Mirza Yawar Baig – Ibrat – Lessons from life
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of understanding the value of money and the value of a car. They stress the need to learn from the world and self esteem, which is defined as a lack of confidence in oneself and others. The speakers emphasize the importance of learning from the world and not denying oneself the opportunity to be with someone.
AI: Summary ©
I was a sister that was listening
to another by
Sheikh,
Haja
Azizul Hassan Mazubra,
the
Khalifa of
Maranashar Falitamirathlali.
And the first, share of that is
Says the
this dunya is not the place
to
invest your heart. This is not the place
to get your heart attached to it,
and this is really a place to learn
lessons from.
It's not a place for viewership. It's not
a place for entertainment.
Is to take a lesson from something.
Is which means pay
place. Is
is just entertainment.
It's like what you go to a cinema
or something or drama.
Tamasha and he is this is not a
Tamasha.
If you think about this
this one
share and the the whole is very beautiful.
And I'll ask Umer to put it in
this, for the reminder you can read.
The,
the whole point of this is that if
you think about this life and we reflect
on it,
then
we realize that
it's not the possession
or the absence of wealth or resources or
family or people or power or influence or
glory.
It is how much we are attached to
that in our hearts.
What
spells the difference between happiness and sadness? What
spells the difference between
taking good decisions that please Allah
and bad decisions that displease Allah
is not the stuff we have. It is
how we think about it, how we are
attached to that or not attached to that.
And that's why this word, one word,
is to take a lesson, extract a lesson
from what we encounter.
Now it's one of those,
most important things
When
I was a little child, a little boy,
my father used to always ask me, what
did you learn?
What did you learn? Everything. You meet somebody,
what did you learn from this meeting? You
read the book, what did you learn from
this book? You see something, what did you
learn from this scene?
You go to the market, what did you
learn from the market? So this it will
engrain into me to ask this question to
myself, what did I learn?
Now it's not as if every time I
ask the question, there is an answer. There
may not be an answer, but it
creates a mindset which is looking for answers,
which is looking for something beyond
the obvious, beyond
what is right in front.
And saying,
what is
the reason for this? What is the cause
for this?
I don't mean to, I'm not saying that
you should find some, you know, conspiracy theory
behind everything. No. You're saying here, what are
the
what are the reasons some things happen?
If somebody is unhappy,
why what is it that makes you happy
or unhappy?
For most of us,
we don't,
graduate beyond
our childhood
of, happiness and unhappiness,
to, you know, to to thinking about
what is it that makes me happy.
For most of us, it's toys.
As they say, the difference between men and
boys is the price of their toys.
When you are little in the in the
nursery,
2, 3, 4 years old, it's dinky dinky
cars.
Later on, it is real cars.
The the mindset, the mental
level
is the same between the 4 year old
and the 40 year old. There's
no emotional and intellectual
development really because it's it's the same kind
of excitement. Oh, my car, my car, my
car. So how about whatever. Let me it's
a piece of iron and rubber.
So what's so what's so fancy? It's a
piece of track. So it's transportation
that takes you from point a to point
b. Right?
In itself, it has no value.
But this is this is how we have
been
raised and this is how we have been,
conditioned.
And on top of that, we live in
an environment
which is
geared for this.
This is the only thing we keep thinking
about in our environment to say
what car, what this, what that, what that.
We we are taught
to value,
not traits of humanity
like compassion and intelligence and and creativity
and the appreciation of beauty,
wisdom,
kindness.
No. We are taught to appreciate
stuff.
How much money,
what kind of house,
what kind of clothes, what brands,
what kind of possessions,
what kind of car, and so on and
so forth. And you see this is the
mark of a man or
or or the statement you are making is
by the car you drive and the and
the watch you wear and so on.
Just think about that. That if we apply
that kind of a standard to
measure the worth of a person, how would
you measure the Ambiya
How would you measure the prophets of Allah
who are the best of all creation?
There is no one who is superior in
terms
of their level with Allah
than the than the prophets and messengers. Not
a single one of them
was like this,
was wore, you know,
other than Surayman and Dawud alaihis salam who
were who were kings. But other than that,
not a single one of them wore grand
clothes and this and that. I mean, even
Suleiman and Dawud alaihis salaam, they
didn't
wear these things, and they didn't have possessions
to show off to to,
as a mark of their,
you know, of of of of their brand.
This was routine. This is how kings dressed
and so they dressed. But think
about about all that. Take out take Ibrahim
had
one robe that he used to spread on
the ground and sleep in the night, and
he would robe he would wear it on
his shoulders around his shoulders in the daytime.
And he said he had the same thing
for 40 years. Rasool was saying, what were
his what were his clothes like? We have
the famous story of
who was
after
passed away in the in his in the
He was giving,
in Jumah, and he had
many, many patches on his, on his soap.
It was it was clean and neat and
so on, but it has patches.
Lots of patches where it was torn and
he put a piece of cloth in as
a patch.
So some of the some of his brothers,
some of
the,
some of the great of the time who
were his his brothers, who were his friends,
they felt bad and said, look. This is
this man is our ruler. This man is
the, you know, within quotes the king. He
is the Khalifa.
Why must he dress like this? So they
took a they brought
a beautiful piece of cloth, you know, enough
to make
the garments for him, And they took it
to his his daughter, say the Hafsa, with
Omar Ibnat,
Ibn Khattab Adelana, the wife of Rasulullah sallam.
And they gave it to her and they
said, please give this to your father and
tell him to make,
new clothes,
but don't tell him who gave this because
they were afraid of Saeedullah's
reaction.
So when Saeedullah came to visit his daughter,
Saeedullah,
she gave him, you know, this,
cloth and she said, your brothers have sent
you, brother, your friends, your brothers
have, given this as a gift for you,
and they want you to make
new
clothes. He said, who who gives this? So
she said, no. I I am I I
I am I have the evidence and confidence.
I'm not at liberty to divest that, so
I will not tell you. He said, how
was the dress of your husband, Rasulullah?
He said, how was the dress of your
husband?
Did he wear clothes like I wear now
with patches and so on? He said yes.
He said the reason I wear this and
the reason I do not change is because
I am afraid that if I move away
from his sunnah, from what he was like,
then Allah will deny me
the,
the honor and the opportunity
to be with him when I meet him
in general. I imagine this. Right?
Now there's nothing. There's no,
it's not Islam to wear nice clothes and
so on and so forth. But these people
were at a at a level of piety
where these things meant nothing to them. Their
own sense of maybe today, we like to
talk about self esteem. What is self esteem?
Self esteem is to be completely sure of
yourself, of you as a human being,
and not be intimidated
by the world. Not take props from the
outside world
to show your
to to shore up your collapsing self esteem.
This is, this is actually
a sign of, total lack of confidence that
a person feels that he must wear certain
kinds of clothes, certain brands,
must drive with certain kind of car, must
wear a certain kind of watch, or some
kind of gadget,
phone and so on in order to be
respected.
Allah
said,
I have and
we think that pieces of cloth and pieces
of metal and and gadgets have more honor
than us and they give us honor. Right?
So it's very important to say to
say that the world is not a place
to to anchor your heart. It's not a
place to sink your heart into. It's a
it's a place to take lessons from.
And I remember myself, I knew let us
try to develop this kind of,
perspective on life where we take lessons from
the world and say, look at this. Look
at this. Look at this. Look at this.
See the people of the world. See the
see the people of the past, The the
billionaires, the the kings and the queens and
the, and and the owners of of great,
you know, fantastic jewelry and so on. I
mean, you know, many of you must have
seen the funeral of queen Elizabeth the second.
The woman who ruled who ruled over the
largest empire
the world has ever seen, the woman who,
presided over the looting
of
country after country after country of their resources
taken to to Britain. Right? Go to the
British Museum. Go to the museum in the
in the in the tower of London and
so on, and you will see all the
loot of the British which is displayed there
for people to see.
Right? And and this unbelievable
wealth and honor like you won't believe.
Died.
And when she died, you saw the the
all the grand funeral and so on. But
you and I know the reality. What is
the reality?
The reality is the woman died without a
man.
Right? At least as far as we know,
she died without a man. She died without
Islam. So what happens to her now?
It doesn't matter that she's in a crib,
doesn't matter that she's in this in this,
you know,
grand,
coffin made of God knows what, but the
point is that what happens to her in
the afterlife?
2 of my friends died.
Both of them were tea planters like me.
Both of them died. 1 one died in
his,
in his early seventies. The other one died
at the age of 86.
Both of them
had lunch
and slept and passed away.
But one of them prayed
before lunch
in the Masjid, came home, had lunch, lay
down,
asked his wife as usual. She would wake
him up for,
give him a cup of tea, and,
he lay down to
and told her, wake me up, and he
passed away in his sleep.
And second one, again, wonderful man
also had lunch,
wasn't feeling too good, lay down, and passed
away.
As you can see, one was a Muslim,
And we ask Allah to grant him generous
for those without his help because of the
way he died, inshallah. This is Bashar. And
the other one was other one was not
Muslim. Even both of the organized people.
Everette. Right? Ebrat should take a lesson from
this and say therefore that I, the fact
that I'm Muslim, what value do I have
for that in my life?
How do I retain this Islam? How do
I continue to be Muslim? Meaning, how do
I continue to obey Allah
To say,
I hear and I obey.
My brother says, I remind myself in you,
let us never ever
betray
this religion
that Allah
blessed us with.
And to stake this dunya,
use it. It is like the shoe on
your foot. It may cost $2,000,
but it is still a shoe. You don't
put it on your head.
The cap on your head cost $2, but
it has value because it's on the head.
Right?
If you take that cap on your head
and you clean your shoe with that, people
will say you're insane.
And so, no. Why am I insane? I'm
using a $2 thing to clean a $2,000
thing. I said, no. It's not a question
of how much what it cost. It's a
question of where is it to be used.
That's the dunya. The dunya
is a show.
It is to use on your feet, but
how do you use it? I'm not saying
walk barefoot, but use it where it is
supposed to be used. Don't keep it in
your heart. Don't keep it in your head.
Don't allow that to define your life. Don't
allow that to define you and to,
be a reflection of your,
self esteem as you might think. It is
not.
Our self esteem lies in our principles and
our values, and it lies above all in
our iman and in our love for Allah
and his name is Muhammad
We ask Allah to help us to do
what is pleasing to him and to save
us from what is not pleasing to him.