Mirza Yawar Baig – Leverage Sha’ban

AI: Summary ©
The importance of life as a transaction and the return on investment is discussed, along with the need to give something worthwhile and use it for one's life. Investing in businesses and returning to one's investment decision are emphasized. The speaker emphasizes the importance of living in a small apartment and working for a long time to build a big house. Investing in one's life and potential future is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most
Merciful, All praise is due to Allah, Lord
of the worlds.
Peace and blessings be upon the Messengers and
Prophets, Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace
and blessings be upon him and his family.
Peace and blessings be upon you.
Brothers and sisters, life is a transaction, right?
We talk about winners and losers in life
and this and that.
So, who is a winner and who is
a loser?
It is a transaction.
In business, who is the winner?
The one who makes more profit.
Who is the loser?
One who does not make profit, makes loss.
So, if you say the winner, does he
never have a loss?
No.
But over a period of time, more number
of wins, more number of transactions where he
makes profit.
Does he sometimes make a mistake?
Does he sometimes lose some money?
Of course.
It is like cricket.
Every cricketer will get out.
At some point in time, he will get
bowled out.
So, in cricket, we have a term called
batting average.
So, the best cricketer is not somebody who
never gets out because everybody gets out.
The best cricketer is the one with the
best batting average.
So, per match, how many runs did he
make?
Same thing in life.
So, let us look at our own life
and say, what are we paying to get
what?
Life is a transaction.
You are paying something to get something.
For example, you are sitting here.
In these 5-10 minutes, you are spending
10 minutes of your life.
So, after you get up from here, I
want you to evaluate and say, I spent
10 years of my life.
Did I get something worth 10 minutes?
If you got something worth 10 minutes, then
these 10 minutes are not wasted.
If you got something which was worth more
than 10 minutes, Hamdulillah, you made a profit.
But if you got something which was not
even worth 10 minutes, then you wasted your
time.
Right?
So, also, social media, we are spending how
much time?
God knows.
There, we do not spend 10 minutes.
We spend hours, right?
There are apps.
The app will tell you how many hours
a day you spent on the phone.
The app will tell you.
It counts.
So, you say, okay, today I spent 2
hours.
And that is a very low number.
Usually, the average they give for America is
6 hours a day.
Now, 6 hours is a full working day.
On a working day, you work 5 days
a week.
On the social media, you are 7 days
a week.
So far, it is one work.
Every year is one lifespan year on social
media.
So, you ask yourself, what did I get
from spending one lifespan year on social media?
If you had spent 4 lifespan years in
studying, you would have got a PhD.
How many lifespan years have gone on social
media?
What did you get?
So, life is a transaction.
This is the reality.
You like it, you don't like it.
This is the reality.
So, to get something, you must give something.
So, we need to ask ourselves.
They say there are no free lunches, right?
Every time you are doing something, you are
getting something.
So, let's ask ourselves this question.
What am I giving up to get what?
And then ask, is it worth it?
Is it worth it?
If it is worth it, keep doing it.
But if it is not worth it, get
out.
Just get up and walk away.
Returns on investment, the way we calculate ROI
in business, they are assessed in terms of
the amount, the quantum, and the duration.
So, for example, if I sell my house,
and I use the money to go on
a world cruise, in a luxury cruise liner,
is that a good deal or a bad
deal?
Very bad deal, right?
If I say, no, no, no, I enjoyed
myself.
See the photographs.
I bought this beautiful album, fantastic photograph.
And now you're homeless.
That's nice.
Right?
Take a photo of that also.
So, if you do that, what kind of
investment is that?
On the other hand, if I sell my
house, I buy two shops, I rent them
out, I move into an apartment on rent,
and the income of those shops, I'm living
off that investment.
That's a return on investment.
I've got two shops.
That's the real estate value, plus I've got
an ongoing return, rental value.
I have a house, I'm living in a
rental apartment.
So what?
Now, that is smart thinking, right?
Now, do anything.
Do any kind of permutations and combinations of
this, sell the house, buy gold stocks, so
on, so on.
Any of that vis-a-vis going on
a cruise, you would say, which is the
better investment?
So now, think about this and say, let's
see how this works with Allah.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala used this word.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala called it a
business.
Allah said, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا هَلْ أَذُلُّكُمْ
عَلَىٰ تِجَارَةٍ تُنجِيكُم مِّنْ أَذَامِنَ لِي Allah said,
oh, you believe?
Shall I guide you to a tijara, to
a business, to a buying and selling transaction
process that will save you from a painful
punishment?
What is the result of that investment?
Allah said, مَنْ جَاءَ بِالْحَسَنَةِ فَلَهُ أَشْرُوا أَمْثَالِهَا
وَمَنْ جَاءَ بِالسَيِّئَةِ فَلَا يُجْزَى إِلَّا مِثْلَهَا وَهُمْ
لَا يُظْلَمُونَ Allah said, whoever brings a good
deed, which is any form of obedience to
Allah ﷻ, will have ten times that, ten
times likewise.
And whoever brings an evil deed, Allah will
only give him equal to that.
And they will not be wronged.
Now what is the one word for obedience
to Allah?
Islam.
And what is the guarantee that whatever it
is that I am doing is obedience to
Allah and will earn His pleasure?
That one word is called a Sunnah.
The guarantee that my action is acceptable to
Allah is if the action is according to
the Sunnah.
If it's not according to the Sunnah, we
don't know.
Maybe it is right, maybe it is wrong.
But if it is on the Sunnah, we
are sure.
So look at the examples Allah gave.
In Surah Al-Baqarah Allah said, مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ
يُنفِقُونَ أَنبَالَهُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ حَبَّةٍ أَنبَتَتْ
سَبْعَا سَنَابِلَ فِي كُلِّ ثُمْبُلَةٍ حَبَّةٍ ثُمْبُلَةٍ مِّنْهُ
حَبَّةٍ مِيَتُ حَبَّةٍ ثُمْبُلَةٍ مِيَتُ حَبَّةٍ One hundred
seeds.
وَاللَّهُ يُضَعِفُ لِمَن يَشَاءُ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ Allah
said the example of those who spend their
wealth in the path of Allah is like
the likeness, like the example of a grain
of corn.
If it is sown, it grows seven years
and each year has a hundred grains.
Allah gives manifold increase to whom He pleases.
And Allah is all sufficient for His creatures
and needs.
He knows what they need and He is
the All-Knower.
Allah does not count and give.
Allah is saying He counted.
This example is for us to understand.
But Allah says, وَاللَّهُ يُضَعِفُ لِمَا يَشَاءُ Allah
will give manifold.
He will increase it as He wishes.
Final point on the business of ROI, return
on investment.
Value of the return is based on its
quantum and who is guaranteeing it.
That's why the U.S. Treasury bonds, U
.S. $10,000 in U.S. Treasury bonds,
they attract a lot of investment because even
though the return interest rate on that is
only 3%, that's because the people consider U
.S. government to be a solid guarantor of
investment.
They cannot sink because the government is a
guarantor.
Now my question is, ask yourself this question,
then what about Allah?
Because Allah SWT's return is not 3%.
Allah is saying 700 times, not percent.
700 times.
10 times is minimum, which is 1000%.
700 times and then Allah says, and beyond
that Allah will increase as He wishes.
Now this is really where the rubber meets
the road as far as our Iman and
Yaqeen and everything is concerned.
You wake up and smell the coffee.
I ask myself and I ask you to
ask yourself, how much do I really believe
Allah?
It's as simple as that.
Do you really believe this?
Allah is saying I will give 1 out
of 10.
Do you truly believe this?
I'm not saying as Muslims of course we
believe the Quran.
No, no, no.
As a statement Allah is saying I will
give this.
Do you really believe that?
Because if I really believe it, then the
answer is in our own lives and our
decisions and our actions.
If I believe that one day I will
meet Allah and I really believe that Allah
will deliver on His guarantee, then this must
reflect in my investment with Allah.
Does it reflect?
That is accounting, not faith.
It's reality, not belief.
Ask anyone who is working in the Middle
East why they send money home to India
or Pakistan or wherever they come.
They live in a small apartment in Saudi
Arabia or Kuwait or wherever and back home
in their village they will build a big
house.
And that too when the reality is that
in that small flat when they are working
in Saudi Arabia or wherever, they will spend
30 to 40 years literally because that's amount
of service, right?
So he goes there at the age of
say 20, he works for 30 years, he
is now 50, he works for 40 years,
he is 60, right?
Then they get some extension and so on,
so on.
And then they retire and come home, back
home to Pakistan, back home to India or
wherever and at the age of 65 or
70, how many years will they live there?
Yet, he does it because he considers that
India or Pakistan to be his real home.
But if he has to go home, the
home where he lived for 70 years is
not his home.
The home where he will die in 20
years is his home.
Think about that, 70 years he lived in
this place, that is not his home.
He is going to go die there in
20 years, that's his home.
That's the birthplace.
Birthplace, so what?
But he is spending everything there, right?
So which is home?
The point that I am making is, think
about his Akhira, it's permanent, right?
But do we really think it is permanent?
Where is the family?
That is the point.
Apart from family, don't take it literally.
I am saying here, the person is staying
in this world, how long?
And then in the Akhira, how long?
So where is the investment?
That is the point.
Seriously, let us think about this and say,
that if I really believe that, and we
believe, Inshallah, it's not as if we have
no faith, we have faith and we are
trying to, but ask yourself this question and
say, if I look at my life, what
is my life showing?
Does it show that I believe that this
world is my final destination?
Or do I believe that the hereafter is
the final destination?
Because if I am not sending, investing in
the hereafter, what will I find there?
Right?
What will I find there?
Because unless I invest there, this is a
true story.
Al-Walid bin Abdul Malik, who was the
Khalifa after Umar ibn Abdul Aziz, he came
for Umrah, and after he finished Umrah, he
asked the people, is there anybody for the
Ta'abih here in Makkah?
They said yes.
So they took him to one person who
was a Ta'abih.
And Al-Walid said, I have one question.
My question is, why am I afraid of
dying?
He said, I am terrified of dying.
I don't want to die.
Why?
And the person, the Ta'abih, the Buzruk,
he told him, it is because your palaces
are here.
Your wealth is here.
When you die in your Khabar, when you
die in the Akhira, you have got nothing.
You have not sent anything there.
That's why you are afraid to go there.
But if you had invested, if you had
sent there, I built my palace there, Alhamdulillah,
I want to go there.
This is a story about the Banu Maya
Khalif.
So the question I asked myself when I
knew is, this applies to everybody.
It's not only for the kings.
This applies to all of us.
Where is my investment?
Where should it be?
Nobody says don't live.
And I'm not saying go become homeless, no.
Live well, no problem, Alhamdulillah.
But at some point in time we have
to say, what am I building over there?
We ask Allah to help us to focus
our attention on investing in the place where
we will be for a very, very, very
long time, which is the Akhira, which is
the Khabar.
And to enable us to invest there so
that that stay will be, Inshallah, very beautiful
and comfortable in the care of Allah.