Water under the bridge

Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah whatever I'm standing on this

bridge across this stream

which is now quite swollen with rainwater excuse anything heavy for

water vapor out so a lot of what

this is for those who memory that long it is the same bridge that I

took a picture from earlier

which

I talked about

water under the bridge

because both

literally as well as

what I'm reading as in the context of the meaning of

time having fast

the reason I'm saying that is because I'm on my walk in the morning when you met in a park

I am listening to

absolutely fantastic podcast called empire.

And I have my dear friend and

brother and

my trusted right arm who keeps me in check.

Especially when I want to buy stuff the farmers have been

a blessing and Allah bless his family and love to have better increases with him and Allah be with him and Allah protect him and help him and keep him in his in a special place and before the others.

Who are

we have this group called us

who are who get jealous about this guy. Let me extend this to all of them who are in this group of course.

So as I've sent me this podcast

before I go further and Michelle used to be delightful to waterfall

quietly myself

so pretty. So other send me this podcast is

Jana, journalist from BBC called Anita Anand. And the

the most famous, the unique, William

as he named himself, William dribble.

It's written Dalrymple, and that's how we pronounce it. And that's obviously not the right pronunciation, William durable.

It's called empire. So please find it. And I strongly recommend anyone who's interested in getting educated, please listen to this podcast. History is my deep and abiding interest. So obviously, I'm interested but it's nothing to do with me and my interest, it's something which is, I think, very critical for all of us to know, and that is history. And if you think about this, the history of the world as we know it today,

for the major part of it, very, very major publishing, all the way to the end of the Second World War was really the history of Empire.

It is not the history of republics and,

and so on. So it was history of empire.

So whether we like it or not, empires have been

a huge part of our

but wonderful, better word, civilization. And I say, want of a better word, because what happens is the name of humanity and our actions is far from what anybody in the right senses would consider to be civilized, but

it is what it is.

So do listen to this podcast, it's an easy way of learning history. And for those who are more interested,

please buy all the books that they recommend and whose authors they interview in this wonderful podcast and read, I have bought until now all the books that I have come across or been my attention been drawn to I have bought them with each other over time read them.

It's very important. Now how is that linked to what underbridge

in the same way

that any of this stuff is, is connected, which is first of all, because all experience in life is connected

It is really,

to me the role of wisdom to find those connections,

I don't think it's a matter of make making the connections as in creating a connection, the connection is already there.

It's a matter of

finding that connection, and understand that connection.

And each of us has our own way of

understanding those connections. So so when you are looking at history, and you start making connections, and so on,

please, please, please, for God's sake, don't fall into the trap of how history is taught in schools, which is absolutely the worst way of teaching history, which is to focus on dates and numbers. And

when we're so and so born and whatnot,

instead of focusing on

instead of focusing on the effect of these people who we're talking about, so it's not the incidents, or the events, which are so important, they are important, but much more important, are the people involved. And what did they do? And how did that affect? So Hamdulillah. Now, what under the bridge

reminds me that at the end of the day,

when all of a sudden done,

what we do have

is

the stream itself,

in its continuously changing with

and that stream, in our case, is a stream about life?

So how does the stream of our life change? Where does it take me?

What happens at the end of that, and so on.

And like there's water flowing in the stream.

A great deal of that is in my hands.

Don't take me literally in that sense, because for example, if I wanted to change the direction that this particular stream here is flowing in, I obviously do not have that freedom. So I can't just go and dig another channel, but in life we can.

So if my life has been going one way, and

I realized and I should realize

that something is not happening the way it should be happening, then the thing is to change that direction.

Now, what is the good

to understand that

I hold myself to one

fundamental principles and I'm gonna share that with you.

And that fundamental principle is

define success

and define failure and define progress

and define rigorous in the only true terms that exist for these things and those terms are the terms that Allah subhanho wa Jalla Jalla, who defined for us

and what are those terms?

A lot of our data set golunov cinza. If at all mode.

Were in number two of fauna with welcome Yama, Yama. So then Zorzi Heini narrativa will say that agenda forward pass will head to dunya. Mata

Allah subhanaw taala said, Every living being

will die.

So obviously you didn't want me to come towards you.

And you said, and you will be paid your reward in full on the day of judgment and that refers to positive and negative reward and punishment.

And then Allah subhanaw taala gave us a metric, he gave us a way of measuring that reward and measuring success and measuring progress.

For months, Zuzia and inadi. Were all the failures Jana is the one who is read from the hip via an internal region only and only that person is successful,

not anybody else. Now, this is a

very, very important

definition

for us to

firstly, keep in mind and not get lost in whatever we are following in life in terms of progress and so on and so forth.

because if we take any path in life,

which seems to us like progress, because of how we have been conditioned, and what our friends tell us and, and that's the reason why, of course, on a side note, it's very important to have the right kind of friends, because friends influence you believe me or not.

And those of you who believe that you are influencing friends, maybe may not be but friends are influencing you. So, you're more on groups, who talk constantly, only about worldly wealth, and how to acquire it and the means and so on. So

with no thought, but that will become your touchstone that will become your measurement metric.

And that is disastrous. So don't be don't go there. Because what is progress, if you are able to get some material wealth and power and authority and

comfort in this life, at the expense of the life of the hereafter,

I mean, nobody in their right senses would consider that to be progress.

Simple way of understanding that, that if you have an a dry diver, a whole bunch of

young friends of mine who are studying for

medical school, so the law, they're all very focused, but if they want any one of them said, Luna, I'd have to catch the basketball game, I must watch a soccer match and so on.

And so he goes through the fence, he watches the soccer match, or his game or whatnot, and then he ends up failing the vet school exam.

Now,

sure, he had fun,

but at what expense at the expense of his career.

He had fun at the expense of the rest of his life. So one beautiful door to a very nice future as a medical doctor

was sad for him because he went and instead of studying for the exam, he went and he

played basketball and said, Now that is a very expensive way of living your life. Very expensive because you're paying in forever terms for something which is here now makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

And so do think of this. And we ask Allah subhanaw taala to help us to get the right priorities because without the right priorities, no decision is possible.

A decision is only as good as the priorities based on which it is made. So with that, let me close this podcast with a lot and we will carry while he was a member