Jumuah Khutbah December 29, 2017

No hamdu lillahi

wa sulfuryl who was study where all the way later Allah Manchuria who tsunami say it a marina Maria de la Vela Mattila

de Allah. Allah Allah Allah Allahu la sharika Masha Allah Mohammed Abu hora Sudha Sophia human being a company, Holly La Bella Risa Terra del Amana. One also Holly Hill oma salatu wa salam O Allah.

Allah Deena, Taka La Habra, Ducati Valletta Mouton. Illa. To Muslim moon. Yeah, Johan, taco de como la de Hala Kaka minassian wahida wahala caminhada Xhosa Baba thermen humare Jalan Katia Romani

Taku la sala de

la una be what our ham in LA Hakuna la Cooperativa

de la Vina taco la upon law how Apolo Conan serie de nuestra mela come? Well, Villa comes on Oba come May, Allah hora Sula, who foccacia hos and Avi My dear brothers and sisters, people have already started wishing each other Happy.

Happy New you here, right? So for the next few days, especially

Sunday, everyone will be sending their wishes. And everybody is praying for wishing or sharing thoughts about a happy year.

By the way, now is not the time to check on these greeting messages. If you have your device handy, you might want to turn it off right now, because you don't want to lose the

the reward for Juma but also, you don't want to distract the person sitting next to you and cause them to miss out.

So not only are you going to be carrying your own burden, but you're going to be responsible for distracting the people around you. So I urge everyone to just put away anything, any device, any item that can be distracting and just turn it off and charlatan.

So greetings. People are greeting one another

hoping that this upcoming year would be happy. But the question that I usually ask, Are you wishing me a happier year than the year before? Or a year as happy as the year before? Is it the same greeting from last year? The only thing that you changed? Is that one digit to indicate this upcoming year sometimes people may even end up sending the wrong year.

Right? cut and paste?

And what is the type of happiness that you're hoping that I will have? Or that I'm hoping that I will have or that I'm hoping that you will have?

And what's the deal with many people nowadays, you know, in the old days, it used to be New Year greeting now we even have people giving greetings or sharing thoughts about the the end of the year. As the year ends, people, you know, have farewell greetings now for the end usually it's very negative in nature.

Right? They're there they're basically blaming everything that went wrong on 2017

and they're asking 2018 to be a better year and treat them better than 2017 treated them. And I and if I may just real quick say something about blaming, cursing, or saying something negative about time.

In our in the teachings of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says let the soup Buddha

Do not insult da da is time.

Right? Do not insult them.

For in the law who had done for a loss of headquarter Allah

is the one who controls time.

insulting the insulting time, or blaming it for all of the misfortunes is a form of protests against the color of Allah subhanho wa Taala

In another Hadith, Allah subhanho wa Taala takes this seriously.

Right?

You didn't even know Adam, Allah Subhana Allah the Almighty, the prophet said Allah subhanaw taala says that the son of Adam

causes

you know, abuse, not not abuses but the son of

Adam offends me. In some translations are not appropriate. The son of Adam offends me.

He insults time. So Buddha, what Ana de ba de amor Allah subhanaw taala says, and I am time in my hand is the matter the command is in my hand, or collembola, Ilana ha, I'm the one that turns the day in the night. I'm the one that alternates the day in the night, so therefore, don't blame it on time.

So

So what is it? And why are some of us disappointed with 2017? And hope hoping for a better year? And why are we not happy?

And why are we miserable.

So Pamela, a wise man once said, people in their pursuit of happiness, they experience misery.

And when they finally find what they thought was going to give them happiness,

what they thought was going to

give them happiness.

For those who think happiness is something that they can receive. And there are some people who think happiness is a place. So once they reach the place that looks like a place of happiness, because there are all these elements that they thought, identify the place of happiness, once they reach their destination,

they no longer happy. As a matter of fact, there are many people who report

higher levels of satisfaction and happiness while they're pursuing happiness. But once they get it,

once they reach their destination,

once they get what they were looking for, they're no longer happy.

So

perhaps

happiness is something that comes from within.

And it's not something that lives outside

our own

our own beam,

whether you look at it from purely a physical sense, or if your happiness is

you put more value on emotional happiness. Or if you put, if happiness or satisfaction is something that has to do with being simulated intellectually, or if it's mental. It's all inside. As a matter of fact, I was just reviewing some material that proves that actually, that many of us

do, manufacture happiness. We make it

right. If you remember, a few years ago, I shared with you some experiments, where people were given some people were given options, and other people were not given options. And they were given very limited choices. And some people were not giving much choice.

And the ones that did not have options, they somehow were more satisfied and happy with what they had, because that's the only thing they had. And they learned or they taught themselves or they settled for it, whatever you want to call it. And they became happy with what they had.

As for those who had options.

They were always

confused.

Should I I should have gotten the other one. The bigger one, the smaller one, the lighter one, the darker one, the faster one.

Right.

And this perhaps my dear brothers and sisters, is the reason

why many of us especially those of us who are privileged, I mean, compared to the rest of the world.

We live in a place and during a time where the average person amongst us

is better and more fortunate in in the sense of this life dunia

than

the vast majority of the world population. Yet, we report here in the United States of America, North America and in Europe.

Lesser levels of happiness and satisfaction and contentment with life than those who live

In places where they don't have running water,

running water is a privilege.

Here we can control the temperature of the water,

we can control how hot or how cold

it can be.

We have water that we use to shower or wash our laundry. And we have water that we use to make coffee or tea. And some of us have water that they drink, when they go to the gym.

Different types of waters.

We live in a place or a time where some of our biggest challenges early morning is figuring out which type of cereal, we're going to feed our children today.

Because we have a variety.

And I have and I challenge you, most of you, if not all of you have relatives who don't even know what cereal is.

And if they know they can't afford it,

variety,

yet, some of them seem to be much more happier and satisfied with life than many of us.

So

people believe that those who settle or finally say, Okay, I just have to be happy with what I have, the value or the quality of their happiness is not the same as those who have natural happiness.

Those who have synthetic happiness, made up happiness, they just settle for whatever, are not really as happy as those who have natural happiness. Scientists say neurologically speaking, they all look the same.

When you scan the brain, or when you look at which parts of the brain is stimulated,

right?

But what type of happiness really counts?

And where do we find ultimate happiness, my dear brothers and sisters, from the reading that I did, and from the very simple, brief life experience that I have,

if we look at what makes most people happy is people look for something they have an expectation, they have expectations, sometimes set of expectations, from things, from relationships, from their career, or from their studies, or from whatever it is that they're pursuing, or they're trying to accomplish in life.

And most people say that if I meet these expectations, or exceed them, then I'm happy. If not, then I'm not happy.

That's what they tell themselves. That's how we are conditioned. That's how we raise our children, that's the message that we send to them. If you meet the goals, if you meet my expectations, if you achieve what I expect you to achieve, then I'm going to be happy with you. And of course, if you're going to be happy with your child, they're going to be happy with themselves and with their life.

And when you look at the things that we believe, should make us happy, or must make us happy, these are things that don't have value

in themselves, but we attribute the value to them.

So the value is something that we add to it, nothing intrinsic about it.

We attribute value to them.

So

in a nutshell, what the Quran and what the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam teach us is that value lays in meaning.

Meaning,

if what you have if your life is a life of purpose, and there is meaning to it.

If your job

if what you do in life, if what you choose not to do,

right, due to the fact that it doesn't have meaning it doesn't serve the meaning for which you live.

If that summarizes your lifestyle, and how you live your life, then you're a happy person.

That's not the case.

Then not only would want to experience misery in this life, but the most scary part of this is that we believe that there is something bigger

that will come later. Once this life ends.

Allah Subhana Allah Allah tells us

That true value

is not in what we do or what we encourage one another to do. What we not what we recommend for each other. What we motivate one another to experience

what we rate for one another, what we comment on for one another. Oh go watch that. Oh go experienced this. Oh go taste that. I enjoyed it, and you will enjoy it if you have good tastes.

As that's basically what we're saying.

Right?

Just for the sake of those who are disappointed with the Star Wars. I'm glad you finally experienced what I have experienced more than 30 years ago.

Allah subhanaw taala says, Laffy, Rafi kaffee, Minagawa, whom there is no, there is not much good in most of their conversations.

Most of their conversations, most of their comments, most of their likes most of their thumb up or thumb down. Most of it is Veen, meaningless. Last hierarchy category manager have most of their conversations are worthless. There's no hair in it. Except

a lemon, Mr. Robin sadhaka. Except for one who commands charity.

Making a difference in someone's life. And I had shared with you in the past how

at Yale University School of Business, I believe, or Harvard, whatever the to know, Yale, Yale University, right? They, they did an experiment found out that charity makes people happy.

Not only while

you know, taking care of someone and experiencing charity and doing something and that's why they all say, go you want happiness you want meaning in your life volunteer. If you don't have anything to give away, give some of your time some of your expertise.

Because it will add meaning

in your life. Right.

And not only is it going to be something that you will enjoy while you're doing but later on when you look at the fruits of your work, or when you even remember what you did. And I bet you go talk to people

who spend a weekend

volunteering

or doing something meaningful.

Even if it's with family, versus people who spend a weekend on a fancy getaway.

trip somewhere.

Big Huge difference.

Even those who go and just completely relaxed and come back, you know, they're totally relaxed, they come back.

The level of happiness is not the same.

I know people who go do either high drama or they do volunteer something meaning somebody that really means something. They come back with so much energy though they're fatigued. They're physically tired, but they're spiritually and emotionally fully charged. They come back and they're like, ready to work for a week or two. They're, they're energetic. They're excited about life. Why? They found meaning.

So Allah Subhana Allah says in lemon, Mr. Ravi sada catene, Alma roofing or something good, our Islamic humaneness or someone that went and helped people make up someone who was able to negotiate a deal between two parties that were finding someone who was able to broker something, someone who was able to go and

mediate

helps a couple, avoid divorce.

Help two families, work out their differences have two business partners

and their partnership in a peaceful, fair manner. They were able to accomplish something like that.

elimin Amala sadhaka tiene oma roofing Islam vainness Allah Subhana Allah says, furthermore, we may further likability Hall.

And whoever does these things, because you can do them for the sake of just doing them. But you can also do them for the sake of Allah seeking the pleasure of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Whoever does that, wanting to please Allah azza wa jal, Allah says for several fennel tea agilon alima we will indeed guarantee him and grant him great reward. So not only is this person going to be happy in this

life but this person will be even happier or the happy happiest when they see the fruits of their work on the day of judgment when Allah subhanaw taala gives them

the reward that he promised for their good deeds. I say this and ask Allah Subhana Allah to forgive our sins to make you and I have those who listen and follow the best for they listen to Apollo Heather Cole was software Allah Allah Allah Allah confessor

Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala evangelia de la sala that they are brothers and sisters, Allah Subhana Allah created a straight at us for one purpose and one purpose only. And that is to connect with him subhanho wa Taala remember him and worship Him as He deserves to be worshipped subhanho wa Taala.

And Allah subhanho wa Taala told us in the Quran, that those who hold on to the remembrance of Allah, this great gifts that Allah subhanho wa Taala gave us a lot so just says La, la comme Kitab and V. The croco we have sent to you a book

and that book there is your Vic was the

mentioned.

Reminder, remembrance. But Vikram, Allah doesn't say victory, although it is

part of the remembrance of Allah. But says the crew come, you're mentioned you're in it. The owner Matt said, the crew come here means refer to come, your success and your happiness.

Your legacy is in it. Victory here means success. Legacy is in that book.

study it,

read it,

practice it, live it, enjoy it.

It will pay off, turn away from it.

And the unfortunate

the unfortunate, inevitable

result would be suffering in this life. And huge regret in the hereafter. Allah subhanaw taala says woman out although victory for in the home he won Blanca and whoever turns away from my remembers, from what I said

as a manual a book that will make them happy.

Indeed, will have a very difficult life.

a life that is so difficult,

that no type of drug,

no drugs, no entertainment

will make you feel better.

And of course obviously

no one should ever try to end the life like this but rather find a meaning and turn to Allah subhanho wa Taala and try to get help and get guidance and seek enlightenment and find

find happiness in this life or the source of happiness in this life.

May Allah subhanho wa Taala guide us to make us realize the beauty of this great message that we have this beautiful gift that Allah Subhana Allah has given us, sha Allah join us tonight

as we reflect on some of the lessons some of the major events of 2017 and try to see or discuss what we learned from them. So join me tonight insha Allah tala at 8pm for our Friday family night program, it will be the last one for the year 2017. inshallah, to Allah we have a new program that will start on a weekly program on Wednesdays starting January 3 inshallah. It is on jurisprudence 101 introduction to legal theory, and Islam inshallah, so join myself and Chef Jamil, Bishara inshallah tada and also we'll have a guest speaker shift

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So the program begins this coming Wednesday inshallah from at seven o'clock 7pm and then we will carry on after soccer, from seven to nine o'clock be the last widget so sign up for the class and join us vertical Have you come robina Taco Bell midnight in the Kansas seminary to Ballina indicated to him Allahumma inessa lokomotiva hermetic was a member of erotic was celebrated michelis will only meet him equilibrium unfolds they will Jenna Wanda jameelah na Loma Linda Dean and a lady who asked me to and Marina Rasul Allah Juliana Latif Masha Allah Walsall, Helena as your Latina Latina a mirage Luna was added here to Seattle and equally high, which I didn't know Tara had to learn I'm

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