Boost – The Power of Words
Date:
Channel: Mufti Menk
Series: Mufti Menk - Ramadan 2024 - Boost
File Size: 25.40MB
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AI Generated Summary ©
The importance of dressing properly, respect, and being a positive person is emphasized in Islam. The need for caution and understanding personal and family dynamics is emphasized. The importance of learning from experiences and being sensitive to one's own language is emphasized. It is also emphasized to be aware of one's own language and apply for jobs. The speaker emphasizes the need to be aware of one's own language and allow people to improve themselves.AI Generated Transcript ©
My beloved brothers and sisters, the first thing
we want to commence with is to ask
Allah to accept
the fast that we have fasted today. Amen.
Amen.
And we ask Allah to accept the salah
of tarawih that was fulfilled
today.
Thereafter, we ask Allah to accept all our
fasts.
To make us people who achieve the correct
benefit from the month of Ramadan
which is the closeness of Allah known as
taqwa.
Fasting is prescribed upon you like it was
upon those before you in order that you
achieve taqwa.
When we say taqwa,
many people have different translations of it. The
essence of it is always the same. It's
a connection with Allah.
You are fasting because you want to be
connected with
Allah. You have come to the masjid because
you want to be connected with
Allah. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant
us a connection with him. Amen.
Today I'm seated here in front of you
about to remind you not about myself,
not about someone else, but about Allah and
his message.
So when we sit in the house of
Allah, there is a beautiful etiquette.
When we've asked you to lower your phones,
when we've asked you to
behave in a certain way, it's not for
me or for someone else. It's for Allah.
This is the house of Allah.
And this is the Islamic teaching. The value
that Allah has asked us
to uphold
is that when you come in the house
of Allah, make sure that you are dressed
correctly.
Make sure you follow the etiquettes.
Make sure you make life easy for those
who are around you. Make sure you make
space for people. Don't make a noise.
Do you know
Allah Almighty says in Surat Al
Oh, you oh children of Adam,
when you go to the places of sujood,
here talking about the houses of Allah that
we're in right now,
take pride in your dress. Make sure that
you come
dressed appropriately. If you have a very important
meeting
with someone important, I'm sure you would wear
a good set of clothing. It would be
You might apply a little bit of perfume.
You may want to look neat because you
know I'm going to see a VIP.
Who is the greatest of all? Is it
not Allah? You're going to see Allah. You're
going to communicate with Allah a little bit
of pride in your clothing,
in your
appearance
is very important.
Now you might think
I use the term pride,
but pride is haram for a Muslim.
How do we look at that? The English
language has
diverse meanings of the term pride.
In the Arabic language, they have
they have divided it into a few categories.
One is to be happy that you're a
Muslim. If you say I'm proud to be
a Muslim, it doesn't mean I'm arrogant to
be a Muslim. It means I'm happy to
be a Muslim. So if the pride you
are speaking about is happiness
or it is to do with discipline,
it is permissible.
I take pride in my dress. It means
that I dress properly. I'm disciplined in my
dress. That's permissible. It's okay.
I am a proud Muslim means that I'm
happy to be a Muslim. I'm not going
to hide it.
I'm not scared of being a Muslim.
But if you say
so and so is a very proud person,
then you're talking about kibr.
The prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam says, he
will not enter paradise in whose heart there
is an atoms weight worth of pride.
Here he is talking of kibr.
So the companions,
may peace be upon all of them, may
Allah be pleased with all of them.
They asked a question that you said that
if someone has an atoms weight worth of
pride, they will not enter paradise.
So
what about us? We love our clothing. We
love our conveyance. We like good things, you
know.
He said, that is not what is being
referred to by the term pride.
In fact, what is being referred to is
When one rejects the truth that came in
front of him,
he's arrogant.
And when one despises
other people,
he's arrogant.
We are speaking about Islamic
culture, Islamic
values.
One of the greatest teachings that we have
is we respect all people.
We respect all people. We don't belittle others.
You might not be as educated.
We will not belittle you. You might come
across another who might be cleaning the street.
You offer him the same greeting with the
same smile and the same respect. That is
a Muslim.
When Bilal ibnuraba
who was
habashi
from Africa
was addressed in a derogatory way by one
of the companions,
not because he wanted to insult him, but
it was a habit of the pre Islamic
era.
They used to call people slaves. They used
to call people
any bad name
because they weren't from us.
So the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him
immediately corrected him and said, you dare say
that to this man, SubhanAllah.
You don't speak to him that way. No
matter what complexion,
no matter what
race, no matter where he comes from,
he is one of us. SubhanAllah.
That is the beauty of our culture,
the Islamic culture.
We are all the same.
People are
equal just like the teeth of a comb.
Equal. We're equal. In what sense? Respect. I
respect you.
It's okay. Allah will judge you on the
day of judgement. But
in this world, when I see you clearly
doing something wrong, part of our culture is
to
be straightforward,
polite
and correct someone. Part of Islam.
You see me doing something wrong. I see
you doing something wrong.
The first thought is to think of something
good if you can.
What that means is
I saw a person running out of the
masjid while salah was going on. The first
thought is maybe there is an emergency.
That's my first thought.
Shaitan will come to you and make you
think, look, he wants to skip salah. Right?
Don't think negative. You're a positive person. You're
a Muslim.
Why would he have come to the masjid
in the first place if he wanted to
run away during or prior to the prayer?
So you can say it was an emergency
and leave it. It's now between him and
Allah. But if you get an opportunity to
see him, brother, is everything okay? I saw
you running out of the masjid. Then if
he gives you an answer and says, you
know,
I I just felt a little bit lazy.
I don't think you're going to get that
by the way, but I'm just giving you
an example.
Then you can tell him
that you know what,
that's not something that a Muslim should do.
Now look how I am speaking. What did
I say? That's not something a Muslim should
do.
We need to try to do better, inshallah.
Now the language I'm using is today's language.
What does that mean? Today you can no
longer tell a person, you are wrong and
you others and you are, you know, you
are a bad person. There, it's not like
that.
It's not like that. Are you going to
encourage them or not? Part of our tradition
and culture is to speak to people in
a way
that brings about harmony, unity together with the
correcting.
You see, so if I say we can
do better,
if I ask you how many of you
do not pray
5 times a day, please don't show me
your hands. I'm not asking you. I'm just
saying if I were to say, how many
of you do not pray 5 times a
day? And you if you were to tell
me,
you have many ways of someone can say,
you know, this is kufr. You know, this
is not right. You know, this is this.
This is that. But in actual fact, we
know it's wrong. We can say, my brother,
we need to do better.
You see, it's it's an equally serious statement,
but it's worded differently.
We can do better.
I can do better. You can do better.
You don't pray 5 times a day, we
have a lot of hard work to do.
That's another way of wording it. Did you
hear that? What did I say? You have
a lot of hard work to do. That
is professional.
That is a proper way, not breaking the
hearts, not being judgmental.
Because today we have a problem.
If someone tells you
something totally wrong and you try to correct
them, they might say, don't judge me.
A person with a glass of alcohol in
their hands, and you say, brother, you know,
it's not what we're supposed to be doing
as Muslims. I'm sure you're aware of that.
Bro, I worded it so nicely.
I worded it so beautifully. Someone else would
have said,
Someone else might have said, haram. Nah, halla
wala. They are not wrong to say haram,
but
we are telling you my brother that's not
what a Muslim is supposed to do. Do
you know what the snap answer is today
of the youth? And the boys and girls
out there, they will tell you, stop judging
me. I am not judging you. You are
judging yourself. You have the glass in your
hand and you are sipping it. You can't
even tell me that it belongs to someone
else. And if it were, I would still
tell you we have a lot of hard
work. Because you know what, we are not
meant to be even holding it in our
hands for someone else.
That's Islam.
So the point I'm raising is never ever
feel bad when someone corrects you.
You know the young children when they are
doing Quran or they're learning something
and the teacher or the lecturer
happens to correct them when they are saying,
iya kana abudu, they made a fatha on
the ayn, or they did a kalkala on
the ayn. And the teacher says,
don't jump on the ayn because it's not
one of the 5 letters of kalkala,
for those of you who know what I'm
talking about.
And the little boy starts crying. Why are
you crying?
Because I got it wrong.
Don't worry. Don't cry. Don't. You will grow
in your perfection.
If you take it in your stride, thank
Allah, be happy,
smile, try again, make a mistake again and
again, and one day you will get it
right. But if you cry and you feel
bad and you you want perfection from the
very beginning, it doesn't happen that way. Someone
had to teach you that 1 +1 was
2. You, all of you and myself, they
had to show us when we were little.
1 and another one is now how many?
2. That's when we knew 1 plus 1
is 2. Otherwise, when we were little, what
did we know? We didn't even know 1
and we did not even know 2.
Now we know all the numbers. Subhanallah.
So when someone corrects you, even as an
adult,
in your prayer, in your speech, in your
movements, in your etiquette, in your character, in
your religion,
don't feel bad. Take it in your style.
Don't say stop judging me. They are not
judging you. Most probably it is advice.
Advice is not a judgment.
It is good advice. I'm telling you, my
beloved sister, we can do better in the
way we dress.
Listen. What did I say? We. I said
we can do better in the way we
dress. I didn't say you are not dressed
properly because that's none of my business. What's
my business is us as an Ummah.
I need to improve myself and you too.
And the way I'm going to word it
today, for the most sensitive generation of all
time, and that's where we're living. It's the
most sensitive generation. You make one movement of
your eye and they will tell you, you
are emotionally abusing me. Subhanallah. All I did
was I just did this to you.
Living in.
I'm traumatized. Why? Because you showed me an
eye. La Illah Illah.
La Illah Illah. So, yes, we need to
be very loving, very caring. That's our culture.
Look at the prophet Muhammad
He had a connection with children. Why? Because
he used to
want to develop them and help them
to grow as adults. He would greet them
like an adult.
You know, a mistake we make
arguably, but it is a mistake.
We talk to the little ones as though
we are also a little one. So it
delays their growth sometimes.
But if you speak to little children
with proper correct language, they learn it very
quickly. That's why those children who have been
brought up in the midst of a lot
of adults
grow up very quickly.
They learn a lot. They speak a lot
and so on. And those who haven't had
the good fortune of being with so many,
there are pros and cons, I guess, but
they may, it could be that they delay
a little bit. Although nowadays, you have the
screen
that they learn from. Yeah. Have you noticed
a lot of the little children speak in
a cocomelon accent? Yes.
They do. And the parents come from the
subcontinent, they speak in a different accent.
Very clarified accent.
Allah grant us ease.
And the little child speaks proper cocomelon. Masha,
why? Because they've picked something up.
The same would apply. I'm not saying it's
a good thing or a bad thing. I'm
just giving you an example. The same would
apply when you start teaching your children
how to watch the correct channels because you
show an interest in those channels. More and
more of the religious
teachers
are using the internet
in a way that is appealing to the
children so that they can start watching goodness
in these cartoons rather than
that which is futile. Futile means, I'm not
saying it's bad, but it's a waste of
time sometimes.
Did you learn your salah? Did you learn
your prayer? Do you come to the masjid?
Do you speak the truth? Do you help
at home? Do you speak nicely to your
sisters, your brothers? Do you address your parents
with respect? Are you a helpful person?
Sometimes these things they would learn from watching
cartoons that are beneficial.
Cartoons.
Because you didn't have the time. We're all
busy. Dad is at work. Mom is at
work. Sometimes mom is busy doing the chores,
and father is
not even at home sometimes.
Where do the children learn from? Well, from
somewhere. Make sure that that somewhere is something
good because in our tradition, in our culture,
Allah gave us children as a gift. It's
an Amanah. Look after that Amanah. May Allah
bless those without children with children.
And may Allah grant those who have children
that those children become the coolness of their
eyes.
My brothers, my sisters,
as we develop
human as humankind,
we need to be sensitive about those around
us. Every time I open my mouth to
talk to someone,
I need to ask myself, who is the
person I'm speaking to? What do I want
to say?
What have they gone through in their lives?
Because sometimes
it's like a boxer. The first time you
go into the ring or even the gym,
the first time you go to the gym,
it's it's not going to be easy. You
look at people and they are doing all
their reps.
You know, the reps, the repeated exercises
as though they are machines.
Masha Allah. Masha Allah. Masha Allah.
Masha Allah. Subhanallah.
And you start and in 2 minutes you're
already so tired,
And you can't even do anything because you
know what? It's your first day. Come back
again
and then come back again. Force yourself to
come back for 1 whole month. After that,
automatically you will go and there will be
a few other youngsters looking at you.
Now it's the other way around. You see?
But if you don't push yourself for that
1 month,
nothing is going to happen. The same applies
with boxing. You go into the ring. 1st
time you're knocked out maybe
because you don't even know. One punch and,
ah,
I didn't know how hard it was going
to be. Who told you to get him
so soon?
But when you go and practice and you
go again and you go again and you're
changing, when you are 20, 30 days
of practice down the line, you are still
not a professional, but you are trying. If
someone comes and starts laughing at you at
that moment, they are fools because they don't
know where you're heading. You could become a
world champion.
The same applies in religion.
When you see someone struggling, ask yourself,
is this person trying? If they are trying,
they might be slow, very slow, but one
day they will be proper insha Allah in
the deen of Allah.
For as long as they are trying, it's
a good sign. Don't discourage people.
Give people importance. They have so many problems
they are dealing with. In their families, you
don't know what they are going through.
You don't know who talks to them and
how they are waiting for someone to say
a good word to them. And you should
not be another person who speaks bad to
the same person. Make the
difference. You don't know what they are going
through in their lives. Some people have lost
their jobs. They don't know. They are filled.
They are drowning in debt, for example. Some
people have lost family members. They have lost
some health. Some people have been diagnosed with
sickness and so on. And here you come
busy judging them while they are trying to
cry to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. What kind
of tradition are you following? Whose sunnah are
you following? Which Islam are you following?
Are you not going to be compassionate?
Are you not going to think about others?
Are you not going to talk to them
giving them an encouraging word? You know the
prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, he sent
Muadid Nijbal radiAllahu an and Abu Musa al
Ashari to Yemen
to present deen to a group of Christians.
They were not Muslim.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam sent
them and told them what to do and
what not to
do. And in brief,
he said,
That is the cornerstone of calling people towards
good, especially in our day and age.
What is it?
Bashira means give people good news.
Don't chase them away. Give them good glad
tidings.
If you do that, especially in an age
where people are struggling and suffering, you tell
me we're all seated here. Mashallah, we look
so calm and so content. You know why?
This is the house of the owner of
contentment. That's why.
House of Allah. There is an ambiance and
a spirituality and a rohaniyah
in this beautiful masjid
that is not found outside.
It's Allah.
But all of us are going through some
form of issue, problem, examination,
tests, hardship, difficulty, maybe sickness, maybe lost a
loved one. Whatever it might be, we all
have something unique
from Allah.
That is a test and a challenge.
Do you know what? If someone comes to
you and gives you reassuring
news,
will you not take to the message?
You take to it. Don't worry, my brother.
Everything will be okay. Work hard, do your
best. If you fail, no stress. You write
again. Masha Allah. Masha Allah. So long as
you tried hard.
You failed? No problem.
Try again.
Insha'Allah.
You will pass with flying colors by the
will of Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Someone says
you lost your job. No problem. Let's help
you to apply for jobs in 20 different
places.
You went for 1 interview, 2 interviews, 3
interviews, 4 interviews. All of them are coming
back negative. No problem. InshaAllah, the 10th one
that comes will be the right one. Don't
give up at 9 because what happens you
say, look, I went for so many. Now
I'm giving up. But there was just one
more left. It's like the man who was
digging for the gold.
The gold was 100 meters beneath the ground.
And at
10 meters, he said it's too far. 20
meters, I'm tired. 30 meters, he said no
chance. 98 meters, he gave up and went
away. What happened? He was 2 meters away.
Come on. 2 meters away. He just had
to dig a little bit more. This is
what happens in our lives.
So someone asks a question, well when is
it going to happen? I don't know. Allah
knows. But keep going. Keep going. When it
happens, you're going to forget about all the
difficulty, hardship and problem that was in your
path before.
So you don't know the challenges people are
going through. Give a positive message. Bashira walatunafira.
Don't chase people away
with harsh words, harsh tones, with a harsh
style By dooming them, bring them in slowly
but surely.
Be conscious of what they are going through
and the challenges they are facing.
The world is a difficult place to live
in. It's challenging.
Make things easy for people. Don't make it
too difficult.
Don't make things too hard. If the prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam is saying make things
easy for others, who are we to make
things difficult for others?
We cannot.
Don't make things difficult for others.
Now, you can't be a smart jack when
your father is getting you up for salatul
fajr or your mother or your spouse
and you say, come on, make things easy.
Let me just sleep.
No.
That is farab. We're talking about farab and
haram. We don't compromise with those 2.
Something which is compulsory,
I cannot compromise that. You have to get
out of your convenience zone, out of your
comfort zone to do what is the command
of Allah. Whether you like it or you
don't like it, salatul fajr is compulsory. You
must get up. If someone says, have you
done salatul fajr? You say no. You say,
you must do better than that my brother.
Look at how we're wording it.
We must do. Correct. Masha luuk. The young
boy here is correcting me.
That's right. We must. We must do better
than this tomorrow. It's a way of speaking
to people so that they don't feel like
you are preaching down to them. You're preaching
across. Because if you have one thing negative
with you, maybe I have another thing negative
with me or more than one.
That doesn't mean I must not tell you.
I must tell you, but in a nice
way.
Also, when it comes to haram, like I
said, 2 things we don't compromise, far off
and haram. What that means is if something
is far off,
we have no option.
It's not befitting for a believing male or
female that when Allah and his messenger
has dictated something, they then feel that they
have a choice about it. True believers don't
have a choice. They know. If Allah said
it, his messenger said it, they've instructed it,
they made it compulsory, I don't have a
choice. They made it haram. I don't have
a choice.
If something is prohibited, it's prohibited. And if
something is permissible,
it is permissible. Yes. But if it is
compulsory on obligation,
then I won't be able to do anything
about it. I have to hold it exactly
as Allah has held it. So my brothers
and sisters, I pray that we can do
better. I pray that
we can do better. Today, we are sitting
in this beautiful masjid.
I've already spoken for 25 minutes. Do you
believe that?
Do you believe that?
Mashallah.
But I want to tell you as I
will leave here today,
I will leave you with a lot of
love,
a lot of good feeling,
a lot of connection. May Allah grant us
love for his sake
and may Allah help us to let this
connection be a connection of correction.
You know what that means?
May this connection be a connection of correction.
I want to be a better person. You
came to the Masjid and I came to
the same masjid to remind one another about
the owner of the masjid. That's all.
I want to tell you have a better
relationship whether it is tilawah of the Quran,
improving your dress code, watching your language,
improving your
duties unto Allah, your salah, your charities, whatever
it may be, improve it because you will
be asked on the day of judgment what
did you do? You went for a talk,
for example. You heard it. Did you change
something in your life to make it good?
Did you become a better person? Were you
more interested in the deen of Allah? What
is Islam? Islam brings about goodness. It brings
about
amazing character, conduct, beautiful culture and tradition.
It brings about
extremely
beautiful mannerisms and character. That is Islam. And
it brings about a connection
with the owner
of yourselves and myself. Allah who made me
and you. And I'm going to return to
him. That is Allah. So my brothers, my
sisters,
as we leave this evening, let's be courteous
and at the same time let's learn to
help one another. Let's learn
to be the greatest asset. Do you know
I end with a hadith?
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says,
The best of the people,
who are they?
Those who are the most beneficial
to the rest of the people.
Did you hear that?
The best of the people are those who
are the most beneficial to the rest of
the people. How many people have you helped
in your life?
How many have you helped in your life?
The more you have helped, the better a
person you are in the eyes of Allah.
So this world is all about helping people.
That's the hadith. That's what the prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him, has said. Bear that
in mind. Go home. Think about what I
have said, and let's try our best to
enrich ourselves
with this great deen of Allah and this
that we have.
that we have.