Dubai Expo
Mufti Menk – Discovering the Power of Purposeful Living
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses their desire to empower others to see the future and to be a better version of themselves. They emphasize the importance of not apologizing for past mistakes and being focused on one's life. The speaker also emphasizes the need for people to be mindful of their work and not advertise things online. They stress the importance of hard work and dedication to achieve success and the challenges and difficulties of working hard and finding happiness in life.
AI: Summary ©
Salam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatu
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah who Allah Allah He was happy here Jermaine, should I address you as my children or as brothers and sisters?
Mashallah, I'm excited to be here this morning and mashallah Tabata kala seeing the excitement within you makes me even more excited Mashallah.
Mashallah, mashallah
I have a little correction that I'd like to make the brother says, Is there a better speaker? And the answer is yes, there are so many in our midst, perhaps not known yet, but inshallah you will come, and you will be a better speaker, not just than me, but then most of the speakers on the globe, I mean,
I have full faith and conviction in the generations to come. And in all of you that you are going to not only be torchbearers, but you're going to take it on to new levels, inshallah.
And you need to have faith in yourself. Listen, my dearest children, my brothers, my sisters, the love is real. The love is real, we look up to you as much as you think it's supposed to be the other way around, because the future is in your hands. When we've gone, who's going to take over in fact, while we're here, we'd love to see you take over. And we want to place this Amana or the trust that we have, in hands that we would look at and say it is safe.
And that's the reason why we're here this morning, in order to empower one another in order to look to the future with a lot of hope. In a world that sometimes seems a little bit hopeless. My beloved children, my brothers, my sisters, I want to take you back to before you were born.
Where were you? That's a question Where were you before you were born? When I asked the young people, where were you before you were born? They say we were with Allah, we were with our Maker, the answer is correct. But just before you were born, those nine months approximately, where were you?
the wombs of your mothers. We were in the wombs of our mothers, myself included, I want to ask you another question. Do you remember the time that you spent in the wombs of your mothers? If if anyone remembers the time that he or she spent in the womb of his or her mother, please can you get up and come here and tell us about it?
Anyone?
No one. But you know you were there. Because people told you you were there. They saw it. And they came. In fact we were born. I don't remember the day I was born and none of us do. But you were born you came onto this earth, but you don't remember it.
But you know, for a fact you were there. So I want to take you into the womb.
And I want to remind myself as well, of the time that I was there. And the reason I'm doing this is because when speaking about purposeful living, and focus in life, you need to know where you came from. And you need to know where you're heading. And that's when we will be able to focus. So I'm imagining the time the womb of my mother. I was perhaps even smaller than this, right? Smaller than this. And what was I doing? Well, I was enjoying the warmth. I had a lot of this warm, nutritious fluid around me perhaps, or not, perhaps but definitely. And then there came a time when I was just floating around in this womb and I was growing.
I was growing. And as I grew I enjoyed the protection of my mother may Allah bless her and all our mothers and fathers May Allah bless them and give them paradise.
And then as I grew older and joying and to so beautiful, I might have felt Wow, this is
the be all and end all this is it.
I'm so happy here and so comfortable. I couldn't ever have imagined that there was anything besides that.
What I was facing within the womb, that's it. And I enjoyed my time.
My mother took all the knocks on my behalf because anyone who hurt her, I didn't feel it. She felt it. If she didn't eat well, I didn't feel it. She felt him. I took from her whether she ate or not. I don't know the difficulty and trouble that she had but I was enjoying myself.
And as I grew
and became bigger, the space around me became smaller.
I felt
that I was
restricted. Yeah, I felt restricted. And the movements became such that there was a time, perhaps eight months on, when I might have started thinking to myself, what's going to happen? This is all going to come to an end. That's it. I wonder
what I must have thought? Because I don't remember.
But I'm just trying to think now that I'm on this earth, how it must have been.
And there I am, as I feel that, you know, there is no way
that I'm going to go it's the end of everything. Little did I realize that there is a membrane, that is the wall of the womb of my mother, beyond which there is a world out there that I've never imagined, never thought of, perhaps would have never believed existed, had I not been told that this is going to happen.
In fact, at that stage, I wasn't even told. It's only now that we find out Yeah, there was just a thin membrane, you look back, anything you liked, while you were in the womb of your mother did not follow through with you into this world. And when you just about thought it was the end of absolutely everything lost hope in existing, you crossed that membrane into this world that was unimaginable such that when you opened your eyes and your lungs were inflated, you began to cry. And if you didn't cry, guess what?
They spanked you a little bit to make sure you cry, didn't they?
A little child?
Agree?
Yes, that's what happened. And the more we cried, the healthier it was. And then suddenly, we saw the mother in whom we were we were in the womb of this mother. Now we're out. And we're looking at this mother and wow, subhanAllah, I can't even recall the first time I saw my mother. And none of us can, because it's part of the plan of the supreme maker, that we would not be able to remember all of that. He wants us to know that at times you have to believe. And there are two ways. Sometimes they will prove to you that yes, this did happen. And sometimes they will inform you by way of revelation that this is what happens. So from the womb onward. Yes, I know because there is a scan,
and you can physically see but I can't remember a thing and nobody on earth can. And prior to that I do know I existed because my DNA confirms that I come from this lineage. And I come from this place. And I have 10% of Italian and I have 20% of Yemen and I have 50% of Indian and I have so much of this and that your DNA says all this, you know that definitely there is some form of existence prior to the time I was in the womb of my mother.
It's amazing. And then I come onto this earth. And slowly but surely I learned what do I learn. I learned from those around me the Almighty has created love between parents and children to the degree that they can affect each other in a big way.
affect each other in a big way. Our parents have sacrificed so much for us to be where we are today. And surely we owe them minimum. We should not embarrass them intentionally knowing that that's my mother. That's my father. We are taught to be kind to them. When we are kind to them. We listen to what they have to say and take it seriously. There comes a time you might be an adult, you might have clocked 1618, you might be beyond that you might be thinking, Well, my mom and dad are wrong in this particular thing. The Almighty teaches you to be kind to them to engage them respectfully talk to them, because in this world, you will not agree with everyone you're going to interact with.
But it's how you interact. And it's how you communicate. That makes you a splendid human being outstanding. Learn how to talk to people whom perhaps you disagree with completely or you disagree with partially. You don't need to swear them you don't need to insult them. You don't need to abuse them. But you can express your disagreement in a beautiful, polite, respectful way. After all, what do you want?
Wouldn't you like them to agree with your opinion if you firmly believe you're right? And if that's the case, speaking convincingly, we'll bring them over.
But if you were to be irresponsible, what would happen?
You wouldn't be able to fulfill the larger purpose that you were created for. So going back
as you crossed that membrane and came into this world, wow. In this world, you started the journey once again, what's the journey? I find a huge place mashallah, when I was little, I used to look at people older than me and think that they are massive giants. Wow. It's like you're looking up half a kilometer to look at this guy. But it's not the case. As you grew older and taller you feel the first time when I was in high school, and suddenly I had a growth spurt, and I grew taller. And I could see the shoulders and the heads of the people in front of me, I felt like I was a big adult. Mashallah. But just a few years before that, I was so small, I had to look up in order to just try
and see what was in front of me.
That's the plan of the Almighty you grow as you grow older, do not lose focus of where you came from. And that's why the almighty speaks about it in Surah Tada Surah, till in son, two names of the same Surah where Allah Almighty tells us *
in
Mina da lamea
shine
in color is mean no Bofur Allah speaks of how he created us from a seed and the question he asks, he says, has the time not passed or not crossed? Where man was nothing to be mentioned?
You will not existing
sorry
so much for the time all right, Mashallah. You didn't exist at all. So it was impossible. It was impossible to have made to have named you before you came on to Earth. Imagine people say, Okay, I'm going to have three children, their names are going to be Abdullah Meriam. And Abdurrahman done, but you're still a child. How do you know? It might just be something you're hoping to have, but you don't know you're going to have my beloved children, my brothers, my sisters, on earth as we grow and develop, don't lose focus of where you came from. And remember, Allah Almighty has another membrane that we're going to cross one day, when we think that you know what, it's the end of
everything. It would be the beginning of something amazing, even more amazing than what then what you're in right now.
The day I cross a membrane from this world to the next, as a believer, I believe it's going to be an awesome place. An amazing place. I know the Lord I worship is merciful. He is kind, he is beneficent. He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Compassionate, I know that the world out there is not so easy. Sometimes. It makes us hopeless. It makes us lose focus. It makes us drown in bad habits. It makes us lose ourselves to a degree the Almighty says keep coming back. Every time you lose focus. Come back, realign your focus. Remember, we are merciful kind. We want you to prepare for the day, you're going to come back to us. That's what the Almighty wants from us. So whenever you do
something that's not supposed to be done by you, and you know what it is
your turn back to the Almighty
seek forgiveness and have hope in His mercy. There's no chance that he's not merciful. Adam was the first of our species according to us.
And the Almighty told him and his wife Eve or Hawa May peace be upon them.
He says wala tabula rasa, the shadow era
do not go close to this tree.
The forbidden fruit as it were known.
But unfortunately, that was the only instruction he had or the only prohibition and he fell into the exact prohibition. It's like the Almighty says, Don't go close to this tree. And here is Adam. going close to the tree. That's what happened. Why? Because Allah Almighty wanted to show all of us that whenever you've done something you know, you're not supposed to be doing it's not the end of the world.
It doesn't mean you're a bad person, it does not make you evil, the quicker you turn back, the quicker you apologize, the quicker you make amends, the better a person you are, I would make mistakes, you would make mistakes, some of them unintentional, and some of them may be intentional out of human weakness, you're a human being, you're growing up, there are pressures in society and community, there are so many things you see on social media and the internet, that's a lot of pressure, you might end up doing something wrong, we're going to tell you don't, don't be strong. Be careful on your relationships online. Because some people behind the screen are not exactly who you
think they are. So be careful, be focused. But if you have fallen, and you have done something that you're not proud of, or you know, you're not supposed to have done, then my beloved children, my brothers, my sisters, the sooner you realize, and turn back, the better a person you will be, you will be successful in this world and you will be successful in the hereafter the day that you cross the next membrane SubhanAllah.
When we say crossed the next membrane, it makes me smile because I'm convinced that you know what, just the way I came into this world and found it totally unique, completely different. Nothing I ever had, and enjoy it in the womb of my mother Do I even want right now nothing. In the same way, perhaps there will be a hereafter where I don't want anything that I saw on Earth in terms of material items. The Quran teaches us and the Hadith, the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him tell us we have Mala Mala, on Sammy at one Walla Hapa, Allah cul de Bucha. In paradise, there is that which no eyes have ever seen, no ears have ever heard. And it hasn't even crossed the
heart or the mind of a person.
So if you've seen lovely things, in paradise, there's going to be something mind boggling. If you heard of beautiful, amazing, unique things. In paradise, there's going to be something way beyond your imagination.
And think about that membrane today, when you go back, you can think about the membrane I spoke to you about and honestly, it's a brilliant example, because it puts things into focus. People tell you, I don't believe what I can't remember or what and so on What I didn't see, well, there's times when you don't remember a thing, not a thing, but you believe it, you know, they showed you and surely there's there are things beyond that which the Almighty has kept.
So my dear is children, my brothers, my sisters, let's focus. The reason I say let's focus is in order for you to contribute to your families, to your societies, to your community, to the nation and build it beyond what it is.
To the degree that it will wow the globe. You need to be a person who is focused.
Dedicated Yes. It doesn't mean that in order to be focused, you're not allowed to play you're not allowed to enjoy. You're not allowed to have some fun. No, we will have fun. We will ensure that we have fun. I'm sure some of you might have seen me do a few fun things here in Dubai. Have you?
Yes. What did we do? Yes.
Mashallah, yes, the waterboarding Yes, the skydiving Yes. What else? Yes, the powerful jetskiing it doesn't mean that you're not a religious person, or you're not connected to your maker or you're not a good person, you probably just a cool guy. Let's see it. Right.
It could be and you can be cool. And at the same time, you can still be connected to the Almighty, you can enjoy you can earn and earn a lot. And you know what? The sky's the limit. But don't forget to be respectful and connect with your maker. I need to pray. The reason why I need to pray is because one day I'm going to go back to my maker. When I pray, what am I doing? I'm saying oh my maker who made me You are the greatest and I worship you alone. That's what it's all about.
Worship He who made you alone? Surely if I'm going to worship the one who made me who made me? Well, whoever made me, I believe that He is the supreme deity. He is the only one worthy of worship because He created me and I'm going to return to him. So I say, Oh, you whom I'm going to return to have mercy on me. The day that I returned to you help me do the right things. Oh, you who made me, I worship you and you alone. I thank you for giving me whatever you've given me. And I promise you you won't go
Wrong.
As you grow, you'll feel a bit lazy. Sometimes Sometimes you lose focus people say things, you begin to question a few things. It's okay. It's normal, you can question things. You can have a few doubts here and there, it's fine. It's part of growing up. Don't be too hard on yourself to say, You know what, I have a few questions and I don't know, I'm, it's okay. We've all had questions when we were growing up. We've all had a stage perhaps where we were finding ourselves, it's okay. Ask the questions, get the answers. If you're not satisfied with the answers, ask more. Ask a few other people until you are satisfied. But remember, just be focused, be a good person, be kind, reach out
to others, the world is filled with negativity, are you not going to be a force of positivity in the globe that's filled with negativity?
Well, you have to and you should.
And Inshallah, in that way, we would be able to contribute not just to our families and make them proud, and not just to the nation and make it proud, but to humanity at large, you can change the world. Yesterday, I watched a little clip of a young boy who said, I'm going to come up with a cure for cancer.
And he was serious about it, I could tell and I was just smiling, saying, This is what we need people who are so so focused and they believe in themselves.
You know, the little clip that we heard right at the beginning was so beautiful.
Allah loves you, He does love you, you might think I'm going through stress, it's okay. Sometimes the stress is what makes us you know, when you mined gold, and you want to convert this gold, firstly, you want to purify it because when you mined gold, you have to separate it from that which is not gold. And so you apply heat, heat is not an easy thing. But when you apply heat, it is purified, when you apply pressure with the heat, and it is molded and shaped into a jewelry. Wow. When you when you wear a necklace, for example, the necklace looks amazing.
But it's made of gold, say for silver. And it didn't just come from the earth and you just picked it and stuck it on yourself. No, you had to apply heat and pressure. And you had to have precision tools to shape it while it was hot under pressure in order to make it so beautiful. So when the Almighty has within your life chosen for you a little bit of heat, and a little bit of pressure. Remember,
that's what's going to make you into a beautiful, beautiful person so beautiful, that you become the adornment of your own families, you become the adornment of your surroundings, the nation is proud of your achievement, they will acknowledge it. So don't let the few bad days that you had make you think Allah doesn't love me, because he loves you. If you look at the prophets, Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. He was, according to us, the greatest of creation, the most noble of all prophets of Allah, He went through a lot. He was born an orphan. When he was little, he lost his mother. As he grew older, he lost his grandfather, who was looking after him, and so on. So many things happen
to him. Not today. Did he think that Allah doesn't love me? He knew that Allah loves me, that's, that's life. Life is tough. It's not easy. You've got to be strong, you've got to face reality.
And with that, be focused.
Focus on your path, the path that will lead you to the hereafter. So I need to be honest and upright, not just because that's what I was taught by my folks. But that's a requirement of my maker. I also need to stand steadfast, I need to understand what is revelation, you go back and look at the revelation over time, and you will find the almighty always sent us a guide. When we say torchbearers, the first of all of them was Adam, may peace be on him. He taught his children and they taught their children. And then we have the others coming one after the other. The Prophet Noah came through he taught the same thing, worship your maker alone. Later on you have you other
prophets, Abraham came through May peace be on him. He taught the same thing. Worship your maker alone. You have his children, his grandchildren, you have Jacob you have Joseph Yusuf alayhi salam, Yaakov Allah He salaam, his father and so many others that followed Musa alayhis salam, the Prophet Moses, may peace be on him. Jesus may peace be on him and the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. All of them said, worship your maker alone. That's what they said.
And so those who understand those who realized, you know what I owe this to my maker, they develop themselves they become responsible. There is a day known as the day of reckoning, when the Almighty is going to ask us what we did on Earth.
Yes, it's a tough day. I know just like when you have examinations here in this world.
It's not an easy day, the day you write exams, I want to pause for a moment and make a prayer for all of you. May Allah make everything easy for you. Every time you write exams, may they be easy, may you have studied the right things so that you can actually clock it with all A's just say amen.
Because at the end of the day, even if you don't clock the A, at least you did well, mashallah, you know, work hard, you can't just achieve without working. You can't just come about and say,
tomorrow's the exam, okay, I'm spending all night studying. But what were you doing all along? SubhanAllah? It happens, right?
It happens to a lot of us. I think when I was young at university, I did the same sometimes here I am guilty of telling you not to do it. But in actual fact, it's a fact. Many of us when we're young, we're lazy. And then when the exam has come the night before, you're all night awake, Mashallah. And you come the following morning, and you have sleeping, and when it says one plus one, the other the one looks a bit like 11. So you write 12, without knowing it's just one plus one, but because you didn't sleep you seeing double Subhanallah it's better that you sleep for a moment, Inshallah, and you have a good rest, you stretch your work out through the term, and work hard. Help one another.
The world has become so selfish, that everyone wants to live for themselves. I'm thinking about myself and me alone. And that's it. I don't care what others are doing and what they're in. That's not a focused person that's not a torch bearer. A torch bearer is one holding a torch that is shining bright that gives light to everyone else. And at the same time handing it over to others when it is the correct time. to hand it over to others. I can't remain upon this forever. I need to give it to others. When I walked in, they gave me a torch.
And it says torchbearers
and I did that, and wow. I said, Okay, that's good. And then it started flashing. And when it starts flashing, I said, this is now the 21st century, the boys will go
it's flashing right? There it goes. And then suddenly, we saw such a big light. And I said, Maybe I should just have this in front of me. So you can see my face. They said, it's gonna be dark in here. Mashallah.
But the idea of this, it's literally a torch.
And it says torch bearers.
It lights the way you're supposed to navigate through the path in the darkness that the world has come up with, at times, or you need the torch, what is it? It is the guidance sent to you by the Almighty focus on what your parents have taught you? Because they're not always wrong. Sometimes you are wrong. And sometimes you don't realize it, maybe later on. When we when I was young, there were certain things I didn't really agree with my parents, but they were right. But guess when I found out when I became a parent, too late, a little bit too late. And I'm sure some of my kids must be thinking, Well, you're wrong on this, and you don't What if I'm right, maybe 20 years later, they're
gonna say, Dad was right. He was right. Now that I'm a dad, I understand what it is. My brothers, my sisters, my beloved children, we have an opportunity like this, to be motivated to do the right thing. Don't ever think for a moment. Don't ever think for a moment that you are not able to achieve. Each one of us has been blessed uniquely.
Each one of us has been blessed uniquely in an amazing way. If I am an expert in something, you are definitely gifted in something, either the same or different, but you have a gift. You just need to navigate through your life and find out what is it one day you will definitely succeed. Be patient. Why do I say Be patient? There was a young man
who answered a question once. What do you want to be he says I want to be a millionaire. I think we all want to be millionaires, right? Inshallah
I didn't hear so many means that it's a good thing and it's a bad thing.
So they asked him well, what do you want to become? He says, I want to become a thief. A thief. A thief. Are you okay in your mind? That goes to show that no one has focused on this child to teach him you know what? You want to be wealthy but if you're going to pinch you
Don't you have perhaps maybe the million no more than a million, but you're going to spend time behind bars? What's the point? You're going to spend your time behind bars, you're going to be in the prison talking to the inmates and I'm a millionaire. Well, we're, we're your millions are they took them back. But anyway, it's fine. I'm still a millionaire. What's the point? You cannot do something illegal to succeed? Not at all. You need to make sure that you understand it's hard work, you will achieve the million you will achieve more than that. It's hard work. I want to end by telling you two things. Because obviously, there are other speakers Inshallah, number one, when you
see what others have, don't let it make you one tip by hook and crook, which means by all means, hook or crook, I want this That's it. No, no, no, no, no, the Almighty may have chosen you for something else. If someone has something, just say Mashallah. Tabarrok Allah Alhamdulillah Allahumma barik. May Allah bless them, Allah grant them goodness, I'm so happy and delighted. May Allah bless me as well, you might have something better than them. Many times, and we're living in the age of social media, people lose focus, because they're watching things online. All of us see things, I see things online, and I am sometimes wowed by something that doesn't exist. Because why? It's either a
video that's just made, or it's photoshopped, or it's just created, and it's not real.
But unfortunately, we think it's so real. And we're like, oh, wow, you know, you know, when they advertise some things online, they show you a product, and they pretend like it does things that it does not really do. And then when you buy it, and you say what's going on here, man, this thing doesn't even do what it's supposed to be doing? Well, they just had good marketing skills, didn't they? They marketed it for you. In actual fact, they deceived you.
When we do marketing, super marketing is to tell people exactly what you have. Yes, you may want to make it attractive, but don't lie about it. Because the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him says, when you are open about the product that you're selling, and you're honest, then you definitely will have blessings in the deal. But if you're not honest, and you're cheating and deceiving people, no, this is like this and you know, it's not like that, then you're not going to achieve so the point I wanted to make is don't be deceived by everything you see online and don't just want everything because sometimes the Almighty has not given you certain things because he's blessed you in a
different way.
So thankfully, almighty work towards what you want to achieve work hard, work very hard. If I'm standing here in front of you today, it's a combination of the blessings of the Almighty coupled with very hard work and dedication. If I were to tell you that I flew in from a very long flight just two hours before coming into here. Would you believe me? Wow.
Are they saying yes? Is that not hard work without hard work you're not going to achieve people say are you sure you're going to manage we will manage why not? Subhanallah if I stayed awake all night for my exams when I was little, do you not think I will manage to speak to such beautiful faces and such lovely people having stayed awake all night? No problem, Masha, Allah is going to happen. We will do well, may Allah bless you all. I'm just trying to show you that what hard work you will achieve. Don't just be lazy. Sit back and think Nah, I'll do it tomorrow. And that's it. And you know, it's okay. That's point number one. The last thing I'd like to say.
Remember,
the Almighty has blessed you. He's blessed you in so many ways. The things that may have gone wrong in your life or that have gone wrong or will go wrong in the future are limited. Very few things. Very few things, but the blessings the Almighty has granted you are so many that they are innumerable you will not be able to count them you cannot count what the Almighty is favorite you will today I'm sitting here looking at you and you're looking at me Mashallah. These eyes, the noses we have the health we have the ability to sit and so much more we if we were to count, we would never be able to count the favors of Allah. We
do need met Allah healer too soon. If you are going to try to count the favors of Allah you will never be able to count them all.
But the challenges, the difficulties, the hardships, you can count them. You can definitely count them they are a few. So do not become despondent. If I ask you tell me what's gone wrong in your life. I promise you you will count 123456 things. I promise you, you won't count more than just a few things. If I say what's gone wrong in your life, it's a few things but we become so lost. And we lose focus just because of those few things.
ings, be strong, be strong. Get up, try again work hard, a matter of time everything will come right by the will of Allah subhanho wa taala. My children, my brothers, my sisters, we have hope in you, the future is bright, the future is very bright because we see children who are focused by the will of Allah. torchbearers in a way that when we get into the new age, we will be seeing tremendous growth, not just infrastructural, not just amazing roads and beautiful cars that fly in the, you know, in the air SubhanAllah. I'm sure you guys are going to come up with all of this, right? You're going to develop it. But together with that lovely, beautiful human beings who are focused on the
fact that they are going to return to their maker in the most beautiful way. The day I go back to my maker, I'm convinced that it's going to be an amazing, awesome, beautiful day. The reason is, I've tried hard we believe
I seek forgiveness and I constantly seek it and I've sought it wherever I've gone wrong. And I know the Almighty loves those
who turned to him and we seek forgiveness. Apologize wherever they've done wrong. Allah loves those who turn back to him. May Allah grant us a good return and a good turning. And I pray that the few words I've said would help us all focus starting with me, and then every one of us I mean, I mean, once again, lovely to have spoken to you guys and inshallah we hope to see more of you a little bit later, as salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah Baraka