Greater than your issues!

Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

my brothers my sisters, we start off saying Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim in the name of Allah The most Gracious, the Most Merciful Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah who Allah Allah, he was happy at your mind. I am delighted to see the faces beaming and as we entered mashallah, every one of you had such a lovely smile, maybe you didn't notice that, Mashallah. But I did. And may Allah subhanahu wa taala bless every one of us, grant us goodness and Baraka, blessings, success in this world and the next, I want to tell you in your lives and in my life, one of the favors of Allah is that he places in our lives, hardship and difficulty. You might be wondering, how is that a favor of

Allah? Well, he tells us,

through the blessed blips of Muhammad peace be upon him.

In Allah either I have bad but Danny but Allah when Allah loves a slave of his, he tests him with hardship,

with some form of tests,

every evidence of it goes all the way back to Adam May peace be on him. You name for me, no matter what religion you belong to. Name for me. Those whom you believe were chosen by Allah. As Muslims, we would start off with the name Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam May peace be upon him, am I right?

Well look at his life and see, did he have any challenges in his life? For me, he was the chosen by Allah to be the best of creation, the most noble of all prophets. The Christians might say, Jesus may peace be upon him. The Jews might say Moses May peace be upon him. Others might mention other names, may peace be upon the messengers, all of them. Take a look at their lives one by one, you will notice one thing in common they went through challenge upon challenge, because they were the closest to Allah subhanho wa taala. It's impossible to have come on to this earth and not have hardship. So what does Allah do for you and die, he shows us how to navigate through these

challenges when you listen, when you obey when you try your best to understand even though the plan of the Almighty is known by Him alone, but we surrender to his decree this morning, I got a call from someone telling me they wanted to marry a specific person. And they've been trying very hard for the last two years. But the parents on one side are hell bent on denying it. I said, My beloved sister, you need to set yourself a deadline and move on there another 2 billion men looking at you and saying I wish I had this system.

She says What do you mean? I love this guy the most in the world. I'm ready to sacrifice my life for him. I said, Don't say that. Don't say that. Because you might just have an amine and that DUA and you might end up never being married, yet there were people better than him that you just were blinded. Couldn't see. Hi. She didn't like the advice. But if you don't want to move on, it's you who paid the price. If you don't want to move on, it's not the end of the world. There's not just one person I've always said when you get married, yes, this one person has I close my eyes and bear and I will sacrifice and work towards and do whatever. Unless something really toxic happens. I'm

going to make sure this thing works. But before that, you're not yet married. People can create obstacles do you know as Muslims we have a supplication known as dua of istikhara. seeking the help of Allah and His guidance when I am slightly confused.

That supplication the Companions say the Prophet peace be upon him used to teach them in a similar fashion that he used to teach them verses of the Quran. What does it say? It says, Oh Allah, if whatever I'm trying to achieve or do is good for me make it easy for me facilitate it for me, then give me blessings in it. And Oh Allah, if whatever I'm trying to do or achieve is bad for me in my future, my religion, my faith, my deed, my livelihood, my whatever my hereafter block it Stop it, chase me away or move me away from it and move it away from me and then make me happy.

Make me surrender make me accept what you've decreed for me. Wow. Have you ever known that that is the meaning of the DUA you make the supplication and people say I did this the Hara.

If I had a dream I saw green in all my dreams, which is supposed to be like a traffic light green means go right

now, come on now, come on, did you say oh Allah if this is good for me show me a dream with green. Did you say that? Not at all? Oh Allah if this is good for me, show me a dream where I'm carrying roses a bouquet of roses. No, you didn't say that. You said Oh Allah, if it's good for me facilitate, make it happen. Make it easy. People will say Oh, wow, mashallah, all the doors are opening one after the other. And if it is not good for me blockage, stop it. Turn me away, turn it away. You don't know what's going to happen in your future. You don't know if this is good for you or not? It might seem good right now. But Allah knows the future. So you make the dua of his Tahara.

And you're asking Allah to block something. If it is blocked, what do you do? You said, Oh, Allah, in that case, make it easy for me to surrender to your decree and to move on.

That's what you said. So I'm here to tell you sometimes that has to happen. You have to learn to move on in life. You have to learn sometimes with the hurt and the feeling, yes, it's painful, but you're not the first person going through this, and you won't be the last. In fact, when it comes to marriage, guess what we've all been through that including myself where we desperately wanted to marry a particular person. And we couldn't guess what

Allah gave us better. How's that? With all due respect to whoever it may have been? You might be curious.

But it is you have to believe what Allah does is better for you.

They may be better for someone else. Allah knows. The difficulty is with us. We have a challenge. We don't realize Allah put it in your path. I've had people say, Well, why did Allah let our lives our paths cross if it wasn't meant to be in order to test you, in order for you to have the challenges one after the other, in order for you to be sure to be able to shine by the Polish?

of sub bearing patience, and accepting the decree of Allah is also part of Subak you know why?

Because Allah wants to beautify you by Helping you surrender to something unique, which is I've just been denied something my heart desired.

I've just been denied something my heart desired, by whom? By the Lord of the worlds so what do you do surrender and say, Oh, Allah, if you denied it Alhamdulillah I crossed paths in order for me to be tested with denial. Give you another example. Someone comes and says, My esta Hara was positive, but that person is Tahara was negative. How can it have been a clash? Maybe those angels were from America and these ones from Australia.

That's not how it works.

That's not how it works. There's no clash there. Not at all. It's blocked. That's it. That's the response of your istikhara. And sometimes maybe one person might feel okay, everything is okay on my side, and the other one says, It's not okay. On my side, perhaps you might have again, had to go through rejection, another big issue. It was facilitated, everything went smooth mashallah the wedding happened, everything else happened and mashallah, we're now sitting with a huge crisis, because we're on the verge of divorce.

Then you come to the *hole, whoever else it may be and say, How come this marriage is going wrong, but the istikhara was so positive on both sides.

Then you go back to the meaning of the same two, did you say Oh, Allah, if the marriage is going to work, then let it be, you didn't say that. You said, Oh Allah, if it is better for me my deep meaning my faith, my religion, my worldly life, and my future, my akhira, it will end it will help me to end up in Jannah in paradise then facilitated for me, so it was better for you to go through a divorce perhaps.

And let's not become ugly when we go through divorce. Because if you think the marriage was hard, being divorced is even more difficult.

But sometimes it's the right thing to do. doesn't make you a bad person. You have to pick up the pieces as painful as it may be. And you have to keep going. That's life. That's the nature of this life. Keep going. You lost the job keep applying. One brother told me

while I've applied I've applied I've applied so much I should just keep applying. This is better. I've applied maybe 35 jobs to just keep applying. Two years later he tells me now he says brother I got a dream job. How many applications he said I don't even know I lost count. One day goes. When you give up. It is given up

For as long as you haven't given up, it keeps going until the day you go back to Allah. So let's go back to what I was saying, Look at Jesus made peace be upon him struggle upon struggle, challenge upon challenge. Look at the Romans trying to attack him. Look at what they did at the end. Look at what they tried to do. When Allah raised him.

Subhanallah look at Musa Moses May peace be upon him. What happened one after the other from birth, he was already born, according to the pharaoh, a criminal, right? Born, how many of us we were born in a family and people already hate us. Why? Because I was born in this family, but I'm supposed to be innocent. I'm just born, I'm am crying and you don't know. Those people are already saying, Wait, you just watch this child, I'm gonna fix him up. But I'm only just born that happens it has happened to those better than you. If it is happening to you right now. Allah has chosen you. But you know what? Keep going. Keep going. Thank Allah, he's your Lord.

If you saw a comment of mine yesterday or the day before, online, with someone really had a go at me. And I said, I think Allah You're not my lord. It's Allah. That's it. You can say what you want the real judges Allah.

You don't butter my bread by the way.

It's a fact, the minute we get too worried about what people are going to say, and what's going and I need to have exactly what I've decided I'm going to have, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen a lot of the times it may, how many times you have had what you want to this so much, but you didn't notice it because we only notice what we did not get.

We only notice what we did not get so take it in your stripe, thank Allah, thank Allah a million times keep thanking him, you know why? La Chicago, he done. He says, When you're thankful for what we've given you, we give you more and more we increase you increase you in what in our favor. Part of the favor of Allah is to help you acknowledge within yourself over a short span of time that actually what Allah did for me was a blessing.

You realize it later. Allah did not allow me to have X, Y and Zed because you know what the A, B and C that I got five years later, far better than the X Y Zed that I was crying for? That's Allah, but he favors you by having the understanding. Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when he was born, he didn't have a father. His father had pre deceased him his birth right. As he came out of his infancy, he lost his mother, as a child.

lost his mother a little while later, his grandfather who decided to take care of him also passed away. Imagine one after the other, one after the other. What happened? That was the chosen by Allah as the greatest we should not be saying his name without sallallahu alayhi wa sallam peace be upon him next to that name that he went through struggles way beyond yours and mine.

This evening, I want to invite you to something amazing. I want to call you towards something really powerful. We all have challenges I do as well. We have problems I do as well.

What are these problems you have health matters every year, twice, thrice more or less. You have a health matter you will have a flu seasonal they call it a seasonal flu. Nobody on earth has perfect health. Nobody can say I've never ever had a single problem with my health every human being has had issues small or big that's a different thing. But you've had them

sneeze What else then you start feeling a bit of a headache what else sinuses then what else? Sometimes it goes well sometimes it gets better from that point. Sometimes as you feel you picking something you know what needs to be done so you do it so you feel a bit better but what happened it came didn't didn't come in your direction. So every year you will have a health matter sometimes you will have financial issues as well he as you may be you could slide quicker than those who probably don't have much it can be it's okay it has happened.

What else

you may be struggling in your faith because the challenges of the globe it's possible. You're not the first one don't think you're rejected by Allah. You're not. You're just going through struggles.

People struggle with their faith. They come out a few years later, a few days later, some time later, stronger than they ever were before. But Allah creates situations in your lives and mine to help us come out of these things. Sometimes negativity happens. What happened as a result we became better Muslims. We became people who were acquainted with Allah in a better way as a result of war.

That's as a result of something that would have otherwise led us to suicidal thoughts. May Allah protect all of us.

So if you're struggling with something, please go easy on yourself.

But remedied, remedied. Oh, easy on yourself. The reason I say this, many people tend to lose faith simply because they think they've hit rock bottom. And now there's nothing to be done.

That's the end. It's not the end, Allah decides when the end is for you. Let me tell you what I wanted to say the most powerful piece of advice for this evening starting with myself.

What do you think it is?

We're believers, right?

Let me tell you, your five daily prayers,

hold on to them.

Work on them.

Your five daily prayers, work on them, become strong on them, and see the miracles that start happening in your life will lie, I want to share with you something you may not have realized.

You see, the World Cup happened recently, right?

They had their way of showing what Islam is all about what the culture is all about and so on, which was a good thing.

Part of it was that so many people were exposed to the event. And what is the Adana? It's the call to prayer? How many times is it called, it's called five times a day. And then you get to the masjid, which is the the prayer place. And then just before the Imam starts, there is almost repetition of the words of the event in something known as a timer, which means just when the Imam is about to commence, they say those words again. Those words one brother asks, What exactly does it mean? Because he says, we hear melodious Advan I'm sure all of us we recognize Maccha Advan beautiful event. We're all attracted to beautiful Adhan everyone, even the non Muslims by the way,

when they hear the event, Allahu Akbar Allah Allah, Allah.

thunk,

thunk about, it just rings, not just a is but the heart, the soul is move. You know what you're saying? So one brother asks, What is this? What does it mean? I want to know the exact meaning.

You know what it means? Maybe you haven't realized?

What's the meaning of Allahu Akbar? Can someone say to me?

Allah is the great test, right? In actual fact, if you look at the Arabic language, the term Akbar is superlative. It refers to greater, greater, we to make it easy, we just say Allah is the Greatest meaning greater than everything. But if you look at those words, the exact meaning is Allah is greater. Because if you were to say Allahu Akbar, it is the greatest, but without the loop in the middle, if you say Allahu Akbar, which is what it is, it means Allah is greater.

Allah is greater. So we're actually,

you know, saying out loudly, Allah is greater, greater than what? What you're calling me towards prayer.

And you're saying to me, at the beginning of the call to prayer,

Allah is greater than whatever you're doing. Allah is greater than anything you're going through right now. Allah is greater than your business that you might be busy with right now. Allah is greater than the family and whatever you might be busy with right now. So therefore drop everything and come and pray now.

How's that?

Allah is greater than your matters. Allah is greater than the whatever you think you're going through right now. It's the time for prayer. So come through, listen to the rest of the words. I'm going to go through them very quickly, without saying them in the Arabic but it just translating and explaining Allah is greater than anything you're doing right now. So drop it and come to prayer. First thing is Allahu Akbar, when you say, I bear witness that Allah there is none worthy of worship besides Him, besides Allah, to Allah, Allah and Allah. So if you really bear witness that there is none worthy of worship besides Allah, you will believe that Allah is greater than your issue. You

stop whatever you're doing and you go to pray and come back.

And if you believe there is none worthy of worship besides Allah, you believe that the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him brought the message

of Allah to you, then you will also immediately believe Allah is greater than what ever I'm doing right now drop it and go and pray, see?

And thereafter, what do we say, come to pray, hey Allah Salah come to pray,

come to pray,

Allah is greater

Come to success, the ultimate success, it might not be exactly as you think, or I think it might not be exactly what I want. But I know ultimately, if I have this particular thing in my life, I will succeed. I asked you today what is true success, tell me if I have the whole world, but I don't have the connection with Allah have I succeeded? You answered, If I have nothing or very little, but I have a beautiful connection with my maker, it gives me contentment. It gives me contentment. It's a condition within you of the heart, the soul, the mind, the body put together and content. And he gives me the success of the Hereafter which is eternal. So even if I don't have much, I have got

something that is considered success.

And that's why immediately after saying the call to success, you know, come to prayer, Come to success. We repeat again immediately after that Allah is greater. Allah is greater. Indeed, there is none worthy of worship besides him.

That's the call to prayer. If it has been

made mandatory for us

to call the call to prayer five times a day. Do you really think they can be anything more powerful? Five times a day, you're being told Allah is greater Don't forget that. I'm busy sleeping early morning for Fudger I said this in JAMA today, I'm busy sleeping early morning for Fudger it's not so easy because we've had a late night and you know what, it's been difficult and whatever else I tell you what Allah is greater think of the meaning of it Allahu Akbar, greater than what greater than your sleep. Get up. Oh, I need to have a shower. And it's Allah is greater than what the feeling that you have right now. Subhan Allah.

Allah is greater than your problems. Some people when they have problems, they become stressed human beings, we will get a bit depressed. Sometimes we feel a little bit low. Sometimes we don't want to talk to people. Sometimes we don't want to interact. We don't want to eat sometimes I tell you what Allah is greater than what? Whatever you're going through right now. Just get up and push yourself. Why success. Success. The Lord of the Worlds is telling you come to success and want to succeed. I'm not I will know if that Lord of the Worlds has not allowed me to have something. I will consider it part of my success, even though I wanted it. The fact that he blocked it is part of my success. Why?

Because I believed in his call Come to success. And I worked on my prayer. And I prayed five times a day.

So this evening, I want to say no matter what you're going through your struggles, no matter what it is, please work on your prayer.

If you're not praying at all, at least start if you're praying some and not others, do better. You can. If you feel and so we can so far, that Shaban

Allah will give you the strength.

Allah is closer than you think he is. Don't give up. Don't give up no matter what.

Because ultimately, life is full of challenges. People say when will these challenges come to an end? Things are getting worse. I'm worried I'm worried about the world. What will happen to my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Worry about yourself. Do you know what?

Our great grandparents worried about us? Probably. Where are we?

Where are we? We have mobile phones they didn't write? We have social media. They didn't we sitting here just about to have a munch mashallah

May Allah bless them all those who had a concern for us. It's correct to have a concern. It's correct to work towards but there's a limited amount you can do the rest you have to leave in the hands of Allah, your own children, your own children. There's a limited amount you can do you guide them, you talk to them, you try with them. But beyond that, what are you going to do? You can't beat them into submission? No way. You've got to understand sometimes they may take time to come to where perhaps you would have felt would be ideal for them. Sometimes they may not come exactly then sometimes they may go beyond your expectations right. May Allah bless and grant goodness all of us

attend you

as you pray, and as you're improving and developing,

continue to supplicate and make dua call out to Allah. That's why, together with that call to success, part of the Salah

is a certain Surah of the Quran

that the Salah is not complete without what's the name of that Surah

Al Fatiha

so that will fatty how we would know it off by heart.

And for those who might be new to Islam, they would have to learn it at some point early on.

We say it Alhamdulillah here have been al Amin Rahmani Raheem, Maliki and with me, Dean II cannot be doing what he can a stallion, a dino slop almost ducking. It goes on. But I just want to translate that for a reason. We say All Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds we're declaring that he is the Lord of the Worlds.

And immediately after that we're saying

most merciful, most Beneficent, most Beneficent, most merciful, most merciful, Most Merciful R Rahman r Rahim, two types of Mercy one is broad for everyone and everything. And the other one is a specialized one for believers.

Why the Mercy of Allah,

there was a call to prayer, where Allah promises you that he is and we know when we believe he is greater than anything and everything we might be going through, as I just said, we believe that this call is a call to success. And at the same time, Allah is telling you no matter how down you are in the dumps, remember, your faith is based on the mercy of Allah. So he has chosen the two greatest qualities of his to be those that are right at the beginning of the Quran, and to be repeated every unit of prayer. Your Prayer is not valid without saying, Oh Allah, you are the most merciful, most forgiving or most Beneficent, because he wants to highlight that for you. He's merciful. Don't ever

think I'm too far what I've done, people will judge you, people look at you and they already think, look at this person. Don't worry, they don't know, your relation with Allah is such that sometimes those who look pious may not actually be so behind closed doors. Right? And sometimes people who may appear that they might not be so close to a human being might be so close to Allah. You never know. That Don't worry what people say. Like I said, Thank Allah, He is the one who owns heaven. And hell, because if it was in the hands of anyone else, I promise you,

everyone would deny the other a spot in heaven.

Right?

So if Allah is telling you a Rahmani Raheem, right at the beginning of the Quran, the second verse, the second verse, the first one says that hamdulillah All praise is due to Allah Who is Lord of the worlds but guess who he is. He is a rock man.

He is the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. And you know who else he is? He is the Owner of the Day of Judgment, he will judge me not you and not that guy and not those people and not the comments on line and nothing else. It's Allah who will judge me hence he says Maliki yo me deep. He is the Owner of the Day when judgment shall be happening. Allahu Akbar. Don't be let down. Don't pin that down by what people say. They're judgmental statements mean nothing.

And that's why immediately after that, we say,

a year cannot go do what you can sustain you alone. We worship you alone we seek help from and then we make the first supplication in a Serrata monster can guide us to the straight path guide as to what to the straight path.

So keep calling out to Allah Oh Allah guide me to the straight path Oh Allah strengthen me to do the right thing. Even if you're weak, even if you have bad habits even if you're addicted to something that's unacceptable in the eyes of Allah as you're working to quit it and to leave it keep asking Allah Oh Allah guide me strengthen me protect me even if you're you just did haram say oh Allah protect me from this haram. Oh Allah take me out of it. Keep repeating it and keep trying a day will come you will never regret you will never regret trust me you won't regret it. Have good company, have good friends and inshallah see what happens. Allah subhanho wa Taala is indeed most forgiving,

Most Merciful. So this the message this evening

it's exactly how

By now since I started

the message this evening is about two things.

Number one, work on your prayer. You won't go wrong, you know what its ultimate success. Tell yourself every time you being lazy, Allah is greater than whatever I'm busy with right now. Stop it and go in pray. Even if you start with Farah, that's which compulsory initially. And then you can work on a little bit more later.

But don't give up. Build, if you're doing three out of five, go into four go into five Inshallah, if you're weak, start somewhere. But pray, I promise you, it will change your life, your problems will be diminished. I'm not saying they will be solved, but they will become small, you will actually tell yourself I can't believe I used to consider this a problem. It's not even a problem. Subhanallah

and the second thing, the second thing,

keep calling out to Allah, keep asking him. Don't be tired of asking Allah. Allah loves it when you repeat and repeat, and keep going. Even if it took 10 years, I promise you. It's coming, success and victory. Ultimately, it's all yours for as long as you have Allah by your side. May Allah make it easy for every one of us, every one of you. May Allah Almighty grant every one of us goodness and open the doors of ease for those who are struggling with any difficulty across the globe. And in sha Allah, I pray that we meet again sometime in a better condition and not in a worse off condition or colloquially, or sal Allahu wa salam ala Nabina Muhammad