Leadership Lessons – Part 3
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Channel: Mirza Yawar Baig
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AI Generated Summary ©
The importance of faith and resilience in achieving outcomes is emphasized in Islam, with a focus on rethinking reference frames and not accepting anyone's success. The history of the Arabs and their preference for being hospitable to guests is also discussed. The importance of knowing two realities, including the balance and movement of grain, is emphasized, along with the need for writing and marketing strategies to be structured and consistent. The company is working on improving their customer experience through initiatives, and they have a strong balance sheet and capital resources to support their growth plans. They are focused on delivering value to their shareholders and delivering value to their team and culture.AI Generated Transcript ©
He was happy human where
we begin our second session on the leadership lessons from the life of Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
and we begin with sending Salat and Salam masala is Allah Allah Allah Azza wa sallam, because it is his right that when his name is mentioned before the believers that they sense a lot and Salam on him in the law melodica who soluna Allen levy
de mano Sandow, Allah He was certainly Buddhists Lima Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina, Muhammad Mohammed, Mohammed comma Salida Ibrahim Avada, Ibrahima, innaka, hamidah, Majid Allahumma, barik, Allah, Mohammed, Mohammed,
Ibrahim, Ibrahim, Mohammed and Majid.
Just as a quick, quick recap,
we
enumerated and listed 11 leadership, qualities, and 11 leadership lessons from the life of Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam. And these were complete certainty in his message, no compromise with the dean putting himself on the line, resilience, which is facing facts, while having absolute faith in the eventual success of the mission. The goal comes first before personal preferences, six was living his message seven taking risk, eight sacrificing short term for long term nine magnanimity and forgiveness 10, transiting from person led to process driven and 11 succession planning, and leadership development. So these are the key lessons from the life of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wasallam. For anyone who wants to be a leader or wants to lead, and out of these lessons, yesterday we did three, one is complete certainty in the message. In his message, complete certainty in the message number two is no compromise with the message with the dean, and three is putting himself on the line. And when we were talking about putting himself on the line, we talked about, obviously something that comes with it, which is personal courage, because without courage, you obviously cannot put yourself on the line with regard to your message.
Today, we will look at the fourth of these
leadership qualities, which is resilience.
Now, resilience is something that consists of two things.
Facing the brutal facts, while having absolute faith in eventual success, I'm saying brutal facts, because it is the question of resilience comes only when there is difficulty.
And the tendency of Most people, when they are in difficulty is to try to interpret the facts in ways which are,
which seem to be favorable. So they do one of two things, either, they play the game with themselves and say that things are not really as bad as they seem. That's one mental game we play with the things are not really as bad as the same. Number two is the game that we fail, we play where we say that somehow somebody will come and rescue us from this.
The entire Hindu theology and the entire Hindu concept of our thoughts came out of the second part, that God will come in a human form and rescue me from this case. Reality God does not come with any form of mental data has shown us the way to avoid if you want to fool yourself is a different matter. But the whole issue of why the avatar because people feel so helpless and or they're unwilling to do anything for themselves that they say no, no, but God will come. And he will come in this form or that form and he will save us from this particular situation. So two things. One, is that when people are in difficult situations, they play the game and they say, well, things are not
really as bad as this. Actually, things are better. And the second one is that they play this game
that somebody will come from somewhere and rescue. Now the reason they play these two games because both of these games reinforce one very negative thing, and that negative thing is it reinforces or justifies your own unwillingness to take action.
Because if things are not really so bad, well, you know, I can relax some more mean things are not really so bad, when they become bad, then I will do something. This week, we play this game in our minds, right? Things are not really so bad. So I can do something. Now this can be done at a personal level, also, at the level of the community. For example, if somebody says that, you know, look at your life, how is your life going?
What are you doing with regard to your life? You know, how is it that you are living like this? And we say, Well, yeah, I know, I will, I will change but you know, after all, I'm young.
Things are not so bad isn't about death can come and yeah, that can come at any time. But internally, well, it won't come to me, it can come at any time, everybody has voted for me, I still have time.
At the level of the group, or the community, or the or the oma, the game we play is that things about the Muslims are not really so bad. That's okay. There is something happening here, something happening in Syria, something happening in Iraq, something happening in velocity, something happening in Afghanistan, and so on, and so forth. But things are not so bad.
Why? Because then I need not do anything.
So one, this, how it reinforces this negative inaction that we do. And the second one is, somebody else will come and rescue, someone else is going to come and rescue them. What's the point of me doing anything, I need not do anything, someone else will come and rescue.
Now, there is a lot of research that has been done with the inmates of concentration camps,
during the Second World War, and so on,
people who were in concentration camps, and many of them spent several years in some pretty bad conditions.
And there's a lot of research done in that area. And the thing they found in this research is that people who expected to be rescued, perished.
They died. People who imagined that things were not really as bad as they were also perished.
The people who survived that concentration camp and the people who actually made it to the end, were people who did these two things. Number one, they refused to fool themselves.
They face the facts,
no matter how bad the facts were, they face the fact this is the situation, you're not fooling ourselves, things are not
less bad than this, things are actually so bad. And the second thing is, they own up this thing. And they said, Well, no one is going to come and rescue us from the situation, we have to do something ourselves.
So facing facts, consists of these two parts. The second part of that equation, which I made for you,
is the issue of
having absolute faith in eventual success. And that's a very important one, because if facts are so bad, then the tendency is to despair.
And we say things are so bad, nothing can be done. So lie down and die.
You know, now that, again, is something which is obviously
very bad and very detrimental Now, obviously doesn't change anything. So losing hope, and of course, theologically we know in Islam, losing hope in the mercy of Allah subhanaw taala losing hope in health from Allah Serrano telesco. So we do not lose hope from Allah subhanaw taala we do not commit suicide, we do not do anything negative like that. Because we have faith in Allah subhanaw taala. And we know eventually that Islam has to succeed, eventually, eventually, all oppression parishes, if you read history, there is no instance of any oppressor who oppressed forever.
They all come to an end, every single one of them, enjoys life for a while, but in the end, Operation always perishes. So therefore, we know that this is something which happens, and therefore we look forward to that happening even today. So eventual faith in eventual success. Now, I'm saying these are two paradoxical things because on the one hand, if you face facts about failure, without any attempts at disguising them, then the chances are that you will fall into despair.
On the other hand, if you have faith in eventual success, even when you cannot see any signs of your work, succeeding
But I still have faith, I have no science, I have no visible evidence that my work is actually succeeding. But if you ask me, I will say no, I am highly successful, I am succeeding, then you will say, Well, you know, you have lost touch with reality, because Where is this? Where is the evidence that you are succeeding?
Right. So, on the one hand, if you fall into this trap of saying that you have, that you're facing facts, you can fall into despair. On the other hand, if you look at the other side, and you have this faith, apparently unreasonable faith, apparently faith without any evidence that you will eventually succeed, then you are probably living in some, you know, Fairyland, without any touch with reality. So these are two opposites. Yet, we know from research, and we know from the evidence of that research, that people who succeed are people who can actually live with these two paradoxical things simultaneously in their mind.
And that is why I,
one of the things that I have said before is that
it's a quote from somebody else, the first part of it, where they say that the ability to hold two opposing realities in the mind simultaneously is the sign of intelligence.
And that's an important thing to keep in mind, the ability to hold two opposing realities, two opposite things.
To paradoxical things in the mind simultaneously, is a sign of intelligence.
Whereas the ability to hold two paradoxical positions in the heart is a sign of hypocrisy.
There is a difference.
So resilience is the most reliable sign of success. resilient people are the people who will eventually succeed and therefore, very important for us to keep that in mind two paradoxical things, apparently. But if you hold them simultaneously in your mind, then you will succeed. And what are these two things, facing facts? No disguising of Acts, facing facts, but not falling into despair. Number two, is having faith in eventual success. Even when you do not see any signs of it in your life, life will see the you see the life of Rasul Allah Salaam, as I mentioned yesterday, in the 13 years of the Moroccan period,
there is no sign of eventual success.
If you look at it, the Moroccan period is a series of failures is a series of videos, every single thing that was realized, did failed.
Everything failed, one after the other, whatever he tried,
it failed. You started trying to get down to somebody said, somebody filled somebody fit. The only people who came into Islam are people who were weak and oppressed, and for the slaves, and so on and so forth. These are not people who, you know, you would normally in the normal frame of things that you would look at and say, Well, yeah, I think this is successful
or not tells us to rethink our frames of reference. What we call success is not necessarily actual success. Like, it's important to think about that.
Who's a man was better.
below the line who's
who's the man would have been better may have been color for Villa de la. Right. So issue is that it was to say that we need to also rethink our own frames of reference, we that we tend to think in the wrong frames of reference. So now if you look at the life of Ross Ross Ross lm, one after the other, all the initiatives that he took failed, yet not in a single instance do we see any sign of despair, any sign of a lessening of
effort, any sign of low energy? Nothing, not once, not for a second.
The best example of this is the incident of life.
That Miss Ella, Larissa was Ella when he reached a position where he,
where he
lost, you know, after many, many attempts when he found that his boys were, they don't didn't look like they are going to come
to Islam,
he decided to go to dive to see if he could persuade the
the leaders of the cave to accept Islam.
And we know the whole incident. So I won't go into it in detail. But as soon as I went there, and there were three brothers
one of them refused to see him.
The other one said that if you are the NaVi of Allah, then I will tell the kids who have the cover says I will
completely destroy Allah could not find anybody else he found you.
And the third one said that, why should I listen to you? Because if I listen to you, then I have to change what I'm doing. And if you are not unhappy, then why should I listen to anyway? So you know, he had all these ridiculous arguments with regard to what he had to say.
And then
if you don't want to accept me, then at least don't prevent me from speaking to the people. At least let me speak to the people you know, you don't want to accept that's okay. Let me talk to the people whoever wants to accept let him accept their issues that also and not only did it did their issues that they actually got the slaves and other people to,
to throw stones at them.
And they've been hired Arellano, who was with him. And they were both badly injured and they were bleeding from all the stones that hit them. To the extent that they delana said that massage shoes filled with his blood and his shoe stuck to his feet
with those swords bleeding
from the pelting of the stones. Now think about this. See this whole situation? First of all, who is Mohamed Salah Salah. It is a man of the street that you don't know No. He is a son of Ben Ohashi,
which is the aristocracy of the aristocracy of koresh
is an unknown person know is very well known.
He's very well known, he is known, his family is known his language is known. His reputation is known everything now in the Arabs among the Arabs.
There was and there still continues to be a tradition were being hospitable to a host his religion. And this is pre Islam. I mean, this was this is a this is Arab history. This is Arab culture, pre Islam, to the extent that Allah subhanaw taala actually revealed the Quran in this regard for this reason, because there were some people among the Arabs, who were generous, as they say they were generous to a fault. To the extent there were some people who actually completely bankrupted themselves, by being good to the guests. People came and asked for a loan, they would give money, if they didn't have money, they used to borrow money and give
even though in many cases he used to, he borrowed money. And he gave it to somebody because that man asked him for money. He asked him for a loan, he didn't have the money. So he said below the lotto to borrow money from somewhere and give the money to
Allah subhanaw taala then eventually, not for this reason, but generally speaking in this context, Allah revealed the Quran well as Rhonda said, Do not give so much that you then your hand is tied to your neck,
that you bankrupted yourself. So, Allah, Allah likes the middle path alswamitra does not like someone to give so much that he bankrupts himself. And at the same time, Allah subhanaw taala does not like people who are so stingy that they don't give at all. So both both are not, not like the many stories among the Arabs about this generosity. And one of the most famous stories is the
story about the father of inhotim Rolando from the tribe of a Thai and he was called hajima Thai. And hottie Mata. He was a it was a man the breeze lamp where he was known for his generosity. And there was a famous story that Harvey Mudd they had a horse
he had a horse which was very famous all over rabies, very beautiful horse. Now, one day a man wanted to go and buy this horse. So he went to meet Fatima Thai. And again, the tradition of the Arabs that somebody who gets comes then you invite him to your house, he stays with you.
And in Islam, it is incumbent upon you that if a person comes in Muslim comes and says I need your hospitality, then you entertain him for three days at least. So with the Arabs, it was it was this was the guest so you know, the guest stayed with you. And so obviously you're talking about living in a tribe in a desert. There's
ordell for the man to go and check into. So this band came and he stayed with ATI. And again, it is against tradition, it's against culture that a person comes in immediately ask him, here's what can I do for you? This is all Western culture. And even in our culture, this is not the you don't say, What can I do for you, feed the guests, you be hospitable to him, and so on and so forth. And as and when he feels comfortable to say, what he came for, he will tell you if he doesn't tell you, he doesn't tell you. Right. But in our Western thinking, and our Western ways of doing business, all of this is a waste of time, so we don't revisit them from the minute he hits the chair, you say, all
right, so what can I do for you?
So but that's not the culture. So anyway, this man came, and he stayed without a tie. And he stayed for two or three days. And at the end of three days, he said, I have come to you for with a request with a for a favor, advertiser, please, anything you want, whatever you like. So he said, I have come to ask you to sell me this horse of your salts, which is so famous, I want to ask you to sell me this horse. So advertiser, I wish you had told me this the minute you can.
There is not our culture. But I wish you had told me this the minute you came, because I would have given you the horse. I would not have sold it to you, I would have given it to you as a gift. Because you came to ask for it, I would have given it to him and said, but what's the problem? And you can give it to me now? He said, No, I can't give it to you now because he said we had no food in the house. There was no food in the house when you came. So I slaughtered the horse
is also not there anymore.
He said I wish you had told me the minute you gave I would agree with given you the hospital is not there anymore. He said we took a loss. And that's, that is the story. And I'm telling you this because this was the tradition of the Arabs. Right? People talked about these stories. They these stories were the icons, they were the role models, people who are generous to this extent, which in today in our terms in our thinking today, we cannot even imagine this. You want to kill a chicken forget about killing a horse.
Now, given this tradition of the Arabs now look at what the ban Ozaki did with Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu sallam,
nothing to do with Islam, I'm talking about your your culture, your tradition, your manners, that you have been brought up for generation after generation.
Keep that in mind and say what did they do with Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam?
How can people who come from this tradition
actually Ill treat a guest to the extent of driving him away? pelting stones?
And for what was the venue enemy?
It is still something from you?
Did he come to do some harm to you or some he will do nothing. Just because he came and said La ilaha illAllah
cuando la ilaha illAllah out of Nero. That is the only reason. The only reason is he came to invite you to genda forever and ever.
This is what you do.
The reason I'm saying this is not so that we can all you know feel sad and cry No. For that we our eyes open that this is what the die of Islam must be prepared for.
Because the reality of life is that people don't mind you inviting them to anything in the world except
the only thing that people object to is if you invite them to gender
and the object that they object to that also in ways
where they will seek to harm you.
I mean, one way of objecting is to say all right, you know, thank you very much. We listen to you, sorry, not interested, goodbye.
But they don't do that.
They don't do that.
They will first deny you.
And if you don't listen, if you don't keep quiet, then they will call you a liar.
And they will try to defame you.
And if you don't stop, then they will try to imprison you. And they will try to torture you.
And eventually if everything else fails, then Allah subhanaw taala grants you his special mercy
and they kill you.
And the beauty of the Quran Allah subhanaw taala described this whole series
in the Quran
the whole series in the Quran.
Allah Rhonda described his entire series in the Quran
of what happens step by step by step
cemented
We need to be prepared
for this. And that is exactly what Allah is Allah Allah, Allah Azza wa sallam did with regard to Thai and that's what happened to him. That's why we're dwelling on this for a while to understand that
people will go against their own stated beliefs and their own stated positions only and only because the person who is talking about is is the only other person is talking about Islam.
Now, after having been
beaten and after having been tortured, Mashallah Salam came, and he, he and they've been there, I know they took refuge in a orchard,
which also had some vineyards in it had some great gardens in it.
And this belongs to draw brothers of the Horace.
They are not Muslim. There are two brothers of origin when Rosa Rosa Solomon died when I was entered the garden, they recognize them. They were a distance, they saw them coming in.
And they at least honored their tradition.
And they had a Christian slave, who was the gardener. So they sent him and they said, you know, give him some water or whatever, if you need some thing, so give it to him. So this man came,
and he came, and he brought some grapes and he brought some water
for the visa lasala. And they'd be hired.
And I asked him, Where are you from? He said, I'm from the city of Nineveh
and also said, Oh, that is the city of universal. Excellent.
So the man said, How do you know us Elisa?
said he was an abbey of Allah.
And I'm also an abbey of Allah, and he is one of my brothers.
So the man said, What do you mean, Allah? So Allah Jalla wa sallam presented Islam to him. And he said, this is la,
la la la la vida de la sharika. lah shalonda Mohammed Abu Salah,
and the man accepted Islam.
And he became Muslim.
Because he said only an AVI can recognize another NaVi and many who told me the story of Eunice la salam, he said, this is not a story that is known here.
And he accepted Islam. And when we were when he went back to those brothers, they said, See, this is the corruption. This is what we were afraid of.
The minute you talk to somebody, they leave the religion.
And they told this man, they said your religion was better than his Why do you Why did you accept his religion?
He said, No, I accepted his religion because I know that he is speaking the truth.
Allah subhanaw taala guides who he wants.
And then the famous story of the drama of anonymous Allah, Allah, Allah
rasulillah salam fell in suit.
And he made this famous draw.
He made this famous draw
and see this, because this is a beautiful illustration of resilience. Beautiful illustration of resilience, beautiful illustration of facing the brutal facts.
not
imagining that things are better than they are not pretending that things are not as bad as they're
so beautiful. Where Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam also takes ownership
and holds himself accountable for the results,
is not blaming somebody else.
He's not blaming somebody else.
And also, this door is a clear indicator of the fact that
his focus is on his eventual goal. And that goal, inshallah he believes completely and totally, that eventually he will succeed.
And when does he have this faith? And today, it's easy to say, you know, yes, of course, Islam is successful.
But when did when did he say these things? When did he have this faith?
When everything around him failed, to the extent that now he has actually been physically assaulted and beaten and he's bleeding.
The courage never actually physically assaulted a woman in Makkah, even though people some you know, there were incidents where somebody threw the interstices of a camera on his head when he was introduced. Now the villa and various things but people didn't actually beat him up or they didn't actually store him and things like this. They did not do to him and maka, they did. That was false.
So in the main many of the cyber killed and so on, but nevertheless himself, physically, they did not actually physically assaulted in Macau. But in time they did that they actually physically assaulted him in dive.
And while
maybe this was the This was Allah subhanho delas reason that I actually was conquered.
And the women and children of Thai food sold into slavery.
Allah subhanaw taala never allowed the people of Thai to accept Islam and come into Islam without in a peaceful manner.
But even when they came here, like I mentioned yesterday, even when the delegation from five good resources,
they brought conditions and they said, We will accept Islam and we will pray but we will not praise a cat. So then he rejected them like they had accepted Islam, then they would have there would be no battle on it.
Because there will be Muslim.
But it was the decree of Allah subhanaw taala because of how they're treated is
that the Battle of onine had to happen. And then all these Ranima had to be distributed.
And these women and children was sold into slavery. And eventually, of course, they came and they asked the reseller, Salam and they begged and pleaded and said, Well, what has happened has happened,
the vanilla has been distributed, but what I can try to do, and I cannot guarantee you that this will happen because people have gone. So what I can try to do is to see if people will do one of two things. Either return your women and children or return the material that was given to them. That is the you know, camels and Jeeps, and sheep and all that.
And when he called some people accepted, some people didn't accept.
And eventually they said, All right, we will give back the women and children but obviously we cannot give back the cameras and whatnot, because of all of that is part of our herds. And you know, we can go and pick individual things out.
And so some of the women and children went back to their husbands and to their families, after having lived in slavery for a period of time.
Very hard, very hard for the people of time, but
this is what they earned for themselves
when because of the way they treated the power seller. But to go back to the story, the door of the visualizer
is a classic example of resilience.
And I have taken from this section of the draw to illustrate what I'm talking about.
And he said oh like complaint Do you have my weakness? My scarcity of resources and the humiliation I've been subjected to by the people almost Merciful of those who are merciful
or harm or I mean
you are the rub of the week
and terrible Masada
what a B and you are my Arab also.
Now, before we go further,
these are the ways of asking why
these are also this this dry is also and this is a thing with a serum and you know you can take one incident of the zeros you can
reflect on it and learn from it for four years.
Because there is so much to learn and we are trying to compress things into a short course but the point is that
the idea of this is not to give you any impression that this is sufficient is not sufficient. This is only a starting is only a taster. And inshallah the My hope is that it will open your hearts to the Syrah and it will put a love for learning about the Syrah in your heart so that you will now study the zerah in detail inshallah. Yes.
So we are asking why is to glorify Allah subhanho wa Taala
glorify Allah subhanaw taala invoke his words invoke His grace, invoke his generosity
and put your own difficulty before Allah subhanho wa Taala.
Put your own difficulty before
keeping in mind his greatness and His Majesty and His glory. not keeping in mind some imaginary constraints or some constraints that you know about know the constraints applied to you that will not apply to Allah subhanho wa
Taala complained to you of my weakness, my scarcity of resources and the humiliation I have been subjected to by the people. Almost Merciful of those who are merciful. You are the rub of the week and you are my rub also.
So long as you are not angry with me. I do not care
basic soul of the
We mentioned this yesterday also with regard to keeping relationships with our friends and including with our families, when our friends and families insist on disobeying Allah subhanaw taala. The basic soul of the deen which Allah Salam is
explaining here and he is talking about is what? So long as you are not angry with me, I do not care.
If you are angry about something, then I don't care if it pleases anybody else, I will not do it.
And if something pleases you, I don't care who else it displeases, I will do that because only your pleasure is important.
So it says so long as you are not angry with me, I do not care. Your favor is most important to me. I seek refuge in the light of your glorious countenance, by which all darkness is dispelled and every affair of this world and the next is set right?
lest your anger or your displeasure descends upon me.
In today's reminder, we talked about taqwa.
And what did you say what is the Aqua? Aqua is to live constantly with this awareness. To live constantly with this understanding that Allah subhanaw taala should be pleased with me and Allah subhanaw taala should not be angry with me.
And then he said, I desire your pleasure and satisfaction and will continue to struggle
until you are pleased.
There is no power and no mite, except by you. The how La quwata illa Villa
the beautiful, beautiful dog.
I will not stop working until you are pleased.
As long as you are pleased with what I am doing, I don't care who is displeased.
And we know from the story of the Sierra, that after this Dar gibreel alayhi salam came
and gibril A Salam descended.
And he met Salam. O Allah is Allah Azza wa sallam. And he said, Yasser Allah,
He brought another angel with him. And he said, Your Rob has heard your dog.
And your Rob has sent me and your Rob has sent this angel
and the angel maids alarm and he said jasola I am the angel of the mountains.
And he said, Your Rob has said to me, go and ask mine, Avi and you are under the command of binary.
So the angels are telling me what to do. And I will do it because your Rob has placed me under your command.
And he said, if you wish, I can join the two mountains on the either side of times drive to the valley is that if you want I will join the two mountains and the entire tribe have been the case the entire town of life will cease to exist. Every single person in that town will be finished
will be wiped out.
And this again is one of the not just the lesser of leadership but also one of the proofs of the divine message of Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam said, Allah subhanho wa Taala did not send me into this world to kill people.
He said Allah subhanaw taala did not send me into this world to kill people.
He said Allah subhanho wa Taala sent me into this world as Rama for the people, as a mercy for all of mankind.
And he said, It is my hope, from my rub, my hope from Allah, that even if these people who are here today, even if they don't accept Islam, that from them will arise those who will accept Islam.
And the very Saba who came from the Buddha came from the thumb drive.
And this is the mercy of Allah subhanaw taala.
The drama of life, talking about the issue of resilience, in resilience.
It's very important. And that's why I say the most logical thing is to factor a line to the equation because he is in it anyway.
And the reason I say that is because sometimes people ask this question and they say, Well, you know, what you're saying is what logically this
They use this term but logically something
because we have been taught in our
corporate systems of education.
secular education, you know, this whole term of secular education is something that I dislike intensely. And I think that it's when we use these terms we use this term because we use them unthinkingly. What is the meaning of secular education? secular is that which is free from God?
Yes, what is the definition of cover?
That which is free, that was denied Allah,
secular is the absence of
Allah.
secular means there is no intervention or they do not accept
the divine secular is the rejection of the Divine.
And Islam is the acceptance of divine.
The Islam and secular are two complete opposites.
The only place where Islam and secular are not opposites is in India, because in India secular term has a different meaning.
It's not the English language meaning, the word secular in India means the acceptance of everything
is very, this is a peculiar meaning of the Indian meaning of secular. So in India, when you say this is a secular country, you're not saying this country is free from divine we're saying this country has everything which anyone considers divine, whether that thing is divine or not, doesn't matter.
Irrespective, so, acceptance of all religious faiths and beliefs. Acceptance of all religious beliefs is the meaning of secular in India. But the actual meaning of the word secular, for example, how secular is interpreted in Europe.
The ban on the napalm in France
and incidentally, that banner is not only on the niqab, it is again misrepresentation of facts. People say the hijab is bad enough is not bad,
isn't it I was banned number one. Number two, that is not the only thing which is banned. Wearing a cross is banned.
Wearing a Star of David is banned.
That French have banned all visible religious symbols.
I mean, I have no love for Sarkozy, I'm just stating facts. Right? So don't get Miss Don't, don't get misguided and start getting passionate about stuff without even knowing what it's about.
So secular is the absence of the Divine. And that's the interpretation and that's the actual meaning of the term secular as I said, except in India and India, it means everything but in general meaning and in Europe and so on. Europe in today is another this is a bit of an aside, but just so that we get our facts right.
Which is the fastest spreading religion in the world. Anybody.
atheism
not Islam,
atheism,
fastest spreading religion.
The whole of Europe is atheists.
Churches are lying vacant, abandoned. If it is nice, it becomes a museum if it is not nice, it's sold to somebody.
It is not is that the baby will believe that Islam in
Islam is not the vast swath as a matter of fact, on the other hand,
the maximum converts
to atheism, number one from Christianity. Number two from Islam.
People are leaving Islam very fast.
And this is a big threat that we are completely oblivious to.
Because we are too busy fighting amongst ourselves.
The Muslims are more concerned about what the honeybees are doing or what the selfies are doing or what the Burrell bees are doing. what somebody else is doing in we're too busy with the within ourselves.
And they're not worried about what the atheists are doing.
And that is where you should really be thinking about and saying what are these people doing with atheism is pure shatter your complete unadulterated shaytani bliss
because it is the denial of Allah subhana wa tada and it is a denial of everything which is divine.
So this oversea system of education, the secular education that we all come from, or most of us come from,
teaches us that to factor in the divine is illogical.
So logic is to do is to deny the divine. This is what we have been doing.
Whereas Islam logic is to accept all the factors in an equation not leave out something.
And Islam says that one of the factors in the equation, the most important factor in the equation is the divine is the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala.
So there is nothing illogical about
thinking about the pleasure of Allah, nothing illogical about invoking the power and glory and majesty of Allah, nothing illogical about relying on Allah subhanaw taala that is, in fact, the most logical thing to do. If somebody is saying logically and he is denying Allah, then he is the one who's being illogical, not you.
And when we are talking about resilience, this is a very important thing to remember.
Because only if you rely on Allah subhanho wa Taala. Only if you rely on the knowledge that Allah subhanaw taala knows what is happening, that Allah subhanaw taala can do something about what is happening.
That if I ask for the help of Allah, the help of Allah will come.
The man will arrive,
the cane will arrive.
This is very much part of logical thinking. And that's why I say the most logical thing is to factor into the equation.
This is what I will do many times, recent,
recent discussion
that something is happening in Syria. And so a lot of young men and women, they're protesting against what is happening in Syria. So what do they do? They have placards, and they have banners and whatnot, and they stand on the curb side, and they're protesting against what is happening in Syria?
Is this fine? No, you're protesting but how does that change anything?
Does that change anything?
So you are the same people tell me before you came and stood on this curb side this morning, what did you do the previous night?
I was sleeping. What do you want me to do? I was sleeping. Why are you sleeping? Why were you sleeping? Because you know that Allah subhanaw taala descends to the first heaven. You know Allah subhanho wa Taala.
An announcement is made and say who is it that needs my help? let him ask and I will help him. Who is it that has any need which needs to be fulfilled? let him ask and I will fulfill the need.
So those of you who are in this in this protest on the street, did you pray to that previous light? And did you ask for the help of Allah?
For most Muslims, it doesn't even occur to them.
It does not even occur to them that asking for the help of Allah subhanho wa Taala is a logical thing to do.
The thing we're different about this is it part of your equation you've got a case in court. You want a case in court very important case that you need to win. What are you doing the previous night
you will read the books of the case you will look at all your arguments on all of it you should do no doubt about that. What else?
What else
and if you are not doing anything else,
like killing sides for completing my sentences, I will slaughter you one day with a blunt knife.
So if you are not standing in front of Allah subhanaw taala and asking for the help of Allah man otara then my question to you is why not?
Why not?
I'm not saying the person not trying to lose a Kaffir or something No. hamdulillah is a good Muslim Mashallah he would praise a lot of budget in the masjid. But somewhere this most powerful tool that we have, we have lost touch with it. Because our connection with Allah subhanho wa Taala is weak or it is cut. So even worship has become a ritual that we need to fulfill Serato father, yes, I have to pray and I will go into the masters and
it's also happened after that I go for a walk so it's convenient. I'm leaving house by house anyways, I leave my house 20 minutes earlier. So I also get Serato for that I'm not saying anything about your knee of a father but anyway.
Need to bring this into ourselves.
asking Allah subhanaw taala must be the most logical the most normal
thing that we ever do.
put this into your children from the beginning
must be the most logical thing
for everything, ask Allah
every single thing.
You want to buy a car which car should I buy?
You do your research,
which God has bought and so on and so forth. What is the price compare it and whatnot? And then what?
Ask Allah.
ask Allah,
Allah which car do you want me to drive?
Get this into a system,
get this into a system when you are praying, right? And you resolve the data. Now next surah which Sora Do you want to read?
What do you do?
What is the logic? Well, what is logic tell you?
logic tells you what is the point in asking Allah, when I'm not happy to the Quran?
If I say I ask Allah and Allah subhanaw taala puts in my heart Surat Al Baqarah, but I do not know.
So how will I recite it?
The logic No.
But you know what that tells you.
That tells you
that if Allah wants me to recite for
Allah will give me Surah Baqarah then
Allah will give me sort of Bukhara, then,
and I will reset the whole story. Even though I did not know this.
Because it is not my column that I'm reciting. It is his color.
And if he wants to hear that column,
in my voice, then he will give that column to me.
I think I'm crazy.
We've lost our connection. stand, stand in silence.
It cannot
stand in silence. You tell me what to recite. And I will stand here until eternity.
And if you if you get nothing in your heart said that
until you hear the other forefathers are the new features.
We take no risk.
We take no risk.
taking risk is a sign of faith.
taking risk is a sign of it.
There is a story on the internet. You know, it's one of these
stories which floats around right story.
And of course one of the dangers of mentioning these stories to our audiences of the newly Muslim is that immediately somebody will say how authentic is the story? Is it not who is it narrated by
and the variable is asking how authentic is the story doesn't have doesn't even understand the meaning of authentic
so don't don't don't let don't let that little bit of knowledge which you have got
fool you and close the doors for other knowledge.
Teaching stories don't necessarily have to be within quotes true in the sense of
this actually happened. A teaching story is illustrative.
illustrative, Allah subhanaw taala used it in the Quran. Levin's Allah has Al Quran Allah Javelin la Idaho Hashimoto Satya Nadella. And then what he
did is he actually sent the Quran on a mountain and the mountain crumbled. No till column.
Not the rainbow ha leanness, la la comida karuma. give examples to people.
So he's lying.
Now it will add
a little knowledge confuses and then creates
complications.
This teaching story is a lovely story.
The story is about this mountain here is mountain climber who decided to climb a mountain and he wanted to do it on his own, so that he could say that I did it on my own. I didn't did it without the help of anybody.
So it started climbing. As he was going up and up and up, the weather changed.
And it was getting close to evening. But he wanted to complete his climb. So he kept on climbing
until it became pitch dark.
And it was bad weather, heavy wind and so on. And suddenly he slipped and fell
as pitch dark and slipped and fell. And as is falling his his whole life is going up in front of his eyes.
And he knows he's dead. There's no way that he's falling on the top of the mountain. There's no way that he's going to live.
But as he's falling suddenly he comes up with
his ropes snagged on something and he is now hanging in midair and he hasn't hit the guards who is alive
and he's swinging in midair from his rope.
So the man does what everyone does what do they do the scream while war God helped me.
He can't see a thing his pitch that
he screamed Oh God helped me.
So he has a voice and the voice says Do you think I can help you?
Easily Of course only you can help who can help me now it is absolutely only you can help me please help me save me.
Otherwise I will sure I can save you
some answers of course only you can save me nobody else can save me.
The way that I was sure that I'm absolutely sure.
So the white says then cut her up.
They say the next morning. The volume disclaimer.
frozen to death.
clinging to his rope with both his hands. four feet from the ground.
As Eva
as I told you, this is not a true story.
This is not a concoction. This is not haram to tell the story.
It is haram to cling to that rope.
So if you want the help of Allah subhanaw taala cut the rope of the dunya
cut the rope of the dunya you're not saying leave the dunya we are saying cut the rope of your mental reliance on the dounia this dounia can help me these people can help me that is money will help me or this power will help me or this government will help me
the hora de La Villa these are ropes.
These ropes are the ropes will bind you they don't help you, they bind you for yourself cut all these ropes. And certainly Allah subhanaw taala can help me La La La quwata illa Billah
resilience
my brothers and sisters
is to understand another very important
part
of life which is
to understand two critical realities of life.
And I've got the picture of a balance there. Scale weighing scale.
To tell you a little story which all of you would have seen yourself when you go to buy grain
in a grain shop in a clear Khurana shop
and you say for example I want 20 kilograms of rice.
So the man What does he do? He puts a 20 kilogram weight in one pan.
So now the balance is up like this. The pan with the 20 kilograms weight is sitting on the countertop and the other pan is up in the air.
So what does the man do now the the guy who's selling the script, he takes the grain out of a sack and he scoops it up. He was
And he scoops it out and he puts it into this plan. He keeps on putting grain into this plan. You're standing there and watching and maybe now he's got five kilograms in this band. He's got 10 kilograms in the pan is about 15 kilograms in the band. He's got 18 kilograms in the band. Do you see anything happening to these two bands? Nothing. Nothing. This pan is still sitting firmly on the countertop, and this span is still up in the air, even though it has maybe 15 1718 kilograms of grape.
So what do you see this man, the man who's weighing out the way What do you see him doing? Do you see him saying, You know what, I don't think this would happen.
To Go away Go buy the game somewhere else. Have you ever had as Have you ever seen this happening? Does it give up? You know, what am I am tired?
I put into this thing is not moving?
Nothing is happening.
Does he ever say that? He doesn't say that he keeps he keeps on putting the grain into the pan. Until what happens?
You see a very interesting thing.
When you go to this place is notice live thoughtfully.
So as you will see now when he reaches maybe Allah Allah, maybe 19 kilogram, maybe 19 and a half kilograms. You see now there is some movement in the pants. And the bands actually you see them moving like this. And gradually, this is what happens.
And at that time, you see another interesting thing, the man does not use the scoop anymore, he uses his head. So he takes the grain in his hand, and he releases a few grains at a time.
And the pans are level. And as he's releasing a few grains at a time, you find now the ban of 20 kilograms is up in the air. And the pan with the grain is now law.
You know, when I saw this whole scene,
I learned two very important lessons of life.
By grant
first lesson of life I learned was that until 19.8, nothing will happen.
And the second lesson of life I learned was that at 20 kilograms, the pan will tip
both are equally true.
Both are equally true.
So if you are doing something in your life, if you are engaged in a great goal,
and you find that nothing is happening, what should you tell yourself?
Nothing is supposed to happen. So why are you surprised that nothing is happening?
Nothing is supposed to happen.
We haven't reached 20 kilograms yet simple.
We are still at 1015 whatever. Right? So nothing is supposed to happen. Why are you surprised? Why I was surprised. Why are you discouraged? How do you give up? Have you ever seen a man weighing grain? Have you ever seen him giving up? If he gives up? What will you do? You will have a love of your life? You're crazy. What do you mean nothing is happening.
You will have a love of your life that uses man nuts, what does it
bring?
I'm not saying don't examine your strategy. I'm not saying don't look at what you are doing and how you are doing it. I am saying look at all of that. But don't give up.
Do not give up. Because until 19.8 nothing is supposed to happen. That is a law of nature. That is the fact that is one of those things that doesn't change.
And at the same time, the other one is equally true. Without doubt, at 20 kilograms, the pan will tip
both are equally true.
Both are equally true.
That's why they say in many cases, the one who wins the race is not the one who ran the fastest is the one who stayed there the longest.
He just women in the race until everyone fell off.
So even though he was not the fastest it's like the Kenyans in the in the marathons.
I mean, a Kenyan can run forever, wanting the whole night or Morning or night and he just ran. There's no stopping.
galera.
A worker changes nationalities, wherever it suits suits in one moment as a Kenyan is fighting with the Yemeni lots of smiles when Saudi lots of smiles, ages, nationalities. I don't know nowadays, if I say Indian also reveals while
everybody's while
on the
last slide, and then we'll take a break. So what to do, number one
Be goal focused.
Don't get distracted, don't get distracted, everything is your friend and this and that. But my goal is my goal. Whatever is that goal, stay goal, focus, be goal focused, stay goal focused, don't get distracted. number one. Number two, take one step at a time.
Nobody builds the Eiffel Tower on the first instance, nobody builds St. Paul's Cathedral and the first instance, you build a chicken house, you build A Doll's House or something, right? So one step at a time. Number three, be structured and consistent.
structure is very important. A lot of people highly talented and so on so forth. But they never achieve anything because there is no structure in their lives.
This is great enthusiasm, one minute, and the next minute is gone out the window somewhere.
What is the meaning of structure structure is to create a timetable?
Somebody asked. I think it was Alistair MacLean was one of the one of the big writers, very prolific writer.
They asked him, they said, What is the secret of writing?
And he answered very beautifully. He said, The secret of writing is to write.
That's all the secret to writing, is to write.
He said, Every morning, I get up.
And I sit in front of my typewriter, those typewriters, not computers, I sit in front of my typewriter, and I type
that's all
not everything I type is it worth publishing? No.
But if I type enough, will I eventually create something which is worth publishing? Yes.
So, a lot of people have this, I want to be this, I want to be that.
So I have a saying that
I say to be you have to do
to be you have to do
to do you do not have to be
and until you do, you will never be.
So if you say I want to be an author who is published, and who is on the New York bestsellers list.
So to be that, what do you need to do, right?
And in order to start writing, do you have to be on the New York bestseller? No.
You can start writing now.
You can start writing right now. So to be you don't have to be you have to do and to do you don't have to be man.
If you want to get on the New York bestsellers list what you need to do, right? Unless you do, you will never be. So unless you're right, you will never be on the New York bestsellers list, there's no way that you are going to be on that list unless you are a writer. And you will never be a writer unless you write.
And this is a good rule to use in your life.
So a lot of people have focused I want to be this, I want to be that I want to be the king, I want to be the Vice President of Human Resources. I want to be the head of marketing. Very nice. You want to be the head of marketing, no problem. Tell me what is your take on your company's marketing strategy? Have you written a paper on an alternative marketing strategy?
No. So when you can write that when I become head of marketing, but guess what, you will never become head of marketing, because nobody knows that you have even any thought in your mind. Why will they make you head of marketing forward.
But if you write an alternative strategy for marketing,
I say this in my corporate courses, I say I give an example. I tell them if you write an alternate strategy for marketing,
and listen carefully, I'm not saying it's a great Saturday, I'm saying that it's not a good study.
You wrote a strategy, but it's not a good strategy. And you send this to your CEO.
And you are among the junior ranks of the of the of the of the of the organization. And you wrote an alternate strategy for marketing. You did your research and everything else.
But it's not the best strategy. And you said this to your boss, you send it to a CEO. What do you think will happen?
You know what will happen and I'm telling you if I was a CEO and I advise CEOs, you know what level they will move
You out as a potential candidate for a fast track promotion line in the company.
You know why? Because you're probably one in 1 million who is even thinking of marketing.
So if you are thinking beyond the scope of your box, you don't have to be right.
You don't have to be right. You don't have to be the best No way. Just doing that differentiates you, you stand out from the rest.
And all CEOs are looking for people with potential and you just demonstrated that you have potential.
Because Jimmy, how many people in your company do you think are sending alternate strategies of marketing to the CEO?
Not even one,
not even one. So if you do that, what do you think will happen? immediately start out, even if you have written something which is not so great, doesn't matter. Add the fact that you wrote itself makes a difference.
And that will happen if you are consistent and structured.
Last two points, do not be discouraged by the short term. Why? Because until 19.8, nothing is supposed to happen. So don't be discouraged by shorter.
And keep focused on the long term. Why? Because at 20, the balance will
stay focused on the long term.
That's my final point, be prepared to change the method, no method is sacred. Many times organizations and movements go down the drain because people are married to the method. And they say this is our way, your way means what
means nothing. The goal is important.
And to achieve the goal, if the method needs to be changed, the method should be changed.
ideology plus methodology,
plus tools,
ideology and methodology can remain the same, the tool must change from time to time if the tool is not changing, that ideology and methodology won't work.
Even though you have the best ideology in the world. And the classic example today of Islam, Islam and Muslims globally,
are on a track that is leading to failure.
They have failed.
Muslims globally are not successful.
Why? Because we don't want to reinvent the tools.
We want the best idea in the world.
But we do not want to take the trouble to present that ideology to the world in a way which makes sense to the world.
And that's why we're sitting with the worst idea in the world.
And it's not benefiting anyone, including ourselves.
As well as monitor to give us the trophy to do what is pleasing to Him. And to help us to rethink our ways of living and our ways of doing things. So that we do not get stuck in our little ruts and that we are able to achieve the goal which is most important and which supersedes all our likes and dislikes.
And we ask Allah subhanaw taala too pleased with us. We'll take a break and come back after 15 minutes or so Allah Allah will carry while he was happy as mine