Mufti Menk – Final Words of Wisdom

Can you give us some closing words of

advice on perhaps the topics that we've covered

or any other topic you feel fit?

You know, you're speaking about motivation. I wanna

tell you, we studied the deen of Allah.

And this advice goes to those who are

studying Islam

and studying the Sharia, the deen, the Quran,

the Hadith.

When you're studying, you have a teacher sitting

in front of you that you literally look

up to, you take from, and so on.

But when you graduate,

there's gonna be a few 1,000 people,

similar time or in the same year, maybe

tens of thousands

who would also have graduated having learnt

the deen of Allah

or Islam or the Quran and the Sunnah.

Everyone is not going to specialize

in the same thing your teacher did. So

you're not gonna get everyone sitting and teaching

the way your teacher taught. That doesn't make

them wrong.

We should be specializing in different departments of

service to this

Umma and to humanity at large for the

sake of Allah. When I graduated initially,

September 11 happened.

2 years later, 2,001.

And I remember the amount of hate that

was directed towards the Muslims and the skepticism

with which they were looked at. It prodded

me to

this

powerful idea

that I want to reach out to those

who hate Islam

and make them

prove to them that it's actually a brilliant

religion. It has beautiful teachings. It's not terrorism.

It's not hate. It's not abuse. It's actually

it has the highest level of morals and

values, and it reaches out the most to

everyone. So I started specializing

in reaching out to haters.

I worded whatever I did in a way

that would actually be palatable to them. They

would see a guy with a nice big

beard because I would put a picture of

myself and I'd say a word or 2.

That was the beginning of social media

like Facebook and all of that. And a

few years later more and more,

you know of social media came about.

And every time I kept focus that I'm

aiming at those who hate Islam

and I'm aiming at those who are not

Muslim. And then I'm aiming at those who

are weaker Muslims

to let them feel that you are also

loved by Allah. You are fortunate that you're

a Muslim. Islam is a beautiful faith. It's

not whatever your challenges may have been that

distanced you from your Lord. Don't let that

actually distance you. Come back. Come slowly but

surely your own pace. Don't let the words

of people make you feel judged. So this

was a specialization

I felt at that time there was relatively

a vacuum in.

And so when I did this and I

felt a lot of

positivity came out of it, I saw haters

move.

I saw haters move from hate to acknowledgement.

They'll say, I'm not a Muslim but I

listen to this guy.

That's because we aimed at you from 2,001.

That's why. And we're sitting at 2024

and you At least you appreciate guidance is

not in my hands

but guidance is in the hands of Allah.

From among them many

turned to Islam.

There are so many who were not Muslim,

who actually appreciated Islam. They came and and

some of them crossed over. Not some, a

lot crossed over. So many weak Muslims began

to feel that in actual fact Allah loves

us. I'm a decent Muslim. I'm a good

person. I have goodness. Let me work on

my goodness, improve it. Let me eradicate my

weakness.

That doesn't make me a deviant. I did

something.

I did something that I felt

was part of my duty and I still

do it to this day.

And I still appreciate others who have a

different approach. I appreciate the guy who's in

the madrasa teaching alif and ba. I appreciate

the the lady teachers who are teaching the

women the rules of menstruation and so on.

Because you know what? Everyone's doing a good

job. I appreciate those who say TV and

photography and all that is prohibited. I appreciate

you. But you know what? You got to

appreciate us too because we're also covering ground

that perhaps you don't even know exists at

times.

We're treading territory that some people have never

thought of.

So this is why when you say that

you know what,

you've there's been a lot of motivation about

Yeah. Some people say this guy is not

a scholar, he's a motivational speaker. I don't

mind. Say what you want. I know what

I'm doing. I don't need to sit and

teach the dars just the way your Ustad

did. I don't need to do that at

all.

I know I did at some point, but

that doesn't make me a person who doesn't

know what he's doing. Who knows? I might

know a little bit more than you do

regarding what I'm doing.

So may Allah make it easy. I tend

to, you know,

in fact the theme of this particular

'Abdullah Aid,

event is healing the Ummah.

Healing the Ummah. This is part of healing

the Ummah, where you reach out to them,

you bring them in. The people who feel

broken, we are here.

You go back to my Twitter for example.

I changed the description of who I am

and what we're supposed to say. Say healing

the broken heart. Have you guys seen that?

The reason is that's exactly what we're trying

to do. People are living with broken hearts.

What's going on in life? Everything negative. We

are here to help you heal

and we're a part of you. We also

feel broken at times. We're human. A few

moments ago someone was saying and they asked

a question, I can't get married. Can I

can I never get married? And I wanted

to say exactly what, Sheikh Adnan said. That

you know what? The mere fact that you

are trying is such a big act of

worship. So keep trying.

When you're rejected,

how you process rejection is an act of

worship.

When you feel let down, how you process

all of that is an act of worship.

You know, some people develop an attachment with

someone who's shown an interest in them and

they're so excited I'm gonna get married to

this person. And suddenly that person pulls the

plug on them and they find they're depressed.

You know what?

That's because you let a little bit too

much of you

have a little bit more hope than you

were supposed to have. And suddenly when it

comes crashing, you're a human. You're gonna feel

broken. We're here to tell you, do you

know what? It's not too late. Let's plug

in. Let's come with Allah. Let's concentrate on

better things. What did I say earlier? It's

not only about

it's not only about

your faith in Allah, but together with that,

it's also about

the concern of your physical well-being.

I said eat well, sleep well. Put your

phone away like Sheikh Ibrahim says, put your

phone away. Sleep well on time. Be disciplined

and exercise well. If you have to go

to the gym and burn those calories and

do what you have to, it will change

your

life inshallah.

May Allah Almighty

make us people who are very balanced, holistic,

who can appreciate the deen and the dunya,

who can appreciate,

you know, the spiritual

side of growth, the physical growth, the mental

growth and all of that together. Because many

times people concentrate on 1

and not the other, and that's where we

go wrong. May Allah forgive us all.