Mirza Yawar Baig – Ambition and contentment
AI: Summary ©
A man named Allah is studying Islam in a whichever direction he can, but he has not accepted Islam yet. The interviewer asks him about his ambition and contentment, and he responds that he is not supposed to live in a state where he is content with what he has, but he is supposed to love it. The interviewer discusses Sayidina Omar unaq's ambition to conquer the world and spread Islam, and emphasizes the importance of balancing ambition and contentment. The speaker also discusses the success of Islam as a means to showcase it and the importance of focusing on Islam rather than just material and material ambition.
AI: Summary ©
My brothers and sisters,
there's a young man that I'm speaking to
named Allah
He is
studying Islam in whichever way he can, and
he's trying to understand Islam,
but he has not yet
accepted Islam. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
for
guidance for him and for to make him
Now one of the question he asked me
a question,
and,
I always enjoy
talking to the words and talking to people
who are not yet Muslim because they have
a a different
spin on,
things.
Right? Because we are, alhamdulillah, Allah granted us
the privilege of being born into a Muslim
home and
our ancestors have all been Muslim and so
on. So many things we
it comes with the air. You breathe the
air, it comes in and, you know, we
know this and
we accept it and we, we don't think
about it. But people who come newly into
Islam, they have a different perspective, especially people
who come from these cultures.
I mean, this culture compared to
the Islamic culture, which is more or less
common in almost all our countries is like
a being on a different planet. It's not
even a different country. It's like another some
other form of life.
So for them to take
a view of Islam is a very different
view.
Now this guy asked me a question, it's
a wrong question. I won't repeat the whole
question, but effectively he's asking 2 things.
He's asking for the relationship between ambition
and contentment.
Ambition and being satisfied.
And he's also asking for the
relationship
between
accepting what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given
and wanting more. So it is basically about
the same thing. So his question is related
to,
1, am I supposed to live in a
state where I'm never content with what I
have?
Or on the contrary,
am I supposed to say what I have
is enough therefore I did not do anything.
Am I supposed to kill ambition
or am I supposed to kill contentment? This
is the kind of beloved. And this is
something which is very, common. I'm sure a
lot of us also face this, especially young
people into careers,
you know, wanting more and more and more.
I mean,
I I remember when I was,
in a career when I was looking for
a career and and in in a career
and looking for development in the career,
it was like, you know, sitting on a
hot plate.
Right? I mean, by the constantly my mind
was on what can I do more and
more and more and more and so on,
and never satisfied? So this is very, very
common thing.
The point I want to make here is
that Islam gives us the most beautiful answer
for this.
And if you look if you want to
look for the answer, before I go to
the answer, let me give you a very
short,
picture of some of the people who we
look up to,
as our
leaders.
And one of the best of the best
is Sayidina Umar Ibn Khattab
if you take his world view,
on the one hand you had a man
during whose,
rulership
the boundaries of Islam
spread
all the way
after the battle of Yarmouk,
the Byzantine
Empire came to an end. So it went
all the way up into Iraq
and then on the east it went all
the way up into
Persia.
Right? With the battle of Khadisir.
So on the one hand, you are seeing
here the ruler
whose ambition is
within courts literally to conquer the world. Right?
And and to the extent,
possible that he could do in his life,
he spread
the boundaries
of Islam.
He is the one who opened Al Khuts
and,
Jerusalem,
the doors of Jerusalem
were opened to Sayyidina Omar Ibn Khattab. Sophronius
was the,
was the,
the orthodox,
bishop of, art bishop of, or pope of,
Jerusalem.
And,
the doors of of Jerusalem Al Quds were
opened to Sayyidina Umar ibn Khattab
So on the one hand you have this
man. On the other hand, the same man,
the same time obviously,
other people
saw the way he would be dressed.
And the other Saba were his brothers. He
was the closest to him. And they went
to
his daughter,
our mother and
they gave her a piece of cloth and
they said, please give this to your father,
tell him to make a new, you know,
new garment, a new soap and don't tell
him our name. They were afraid
of Seda Nur adallana's reaction. So Seda asked
Seda gave him this cloth and she said,
you know, your brothers are, they feel bad
about the way you are dressed. Your your
dress has got how many patches?
Like, more patches than cloth. Right? So they
don't like to see you like this. So
they say here is that. You are the
Khalifa the Mosley Bay, you are the Abu
Mohammedid and you are, you know, alhamdulillah, the
Muslim kingdom extends all the way up into
Iraq and into
into Iran and so on. I mean, you
know, look at this. So they said, they
have you. He said, Who gave you this?
So she said, No, this is Amara. I
cannot
tell you I cannot tell you who gave
me this.
So he asked a question,
He asked her a question.
He says, tell me,
what was the dress of your husband?
He said, I
will not change this
because I'm afraid
that if I change this,
I will not be permitted by Allah
to be with my friends.
Who are these friends?
The best of the best.
And Muhammad
So this
this life,
this one piece of life
gives us the answer to this. What is
the answer to how do I balance ambition
with contentment?
We balance ambition with contentment by changing the
reason for the ambition.
The reason most of us or any, you
know, within courts person who is not introduced
to Islam. The reason he has or she
has ambition is for themselves and the most
for their family.
Right? And the most, I want to create
a a world class organization.
I want to become a billionaire.
I want my family to be financially sound.
So I must have property. I must have
this. I must have so this this ambition
is around this.
Islam says, change the focus of the ambition.
Instead of having an ambition for yourself,
have an ambition for Allah.
That's it.
Have an ambition for Allah and for myself
I'm content with what Allah gives me.
Alhamdulillah.
I'm content with what Allah
gives me.
My ambition is for Allah
So I will not buy a newer a
newer car and a bigger and a bigger
house as well. All I don't need all
this. All I have kept me comfortably. I'm
not saying be in in a case or
in a state of need. No.
There's a there's a limit beyond which,
you know, once you have eaten one meal,
you can't you don't need more food. So
similarly,
so content
materially content with what I have, Alhamdulillah.
But for the sake of Allah
that ambition is boundless.
Now the beauty of that is
the problem of having an ambition for yourself
is that when it is achieved,
that's it.
Peaks and drops.
I want to be a billionaire. Okay. So
now I have a $1,000,000,000 now what?
It ends. I mean, there is only this
much you can, you know,
but the ambition for Allah is forever,
number 1. Number 2, the benefit of having
an ambition for the sake of Allah, meaning
that my ambition is that
I must be the means to showcase Islam
for the world. I must be the means
to open the doors of people's minds and
hearts to Islam.
So for each of us,
this ambition fits
every aspect of life that you might be
in.
If you are a ruler, the same ambition.
If you are, I think doctor Ali is
there. If you are if you are a
medical professional, if you are a doctor, same
ambition.
I think
if you are a businessman, same ambition.
So in your life,
showcase Islam
to the world.
Whichever
is
my profession,
the same ambition applies
across the board. There's no I I don't
have a
formal outside the house profession. I'm a mother.
I'm a father. I'm raising children.
Showcase them. Make them the standard bearers of
Islam. Make them people who people will look
at them and says, what what kind of
children are these?
Right?
That is the issue. So Alhamdulillah Islam gives
us the answer have an ambition to do
for the sake of Allah
which makes the ambition boundless.
It makes
the ambition something which is continuously
inspiring to the end of your days. You
never reach that. You never go into a
trough
and it keeps our own personal desires in
check. Alhamdulillah for myself what I have, alhamdulillah.
I don't need $1 more, I don't need
one thing more. I'm very happy, alhamdulillah.
But for the sake of Allah,
no end to that. Right?
Final point I want to make is
that if you could look at it from
the perspective of
a material ambition and a spiritual ambition,
the material ambition, you feel content.
As soon as you have enough, you say
this is enough, but the spiritual ambition, which
is to please Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, this
is an ongoing thing. We are never content
with that. So we are content with it
to the extent that I've done what my
best today, but tomorrow, I'm gonna try and
do more. This this is a
continuous thing, which
is something which keeps you inspired
throughout your life.
You never reach a plateau. You never reach
a place where you are you know, you
feel life is meaningless. No. Life has always
meaning. Life always has meaning, and life meaning
continuously increases. And as you go forward,
it helps you to keep focused,
to keep inspired,
keep yourself inspired, and to,
therefore, you know,
remain alive and,
in the moment,
all the time by focusing on
the of Allah.
So how can I gain the pleasure of
Allah?
So each day I try to do more
than I did the previous day.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to help
us to keep this one thing in mind
which is the riddah of Allah.
That's it. The riddah of Allah. We ask
Allah for riddah. We ask
Allah to be pleased with us, we ask
Allah
to enable us to do that which is
pleasing to Him and to save us from
that which does not please Him and to
help us to live our lives in the
beautiful way of Muhammadu Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasall Yourself.
Today's Jum'ah, I remind myself and you, let
us make sure we read Suruqaaf
and we should send salat and salam
every day as part of our normal routine
but today even more because of
the extra favela of
Yawur Juba, InshaAllah.