Mirza Yawar Baig – Money matters in Islam
AI: Summary ©
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AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu wa Salamu ala
Asharafil Anbiya wal Mursaleen.
Muhammadun Rasulullahi salallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa
salam tasliman kathiran kathiran.
Fa amma ba'du fa qala ta'ala inna
allaha wa malaikatahu yusalluna ala an-nabi.
Ya ayyuhal ladhina amanu sallu alayhi wa sallimu
tasliman.
Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Muhammad.
Kama salli ta'ala Ibrahima wa ala aali
Ibrahima.
Innaka hamidun majeed.
Allahumma barika ala Muhammadin wa ala aali Muhammad.
Kama barakta ala Ibrahima wa ala aali Ibrahima.
Innaka hamidun majeed.
Yesterday we spoke about three different things.
Today we look at the two other elements.
And the first of that is money.
And the reason money is important is because
money makes the world go round.
Right?
Things happen in this world because of money.
Either the desire of money or having the
money.
Now, as I mentioned to you, the economic
system at the time of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam was very, very similar to the
economic system that exists in the world today.
It was a free market economy.
It was not controlled by anybody.
It was Mecca as a city was ruled
by billionaires, ruled by the wealthy people.
Few of them used to gather in a
place called Nadwa and they would, whatever they
needed to decide, they would decide and that
would be implemented.
They didn't have a chief or a sultan
or a sheikh or a king or somebody.
They didn't have that.
It was a bunch of businessmen who ruled
the town.
And they traded across.
They actually had a global international trade because
they traded between the Byzantine Empire and the
Persian Empire.
These were the days before the nation states.
But if we interpret that in terms of
nation states, we are looking at trade with
at least, in today's time, maybe 20, 30
different countries.
So they had a multinational trading organization.
They were not small businessmen.
They were not small shoppers.
These were big multinational businessmen who dealt in
billions of dollars in today's money.
People like Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib, Abu Sufyan,
Abu Lahab, and you had others who were,
Anam?
Sufyan.
Abu Sufyan, yes.
Abdur Rahman Ibn Naufi R.A.'s actual amount
of money which he left behind, his Tarka,
when he passed away, we have the actual
numbers.
And according to those numbers, Abdur Rahman Ibn
Naufi R.A. was at least ten times
more wealthy than Elon Musk.
And his money, his wealth, his real wealth
was gold.
Halal.
Halal and gold.
It was on the share market.
One day it goes up, one day it
comes down.
No, this is actual wealth.
Right?
So these are big people.
Now, if you look at them today, we
have to understand, Islam is very much in
favor of business.
Rasulullah S.A.W. in one hadith, and
the taqrij of the hadith, some people said
it is a bit zaif and so on,
but it doesn't matter.
Alhamdulillah, the meaning of it is correct.
Which is, he said that nine parts of
barakah is in business and one part is
in employment.
So he encouraged business.
He himself was a businessman and he was
also employed for some time by Sayyidah Khadijah
al-Kubra Ummana R.A. and as her
agent to trade.
So he knew both sides of the coin.
So Islam stands for what today we call
a free market economy.
It's not a regulated economy.
Prices are not set.
There is an incident in the Sira.
In Madinah at one point there was some
shortage and the Sahaba came to Rasulullah S
.A.W. and they said, Ya Rasulullah, please
regulate the market.
Set prices.
Rasulullah S.A.W. said, no, I will
not regulate what Allah has not regulated, I
will not regulate.
You regulate yourselves.
So Alhamdulillah, we know that free market is
there.
Now, however, there are some basic principles.
First of all, in Islam the business must
not only be in halal things, but it
must be morally defensible.
Meaning that, for example, in a time of
drought, you might say, well, I am selling
wheat or I am selling corn, but in
a time of drought I am hoarding it
and then I am selling it for a
high price, even though the commodity you are
selling is halal, which is corn, but the
way you are doing it has a big
problem with it, because you are now taking
advantage of people's hunger and you are jacking
up the price.
Wallahualam, this is whether it is halal or
haram, we don't recommend that, we should not
do something like that.
So it is morally indefensible, even though the
commodity itself is not, you can't say corn
is haram, corn is not, corn is halal.
But the way you are doing that business,
that is a matter of doubt and therefore
you should not do it.
Therefore we say it is a business which
benefits at the cost of society.
In Islam it is haram.
Islam clearly and therefore Islam has categorically prohibited
everything which is harmful, which is addictive, which
is immoral and which is subversive.
So interest-based banking, selling alcohol and cigarettes
and lottery tickets and all kinds of stuff,
sometimes people say, no Sheikh, but you know,
I am selling this alcohol only to non
-Muslims, they buy it anyway.
Inna lillahi wa nalliha ajar.
They buy it anyway or not anyway is
not your problem.
You don't do that.
Right?
It is haram for you to do that.
Because the beauty of Islam is if Allah
swt prohibited something, he prohibited everything around it.
He prohibited everything that leads to it.
So alcohol is prohibited, anything addictive or anything
which changes the mind, all kinds of drugs
are prohibited, which means not only their use,
but also manufacturing them, buying them, selling them,
storing them, transporting them, all of this is
also prohibited.
The same principle applies.
Pork is prohibited.
You cannot eat pork, but you also cannot
have a pig farm.
You cannot have a pig slaughterhouse.
You cannot be transporting pigs.
You cannot be dealing with pigs.
You can't use pigskin handbags and shoes and
stuff.
Everything to do with that is also prohibited.
This is the safety net that Islam puts
on it so that you don't go anywhere
near it.
Right?
So this is something very important.
And this is one of the reasons why
the Quraysh opposed Islam the greatest because these
were business people and to them it looked
like this Islam is going to destroy my
business.
Control it.
So I cannot make the profits I was
making.
So we cannot.
We will not do it.
But just think about it.
Read the history.
What actually happened when finally they came to
Islam and they started operating under Islamic principles.
Did their wealth go up or down?
Up!
It went up in a way they could
not even have dreamt of.
Even in their best times they never dreamt
of ruling Byzantine and ruling Persia.
Allah gave them that to rule.
Right?
At the most they dreamt of making money.
They didn't think Abu Sufyan did not think
I'm going to be the king of Persia.
No!
Allah made them.
He did not make Abu Sufyan.
But the people, the Arabs, they ruled the
whole world.
The whole known world.
Allah gave them that.
Why?
Because they followed Allah's subhanahu wa ta'ala's
ahkam.
They followed the way of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
Therefore in Islam profit is the pleasure of
Allah.
It is not return on investment.
ROI.
Its profit is the pleasure of Allah.
Sometimes I say in the interfaith workshop, we
say we want peace.
I say you will never have peace until
you have your ROI, return on investment, based
on war.
Wars happen not because anyone hates anybody.
Wars happen because wars make money.
The highest return on investment is on weapons
of mass destruction.
So as long as you are making money
out of death, you will have wars.
You cannot have peace.
So find another ROI, you will get peace
in one minute.
That is why Islam has...
Today we want to live in a world
where we don't want any moral and ethical
considerations.
Remove all ethics and morals.
My desire, whatever I wish to do, I
should be able to do.
Halal, haram, no problem.
And I must make maximum amount of money.
By making money, who else is hurt, no
problem.
Somebody dies, bad luck.
This is our way today.
Then we say there is so much of
suffering.
Of course there will be suffering.
How will you not have suffering?
You put salt in the food, you say
there is too much of salt.
Who put the salt?
You put the salt.
So there will be more salt.
Who told you to put salt?
Take out the salt.
Don't put so much of salt.
Right?
So now if you look at the Croatian
banking system, you see what they did in
my research, I discovered this.
What they did was, they basically took the
Roman system of finance, which was almost a
thousand years older than the time of Moses.
The Romans also had a global trade.
They had a world empire, they had a
global trade.
So they used things like lines of credit,
deferred payments, LCs, letters of credit, forward purchasing,
interest-based lending, multiple currencies, risk financing, all
of that stuff.
Credit rating.
The Romans had all these systems.
And the Arabs just took over those systems.
And the very simple reason.
See, if I am taking a caravan from,
basically the caravan went, as I mentioned yesterday,
from Yemen to Sham.
And they stopped midway in Mecca, because this
was home territory, and it was a good
place to take some rest, replenish, and go
forward.
And because of that stop, it created a
local market in Mecca, which was also beneficial
for them.
So they made profit in three places, in
Yemen, in Mecca, as well as in Sham.
And this was very good for them.
But if I am taking a caravan, and
they took caravans of thousands of camels, these
are massive things, like a moving city.
Now when they took those caravans, if I
am taking money to buy things, in those
days, money was not paper money.
Money was gold.
So I would have to have camels and
camels of gold to carry, to buy things.
Now two big problems with that.
One is the bulk of it, to transport
that.
Secondly, it's dangerous.
Now I become absolute target for every bandit
under every tree.
So what am I going to do?
I will have to have an army moving
with me also.
I can't have an army with me, because
all that comes out of my profit.
So my profit goes down the drain.
So simplest thing was letters of credit.
So I have a banker here, I have
a banker there.
His bank gives a letter of credit, lend
so and so, so many million.
I go there, I show the letter, I
get so many millions, and then he gives
me a letter, I come here.
That's exactly the system that is followed till
today.
That's why I say sometimes I was lecturing
at a university in Massachusetts, I said to
them that if you brought Al-Abbas bin
Abdul Muttalib, Abu Sufyan, Raja Al Anwar and
others today to Wall Street, or if you
brought them today to the Federal Reserve, or
you brought them today to one of our
global banks, believe me, they will not be
surprised.
The only thing new for them will be
the computers.
The machines.
The machines, nothing else.
Systems, they know all the systems.
They know all the systems.
You could take Abu Sufyan and make him
the head of the Federal Reserve, he would
do a fantastic job.
He would know everything.
He would know all about lending and borrowing
and interest rates and this and that, everything.
They know all the stuff, because that was
their system.
The only thing new is machines.
Nothing else.
Right?
Now in that situation, Rasulullah came and he
brought a system which is a true system
of partnership.
He brought a system which underlines a very
important thing.
And that is, in Islam, money is not
a commodity for trade.
Please understand this very clearly.
Right?
In Islam, money is not a commodity for
trade.
Money is a means of buying something and
receiving for selling something.
But you cannot take the money itself and
do anything with it.
That's why interest-based banking is haram.
Interest is what?
Money on money.
That's haram, because money is not a commodity.
See the principles of Islam.
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says in the Hadith
in Abu Dawud, whoever lets a person off,
meaning, somebody borrows money, he is not giving
it back, you say, Alhamdulillah, no problem, take
it, keep it.
Because you are in need and so on,
I will not put pressure on you, keep
it.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will relieve his
distress on the Day of Resurrection.
Alhamdulillah.
But what does that do to my business
here?
If I am running a bank, I give
a loan here, he can't return it, no
problem, keep it.
I give a loan here, he can't return
it, no problem, keep it.
My bank is going to shut down.
It is not a business model.
But my point is, Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
says, this system doesn't work.
I said, why?
He says, it is not a business model.
I said, it is not supposed to be
a business model.
Money is not a commodity for trade.
Money is to be used for two purposes.
One is to buy and sell, and two,
to help people.
You are in need, you ask me, I
give you money to help you, Alhamdulillah, for
the sake of Allah.
It is not a trade commodity.
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala says in the Hadith in Muslim,
whoever waits for one who is in financial
difficulty to repay, or wears it, gives it
away.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will shade him
under His shade of the Arsh.
See what this underlines and emphasizes.
First and foremost, this underlines our own Iman.
I must have Iman that there is a
Day of Judgment.
I must have Iman that the shade of
the Arsh of Allah, Jalla Shanahu, is worth
something to look forward to.
I need the shade of the Arsh of
Allah.
If I don't have that Iman, how will
I give up my money?
So, very important to understand that.
That is what Islam brought.
Fundamental belief in the Akhira.
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said in the Hadith
in Bukhari and Muslim, the meaning of which,
two parties to a transaction have the option
of cancelling it until they part.
If they are honest and disclose any defects,
their transaction will be blessed.
And if they lie and conceal the defects,
the blessings will be erased.
That is the reason why the famous saying
of Sayyidina Umar ibn Khattab.
He said, it is not permissible for a
trader in the market of Madeera to trade
unless he learns about trade, the principles of
trade in Masjid an-Nabawi Sharif.
He said, the person, if a Muslim wants
to have a business, he must first learn
the Usul of business before he goes into
business.
Just ask us, we all want to have
start-ups and so on and so forth.
We have all kinds of questions about sourcing
of funds and what not, right?
Recruitment procedures and company policies.
Do we also say, what are the principles
of Islam that I have to apply here?
Do we do that?
I am not talking about simply creating a
Musala in your office, no.
Principles of business.
We need to think like this.
Principles of business.
There are so many stories of the Sahaba
who came and the way they did business.
In four Hijri, there were two Sahabi, two
of the Sahaba, four Hijri.
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was in Madeera.
Two Sahaba came on a trading ship to
India, to a place called Kodangallu, which is
near Cochin, down south.
And that was the kingdom of the Kulushekar
of Perumal dynasty.
So they came there.
They landed.
They met the king.
The king called them.
They met the king.
The king said, who are you?
What are you?
They said, we have come from Arabia.
We have come to trade.
And can you allow us?
He said, yes, of course.
Welcome.
Come and trade.
And the king said, we have a question.
He said, we saw the moon splitting.
He said, so many months back, we saw
the moon in two parts.
Then it joined.
He said, we don't know what this is.
And he said, I asked my astrologers, and
my astrologers said that this happened because of,
in their language, Rishi Muni, meaning a holy
man, the messenger of Allah, who came in
the land of the dead palms.
So you have come from this land.
Do you know about this?
They said, yes, this is Shakul Khamar, which
our Nabi, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, gave him this mu'ajiza.
And he caused this to happen.
The king gave them place to build a
masjid.
Fourth Hijri.
That masjid is there till today.
I have prayed in that masjid, in Kodangalur.
So they built the masjid.
And then they needed a lamp.
So the king gave a lamp from one
of their temples.
That lamp is there till today.
It's a brass lamp.
It is there in that masjid.
Then they were trading in the market.
So they had grain.
One day it rained.
Some of the grain got wet.
So when people came to buy the grain,
they said, no, wait.
They took it out.
They said, this is wet.
So we give you this much discount.
People are surprised.
They said, what is this?
The other traders came.
They said, don't do this.
You will spoil our market.
Who taught you this?
This is not the way we do business.
So the sahabi said, but this is the
way we do business.
Who taught us?
Muhammad Rasulallah taught us.
We don't deceive anybody.
We show the defects of the goods.
If there is something wrong, we'll tell you.
The king was so impressed that he gave
his kingdom to his son.
He went to meet Rasulallah.
He met Rasulallah.
He accepted Islam.
He returned on the way.
He died in Oman in a place called
Salalah.
His grave is there.
I have seen the grave.
I was in Salalah.
I went to visit the grave.
Hajeeb, eh?
Four hijri.
Islam came to India.
Four hijri.
How did it come?
It did not come by the sahabi coming
and making a big khatira or a big
khutba.
There was no Muslims.
Who will make khatira do?
It came by business.
By businessmen doing business according to Islam.
No lying.
No cheating.
No deceiving anybody.
Being kind.
Giving good product.
Good service.
Good delivering on time.
Worthy of your tongue.
By promise.
I stand by my promise.
There is a beautiful story from the market
of Madinah.
A man came from the Banu Nadir, the
Jewish tribe.
He came to the market of Madinah to
buy something.
He came to one of the shopkeepers.
They are all sahaba.
It was during the time of Prophet Muhammad.
He came to one of the shops and
he asked the man for the thing.
So the sahabi said to him, look, I
have this.
This is the price.
The Banu Nadir man, he said, yeah, sure.
This is a good price.
I will take it.
He said, now do me a favor.
Don't buy from here.
Go to that shop in the corner there.
That man in the shop, he has the
same product, same price.
Go buy from him.
So this customer said, this is a strange
thing.
I come to you to buy.
You sell me, finished.
Why are you sending me to the other?
The other man is your competitor.
He said, no, no, just go buy.
He said, go buy from him because I
have been watching him.
Today he did not get any customers.
Now we are going to close the market.
In the night they close the market.
Now we are almost at closing time.
This man, the whole day has passed.
He has got no customers.
Go buy from him.
He will get some money.
He will take some money home.
Otherwise he will go home empty-handed.
So this Banu Razil, he went there.
He bought the thing.
He came back.
When he came back here to the sahabi,
the sahabi had some more customers.
So he is waiting.
The sahabi saw him.
When the customers finished, he called him.
He said, what happened?
You didn't get the thing?
He said, no, I got it.
He said, then why are you here?
He said, because I want something from you.
From me?
What?
He said, I want from you that which
made you send me there.
I want from you the thing which made
you send me there.
He said, that is Islam.
He said, yes.
I want your Islam.
He said, why are you asking me?
He said, because the man you sent me
to is a man from my tribe.
That is a Jewish man you sent me
to.
You are a Muslim.
You could have sold me the same thing
you sent me to a Jewish shopkeeper.
Because you are concerned and worried the man
did not get any business today.
He will go home empty-handed.
I don't want him to go home empty
-handed.
What makes you do that?
He said, that is what I want.
The material I got.
What is in your heart?
Give me.
I said, there is no god but Allah.
I bear witness that Muhammad is His Messenger.
Trade.
Business.
Money.
So the principle and concept of money in
Islam is earn and spend halal.
Otherwise, we know the consequences.
Money lending is not a business.
Money is not a commodity.
It is not there to be lent.
It is to be lent only for helping
people.
Nothing else.
Venture capital.
Shareholding.
Profit sharing.
All of this is jaiz.
No problem.
You want to borrow money from me to
start a business.
I will not lend you the money, but
I will buy equity in your business.
Give me 10% of your business.
Give me 30% of your business.
I will fund you.
No problem.
But now I am a shareholder in your
business.
Your business goes up or down.
I am also part of the shareholding.
If you make a loss, I make a
loss.
If you make a profit, I make a
profit.
See the beauty of this system.
What happens, the difference between…
You might say, at the end of the
day, a man comes to you.
He says, I want a million dollars.
So you have an option.
I am giving you a million dollars at
10%.
Money lending.
In Islam, this is haram.
Or I say, okay, I will give you
a million dollars.
Give me 10% of your business.
Right?
So I am not lending.
I am giving you the money, but I
am buying 10% equity.
So you might say, at the end of
the day, you have given me a million
dollars.
What's the difference?
Huge difference.
Because the first thing, the money lending part
of it, whether you live or you die
or you survive or you go on the
street, is no business of mine.
I don't care.
I must have my interest payment on time.
Otherwise, I foreclose.
I throw you out of your house.
I throw you out of your business.
I take over whatever you have.
Yes?
In Islam, this is haram.
In Islam, you become a shareholder in the
welfare of that person.
So now when I am giving you the
money and I am buying, I am getting
10% of your stock, I am interested
in your success.
Because otherwise, I will also lose.
I don't want to lose.
So what happens now?
Now I take interest in your business.
So now Mustafa, I have given him a
million dollars.
So Mustafa tells me, Aqil Yawar, today I
have, you know, a very urgent thing.
I want to take my wife.
She has to go somewhere or whatever domestic
thing.
There is nobody here.
No problem.
I will sit in your shop.
You go.
Take care of whatever you need to do.
I know your business.
I am a shareholder in the business.
I will sit here.
I will take care of it.
There is a sense of mutual caring.
It brings hearts together.
It builds community.
Whereas money lending destroys communities.
We are seeing it here in this country.
This country is the finest example to see
the evil of money lending.
Because this whole country is based on the
haram system of money lending.
We need to change that.
Right?
We need to change that.
So venture capital, shareholding, profit sharing, all of
this is fine.
Alhamdulillah.
That is why charity is an investment.
It's not a cost.
That's why I say to people, don't use
the word sacrifice with regard to Islam.
Sometimes we say even in Urdu, Din ke
liye qurbani kijiye.
Din ke liye qurbani karna naamumkeen hai.
Let me explain this concept to you.
It is impossible to do a sacrifice for
the Deen.
Impossible.
Cannot be done.
You know why?
What is a sacrifice?
A sacrifice is if I do something and
I get no return.
That is sacrifice.
Right?
When you have tandoori chicken, the chicken made
sacrifice for you.
The chicken gave its life, got nothing.
You enjoy your chicken.
There is no other sacrifice.
In Islam, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
man jaa bil hasanati, follow ashru amthalia.
Ten times, you bring one good deed, you
bring one dinar, one dirham, one minute of
work, one hour of work, whatever you do
for the sake of Islam, Allah said, I
will give you ten times that.
One thousand percent is the minimum that my
Rab Jalla Jalaluhu gives.
Allah does not give less than one thousand
percent.
Can you just think about this?
You say, Allah, I want only a hundred
percent.
No, no.
One thousand percent.
You like it or not, one thousand percent.
Minimum from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So how is it a sacrifice?
What sacrifice?
Whatever I spend, minimum I will get is
ten times that.
Rabia Basriya Radellana, amazing story.
She was, one day, knock on her door.
She opened the door, a man came.
He said, I am the slave of so
and so, and I have, my master sent
this.
So she opened the packet.
There were nine loaves of bread, nine hoops.
She took it.
She told him, take this back.
This is not for me.
So the man said, subhanallah, this is, my
master sent this for you.
He told me to give it to you.
He said, no, not mine.
He said, why do you say that?
She said, because I gave one hoops this
morning to a, somebody who asked to asylum,
who came here was angry.
I gave him one.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala promised ten.
This is only nine.
Not mine.
Take it away.
These are the people of the Quran.
Alhamdulillah, subhanallah.
I mean, there is no interpretation.
Allah said, falahoo ashroo anzaliya, I will not
accept less than ashara.
My Rabb said, ashara, I will not take
less than ashara.
She shut the door.
After a few minutes, again knock.
Same man standing there.
He says to her, ya sayyida, my mistake.
I was hungry.
I ate one loop.
And I thought to myself, she does not
know how many my master sent.
So what does it matter whether it's nine
or ten?
She does not know that she's expecting ten.
So I ate one.
May Allah have mercy on me.
Please ask forgiveness.
I seek your forgiveness.
Ask forgiveness for me.
I felt hungry.
He said, no problem.
Eat as much as you want.
Alhamdulillah.
May Allah give us this yaqeen.
Take away all the needless anxiety from our
hearts.
What will happen?
What will happen?
What will happen is only when we meet
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But my point I'm saying is that this
is the thing we have to worry about.
Our hearts must be filled with only that
concern, which is, when I meet my Rabb
jalla jalaluhu, will I meet him in a
way where he is pleased with me or
not?
May Allah grant that our last day, like
the man made the dua, O Allah make
my last day my best day when I
meet you, and the last of my actions
the best of my actions.
Alhamdulillah we ask, make this dua for us
and for all of us and all our
families inshallah.
Now see how the sahaba dealt with this.
I mentioned to you the big businesses, these
big financiers, big bankers, like al-Abbas and
others radiyallahu anhuwa.
When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala prohibited interest,
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in his khutbatul
wada, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said Allah
has prohibited interest, all the interest that you
are owned by people, write it off, which
means my account is receivable as far as
if I'm a banker, my account is receivable,
you just cleaned it.
Ya Rasulullah alhamdulillah, my book is now blank.
Alhamdulillah.
Billions of dollars worth of my account receivables
become zero.
Didn't they complain?
Did any of the sahaba say, Ya Rasulullah,
you are wiping out my business, please.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Similarly, I mentioned to you the whole story,
I won't go into the details, the whole
story of when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
revealed the hurmat of khabar.
It was a business in Madinah.
Gone.
Just alhamdulillah.
No problem.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala opened the
doors of futuhaat for them, in the two
biggest and oldest empires in history.
The Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, about 2000
years, ended with the conquest by Khalid ibn
al-Walid, and the Persian Empire, the Sassanid
Empire, finished with the Battle of Qadisiyah.
This is the result.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sunnah.
We have to stand up and say, I
am ready to obey and take the first
step.
Then the help of Allah comes.
It doesn't come before that.
Yusuf alaihi salam, when the temptation, when the
woman was trying to seduce him, he got
up and ran, then the door opened.
Yusuf alaihi salam did not turn around and
say, is the door open or not, let
me check that first.
No.
He got up and ran, then the door
opened.
Take the first step.
The Ashab ul-Kahf, when they were, they
had the fitrah and the test of deen,
the young men, they did not say, first
let us find, no.
They said, no, we will not give up
our deen, we will not give up obeying
Allah.
So they left the town.
The moment they left the town, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala took care of them, showed
them the cave, and Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala protected them, and He put them to
sleep, and He took care of them 309
years, and all of that.
You take the first step, then Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala does the rest.
But we have to show to Allah, ya
Allah, I am ready.
Alhamdulillah, I take the first step.
You know, there's Barbara Winters, one of my
favourite writers, she says this thing about faith.
She says, when you reach the end of
the light of all that you know, she
said, when you reach the end of the
light of all that you know, and are
about to step off into the darkness of
the unknown, faith is to know, she's not
saying believe, faith is to know, yaqeen, faith
is to know that one of two things
will happen.
There will be something firm to stand on,
or you will be taught how to fly.
There will be something firm to stand on,
or you will be taught how to fly.
That is faith.
So now, therefore, to come to the closure
of this, the question, therefore, when we look
at the issue of money is to ask,
I need to ask myself this question and
say, is my income halal, or is it
haram, or is it doubtful?
Three options.
Either it is halal or it is haram.
Or I'm doing things which I'm not sure.
And as I said, if it is halal,
alhamdulillah, you know for sure, please go ahead,
do it, no problem.
If it is haram, stop right away.
If it is doubtful, alhamdulillah, you have ulama,
go ask the Sheikh.
Say, this is what I'm doing, shall I
do, shall I not do, what is it?
Listen to him.
Go to the people of knowledge, ask them,
they will tell you.
But don't play around in the dark with
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, don't do that.
Especially because, I say this to myself and
I say this to anybody who asks me,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, قُلْ إِنَّ
رَبِّ يَبْسُطُ الرِّزْقَ لِمَن يَشَاءُ وَيَقْدِرُ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ
النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
said, say to them, Ya Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, it is my Rabb who expands
your provision or restricts it, but most people
don't know.
Alhamdulillah, we know because Allah told us.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not
going to question you and me on the
quantum, on the quantity of what we earned.
Allah will not, the question on the Day
of Judgment is not, Ya Mustafa, why did
you not earn 10 million dollars?
No.
The question is, Ya Mustafa, how did you
earn whatever you earned?
Whether it was 10 million, 10 trillion or
whether it was 10 dollars, how did you
earn it?
Means, halal or haram?
Not quantum.
Quantum, Allah fixed.
And Allah gave us the choice, you want
it through this door or you want it
through that door.
What is in the room is the same,
it will not change.
Whether you come through this door or you
come through that door, the thing here is
the same.
But if you come through this door, you
will get what is in the room, plus
you will get ajr.
But if you come through that door, you
will still get what is in the room,
but you will get azab.
Now my question to myself and you is,
when I know I will get what is
in the room, and when I know that
the door to use is that door, why
should I go to the other door?
No?
The only way I will go to the
other door is if I have a problem,
a fasad with my iman.
Then shaitan will come and say, no, no,
no, Sheikh, forget all this, this is America,
right?
Sheikh Mirza is talking about 7th century, forget
this, this is 21st century.
You say, alhamdulillah, no problem, you can say
whatever you want, but you know, this is
dunya.
No, no, no, no.
There is no 7th century, 21st century.
Time is not, Allah is the one who
created time.
So what I want you to do, think
about this and say, with regard to my
earning and with regard to my spending, what
is the changes that I should make?
What is it I should start doing?
What is it I should stop doing?
And alhamdulillah, if it is good, what should
I continue to do?
Bi-idhnillahi ta'ala.
Jazakumullah Khair.