Mohammad Elshinawy – Positivity Surpasses Potential

Mohammad Elshinawy

ICNA-MAS Convention 2018

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AI: Summary ©

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			Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah while early he was savage marine and begin
the name of Allah whole praise and glory belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds and may his finest
peace and blessings be upon the one whom He sent as a mercy to the world our messenger Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam.
		
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			So it's not very difficult turning on the news or the news feed and getting the feeling that this
OMA is just so weak and so behind and so pressed and so victimized and so disadvantaged.
		
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			Just feel like sometimes this OMA of ours has become a nonfactor. No will have its own kind of like
a feather in the wind, no determination, no competence.
		
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			And if you keep watching, and if you keep scrolling, this could totally destroy your psyche, like
your state of mind, or your state of heart. You can just become totally jaded by everything that you
see.
		
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			And our religion, there's a very operatic concept and a very prophetic concept that shatters that,
that I want to spend inshallah the next few minutes discussing, you know, some people inspirational
speakers, they actually word this very same concept in a very clever way in English. And also I'll
give that to you first. Maybe it'll help you remember it. They say it is actually your attitude, not
your aptitude, that determines your altitude.
		
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			Everybody got that?
		
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			So basically, what that means is, it's not really about your resources, your potential. It's not
really about your talent, your skill, your aptitude, your ability.
		
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			Rather, it's more about your fiery ambitions, your unwavering resolve your positive thoughts of
Allah, your firm trust in Him that will effect positive change in this ummah?
		
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			When the Sahaba came complaining to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam about the state of the
ummah.
		
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			He said, listen, people before you were split in half, and their skin was ripped from their bones
ripped from their flesh, and Allah who will fulfill his promise to this OMA, while I cannot come to
stand alone, you're just being impatient. And this is very natural. Allah azza wa jal says, well,
holy Collinson, or Abdullah, human being was created impatient, hasty. So it's part of our nature to
kind of be fixated on the end goal. We want to fast forward to the last chapter in the book.
		
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			But if you don't control that, it could be extremely devastating. It could be extremely paralyzing.
I heard a Muslim psychologist recently say if I had to diagnose the Muslim ummah, I would diagnose
them with collective depression.
		
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			She said, Because in existential psychology, clinically speaking, depression is described as the gap
between where you are, and where you think you should be.
		
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			And freezing there.
		
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			Like you're on top of a mountain that you don't want to be on. And you're looking where you think
you should be the top of another mountain, and you can't help but just lock your gaze on the
bottomless pit between those two mountains. And you just you're like, just what's the point? You
become totally despairing, totally fatalist.
		
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			And your inner ability to look up causes you not to realize that there's a bridge right there.
		
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			That is the dilemma of our ummah. And so Allah azza wa jal protected us from the Achilles heel of
human nature in this regard, by teaching us an attitude towards ourselves, and then an attitude more
importantly towards him.
		
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			That can actually start getting the wheel to turn in the right direction
		
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			and attitude towards yourself. When Allah says, well as a you know, Walter has no, do not be weak,
do not grieve. What do you mean, don't be weak? How is he asking me something, not an ability and my
ability, you're right. Allah is not asking you something outside of your ability. Think a little
deeper. When Allah tells you Don't be weak, meaning there's an aspect of weakness that's in your
ability to put behind you to bury to stomp out, which is the feeling the attitude of
		
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			weakness, the feeling of being defeated. Just as our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said to
us
		
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			if rissalah Malian Pharaoh was there in Villa he wala charges, be keen on capitalize on the things
that would benefit you that which is fruitful and keep your trust in Allah and do not feel
powerless. It is not allowed for you to feel powerless. That is what Allah is telling you. That is
what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is telling you that attitude is haram. How's that?
		
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			Top of the Allahu Anhu used to warn that people are falling into this and he would say Don't you
dare just sit there in your place and say Oh ALLAH provide for me because you all know that the sky
does not rain gold and silver.
		
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			And hmm Acoma Rahim, Allah heard about a bunch of people that just sat in the masjid, saying, Allah
will provide for us we have put our trust in God. He said, these are people that have no idea what
knowledge is. They don't even know the smell of knowledge. He said, didn't they open the book of
Allah and read in the Quran? Were Hosei Leakey big enough allottee to serve the poor alike Euro
Tobin Jenia and shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree. Right edible dates will fall upon you.
Allah is saying to Maria, Molly has Salam who just gave birth, even if she hadn't just give birth
given birth. If she was a man, that was a bodybuilder in the world, strongest man competition, who
		
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			shakes up the trunk of a palm tree. This is a lesson for anyone to read the Quran to see crystal
clear, Allah is telling you engage reality, you must refuse to become a person that just watches
from the sidelines. Some of us many of us give up our duties. We don't fulfill our duties to
ourselves or to the OMA because we think that flipping through the news and even pulling out a few
tears is enough.
		
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			As if this OMA is a soccer game as if this OMA is a movie because we do that with movies as well
don't we? Don't we drop a few tears sometimes. When this team wins in this team loses, and that
character dies and that character is found and has a reunion.
		
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			Allah azza wa jal is telling you you're not allowed to treat the OMA treat reality this way to just
be an bystander, marginalize on the sidelines of the real world.
		
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			You know, our issue as an ummah
		
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			is not the impossible things that we wish we could have right now. I will real issue as an OMA are
the very possible things that we are distracted from that we are neglecting. It's not the impossible
that we wish we can have. Syria will not come back overnight or we agreed or not. Burma will not be
safe overnight, yes or no. And Masjid Al Aqsa will not be liberated overnight. Yes.
		
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			Apartheid against the ogre Muslims in eastern China will not end overnight.
		
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			Stephon Clark will not be the last one. systematic racism on the minorities, especially in the inner
cities will not end overnight. But our contribution, incremental change our work towards these
causes, cannot wait another night. That's what our deen teaches us. You busy yourself with serving
people protecting the lives of the innocent and the vulnerable, protecting the faith of the Muslims
that are doubting caring for the widow and the needy and the orphan. Educating the masses developing
the generations of tomorrow, that is our duty, that we cannot have rosy dreams that distract us from
the items at hand.
		
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			You know, as one of them said,
		
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			the key to a person's happiness and the key to escaping life's endless disappointments. And the key
to actually being productive, not just settling for slogans and hashtags is for you to
		
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			find regular repeated tiny accomplishments to cause change to happen in things small things that
most people consider insignificant but they are a huge deal to those that you're doing them for.
		
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			So what that means is that if you want to be happy number one, and you want to get the momentum
going the energetic cycle to start and it might just as well as up after a while. Just go find your
niche. Go find your circle of influence, go find the mist
		
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			opportunities. How did your Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasallam change the world anyway?
		
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			And so I had to because he says we lost our breath. And as young as the elderly Prophet SAW Selim in
Medina, we lost our breath catching up with him when he ran to the house of that Jewish boy that
used to serve Him, as the Jewish boy was dying. And he said to him, c'est la ilaha illa Allah.
		
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			And then a moment of parental compassion, a moment of honesty, the young boy looked at his father
who is not a Muslim, and his father said to him out there about Carson obey Mohamed. And so he says,
La ilaha illa Allah and he dies upon Islam, and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam walks out
with his face beaming saying, Alhamdulillah he loves the anchor the human and now Praise be to Allah
Who saved him from the fire. Think about that for a second, this young man for the Head of State to
visit him why
		
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			he wasn't going to join the taxpayers list. He's not going to be paying Zika he's not going to join
the Muslim army and defend this law. He's not going to be doing but it was a huge deal for the one
it was done for.
		
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			You know, rock Bob naffaa Rahim Allah was of those credited for bringing the light of Islam all
across North Africa, and paving the way to the Golden Age that would soon come in, under Lucia in
Muslim Spain. You know what his attitude was expanding his all they say that when he got to a river,
the river 10 year, he waited with his horse until the water was up here to his horse. And he said,
Oh Allah, you know that if this sea was not here, I'd go further and further spreading your light to
the world. Why did he do that? He knows he's not going to walk on water. Why doesn't he just say it
from the shore? Why is he maxing out?
		
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			Mohamed Fatiha Rahima Hola. For 800 years people have dreamed and tried beginning with some of the
Sahaba to be the fulfillment of the prophet, the prophet hood, the prophecy of our Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that Constantinople Istanbul would be liberated, who did it? It was on
the hands of Muhammad Furter. Do you know what his mother says? She says come to see him Johanna 11.
I used to feed him the wounds of his OMA along with the milk. In other words, when I was nursing
him, she said I used to bring him to the shore that he would ride the sea. For that famous feat I
used to when he was an infant, bring him to the shore and tell him the struggles of his OMA as I was
		
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			nursing him bedtime stories. Don't underestimate them. That is your capacity than that is your duty.
		
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			And there are so many examples of this until this present day.
		
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			You know Dr. Abdullah Montessori summit so many of you may know him he died a few years ago, a
Kuwaiti physician spent the last 29 years of his life in the jungles of Africa, in the villages of
Africa and downtrodden Africa doing trying to do his best.
		
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			11 million people are credited to have become Muslim because of him 5700 masajid and 200 Islamic
centers and another 200 hospitals and clinics 9500 Wells 51 million muscle has most has been
distributed. You can do more than you think.
		
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			It was told to me last year that one of the young blessed women that went to visit the Syrian
refugees and came back determined to expand her all after seeing the camps. She by herself shocked
herself. The brothers from Helping Hand were telling me she collected $500,000 on her own, you can
do that and more. You're just selling yourself short sometimes. Our problem is that we let shape on
tell us what are you going to do? What's the point no matter what you do? It's just another drop in
the ocean. And our attitude is supposed to be and what else is an ocean but a pile of drops. Our
attitude should be even if it's just a drop in the ocean, no harm, because our Prophet sallallahu
		
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			alayhi wa sallam gave us endless hope. He said to us if the Day of Judgment is starting, and you
have a sapling, a baby tree in your hands, and you're able to plant it before the Day of Judgment
starts then planted.
		
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			Think about that. That sapling is going to be gone in moments it's going to vanish, but it vanishing
does not prevent it from showing up in your scale of good deeds does not prevent you from being
liable or able to act on something because those moments were in your capacity.
		
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			So remember this app link.
		
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			And then these next three, four minutes because I have to close now, but check yesterday
		
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			Allah laid on he touched this on the lecture before your attitude towards Allah. It's not just your
attitude towards yourself, your attitude towards Allah who will determine your altitude above and
before anything else.
		
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			You know, if we look around too much we get consumed by the challenges, we get consumed by the
negativity. And that's why Muslims way too often are busy talking about conspiracy this and
conspiracy that and it's straight up paranoia sometimes.
		
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			That's because we're looking around too much. If we were just to look up a little bit, or look up
through looking into the Quran, you would find a God that is most capable, a God that can change the
world overnight and we are certain of that a God that is also most wise. A God that is the best of
planners subhanho wa Taala we believe in him Jalla Jalla Allahu, that is our greatest asset. We
believe that everything we do in the conference, and everything we get inspired to do from the
conference this weekend. Perhaps if we connect right with Allah and assume the best of him, one dua
in the depths of the night from a pure heart can outweigh it all can change the course of history.
		
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			Don't we believe that? We must absolutely believe that.
		
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			You know, the reason why we have to keep reiterating this
		
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			is because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said to us a kill haematocrit Allah right, like
tie your camel and put your trust in Allah. They are two sides of the same coin by the way. So what
you're going to do is expand your all while not believing that anything you do is ultimately going
to be effective without Allah, like, I believe fire burns. So I'm going to do everything in my power
to not burn myself. But I do believe at the end of the day that if Allah wants to fire not to burn
me the same way it didn't burn, Ibraheem Alehissalaam it's not gonna burn me.
		
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			I believe that a knife is dangerous. I'm not gonna subject myself to a sharp blade. But if Allah Who
wants that blade will not cut me the way it did not cut the smile out of his salon.
		
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			You know what that does for you by the way that liberates you, gives you so much tranquility and
confidence to work when you're liberated from thinking everything is in your hands. That's a ruse,
by the way. That's a fatal trick. You know, when people say if you just put your mind to it, you can
get it done. We don't believe that as Muslims.
		
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			We believe if you put your mind to it, you will get it done in sha Allah.
		
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			Isn't that true?
		
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			One person said I used to believe in destiny. But now I believe in hard work.
		
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			Our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said Kulu che in Bihar had the largest Zuul case. Everything
is destined by God, even your ability and your inability. So you work hard as if everything is in
your hands, while fully certain that you and others are in Allah's hands subhanho wa taala. And
remember the higit of your Prophet sal Allahu Allahu alayhi wa sallam. He did everything he could
was thorough and planned and went the opposite direction. And they still got to the cave, didn't
they?
		
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			But then Allah blinded their hearts from simply looking into the cave.
		
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			That's what we believe as Muslims.
		
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			You know, I read recently that life is like riding a bicycle. Albert Einstein says this, the way to
keep your balance is just to keep going.
		
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			And there is some beauty to this and there is some truth to this.
		
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			But what if you keep going in the wrong direction?
		
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			And that's why I found more beautiful than Einstein statement is the hadith of Shuddha
		
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			Radi Allahu Allah and who narrated by Ahmed and others where the where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam used to say Allahumma in Nia Celica. basophil amor will Azima Tala rush
		
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			put that in your toolbox. He used to say oh Allah I asked you for stability in affairs in matters
and to be determined upon doing the right things. Subhanak Allahumma behandling shadow Hola Hola.
Hola, Mr. Furukawa to like just like a local in everybody