Mirza Yawar Baig – Goals of learning #3
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning a skill and achieving value in life is discussed, along with the benefits of spending time on it to motivate oneself and increase knowledge. The speaker advises measuring progress and finding value in time to determine success and potentially losing one's life if not meeting their goals. The importance of spending time in a certain way to make decisions and increase knowledge is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent,
the most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the honourable
Prophets, the children of the Messengers.
Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace and
blessings be upon him and his family and
companions.
Peace and blessings be upon him and his
family and companions.
My brothers and sisters, we are looking at
action points.
We are looking at what is it that
we do and what is the value of
that.
I mentioned to you the importance of starting
with the Quran, with memorizing the Quran, with
understanding the meaning of the Quran, and then
going further into the details of the Tafsir
of the Quran, with the intention of applying
it and living by it.
The next step was to read and study
the life of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and
blessings be upon him, and also with the
same intention, which is how can I apply
that in my life.
Third one is, look at what skills do
you have.
What can you do?
It doesn't matter what the skill is, as
long as you are learning a skill and
you are doing this continuously throughout your life.
Believe me, the neurons in the brain, which
is what gives us intelligence, the growth of
which, the development of which, and the preservation
of which, keeps you and me away from
Alzheimer's.
These are dependent on the exercise for the
neurons in learning new things.
And believe it or not, the more difficult
the thing is to learn, the more the
neurons are exercised.
It is painful, like all exercise, but it
exercises the neurons and builds them.
One of the most difficult things to do
is to learn the Arabic language.
But that's also one of the most beneficial
things to do, both in terms of what
it does for the neurons, as well as,
and even more importantly, the fact that you
are learning the language of the Quran and
the language of Rasulullah, peace be upon him.
So therefore, that is one thing.
So put a metric on it and say,
what skill, what language, what is it that
I am learning?
Number one.
Number two, what was your investment in it?
What are you investing in it?
Time, money, energy, whatever, right?
What is my investment in it?
And to motivate yourself, ask yourself, what is
the potential gain of this?
When I'm learning this, what is the gain
of this?
I'm learning carpentry.
What is the benefit of learning carpentry?
I'm learning to be an electrician.
What's the benefit of that?
And so on.
As I told you, the skill doesn't matter.
No matter what the skill, learning any skill
is beneficial.
And the more difficult the skill is, the
more the benefit of learning that skill.
So make sure that you are learning some
skill or the other the whole time.
As much as possible, some skill or the
other the whole time.
Very, very important for us to do that.
And put a metric.
As I keep saying all the time, unless
we are measuring, we don't know what is
happening.
We don't know what is happening.
Unless we measure, we don't know.
So make sure that you measure that.
Third thing is or fourth thing, I forgot
which number, but anyway, evaluate the value of
whatever you are spending time on.
Say, what did I get out of this
that will benefit me?
So some ways of thinking about that.
What did I get out of this that
I can sell?
Or what did I get out of this
which gives me a skill or knowledge that
is marketable?
In which way does it benefit me?
Now, that is a very important thing to
keep in mind because all of these are
ways in which you motivate yourself and you
say, well, you know, I am getting something
out of this.
The answer is I didn't get anything like
that, but I enjoyed myself.
Tell yourself that you just gave up that
much of your life to someone else to
get rich.
If you did that deliberately because you love
that person, no problem.
But if not, forgive me for saying that,
you are a sucker.
So all those who sit around and watch
soccer matches, basketball matches and whatnot, if you
are not a professional soccer or basketball player
or whichever game, if you are not a
player who is watching that match for the
sake of learning something from it, which you
will apply the next time you are on
the court or you are on the field,
one hour from then or whenever, then that
time is a waste of your life.
Please remind yourself, I remind myself that time
is not a disembodied entity.
It is not an intellectual commodity.
It is not just a thought.
Time has actual value and the value of
time is the value of our life.
I remind myself and you that the way
to check how much time, what the value
of time is, imagine at the time you
spend looking at the TV screen, watching that
match, right, one hour, two hours, whatever it
is.
If Malakor Mouth, when he meets you and
he will meet you as he will meet
me, there is not a modicum of doubt
about that.
When Malakor Mouth meets us, if he says,
and he is not going to say that,
but I am just to help you understand
the value of time.
If Malakor Mouth says to you and me,
whatever you, whatever time you spent watching this
match, I will give that time to you
now.
So imagine I am dying and Malakor Mouth
says to me, you spent two hours watching
this match, I am willing to give you
two hours, but you have to pay for
it because nothing is free.
So if I am paying for it, what
am I prepared to pay for it?
Now as a Muslim, what would I, what
would you as a Muslim be prepared to
pay to get one hour?
Just before we die.
And that one hour I can spend in
making istighfar and tawbah and asking Allah to
forgive me, I can beg and I can
plead, right, I can pray salah and I
can continue to pray salah so that Malakor
Mouth, when he takes my soul, it is
in a state of sujood and salah.
This is your opportunity.
What would you be willing to pay for
it at that point in your life?
Without exaggeration you would say take whatever you
want, right, everything.
Because that everything I am going to lose
in one hour anyway.
So all the stuff that I spent my
whole life accumulating, paying for, crying tears for,
making up all kinds of strategies to get,
may Allah protect us from ourselves, maybe even
walking all over other people's rights, denying people
their rights, lying, cheating, deceiving people, all kinds
of things.
So may Allah protect us from this.
Maybe I did all this just to get
that stuff, just to buy that car, just
to have that house.
I bought the enmity of Allah by taking
interest-based loans.
And if I meet Allah SWT in that
state, I am going to meet Him as
His enemy.
Now, what's your alternative?
Alternative is Malakor Mouth says I will give
you that one hour.
The same hour that you spend watching, I
am not even talking about anything haram.
Immediate question people, is it haram to watch?
No, it's not haram.
It's a question of what is better, what
is more beneficial.
So is it more beneficial to watch television,
some match or something, or alternatively is it
more beneficial to read something which will actually
give you benefit, which will increase your knowledge,
even if you want to watch some lecture
or something like this, something which will benefit
you in clearly measurable ways, which is more
beneficial.
So here you are now, with this on
your deathbed, about to die, Malakor Mouth says
one hour, what will you pay?
Now remember, all this is hypothetical, it's not
going to happen.
When Malakor Mouth comes, we go, period.
There's no time for anyone.
Allah SWT said it will not come before,
death will not come earlier, and it will
not come later.
And the time we have to go, we
have to go.
But just to help you understand the value
of the time that you are kissing goodbye
every day, watching this and watching that on
social media and what not, I submit to
you that if you think about it in
this context and say, what is the real
value of this, which is, what am I
willing to pay to get that time?
Now that time you have today, free of
cost.
Nobody is asking you to pay anything.
No one is asking me to pay anything.
And that's why I'm just throwing this time
away.
Now how foolish is that?
That's why I said if you're doing this,
you're a sucker.
If you're giving up your life for someone
else to get rich, for someone else to
make use of, for someone else to play
their games and strategies with you as the
pawn, and you're getting nothing out of it,
and you are a sucker.
So please make up your mind.
Do you want to be a sucker?
If you don't want to be a sucker,
then stop being a sucker.
Simple as that.
Simple as that.
Get a life goal, be clear about your
life goal, and measure every action, every speech
in the context of your life.
And say, does this benefit me?
If it doesn't benefit you, don't do it.
If it benefits you, measure that and say,
in what way does it benefit?
If it's only just so-called fun, no.
People who are focused on a goal, people
who have a mission in life, they don't
need entertainment.
There's nothing wrong with entertainment, right?
Except ask yourself, what is the meaning of
entertainment?
Entertainment is done because, one, you have free
time.
You have nothing to do.
You're sitting around, so you do something.
Or it is done to help you to
forget the reality of your life.
Both are completely insane things to do.
Why would you want to forget the reality
of your life?
You want to change the reality of your
life, if it is not good.
If it is good, Alhamdulillah, make sure it
does.
But if it's not good, you don't want
to forget that.
You want to be able to change that,
in your favor.
So, focus on that and say, how can
I benefit myself and others?
From what Allah has given me.
May Allah help us to do that which
is pleasing to Him and save us from
that which is not pleasing to Him.
May Allah bless you.