Mufti Menk – Ramadan 2013 – Pearls of Peace – 14 of 27

			salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
		

			smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam O Allah Muhammad Ali Al
amin Nabina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa Monica dmbs me, let me do that. We praise
Allah subhanho wa Taala we send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
his entire household and all his companions, we ask Allah Subhana Allah to Allah to bless them, and
to bless every single one of us and to grant us goodness, beloved brothers and sisters, Allah
subhanho wa Taala has made what is the truth very clear. And he has explained falsehood as well. And
he has kept for us
		

			the choice in the middle.
		

			Sorry, brothers, I think the sound needs to drop slightly very, very slightly, not too much Allah.
		

			So Allah subhanho wa Taala has blessed us in so many ways.
		

			He has given us a choice, and we are responsible for the choices we make.
		

			And so it's a little bit too low, my brother, I was expecting that
		

			we have a choice. Indeed, we are responsible for the choice we make the paths are in front of us
there is the straight path, and there are different parts of the devil, what we choose to walk on
Subhanallah will definitely be or will definitely have an impact on ourselves, it will definitely
result in us either achieving something good or something bad. And this is why even on a religious
level to choose your religion or to choose your path within the religion, because we can be Muslim
and we can still be doing so many wrong things. And people can choose not to believe in God at all.
May Allah protect us. People can choose any path but Allah says, although we have given you the
		

			choice, remember whatever you do, ultimately you are the one responsible. So this is why they say
you might be free to make your choice, but you will be enslaved by the consequences of that choice
of yours.
		

			Allah says in verse number 29,
		

			what Conan have become,
		

			show
		

			me what
		

			Allah says and say O Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam tell them that the truth is from your Lord, it has
been sent to you now whoever once they may believe, and we ever once they may disbelief, but
whatever you do, listen to what Allah says, In
		

			Indeed, we have prepared the fire for the oppressors, which means those who make the wrong
decisions, they need to face the consequences of that decision. You know, when a person steals, and
then he comes and says, Why are you penalizing me it was my freedom of choice. That's not freedom of
choice. In Islam, freedom of choice is governed by whether or not you are trampling on the feet of
others. And this is something extremely important we need to know. People cannot say I am free to
say what I want when you are swearing people. I am free to mock, you're not free to mock it, anyone
and everyone, you are responsible for your actions. So why don't people meditate and let's say we
		

			were free to do that because you're not free to usurp the rights of others. This is why Allah says
when you do something, make sure you understand that freedom is such that you are totally
responsible for the action that you have chosen through the freedom that we have bestowed upon you.
May Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us. So if we want goodness, we have choices. Let's make the
correct choices in life, especially when it comes to following the path, follow the correct path
search look. Make sure that you find your own desires and lasts and you will be pleased Allah
subhanho wa Taala because if you have struggled to control your own self, when it comes to staying
		

			away from prohibitions, definitely you will have a good reward. Now Allah subhanho wa Taala bless
us. And this is why in South Africa verse number 49, Allah makes mention of how every action of a
human being shall be brought to the book, it shall be shown it is recorded, nothing shall be missed,
while will be added.
		

			On that day, the books shall be laid bare, they will be placed.
		

			So when the books have been placed, you will find the criminals very fearful of what is inside those
books of theirs their own books, but they are worried what's in this book. Why are
		

			boo,
		

			boo mommy know how
		

			they will say, Woe unto us. What is it this book does not mean neither the smallest item nor the
biggest item, except that it is recorded. Every single thing is recorded in the book, The small
items and the big items, everything we do, recorded our statements, everything recorded the actions,
even the smallest of actions, recorded May Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us and grant us goodness.
		

			And this is why Allah subhanho wa Taala says, they will find their deeds in front of them present.
And Allah says your will never oppress anyone, may Allah make it easy for us on that day. Brothers
and sisters, for us to achieve eternal peace. We need to become conscious of the fact that
everything we are doing or saying is written down. But I have good news for you. What is the good
news? When we engage in repentance, then whatever was written in that book negatively is totally
deleted, forgotten and the times swapped into something good. That is the mercy of Allah. So one
might ask when is it swapped to something good, we can tell you that in sha Allah, when a person has
		

			engaged in repentance, it is deleted, when they only do good deeds after that repentance, then those
bad deeds have now been swapped to good deeds. So that's the difference. If you repent alone, and
sometimes you might not have rectified everything thereafter, then perhaps you will be forgiven for
what you've done. But because there are so many other things that you have not yet rectified, it is
only forgiveness you've achieved for that particular item you sought forgiveness from. But if you
have sought forgiveness, and you have not gone back to any bad ways and habits intentionally, and
you have changed your entire life, Allah says we take all the bad you did in the past, and we swap
		

			it into good deeds because of your change the effort that is required to put aside the bad deed is
worth is worth achieving a good deed in its place.
		

			It is a big effort, it is not something simple, when sin is readily available, or should I say when
it is done so easily and the person abstains from it. They deserve inner and outer peace in the
dunya as well as in the Africa. This is why if you are in a country where sin is very, very easy to
commit, and still you extend you are far more noble or far more higher in spirituality than a person
who lives in a country where it is not easy to commit sin.
		

			Logic May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant His goodness.
		

			Then Allah subhanho wa Taala explains how men
		

			men is such that no matter how many examples Allah gives him, he still has this notion or this habit
of arguing he becomes argumentative. He argues regarding what Allah has said as well. So Allah says
verse number 54, SoCal Gas, while a todos en la Snuffy,
		

			Colima, wacana,
		

			jab de la, and indeed in the spot on, we have expounded every time for example, for men, we have
given so many details so many examples for men, but man was always ever so argumentative. And he
loved to argue that Allah subhanho wa Taala make us not from amongst those who when Allah declares
something we start arguing, rather May he make us from those whom when Allah declares something and
we know its source, and we realize it comes from our maker, or the messenger who was sent by that
maker, we surrender immediately. I mean,
		

			my brothers and sisters, this is why Allah says who can be more oppressive than the one who is
reminded of Allah He is reminded of what is right he understands it, he knows it, and then he turns
away and he chooses some other path. Allah says that is the most oppressive there is no one more
oppressive than that. Listen to what Allah says verse number 57 of the same Sure. So you've got one
man
		

			who is more oppressive than the one who is reminded of his heart. He is reminded of his duty unto
his robe and then he turns away and he forgets what his hands have earned, what he has done, what he
has presented with his own hands.
		

			His own deeds are forgotten.
		

			May Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us and make us conscious. Whenever we are reminded, we should
really feel good. Do you know the excitement that a person feels when, for example, something that
he likes is about to happen. Give you an example, typically, say a person is hooked on to football.
And there is a match. Say for example, in Europe,
		

			you know what I'm talking about.
		

			And you see how excited the people are, they're supporting a team, they might fly out to Europe or
they'll make sure they get to where they can watch it live and so on. The excitement, okay, how
excited they are and when their team wins, and to see a few people who they really think are in tip
top shape in terms of ability to kick a ball, they get excited, so Allah, that excitement is such
that such people sometimes do not have similar excitement when they come to Salah to put their head
down on the ground for the one who made them.
		

			The day we are more excited to meet with Allah to come to the masjid to obey those instructions and
we are so happy so excited, we talk to people we want to know about it. We We are so happy we want
to take more time there. That is the day inshallah we will be heading in the right direction. May
Allah grant the strength. This is a powerful example. Because it's the reality. You know, if you
watch a ball, even if your team won 100 times and they broke world records, it does not make you
within greater ability to kick a ball.
		

			The people who support football are hopeless footballers. Do you know that they don't even know what
the weight of a normal ball should look like? I don't want to say put up your hand if you know but I
know very few hands, if any would go up. But yet, without knowing the wake of an international bowl,
we are the biggest footballers and we want to know everybody's name and details and so on. Yet we do
not know something that will take us to eternal paradise Subhan Allah we don't even know the names
and details of the family members of the messengers and the ones who gave their lives in order to
protect the deen Allah subhanho wa Taala be pleased with them and maybe unite us with them.
		

			So Allah subhanho wa Taala tells us
		

			a bit
		

			upsetting Allah towards the end of surah. Number 103 104 a la Vina Melissa,
		

			Jr.
		

			Should I inform you tell them should I inform you of those who have lost their deeds, those who
wasted their ability, they've wasted their deeds, their energies wasted everything, they are the
ones whose effort on this earth or once they were alive in the world was fruitless, endless, it was
actually a stray, it was few times, and they thought they were doing something good. When they died,
they realize what we did was actually a waste of time. This has two meanings, a few meanings we will
mentioned two of them. One is a person who is the greatest loser is He who works for his worldly
life and forgets that he is going to a year after loss. Because today, if I were to offer you a job,
		

			let's put it let's make it more interesting. If you were to offer me a job, for example, and say,
You are for example, going to have such a salary and you are going to be having such perks and such
this and such that I'm sure people would consider Subhanallah because they want it to be a means of
they're confident that of their families in this world. But if we are from amongst those who are
quick to respond to this type of work, which is going to earn a salary for this world, and we don't
read our salah and we don't prepare for that,
		

			then we are losers.
		

			If you take a look for a moment, and I want to draw this parallel because it affects all of us, we
all earn a livelihood, some more and some less. What is the effort that you put every day so that at
the end of the month, you get a salary? Ask yourself, how many hours do you put? Well, I think on
average, eight hours, am I right? On average, approximately eight hours and what do you get in
return? Let's say the best salary from amongst us. 150,000 rounds. The best. Don't look at me and
tell me where's the job. Now my god does goodness. My brothers and sisters you we are being paid
150,000 rands in order to work for eight hours a day, like slaves, five days a week, and five and a
		

			half the other two you have a break. And you know what, we are only going to get 150,000 we will
spend a little bit of it. It might result in us doing wrong things because we've got excess wealth.
A lot of people when you have excess wealth, you need to control your expenditures. Make sure you
don't spend it on the wrong path because it's very easy to do that when you've got a lot and
thereafter if you get so much you better make sure you discipline your children and taught them.
What is
		

			slumming Allah is all about because when you die they will kill each other over the few millions
you've left.
		

			That's what you get. And we are not prepared to give a lot 24 minutes a day and he gave us the life
we have the eyes we have there is no knob that you can get you need to press in order to get focused
with your eyes they automatically focus imagine there is no q&a or no no way we need to we need to
now fine tune it so we can hear someone it's there. And Subhan Allah asked those who cannot hear
cannot see and have had health problems, how much they are ready to spend if that health of this can
be restored now law restore our house for free.
		

			We are ready to spend hundreds of 1000s you know we can actually take money from people borrowing
and we want to restore our health but we don't realize the giver of the health of those who do not
need any form of medical attention. Still, they cannot afford 24 minutes for Allah when we get up
for Salah do not get up just to get it done with get up because you love Allah think of the football
will lie if it was UEFA Cup we would get up at three in the morning and watch fact or not. Let's be
honest, Stein we thought so Allah tells us Allah I don't want so much time from you get up it's
better for you 24 minutes in the day we are spacing it out perfectly for your benefit and for your
		

			really for your goodness in terms of your health, your health and everything else. And still we say
no, no, I'd smoke and if we do get up a lot of us may Allah protect myself as well. Sometimes we are
only getting it getting up because we need to get done with it. That's why so there is one higher
level than that and that is to get up because you love Allah so now you get up early when you are
Institute It's beautiful. Imagine when your team goes into penalty shootout you're so excited
because now you know, hey 10 minutes more, don't disturb me leave the popcorn. Why? Because we want
the ball to pop now Allah subhanho wa Taala gratis goodness, my brothers and sisters, look at where
		

			we are, look at insert. These are real life examples we can relate to them. And this is why we don't
have peace because we are confused with our priorities in life. We are not saying don't enjoy what
is permissible on the globe, but not at the expense of that which is necessary to build your
hereafter.
		

			So Allah Subhana Allah says, Allah, the noble
		

			dunya wa homea savona.
		

			Those who have lost their deeds, they are the ones who have done deeds that are really few times
those whose deeds are stray in this world wasted their energies and they think they're doing good.
So Allah subhanho wa Taala says they lose a lot. The second meaning of it is people who engage in
actions and deeds that were not taught to us by the messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam people who
engage in that which is against what Allah and His Rasool have taught, in that particular case, we
will be doing deeds, but they will be few times. Let me give you an example. We get up for Salah for
example of how many units or a car is Serato for the for this for. So if a man says no, today, I'm
		

			going to make five. He's doing so much and he thinks I love Allah.
		

			And you know what, I'm going to make five or maybe if I'm very tired in five and a half, I'll end
after some
		

			time and I'll carry on because I just want to offer a lot a little bit more. So his idea, his idea
to him sounds right. But in the eyes of Allah subhanho wa Taala it is rejected, why he's doing
something totally against what Salah is all about. So this is why it's important for us to learn
that sometimes we do deeds thinking we doing a great deed, but in reality, it's not a deed of all
men, Allah subhanho wa Taala God does goodness. So that is why the last verse of surah Allah makes
it extremely clear verse number 110. He says,
		

			Be mallamma
		

			be
		

			whoever is looking forward to meeting with Allah. Aren't we looking forward to meeting with Allah
subhanho wa Taala whoever is looking forward to meeting with Allah subhanho wa Taala they need to do
two things. They should do good deeds, and they should protect themselves from all forms of shields
to things direct and clear cut verse. So Allah subhanho wa Taala says, do good deeds, so good deeds,
you know the meaning of the term good deeds, all good deeds, your goodness to fellow human beings
and so on. And the acts of worship that are taught by Rasulullah sallallahu sallam, make sure that
you engage in them properly and Okay, make sure you do them in a way that you understand. I'm going
		

			to meet Allah one day and never associate any form of partnership with Allah if these two conditions
are met.
		

			Allah says those who are looking forward to our meeting. If they do these, we then look forward to
meeting them.
		

			This isn't the hadith of Rasulullah Salah whoever loves to meet Allah, Allah loves to meet them.
Subhana Allah, may Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us and open our doors. Let's move on to Subramaniam
to pause for a moment with the name of the surah Mary, the Virgin Mary May peace be upon her, the
mother of Jesus May peace be upon him, this surah is named after her. And in it there is an
explanation of the birth of Jesus Christ may peace be upon him. So I invite you to open the Koran
and go to the chapter of Mary Mae peace be upon her and read what it says and see how Jesus May
peace be upon him was born and what happened and the miracles that occurred at the time and how he
		

			spoke from the cradle. The fact that he spoke from the cradle the other religions do not make
mention of this is a miracle that is mentioned in the Quran. May Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us.
So inshallah we hope to benefit from that. However, I want to draw an example from the surah
mentioned is also made of the Prophet Abraham Ibrahim Alayhi. Salatu was salam, one of the
grandfather's of the Prophet Jesus May peace be upon him.
		

			Allah subhanho wa Taala makes it very clear. And the reason why he makes it so clear is for us also
to learn a lesson. Remember, it's not only for one reason or two, sometimes there are 1000s of
reasons, we can only pick on a few, perhaps in order to remind one another. Here, something very
great happened. There was a young boy, his name was Ibrahim, his father used to worship idols and
all forms of chic used to happen and he realized, you know, I should render acts of worship only to
my maker, nobody else. How can I render acts of worship to anything besides the one who made me and
the skies and the earth and all the moon and the stars and so on. So he questioned his father and
		

			his father became angry with him, and he told his father something, verse number 43.
		

			Yeah.
		

			Take
		

			me.
		

			All my father, knowledge has come to me that did not come to you. So follow me and I will guide you
to the straight path. What do we learn from this? Sometimes our children will correct us. Sometimes
those who are correcting us will be younger in age than us look very respectfully. He is talking to
his father, his father got angry and upset, but he maintained the tool. This is why we are calling
towards goodness and the attitude of a Muslim the behavior of a Muslim should be such that when you
are attending something upright, and people get angry as a result, you don't need to get angry
because of their anger. You don't you maintain what you are saying, maintain the same level of
		

			calmness and keep repeating the statement. And this is the benefit that we have from the Quran,
where Allah subhanho wa Taala never ever told any of his messengers that scream back at him. Not
once did he say yell back at him not even once. But he always explained go to them and speak
beautifully with Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us and grant us goodness. So the point we are
learning from here, if we'd like peace in our lives and comfort when we are corrected, we should
take correction even if it happens to be our own child correcting us. May Allah bless us And may
Allah grant us ease and goodness. Then after making mention of many of the prophets of Allah
		

			subhanho wa Taala Allah says subhanho wa Taala that a generation followed or generations followed,
who abandoned salah and as a result of abandoning Salah, they began to follow their desires. Listen
to verse number 49 of the same surah follow me back to him
		

			salatu wa tada chahatein
		

			after these messages,
		

			they were followed by a generation who abandon their salah and began to follow their desires. So
Allah says they will definitely meet something evil, something harmful, something painful, meaning
they will see their punishment. Now the reason I am mentioning this today is to connect Salah with
the protection from immorality and the lack of Salah with the diving straight into immorality. A
person who is worried about their prayer
		

			will be protected from immoral behavior by the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala imagine you make Hulu
and you read your budget and when you complete your budget. You are now worried about the next Salah
which is Baba and then you fulfill your law and you worried about us you you read your hustle and
you worried about money. Do you think that you will start engaging in immoral behavior in the
middle? No
		

			This is the protection of Allah. So in one verse, Allah says, in
		

			fact,
		

			Salah will protect from immorality and evil. And in this verse, Allah says because they abandon
their Salah, they engaged in immorality, so they abandoned their Salah, and as a result they became
careless about their link with Allah once a person is not bothered about his link with his maker,
what does he kV commits in morality, or if he does anything else that is bad. This is why brothers
and sisters, you want to start earning the love of Allah start off by repentance, and establishing
your Salah. Do not miss your prayer Come what may, a few months down the line, you start seeing
miracles. Well, you start seeing miracles in your life. When you read your Salah and you have not
		

			missed your Salah and you've stayed away from soon you will automatically find Baraka in your
sustenance, your wealth will have so much blessings in it. This is almost a guarantee, time to come
sometimes not immediately, but it will happen it will come a month or two. Sometimes Allah is just
testing you to see how long you're going to endure, it will come you will be a calm person you will
have so much love in your home, you will have so many problems and matters resolved and even if
there are issues outstanding, you will be a person who's calm Why? Because the calmness that you
have is derived from the prayer that you engage in so many times a day connecting with your own
		

			maker.
		

			May Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us and grant us ease.
		

			And this is why the right at the end of this particular surah
		

			Allah subhanho wa Taala makes mention of love, you know wouldn't do in the Arabic language is love.
It's a very high level of love. And Allah says, verse number 96 in
		

			indeed those who believe in do good deeds, the Most Merciful shall create for them, love.
		

			What does this mean? That means Allah loves them, he will ask the angels to love them. And the
angels will descend with the love of that person, through those are in the hearts of those who are
similar Subhana Allah. So which means when you see a person trying to earn the pleasure of Allah and
you love them as a result, it's because you do have something in common.
		

			And this is why and the point I want to raise here, when you become upset by looking at someone
who's trying to adopt the commands of Allah, it is because your link with ally is weak. That's the
reason Are we following the point raised here? Some people get angry you see a man with a beard, you
say you get a bandana? Well, I these are the statements that people utter nowadays, Mashallah at
least they'll say look at the amla de Allah subhanho wa Taala protecting and granting goodness as
well. Mashallah good ambassador of the deen.
		

			So, it's amazing. But when you get happy, even if you are not that strong, even if you are a bit
weak, but you get happy when you see a sister trying to dress appropriately you make to alpha I'm
not that strong. But yeah, Allah help her to guide her protector. So Pamela, I know of someone who
created or who thought of an idea of having a world hijab day. Well, the job day and what the idea
was that let everyone whether they're Muslim or not supporting the hijab, and the protection from
the ban of that job across the globe, let them down the piece of cloth for the day in support of it.
So you find Muslims and non Muslims across the globe. Were that Egypt one day, one day we're talking
		

			of the non Muslims, Muslims should be wearing it every day anyway. But even those who are weak, they
don't need one day. So they are non Muslims who felt the comfort and coolness and serenity of that
particular job, that they accepted Islam and reverted to the beautiful religion, just because of one
day of a beautiful cloth that they have on their heads. Amazing. And our own sisters sometimes find
it tough to put that piece of cloth on their head, my sister I call upon you, try it for the sake of
Allah, Allah if you do not achieve coolness and comfort you can complain to Allah, you will achieve
it, it will come maybe not immediately. It is a step. People will definitely laugh at you. We read
		

			verses tonight, which explained to us that the people who are sinners and criminals will always
laugh at those who are good and pious. They will always do that. They will call you names. They will
scoff at you. They will make your life a little bit difficult. That's your test. You will have to
have tests from Allah subhanho wa Taala. So it's important for us Let's try it. Let's Let's do this.
Allah will love us. He will instruct the angels
		

			To love us and the angels will descend with our love amongst the fellow believers and the love will
inshallah increase as an oma when all of us are heading in the right direction. This is why I repeat
my point again brothers and sisters, whenever you see anyone trying to earn the pleasure of Allah
subhanho wa Taala if you do not feel love for them in your heart, there is something wrong with your
link with Allah subhanho wa Taala we would need to rectify May Allah subhanho wa Taala open our
doors and Goddess goodness inshallah tomorrow we will mention a few points from Surah Taha until we
meet again inshallah we say you're Sol Allahu wa Sallim wa barik ala nabina Muhammad Subhan, Allah
		

			Subhana Allah.
		

			Allah, Allah Allah