Valuable Grace

Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala l Mursaleen. Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he was he was in the Sleeman Kathira home of

Americans. So yesterday we had a

beautiful trip to Lake George.

Just a few of us.

And we stopped

on the way there to for lunch at this Yemeni restaurant

in Albany

called

Shiva Yemen.

And on the way back, we stopped there again.

It is absolutely fabulous. The food is incredible.

The record and the record and so on is not worth talking about. But you know, that's not part of the, I guess it's, it's, it's part of the atmosphere if you want to call it but food is absolutely superb.

And consistently superb.

I had we had this fresh roti bread straight out of the condo, and pot I mean hot to the extent that you have to watch it otherwise you'd burn your fingers.

Along with full

but different from the misery for

the human evil.

Just that simple thing, which is full made of beans, as you know, and this bread, just dry bread, there's no butter on it, there's nothing on it dry bread in

the most delicious food that I have eaten in a long, long, long time.

It's I mean, I like my food, you know, not spicy as in burning hot, but with some with some spice on it. And most

Middle Eastern cuisine has almost nothing. And it has, you know, Mysterion is a little bit better than most others. There's no salt in the nose, genies and stuff. So I mean, I see it as something that I would eat as

something you know, special.

But definitely not something I would eat every day. But this is fantastic.

The reason I'm saying all this is not to have a promo for the restaurant, although I think that restaurant is worth driving there just to eat that food.

But because you met the I don't know if he's the owner, it looks like the owner. But also definitely the manager of the place was there from the beginning to the end because we returned the same resume route and we bought some takeaways from there as well as we had some more food to eat.

And

this guy's name was Mohammed.

We were convinced he was 12 years old.

From the look of Slim shot small made,

but with a mind sharp as a knife.

App, certainly quick ideas his report is comeback from you know, anything you tell him was incredible.

The reason I'm saying this is because we went into this debate about whether about his age until

the one hour said let's just ask him, you know, so we debated universities, we don't ask people their age and not polite. So I'll just just ask him. We asked him who's 17

Why does a 17 year old

young man look like he's 12

because of one reason that's malnutrition.

Straight from heaven, he just come. And I mean not just come with come for a while because he is speaks very good English.

But you know, that's where he grew up. So you can see the effect of poor nutrition on him. Compared to our 14 year olds here, who are six feet tall, they have full beards and you know, big, big big boys really, and they're just 14 and he's a 17 year old looks like looks like he's 12

But his brain his intelligence, his creativity, his it's worth going to the restaurant just to talk to them. Talk to them I mean I want to say kid but he's also

he's he's that good. It's to be one see the intelligence shine.

Getting into this very polite, great other fantastic. And the food as I said, it's super. Now

the reason I'm saying this is the thing that came to me over and over again, is the importance of thanking a lot smarter

How do you think a lot smarter is this imagine just, you know, I mean, you and I could be in the same place. All that it took was for us to be born in Yemen instead of being born in America or born in India or wherever, and we would have been in the same place.

So there is really absolutely zero nothing at all, that we had to contribute

in the most important thing in our lives, which is where were you born?

I keep on recommending this book of Malcolm Gladwell called outliers. And I'm recommending it again. So do read it. If you haven't read it, do read Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell, where he makes this the same point.

But backed by statistical analysis, for those of you who

want to need convincing

about how people

who reached great heights in their lives, and you name some well known names, including Bill Gates.

A lot of that

was simply within quotes, accident, of course, we don't nothing is accident, everything is they would have a loss of our data. But meaning that the individual concern had nothing to do with that. It wasn't his hard work. It wasn't even his decision. He wasn't even there. Obviously, no, I didn't choose to be born when I was born. And neither do so there is this this element of the Grace of Allah subhanaw taala. Which

may Allah forgive us we don't acknowledge.

There was a man called Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a Protestant minister at the time of Hitler, who opposed him, and paid with his life. He's done a wonderful essay called costly grace, where he says, and I quote, divine grace is something that we must pay for.

We take it for granted. We feel we are entitled to it. We don't even stop to express gratitude to the one who blessed us with it. That is why we don't appreciate it. And so we don't benefit from it as much as we can.

Now how true is that? So hang on, let me just think about that here is a Christian Protestants, priesthood Protestant minister who's saying this, but this applies every single word of it every single letter of it applies to us as Muslims. Now I

the only thing in this I want to change is the word costly, and call it valuable brace, valuable brace dot costly brace. Because, say for example, you pay $10 for a Chinese born in a thrift shop, and then you get it cleaned up and discover that it's original Ming pottery from the fifth century and Sabi offers you $100,000 for it, do you call what you paid costly, or do you call it a bargain, and therefore very valuable, I define costly as something that is not worth the price. And valuable is something which is a bargain and worth far more than what you paid for it. Now, today, when we think about this, and think about our lives, and think about the grace and glory and majesty of

Allah subhanaw taala, I remind myself to always, always, always thank our sponsor.

So yesterday, as I was eating this food, I was thanking my last router, and I thank him again, again and again and again, that Allah subhanaw taala caused us and allowed us to be born in places where he chose for us and

gave us the parents he chose for us and gave us the circumstances he chose for us and gave us the start in life, which for which we had we had no control over this and we could be we could have been bought anywhere. And so I love and I I come from India, I have seen sites that I really need them they wish I had ever seen, but I'm the law. There is good in everything. So those sites, open doors of learning lessons. And I just put myself in that as I could be any of those people. famous words of which are ascribed to Disraeli was the British prime minister

and

self confessed atheist who looked at a beggar and he said there but for the grace of God goes

Disraeli, you know, he's talking about himself is there, but for the grace of God goes does really. And I think this is something that we could we can, we could and we can and we should set ourselves every single time you see somebody who is not as privileged and, and unfortunate and lucky as we are there for the but for the grace of Allah goes and see your name and that is and the point there is not to,

you know, criticize the other person, but really to look at ourselves and say hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah Hamdulillah I must give me what I have, with no effort on my part, absolutely not. Even though if the stuff that we do for ourselves by making an effort, if you just think about that if somebody else, it always goes back to something else. Which if that hadn't happened, this effort wouldn't have been made.

including of course, the most important of it is that of you from Allah subhanaw taala puts the thought in your heart in your mind, which makes you do whatever you do. So as Carlos Matera to continue to bless us to continue to give us Tawfik to continue to guide us to the path that leads to him into the river, because that is the final test of success. Is Allah pleased with me or not? asking us to

enable us and help us and and to empower us to live our lives in a way where he's pleased with us and to take us in that state when he is when when when it's time for us to meet him was Allah Allah Allah Nabil Karim Allah Allah He was avid member article