Mirza Yawar Baig – Spend to get

AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss measuring success and failure by looking at what is spent and gained, emphasizing the importance of profit and personal success. They also discuss the transfer of wealth through giving it to others, the benefits of a temporary investment, and the importance of living in a modest environment and not spending too much money. The speakers stress the importance of spending less to achieve more, ensuring one is spending less to achieve more, and transferring wealth to home countries.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, Wasalatu Wasalamu
Ala Sharafil Anbiyai Wal Mursaleen, Muhammadur Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wa Sallam, Tasbeeran Taqfeeran Kafiran.
Walaikum Assalam, my brothers and sisters.
I remind myself and you that if you
want to measure success and failure in life,
how do you measure it?
Any ordinary person, I want to measure, say
take my career, if I have a, you
have a successful career or my career going
down the drain, how do I measure that?
Marriage, is it successful or not successful?
Children, I am raising children, successful or not
successful?
How?
Compare with others, that is one way, peer
reviews, peer comparisons.
Effectively, whether you do it comparatively, you do
it with peer reviews, you do it some
other way, you are basically measuring your assets
and liabilities, right?
What did I gain?
What did I lose?
So, what did I spend to get what?
What is profit?
Profit is where you spend less to get
more.
You cannot measure profit only by looking at
what you have, you have to see at
what cost did I get it.
So, if I got something which has high
value at a lower cost, then I made
a profit.
But if I got the same thing at
its regular cost, then it is not a
profit, I got the market value.
If I paid more for it, then I
have actually the same thing, but I made
a loss.
I remind myself and you that when we
stand before Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la, it is the same standard, the same
criterion, the same measurement, measuring stick we should
use.
What did you spend and what did you
get?
What did you spend, what did you get?
In this world, in our life, we have
the opportunity to do two things.
One is we have the opportunity to spend
things which have everlasting value or we have
the opportunity to spend something which has temporary
value.
So, if you spend something which has temporary
value and get something which has everlasting value,
then you are on to a good thing.
That is the best way of living life.
I am giving something which I would have
lost anyway and I got something which is
mine forever.
But if I do the opposite, I am
giving up something which I could have had
forever to get something which I am going
to lose anyway.
Makes no sense, right?
If I give up something which I could
have kept forever, an earning asset which would
have been mine forever, I gave it away
and I got something which at the most
is temporary, I will lose it anyway.
That's a dumb deal.
But the opposite, if I am spending something
which is temporary, in any case I would
have lost it and in exchange for that
I get something which is going to be
mine forever, that's a fantastic deal.
Just to give you an example, we talk
about charity.
You are coming to Ramadan, so you are
going to get some fundraising here, right?
We talk about charity.
So, give in the path of Allah.
Sacrifice in the path of Allah.
I tell people, forget this word sacrifice.
It's a lie.
There is no sacrifice in Islam.
What are you doing?
You are taking some part of your wealth
which Allah gave you and let's face it,
how many of us stand here and give
the equivalent of the value of your car
which you are driving?
I am not saying nobody does it, but
how many?
So, you give something and in addition, by
giving that, what are you getting?
You are getting an everlasting reward with Allah.
Allah said, this is with Allah and Allah
will return it to you in keeping with
His Majesty's embrace.
The minimum of that is, someone who brings
one hasana, Allah will give him ten likewise.
And then Allah said, He will multiply that
by 700.
So, you say, okay, if I don't give
that, sure, it's your wealth, you can keep
it.
It's not haram not to give, but even
if you keep it, how long will you
have it?
You don't have to die to lose it.
You lose it probably before that in many
ways.
Whereas, if you take this and give it
in the path of Allah, effectively, what am
I doing?
I'm transferring my wealth.
Whenever I think about charity, I think of
it as wealth transfer.
I'm taking it from this account and putting
it into another account.
That's it, wealth transfer.
It's very easy to understand for those of
you who have spent any time in the
Middle East.
It's very easy to understand that because in
the Middle East, there's no such thing as
a green card.
There's no such thing as permanent residency.
There's no such thing as citizenship.
If you stay there for 100 years, they
still won't give you citizenship.
You still have to go back to wherever
you came from.
So, people are used to this concept of
earning, working very hard, living in very…
deliberately living in very modest circumstances and transferring
all the rest of their surplus money back
home to whichever country, Pakistan and India or
Bangladesh and, you know, Egypt or wherever it
is, Sudan, they send the money back to
their home country.
They can actually afford to live in a,
you know, they don't stop you from doing
that.
I mean, in Dubai, you can afford to
live in…
or any country, it doesn't matter, any of
the Middle Eastern countries, you can afford to
live in a palace if you like.
No problem.
You can't own the palace, but you can
live in it, you can rent it.
But even your own friends will tell you
what kind of stupidity it is, why are
you spending all this money?
You won't be here.
Even if you tell them the…
one day I had this discussion with a
friend I proved to him that it is
stupid to do what he's doing because I
told him you're going to be working.
He came to Saudi Arabia at the time,
he was 25 years old.
I said you will be here, say, let's
say, let's, you know, stretch it and say
you would be…
you will work for 40 years.
Usually it's not 40 years, usually about 30,
but say they take 40 years.
By 40 years, you will be 65 years
old.
Let's give it another five years, 70 years
old.
When you go back to India at the
age of 70, how long do you expect
to live?
Another 40 years?
I mean, maybe you live five years, maybe
you live 10 years.
So to live for 10 years, you are
living in hardship for 70 years or 40
years or 45 years in order to have
some level of luxury for 10 years.
Doesn't make sense, but we still do it.
We still do it.
It would make much more sense to live
in luxury here for 40 years and then,
you know, go and live.
After all, when you are 80 years old,
what do you want to do anyway?
All you need is a, you know, it's
a small house and you're fine.
But we don't think like that.
But with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, this
is what we are saying.
Weigh every moment of your life, your time,
your assets, your money, your company, your efforts,
and wait and say, what am I spending
to get what?
I'm spending time to get what?
I'm sitting in this company to get what?
Alhamdulillah, every second that you are sitting here,
Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, the one
who's in salah, as long as he stays
in the place of salah and as long
as he's not discussing worldly matters, as long
as he's remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
that entire period is counted as if it
is in salah.
So the time up to the salah, so
he comes early, he's sitting there in dhikr
and so on and so forth, he prays
salah.
After salah, he's sitting in dhikr, he's sitting
in akhatira, he's sitting reciting Quran or whatever
he's doing until he leaves.
The entire time is considered as being an
act of worship, as salah.
So unless you are going off from here
directly, you know, you have some burakh waiting
outside to take you to the haram to
make tawaf, there is nothing better you can
be doing than sitting here.
So you spend some time.
How much does it take?
Even if I talk for the next one
and a half hours, there's still about, you
know, one and a half hours.
Compared to what?
That's what we need to do.
We need to analyze and say, I'm spending
something to get something.
This is a standard.
Whatever you're doing, consciously, unconsciously, you're spending something
to get something.
What am I spending to get what?
And always ensure that you are spending less
to get more.
You're spending something which is temporary to get
something which is permanent.
Make sure you do that.
Inshallah, we are home and dry.
We ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la to help us to live lives which
are productive, which are beautiful, which are beneficial
for us and for all those around us.
We ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la to help us to invest in our
lives and then to make those investments multiply
in keeping with His Majesty and Grace.
We ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la for His safety and protection.
We ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la for His help from sources that we
cannot imagine.