Mirza Yawar Baig – Wheres my life going
AI: Summary ©
The discussion on Islam is about how individuals can pursue it based on what they want and finding joy in studying Islam. They also discuss the benefits of guidance, monitoring one's life, and finding a path to Islam. The importance of knowing the rules and avoiding feeling bored by activities is emphasized, along with the need to be mindful of one's behavior to avoid becoming bored.
AI: Summary ©
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين
وصلاة والسلام على شرف الأنبياء والمرسلين محمد رسول
الله صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وآله وسلم
تسليماً كثيراً كثيراً فمع بعض my brothers and
sisters, one of the questions we need to
ask ourselves from time to time and thus
the more we ask the better and that
is to say, how do I know in
what direction my life is going?
Am I getting tawfiq to do good deeds
or not?
Where is my life leading me to?
Is it leading me to Jannah or to
Jahannam?
It's very important to ask this question because
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told us very
clearly what happens in either case.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in surah Al
-An'am in ayah number 125 Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala said فَمَنْ يُرِدِ اللَّهُ أَنْ
يَهْدِيَهُ يَشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُ لِلْإِسْلَامِ وَمَنْ يُرِدْ أَنْ يُضِلَّهُ
يَجْعَلْ صَدْرَهُ ضَيِّقًا حَرَجًا كَأَنَّمَا يَسَعَدُ فِي السَّمَاءِ
كَذَلِكَ يَجْعَلُ اللَّهُ الرِّجْسَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said whoever Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala wills to guide, whoever,
now please understand this, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala does not randomly decide to guide somebody
or to leave somebody to be in their
misguidance.
The guidance that comes from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala has to do with the desire
of the person to be guided.
There is no case of somebody who genuinely
and sincerely wants guidance who did not get
guidance because if that was the case Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala would not have sent
his Anbiya.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent his Anbiya
and this is evidence for anyone who wants
evidence to say that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala wants only one thing for us and
that is guidance.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala only wants us
to go to Jannah.
Those who go to Jahannam are going to
Jahannam despite every opportunity that they had to
choose to go to Jannah.
They chose not to go to Jannah that
is why they are not going to Jannah.
I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not
to put us in that group of people.
So Allah says whoever Allah wills to guide,
He wishes to guide, He opens their heart
to Islam.
Meaning that for that person Islam will become
the most beloved thing.
He will love Islam, he would love to
spend time in the Zikr of Allah, he
would love to study Islam, he would love
to practice Islam.
He wants to please Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala in every possible way.
So whoever Allah wishes to guide, He opens
their hearts to Islam.
But whoever he, now again he says whoever
he wills to leave astray, meaning it's not
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala randomly decides
okay this person I will not help him,
no.
That person did not choose to obey Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That person deliberately chose the path of misguidance.
So whoever chooses the path of misguidance and
therefore Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala leaves them
there, he makes their chest tight and constricted
as if they were climbing up into the
sky and that is how Allah dooms those
who disbelieve.
Now the thing to understand therefore here is
that if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, if
I think I am being guided, what is
the criterion, what is the meter?
Am I being guided towards Islam?
Is Islam becoming dearer to me?
Am I finding joy in the Tilawat of
Quran?
Am I finding joy in studying Islam, in
listening to Islamic lectures, in studying of Islam,
in practicing of Islam, in charity, in Hajj,
in Umrah, in Salah?
The biggest and best test is Salah.
Have I started praying Tahajjud?
If I wasn't praying it, if I was
praying it, am I praying it regularly and
so on and so forth?
What is the quality of my Salah?
How is it becoming?
Am I getting closer to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala or not?
How much time am I spending with Allah,
meaning in the Masjid, in Islamic activities, in
studying and learning and reading and listening to
the Quran al-Karim or anything to do
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
How much time, duration of time, right?
Think about that.
So this is an indicator that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala wishes to guide me and
therefore Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is opening
my heart to Islam.
Now see the opposite.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, فَلَمَّا نَسُوا
مَا ذُكِّرُوا بِهِ فَتَاحَنَا عَلَيْهِمْ أَبْوَابَ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ
حَتَّىٰ إِذَا فَرِحُوا بِمَا أُوتُوا أَخَذْنَاهُمْ بَغْتَةً فَإِذَا
هُمْ مُبْلِسُونَ Allah said when they became oblivious
to warnings, meaning that they were on the
wrong paths, they were indulging in haram, they
were doing, they were disobeying Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala and his Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam and they were warned and they were
advised but they refused.
Now think about this.
When that happened, Allah does not say though
so I punish them.
No.
Allah said when they did that, we showered
them with everything they desired.
Allah says, فَتَاحَنَا عَلَيْهِمْ On top of them,
the doors were opened.
أَبْوَابَ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ Over them were opened the
doors of every worldly wealth, money and of
self-indulgence, of power, of political power, of
whatever.
Allah opened for them everything they desired.
And then Allah says, حَتَّىٰ إِذَا فَرِعُوا بِمَا
أُطُوا Until they were completely engrossed and immersed
in whatever they had been given, they became
full of pride of that.
أَخَذْنَاهُمْ بَغْتَةً Allah said, We seized them with
surprise.
مَلَكُ الْمَوْتِ كَيْمْ Grabbed you by the neck.
It's cardiac failure, whatnot.
Suddenly now you're before Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
بَغْتَةً فَإِذَا هُمْ مُبْلِسُونَ And then they were
in despair.
They fell into despair because there's no escape.
You cannot get away anywhere, right?
Getting into escape, falling into despair.
Now that is also Surah Al-An'am,
Ayah number 44.
Now point I'm making here, and the point
I want to reflect and I want you
to reflect on, which is that where are
we?
Now if I look, if I monitor my
life, right?
And please do that for yourself.
If you monitor your life, monitor the time.
When I teach time management, for example, I
tell people make a diary.
Make a diary of your time for your
day.
Take from the time you wake up to
the time you go to sleep, the number
of hours, where do you spend those number
of hours?
What are you doing?
What are the activities in which you are
spending those hours?
Think about that.
What are the activities?
And then ask yourself, depending on these activities,
am I going towards Jannah or Jahannam?
Does it look like Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la is opening for me the
doors of Islam?
Or does it look like he's opening for
me the doors of everything other than Islam?
Until the time comes and I will be
grabbed, I will be suddenly brought to account,
which is likely to be for me.
Now brothers and sisters, it is very, very
important for us to monitor ourselves.
And not be in a situation where we
are likely to be very unpleasantly surprised by
what, you know, is what is brought before
me.
Very unpleasantly surprised.
Because all the while I'm thinking that I'm
doing well and Mashallah, no problem and so
on and so forth.
Suddenly I find that I am now in
this big mess with Allah.
If, please understand this very clearly, if you
find that you are losing interest in Islam,
if you find that you get tired and
sleepy when you listen to the Quran, if
you find that you get, you feel impatient
and you don't have time to listen to
khatiras, to listen to lectures, to listen to
the Quran al-Karim, translations, the Arabic.
If you find that this activity of a
religious nature, the Zikr of Allah, the mention
of Allah, the remembrance of Allah, if you
find that you are getting tired of that,
that you are feeling bored, that you are
losing patience with that, believe me, this is
a very, very big red flag.
This is a huge red flag.
It means that maybe, wallahualam, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is not pleased with me.
So let us be very clear in our
mind, right?
And on the other hand, if you find
that you are indulging in things which are
maybe haram, maybe they're not haram in the
sense of actual use of time and resources,
buying and selling or eating or something, eating
or drinking something which is haram, but they
are activities which are really pointless and worthless
because there is no benefit from them and
they may not be sinning in that sense
of direct sin, but also there is no
benefit from it, right?
And I keep on giving the same example
of watching sports.
Playing sports, there is a benefit because it's
good for your health, but watching sport is
the most useless activity on the face of
the planet.
It only helps the television channels to get
richer, wealthier and wealthier.
It doesn't do anything for the people who
are watching sport.
It's a useless, completely useless activity.
And even though it may be mubah, it's
not haram, but at the same time, if
you say in terms of usage of time,
is it something which I will get hasanat
for?
No, you will not get any hasanat for.
You might even be problem, it might be
a problem for you because Allah might say,
well, I gave you the time, isn't this
how you spent it?
So if you find that your life is
more and more engrossed in that and you
find more and more interest in that, then
this is a big dangerous signal.
You know, a lot of times people say,
oh, you see the younger generation, and believe
me, people blame children for almost everything.
You see, the younger generation has no concentration.
Their attention spans are very short.
I say, no, sorry, that's a lie.
That's not true.
Because the same younger generation has the attention
span to watch an hour-long basketball match.
They have the attention span to watch hours
of football and soccer.
They have the attention span to have their
face in their screens, in their smartphones, looking
at shots and looking at TikTok and looking
at reels on Instagram and all kinds of
stuff.
There's no problem with attention span.
They've got plenty of attention span.
What they don't have attention span for is
Allah.
What they do not have attention span for
is Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Now if that is the case, if you
say that the only thing I'm disinterested in
is Allah, the only thing that I'm disinterested
in is the dhikr of Allah, if the
only thing that I'm disinterested in is the
dhikr of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, then please
let me not say anything because I don't
think anything needs to be said.
I'm sure all of us have the intelligence
to connect the dots, right, and come to
the correct conclusion which is that this is
an indicator, this is a sign on my
road which is telling me that unless I
change myself, it is showing me where I
will end up.
So I ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la to help us to develop the
shauk, the deep desire to know Allah, the
deep desire to be as close to Muhammad
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as possible and not
get bored with the dhikr of Allah and
the dhikr of His At-Tawfiq, His Nabi
Alaihi Salatu Was Salaam.