right? It's the same with self confidence that in Islam, self confidence comes from our relationship with Allah, that we trust Allah, Allah takes care of us. Allah has given us skills,
Allah will help us to accomplish our goals if they are good for us. So there is a spiritual development angle to it, that we are improving our taqwa we are improving our tawakkol we're improving our relationship with Allah, we are making up all of this spiritual development. But also there is a personal development side to it in that all of this is making us more confident, it's making us work harder, is making us achieve more in dunya, as well. So originally, they are separate personal development, achieving a worldly goals, the purification of the soul, the achievement of the pleasure of Allah and the love of Allah. But when you merge them together into Islamic self
help, you can actually accomplish both at the same time.
Just like a look around, shake
your water, what should be the first book we should read for self development in Islamic way?
Okay, so the first book to read on self development the Islamic way?
That's a difficult question, because there's, firstly, this is a very new field. There isn't as much written in this field as I would like. Now, I know my main book that I would have recommended, I don't think it's available in Bangladesh yet. So maybe one day it will be. But that's my book on the productivity principle of Omar bin Abdulaziz. So that's, that's, that book is grounded in history. And it covers 15 productivity principles. And that's really those 15 principles give you a foundation upon which you can analyze any other book for now from what's available. Locally, I think my books on time management and self confidence, those are a good starting point, as well as I don't
know if it's available there. The productive Muslim is it available in your country? book to productive Muslim?
Are you aware of when it's available, see if I have a copy of
so Mohammed fariz, from productive wisdom, calm, he's written a book called productivity.
These and this book has been translated in Bengali as well. Okay. Mashallah. Excellent, excellent. So, so that's your other starting points, right? So I'm going to go with the author besides myself, that that's the other author whose books whose one book he has written on this topic is truly beneficial. Maybe you could start with his book, so inshallah read the productive Muslim, I didn't read my books on time management and self confidence and inshallah, my book of productivity principles comes out there as well read that as well. Meanwhile, you can try getting a hold up the bank, the PDF on my website, or, you know, find some other way to get inshallah, as for other books
in the field. As I say, this is a relatively new field. The Self Help field itself only came about less than 100 years ago, and the Islamic self help is probably less than 10 years old. It's an entirely new concept. So there aren't that many books within the field. And sadly, many of the other books that read in this field, the authors didn't do a good job. In the sense they just took what was written by the non Muslims and they just put Islamic dressing on it without actually getting into a proper Islamic photo. If there is one more author whose books I would recommend, it's from India that builds our deck. So I don't know if shaky our base books are available in your country.
But he's books on personal development on business specifically are very beneficial. So I would recommend
the books of leadership lesson from the life of Rasulullah and another book of marriage. These two books are available in Bengali. His book on leadership lessons on the life of rasulillah that's a good starting point. Yeah, because that book gives you a lot of the foundations of about what the Islamic paradigm is. So yeah, that's excellent book to start with inshallah.
Another question or problem that I feel with personal development is consistency shake. Can you give us some tips on how can we be consistent and committed
so the best way to grow consistent at something is actually found in the Hadith of the Prophet solo. Some is narrated by Ayesha Rajan and Hadith the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Allah loves deeds that are consistent, even if they are small. So in this Hadees, we get the, the primary principle of consistency. And this actually is the, this is the primary principle of purification of the soul. But we can apply to personal development as well. So when it comes to purification of the soul, how do you get better at something through small actions, right, this is the mistake we make somebody wants to be pious, they wake up the next morning, and they pray to the gods of the 100. Or
they try and leave six Jews of the Quran in one day, what happens is within a week, they give up, it's too hard. So the problem is, you went too big, too fast. Rather, you start with something small, and you make it a habit, and then you add something else. So for example, if someone's not praying, the sooner Salah, just tell yourself, I'm going to start praying to sooner before fudger everyday. And just focus on that and be consistent on that until it becomes a part of you. Then you say, okay, that's consistent now. So let me start playing the four before to her as well. So you now gradually improving and adding layers of good deeds to your life. Now, the same thing is gonna apply
to personal development, someone reads a book on time management, and they want to apply all of those principles in one day, that's not going to happen. Nobody can change overnight like that. You have to take small dosages, take one thing at a time, be consistent on that one thing until it becomes a habit, and then move on to number two. So for example, if you find that you are wasting too much time on social media, so just focus on one thing, I'm going to cut down on my social media time, and make a plan for that. And be consistent on that until you find that you are hungry, that not spending as much time on social media, as you used to, then you move on to something else. Our
problems are the number one, we try to change too much too quickly. Number two, we expect too much from ourselves. And number three, to see the biggest problem, especially from the part of the world we are from, we expect perfection of ourselves and our family members, right but expecting perfection from anyone is going to end in disappointment. So many of us when you want to become practicing Muslims, we expect perfection from ourselves. And as soon as we complete a syndicate, we lose hope. No one's perfect. every sin of Adam makes mistakes, we not only are we going to make mistakes, so don't expect that level of piety for yourself. Same with personal development, someone
says I'm going to be the absolute best in the world at what I do. Then they make a mistake and they feel terrible. And they feel like you know, I'm no good at this No, relax, start small and build up slowly. So again, go back to the advice of Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam something small, but consistent. That is your starting point. And you grow from there and you build from there. Don't aim yourselves to example, if somebody's writing a book, don't go from someone who writes one line a day to trying to write 50 pages a day. It's never going to work, rather commit to one paragraph per day. And once you consistently that commit to one page a day, I want you to consistent that that then
commit to two pages a day. And guess what, within a year you may be writing five pages a day, but you start small and you be realistic. This is the key point start small and be realistic and inshallah you will find consistency in depth and Allah knows best.
Shake.
Next question shake. We know you have four children and also a very busy schedule. How do you get back in time any advice for
parents?
Okay, so this is a challenge for everyone, myself included?
How do you get Baraka in time? How do you manage your time are two separate things. Baraka is a kurama It's a miracle that Allah gives to whomever He wills. It's not something that we can just press a button and we get it. Really that's from Allah. How do you gain Baraka in anything? By trying to live a life that's pleasing to Allah by being sincere to Allah having a walk on your love and making to Allah, that's all about your relationship with Allah. Right? The closest someone needs to Allah, the more Baraka they'll have in their wealth, their time, their life, everything
Else. So I would say the main way to get Baraka in anything is to build a strong relationship with Allah and to make do alpha Baraka, how many of us actually make to alpha Baraka, right? Make dua to Allah put Baraka, weldwood Baraka, my time for Baraka, my efforts with Baraka in my family, how many of us actually make this to us? You know, so if you're not making these two hours, why why would we expect it? So again, the actual Baraka is a medical, it is a Quran, but it's one of the proves that Islam is the true religion, the fact that people do the experience to see their lives.
And the only way to get that is to try and live a life that is pleasing to Allah. Now, as far as Time management is concerned, again, you have to see where you are, and work your way up slowly.
Everyone's different, and no one's perfect at it. I myself am not perfect at it. I mean, I'm research manager at yaqeen Institute of running Islamic self help. I'm writing my own books, I'm doing webinars, and I'm making YouTube videos during the Juma lectures at my local Masjid teaching a local halaqa. homeschooling my kids,
sometimes I mess up, sometimes something gets neglected. Sometimes something falls through the cracks, sometimes they don't do a good enough job. No one's perfect. The point is that you're trying your best. So some of the things I do that helped me to manage my time, number one, a habit to do lists, right, so I have a to do list for every day, these are the things that have to get done today. And I try my best to make time to get every single thing on the to do list that number two, I keep a written journal. And in that journal, I have all of my deadlines. And my times when this is when that is, and I work according to the journal, and I made sure that everything is done at the
right time. Number three, I scheduled certain things for certain times of the day. So for example, 9am, to 12pm, for homeschooling my kids, so that time is blocked out, it's just me and my kids, or 2pm to 3pm for writing my books that time blocked out just for writing books. So blocking out time in your day to do certain things. Another thing you can do is cut down on your fun activities, right. And as we grow older and wiser and more focused on the purpose of life, we really should be finding that joy in our work, and not having to supplement that with too much other things. So if you are spending six hours a day playing video games, or watching movies, you have to cut down, you
know, because they'll you could do maybe two or three hours of fun and have now you have two or three hours extra to focus on other things. So you're cutting down and out distractions is also very, very important. And one of the most important things we can do is start our days early, start our days early, and just fill it up with as much good things as possible. From the time we wake up till the time go to relax, to just fill it up with as many good things as possible. Again, I can't if I'm going to go to all of this and would end up giving a full time management lecture now, but I recommend everyone reads the book. It's all in there, how to do things the proper way. So that's my
time management tips as far as Baraka is concerned, ask Allah only unlucky gratis Baraka in anything.
Hello, Karen shake, we have only four minutes left. And so this will be our last question that we will be taking.
This question is
a Solomonic coma shake. We do a lot for this dounia.
So how to convert that as an act of worship. That is, what the sister was to tell is, we have very limited time and we do a lot of work. So how we can convert that words as an act of worship as well.
Okay, I'm actually writing a book on this topic at the moment. So the book I'm writing is called blessing, sustenance and inshallah, it's going to talk about how to, to focus on how to use our time that we spend making money in a way that earns the blessings of Allah and the pleasure of Allah and helps us in the Akira as well. So there are a number of things we can do. I'll just focus now on maybe three or four of the most important things. Number one is our intention. So, anything of this dunya that is halal can become a good deed with a good intention and that includes the work. So if you are going to work and your intention is I am working to take care of my families to help this
oma to fulfill my responsibilities for the pleasure of Allah. Every moment you spend working in sha Allah you will be rewarded for it. So intention transforms any mundane act into an act of worship. And that includes work. So any job that you are doing, as long as it is helpful, if you do it in with the intention of pleasing, pleasing Allah, if you do it with the intention of benefiting the oma if you do it with the intention of providing for your family and inshallah it can become a source of reward for us. Number two, the second way in which we can make sure that our that our money is blessed and our and our money is going a long way. Actually number two, the main three is
actually finding what Hades is a beautiful Hadees from the prophets. Love yourself.
That supplements this way the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said that every deed we do, will end when we die except for three money that charity that continues to benefit people knowledge that we leave behind that continues to benefit people and our children to make two offers. So what this this is doing? It's not talking about three things, it's talking about three channels. Right? So we worried about working, how can we build our Acura? Well, the key way to multiply your after a while working for dunya is to set up streams of revenue for the era of many of us, we have this idea of setting up our streams of revenue for this dunya. So people invest in stocks, and they pile up, you know, money
in the bank accounts, and they do all of these different things. But
as Muslims, what we can do instead is we all we should be investing money in the euro. So if you got any extra money,
you know, you you start investing in things that will continue to multiply in Africa. So for example, you put a portion of your savings towards an orphanage or towards a Masjid, or towards an Islamic school, or towards a research center, or towards whatever it is. So every one you put in a small portion towards that, that small portion. On the day of judgment, it's going to be huge. So you feel you are working for dunya. But your money is working for Akira, right, this is the key, I always see that see the more than self help books, what they tell us is to make your money work for you, I say make your money work for you.
So in the olden days, when the golden age of Islam, we had the walk up system, so everybody who had money, they would invest their money in their archaea, not in the dunya by setting up a walk of so somebody would buy a building and dedicate that building for teaching Islam or they will dedicate their building as a hospital or they will dedicated as a shelter for widows and divorcees or whatever it is, but they were using the money to invest in the era. So they can go to work, they can focus on their business, they can focus on their careers. In the meanwhile, this other building is piling up the good deeds for them in the camera. And this is this is where the all mad ideas come
from, is that yes, our time goes in working for dunya so make our money work for the Akira instead, whatever literally it is, don't think I don't have enough whatever little it is even a tiny tiny amount of money that is spent in the part of Allah, no even half a day is given in South Africa. When it is done with a floss it can go a very long way as it as it works its way you know to the lives of people and benefits people so that is the other way in which we can benefit people we can continue to grow akhira while we are working number three is to do things that are beneficial for this oma with our spare time right so we said knowledge that we leave behind the benefits people so
if you have you know weekends off or evenings or four Sundays off or whatever it is to dedicate an hour a week for benefiting the oma whether it's counseling people with each volunteering at a local organization, whether it's you know, teaching enables children whatever it is just find at least one project in your life where you are passing on beneficial knowledge to somebody else. So that now whatever good deeds that person does, is now being added to your scale of good deeds. So you are going to work but that person is piling up your good deeds for you while you're at work. And then of course number four is our own children and that is if we raise children who are righteous believers
and inshallah any good deeds they do, we also get the reward so we could be going to work and one of our kids man shall become a great scholar of Islam, guess what while you're working, whatever work that scholar Islamic doing, you're getting the reward for it as well. So there are many many ways in which we can go to work and focus on our junior careers by piling up for the Euro as well. These are just a few of them and inshallah hopefully I'm hoping sometime over the next five or six months my book on this topic will be out as well. And the I guess my next focus inshallah so I hope that you find these tips beneficial
just like hello Karen shake and I
would have gotten to the end of our session I think we all have been benefited from the wonderful lecture on self development edge practice from Norway followed by a beautiful question answer session from the religious UK Hello Karen shake for people accept our invitation.
On behalf of Bitcoin Institute and for your busy schedule, we know you are very busy using your Tafseer programs or read writing books and other programs as well. But we are very very happy that you have kept our invitation and we hope that in future will be also be benefited we want to be benefited from you from your valuable lectures and your awards inshallah Allah
just like a low calorie shake. Now we continue to work together inshallah.
Lovely for having me lie except barrack alone.
shape from the left. So today we are I think we can finish the session now free because like a lot, a lot more we can make a shadow. A lot of stock Furukawa too late Salam alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
alaikum Salaam Rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh