Mufti Menk – Life Hacks & Why Previous Nations Were Destroyed
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The year is almost over.
1 might wonder, what are you talking about?
We're talking of the Hijri calendar, which is
the original
Islamic
calendar. The
lunar months.
Allah Almighty has
prescribed for us a certain way
of calculating the months.
And at the time of Umar ibn Khattab
they decided we're going to have a cutoff
from which we're going to be having
year 1, year 2, year 3. So he
went back to when the hijra happened and
he said the Muharram of the year that
the hijra happened, we will be counting it
as
year 1 and then year 2. So at
this moment we are in 1445
Hijri, which means 1445
lunar years
after the Hijra of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
We have just about 2 weeks to go.
Not even. In fact, 1 more Friday to
go.
Perhaps. And then we will enter the new
Islamic
year.
Now, the reason I start this way is
year in year out, time is clocking. But
have we actually changed?
And not just changed, but changed for the
better.
Many times,
we have
a lot that is going on in our
lives. And sometimes the interactions
that we have, the new people we've introduced
into our lives,
Or sometimes due to the challenges we're facing,
we don't realize. We become people
that are not actually the best
of people. And as Muslims, we're supposed to
be the best in character. In fact, if
you want to actually
gauge
how close you are to Allah
over and above your fara'iv and your duties
unto Allah,
just check your character. And Insha'Allah,
you'll be able to tell whether you're really
a pious person or not. Piety is not
only to fulfill your 5 salah and to
do your your song, your fasting
and you know, charities and so on. Stay
away from this and that. Piety is closely
connected to your character and conduct as well
because Allah has kept 2 major types of
rights.
1 is the right you and I have
to fulfill towards him, and the other is
the right you and I have to fulfill
towards the rest of the creatures, the, the
creatures, the same Allah has created.
So how I treat people I interact with
or I pass or I come across.
Actually, Allah planned and calculated
that you're going to interact with this person.
Whether you know it or you don't. Allah's
planned and calculated that you're going to pass
this person at this time in your vehicle
and he's going to cut in front of
you. Allah planned it. He knows it's going
to happen. And why? Why? If you understand
the why, it changes you as a person
to a much better person.
Why? Just to test you, to see. Tick
or cross. Nothing else. Nothing else. You actually
have to pass. Someone cut in front of
you. You can deal with it. You can
actually Well, you're gonna have to apply brakes,
isn't it? Because you can't just say I'm
a good person. Let me just bump into
him. But you you don't swear and abuse.
You're allowed to
perhaps hoot. In our language, we call it
hoot. Hoot at the guy,
but you have no right to make signs
at him that are derogatory or to get
angry or you now step up and show
him, let me show you I'm gonna cut
you too.
All of that, it just goes to show
that, you know what? You haven't really understood
why this was designed by Allah. A believer
believes that
Allah has
created
a a set of tests for him or
her that are already chosen by Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala. And indeed, there is a slight
shift depending on the way you look at
destiny.
When you make dua, when you give charity,
there is a certain type of change that
can occur in what was destined for you
in certain matters. That's a discussion on its
own. But the point I raised today is
as I'm becoming older,
you have to keep looking at yourself and
you have to keep asking yourself, am I
a good person? You have to be a
little bit hard on yourself. How did I
treat this 1? How did I interact with
this 1? What happened with this 1? For
example, someone is toxic.
Toxic meaning it's so difficult to interact with
them, you're allowed to keep away. No problem.
But do you keep away in a beautiful
way or do you become ugly about
it? You've got to understand on earth there
will be some people who are impossible to
deal with because perhaps they may not have
a fear or a sense of fear of
Allah.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But how do I process that? We need
to become better people as we grow older.
So Allah Almighty wants us
to keep
a beautiful distance at times. In fact, when
he speaks about patience in the Quran,
he tells Nabi Muhammad
You see he says, bear the patience that
is beautiful.
What's beauty got to do with patience? It
means don't become toxic about it. Don't mess
yourself because someone else is negative.
And don't lose your goodness because someone else
is not good and so on. All of
that is included in the jamil of it,
the beauty
of being patient. I'm patient.
People face huge challenges. Sometimes they become
on edge with their family members without realizing.
So you have a problem at work which
is major.
You come home, you're snapping at your children,
you're snapping at your spouse, you're snapping at
everyone else, and you don't realize it. And
if anyone says, hey what's going on? You
get even more angry.
So you have to introspect
every so often and ask yourself, am I
actually doing this? If so, please change it.
The year is coming to an end. The
years are clocking. I don't want to die
a death way. When I pass away, people
say, that guy died. Alhamdulillah. You know, we
want them to say,
and
pray for us. May Allah forgive the person.
May Allah grant him Jannah and so on.
We need to effect positive change. Now,
when I said the person whose character has
improved
and becomes beautiful with others
is actually a real pious person. It's because
true acts of worship genuinely made for Allah
after understanding
who Allah is,
soften you. They don't make you hard and
harsh.
When you have a person who has a
lot of knowledge and they have a lot
of actions of worship or acts of worship,
but they haven't really truly understood who Allah
is. So even if they know
at the back of their minds who Allah
is, but they haven't sat and thought about
it, Sometimes they become very ugly in their
character. They they they look at all others
as though they are all inferior. These who
are these people? They are nothing. They are
nobodies. I'm the guy. I know. I'm pious.
I make my I get up for tahajjud
in the morning and so on. That type
of attitude is
actually indicative of the fact that shaitan has
got this person in a net.
Don't allow that to happen. Together with all
of this, shaitan becomes jealous of your acts
of worship.
Very jealous. He firstly doesn't want you to
pray. This morning I read an article,
an Islamic article which said,
Allah only gets up for salatul fajr, the
1 whom he loves. Okay. It was somebody's
comment.
But in a nutshell,
I can word it a little bit differently,
agreeing in principle that yes, indeed, Allah grants
you the acceptance to be bothered about getting
up for a fajr when he loves you.
Because you can't just say, look, I'm gonna
see if Allah gets me up or not
and go to bed. No. You've got to
put a clock, you've got to do something
about it, you've got to sleep early to
ensure you're gonna get up early. And then
when you get up and you're fresh and
you, subhanAllah,
you're doing your salatul fajr, and you're thanking
Allah. Oh Allah, I thank you for giving
me this opportunity to worship you. What happens?
You understand that shaitan
exists as well. And had it been
Had it not been for the mercy of
Allah, perhaps shaitan would have gotten hold of
you. Now that I fulfilled my salah,
what does shaitan do? He's not just gonna
sit and chill.
He is going to come to me and
make me think, wow. I'm pious. You know,
I did my prayer. And what about these
guys who were sleeping? You know, what about
them? They are nothing. And then you start
coming and you think you're the only guy.
That is problematic. May Allah humble us, grant
us humility and goodness, and may Allah Almighty
help us to treat each other
in a nonjudgmental
way.
And when we say nonjudgmental, I quickly want
to say, if someone advises you, it doesn't
mean they're judging you. Someone says, my sister,
you need to dress more appropriately. Inshallah, I
pray for you. I don't mean to belittle
you, but Islamically so so respectful. That's not
a judgmental statement. That is a piece of
advice that they have a right to say,
especially when they are closer to you. Scholars,
for example, parents, for example,
elders and so on, no one's just gonna
come to you on the street. Well, they
may just come to you on the street
and say, you know what? This is wrong.
Process it correctly.
Understand you don't have to snap back at
them and so on. Some people, that's how
they behave. But nonetheless,
people have a right to tell you,
consider it a gift of Allah.
Because 1 of the very, very scary verses
in the Quran is when the people of
hellfire will be entering hellfire,
the gatekeepers will be asking them, did a
warner not come to you to warn you?
Did no reminder come to you? Did people
not recite to you verses? Or in the
case of those who lived in the midst
of the messengers, did the messengers not recite
to you verses reminding you?
On that day, you can't come and say,
well, they were judging me and I didn't
like judgmental statements. They advised you. They told
you. They warned you. They gave you what
it what you need to to take.
So let's understand this.
May Allah Almighty make us from among those
who are fair, who are balanced.
And you know,
part of being balanced is to treat everyone
with similar respect. You offer them respect. People
you know, people you don't know. A gift
that we have
is the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
teaches us to sallim
alaqullimanaraftawamalam
tarref.
You should greet all those you know and
those you don't know. You greet them. I
think we're lacking.
We're lacking to the degree that even those
we know, we look at who they are
before we actually go out of our way.
You
see a guy who's wealthy, you see a
guy who's influential, you see a guy who's
powerful, what do you do? You say, Assalamualaikum.
How are you my brother? And you see
another person, poor,
perhaps a different race, perhaps lower income, you
ignore them as though they don't exist. What
happened to you?
Alaqullim an araftawamallam
tariif? What happened to that?
So when you become conscious of it and
you realize you're going to clock a reward,
Great reward by treating people with respect.
Then you realize Islam preaches fairness
and justice.
Islam preaches that everyone should be treated in
a similar manner
and all of them in a respectful manner.
Yes. You may respect your parents
upon their level.
You will respect your teachers upon their level.
But that basic respect that you offer everyone,
should be of a very high standard.
May Allah make it easy for We have
people working for us. We have people who
might,
you know, bother us. We have beggars
who may irritate us because we are human.
You see someone
I've seen it happening here in Zimbabwe on
the streets
where someone comes with a cloth, and you
know, you you just washed your vehicle, and
the guys have a cloth in their hands.
And as you stop, they come and start
wiping, wiping you like you wanted any wiping.
And then they want a dollar or 2
from you. I wiped your car. I cleaned
your car. Instead they messed it. And sometimes
they'll come to the window.
I don't even want to say what they
may or may not do, but the car
is missed and you feel so irritated. Do
you know what? Allah says it in the
Quran.
As for the beggar, the 1 asking, don't
rebuke him. In a nutshell, don't abuse them.
Don't insult them. You don't want to give,
don't give. Be respectful about your not giving.
Don't be insulting. That's all. I don't want
to encourage this type of behavior. I'm not
going to give. Fair enough.
You you can either make a sign or
you know,
greet them or whatever or ignore them completely.
That's not so bad either.
But if you are going to do the
opposite, you've lost it because
it could have been the other way around.
May Allah protect us.
It could have been the other way around.
And this is why look at the issue
of justice when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
was faced
with a person who had
stolen.
Her name was Fatima Bint Al Mahzoum.
She had pinched something and it was
worth more than a certain amount
taken from a certain type of a place
that warranted that she be punished. And you
know the punishment for stealing in Islam is
severe,
especially when it is beyond a certain amount
and taken from a certain type of a
place considered secure for that item. And the
person is sane.
So the people had a little meeting and
a discussion to say, you know what? Who's
committed this crime? Well, it is Fatima from
the Mahzoum tribe.
Bani Mahzoum was considered the elite, the top,
you know. You think of community. Who are
the top people in community? You might think
up some names. That's a top family. This
is a top family. Not to The prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam
was faced
with
the situation where the companions had a discussion
and said,
who is most beloved to the Prophet, peace
be upon him?
Send him to talk to him, to say
because she comes from a tribe that is
very, very
well known and influential.
Don't punish her. Leave her.
Now do you know when you want something
from someone?
A youngster came to me and told me
For example, just an example.
He says, I'd like to get to married
to so and so, but the father's being
a little bit hard. I said, who are
his friends? Talk to 1 of his most
dear friends. Or
talk to his boss. Or talk to a
scholar who's close to the person.
And convince that person, please can you speak
to them? Why? When a lot of the
times people are worried about community. So they
say, no. I don't want you to get
married. They're worried, what will they say? What
will this person say? That person say? But
when you get community to come to them
and tell them, why don't you let this
thing happen? It changes in a lot of
occasions.
A lot of times, it changes
the person's heart. Okay. Let me consider it
to see it. Because of the person talking
to you. An influential person comes to you
and says, you know what my brother? I
have a good proposal for your child. Why
don't you think about it? Because I work
with the I look up to this person.
I'm gonna say, okay, zakalakheir. But when you
find someone coming and say, hey, you know
what? I wanna marry your daughter. Say, keep
quiet. Get out. You know, who are you?
So similarly, it applied where
they chose Usama bin Zayd
who was so loved by the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, go talk to him. So he
goes to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and
he says, Oh Messenger, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, you
know the makzum and whatever, and so so
so he came and do shafa'a
to say, can I intercede on behalf of
this
lady who actually stole, supposed to be punished,
but you know, she comes from an influential
family and, you know, please don't punish her
in a nutshell?
Let her off. It's okay.
He was so upset.
He went red. He went cross.
She is from a very respectable,
you know, part of
the
of the people, the community, a tribe and
a clan that is really very respectable.
But she did something wrong. She must face
it.
He says, waaimullah.
You know at the top of his voice,
he swears by Allah.
He says, I swear by Allah.
If the daughter, if Fatima today it's Fatima
bintin
If it was Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, who committed this crime,
I would have served the punishment
to her too. My daughter, so what?
If she did something wrong, she did it
wrong. She must face the consequences of it
in this world. Don't be. In fact,
prior to that statement he says,
Are you trying to come to me
to intercede
in 1 of the limits of Allah?
A transgression that is beyond a certain line.
Subhanallah.
Look at the justice.
How do you think the downtrodden
felt?
He continued, he didn't stop there. He says,
He says, Do you know what destroyed the
previous
nations?
When the elite from among them committed crimes,
they were let to go. They were the
criminals.
And when the weak and downtrodden committed crimes,
they were quickly punished. Totally you see the
double standards?
This is why we say going back to
what I was saying earlier, be fair, be
just, treat people respectfully. You never know
which
portion of your politeness
to which person
might be the tipping
of the weight
of the scale
on the right side
of your scales of justice on the day
of judgment, that you needed to get to
Jannah.
And why we say this? You know when
you and I are going to Jannah, listen
to the mercy of Allah.
Notice how I said when we're going to
Jannah without even doubting. InshaAllah, we're going. Say,
Ame.
There's a scale.
There's a scale of justice.
Allah says we put the good on 1
side, we put the bad on the other
side.
If you have more good than bad, we'll
ignore the bad. You can carry on. Allahu
Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Sounds like 5149.
Right? Allahu Akbar. May Allah make it easy.
You and I don't realize that's the mercy
of Allah. He didn't say you're never going
to commit sin. He knows you and I
are gonna commit sin. But are you a
bad person? Are you predominantly an evil person?
Insha'Allah, no. We're not.
I try. I have my flaws. I seek
forgiveness. I'm not proud to go to someone
and say, please forgive me my brother. Things
you may know, you may not know. Forgive
me. You know, there is retail and wholesale.
Sometimes you're too embarrassed to go to someone
and say I did this, I did this,
forgive me. Go for wholesale. My brother, forgive
me. Whatever's happened, just forgive me. You know,
let's start a new leaf. They say okay.
But if they knew the details, they might
have said, hey, retail is a bit more
in price, you know. The wholesale is cheaper.
So basically, it's good to just seek, forgive
brother. Forgive me, please. You know, may Allah
for you and so on. In South Africa,
they have even here, they have a statement.
They hug you and they say, maaf, maaf.
You know, maaf. And you wonder what's maaf?
Now you know what maaf is. Maaf means
listen, just wipe it out. It's okay. So
they believe and people do believe when someone
says maaf as they're hugging you and you
say maaf, it means everything's wiped out. Allah
knows best. Rather be a bit more sincere
and say, brother forgive me. May Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala bless you. I have stood on
the pulpit and I'm standing again saying, my
beloved brothers, my
sisters, be you here or elsewhere. Those who
may hear this later. If I have wronged
you in any way, shape or form, Insha
Allah, it's not intentional. And if you if
it were something that hurt you, forgive me.
Forgive me. For genuinely, we try our best
to be as
positive and as genuine as possible. We may
not be able to give some people time
or something the way they want it. We
are human. We are weak. We also have
weaknesses, but generally, let's forgive each other. May
Allah Almighty grant us goodness and help us
to uplift and uphold justice,
goodness,
fairness. Every week in the khutbah we hear
in Allah instructs you to be fair, to
be kind and good, and Allah Almighty
instructs you to maintain
family relations.
He's the 1 who chose your family members.
He knows why. Some of them are tough
to get on with. He knows it. You
navigate through it, inshallah, with the will of
Allah Subhanahu wa'ta'ala. May Allah not make us
the tough ones. May Allah make us those
who are a little bit more easy going.
That doesn't mean you forego
the justice.
In fact, I end on the note where
I say, mark the words of the verse
very carefully. Allah says Allah instructs you to
be just and kind because justice always comes
before kindness. You can't use the excuse of
be kind, be kind, be kind to oppress
people and expect them. Don't worry. Just forgive
them. No. There's a limit beyond which, listen,
I need my right. You owe me a
$1, 000, 000. I'll be kind to you,
but I need my million. May Allah
grant us
all
ease of