Masjid Umar, Leicester 21 Feb 2020
Mufti Menk – Allah is in Control
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the negative sentiment of negative things happening in the world and the success of Islam in the United States. They emphasize the importance of finding the source of one's success and using the arrahams facility to find the source of one's success. The speaker also touches on the importance of community service and forgiveness, emphasizing the need for a strong connection and finding one's pleasure in life. They also mention the difficulty of forgiveness in the physical, mental, and financial aspects of life and offer advice on how to deal with anxiety.
AI: Summary ©
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim al hamdu Lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah Allah Allah He was happy Jemaine.
We begin In the name of Allah subhanho wa Taala, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
We praise Allah subhanho wa Taala For indeed All praise belongs to Allah subhanho wa Taala we send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam his household, his companions, we ask Allah Subhana Allah to Allah to bless them to bless every one of us, and to grant us all goodness in the dunya and Dr. Farah, my beloved brothers, my sisters, if you look at the globe today, it seems like we are in turmoil. Everywhere you look, there is a disaster. Everywhere you look things are happening that seem to be negative. Everywhere you look, you feel like crying, the heart pains, things are happening that we don't like to see happening. My brothers and sisters, as
Muslims, we are taught something unique, something unique. Every time there is a negativity that appears in front of us, a Muslim is taught
to search for the positives in that negative.
Every time something happens, that looks so negative we as Muslims are taught
to search for the positives. And to be hopeful. There is definitely hope not only for the oma but for humanity as well.
There is definitely hope not only for the oma but for humanity as well.
As much as you might think that you know when I look at things it seems very hopeless. No my brothers, my sisters, a lot changes conditions and situations in a flash. He has done it he will do it. They were people in the recent past
who had attempted to bless him the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam blasphemous images, cartoons, videos, etc. Some of whom accepted Islam a year or two later. I know some of these people personally. And I promise you, my brothers and sisters, the way we sometimes react to situations
actually shows that we don't understand the great plan of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Yes, we will be upset. Yes, we will be saddened Yes, it is unacceptable for anyone to do that which is blasphemous against Allah and His Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam or any of the messengers, or anything sacred for that matter. But my beloved brothers and sisters, that should never lead us to hooliganism, it should never lead us to reacting in a way that creates two problems out of one, because then we will be the losers.
I'm always very, very
amused, intrigued and impressed by a specific incident that happened before the prophethood of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. One of the leaders of Quraysh was the grandfather of Rasulullah sallallahu sallam. His name was Abdul muttalib I'm sure we've heard that name.
One day, there was a man in Yemen known as abraha. Who had decided that you know what I need to improve the economy of this place. How should we do it? So Subhan Allah, He chose to create a place of worship, you know, when it comes to Islam, Mashallah we struggle to get money even for the masjid. Subhana Allah, when it comes to some others, some others.
Their whole intention of putting up a place of worship is to make money. If that is the case, they would be losers. May Allah subhanho wa Taala put it in our hearts to donate towards the masjid I always say if you use the facility of the masjid for one Salah, put one pound in the box. How much is your Salah worth? Today you're going to read the Salah right? You use the facility, the carpets, the electricity, whatever else was here, the heating everything you used it right. How much is this prayer that you read worth? to park your car outside will probably be a pound but to come to the machine
You never thought of let me put a pound for every Salah I've read in this machine. We don't think of that. Why? When Allah doesn't want your money, you will never think of things like that.
You will never think of it if you have spent it's because Allah want to be that money of yours. It is an honor you attended the masjid. put money in the box. Not to say I'm paying for what I just did. But I am contributing towards the upkeep of this house of Allah. It is an honor Allah only chooses selected people to spend on his cause, or in his path. So my brothers and sisters,
when we take a look at the masjid, it is a place of worship that has its uniqueness. It has a serenity, it has a beautiful feel to it, even for those who don't believe.
Even for those who don't believe when they enter the masjid for the first time, there is something that will move them on condition that they have even a droplet of sincerity in their hearts, something will move them. So this man up
very interestingly,
when he was faced with abraha, who had built a place of worship,
and when his studies showed that there is another place of worship in Makkah, where everyone is flocking, we want to those people here they should not be going there.
What was his aim to make money? So he said, Well, you know what, we have an Elephant, elephant uniqueness. You know, Yemen is closer to Africa, where the elephants are, they had brought in a huge elephant
from Africa.
And so they say, they said we will take this elephant and we will march on to Makkah where that Kaaba is and we're going to destroy it. That's it so that the people of Mecca, the economy will go and everything will go obviously they're looking at it from a materialistic perspective and angle.
Everything will go and then the business will be ours.
So they proceeded, the Army began to march with this one beautiful, huge elephant, a creature of Allah subhanho wa Taala. They were using it in the wrong course.
On the way
they were committing their atrocities and they were doing whatever else they could.
In the process, they took away they stole they usurped the camels that belonged to Abdul muttalib.
Right Subhan Allah, so Abdulmutallab,
he found out, my camels are gone, they've been stolen, he decided, I'm going to meet abraha. And I'm going to tell him, I want my camels back. But he was a leader of Quraysh, one of the leaders of Makkah.
Obviously, anyone would say that a good leader is He who is more worried about society than himself. If you're a leader in community, you will sacrifice your sleep for the sleep of others. If you're a leader in community, you will sacrifice your own comfort for the comfort of those in the community. If someone passes away, may Allah grant all our motorhoming genital for those, someone passes away, who will you call, you will call a man who's not connected perhaps to that person besides being one of the leaders of community in a certain way. He will forsake his sleep his bedding he'll come in the middle of the night, they will help you they will help with the with the washing and the
enshrouding. And the burial. Who was that person? He was not a relative in most cases, he was just a member of community. Have you ever made do ask for those types of people? Because I tell you what, when the older people pass away, who is going to take over from them? It's a question that sometimes bring up brings about a concern in the heart.
Let's encourage not only others, but within ourselves. We push ourselves to participate in community service.
And it's not rewarding. Besides,
from Allah, people won't acknowledge it like I'm talking about it now. Maybe it will tickle your conscience for a bit. But after that, you will forget as well. Because community service is rewarded solely and only by Allah so much. So that community might even give you back negatively. It's just Allah watching. Are you going to keep going? Are you going to give up because Who are you serving anyway? Was it for me or for showing the people if it was for showing them, you're not going to be able to burden or you're not going to be able to shoulder the burden of their statements against you. But if you do
For Allah, you wouldn't even mind what they said because it's irrelevant.
Subhan Allah. So this man was a leader of community and guess what he did?
He did something that a leader
of an ordinary normal place wouldn't do. But there's a reason why he did it. He went to abre. And he says, You know what? I need my camels back.
Was he wrong to say that? No, his camels were taken away. He says, I need my camels back. So abraha laughed at him scoffed at him and says, You know what? I'm about to destroy your entire economy. I'm about to take down the Kaaba, you guys are going to be nothing after today, everything is going to go and you are busy asking me about these camels I've taken you're supposed to be ashamed of yourself.
So this is when he responded, the most powerful response. And I want everyone to think about this.
He says hon Eb Li, well, elbaite euro buena me.
He says, I am the owner of these camels. I'm asking you for these camels.
As for that house that you're planning to destroy? It has an owner who's going to take care of it. Don't worry.
Did you hear that? La ilaha illAllah. My brothers and sisters Lee Dini, Isla Hoon yummy. This Dean has a lord who will take care of it. Don't lose hope. positives will always come out of negatives. It's the weakness of incense and men that makes us think that negativity is only negative. Sometimes the most positive things come out of what you think is so negative in your life and in the lives of others and even among the oma and even within humanity.
Allah is the Lord. Is he not the owner of the deen? Is he not the creator of the universe, and the entire creation? Is he not in control, he knows what's going on. It's only through his permission that things happen. Have that conviction
be the best possible person you can be. And Allah will take care of the rest.
Allah has given me a capacity, I need to use my capacity to be the best possible version of myself. And it's a whole process that will continue throughout your life. Every day you need to remind yourself am I the best possible person I can be? Have I fulfilled my own obligations and duties? Have I reached out to others the way I should? Have I been kind have I been good? Is has my tongue been clean? Have I said empowering words? Have I protected myself from harming others? Etc, etc? If the answer or the answers of those questions happens to be improving over time you're heading in the right direction you become an asset not only to the oma but to humanity at large. But when you pay
lip service about you know what's happening in the world, look at this place, look at the disease they look at this war they look at the earthquake they look at the the other thing they look at this matter they you know what? Your words will never help the situation for as long as you have not changed yourself and that is evident in the Quran. In Allah holla yo ye Roma be comin had you, ye Roma be
pushing him. Allah will not change the condition of a people for as long as each individual does not change the condition within himself or herself. That's a solution.
Another thing, when Allah has bestowed favor upon you, my brothers and sisters, he promises you I'll never take it away.
Do you know that?
Allah says when I've bestowed a favor upon you, I'm not going to take it away.
Unless you deserve that he'd be taken away. Whoa.
This requires clarification. Because some of us might have had the favor of Allah and it went away.
I tell you, Allah is not talking about materialistic things here.
He's talking about the contentment of the heart when you have a man, no matter what worldly loss you may have suffered. Your contentment is intact. If anything, it has grown
Alhamdulillah I thank Allah What just happened? Your whole business burned down La ilaha illa Allah I sank Allah if that's what Allah intended. And hamdulillah he Allah Cooley Hall. That is a very high level of conviction of Eman and of contentment.
There's nothing bad that can come out of material law.
If your email is intact, if your heart is intact, nothing bad can come out of losing a job if your heart is intact, but when you've disconnected from Allah, the more you're going to get materially, the less content you will be. Why? The issue is Allah has not favored you. I always say,
if your financial gain your materialistic status, your status within materialist, the materialistic world, if that was considered success,
the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him would have been the wealthiest, Allah would have kept him at an age where technology existed. But Allah says, No, this technology you and I have has nothing to do with Allah being happy with you.
It depends how you use it.
It is actually a test. And the very, very serious test. Technology is a good thing. But it can be a bad thing. It's just like a knife. People can use it to do something wrong. And they can use the same knife to do things right, perhaps halaal, perhaps your food and what not, you need to use a knife. But my brothers and sisters, something we don't realize is that Allah subhanho wa Taala has promised us goodness, that goodness is not connected to materialism, nor is it connected to things you and I might think of in this world, your marriage might fail, your relationships may fail. If you are intact within your relationship with Allah, perhaps that was very positive. It may have been
a toxic relationship. Perhaps it didn't work. It's happening every single day.
Depends. Are you a good person? How is your connection with Allah like I said, if you are the best version of yourself, there's no need to worry.
And in de
la de la, la mala.
Allah.
Allah says the friends of Allah have no reason to be sad, nor will they be
in fear. There's no reason to be in fear, nor will they be sad. Who are they? The ones who believe and develop their taqwa. Those are the ones. I want to be a friend of Allah. To be very honest. It's not so difficult. People make it sound like it's impossible. No, it's not. You want to be a friend of Allah. It is quite simple. Allah says you only need two things, not the third.
He says it in this verse. Among those who believe Do you believe May Allah grant us correct belief?
Number two, can we attack soon? Are you conscious of Allah? Are you developing your taco? Are you trying as best as you can? Do you get up each time you drop? I asked you a question was Adam alayhis salam, not a friend of Allah? Was he not a Willie? Was he not an OB? Was he not loved by Allah? He was. Do you ever realize
he committed the only sin that was prohibited against him and he did it?
And still, Allah says we forgave you when? The first sentence he uttered from his mouth, Oh Allah, we regret what we did. We want your forgiveness. Forgive us. If you don't forgive us, we will be the losers. Allah says, wiped out
Subhana Allah, I want to give you a good news today when you've committed a sin no matter what, no matter what it was. The first time you ever asked for forgiveness, the sin was already wiped out, then shapen comes to you. So how many times did you ask for the forgiveness one the first time that sin was gone, totally wiped out history.
In fact, not even history. It's gone out in such a way that no one can ever see it. And I tell you the next time you asked for forgiveness,
your status is being elevated and your relationship with allies being improved. That's all. It's got nothing to do with the previous sin that sin was gone with the first tober. But shaytan comes to you and makes you think I'm not forgiven. That's from the devil. Don't let that happen to you. Never, no matter what shaitan comes to you and makes you think I'm not forgiven. I'm not forgiven. Allah says you know what, you are forgiven. Don't let the devil make you think for a moment that I can be forgiven. That's why Allah makes it clear in the Quran. Oh my slaves. Allah says, never, ever lose hope in the mercy of Allah, we lose hope in the mercy of Allah. the sin of losing hope in the mercy
of Allah is worse than the major sins you may have committed prior to that, because now your connection with Allah is being temporary
With I hope you're following a person could have committed major sin. If you think you're not fit to receive the forgiveness and mercy of Allah, You've insulted Allah. You've now insulted Allah when you committed the sin. It was your human weakness. Now you're playing with dangerous territory. Shaytan has come to you as a result of the sin, and he's making you think for a moment that you know what? Not me I can be forgiven. No, you have a lord who will forgive you. What did I say at the beginning?
We have a lord who is merciful. He is kind. He is a man. He is Rahim. He is compassionate, he is the most loving.
Do you really think you will allow disaster to prevail? disaster is not necessarily what we see around us. It's more to do with the condition of your heart. People have lost their lives when their hearts have been very, very content. Subhan Allah, may Allah grant that to us the day he takes us away. May our hearts be heavily connected with Allah.
My brothers and sisters, look at the beautiful response of Abdul muttalib. He says, powerfully, do you know what he says? Hon eberly Well, it will be easier for me.
This you can apply to any aspect of your life that Allah owns this, he will take care of it. This is the house of Allah. Whether you contribute positively or negatively, trust me, it will be uplifted by Allah. It's his house. Not yours, not mine.
You want to serve in a house of Allah. I will tell you not only based on my experience, but based on what I've seen across the globe. One of the most difficult tasks ever is to serve a Masjid You know why? Allah will test you left right and center
and you will definitely be tested such that you want to quit and give up if you couldn't you gave up it was Allah saying you know what? You will never meant to be here.
It's hard. It's tough. Why is it hard? You have to endure the punches of people you least expected to punch you. And you still have to say Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah cashew Oh Allah, I thank you for giving me the opportunity to be of service to you to your deen to the masjid to the madrasa whatever else it may be. Those are the most tough jobs ever.
Because why the reward is the highest highest.
Rajan kalba, whom Allah combi masajid one of the vvips of the Day of Judgment is a person who's always connected to the machine. I'm sure we know some of these may Allah subhanho wa Taala make it such that we are genuine.
May we be from amongst them always concerned? What happened here? What is happening in the masjid? What's going on? What's going on? I know people who are involved in massage it just with the parking and they are so concerned with that parking, it is service to the dean. It is service to Allah and then you have people coming, shouting at them sometimes not all the biller swearing them all that, take it in your stride. Don't worry, Allah is watching, have a big heart excuse. The more you hold, the more you get sick, learn to forgive people. Forgiveness is something that is so powerful, it is difficult. It is difficult to forgive, but the reward of it is greater than you would ever imagine.
From a physical aspect or health aspect, emotional mental, whatever it may be, even from a financial aspect. If you forgive you will get much much more from Allah.
There are so many a hadith and verses of the Quran that prove exactly what I've said. Allah says, If you forgive it's better for you while I'm on sobre el amin as mil or more whoever is patient and forgives, that is the best thing you could have ever done. And you say how can I forgive? You can you can May Allah subhanahu wa taala open our hearts, my beloved brothers, my sisters, remember something
across the globe, we will witness days that perhaps will be worse than what we are seeing right now. Days may get worse. But if our connection with Allah is correct, we will always have hope. While we are helping others, we will receive the help of Allah. If I have a problem, and we all do. It's part of this dunya Can I tell you what's part of this dunya every one of us without a single exception has problems, issues, difficulties and hardship. There is not one person if I were to ask you who doesn't have a single thing wrong, a single negativity Not a single health problem, not a single financial problem, not a single social problem. Nobody will be able to put up their hands because
it's part of the plan of Allah.
So Allah says, you want to help. I show you how you get help. Can Allah who founded Abdi ma
candelabra dupioni
Allah will help you for as long as you're busy helping someone you want to empowerment empower another, see how Allah empowers you.
You want goodness, give another, Allah will give you the goodness, I promise you it is a guarantee, you may have a major issue, go and help other people in a similar problem, you will see how Allah will help you through the issue, you may have a health matter, it might be a terminal illness. I tell you terminal illness is one of the greatest gifts of Allah. Do you know that?
Explain why
we all have to pass away we all have to go I have to die You have to die. No one knows the age your date and time of death is written. You might die today tomorrow or any law might give you 10 more years or 20 you have to go. If you go suddenly, and you didn't really have a heads up. Do you know what the chances of you having gone in the right way are less than if you had a heads up? What's the heads up diagnosed cancer say Alhamdulillah 20 times May Allah give you Shiva
May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant Shiva to all those who are seeking deal and grant Rama to older more humane of the entire Oman army. And when he takes us away me take us away with Shahada made he gathered us in general for those
my brothers and sisters, I tell you,
if we would like the help of Allah, learn to help others learn to reach out to people.
Allah subhanho wa Taala blesses a person by we what we call inflicting them
with a disease sometimes they know imagine when the doctor tells you you have six weeks to live. Do you know what type of a blessing that is?
You can start doing your STL file you can do everything together with the medication and guess what, six years later we might meet you. It's possible right? We might meet you six years later, but your life would have changed when the day you were given that information. Not based on a prophecy but based on medicinal experience perhaps of the doctors.
They didn't know they were only letting you know it was Allah telling them you don't have long to live.
I was in London and two days ago I said something very interesting. I'm going to say it again. If life was the day,
we are already at five o'clock.
If your life was one day,
most of us here we are already at 5pm.
May Allah subhanahu wa taala help us with the remaining hour.
Allah give us genda to fill those mela open our doors. I'm really very, very happy to be here. Today we are going to be witnessing and nikka have one of my close friends and one of the families from my own country Zimbabwe who have settled years some time back. And it's an honor to have been here molana has generously asked me to do the talk and the Juma in sha Allah. May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant Baraka to this community. May Allah open our hearts May Allah subhanho wa Taala keep us together. May Allah help us to serve society selflessly. The best communities are those where people are selfless. And the worst communities are those where people are selfish, take it from me write it
down. And it's not wrong, it will never be wrong, that I repeat it. The best communities are those where the individuals and the members of the community are selfless. And the worst communities are those where the individuals are selfish, very simple, simple equation, but it has been proven across the globe. It's a teaching of Rasulullah salam, like I said, the Sahaba of the Allahu anhu what made them the best community in the dunya. And I will end on this point. What made them the best community is they were worried about each other even when they desperately needed something and they saw their brother needed it. They preferred the brother, what selflessness what selflessness we've
heard of stories of the water going around. We've heard of stories of people when the Maha Judean came over what the unsalted that's what made them the best, the more selfish we are or people of Leicester, the the less people would love or like our community, the less it would be
to want to live in the community, the hearts of the people would actually inclined less to this place.
And the more we help and reach out, the more sell the more self less we are, the greater this community and society will be and the greater the chances of you and I receiving the help of Allah would be and the greater the chances of us ultimately to gather, entering genital fair dose May Allah subhanahu wa taala bless every one of us are punto de la Sol Allahu wa Sallim wa barik ala nabina Muhammad
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