The Glory Days Umar – Commander Of The Faithful

Laurent

Nunez

Saudi

Arabia drain we begin the name of Allah All Praise and Glory be to Allah and mais finest peace and blessings be upon us messenger Mohammed and his family in his companions and all those who adhere to his guidance while asking Allah azo agenda to make us among the best of those who adhere to his guidance. May Allah azza wa jal, Greco said he will life upon his guidance and his sunnah and while closely adhering to his guidance and his sunnah, and a reunion around him and a drink from his blessed hand on the Day of Judgment, the day of thirst alumna Amin, and an opportunity to see the face of his Lord and ours alone. I mean,

may Allah make the sea, an evening that purifies our hearts and enlightens our minds, and one that we do not stand from except with our sins forgiven, and our paths towards his pleasure clarified and secure and bettered alone I mean,

so it's very intimidating, to be honest, at the speak or the hallmark of the ultimate data and put like, what do you say and what they'll just say?

It's, it's enough that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Had there been a prophet after me it would be Omar, right? It's enough that the prophets Allah, Allah, Allah, he was ended up was shown of all the palaces and mansions to be shown in Jana.

He was shown on what's he said, I answered Jana, and I was taken through it and I saw this marvelous place with a beautiful woman outside washing herself and I said who is a state is this they said a man from the auto. He said an ROV Lehmann had a past I am an arrow hopeful. Who is who is this palaces this? They said for a man from Polish from the tribal police. She said at a pura she, I'm a crochet. Like is it me was palaces belong to and so the angel said to him Neeraj, very minimal Mitzi Muhammad. They said, A man from the nation of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa said hello. He said nm will Hammett and Muhammad himself.

What is his palace belong to? They said they are among the most about. So I'm wondering, what are the Allah horn? May Allah be pleased to have him? There is actually some of the detail on this incident as a slave we will find it when the Prophet Alayhi Salatu was Salam even said

and they wanted to enter when they remembered your jealousy or your jealous men

and so on what to begin to cry about the alum on and he said lol Minka I thought I would be jealous from someone like you. Yeah, also allah sallallahu alayhi wa to set it up. But perhaps a good place to start

is the fact that Omar

was second to none after I will work if or their loved one.

And he was second to none, even beyond Abubaker in terms of being the most impactful, globally impactful, historically impactful Companion of the prophets, Allah Lovato said, you know, Muslims love to talk about Michael Hart's 100 greatest threat, the most influential people on the face of the earth. He has Muhammad Ali's thought that was set up as number one and no one's even clubs. He says that in the intro, and then he'd have like Isaac Newton, you have Jesus, the son of Mary, and so on and so forth. The 52nd is above or the alum on it's not a small feat.

But what's really interesting with without getting too far into that,

is that the prophets Allah Allahu Allahu alayhi wa sallam foretold this taking place. And so maybe the first lesson from the life of Omar that you want to take the most important lesson is that our Omar himself and his life story is a proof for the truth of Islam is a proof of the prophethood of Muhammad Ali Salatu was set up in the hadith of Abdullah Abdullah Omar, his son, in so humble fatty, it's been confirmed and authentically transmitted that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that I was shown

in a dream of mine, that I was pulling a bucket from a well I was pulling water for people. Right.

And I pulled and I pulled and then the bucket was taken by who by Abu Bakr severe or the Lavon and he pulled one bucket full or two. But with weakness he struggled week with weakness he pulled water to Walla mu, the outfield

Now that Allah will forgive him, this is an expression in the Arabic language meaning God will not hold this against him. It doesn't actually mean he did anything wrong. It will book about the Allah Juan, he said. And then Omar takes the bucket in the dream fest the Hallett or Bennett and the bucket becomes like a huge container. It grows.

Femara a two party and yesterday Surya who had Rui a nurse for Wadada will be upon him. And he kept pulling and pulling and pulling water for people from the well. I've never seen someone so competent, like armor, someone that was able to pull off anything that Omar could pull off

until every last person was able to drink and they all settled down.

They settled. And so number one, this foretold that life would be given to this world that not just by the prophets, Allah Allahu Allah, He said love water is the source of life, right

with Abu Bakr would do soap and that aroma would also do so after her. That's of the prophecies He foretold on a solid was set up. And in this Hadith also is an indication that I will look at the Allah one would not do as much as Omar. And this was true because ovoca so therefore the Allah Juan lived for a short time after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa senden, and he was busy trying to restabilized, the owner from the mayhem that temporarily took place after his death, sal Allahu Allahu alayhi wa sallam, and then room up to the reins of this OMA and was leading it for five times as long or six times as long as the period that elbakyan is sadef LED, and truly stabilize this OMA

that people settled around the world, right? Truly stabilized his own.

Overnight, like he put Islam on the map on the world stage. You know, in the Columbia University history of the world, Encyclopedia of world history, they say, that are Omar in the hubbub, this senior officer of Muhammad Ali salatu, was set up, established a superior bureaucracy to the Roman Empire

even though he was from, you know, a land of, of deserts and hills and shepherds in and drunkards and illiterate people, how did he do that? The way that he sort of like, centralized the government, and kept sort of the peripheries growing without trying to over control them and that causes you to break you know, your system, your governmental system. He did all of this overnight, the Roman Empire has been pulling this off for hundreds of years. And our Alma outdid them, without any precedent without any help. It's from the SOFIA favelas Zoa Jen for this man, is that clear. But the fact is that the Prophet foretold it. That in and of itself is a proof of Islam, that he would do

all of this, about the Allah to Allah, I knew a lot of law.

The second lesson, you know, that's really is worth stopping at to regarding the license, or the Lavon is that a role model was a phenomenal testament to the redemptive power of Islam, that Islam can redeem you no matter what you've done in your past. Right, like,

or Omar, as some historians have said, was not supposed to have a grave. Like aroma before Islam was what

Ahmad was an alcoholic, who was always bullying people. Long story short, right. So he was supposed to die, probably in his early 20s as telling his story and say very early by either drinking himself to death, or by picking a fight with the wrong tribe, wrong family and his family comes after his family comes after him, you know, to avenge their Klansmen. He was supposed to die on the side of the hill somewhere he wouldn't have even had a grave. Right. And yet to Omar became all that he became Alma Radi Allahu Anhu was brutal and ruthless and heartless, and, you know, would beat those he could get his hands on and find some leverage against for being Muslim. Like he would be the

writing animal. Right? And then you fast forward to the end of his life and he worries and he loses sleep over a donkey in a few countries over and out up. That may be the roads have not been paved and the donkey trips and Allah is gonna ask me why are you negligent about the welfare of the people and their animals, like the the transformative nature of embracing this data wholeheartedly and sincerely?

And

You know, what I want to say here is that so many people, including Muslims hold themselves back

by projecting their own negative image about themselves, their negative self image on Allah Subhana. Allah Todd, what do I mean? Can I actually be forgiven? I'm not sure I can be forgiven. Right? Many people like sort of dabble with these thoughts. Where does that fall even come from? It comes from you, you feel like you are so pathetic, that you are not worthy of being forgiven.

But does that come from Allah, it doesn't come from Allah because Allah made it very clear that he can and would forgive anything. So it's your image of yourself? What do you think Allah will not do? Because of how negatively you see yourself. Islam comes to shatter all of this, you know, the story of the man, for example, who killed 100 people, right? Can I be forgiven?

You know, the end of the story, this man is tall, set out on this journey to this land of reform and he dies midway, what happens when he dies? Midway answer.

The angels are arguing and I said, Okay, let's measure which of the two lands he's closer to and then what happened

in my

bodily but at least got forced into that place. So

essentially, Allah azza wa jal caused the earth to shift. So that he would be found closer to the land of reform and so he would be associated with the lands of mercy or he would be identified by the those people. Think about that. That means what that means he was closer to the other land, that the fact that the Earth had to be shifted, had to change to get him in the other category means he didn't deserve it. Right? My Allah azza wa jal is not forgiving you because you deserve it. He's forgiving he'll because that's what he loves to do. Subhanallah doll it's because of who he is. Not who you are.

Does that make sense? Never forget that.

You are always redeemable because your Lord is Allah Subhana Allah Allah.

You are always appreciated because your Lord is Allah is diligent. So because our deeds are so great that Allah is gonna appreciate us no, so that there are our sins are so little so Allah's gotta forgive us no, because He is Allah the most appreciating the most forgiving, even if not famously Rahim Allah, one of the great early scholars he used to see in them in Alhama Tilly it Madea Anil Ahmed Ali, yes are in the Zealot, one of the signs that you rely too much on your deeds, your performance, right, is that you lose hope when you slip. When you slip up when you mess up. When you mess up. Don't lose hope. It's not about your deeds to begin with. You got to keep trying do the

deed as best you can. But it's from Allah and about Allah Subhana Allah Allah azza wa jal Ahmad reminds us that your past does not have to define your future. That's the whole idea of

Allah can and will redeem you, and you can be the most loved person on Earth by Allah. Even if in this moment, none of you are but even in this moment, you are the most detested person on Earth by Allah Subhana Allah Donna.

And you think also not just did Allah redeem him, like just give him a clean slate that started at zero or Omar who became the second best? Or Amana became number two, in the whole ummah. How did he become number two, he started very late. He missed the hardest years, the years of persecution and so on and so forth. Omar became Muslim five to six years into Islam, didn't he? And yet he outraced, even the Sahaba, even the Sahaba he outrace every last one of them, and out climbed every last one of them except for a book about the loads either Angela, your past does not define your future, no matter how ugly and how long that ugly past was. You know, there's a story that some of the scholars

mentioned about Ben was sloppy and that they were about to die in one period because of drought. And they kept making dua to Allah to give them rain he would not give them Re and ultimately he revealed to Musa Allah He set out

that there is amongst you a man who has been confronting me, vulgar, shameless person, confronting me challenging me with defiant deeds, sins for the last 40 years straight, so long as he is amongst you. I'm not giving you rain.

So Musa alayhis salam makes this announcement that whoever you are, leave us, at least don't be a murderer of your entire people. You're going to be responsible for all of us die. Whatever you've done, it's not worse than what you're about to cause

Just leave us so Allah can give us rain.

And then days later or the next day, Allah azza wa jal gave them rainfall and nobody had left.

And so he says, yeah Allah, nobody left what you gave us ring.

He said this servant of Mine

sought my forgiveness. He sincerely repented sincerely as for my forgiveness, so I forgive them.

Just like that. So he said to him, yeah, Allah show me this righteous servant of yours. This person was like a baby. Now you gave him a new beginning you erased it all. Let me meet him. He's like a celebrity in the heavens. Oh, we should honor Him as well show me and Allah azza wa jal said, I didn't should expose him with 40 years of sin. Am I going to expose him now after he's been forgiven for his sins? That would be embarrassing for him, that it won't be humiliating of him. I'm not gonna let anyone use his past against him because that's a possibility. Right? Just like that. A person can become the best of the best. And a person Allah can become so protective of such a person. And

that can be you.

Whenever you have this self doubt, remember Omar Well, the Allahu Allahu Allah.

The third lesson I like to think about with Omar, may Allah be pleased with him is that we as Muslims, we as a community, we as an owner, we will never rise again, in the in, collectively speaking, until we arise in dunya first, sounds crazy. That sounds blasphemous. I know, I know. Sounds like I'm saying that dunya is more important than Deen. Right? So that's what I'm saying.

But we also have to respect the mechanics of this world how this world functions, right? You know, when ignorance Rudra della Juan and others, they said, we only became dignified and were able to publicly share Islam or publicly practice Islam, when OMA became Muslim. What does that mean? They said, we were never able to pray in broad daylight at the kava until the day Amata became Muslim,

or amata, becoming listed with an increase in dunya. And then

it's in dunya. At least in the beginning, right? It was Ghanaian. It was biceps. That's what it was. It was muscle. It was physical, worldly muscle.

And so the deen is necessary isn't necessarily interlinked with the dunya. We need strength, the worldly strength to amass it, for the sake of protecting and promoting the deen. Does that make sense? Is it clear?

Yes, of course, if we lose our deen, as we're building out our dunya it will be pointless. And we see examples of this. There are many Muslims, at the joints of society in different places in the world. There are many Muslims that have reached high places, but lost their deed in the process. Obviously, they're not benefiting themselves, let alone others in any way. But look at the examples of the Muslims the highlights here and there

that have retained their Deen. They were only a good example or a sort of a torchbearer or a color of attention to the greatness of this Dean. Because they were successful in what?

in DoDEA.

Like, look at the wrestler. Look at Cubby, right. I believe UFC is home. Okay, let's just put that on the table there.

Smashing people's faces? How about uncovering your hours? How pretty straightforward. But why couldn't the Muslims and the non Muslims heal their eyes away from his historic run? Even those of us who believe there was haram, we're still keeping tabs. Why?

Because it was successful. Right? Yeah. Nick, because hubby was undefeated. Sabine was 29 Oh, even I know that. Right. Let me ask you a question. If he was one and 28, he won one and lost 28. Would we care?

Would we turn his quotes into memes? Would we follow this that in the third and

we wouldn't? Why? Because we're gravitating towards strength, that he would be irrelevant. Maybe a more recent example is the Moroccan national team in the World Cup. I have no care for soccer. Okay, I'm a basketball guy.

But why were we so inspired and dignified and by the Moroccan national team? Is it because they are Muslim? Absolutely not. And I can prove it.

There were many other Muslim teams in the World Cup.

It was because they were Final Four. That is why now we want to say look at them and how they treat their moms much

I look at them and leveraging their fame for the Palestinian. I'm not making fun, like, these are beautiful things they're doing, but nobody would be paying attention. Nobody cares. Right? Until you are strong on the ground, right? That's what matters. I remember the I always remember the the owner of the the Greek yogurt company Chobani right hand the all the chi i think is how you pronounce his name. This man, you guys have Chobani in Australia, good. Buy it. Even with little works forensic ly

this man made big news a few years back for those that recall. And the reason was that

he promised or gave, I don't recall

10% of his company, to his factory workers.

10% of the shares of the company went towards his labors.

And he said I couldn't have made it without you guys. And so on top of their salary, you guys deserve at least this much. And the world sort of like paid a whole lot of attention. Let me just say something.

He gave up 10% of his company, I have given up I personally have given up 50% of my entire wealth.

And nobody ever talked about me.

Because I had $2 once.

And I gave $1 and sadaqa. Why is nobody talking about me?

Because nobody cares about $1 I mean, it may be greater in the sight of Allah only Allah knows I'm talking about the mechanics of dunya. Right? The richer you get the stingy or you get, the more money you collect, the stickier it becomes. That's the way it works. And yet to be able to pull that off, that's impressive.

And so our oh my god, the a loved one reminds us and represents for us

the importance of being serious about acquiring worldly strength, and how that is to be leveraged for the sake of Dean. You know, when they asked one of the scholars what happened to this OMA, he said we had the dunya in our hands, but it wasn't in our hearts. But then it got into our hearts. So Allah pulled it from our heads. But the idea is you need it in your hands, but you also need to keep it out of your heart. We have to remember this. It was the numbers it was the strength. It was the personalities that Allah guided to Islam, through which Islam sort of took off and started growing exponentially and establishing and stabilizing in unique ways.

And you know, a subset of this point about the world the strength are O'Meara de Lavon he used to say to the people after he became the Khalifa, in nila, Acropolis and ARA Raju, Allah SubhanAllah. I cannot stand to see a man wandering aimlessly laugh Yama, duniya wala family as zero, neither preoccupied with the work of this world, nor the work of the hereafter. Just like you know,

life to them is a game.

Get to work, do something about it. Right. And it's interesting that our families to say this, why? Because Romar was was was catching it early, and recognizing with his visionary nature, the ills of prosperity that creep up on everyone once they prosper, right? You ever heard that saying that?

Hard times, create strong people and strong people create good times, and good times, create weak people, and then weak people create hard times ever heard that. And then hard times trade the cycle of civilizations, right. And so when you're in good times, or Westerners, when you're in sort of the first world, oh, Muslims in front of me, you need to know that the ease of your life will make life so hard on you. And you need to snap out of it, and sort of resist the herd effect and get to work in the middle of the dunya. And the anvil of the acid rock, you can't become complacent

or muddy used to threaten the Muslims that if you start getting docile, getting satisfied, stop pursuing the Athleta I will drive you out of your homes, I will burn down your farms and you're all about the states and sort of like you know, all of it is capital gains and all this. If one of us mothers and you tell them what are you doing? What are what are you contributing for what purpose do you live?

And he used to say to Mozilla it may have now come in as zij in that zone, alpha joy. Why aren't you married yet? You're not married for one of two reasons. Either you're incompetent. Like you have a physical inability, or for Judo, or you're wicked. You want to just play around. There's no excuse. What are you here for? I just want to live life and I'll get married later. Why? What do you mean live life like well

Have a whole agenda waiting for us. That's what he's selling them. Hurry up, prepare yourself, man up, get married, build a family, increase the owner, raise righteous people. It would constantly press people about being serious and being strong and sort of having a plan.

The fourth lesson that I wanted to share with you quickly in the interest of time,

is that a lot, of course, symbolizes

for history, that the very Islamic, the very prophetic principle, that strong people are those that are able

to discipline themselves, right, not just discipline others, strong people are those that are able to regulate themselves, are able to leverage that strength against themselves first, right? self development, self restraint, self refinement, self discipline. And this is this is a prophetic principle. Why? Because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said it, didn't he say nascence should eatable surah the strong person is not the person who cut out the wrestle others. You got to make yourself tap out, not just others. And I don't mean that in sort of the the nihilistic sense. But he used to say, well, like in the shed either men em liquid, if so we're in the hubbub. But the

truly strong person is the one that is able to restrain themselves and he gave the example of anger, when anger arises. So Allahu Allahu alayhi wa salam.

And you know, that that also reminds you of the fact that strength isn't an inherent virtue, unless you use it for the sake of Allah. Right? Like a strength is a good thing or a bad thing? It depends, is it carry you to good ends or bad ends? Right? If strength causes you to abuse others, is that a good thing? It's a horrible thing. You will wish you had no strength, you will wish on the Day of Judgment, you are the victim and not the oppressor, right or wrong. So strength, patience, resilience, determination, all of these, it's advisable to use them for. And so to use them for your own improvement, improving your profile in front of the Lord of the Worlds, that's what's really

validates a person's strength.

And,

you know, there's so like, our Omar was not the only strong person in college, by the way, right. But he was the one that was able to sort of overcome his bigotry to become Muslim, right. That's why he's our hero. The others were forgotten. They got washed away in the trashcan of history, because they could not overcome themselves out wrestle their egos, they couldn't do it.

You know, when Obama was Khalifa give you a few incidents that will come to mind here. When Omar was Khalifa.

They faced a lot of troubles at the hands of this acid and Persian Empire. This is the superpower of the time they had done so much and ultimately put an end to the tyrannical regime. But this was hard work. And one of the masterminds, the hedge Shailene had che bonds of the Persian Empire was a man a commander and a strategist by the name of a little Mazon. They used to tell him if you if you've been captured what he was, then you'll be sparing the lives of the two armies just get this guy out of the equation. He's the chess master. He was just like a genius in a devilish sort of way. So when someone finally captured him

long story short, he said to him, your religion tells you to not torture the prisoner and so on and so forth. And, you know, here I am dying of thirst. How am I even going to sort of disclose the information even if I wanted to what you're questioning me about what I'm so thirsty. And so I almost give him water. So he gives them water. And liquid was and was like this. He starts shaking the water on his way to his mouth. He's acting like he's afraid, mastermind.

So he's actually is afraid. He said to him, Why are you shaking? He said, I don't know. I don't know what you're going to do to me. Like, what if you're going to? Am I even going to be allowed to drink this? Are you going to kill me? Before I even drink it? So he says so no, I wouldn't do that. He said, You promise you will not kill me until I drink this? He said, I promise. So he spills it in the floor.

Genius and genius. See It Now. Now. You can't kill me because I, you said I have to drink it first. I'm safe until I drink it. Well, I'm not drinking it.

And I'm gonna kept his word or the loads out. I know, right? You can imagine any one of us, myself included, we'd probably snap at that point, right.

Or I'll give you another example.

And there's so many so many. But

it's really something to appreciate. O'Meara de la Juan used to be extremely tough on his governor's on the Muslim governors, that this is a responsibility, not the privilege, you should be using it for the sake of the greater good not for sort of personal interests. And he would keep tabs on all of his government.

whereas he would like do surprise visits, to check on them what kind of, you know, life they were living? What kind of house were they furnishing? What kind of food were they eating? So he shows up and jabya one day which was being governed at the time by Abu Zubaydah algebra, I will obey the you know, it was one of the 10 promised gentlemen, one of the 10 companions profited from his generosity, Allah Juan. And this is a miracle money and welcome is so nice to see what's been too long. Comrades brothers forever. He says, Take me to your houses. And of course, I'd love to have your house takes him to his house. Alma has an agenda.

He had heard reports that he believed were trustworthy about the wife of Abu Zubaydah, that she was sort of like a materialistic little bit of a shopaholic, like pressuring her husband to say no,

to you know,

you know?

A little bit little bit a little bit more, you're the governor right? So he wanted to go inspect them as house. So he takes him home, they sit down house looks pretty simple.

But that wasn't enough for Omar Omar believed that sort of the the intelligence reports were were legit. So he had to press her a little bit. So when she came out, he said to her, you're so and so? She said, Yes. God bless. Let us Sue and Nikki, I'm going to make you Sorry, you're going to be sorry.

So she said well light

let off that you will not be able to

so

our mother says you will be sorry for what for what you're doing. She said well Allah He you will not be able to make me sorry. And then her husband sin and says no, he can you

because you know like almost everyone God could into good and I'm gonna cook before he was Khalifa. Now he's Mr. President. So like,

he said, No, no, he can. And then she slaps back basically. And she says, figure two slaps back and she says, Haley after the rule, and NZ I nearly slam Islam and forever will be can He stripped me of my Islam and toss it away?

So her husband said no. So she said, then I don't care what he does after that. I'll never be sorry, I can never be disgraced a while as I have my Islam. So I'm about to realize that this is not the woman I thought I was sort of going to need to needing to investigate this is this is a righteous woman.

And so he he sought forgiveness and he left about the allowance to Allah He didn't get all egotistical didn't get all defensive. You know when you decide on anger, and you just can't turn it off because you've decided I'm gonna then do that about the love that and this is Omar right the one that is known for his assertiveness and known for his strength and known for his forcefulness and his power.

And so each and every one of us needs to think deeply about how well we level our strength against ourselves and harness it and channel it for the sake of Allah azza wa jal you know, there's actually a hadith the hadith of Gaben origin was a beautiful Hadith that's very well known actually, but then authentic hadith Inshallah, wherein,

there was a muscular Sahabi it says that there was one jet like a tough bill, well built man walking in front of Salah Sahaba and they said, Lo Cana had their FISA vanilla, because they need to widen for you what I mean by seeking the pleasure of Allah right? If only this was invested, employed in the path of Allah, all this was used, they meant out in the battlefields like and we wish, if only he would go out more, right.

And so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam

commented on this, and he said,

if he is heading to serve to elderly parents, that is in the path of Allah.

And if he is heading is like walking past them, and if he is heading, striving to earn a decent living, as we say nowadays to earn for his young children, that it is in the path of Allah, any of the striving to earn to keep himself Chase meaning to make a living to be able to get married, so he doesn't fall before and then that is in the path of Allah subhanho wa taala. So when we say in the path of Allah and His pleasure, we don't just mean thou orientation, though. That's the job of every Muslim according to their various capacities, right? We should all be ambassadors for this great Deen. And maybe I'll end with that in a second. But everything that aligns us with what Allah

expects of us, and it will be pleased with from us, all of that is in the path of Allah.

harness your talents, your strength, your time, your energy.

it in that, that is when you are a blessed human being that is when your life is a fruitful life. That is when you have a legacy and the habits. Sometimes we romanticize a little bit that idea of legacies and things like this and of course, all that you hear is true. But let us not forget that there could be greater duties that are more affordable and ease not just easier, more emphasized in earning us the love of Allah than the other stuff that may be one in a million out of us will be chosen for by Allah azza wa jal Subhana, Allah Donna, the fifth and final lesson I wanted to just, you know, hover over quickly from the life of Omar in the hot tub, but the hola Juan

it's a hack. It's a life hack better than any life hack you've ever heard, okay? It's the ultimate cheat code. Be ready for it?

If you can't be a role model,

then be able to book

now the Allah is Allah and what do I mean by this?

Abu Bakr is the guy that wrote the armor to Islam, right or wrong. So every virtue of Ahmad is actually a virtual little bucket in his skills. Right? You know, I was in Virginia, with a cousin of mine. And I forget what was the day or Madonna or not with, he wasn't fasting, maybe he was sick. Or maybe it was a voluntary day. The point is, I was fasting he wasn't. So we went out to dinner, it just landed at another time. So it was one of those places where you pay ahead and you just sort of eat at a buffet or something. So as soon as I get there, and he beats me to it, and he's sitting, I'm not so he's extra aggressive. And he loves anything. Yeah, I'm so sorry. I was just joking. I

swear to God, my sister is married to Palestinian as well.

I'm gonna get myself killed for this lecture is over. What Yeah, like he out wrestled me and he paid a swipe right. And then he turned to me and he said to me, I fast the smart way.

Meaning by paying for your Iftar without having to fast myself, I get the reward of fasting. Right? So that is the hack, because that is the generosity of Allah azza wa jal subhanho wa Taala cotta, an empty bucket. It didn't just didn't just bring ALMA to Islam. He kept raising the bar on our own model by modeling for him Islam.

Right.

You know, the story of the charity and then sort of like, almost found himself not able to compete with the bookies. I'll never compete with you again. Because he brought half of his money and then found that book had brought all of his money, may Allah be pleased with them all. Or another incident when I will book was the Khalifa Ahmad is to notice that he used to sneak out of the masjid very early immediately after Salah and this was like little bit mysterious because this is not the Sunnah. The Sunnah is to remain until sunrise.

Unless you know there's a reason a legit reason not to be staying around. And so it intrigued Omar almost unfollowed him just spying after him fun play it Yanni. Not technically spying with he was probing figuring out what's happening. And he found out booka sadef Answering because at a house on the outskirts of Medina. And after he left Amato at the end, he found his elderly met woman, perhaps she was blind, I don't recall. And he said to her, who are you? And who is this man, this foreign man who enters your house every day. She said, I am with you see, sort of like a lone, elderly dependent woman. And this man that enters every single day, I have no idea who he is. He comes every

morning. And he cleans our house and he bakes our bread. And he keeps it moving.

And so I'm on the web. And he said you have really complicated things for anybody after your book. You've set the standard so high.

You know, there's actually a very similar insert in the biography or I'm gonna pop up or the lawan narrative by the Maori in his book and Majelis from Zeta mezlan.

Zaidan SM says one time we went out with Ahmad he was patrolling at night the streets and he heard children crying, crying hysterically. And so when he he went towards the sound, he found a woman and her children around her feet crying, and she's sort of like stirring a kettle. And he said to her, why are these kids crying? She's saying they're crying from hunger. They're so hungry. He said, What are you cooking for them? He said, she said nothing. I'm just stirring water in a pot to make them think the food is on its way until they fall asleep.

And between me and Omar is Allah meaning, my dispute with Omar, Allah Who will set to lit and get my vengeance against Omar. In the hubbub he's almost she doesn't know.

So he said to her and how can I work? even know what you're going through? She said that that's a bigger problem. How can he expect except to be our leader and be oblivious?

So our needs

and so a lot of dried Zaidan as Celemony took off, and he went into the Muslim treasury and he grabbed the sack. And he filled it with like flour and like ghee shortening, and he grabbed clothing and he grabbed everything he could grab from the charities of the Muslims. And he carried it on his back and he handed it back to her in the middle of the night and Zaidan nests and and the whole time is begging him, let me carry it. Let me carry it. I mean, I don't mean like

he said, I carry this responsibility. So I must carry this load. I can't carry the cineole Okay, I'm gonna let me carry this bag.

And so he brings it to her. And he sets it down, and he starts re kindling the fire. And he's getting under the fire, and they the mess and selling them please stop and Alma is blowing and blowing, you know, so to start the flame. And until the smoke starts, you know, thickening and Zaida Messrs. As I can see the smoke, even passing through his beard is Ed was in, you know, under the kettle

until he started the fire and cooked for them and all of the kids play. But the Omada refused to get up until he told the kids to get on his back and play on his back play horse, essentially. And he said to him, this is too much middle meaning this is too much. Why all of this, he said I made them cry. So I also have to make them laugh. I didn't just make them hungry. I made them hungry and they cry. So I have to feed them and make them laugh. May Allah be pleased with whom I say me.

And so the woman

the woman says to him

Wallahi you deserve to be a miracle many not.

And then he says yeah, he told her just say good things like, just stick to saying good things.

And so that was I wanted to hop out brother Lavon the product of Lucas live, right? You see the parallel, this is all an old book his skills. And so we just need to remember that Allah is so great. And Allah is so generous. And you can be responsible for the next amo assist somebody, give them their shahada, raise somebody and give birth to somebody.

You don't know You don't know what it could be. An Imam Muhammad was dead in the water because he was an orphan and his mother used to just go out of her way to get him dressed early to get a seat in the Hadith, how that was invalid. And he became a member of Sunil algebra. You know, Sophia nfld Rahim Allah was an orphan and his mother said to him, you seek the sacred knowledge and I will use my spindle to weave fabrics textiles and sell them to find you. Don't miss yourself with this thing. You have a worthy your mission in the world. I'll share with you you know one final story. The story of Umberto Ania Rahim Allah you should read about him when the

the Mughal empire in the late 1800s was collapsing. The Christian missionaries were taking the Muslim world in the subcontinent by storm.

And no one knew what to do. And no one really could do anything during that landslide that avalanche.

And so Rahmatullah Alfredo ano Rahim. Allah was an Indian scholar who wrote a book called it's harder.

It's harder we have making the truth clear. It was basically a plug and play manual on how to sort of decimate all of the arguments of Christian missionaries, all their top arguments. And he died Rahim Allah and he couldn't get the book out. But he tried his best he just tried right. And the book was lost.

The book resurface in South Africa and not a full copy but a half eaten by moths copy.

In the hands of not a scholar, but a tailor. A child that worked as a tailor, that child's name was remedied that by him a whole lot. And he became the greatest right

deconstructionist debater force, intellectual force against Christian missionary work in the whole 20th century. And then out of him came so many projects, right? Like, it's enough to recognize because one of his projects, right, the famous doctors economic and PCV, and the peace conferences, and all of this that will work in IRF Islamic research federated foundation and because of one man will tried his best in the darkness of the 1800s, right.

And so, put your trust in Allah and His generosity. You may not think that you can be a role model, but you can be responsible for the next time. You can be able to bucket himself the evolution of our generation, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, fee Cooley thought

Run in Serbia Putin in every century there will be four runners. May he writes for us and you will place among them Allahumma Amin and use us for His deen and not replace us Allahumma Amin and teach us and show us how to begin with those closest to home. Our families and communities along the Amin or SallAllahu wasallam water gonna be in either early or suck the heat engineering. Zach Laughlin, everybody