Moutasem al-Hameedy – The Power of Choice
AI: Summary ©
The transcript discusses the struggles of addiction and the importance of change in life. The father of a man who gave up smoking and gave up smoking from 80 cigarettes a day to zero gave up smoking from 80 cigarettes a day to zero. The importance of choice and letting people choose their path is emphasized, along with the need for everyone to make decisions based on their own values and interests. The speaker emphasizes the importance of avoiding distraction from negative emotions and finding one's way to heaven through the experience of others.
AI: Summary ©
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had he had yo Mohammedan sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wasallam well shot one more data to her wakulla data in beta or collaboration bodalla wakulla Allah Allah to infinity.
All praises due to Allah, we praise Him. We seek his aid and we ask for his forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of ourselves and the evil consequences of our actions. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can lead astray, and whomsoever leaves to go astray and on can guide I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped. None has the right to our ultimate love and devotion. But Allah subhana wa tada without any partners and I bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa early he was Selim is his servant and His messenger or you who believe fear Allah as he should be feared and die not accept in a state of Islam and submission. All Mankind be dutiful to
Lord who created you from a single person. And from him he created his wife and from them both he created many men and women and fear Allah through whom you demand your mutual rights and observe the rights of your kins. Surely Allah is an all watcher over you. All you who believe keep you duty to Allah, fear him and speak the truth. He will direct you to righteous deeds, and will forgive you your sins and whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed attained a great achievement. The best speech is that of Allah and the best guidance is that of Mohammed sallallahu alayhi wa early he was settled. And the worst thing in the religion are the newly invented matters. For all the newly
invented matters in religion are innovation. And every innovation is misguidance. And every misguidance leads its people to the hellfire.
A few years back, I met someone in his mid 30s
doing things that displease Allah subhanho wa Taala things that a Muslim should never engage in.
And there was a conversation and a lot of advice over a certain period of time. And the ultimate answer this brother had, he said, this is the way I was brought up. This is the way I was taught, and this is the way I am and I cannot change anymore.
I can't change myself. I can't do anything gets beyond my ability to control myself, I can't do anything to change.
And thus the was
And may Allah have mercy upon the brother, he passed away in that particular state, without repenting to a lost penalty unless you did something, or unless you repented without anyone else knowing about it.
That's one example.
Another example of a man I know personally as well
till the age of 60. He never put his forehead on the ground. Never made a soldier who was born into a Muslim family in a Muslim country
until the age of 60. He never prostrated before Allah subhanho wa Taala not even at single time.
He had two sons and the Lord guided his sons in the in their 20s they started practicing them praying and they tried to give their father derawan give him advice.
Over and over again. But he never responded to his children.
He always thought that these are my children I know more than they do. So he never settled or he never dealt or handled his pride in order to listen to his sons.
And one day he saw his his son, his eldest son growing his beard. And after his son gave him advice, he said,
you know, why didn't you shave this sweeper, this groom? Why did you take it out, take it away.
The son got shocked. And he just said, out of out of shock and a state of shock, he said, I'm afraid you go to the hellfire. I'm afraid to go to the hellfire. He just got offended. And sometimes we mix our personal feelings with our concern for others in terms of Dawa. But Subhan Allah brought about good results. That very word shook the Father. He started thinking about himself.
And Subhanallah
A few months later,
the father sneaks into the masjid, and makes his first prayer ever, in the masjid, where his son where his where his son leads the prayer.
The son didn't know the first couple of times, but other people brought it to his attention.
Understanding that his father has an issue with pride. He never spoke with his father about it. He said, it seems that he found his way. Let him carry on on his own. And that's exactly what he did.
Brothers, if we can just squeeze up a little bit, maybe
the whole will handle more people just I call.
This man used to smoke at cigarettes every day, at cigarettes every day.
And one day, he decided I want to give up smoking. And that was after listening to many classes,
delivered by his own son.
He used to hide behind one of the poles in the masjid and listen to his son speaking.
Listen to his son preaching and he got impressed. His head turned around his view of life, his outlook on life started changing. He realized he thought he was he had a life. He thought he was leading a good life. But now he realized that this is the real life it's in the mustard. Real Life is when you connect with Allah subhana wa Tada. That's when you start to feel the sweetness of life and the sweetness of a man.
So he started listening to the talks of his son secretly, and even buying some of his tapes and listening to them at home.
And ultimately, one day in one day, for those who who can't give up any kind of addiction, they stuck with some kind of addiction, cigarettes, alcohol, even any, any other any other thing. Sometimes sins can be very addictive, addictive, being unable to lower your gaze,
watching nasty things on the Internet and on TV. That's a form of addiction and people can't break from it. Sometimes it's worse than smoking.
This father one day decided to give up smoking. In one day. He gave up smoking, he didn't reduce the number of cigarettes he would smoke every day, he just gave up he decided he said enough is enough. I'm not going to have this anymore.
And he gave up smoking from 80 cigarettes a day to zero.
So it's a matter of decision. It's a matter of commitment. And you could get you can get all of this once you connect with Allah subhanho wa Taala.
Now I know the Father.
He is 73 years old now 73 years old. Now he gave us smoking at the age of 68 at the age of 68. Now among the learned people that I know in my life, and I know a lot, he's one of the most outstanding
at the age of 68 his his life to canoe direction.
He read to see an even keel more than 15 times he read the Tafseer of injury recovery, which is more than 20 volumes more than 10 times he read the history of engineering every so many times he read so the Silsila Sahaba. shakily Benny says nobody for more than 30 volumes altogether. He read all of that. And when you sit with him, he only talks he talks to you about knowledge, deep knowledge. And sometimes you you talk to some of our youth and they say, you know seeking knowledge is hard. It's difficult. What about this man? How much memory has he got left at the age of 68 that now he's one of these strong students of knowledge in his own country.
And when you sit with him Mashallah you always learn something.
Especially he has wisdom and experience in life. These are two examples of two people that I dealt with personally.
Each one or each one of them took a different routes.
The theme here is change, life is all about change.
And as they, as they say, change is a constant. Change is a constant, because if you don't change by choice, shaytan will change you by force, it's a matter of decision, you either decide to change favorably, and take control of your life, which is your mission in this world, which is the reason you are created, which is the reason Allah put everything at your service. Because you are the decision maker in this world.
The sun doesn't decide its course, the moon doesn't rain doesn't. The whole world doesn't vegetation doesn't. plants, animals, they don't decide anything about their lives. They're just programmed to behave in a certain way and follow a certain course, you're the only one given choice. The angels don't decide, they just follow the instructions, you human beings and the jinn are the only ones who are given choice. And these are the only two sources where corruption comes about.
Because they make the wrong decisions.
So one of the biggest gifts Allah has given us, Allah has given each one of us is choice, the ability to decide the ability to choose which route you take, the ability to choose, what action to do, what steps to make,
the ability to relate to things, how to understand the world around you how to understand yourself, how to understand people around you how to understand events that take place.
All of this is a matter of decision, you making decisions at every single moment of your life. But most of us, most of us have given up this gift. And we let the society choose for us. We let our culture choose for us. When at some times our friends and peers choose for us. We let our teachers choose for us. When it all parents chose for choose for us.
We let the TV choose for us. We let our politicians choose for us.
But in the Day of Judgment, you will deal with the consequences of all those choices, that you made them or let someone else take them for you.
You will face the consequences on the Day of Judgment. You will stand before Allah subhanho wa Taala alone, alone. And some of the reasons the prophet SAW Selim said, even a mother on the day of judgment will come to his son and she would say oh my son, I held you in my room nine months. I looked after you.
I breastfed you.
And I stayed up all night just to look after you.
I wasted my life and my job is just for you to grow up and become independent. And you became independent and successful. Now all what I want from you that's on the Day of Judgment. My son she she tries to draw his heart, mira by mentioning everything she did for him.
Then she says oh my son. In exchange of all of this all I'm asking for his one.
One good deed when we would
just give me one word from your records, so I can be saved from the hellfire.
I just couldn't secure a position or a place in paradise. That's all what I'm asking of you.
You know what?
That son with all his respect and love for his mother. He says mom,
with all respect. I'm paraphrasing, by the way.
The essence Are you asking for a more in need of it than anyone else? Some other time, some other time.
On that day you will stand before the last panel Cylon alone and you will be asked about every single decision. The woman passing down the street that you looked at and you kept staring at will be brought to you live you could see it
the moment you were alone and did something wrong. The moment you took some money that doesn't belong to you, the moment you deal with Riba.
The moment you were backbiting some someone or slandering someone, that moment, just before that moment you had the ability to make a decision either to engage in a sin or give it up and leave it but you made the wrong decision and it will come to you that more
It will be placed and it will be manifested in front of your eyes when you're standing before Allah subhanaw taala. And he will ask you about it. The moment that Dan was called, you know, it's time for the prayer, and you didn't pray, because you weren't engaging. You were engaged with something else. anything, any of these these worldly matters, it will be brought to you and you will regret the decisions you made. When you listen to the whispers of shaytan, when you listen to the advice, and the social evidence of your friends of your family of your culture, and you just flew with the tide,
that moment will be brought to you and you will be asked about it. And you will feel so much pain about it.
The first moment of pain you'll start to feel is the moment the angels come to you and start dragging your soul out of your body.
That's the moment Allah subhanaw taala spoke about in the call and so many times, so many times. Allah Subhana Allah says, had either had to be June, the moment that comes to one of them, he says, or bill June Oh my Lord, send me back. That's the moment the soul is dragged out of this body.
Color bill Joon Lee, amen. Oh, sorry. hansy Mattox, Oh my Lord, send me back. So I may do something good before I depart again,
do something good. He knows that Ally's merciful, he knows, in a way that when a lot gives them the command, they just go about doing it automatically. They can't think of other choices, that's it.
But Allah has given Allah has honored us as human beings, is given us a trust, you can choose. You the angels can choose you can choose the sun and the whole universe, in its magnificence, cannot choose can't make any choice. You can choose.
You can choose and this is why everything is put at your service, you can control it to a certain extent.
And the most important thing to control
is that piece of flesh
that controls everything in your life. That's the central point that's, that's the center of a human being you control it. You can control everything in your life. And you can control your eyes, your hands, your tongue and everything.
discipline your heart. Everything will fall in place in your life. Apollo
hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala nabina, Muhammad Ali, he was so happy in well that
a lot of people subhanho wa Taala reminded us in the Quran repeatedly, about that moment, you know, what the, what's the definition of death?
What is the definition of death? People say, you know, the end of life, it's not. And we all know it's not the end of life. It's just the beginning of a new stage in our lives. That's all. We know that people are dead have a different type of life, have a different type of feelings. They go through different experiences, but they are alive. It's a different type of life. So what's the difference?
Death, in simple words, is the end of choice. That's a period.
Death is the end of choice.
reflect upon that. Think about it.
Throughout this world, throughout this life, you have choice. And that's what Allah has given you, as well. That's how allies favored you over everything else. You have choice, the moment you die, choice is taken away. After death. You don't, you don't make any decisions. It's done.
It's done.
And Subhanallah, there are two types of choice.
This choice that is given to humanity in general, Muslim and non Muslim people who worship Allah and people who worship graves. And people worship trees, and people worship their desires. They're all given this
kind of favor, which is choice that we talked about. But it's limited. Because there are things we cannot
control. There are things that happen against our will.
Natural disasters, Death of closed, close people loved ones,
different events, beyond our control.
Those who practice this first gift, well,
with a sense of responsibility has given me the choice I'll make the right choice. I will make the right choice. So you stop making the right choices in this life.
Once you die, a low will take you to a higher level of choice and that's on the day of judgment
in this world, you have
options to choose from,
on the day of judgment in paradise for people who handled this responsibility,
the way Allah loves,
they will get a high level of choice in paradise. They have options to choose from.
And they have options to create and figure out.
The prophets are seldom said about the people of Paradise, that whatever goes through their minds any idea that goes through their mind, Allah will make it real for them. That's a higher level of choice. Allah, Allah says in Surah, man, his son in law, sir, is the recompense of goodness and perfection, anything other than goodness and perfection? Absolutely not. You're dealing with a Lost Planet at the most generous.
So think about your life. Now, this talk was not to entertain you, is not to give you some new information, but does not teach you
puts things in perspective.
It aims at helping you, you know, think about life, the way Hello, once you
take your life seriously.
I know that a lot of people sometimes and you couldn't hear it in some, massage it and by some, they will tell you, you know, keep away from this dunya and make sure that you dedicate your life for a las panatela dunia is cursed. And you know you need to keep away from it. But that's not the way of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, because who gave us this dunya it's a loss of panatela he created it, he put it in our service. That's what he says in the Koran, he created everything for you, for you service.
So a lot of people have got the wrong notion. And they bring some words from the companion, some words from the early generations to support their point or support their interpretation, that in order to make it to paradise, you need to divorce this life with everything in it.
live as a hermit.
Live, you know, be aloof in this life. And just you know, make sure you you detach yourself from everything.
But who created this who created money? Who created all the wealth that we have all the attractions, all the temptations? Who created them? Allah created them? Why did he create them?
He created them to help us make it to paradise. These are the means to paradise. Money is your means to paradise. You have good reputation, good family, that you made to paradise, you have some gifts and talents. You have some skills that you gave to paradise.
That's how we should view this world The Prophet sallallahu sallam, he had an experience with a new Muslim at his time. One of the great companions of the last just two months in Islam, two months, the prophets of Salaam sent him as the leader of a military expedition. As a Muslim army. He's the leader who was under his reign, Abu Bakr and Omar under his leadership, he's a new Muslim.
But the prophet SAW Selim, he could read people, he could see through the through their, through their actions he could, he could read the hearts and their minds. So he said to us, I'm sending you on a on an expedition, and you're going to win, and you're going to get a lot of spoils of war.
And you will get so much wealth and lost said young O Messenger of Allah, Allah had a look, I didn't follow you for money. I followed you to make it to Jenna to please Allah, I followed you for the sake of Allah.
The Prophet said I wanted to correct that notion.
He didn't understand life. Well.
You can't you know, you should avoid both extremes. People worship Petunia, and people who just want to detach themselves from anything in this dunya the prophets of Salaam told him
what a great thing to have goodly money in the hands of a godly man. Because that's you means to paradise. The rich people, you know, they have more opportunity
to make it through money to paradise other people. They might have skills, they might have talents, they might have other gifts from Alaska. So you should find out exactly what's your route to paradise.
What is this special gift Allah has given you? Well, that what has Allah favored you with that is so special,
that you can use it to get to paradise harder to build when it was a ministry leader that was he was gifted. That's his gift from Allah subhanaw taala.
What did he do? He used it for the sake of Allah. He was the ultimate military leader in the history of Islam.
Some narrations even indicate that one day he was leading his army, leading the prayer
And he made a mistake and saw lots of caffeine on caffeine. That's hardly to be worried.
So he made a mistake after the prayer he said Shalini Jihad Quran, he said, he said Jihad for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala kept me busy, so I didn't pay enough attention to the Quran.
With all his greatness, he only narrated into all of the books have had, he only has three Hadith that he narrated personally. Does that undermine his undermined his position? Absolutely not. On the contrary, he's a man who read himself well.
And he understood exactly what Allah gifted him with, and he used it. To make it straight to paradise, he took a shortcut to paradise.
That's what dunya means.
Allah didn't give us this dunya to distract us. He gave it to us to use it right now, if it distracts you, that's your choice. You made the wrong choice. You gave the wrong meaning to life, you gave the wrong definition about money or about wealth or about anything that was giving you and it distracted you. It's your response, your choice, the definitions, and the meanings you give to things are your choice. So when someone says, I get out of control, I can't control myself. I can't control my actions. He's just like himself, he's fooling himself. That's all what it is.
Because in the Day of Judgment, he will acknowledge that I had choice. So don't fool yourself, brothers and sisters, don't fool yourself. That's what life is about. His choice is choice. And the small choices that you make in this world will build up. And we'll choose your ultimate destination, the ultimate destiny, or the paradise, or the hellfire. So we'll close with this thing.
Don't take the hotbar as an entertainment. Take a moment to think about your life. Have I been using this talent or this gift of choice wisely, as Allah wants me to do?
Do I understand the responsibility? Do I don't understand that I'm responsible for every action I do? Every action?
Every deliberate action? Every word I say, every letter you're responsible for it? And if you think otherwise, you're fooling yourself.
And that's the story of the creation. When a lot of the angels I'm going to create a halifa
halifa on Earth. What did the angels say? They didn't know anything about human beings about Adam, when they say they said, a geography hammer. You see how ways we could demand? Are you going to place on earth? A creation that's going to shed blood and bring about mischief? How do they know?
They don't know humans? They have no clue because humans had not been created at the time. How did they know?
Because the word califa means you have choice. You're given a responsibility. You're entrusted with it. And you make the choice. This is why the angels knew that if a creation has choice, it will bring about corruption because the best thing is unless choice.
So how can we get a lot of choice in our lives to put on and this authentic center simple.
follow the example of the prophets of Salaam avoid the * on and do your obligations, and follow only what's Hillel that said, so simple, such an easy way to paradise. So life is a matter of choice. Brothers and sisters, make sure you make your choices the best way and take them seriously. It's not a joke, because the moment of death comes. And don't be among the people who only wake up at that moment. Spend your life awake, don't spend it sleep or half sleep. Make sure you're awake and you're making your decisions. Don't let anyone make decisions for you.
Because you will face the consequences of those choices. Because once you give up this talent of choice so this possibility of choice and you let others choose for you. You have already made a decision.
We ask Allah subhanaw taala to make our hearts firm on the truth and upon the son of the prophet SAW Selim Olam Philomena will Minato Muslim Muslim at La Jolla, even Hamas Allahumma Cooney Jamia indiscriminate equally McCann along with Mr. Latina, equally McCann, Alonso Hamada, do we cover do we him? Allah home mama kendama llama bring
us up. Hello, Patrick Duffy aluma sciatic, Allah home as a unit buzina to the man. Amen. Amen. Happy belated Amen. I was interviewed alumina Wakata hit a nail control. Sandwich machine was a lot slimmer