Mufti Menk – Here is why you failed your exam

			Bismillah Alhamdulillah he was Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah. He was early. He was such a big man.
		

			The matric results are out. I'm sure you heard that many of you know about it. So here in South
Africa, you matriculate at the end of your secondary school, and everyone is excited about what they
got. Similarly, across the globe, there is another exam known as the Cambridge GCSEs or IGC ACS,
those results also came out two days back, and people either passed or failed, or let's see what
happened. So from among those who got their results are those who passed with flying colors and they
are excited Congratulations, my broke Mubarak, may Allah bless you, your loved ones make it a means
of closeness to him. Because you do Aza answered and make it a means of getting success in this
		

			world. And resulting in success in the hereafter to I mean, anything short of that you wasted your
time because if you concentrate on your studies alone, you don't know the Quran, you haven't read
your Salah you have no connection with Allah trust me, you might die in the next few days, years,
whatever it might be, and you would never have benefited from you all your a stars and A's and
distinctions and whatnot.
		

			Subhanallah so it's something really that people look forward to Subhan Allah Hara bill, Allah mean,
we work hard for it for years on end, we work hard for it, right? And Allah Almighty knows exactly
what results we're going to get. Does that mean we shouldn't work hard? It means you work hard based
on your capacity, and you get your result Allah knows how hard you are going to work in the first
place, and how your results we're going to be anyway. So those who passed with flying colors,
mashallah, I received so many messages, and I had people who were awake up to midnight, just because
I think the results were released at midnight, if I'm not mistaken. And by Fajr, schools were
		

			already announcing their results, and they were forwarded messages all over and whatnot. Subhanallah
people were excited jumping on their beds, I hope you didn't miss Fudger as a result of staying up
so long.
		

			Nonetheless, let me draw your attention to another category of people, those who failed.
		

			Those who failed fall into two categories, those who tried as hard as they could and still failed. I
say to you, congratulations. Mabrouk Mobarak you tried hard, unfortunately, you failed in sha Allah,
you can go again, you can try even harder. Perhaps you can use new methods. Maybe that's not the
field Allah has chosen for you. Perhaps you might want to attempt it once or twice more. And after
that, you might want to choose something you might be a wealthier, richer, more successful
businessman than in this worldly life than those who got distinctions today, but that's up to Allah.
It's up to Allah for as long as you have closeness to Allah you tried your best congrats.
		

			But from among those who failed or those who didn't try at all, they wasted their time they lazed
around, they smoked they were on weed They did whatever else they wanted to they had bad company,
they stayed up all night they disturb other people, they disturbed themselves, they didn't know
anything. And you know what they failed today. I want to say to you, it's not too late to change
your life. Because if you don't, this is a wake up call. There is a greater examination to come and
that one you are not allowed to fail. May Allah subhanahu wata, Allah grant us the success of the
Day of Judgment. Then from amongst those who passed, or those who passed better than they thought
		

			they would, am I right or wrong? There are those who were not so intelligent, they worked hard, or
maybe they didn't work so hard. But when the results came out, they said wow, I got all A's I wasn't
expecting that I say to you, that's Allah's blessing and favor upon you, for you to get closer to
Allah. Because Allah Almighty wants to show you that at times, he will give you something which you
yourself believe you did not deserve. You didn't deserve it. When we get to the Day of Qiyamah,
there will be groups of people who will be granted paradise. And they will be thinking, Whoa, what
did we do to deserve this? Allah says My Mercy, My Mercy, a few of your deeds, we love them so much.
		

			Here's the favor of us. In fact, all of us are in the Mercy of Allah on that day. And then from
amongst those who failed, or those who didn't do as bad as they thought they were, did you ever
think of that category? There are people who failed now and they say yes. Why do they say yes,
because I was expecting to fail with some terrible results. But I just scraped it in the sense that
I just failed by a few points. And that's it. They are excited. You know why? They worked hard. They
tried hard. They thought they were going to knock so badly that it was going to be the worst
embarrassment, but they didn't do as bad. Don't they feel so good about themselves? Do you
		

			understand what I'm saying? So
		

			One who, who through the exams of the year only got 20% 30%. Now suddenly come examinations. They
got 4949 Come on, you failed by 1%. But you're so excited. You can have a party but a halal party,
by the way, and you can say subhanallah you know what I did? So well inshallah for you, I can tell
you, you can go again, you can work hard. Once more, try again, you can write the exam, repeat it,
no problem, Allah will grant you success. But bear in mind, that that excitement is such that Allah
Almighty wants you to know that you will always have another chance for as long as you're alive. You
messed up, you committed a sin, you did something bad in the eyes of Allah. It's never too late for
		

			as long as you're breathing. Your heart is pumping. You have life, your soul is there. You're okay
by the will of Allah. Why are you okay? Because there is room to repent. But if you don't repent in
that time, then you've lost, you see. So this is why we say the categories of people who passed and
failed not just one these past in these failed, some failed, but they're excited that they failed in
not such a bad way. And then there are those who failed so badly. so badly worse than they had
expected. I say to you don't lose hope the same thing can be repeated. May Allah subhanho wa Taala
grant you is. So before I continue to draw the comparison that I've chosen to draw today, I want to
		

			concentrate on one specific category of those who passed.
		

			Those who passed who did not do as well as they thought they would you were first in the top of your
class all the time, you always had A's, you were expecting to get 10 A's, and you ended up getting
10 B's or seven B's and a C SubhanAllah. I want to tell you, don't worry. For as long as you worked
hard, you tried your best you enjoy your time at school. Alhamdulillah thank Allah, I always tell my
own children, go to school, enjoy yourself, have good friends, make sure you do good things work as
hard as you can. I don't expect you to come out first. I just expect you to do as best as you could
have. The best you could have done. And that's it. You come back home. You say dad, you know what? I
		

			just got 74 minutes, I'll say well done. Did you enjoy the subject? Was it nice? Did you make some
good friends? Did you enjoy the company? How did you develop yourself? Alhamdulillah. Those are more
important things than one mark or two marks. Don't stress, don't stress. Don't ever be depressed by
the fact that you got two points less of an A I know people who've got one point less than an A and
they are so depressed because of that one, man. Come on, come on. You did so well. Think about those
who lost their parents through the year and had to go into those exams without parents without
siblings with people whom they've lost. People who had armed robberies at home people who were shot
		

			at and have limbs that are perhaps not there anymore. And they had to go into the exams. Think about
those. Think about the people who didn't even make it to those exams, think about others who've
already passed on and something happened and their parents couldn't afford the fee or whatever it
may have been Wallahi there are people in worse off scenarios than you do not be depressed and
despondent. Thank Allah, you're okay. Allah has you exactly where he wants you. The only question
you need to ask yourself, did I work hard? If the answer is yes, then don't blame yourself? If the
answer is no, you share a portion of the blame you do, but not in order to become depressed in order
		

			to learn a lesson that I need to work harder next time and take things seriously.
		

			Nonetheless, you will be choosing your subjects and you will be choosing what to do now at the
university. You might have made it to some universities, those who have offered letters, in some
instances and you might not have made it for whatever you wanted to do in the future. Not a big
deal. Not a big deal. May Allah Almighty guide us to the best. May Allah Almighty sustain us and
help us to do what we enjoy in a way that pleases Him. And at the same time as you develop having an
intention, not just I'm going to make money, I'm going to become this I'm going to become that. I
would like Jana to dose and that's the comparison I want to draw today. Just like the people who are
		

			awake all night, there will be people worried
		

			in order to see the result on the Day of Judgment. In fact, everyone will be worried couldn't Lunia
pull enough see enough. See if the prophets of Allah besides Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam who will be
worried about Almighty Almighty the entire Ummah and all his followers, the rest of them will be
saying, Oh Allah I'm worried about myself You mentioned you and a
		

			young male funeral and modern omen if he were ohm me he won't be he was off he bet he went burning.
Allah says on that day everyone will run away from everyone who were beloved to them on Earth, your
mayor Federal Ministry, a man will
		

			run away from his own brother, his father, his mother, his spouse, his children, a man will run away
from all of them. Why I'm worried about myself is just me myself in the eye on that day. Allah
subhanho wa Taala says, On that day, Yahoo Mullah
		

			Omar Google, by noon in common law heavy
		

			selling on the day when the wealth and children will not avail anyone, the only person who will
succeed is the one with a heart that is content, and pure and clean, and without disease. And Salim.
Today we have a hot watch yourself prepare for that exam, which is far more important than your
GCSEs or your metric, or whatever other exams, it may be the bar exams, whatever it may be, what is
more important than that is the rat of the Day of Judgment. And it's got to do with your heart, you
have a clean heart free from association of partnership with Allah to begin with, and free from the
diseases of that particular heart. Learn about the diseases of the heart and their cure. In the
		

			worst case scenario, go Google it and check it out diseases of the heart and their cure, you will
find it only Muslims will talk about those diseases, the jealousy, the envy, the hatred, the
whatever the deception, all these qualities of the heart that sometimes translate into actions and
words and so on. Today, on social media, many of us are guilty of backbiting and slandering and
thinking it's okay, you want to mock and scoff at others scholars are doing it let alone I've seen
scholars in groups where they are Allama and they actually make a mockery of themselves. They want
to justify the backbiting and the slander by just by virtue of them being scholars in a group and
		

			they think it's okay, it's okay, I'm doing a good deed. That deed might just be the tipping deed
that might mess up your scales on the day of judgment, and you will stand at the mercy of the person
whom you've wronged. So be careful. And imagine if the scholars are embroiled and involved in all of
that. Then what about the lay man be careful, we are excited about matric Didn't I say moments ago I
know of someone in particular who's so stressed and depressed because of one mark that they have
actually lost now in these exams, the results of which just came out in the night. And you know
what, imagine if we lost Jana by one mark Allahu Akbar. It's not worth our while to slander and
		

			gossip and deceive and to back bite about others. When Allah says don't back bite your brother. It's
worse than eating his flesh, Allahu Akbar.
		

			Prepare for the day. The excitement might be much when it comes to worldly exams. But the greatest
of excitement will be when you pass the exams of the day of judgment to Allah, He my brothers, my
sisters, cleanse your heart, we are supposed to look at goodness, we are supposed to try and think
good of others. When we want to resolve matters and problems or correct someone. There is a specific
way of doing it in Islam, whereby we the dignity of the individual remains intact, we don't make a
mockery of them. And we try to understand them. We try to engage them we try to perhaps in a broad
common way to teach people and so on, but no, whether I understood it or not, it's my way or
		

			highway. You know, in Islam, we have so many opinions, we have Shafi Hanafi, Maliki Salafi, we have
humbly and so on. We have so many we have people who might not even be among those, we consider the
four schools of thought the most important but there's not only for schools, there are other
schools, when you want to correct people who belong to a school, perhaps that you feel may not be on
the straight and narrow. There is a way of doing it. When Allah tells you to speak to the kuffaar
with wisdom. How do you think he would he tells you to speak to the rest of those who say La ilaha
illAllah Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu seldom do Eli's been a big Eben Hekmati, one more Eva till
		

			Hassan wa Jardin whom Binetti here x and in our back and who are at Lemuel BMO.
		

			sabini Wahoo I've never been more doing call towards the path of Allah with wisdom. That's what
Allah says, and speak to them in a beautiful way, in a sweet way in a beautiful way in a nice way,
and has Santa something which is good in a good way, appropriate way.
		

			Allah subhanahu wa taala warns us about this Jardine, whom bility hear us and why because Allah
knows who is misguided and who is guided Be careful how you talk to people. Allah knows who is
misguided and who is guided. Sometimes you have a person who is saying something and in the eyes of
Allah they are wrong thinking they are correcting someone else who is right but this person thinks
they are wrong. How many times does that happen? You find clear
		

			students trying to call us to call us to worship Jesus in a passionate way in our eyes, they are
wrong right? In their eyes. They are right. What do you do? Well, you have to be respectful and you
have to understand. I'm going to tell him my brother, I worship the Lord of the Worlds. So they will
tell you well, my singular personal private Savior is Jesus Christ. So we will say to them, my
single personal private savior is the Lord of Jesus Christ and the creator and the one who made him
directly look at how many of the churches have pastors and bishops and Archbishop's and so many
others who themselves are so sinful engaged in that which is far away from the deen of Allah and
		

			even from their own teachings, and they have followers in their 1000s sometimes in their millions
who only find out later that gosh, I was confessing all my sins to a criminal. Allah says, Don't do
that. No Imam no chef, no ally, no mufti, no scholar, is there a confession to the confession is to
the Lord of the worlds and that's it. You cry regarding your sin to Allah. The minute you say, Oh
Allah you regret Forgive me what I did was wrong. Major sin. Allah says you are forgiven. Oh, my
slave. I love you. You have another chance. Go for it.
		

			Allahu Akbar. That's the beauty of Islam. The direct connection the Imam is only a means of showing
you the way that's it, but in no ways does it make him better than you? I am standing here I can
never say I'm better than any one of those whom I'm speaking to. If anything I need what I'm saying
more than everyone else because Allah is going to ask me you stood up you lectured them What about
you? That's in the Quran. Allah Almighty says it quite clearly. And it's very scary at that maroon
and Sabine Bidri. What? Some full circle
		

			that no none keytab Fela Darkin Warren Allah addresses those who instruct others to do good. Allah
says you're instructing them to do good, and you're forgetting yourself and you are the one who
reads revelation. Don't you have the common sense? Don't you have the brains? Don't you have the
understanding? Allah asks? Allah He it's amazing. So this is why we say preparation for the day of
judgment by seeking forgiveness of Allah directly. Allah alone, Allah is the One whom we worship,
you don't come through me or through someone else. Yes, if you are rightly guided by someone, thank
Allah, if I ever call towards myself, throw me out of this Masjid. If I ever call towards worshiping
		

			Me or acknowledging me, or my magnetize you towards me as a person, I am wrong. Totally wrong, not
just me, everyone else. The winner is the one who calls towards Allah and he's Rasul sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam and the love of the Sahaba, the Allahu Anhu and the love of the ummah of Nabina
Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, that's the winner. That's the scholar, not the one who preaches hate and
hatred, and diverts you away from this one and that one, and he's the only one and that's the only
person and his people are the only people know, we are all people of Allah, and he's Rasulullah
sallallahu sallam, someone who says Asha do hola Ilaha illa Allah wa shadow anna Muhammad Rasool
		

			Allah has entered the door known as the Ummah he's my brother, she's my sister, the rest of it
within that door, we might have differences let's talk about those differences. But they've entered
the door I can't kick them out of the door at my woman fancy some people don't even talk to you they
don't even know you but they take feed you from the Creator, meaning they call you a cafe, they say
you out of the fold, and so on from far from another continent altogether. They haven't even breathe
the same air that you breathe, and that's it. They just sitting on the on the net on their phones in
the middle of the night coffee, Fassett 5g, they trying to take as many people as they can out of
		

			the fold. And here is Allah bringing as many people as he wants into the fold. Look at the irony. My
brothers and sisters one of the reasons why I love this Masjid in bossman is we come here, we feel
the Brotherhood, we feel the connection, we feel the non judgmental attitude and behavior of the
people here. So congratulations and my book to you. There are other masajid we will enter Wallahi
they make us feel like we don't even belong there. I'm sure you've come across some of those. They
make us feel like we're not even Muslim. And those are the people who need help. Wallahi because we
are all part of an ummah, when you go to Makkah you should feel like your access to the Kaaba is
		

			equivalent to everybody else's. I am there as an individual, one of the Ummah, what qualifies me to
go there? Because I'm an owner of Nabina Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, I set the Shahada. That's it I
can stand in the first stuff last week, someone at the Colerain road Masjid accepted Islam, and I
told him it was salam Al Maghrib I said my brother you qualify to stand wherever you want in the
masjid and the best place to stand is the first stuff. So his first Salah he made was right behind
the Imam Are you sure? Yes, right here. Wow, this all these big guns were born Muslims. It's okay.
You're one of us. You can stand you can be whatever color you can be wherever you can be of whatever
		

			standing that's the deen of Allah. That's why there is an ummah that's the difference between Islam
and the others. Will Allah him
		

			My brothers and sisters split the love understand people look at other someone's making a mistake,
hold their hand, bring them in with love and goodness that's a leader. That's a person who cares for
the ummah. Those are the people who we need in society today the enemy is trampling all over us look
at Palestine and what's going on and look at how the Ummah is so divided whether or not to abstain
from buying products that's going to be harmful because they would support the Israelis and the
Zionists Come on, how can that even be a debate? How our brothers are dying one hand and the other
hand, people are saying no, no, it's okay. How can you be okay? Are you fine? Are you Are you well
		

			in your mind and your head, we are an uma we are one we are supposed to do whatever is in my
capacity, your capacity, everyone else's capacity, given your status and your ability that Allah
gave you do whatever you can to help them not to harm them, to help them. So if you're a politician,
top notch and whatever you have a say you have some form of ability that others don't, then you do
whatever you can, Allah is going to ask you and Allah is not going to ask me. So I'm not going to be
busy saying this guy didn't do this guy didn't do because those who pointed others and say This guy
didn't do themselves have almost done nothing. You must remember that if you're busy doing
		

			something, you're not going to be worried about what others are doing. If you want to encourage
someone you may do so brother, you're the Imam of the Masjid. Can you get up and confronted us about
the genocide that the Israelis have perpetrated perpetrating against the Palestinians, by all means,
you said it, you encourage someone to say it, they may say it, they may choose a different path,
whatever it may be, it doesn't mean they're not concerned but you did your duty by encouraging them
they might be doing something else that you don't know. Nonetheless, if you do not do anything about
something that's going on, be it in your society, your community or the nation as an ummah, then you
		

			have a lot of improvements to make in your iman and your belief in Allah. A lot of improvement. If I
have a problem in society in my Masjid here Wallahi I need to try and help resolve it. Think hard
whenever there's a problem, and I don't know of anything in particular, but I'm saying every Masjid
every community, a few issues here and there, someone is here someone is there. Someone says
something. I tell you something very interesting. In your heart and your mind you need to make dua
number one, that oh Allah help resolve the matter. We need to come together as an ummah we need to
come together. It is too expensive. To be in fragments. It costs us a lot. We need to be together as
		

			best as we can. Oh Allah help us and then open your mouth only after you can think of a wise way of
resolving the matter. Then it's your duty to try and resolve. We're having a meeting not to make
someone beef feel small. We're having a meeting to resolve the matter. We're going to talk about it
what is your grievance my brother, my sister, what's going on? Let's try and see how best we can
come and then we can compromise if it is compromisable. And if not, we have to realize one person
may be right one is wrong. We side with the one who is right and we tell the one who is wrong,
respectfully. You know what, we've tried everything. Unfortunately, you are the person who's wrong.
		

			Please apologize. And please make amends. But inshallah it won't even get to that. My brothers and
sisters, don't be too proud to apologize, never in your home. Also, don't be too proud to say sorry
to your spouse, even your children if need be, or your your parents, your siblings, your community
members. Don't be too proud to say I'm sorry, you will be teaching a lot of people a great lesson.
And at the same time you will be solving the matter brotherhood, I may not want to do I may not want
to have a lot to do with you after that. Because maybe your ways are very different from mine. We
might have two different temperaments. But I don't want to have beef between us.
		

			Or I'd rather say I don't want to have pork between us. May Allah Almighty grant us protection from
haram. So here we go. My brothers and sisters, what I did today is mentioned a few pointers of a
very current matter which is the matter of your results and connect it with a more important matter
of a very higher nature. And that is the results on the Day of Judgment. The fact that we're alive,
do your best because you're either gonna come out with flying colors you thank Allah. And you know,
you worked hard. And when you work hard, don't allow your good deeds to get messed by arrogance and
thinking I'm a holy person. You see, that's a problem. When you go to school, you have some of these
		

			really intelligent people and they know their intelligence. So what do they do they belittle
everyone else, no one likes them. So you're going to be the top notch doctor in the city, no one's
going to come to you because you know what? You're so arrogant. That's why when if you really want
to be a successful doctor, you need to have humbleness, humility, you need to also engage in
something that society needs you know, they call it your your social responsibility. You need to be
a part of it. Come on your part of community Humble yourself. We know you got the most money come
down, be humble. We know you've got Subhanallah you got top qualifications and so on, come down. So
		

			if a person thinks he's only because five salah I haven't missed that to the 33 years, who are you?
Come on? That means all that had you go somewhere else. Have you ever heard someone say
		

			If I haven't, I haven't I just said the thumbs up but I haven't ever heard someone say I've enlisted
Jr 33 years who are you? What do you do? Because all that is between them and Allah. But I have
heard people bragging about Umrah and Hajj and so on. Please don't brag it doesn't help you leave it
between you and Allah, how many Hajj HAVE YOU DONE? hamdulillah a few. May Allah accept them from
us. You know, we thank Allah we thank Allah because Hodge even one would give you Jana, you don't
have to go and do them over and over. If you did, it's a bonus. Now no law, you know, they've got a
hook that hook you right? Allah subhanahu wa taala grant us is. I'm saying that obviously on a
		

			lighter note, but it's true. You can't go anymore. Just apply and go how it used to be a long time
ago. May Allah Almighty forgive me and all our shortcomings and forgive all of us and really grant
us success and give us our books on our right hands on the Day of Judgment such that we can actually
get to Jana, in a way that would really grant us the bliss that is everlasting of the Hereafter Amin
Akula Kali ha SallAllahu wasallam or Baraka ala Nabina Muhammad