Mufti Menk – Focus on what you DO have

			Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
		

			smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah who Allah Allah He was happy to
mine. All praise is due to Allah subhanho wa Taala blessings and salutations upon Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, his entire household, all his companions will We ask Allah Subhana
Allah to Allah, to bless them all and to bless every single one of us, my brothers and sisters, many
times we are unhappy, not because Allah Subhana Allah, Allah has not given us but because we begin
to compare ourselves with others around us. Yet, if we were to look at the previous nations and the
generations, we would realize that they were happier yet they had less than us if you take a look at
		

			it. What is important for us is to focus on what we have to focus on what Allah subhanho wa Taala
has bestowed upon us, and to focus on those who have less than us. In this way, we will definitely
be able to thank Allah subhanho wa Taala for whatever he has given us. Let's take a look at the
verses of the Quran, Allah subhanho wa Taala, making mention of so many favors that he has bestowed
upon mankind, the gene kind in Surah Rahman, he then says, For me, a
		

			man to Kathy
		

			which is it of the favors of your Lord? Do you deny all mankind and jinn kind? Is there any favor of
Allah that you deny, and Allah mentions them one after the other. He speaks about the sun and the
moon, the creation of entire creation, and everything he has made for us and heaven and what lies
within the heaven. This is the favor of Allah upon us. Similarly, Allah subhanho wa Taala says,
		

			We're down dooney Mehta, la isla
		

			in Surah, Brahim, he says, if you were to try and count the favors of Allah, you will never be able
to count them, you will not be able to circumscribe them, you won't be able to jot them down. And
the challenge is if you take a pen and a paper and start writing down, the gifts of Allah upon you,
the list is endless, every day you will have to be writing and you will not come to an end and it
will not come to an end. So this is something that Allah has indeed indicated and drawn our
attention to in the Quran. And Allah subhanho wa Taala says, In
		

			Santa Laval
		

			indeed, mankind is not only oppressive, but he is ungrateful as well. He shows a lot of ingratitude
		

			on social media, Mashallah, every week, every few days, we receive messages and some of these
messages are authentic, some of them are not authentic, a lot of us would actually benefit from some
of these powerful messages. Sometimes we forward them without even thinking. And sometimes
Mashallah, they are extremely beneficial. And they do help. One such message doing its rounds. And
I'm going to share it with you today, because I believe it has in it what the topic is, and what
we've chosen today to speak on. And it is to focus really, on what you have what you definitely do
have, if you take a look at the kings of aforetime, we don't want to look at the average men have a
		

			long time ago, we want to look at the kings, we want to look at those who had the lat qarun and the
likes, we want to take a look at what they had and compare it to what you and I have today, in order
to be able to thank Allah subhanho wa Taala we have in terms of quality, much more than all of them
put together. Have you ever thought of it may be quantity wise Indeed, Allah says in the Quran, they
were more powerful than you they had more than you in terms of quantity, they but in terms of
quality, and in terms of ease and facilitation, we definitely have much more than them. Let's take a
look at it. If you start off by
		

			looking at Cleopatra, who was one of these queens of Egypt, and the amount of jewelry she had today,
if she were to walk into one of the jewelry stores here in our own city, I'm sure she would be
shocked at what she sees, is she had a lot she might have had more in terms of quantity in terms of
weight of kilos as a person, but to be honest, take a look at the quality of what there is how
dazzling it's become how precise it's become. And yet we complain there's nothing happening. There's
nothing here nothing there. So panela How much do you want? Oh man, how much is it that will fill
your belly or your mouth Oh man, you need to realize Allah has bestowed upon us a lot such that if
		

			the kings of aforetime who are mentioned in the biblical texts or in the Quran, in this previous
scriptures, we will realize that indeed they would be baffled by what they see today. Take a look.
For example, at kisara this kisara who was the leader? No
		

			For his bedding and his sleep,
		

			he was known for his bedding his sleep, he had a beautiful bedding. If he were to recline on one of
the restonic mattresses we have today your bed in your own home with the doorway that you have. And
the pillow whether it is you know, there are five, six different types of pillows so much so you
enter an ordinary hotel and they have a huge selection of pillows. What do you want? Would you like
the one that goes down and up as your head moves? Would you like the one that is they call it the
the memory foam? Would you like the one which is feather? Would you like the one which actually has
in it a little pieces of wool put together? What would you like? Imagine your bidding, I'm quite
		

			convinced that if kisara had to come in and witness or have a night's rest in your own bed in your
own house, I'm sure he would start wondering where on earth all his was. Now Allah subhanho wa Taala
bless us. We've been bestowed. We have cotton sheets, we have blankets, we have so many doorways we
have so much in terms of goodness, take a look at what Allah has given us. My brothers and sisters,
it's important for us, really to thank Allah for what he's given us. Yes. And take a look at those
who don't even have a bedding from amongst those who are around us, the refugees, those who are
struggling from Syria and Iraq, those who have been driven out of their homes by the oppressors,
		

			those who are from lands where war is taking place who literally have nothing they had in the past.
Take a look at the walls of North Africa, whether they're in Libya or Egypt or anywhere else. What
has this done, it's come with a lot of destruction. People have lost their homes, they've lost their
property. All this is something and Islamic. We are not supposed to be destroying we are not
supposed to be killing. We are supposed to be mindful of human life and the ownership of their
property. But take a look at them and where are we sitting Subhana Allah May Allah subhanho wa Taala
bestow His favor upon us and upon them as well. May Allah subhanho wa Taala never let us see
		

			difficult days. But Allah promises in the Quran, that if you are going to be ungrateful, then indeed
what do you expect besides snatching away of those gifts of Allah, Allah gives you something you're
not grateful. He says, What do you want? Let's listen to the verse. Allah subhanho wa Taala says,
and this is a beautiful verse in the Quran, la
		

			Shaka Mottola as Eden aku wala
		

			Kapha cafo in Mila Shadi, if you are going to be thankful, grateful, show gratitude. Indeed, we will
bestow you with increase in that favor. But if you are not grateful, no gratitude, in gratitude,
this belief turned away from Allah. He says our punishment is severe. May Allah subhanho wa Taala
not do that to us. Take a look at Cesar. In his days, he was well known for him being fanned you
know the fans from the heat. There were so many of the slave girls used to stand around him with the
fans and fan him down. today. We have a fan you press a button and it's on. Another thing. We have
air conditions such that if you were to close the doors, and if you were to decrease the
		

			temperature, you would literally feel like you're in the north pole in the middle of summer, you
would need something warm to cover yourself in order to sleep. We are spoiled, don't you have far
better than what sees ahead and yet he was one of those powerful wealthy leaders of the time we have
more in terms of quality, definitely a touch of a button next thing everything becomes cool. Take a
look at the ancient Arabians when they needed to drink cold water for example.
		

			They used to put it into a little skin and put that under the ground in order for it to become cool.
Today you have ice you have ice packs, you have cold water you have so cold water, in the middle of
the heat in the desert wherever you are, and yet we are not thankful to Allah we will still miss a
lot will at will we will still not dress appropriately just because we don't realize that Allah has
bestowed upon us so much. We will still lie, cheat, deceive, we will still continue in our sinful
ways of adultery and gambling and whatever else it is, and drugs and May Allah subhanho wa Taala
protect us. May He says goddess really these are the gifts of Allah. Like we said, just the air
		

			conditioning unit you enter the motor vehicle. Sometimes we are so spoiled with the air conditioning
unit in the motor vehicle that in an ordinary day. On an ordinary day we will not be able to survive
without turning this thing on. May Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us. We have definitely become
people who don't realize these beautiful gifts that Allah has bestowed upon us. One might say it's
men, it's technology when Allah is the one who bestowed man with the mind with the brain. And this
is why our runes mistake what was his mistake. his mistake was he said in Tito, Allah.
		

			De indeed whatever I have in terms of wealth, I've been given it because of my own brain my own
wealth, sorry, my own
		

			intellect. And Allah says, Does he not see that Allah has destroyed those before Him who had more
wealth more might than him. It was a law who bestowed you with the brain in the first place. So
don't think you came first in your class because it was you who was bright, it was Allah Who gave
you the brain. And then you achieved because Allah subhanho wa Taala bestowed you with that
beautiful brain. So take a look at our own. What was he known for? He was known for the fact that he
had so much of wealth, that the keys to the treasures, the keys to the locks of the treasures that
he owned, was so heavy that a group of men would find them difficult or would find it difficult to
		

			carry. That's how much it was had he come today, he would have noticed much more wealth than his
much more wealth than his and you know how it's resembled by a little plastic card. Imagine no need
for men to get tired. No need for anything else. We're not speaking of the halal and haram aspect of
Islamic Finance and non Islamic finance. We are just seeing a large amount of money depicted by a
little card. Have you noticed that Subhana Allah Look how it's been facilitated. No one needs to
carry on, you know, carrying the keys of their treasures everywhere, wherever they go, as Harun used
to do. Allah has made it easy. It's so easy for you. And like I said, we're not speaking of the
		

			permissible prohibited of it because that's a topic of its own. But what we are saying is, today, a
person can be so wealthy and you won't even know Subhana Allah because he just has to carry his
card. That's it. May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant is to us, may he protect us from the pangs of
inflation? I mean, I call it that intentionally because Allah he drowns people in they actually we
have been in this part of the world through difficulty already, where we've known what inflation is
all about. We ask Allah Subhana Allah, Allah to grant us all goodness in terms of sustenance, and to
bestow upon us the best in terms of his risk. May Allah subhanahu wa Jalla grant us all goodness, I
		

			mean, if you take a look at the people of Mr. topel, the people of Mesopotamia
		

			if you take a look at the chariots, they had, they will known the place was known for beautiful
chariots, you know, pulled by lovely horses and so on.
		

			It was actually amazing, magnificent, they used to pride themselves, the wheel was invented, and
they used to pull themselves and it was so lovely, they could actually carry on, and it was
something picturesque, really beautiful. If they had to see one Toyota of today, they would be gone.
That's it. One little starlet, you know, style. It is one of the smallest of the vehicles you can
actually buy here, something that is minor, one of the lightest microphones that you have, in
essence, if they had to see one of those, they will forget about all the chariots, don't you agree,
Allah has bestowed upon us much more in terms of ease in terms of facility in terms of quality than
		

			then they may have had a million of these chariots? What happened? Where is the gratitude, a lot of
us seated here, either ourselves or our fathers or forefathers, perhaps they couldn't afford the
motor vehicle. Perhaps they didn't have it for many years. And perhaps they used to catch public
transport and even beyond that they used to walk Do you know that and yet today we sit and we deny
the gifts and the favors of Allah by missing our Salah by wholesale turning against Allah subhanho
wa Taala. Jose
		

			May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us ease goodness, every time another vehicle comes out you find it
is much more comfortable. It has in it much more facility. Now it has in it what you and I would
call satellite navigation. They call it the GPS, the TomTom, the Garmin, whatever you'd like to call
it. It's on your phone as well. We would you ever in the wildest of your dreams, even 20 years ago,
50 years ago have dreamt that there will come a time when we will not be able to do without a phone
telling us turn left after 500 meters and you have now arrived at your destination. Those of us who
might go to countries we don't know we no longer need someone to tell us. You know what, these are
		

			the directions Not at all. You need them to send you a location on WhatsApp. And all you do is you
open the location and you say you want to drive there. The next best thing you know it shows you the
traffic. It shows you which route to use, who on earth would have dreamed at some time back. All the
kings of aforetime put together would be dizzy if they saw that. So panela they would probably think
we're living in a heaven. We living in a paradise. If we had to talk about it, they would be totally
confused. But we have it in your pockets. My brothers and sisters. It's really there. How do we take
this for granted when Allah has bestowed upon us this navigation should be taking you to your
		

			destination of the masjid five times a day. It should be taking you to Jenna really, it should be
showing you don't make this turn don't make that turn that is thanking Allah for his gift that is
called gratitude when we understand where we're heading
		

			May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant His goodness and ease, take a look at the people of Baghdad and
Cordoba. They were known for knowledge. They were known for their books. You know, they say what the
the the the black rivers that flowed when the books were thrown into those rivers because of the ink
the amount of ink that had actually flown
		

			Subhana Allah, they had books, libraries upon libraries, while llahi my brothers and sisters, do you
know, the little chip that happens to be in your phone, in your little mobile phone, 64 gigabytes.
128 gigabytes holds more than 200 of those libraries. If you wanted it to be in there. You know that
this is a gift of Allah. Today, their library is put together one hard drive of a few terabytes and
it's over. Imagine what do we do? The knowledge came to us this is what it is we still don't know.
We are more ignorant than them. Yet knowledge is at our fingertips, so panela much more ignorant.
		

			And even if we do know things we don't practice upon it. So it's important we ask Allah for
		

			forgiveness. And we ask Allah for guidance. And we ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to help us be
thankful. This is why one of the doors are Bo z and ash corneum attack. Oh Allah Oh my Rob, grant me
the ability to be thankful to you for the favors that you have bestowed upon me. grant me the
ability because one is to say all I thank you, I thank you. Don't just pay lip service to it. Be
really thankful by showing it in your action towards Allah Subhana Allah Alhamdulillah I am here I
pray I take my time when it comes to fulfilling the obligations unto Allah. I think not only twice
or thrice, but that before sinning but I don't even sin because I think Allah and whenever I have
		

			faulted as a human being, I quickly repent to Allah because I want to thank him. I want to be
grateful to him. I know I have faltered as a human being, but I still want to thank Allah so I
quickly repent to Allah subhanho wa Taala take a look at the kings. They used to send messengers and
they used to pride themselves I can get the message from here to Makkah. In four days, the minimum
was three days a message from Medina to Mecca three days that was like the fastest horseback you
could ever have. Message God day, today, three seconds, and the whole world has your message. You
have WhatsApp, you have Blackberry, you have you name it email and female May Allah subhanho wa
		

			Taala grant a solid understanding you name it, it's there.
		

			It's a gift. Really, it is thank Allah for him. It is, you know, a very fast way of letting the
whole world know today we have social media, how am I talking to you today? I've I've drawn an
example, which was cited on the social networks. And here we are sharing it and trying to make sense
out of it and trying to look at which angle it is that we have more because one might argue that
Allah says in the Quran, they had more and they were more powerful. Yes, indeed, in terms of
quantity, they definitely did have more. And in terms of their physical beings, they were definitely
more healthier and more fit than us. But in terms of ease facility and so on, we have much more than
		

			them. My brothers and sisters, they pride themselves at that time. They were so so happy. They used
to show off how quickly they could get the message across and they used to get across a good
message. The Prophet sallallahu sallam, he sent messengers across the globe to different parts of
the globe. How long did they take? They went for months on end, and they went with the message and
that was the way today we haven't even used the quick messenger system that we have to spread one
good message of Islam. One good message, where is it? May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us goodness,
another very important factor. It is not good enough to send a good message on a Friday alone. Let's
		

			change that. Let it be random any day every day. You don't have to greet each other only on a
Friday. We've made Islam a religion of Friday. That's it tomorrow comes we greet you mark comes we
send a good message for what let it be every day you might not see the next Friday, May Allah
subhanho wa Taala help us understand this. And Norman who was a king in Arabia he used to he used to
boast about how he had cold water. They used to keep for him and he had this cold water from a
special skin that he used to drink from today. Well ah he you just go around the corner there. There
is a filter, you press a button and the coldest of filtered water is out what happens now man if he
		

			came here he would think we are all the kings Subhanallah really he would want a filter from you and
I mean Allah subhanho wa Taala help us yet we still do not understand the gift of Allah subhanho wa
Taala Almanzo he was one of those leaders and you know what he used to have
		

			hot and cold water mixed for him to have a bath people used to bring it hot and cold and they mix it
and it was a big deal because people used to bath with cold water. To be honest, this business of
having hot water is something very recent. So people used to bath with cold he had the luxury of
people mixing it today Mashallah. You just need a mixer.
		

			Subhanallah you open the tap before you know it is when you don't even realize the gift of Allah
upon you. My brothers and sisters pause for a moment say Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah All praise is
due to Allah thank Allah, that water that comes from that tap. Do you know the clean water, the
drinking water, the water we bath within this part of the world. Really? You can drink that water
actually that's how clean it is. people across the globe drink water. That's not that looks murky.
The water we have is not even murky. Somehow Allah, we are spoiled. But still we don't think Allah
subhanho wa Taala
		

			people who dreamt about things they searched for these items their whole life, I want this and they
worked for it today. So panela tip fingertips you just go onto the internet, what do you want eBay
or Amazon, or better buy whatever you'd like. And next thing you have the item not only the item but
the best deal and the following day it's being shipped to you and a week later. DHL has it delivered
to your doorstep and you still don't think Allah subhanho wa Taala This is reality. My brothers and
sisters, we hope and pray that we've learned a lesson and I really hope we can focus on what we have
focus on what you do have, you have got a lot more than all the others who are considered powerful,
		

			they were considered kings. That was the height of luxury at the time, we have it and we even have
more. Take a look at the clothing, the type of material you have Subhana Allah It's amazing. It has
progressed over time, something we should thank Allah for, and let's never take any of the gifts
Allah has bestowed upon us for granted. May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us goodness in this world
and the next major grant agenda are sallallahu wasallam albaraka Allah and Amina Mohammed