Lobna Mulla – The Power of Optimism

Let's welcome our now our next speaker,

Asadullahumnayousef.

See, I said Asadullahumnayousef

because I left out her last name, Mullah,

because she's a Yousef. Asadullahumnayousef

is a motivational speaker and community educator.

She first served on the board and is

currently their terbiyah director of Yaqeen Institute For

Islamic Research. She's also the cofounder

of the Muslim Marriage Rejuvenation Retreat, and Mashallah

Asadullahabna was the former former National Tarbiyyah Director

of Mass. And I have to say this

every single year, not only my sister in

Islam, but my biological sister. Let's welcome Asadullahobna.

As salaamu alaykum everyone.

It's a pleasure and honor to be here

amongst all of you at hamdulillah, a real

benefit, hamdulillah.

Bismillah, assalamu

ala Rasulillah.

So inshallah, I wanted to spend these next

few minutes talking about optimism, and wallahi, it's

a wonderful gift that we have, that Allah

has placed it amongst the prophets. We find

it in the Quran,

and we find it on the tongue of

prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Oftentimes there's some

people who say optimism, shmoptism, you know, I'm

a realist. I just like to be realistic,

which is a code word sometimes, sometimes for

tending to be a little bit on the

pessimistic side. Or sometimes people even talk about

a concept like toxic positivity,

where you're just no matter what is going

on people are suffering or somebody's really upset,

and you're like, it's just gonna be okay,

and you you kind of bypass the emotions.

But what I'm talking about is something that

prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam mentioned, and

he said something very beautiful. He said, I'm

amazed by optimism,

the good word, the kind word.

It's words that uplift the spirit. It's words

that give us hope. And he also said

something very powerful, subhanAllah, that describes optimism, I

think, in a beautiful way. And when he

said amazing is the affair of the believer,

for there is good for him in every

matter, and that is not the case with

anyone except for the believer.

If he is happy, if something good happens

to him, then he is thankful and that

is good for him. And if something bad

or a calamity befalls him, then he is

he is patient and that is good for

him. And this is only the case for

the believers. SubhanAllah.

So what's amazing is that we are seeing,

subhanAllah,

I believe, the implementation,

what it really means to be optimistic

when we see our fellow brothers and sisters

in Philistines. May Allah grant them strength. May

Allah

grant them dignity, and may Allah protect them

and give them the tebat, give them the

the the the constants to keep going, the

perseverance, I want to say.

What do I mean by that?

It's that that even when they see that

some of their family members have been martyred,

that they look towards the positive. They're acknowledging

the pain,

but they're saying, alhamdulillah,

this person

is in Jannah,

being nourished

in Jannah,

happy with what he is being nourished with.

That despite the pain and despite the rubble

and despite everything else, it's being able to

see the positive. It's, yes, I'm suffering, and

yes, this happened to me, and I'm so

grateful to you, Allah. Allah Subhaana Wa Ta'la

reminds us in the Quran,

that if you are grateful towards me, I

will increase you. That's the beautiful thing about

gratitude, subhanahu wa ta'ala. I think it's very

closely tied to optimism.

Have you guys ever been around somebody

that maybe you're in a situation? Okay. It's

a little bit difficult, and they just keep

pointing out all of the negative things. Right?

Oh, that we're late, and this has happened,

and this is not good, and we're starving,

and this is bad, and blah blah blah.

Whatever the situation is.

But you can be sitting there, subhanAllah, and

you're in the same situation,

but you're saying, alhamdulillah, that we're in a

comfortable space. Alhamdulillah, that we're both here together.

Alhamdulillah,

that we're, you know, not cold or we're

not hot. We're we're okay. We're safe.

It's being able to see the positive amidst

the difficult times, and as Sheikh Omar and

all of the esteemed, Sheikh Mustafa Omar and

all of our other esteemed speakers have been

talking about, we will be tested and there

will be difficult times. But optimism allows you

to see the good

in the midst of all of the things

that may be difficult. SubhanAllah.

As Isma'han also mentioned,

that we see the implementation, we see the

exercising of optimism in the Quran when we

hear the stories of Nuh alaihis salam. For

example, he was commanded to build an ark.

Did you know that he had to plant

the trees so he could harvest the trees,

so he can build the ark? And where

was he when he was doing this, by

the way? He was doing it in the

desert. People would mock him and make fun

of him. Oh, where are you gonna? We're

going to

drive this ship in the sand.

He had that optimism. He had that hope

in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He had that

trust, and that's extremely important. What about Hajar?

Hajar, when Ibrahim, alayhis salaam left her and

baby Ishmael in the desert, and she's very

astonished.

Why are you leaving us? Why are you

leaving us? And Ibrahim had to leave as

he was commanded by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,

and then the thought came to her. Wait

a minute. Did Allah command you to do

this? Then verily Allah will not leave us.

Allah will not abandon us. That's optimism.

That's optimism, Subhan, and her optimism

is what has

laid down the footsteps

for for one of the most important aspects

of of a Muslim's life in terms of

Hajj.

Millions and millions and millions of people have

followed in her footsteps due to her optimism.

Not only number 1, in trusting Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala that there must be a reason

that I was left here,

and number 2, when she also made the

endeavor, she also made the strife. Like Maryam

when she shook the tree, she kept going

between Safa and Marwa,

looking, looking, looking. Even though there's nothing, she

made the effort. That's optimism. That's a hope

that Allah

will open the doors for her. What about

when Maryam

was sent

with baby Isa, but to go back to

her people, but she was not allowed to

speak?

How does she know what's going to happen?

She just knows she's not allowed to speak,

and how does she know that baby Isa

was going to speak?

SubhanAllah.

Totally amazing. So that trust that Musa alayhis

salam had when he,

told his people, subhanAllah, not to despair when

they're facing the ocean in front of them,

the sea in front of them, and Firaun's

army is behind them,

And he said,

don't worry that Allah will be with us.

SubhanAllah.

That's optimism.

So it's very important to remember, and is

and SubhanAllah, naturally,

naturally, naturally, when we read about all the

atrocities,

when we hear the disinformation,

the lies, people who are getting punished for

spreading the truth, it's natural to get frustrating

during these difficult times, especially with what's going

on in Gaza.

But I hear just to remind you as

I remind myself and my family, and subhanAllah,

I'm listening to the good words, the optimistic

words of other speakers that are uplifting me.

Sometimes we want to just shut down. We

feel horrible. Even when we saw the video,

it's upsetting.

You wanna shut down. It's a natural good

reaction that you're having and just reminding ourselves

that the strong believer is more beloved to

Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala than the weak believer.

Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala is testing you, and

of course we're gonna have a whole another

session next inshallah talking about how our test

is to keep going in, inshallah, in terms

of our belief in Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala,

but to take action. And there's going to

be so many ways that we're going to

talk about through this entire convention and how

we can take action. So that is the

that is the beauty of optimism.

It's being able to see through the present,

to know that the reward with Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala is greater, to know that there

is going to be exponential growth after this

difficulty,

and with every difficulty that there's going to

be ease.

And guess what? Aside from a spiritual benefit,

there is a physical benefit in terms of

being optimistic. Studies have been done

on people who are more optimistic in nature,

that they are more healthy, subhanAllah, that they

tend to live longer, that they, tend to

have higher immune systems, subhanAllah.

So it is a win win situation. When

we put our trust in Allah,

we will be the stronger Muslim insha'Allah. We

will be able to be the soldiers for

Islam in this country,

and upholding, subhanAllah, hope for all Muslims.

All Muslims who are able to do anything

are upholding the hope for the ummah, and

also to be able to be healthy and

functioning Muslims, not only in the community, but

in our own families. Your kids still need

you. Your spouse still needs you. Your friends

still need you. Your parents still need you.

SubhanAllah, your siblings need you to be functioning

and healthy so that optimism is something that

can help us to continue despite these difficult

times. May Allah keep us steadfast on this

deen and to keep us up optimistic in

the hope of Allah.

Thank you, sister, for the beautiful reminder of

the power of optimism

and and being positive.