Mirza Yawar Baig – Seerah is the Answer #2
AI: Summary ©
The importance of finding a balance between the use of gold and silver coin and avoiding fraud is emphasized, along with maximizing one's potential. The speaker emphasizes avoiding poverty and maximizing one's potential, as well as training children to become successful in life. Personal reasons, including financial struggles, are also discussed, along with the success of Islam and Range Rover. The importance of spending money on car insurance is emphasized, along with the success of Islam in helping people to live a life to the fullest.
AI: Summary ©
Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
the smallness of means the greatness of the aim and stupendous results if these three things are the marks of greatness, then who can compare anyone with Mohammed
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Shadowfell Ambia Eva mursaleen Mohamed El rasuna. Allah is Allah, Allah, Allah, he only he was so happy he was alarmed asleep and cathedra Anka, Sera, Farmer Virgo.
That is how the economy worked. That is how the collected so many gods, then
I talk to you about financial instruments. How did that happen? It happened because now I'm going imagine I'm supposing I'm a merchant of the whorish. And I'm going to Syria
to buy stuff.
I need to carry cash, how will I buy stuff? Now what is cash in those days, it is not US dollar $20 bills, which are printed by the Federal Reserve, without any backing whatsoever, it's just money. It's just paper, which is printed. And the reason that paper is used is valued because of the US Army, not because of the paper has any backing right? These were the days of gold and silver. That's it. So no matter what stamp you had on it, it was a gold coin. It had intrinsic value. It was a silver coin. Now what is the upside of a gold and silver coin? It has intrinsic value. What is the downside of it?
It's heavy.
It is ungainly It is heavy, it is inconvenient to carry.
Right? Supposing somebody says I'm going to give you a million dollars in gold, you are in trouble, man.
You need a truck to carry that thing.
What is what currency one note enough? That is why they develop their banking instruments. And as I said they didn't develop the instrument. These words than these were used for centuries before that, for 1000 years before the Arabs started using them. These were already in use. That is what the Jews did. They traded across boundaries. The Roman Empire is responsible for creating a
a world where people traded across boundaries, which were national boundaries, which were racial boundaries, which were tribal. So you had the gods and you had the Gauls and you had the Celts in, in Britain, right. You had the Italians, who are the Romans, you had these peoples, they were trading between each other how, in this way, by paper, so somebody gave you so I'm now going from here to Syria, I don't have to worry about carrying, you know, an archival load of gold. And then Camelot of gold means now I'm the target of anyone who's hunting.
So I don't have to put myself in danger. I don't have to have the inconvenience of getting all this all this gold and silver. All I do is I take a paper and this paper is to somebody there to say pay this person so much.
So buying on credit, what we call letters of credit, what we call LC is and so on, so forth. checks, all kinds of financial instruments were common in use with the Arabs. I sometimes say that if you brought one of them if you brought a Abbas Bill Abdulmutallab robiola know, if you brought up a Sofia, if you bought brought, you know Abu Lahab people like this Abu Talib, if you brought these people today into one of our global banks, believe me they would not be surprised. I mean, they would be surprised to have to see air conditioning and to see you know, computer systems and LCD panels but as far as the banking systems were concerned, they would be very familiar. They would not
be they wouldn't be they would not be seeing stars in the day because they these were systems that they also used.
Now in that in that whole
milieu.
Game Islam game, rasool Allah is Allah salah.
And he said
that Allah subhanho wa Taala does not prevent you from earning money, Allah does not prevent you from becoming wealthy. But Allah subhanaw taala tells you how to earn that money and where to spend it. You will earn that money in a way which is non exploited, which does not exploit anybody non oppressive, which does not oppress anybody. You will earn that money in a way where you are not taking away or infringing or violating the rights of others. You will learn that money in a way which where you are not deceiving people. You are not
lying and cheating.
And by all means, earn the money by all means enjoy that money, but spend that money in a way which is pleasing to Allah subhanaw taala meaning spend that money in a way which is productive, spend it in a way which relieves the suffering of people spend it in a way which is positive. Now, what do you call these things which I mentioned halal? What is the opposite of that? Haram? So halal or haram is not just some
term in fifth
Halal is anything which is beneficial, anything which is clean anything which is intrinsically good.
And Haram is the opposite of that.
Somebody asked me once, in America when I was speaking at the University of Massachusetts, this they said, What is the Sharia law? What is Sharia law? I say to them, Sharia law is the way in which any moral, ethical, responsible citizen would like to live. That's it.
Any moral, ethical and responsible? These are the three to me the three criteria of, of good people, they must be moral, they must be ethical, and they must be. They must act responsibly. So anyone who's living in that way, is following the Sharia law, whether he whether he or she is a Muslim, or whether they call it Sharia doesn't matter. Forget the name. Effectively, you are doing good stuff, you are not harming anybody, you are trying to benefit everybody or Hamdulillah.
This was the religion of all the prophets who came. This is the religion of Abraham. This is the religion of Moses. This is the religion of Jesus. This is the religion of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallahu alayhi wa sallam. This is a religion of all the Gambia, our la mussalam who came from the first or otherwise set out to the last and final of them, Muhammad Rasool Allah Azza wa sallam, after whom there is no Rasul and there is no Nabhi
This is the religion. Right?
So do you understand this whole situation as far as money is concerned? What Musa al salaam trot?
Now the most important lesson about money that I want to remind myself and teach you, why is one important at all.
Believe me, I am not one of them who considers. To me poverty is highly unromantic. I mean, it's, it's not something to be sought after. Simplicity in living is different from poverty. Simplicity in living is a choice. Poverty is not a choice.
You enjoy what I'm saying? It doesn't mean that if you have money, that you must splurge it and you must waste it. No, of course, you must not do that.
There's a famous story of this man who came through his asylum, and he asked him for some charity.
So as far as an asylum sent him to was one with a font of Milan is a good one. You ask him to help you tell him that I sent you. And He will help you. So this man went to Southern I was born with a father and his house. By the time he reached there, it was almost dusk, it was evening.
As the man stood outside the door and is about to knock on the door. He hears a voice from inside seventh house man or the law, no speaking to his wife. And he's telling her lower the week lower the flame of the lamp, because it is burning too much oil.
To man is standing there about to knock he hears his voice. So the man thinks to himself, he said what kind of person did Rasul Allah send me to?
This man is worried about the oil in his lamp? What is he going to give me?
Right? What will it give me?
So he thought, what is the point even in knocking on the door? What is the point in asking for anything because I'm not going to get anything from this person. So let me go. He turned around and started walking back and then he thought to himself, well, you know, since Rasulullah, Selim sent me to this man, maybe there is some Hickmott of the Rasul. So let me go and knock on the door and ask him what's the worst that can happen? So he turned around, went back, he knocked on the door so there was one open the door and he said to him is alarm and then he said, rasool Allah sent us an M sent me to you, and I need some help. I'm very poor. So please help me seven. I was one of the
learners that Tim please wait. He went inside. He got a bunch of keys. He took him to his warehouse.
He opened the door of the warehouse and he
He said to the man, go inside, take whatever you want, however much you want. And when you are leaving, here are the keys, lock it and give me the keys.
And he walked away.
Now this man is either open his jaws dropped, he said, What kind of thing is this?
So he called out.
So that was my turn. I said, what happened? He said, No, no, please, I have to ask you a question.
He said, what question? He said, You know, as I came to your house, just now, I overheard us speaking to your wife, and you were telling her to lower the wick of the lamb because it burns too much oil. So I thought to myself, what kind of a stingy man is this? That he is worried about the oil of his lamp? What can you give me, either anyway, since that was a lesson I'm sent you sent me. I turned around, and I came.
And now when I asked you for charity, He's not asking for a loan. He's asking for something to take away. He said, when I've asked you for charity, you are opening your warehouse and you're telling me Take whatever you like is, what is this?
How do I understand these two things?
So then I was one minute further and said, What is so difficult to understand? The words difficult to understand? It's very simple. He said, the oil belongs to me. I'm using it for myself, Allah will question me about that. So I am concerned about how much I'm using.
He said this, I'm spending for the sake of Allah, whatever I give you, Allah will give me return. So what do I care take as much as you want, the more you take the benefit for me.
So Islam does not stop you from earning money. Islam merely tells you how to earn it, and where to spend it. And that's the reason why it is so important to teach this to your children right from day one. I tell people, teach them about money, help them understand what is money. Number two, when you give them pocket money, teach them budgeting.
Tell them they have to prepare a monthly budget.
And then sit with them and look at his budget. What was your income? Where did you spend it? Look at the heads under which they spent it and see if they spend something on charity.
And if they spend something on charity, you tell them Well, whatever you spend on charity, I will replace that I will give you more
help them understand the meaning of charity.
Otherwise, what what do most jeweler what do they do? They take the money and they're just buying stuff with it. Teach them earning tell them okay, charity is one thing. Did you invest any of this money? Did you make this money make you more money?
It's not just a matter of saying buying junk means buying this buying that I know I have this money, whatever it is, right? Our $20
This is famous story. I don't know if it's true or not. But this famous story of this man who went to Microsoft looking for a job.
So the recruiting officer, he said to him, please
write down your CV so he wrote down his whatever it was. And the man said, What's your email? He says I don't have an email.
He said if you don't have an email, we can't hire you because we need you must have an email we will for you too. He said I have no computer. These were the days before smartphones. I've got no phone or I mean that didn't come into the conversation. He said you don't have a computer I don't have any way. The man said sorry, then we can't give you a job.
So now he left.
All he had in his pocket was $20.
So as he left he is walking down the street. He sees this grocery store and they are selling tomatoes.
So the bucks are tomatoes which is $20 So his man goes and buys one box of tomatoes. He carries his Doritos on his on his shoulder and he says goes house to house do you need some tomatoes? Yes, well yours are tomatoes. And he's selling the same box of tomato which he bought for 20 $20. At the end of the day, he sold it for $40 Because he's selling one tomato buy it you know at a time or something
this he continued to do
so he said he's buying and selling and making a profit. All of this is cash money.
Over time this business built up the man started he started shops he started Swann and then transportation he started getting you know logistics trucks and this and that. He became a billionaire. He had a huge business. He became the tomato king of America
and what was he originally wanting to do? So somebody asked him he said how did you
Do this. So he told his choices the man said,
No, man, imagine if you had got a job with Microsoft. He said, Yeah, I would have been a janitor because that was the job I applied for.
If I got a job in Microsoft, I would have been a janitor. Instead, I now multi billionaire with this king. So the point is, what was he doing? He was using money in a positive way. So when you give your children pocket money, teach them this, as I said, you don't have to give them hundreds and 1000s of
dollars $10 $20 Whatever it is, right? Bargain money, ask them make a budget. Where do you plan to spend this?
Then ask them questions. How about this $20
At the end of this month, instead of asking me for next month's allowance, you reimburse me.
How about you tell me I don't need an allowance any longer because I'm making my own allowance.
But the problem with that with
wealthy especially Muslims, may Allah forgive us,
we train our children to become losers.
Losers, we train them to become losers, because you only teach them to spend, do not teach them to learn to earn, you do not teach them responsibility.
I've got I've got friends, you know, and I know people in different parts of the world who are very wealthy.
I've got friends I know and I want them the country and so on. Because then you know, people see these videos, and I don't want them to feel bad, but I know, I know friends, where
the child if he gets anything less than a BMW, he considers it to be a an insult to his dignity.
What is that
and then these are big business, big, big business families. There's a book of mine called the business of family business. I consult with family businesses, one of the one of the core areas of my consultancy is
is succession planning.
So several times, or many times, the young the second or third generation, which is there, the youngsters, they come to me and they say please, my father does not want to give me freedom. My father won't let me you know, run the company and so on. So can you recommend to the VA to my father
but we recommend on what basis because all that you do is you spend money.
So one of them I told him that the first time that the x five came out BMW
and this guy was was you know, dying for an x five. So I don't know, why don't you tell your dad, he said I will tell you that to give you the money to buy an x five,
right?
Take the money, buy a Toyota Corolla
don't buy a BMW X five, buy a Toyota Corolla, the rest of the money which you save. I said invest that money, grow it. And next year, give your father a x five as a gift.
And I said I guarantee you your father will give you the keys to the safe
because you have proven to him that you know how to handle money.
Because right now you are a parasite. I am sorry to
Yeah, I tell the other I'm sorry to be to be rude. But you are a parasite. I mean, all you do is suck suck suck blood, blood blood. I mean, yeah. You expect your parents to be happy about that. You expect them to hand over the whole thing to you. So you make them at the tail end of their lives when they are retiring when they are old. You want them to beg on the street because you ran through the whole fortune. Now I know there's a smart answer. Your dad is not a fool, believe me. The old man has got brains.
He doesn't have enough brains, otherwise you will not be like the way you are. He should have had his brains much earlier. So you are a part of his. You know,
Barbara was mistake but at least now we recognize the mistakes. He doesn't want to perpetuate it.
So I tell them I tell you if you feel bad, no problem that's good, feel bad, then you at least you will correct yourself.
Teach them about money.
About being responsible about money, earn halal, spend halal and be responsible. Islam does not prevent you from being rich as well as ourselves that Allah likes the one whose hand is above more than the one whose hand is below
salam ala if Allah subhanaw taala gives you and you are one of those who gives you will shall be from the people of Ghana, because you are spending you are investing in your Russia.
Right. So this is what the sister was. And I as as we know,
in the fundraising of Dubach, for example,
see the orientation of Zaba with regard to
spending.
People brought and gave whatever they had to give
whatever they had they brought, and they gave.
And the finest of them was over there and who came and gave everything he had and he just sort of asked him, What have you left for your family, he said, Allah and His Nabi are sufficient for a family.
Now, having said that, Islam this is people doing more than what is required, these are the savvy kkona luevano These are the people who are the role models, but Islam does not the Quran is very clear. The Quran says do not give until you have your hand is tied to your neck. So Islam does not say give away everything and then you become a beggar yourself. No.
By all means spend on your family, by all means have some savings, by all means keep some money, but also spend and spend in a significant way because you see that spending as an investment in your own akhira.
I sometimes ask people, and these are not questions. I'm not asking these to criticize them. I'm just asking them to give them some food for thought. I asked people who are charitable people who are giving charity not in 10s, or hundreds, not even in 1000s but in hundreds of 1000s
I'm talking to people who are giving charity, hundreds of 1000s in the car as well as others aka my single question to them is this year did you give charity equal to the price of the car that you drive?
Driving a Land Cruiser Did you or did you give you a charity equal to the price of a Land Cruiser?
Your driving range rover did you give charity equal to the price of a Range Rover? No.
You didn't. Not even close.
So are hamdulillah what you're giving is good for you. Alhamdulillah your Range Rover is also halal for you your Landcruiser also is halal for you no problem, but put it in perspective in your own mind.
Put it in perspective in your own mind. Please understand. I named for you guys which are also utility vehicles. They are they are cars which you probably actually use. But I'm not talking about Ferraris. I'm not talking about Bentley's I'm not talking about Rolls Royce. Because Rolls Royce is not transportation.
Yeah, a Rolls Royce is Namaha to duniya elaborate that will grow
is like people who buy a watch to tell the time and somebody buys a watch to tell the world
and how do you know the difference?
By their body language, you know the person who the person really is a person who buys a watch who wears a watch to tell the world you know what they do every once in a while they'll do this
like this. So this sleeve will come down and you can see the watch because what is the goal of me wearing a watch when you can see it with my whole idea is not the time.
So like
lovella hotel, the body.
The body language tells you tells it all right