Mufti Menk – Lessons from Khabib ‘The Eagle’ Nurmagomedov

			Salam Alaikum many people follow sports personalities, and Mashallah, they achieve a lot, a lot of
discipline, and a lot goes into sport. Now, if you have a Muslim who is a good Muslim who actually
follows Islam and upholds its values, and they've achieved in the sports field more than you can
imagine, then that would be something worth looking into and learning lessons from Habib is one of
those whom we have to learn lessons from whether we like it or not, number one, he does not miss his
Salah. Number two, he's a good Muslim inshallah. And you know what, what I've learned and what a lot
of people have seen, during the last match that he had very recently in Abu Dhabi is a few things,
		

			we must talk about these things. Number one, he lost his father, may Allah grant his father gender
to fill those, his father was his role model, his teacher, his tutor, his mentor, and his coach. How
many of us can be that for our children? You know, it's not easy for me to say how many of us have
parents like that, because sometimes, it's not your fault that you don't have a parent like that.
But we could say, how many of us, we are parents who treat our children in such a way that they look
up to us from all angles. May Allah make it that way. So we have a lesson to learn the fathers out
there. You know what you have to look into insha Allah be the best possible father, the role model,
		

			whatever else you can be for your own child. Secondly, when he lost his father, he was affected by
it. The father used to discipline him. And he used to enjoy that disciplining how many of us allow
our parents to discipline us to tell us off, he's a grown man, he's a successful human being. People
look up to him as a role model, he looks up to his father Subhana, Allah, may Allah grant that
Father of his gender, and for those of dual men up that was his name. And then he decided thereafter
that he wants to dedicate his life to serving his mother. And therefore when people came to him and
told him, You need to play again, he decided to go to his mother. And when he went to his mother,
		

			Subhana, Allah, his mother was reluctant. He says, he spent three days trying to convince his
mother, the mother was not happy for him to go into the octagon without his father, because the
father, obviously was the support and the coach and whatever I've just said. And so when he finally
convinced his mother, he said, a few things. Now, before I get to that, how many of us would even
consider asking our mothers before we did something so hon Allah? It's a point, isn't it? How many
of us have a relationship with our children such that if they were to do something important, they
would consider asking us as their mothers SubhanAllah. So these are points worth considering? The
		

			man asked his mother, and that shows you that he looks up to his mother, and they have that
relationship. He's a grown man, like I said, millions of followers, the best in his particular
sport. And at the same time, some analog, he says, When I finally told my mother that this will be
my last match, the last time I'm going to be on this level of the sport, the mother reluctantly
agreed, and Subhanallah, he went ahead, and he continued, and guess what happened? He won the match.
And when he won the match, obviously, it's easy to say, let me keep quiet about it. I'm going to go
back. If it took me three days to convince my mother for one, I can take maybe 30 days to convince
		

			her for another or another three days to Panama. But no, because he gave his word. He said, If I
have given my word, I have to follow it. How many of us would actually do that? You're right at the
top 29. Zero. It's so easy to get to 30 zero, perhaps maybe beyond that. But because he gave his
word he said, You know what? I'm going to stop. Number one, I also missed my father. I'd like to
dedicate more time on other things. I've already arrived at the top and I'd rather now spend my time
serving my mother. I've given her my word. How many of us when we give people our word, do we
actually stick to the word. So the reason I'm mentioning this, it's easy for me to quote Allah and
		

			His Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and tell you this is what Islam teaches. But when you
have a role model of a different sort, and he considers the prophets Allah Selim his own role model,
and he follows to the letter, the teachings of Islam, and he has achieved success way beyond you and
I, why can't we learn the lesson to say, look, if those better than me have already understood what
they need to do and what they should stay away from, then surely we should be learning already, that
we must also have the correct head screwed on our shoulders or in such a way
		

			We actually have follow the message that we're supposed to sow Mashallah, I wish him all the best.
And I pray that Allah grant him every success in whatever he's going to do. But indeed, it was worth
mentioning. Notice, I'm not going to fall into whether or not it was permissible or prohibited, you
know, to bash people in their faces and so on. That's a topic on its own, but I'm actually speaking
about what happened and what transpired. The last match to be honest, someone to give their word and
to follow it Subhana Allah, it is very rare to find such people so May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant
us all a lesson aku Kohli have Salatu was Salam ala nabina Muhammad wa salam aleikum wa rahmatullah